Shadow of great britain

The establishment of the German Customs Union transformed German national emotions from pure hopes and illusions into positive material interests. Roads and railways are being rapidly established under the leadership of the Prussian government. In the foreseeable future, we can foresee that the German region will rapidly develop a transportation system centered on Berlin.

The German people generally believe that the Zollverein is the first step in the process of unifying the German states. That this alliance would do so much to break down the barriers of alienation and hostility, and that it deserves our attention, as it paved the way for the political unification of the German nation by realizing the common interests of trade and commerce, is a fact worthy of our attention.

——Arthur Hastings, "Routine Diplomatic Report of 1833"

As mentioned before, for a small town like Göttingen, there are not many pubs to choose from.

But even so, the pub chosen by Arthur and others was still carefully selected.

It is neither the Black Bear Tavern, a gathering place for students, nor Bismarck's favorite Paulinist Tavern, but the only underground pub in the city hall in Göttingen that can barely be associated with the adjective "class".

However, the reason why Arthur and the others chose this tavern was not because the drinks here were more delicious than those in several other taverns, but because the City Hall Underground Tavern was the only tavern in Göttingen with small single rooms.

Whether it was Krupp, Arthur, or Disraeli, they did not want tonight's conversation to be known to everyone in Göttingen.

However, I don’t know if God deliberately wanted to tease these evil spirits. As soon as Arthur opened the door of the tavern, he saw an old acquaintance.

What's even more unfortunate is that this old acquaintance is not a student who can be sent away with casual prevarication like Bismarck, but a musician who has a close relationship with Arthur and once helped him capture the French detective Vidocq - Felix Mr. Mendelsohn.

As soon as Arthur walked in, Mendelsohn, who was about to order, spotted this old friend.

He enthusiastically took off his gloves and greeted Arthur: "Arthur, ah...Mr. Disraeli is actually here!"

Disraeli and Mendelssohn were also old acquaintances, not only because they were both Jewish, but also because Disraeli's lover, Mrs. Sykes, was an ardent fan of Mendelssohn.

A few years ago, when Mendelssohn was the pianist of the London Philharmonic Society in London, whenever he had a performance in the evening, Mrs. Sykes would drag Disraeli to support the Bach successor.

The square-looking young man sitting next to Mendelssohn heard this and asked him with a smile: "Are these two your friends?"

Mendelssohn introduced him with a smile: "John, let me introduce you. The man on the right with chestnut wavy hair is Mr. Benjamin Disraeli, a member of the British House of Commons. As for the tall and strong man on the left, I just want If you name him, I don’t need to introduce him, that is Sir Arthur Hastings.”

"Arthur Hastings?"

The young man looked at Arthur seriously, then smiled and stretched out his hand to greet him humorously: "Hello, Sir, the last time I saw you, I was reading your paper "Dynamic Effects of Electric Current: Current in Magnetic Field" "Motion and Reaction Forces in ".

Regarding this greeting method of stating the title of the paper at the beginning, Arthur acted as if he was facing a formidable enemy. He held the other person's hand, but his eyes drifted to Mendelssohn aside: "Felix, this is ?”

Mendelssohn introduced with a smile: "This is my brother-in-law, Mr. John Dirichlet, a professor of mathematics at the University of Berlin. At the same time, he is also an academician of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He originally accompanied my sister to Frankfurt during the holidays to get married. Yes, it happened that I came back from Paris, and the two of us were chatting about the University of Göttingen. I said that my friend Mr. Hastings was enjoying himself in Paris, but he was transferred by the king. I was offered the position of Chancellor of the University of Göttingen, and my brother-in-law told me that when he was studying at the University of Göttingen, he studied under Mr. Gauss, so we hit it off and decided to come to Göttingen. Meet friends and teachers.”

Studied under Gauss, professor of mathematics and academician of the Academy of Sciences.

No matter which one of these three identities is picked out individually, it is quite difficult to deal with. If they are piled together, they can only be taken away slowly without being sent away.

However, after Arthur's experience in Paris and Göttingen in the past few months, his mental quality has improved.

He changed the subject intentionally or unintentionally: "Brother-in-law? Is Mr. Dirichlet also a Jew?"

"That's not true." Mendelssohn responded with a smile: "Not all Jewish families strictly abide by the rules of Halaha. Our family has not paid much attention to Jewish laws since my grandfather's generation. After all, he The old man is a philosopher who is anti-religious, so naturally he will not use religious etiquette to restrict the younger generations. "

Arthur heard this and turned to look at Disraeli beside him: "What about your family?"

"Our family? What? Are you interested in my sister?"

