Shadow of great britain

Arthur walked down the third floor of the theater slowly. His hard riding boots creaked slightly on the old wooden stairs, as if telling his mood at the moment.

The walls on both sides of the stairs were covered with all kinds of gorgeous hand-painted drama posters. Those colorful pictures formed a sharp contrast with his mood at the moment. Arthur's thoughts were heavy and complicated, with thick clouds lingering between his eyebrows and all kinds of unsolved thoughts lingering in his heart.

He lowered his head and followed his footsteps with his eyes, as if he was thinking about the arrangement of fate with every step. Since entering this noisy theater, his heart has been troubled by an inexplicable anxiety.

When passing the rest area on the second floor, the cheerful laughter from there seemed so far away. The heartless college students were making a fuss in the box, attracting the dissatisfied eyes of some audiences who entered early.

Finally, Arthur came to the first floor. He did not run to the backstage of the theater, but cast his eyes on the smoking room with faint light in the distance without anyone noticing.

The half-open door seemed to be calling him, with a hint of seductive tranquility. When he was troubled, this place was like heaven for this old smoker.

Arthur slowly pushed the door open, and what greeted him was not the foggy and misty scene he had imagined. He was lucky, as he was the first visitor here today.

He took out his pipe and lit the tobacco, and the flame flashed in the dim environment. The smoke was filled with smoke, and Arthur inhaled suddenly and exhaled slowly. The smoke entangled with each other in the air, and then condensed into a ball and slowly dissipated as if giving up.

He leaned against the wall and watched this quiet little world through the clouds and mist.

The walls were hung with dark velvet wallpaper with complex patterns. After years of baptism, it looked more and more stable. The lights were dim, and several classical crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling. There were several leather sofas in the center of the room. The dark brown leather showed a slight luster under the light. In the corners were several small round tables, on which were scattered several scripts and ashtrays with a handful of unburned tobacco leaves.

Perhaps because old habits are hard to change, Arthur's occupational disease has come back again.

He stared at the round table and muttered to himself: "Alexander has been here. Judging from the smell of cigarettes in the room, the scattered scripts and the tobacco leaves in the ashtray, it should be an hour ago, and he left in a hurry. Someone must have dragged him to make the final revisions to Turandot..."

Arthur said this and suddenly patted his forehead again. He felt a little ridiculous. Why did he still want to speculate an insignificant event through various details until this time?

He remembered what the Duke of Sussex said to him not long ago.

Whether it was His Majesty the King or the Duke of Wellington, these bigwigs who were calling the shots in London seemed to want him to give up his old job and go to the Royal Navy and the Army, which were more worthy of the gentleman status.

It was difficult for Arthur to judge whether this was a pie in the sky for him, because according to the old logic of British politics, serving in the army was definitely a shortcut to politics.

Although Britain is a modern country, many traditions inherited from the feudal era have not been abandoned.

After all, the parliament was originally composed of nobles appointed by the king, and the reason why these nobles became nobles was because they had military obligations to the king. Although these are no longer important now, and having a noble title does not mean that you must serve in the army, for those who are committed to leaving a mark in history, joining the army is still inevitable.

Nowadays, titles such as baron, viscount, and earl do not need to be obtained through military merit, but if you want to become a non-royal duke in the UK, you still need to come up with a few classic battles to save Britain from the water and fire.

The most recent winner of this honor was Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon, the Emperor of the French Empire.

The previous one was John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, who defeated the "Sun King" Louis XIV in the Battle of Blenheim.

Defeat the French?

Arthur puffed on his cigarette depressedly.

He did know a guy who was good at this, but this guy was not him, but Mr. Bismarck, the problem boy from Göttingen.

If we judge by the record alone, perhaps Bismarck is more suitable to develop in the British army.

As for Arthur himself, he didn't think it was a good idea to join the army.

First of all, he was 24 years old this year, which might sound young, but for the Royal Navy, which often went on board at the age of eight or nine, he was definitely overage. Moreover, the training cycle of the navy was too long, and as Elder said, the Royal Navy was too old-fashioned in promotion and too unkind.

Even for those famous naval generals who went on board since childhood, it would take at least nine to ten years for them to climb to the position of naval colonel, which was equivalent to the director of the Royal Metropolitan Police Department.

As for the army, they were more relaxed about military ranks and positions. Especially now it is a peacetime, except for some colonial troops, there is basically no oil and water to be made, so donating a colonel position in the local corps is much easier than in wartime.

But Arthur was worried that if he knew what he knew, there was no reason why the king and the Duke of Wellington didn't know it.

Since the Royal Navy route was a dead end from the beginning, the so-called proposal for him to join the army was actually a multiple-choice question from the beginning.

Why did the king and the Duke of Wellington want to get him into the army?

Even a three-year-old child can answer this question.

Because the Army is the stronghold of conservatives and royalists.

It appears that His Majesty was very pleased with his actions last year, and Sir Arthur Hastings' ruthless action in times of crisis has been officially designated as an act of diligence.

Therefore, in order to strengthen the connection with this beloved general, both the king and the Tory leader the Duke of Wellington intended to make him more Tory.

But would it be a good idea?

Arthur took a puff of cigarette and looked up at the sky, and then slowly closed his eyes: "I just threw away the invitation from Count Durham to serve in Russia, and instead plunged into the big dye vat of the Army... If I angered that person" Radical Jack', but you will lose the rice..."

Arthur was closing his eyes and concentrating on how to solve the problem, when suddenly he heard the sound of the smoking room door being pushed open.

There was a squeak. Immediately afterwards, a voice that was youthful and somewhat mature said: "Brother, lend me a hand."

Without blinking, Arthur picked up the matchbox from his trouser pocket with two fingers and shook it.

The other party took the matchbox from his hand, and only heard a click. The sound of the burning match was mixed with a heavy inhalation, followed by a contented gasp.

"Sir, I'm not telling you that German university students are really the noisiest in Europe."

Arthur nodded slightly in agreement and said: "Although I am an educator, I have to admit that you are right. The quality of my students has always been very low."

"Are you an educator? You look so young." The other party took a look at Arthur's face and scratched his head at a loss: "If you hadn't told me, I would have thought that you, like me, had just graduated from school this year. Graduation."

"Hmm..." Arthur's occupational disease broke out again: "University? University of Leipzig? Oh, no, your accent sounds very close to the German in Silesia. Maybe you are from the University of Graz and the University of Vienna. "

The other party stared at Arthur in surprise. He paused, and then reminded him as if he was joking: "Half of your guesses are right. I did learn German from a Silesian, but I didn’t graduate from a German university.”

When Arthur heard this, he opened his eyes and stared at the young man with thick black hair and a beard in front of him with a half-smile: "Russian? A graduate of Moscow State University or St. Petersburg University?"

The young man obviously did not expect that his identity would be locked so quickly. He was stunned for a moment, and then he laughed and said: "Moscow University, how did you guess my identity?"

Arthur smiled and said: "Although your accent is very light, when I guessed wrong, you forgot to curb your tongue flicking habit in your excitement, so that I caught the key clue to identify you. "

The young man asked unconvinced: "Then why did you guess Moscow and St. Petersburg? Obviously Kazan University and Kharkiv University are also options."

Arthur beat his white gloves stained with soot: "If it were Kazan or Kharkov, you wouldn't have the confidence to show off your graduate school in front of a stranger. Based on my understanding of the vanity psychology of young people, As long as you are a Russian, even if you really graduated from Kazan University or Kharkiv University, there is an 80% chance that you will claim to have graduated from St. Petersburg University or Moscow State University.”

The young man stared at Arthur and looked him up and down in shock, and then he joked: "What about you? You probably graduated from Oxford or Cambridge, right? Don't tell me that you are not British. Exactly like the manners of the gentlemen at the British Club in Moscow."

Arthur curled his lips and shook his head slightly: "Unfortunately, you only guessed half of it right. In addition, I have to remind you that graduates of the University of London will not be proud of Oxford and Cambridge."

"University of London?" The young man pondered for a while: "Well... I'm sorry, may I take the liberty of asking, is University of London equivalent to Kazan University and Kharkiv University in Russia?"

Arthur was so contradicted by the other party's words that he didn't know how to respond.

Agares saw that Arthur was unusually deflated, and just took a puff of his cigarette in the same way. He put a hand on the Russian young man's shoulder and taught him: "Do we need to make things so clear? ?”

Arthur was silent for a while before calming down: "Sir, it seems that you have never been to England, so I forgive your rudeness."

The young man realized that he had gotten into trouble and hurriedly went back and added: "Oh, no, sir, I have absolutely no offense to you. Kazan University and Kharkiv University are also very good universities. They are only the only universities in Russia. It’s just not as good as St. Petersburg University and Moscow State University.”

Arthur stared at this daredevil for a long time, and then said: "Let me confirm again, are you Russian? Are you a student of Moscow University?"

The young man responded with a smile: "Yes, but it is no longer the case. I just graduated from there."

"It doesn't matter." Arthur smiled: "I happen to have a plan to travel to Russia. I can include Moscow State University as one of my travel destinations. Anyway, even for work, I have to visit all the universities in Russia. ”

"Work?" The young man slapped his head: "I almost forgot, you are a university professor, right? For such a young professor, you must be very famous in the academic world."

Having said this, the young man couldn't help but mock the atmosphere of his alma mater: "Moscow University has a lot of academic exchange activities. Do you know Mr. Humboldt? He is Alexander von Humboldt, the president of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. In the past two years When he went to Moscow University for academic exchange, I still remember the battle. The provincial ministers and administrative bureaucrats, the university proctors and department heads, all the flies were almost together. Mr. Humboldt probably did not expect that he was there. It is easier to deal with savages in the primitive jungle than at Moscow University. Mr. Humboldt bowed and took off his hat almost every time he saw someone. I was really worried that something would happen to his waist. "

When Arthur heard this, he said calmly: "Mr. Humboldt? I do have some personal relations with him."

"Do you know Humboldt?" the young man asked in surprise: "Are you also studying geomagnetism?"

"No, you are only half right again. I study electromagnetism."

"Electromagnetism?" The young man thought hard, and then asked humbly: "Sorry, although I studied natural philosophy at Moscow University, my graduation thesis was on astronomy, and I don't know much about electromagnetism. "

"Astronomy?" Arthur had been irritated by this guy before, and now he suddenly wanted to tease him: "Then you must know Gauss, right?"

"Gauss? Of course! Thunderous!" The young man looked at Arthur in disbelief: "Are you Mr. Gauss? I didn't expect you to be so young."

Arthur shook his head: "Sorry, I also have a personal relationship with Mr. Gauss. He is a very good person, and his academic achievements are far higher than mine. However, I am not Gauss. I just teach in the same school as him. "

"Are you a colleague of Gauss?!" The young man said with excitement on his face: "This is also amazing!"

Arthur thought about his academic achievements and immediately declined modestly: "I dare not consider myself a colleague of Mr. Gauss. No one can say that his work is as important as Gauss's."

The young man's mood was full of twists and turns, as if he were riding a roller coaster: "Don't you do research?"

"There is very little research done." Arthur paused and then said: "At the University of Göttingen, I am mainly responsible for leadership."