Disraeli replied seriously: "If you really like her, you can pursue her. Our family's situation is similar to that of Felix's family. Although my father is a Jew, he hates the same person." Since my sister and I are not Jewish, there is no reason for us to follow the rules of Jewish law.”

When Disraeli said this, he suddenly paused, and then solemnly warned: "However, before you pursue Sarah, you have to swear to God that you are sincere. I don't want it to happen because of your marriage." We ended up not getting along, and in the end, neither of us had anything to do with each other.”

The red devil stood behind the bar, holding a wine bottle in his hand and burping: "Come on! I finally know why this little bastard has a soft spot for older women! After a long time of fussing, it turned out to be a sister fetish! "

Arthur glanced at Agares, who revealed the secret, and replied calmly: "Miss Sarah and I have only met a few times, and most of the time during those meetings, we were talking about her. Proud brother's work. Benjamin, your imagination is too rich."

When Disraeli heard this, he was relieved at first, but then he felt a little worried.

He felt uncomfortable at the thought that his sister might get married.

But from another perspective, he really hopes that his sister can find a good home.

In fact, in order to worry about his sister's life-long affairs, after he was elected as a member of the parliament, he introduced several aristocratic young people who he thought had great prospects to his sister.

But unfortunately, Miss Sarah Disraeli looked down upon none of those guys. According to her own words, her ideal husband must be more talented than her brother. In Mr. Disraeli's opinion, this standard was indeed a bit high.

However, although he could not find anyone more talented than him, Disraeli felt that his old friend Arthur was at least of the same level as him. Moreover, he felt that his sister probably thought so too. Because the aristocratic young men he introduced before only met his sister once, but Arthur was able to meet her several times, which is enough to explain some truths that cannot be explained too clearly.

Disraeli pondered his sister's thoughts and instantly drifted away.

And Arthur also saw something amiss from Disraeli's expression. The Scotland Yard officer's sixth sense was warning him. The danger factor here seemed to be no lower than facing a mathematics professor.

At this moment, it was Dirichlet who rescued Arthur. He looked at Krupp who was following Arthur closely: "Who is this?"

"This is Mr. Alfred Krupp, our friend we just met today."

Krupp, who had been observing everyone, stepped forward to say hello: "Hello, gentlemen."

Mendelssohn smiled and shook hands with him: "Not two, but three."

He pointed to the middle-aged man who was walking towards them not far away with three glasses of beer and said: "Tonight we are three against three, plus Mr. Lister."

"Liszt?" Arthur turned his head and looked behind him.

But what surprised him was that this Liszt was not the 'King of Parisian Piano Franz Liszt' who was blacklisted by Heine, but a man with an unsatisfactory hairline and a golden coat. A middle-aged scholar with silk glasses and a mane.

Arthur asked: "Is this Franz Liszt's father?"

"Hahaha, Arthur, stop joking."

Mendelssohn waved his hands repeatedly and said: "He has nothing to do with Franz. He is Mr. Friedrich List, the U.S. Consul General in the Grand Duchy of Baden. In addition, he is also a great political economist. Family, do you know that the idea of ​​the German Customs Union was first proposed by him, but this concept was not accepted by the Germans ten years ago.”

Arthur was confused by Mendelssohn's words: "Isn't he the American consul? How could an American consul propose the German Customs Union?"

Mendelssohn apologized profusely: "I didn't make it clear. Mr. Lister was originally a German. In 1820, he was not only the editor-in-chief of the Deutsche Merchant and Trade Organizer, but also a member of the Württemberg Parliament. Only However, not long after he was elected as a member, he was deprived of his status as a member by the Grand Duke of Württemberg because he said some inappropriate words in a petition and was sentenced to ten months in prison. In exchange for a judicial pardon, Mr. List had no choice but to do so. Accept conditions of release to immigrate to the United States.”

Liszt, who was holding a beer, happened to walk up to the crowd at this time. This unsmiling political prisoner from the Principality of Württemberg argued in his deep voice.

"I don't think I said anything inappropriate. Even those who have only made a cursory observation of Württemberg's internal affairs can easily conclude that there are fundamental flaws in Württemberg's national legislation and administration. They are all visible and increasingly expanding bureaucracies. These bureaucratic worlds, which are separated from the people, spread across the country and concentrated everywhere, not only do not understand the needs of the people and the conditions of social life, but also regard any intervention by citizens as considered a threat to the country.”

He put down his beer glass and continued: "I don't want to boast about how smart I am, so I usually only talk about historical experience. All unbiased observers can clearly see that my previous observations on German politics are changing. As soon as it came true. I said they saw citizen intervention as a national threat, and they immediately banned my newspaper, removed me from parliament, and stripped me of my political immunity.

I said that the thirty-eight customs and toll routes in Germany hindered the internal traffic, and were like tying shackles on every part of the human body to prevent the blood from flowing to other parts, so that a customs union was urgently needed. Eliminating tariff barriers among states and creating a large German internal market are necessary prerequisites for Germany's industrialization. As a result, now, they have created three German customs unions in the north, center and south in one go. Whether they admit it or not, history will eventually prove me right. "

Having said this, Liszt took off his gloves, leaned forward and extended his hand to Arthur with respect: "Mr. Hastings, actually we should have met in Paris. My residence in Paris is where I was martyred. Heine Street is not far from Mr. Heine's residence. He lives at No. 23 and I live at No. 43. We often have dinner together. Mr. Heine often mentions your name to me and jokes with me, if I If you said those words in London, you will definitely not be thrown into jail or rushed to the United States. "

Arthur joked: "Heinrich must have told you about Bernie Harrison's case? He is right. In London, Scotland Yard would not dare to go after the MP, let alone seize the MP's newspaper." , and even arrested him in prison. However, even though I was so humble when investigating the case, Mr. Bernie Harrison still did not intend to let me go, so he even found a killer in Liverpool to assassinate me, but failed. He was so angry that he committed suicide out of fear of sin."

Liszt couldn't help but sigh after hearing this: "That story is really bizarre and bizarre. If there were no news reports to support it, I almost thought Mr. Heine was making up the story to lie to me. Oh, by the way, I almost forgot about the real thing. I I came to Göttingen this time because Mr. Heine asked me to send you a letter."

After saying this, Liszt took out the warm letter that he had kept for a long time from his arms.

Arthur did not shy away from everyone present. He tore open the envelope casually, pinched it gently with two fingers, and pulled out a corner of the bill from inside.

"Ahem..." Arthur just glanced at the beginning of the bill, and the corners of his mouth could not help but twitch.

But even so, the dues must still be paid. Who makes Heine the opinion leader of Göttingen students?

As long as Heine is willing to speak out for him, there will be no trouble in Göttingen for a while.

What's more, the money paid to Heine was sponsored by Young Italy, 2,500 pounds, a total of 50,000 francs. This amount of money was enough for Heine to immediately write several autobiographies for Arthur.

As soon as Arthur put the letter into his pocket, he heard Liszt in front of him speak again.

"Sir, in fact, my visit to Göttingen this time is not just to deliver letters. I heard Felix say that you are not only a police star and a researcher of natural philosophy, but also a piano player who is as good as him. Master? In terms of passion for playing, you are indistinguishable from Franz Liszt in Paris?”

Arthur smiled and denied the words: "This is really an exaggeration. Whether it is Felix or Liszt, their playing level is far above mine. As for passion, "The Bell" is indeed a passionate song. But that’s more thanks to Mr. Paganini, the ‘Violin Devil of the Apennines’, because “The Bell” is adapted from Mr. Paganini’s music.”

"As expected, it's you!" Liszt couldn't help but exclaimed with joy: "'The Bell' is indeed your piece!"

Arthur was confused when he was told.

He also didn't know why he had only made such a piece of music in his life, and why so many people flocked to him.

He asked: "What's wrong?"

Liszt smiled and handed him a glass of beer: "To be honest, my daughter Elisa is a singer. She has been receiving lessons from Mr. Robert Schumann's girlfriend, Miss Clara Vick, in Leipzig in recent years. These two girls are your loyal fans. After a while, the two girls plan to make their debut with the orchestra in Leipzig. At this performance, there are two candidates they hope to be the pianist, one of them. One choice is Franz Liszt, the king of piano in Paris, and the other is Arthur Hastings, the king of electronic music in London.”

Regardless of the other party's behavior of treating him as a spare tire, even the nickname King of Electronic Music gave Arthur the feeling that if you don't know how to use a nickname, don't mess around.

Although he does know something about electromagnetism, happens to be able to play piano music, and has the title of King of Scotland Yard, this does not mean that others can randomly piece these three things together.

The York Pigherd sounds more fashionable than the King of Electronic Music!

But Arthur also knew that the other party had no ill intentions, so he could only smile helplessly, and then turned to look at Krupp: "Alfred, you don't mind leaving the business until the second meeting, right?"

Krupp understood and said: "Of course I don't mind. It's rare for so many friends to get together, and it would be too disappointing to talk about business."

Arthur nodded slightly, walked to him immediately, put his arm around Krupp's shoulder, and whispered in his ear: "As for the contract, it depends on whether you can please these gentlemen today."