Shadow of great britain

Elder Carter was getting married, and his friend Arthur Hastings, the head of the secret police, asked him, "Why don't you invite me to your wedding?"

Elder Carter replied: "Does this still require an invitation? You must already know the time and place of my wedding."

——"A Collection of British Political Satire Jokes of the 19th Century"

"Want to come with me and meet Colonel Shubinski?"

Arthur's question was like the devil's groan. Although he knew that there might be life-destroying poison hidden behind it, Bismarck just couldn't resist.

Young people always have this unrealistic fantasy that they are smarter and sharper than their peers, and therefore capable of dealing with those playgrounds that only the most cunning and cunning people can enter.

Bismarck followed Arthur step by step, and followed him out of the box and downstairs. Even he himself didn't realize that at some point, he had begun to accept his status as a follower.

With his eldest brother Arthur Hastings leading the way, why shouldn't he dare to take a look at that hidden new world?

"Sergey, my good brother, is that you?"

Arthur stepped forward and raised his hand to say hello to his old friend.

The British villain had clearly confirmed the identity of the other party, but he pretended to be excited about meeting him by chance.

He first shook hands with the surprised Shubinsky affectionately, and then pretended to casually ask about the newspaper in his hand: "Did you also see the news about the premiere of "Turandot" today?"

"Is this it?" Shubinsky opened the newspaper and said, "No, I was actually watching a joke."

Bismarck's eyes scanned the articles in the newspaper. It was an ordinary current affairs news newspaper. It recorded many trivial things and there was nothing interesting about it at all.

Fortunately, Arthur held the same view as him and asked the question for him: "A blacksmith was sentenced to three years in prison. What's so funny about it?"

Shubinsky took out the snuff bottle from his coat pocket, unscrewed the lid and handed it to Arthur, gesturing for him to take a bite: "If you don't understand the cause and effect, then of course there is nothing interesting about this matter. But as far as I know, The blacksmith was brought to court because he was drunk and insulted the Austrian Emperor by shouting to the entire tavern: 'The Emperor lives in my ass.'"

Arthur took the snuff bottle and sniffed it: "Sergey, how could you retell this story so straightforwardly? If you were not Russian, you might have to be sent to court by now."

Shubinsky laughed loudly and said: "Arthur, you and the newspaper editor obviously thought together. In order to use the appropriate words to report the reasons for this verdict without repeating the words that insulted the emperor, the reporters racked their brains. . So that’s what you see in the newspapers.”

Bismarck heard this and quickly looked at the newspaper again.

It read clearly that the blacksmith Powell had been sentenced to three years in prison for leaking some disturbing information about the emperor's residence.

"Oh God!" Bismarck muttered: "If I didn't know the reason, I would have thought that the blacksmith originally wanted to assassinate the emperor."

Shubinsky noticed the little follower beside Arthur: "Who is this?"

Arthur motioned to Bismarck to find a place to sit down, and then explained to Shubinsky: "This is my assistant. I forgot to tell you, Sergey, now I am no longer a police officer at Scotland Yard, I am now a brother Chancellor of the University of Tingen.”

"Superintendent? Oh my God! You went from England to Hanover, and even your career took a 180-degree turn."

Colonel Shubinski held his forehead and said, "Friend, it sounds like a lot of things happened to you after I left London."

"Who says it's not?" Arthur joked, pointing to the scar at the corner of his eye: "After all, Sergey, you have a share of responsibility in this. If you can do a good job in Poland in the third round, I will too. Not so much that the Polish exiles in England were sent to see God.”

"Oh..." Shubinski put a hand on his chest and said extremely apologetically: "I also heard about the bombing in Liverpool, but I didn't expect that it was you who was bombed. Fortunately, nothing happened to you. , the only pity now is that you didn’t see thousands of Poles walking through Vladimir Avenue in handcuffs and shackles. Although I know it won’t help, at least when you see this group of Poles, they deserve it. You can relieve your anger when people are exiled to Siberia.”

"Stop saying these depressing words." Arthur greeted Bismarck affectionately and stood up: "Come on, Otto, let's go to the theater bar with Colonel Shubinski and order two drinks."

The three of them came to the tavern, and Arthur was instructing the bartender to serve the food while keeping his relationship active with Shubinski.

"Sergey, you were in too much of a hurry when you left London. You must have been promoted because you rushed back to St. Petersburg without stopping, right?"

A bright smile broke out on Shubinsky's face. Although he was a secret policeman, he didn't want to walk around in brocade clothes at night in front of his friends.

"There are indeed some small adjustments within the third game. The Polish uprising is indeed a bad thing, both for you and Russia, but for me personally, I did get a small advantage. When His Majesty the Tsar came to the throne in 1825, The Decembrist uprising broke out. Therefore, in order to deal with various possible rebellion conspiracies, he placed a high position on the third round. The occurrence of the Polish uprising also made His Majesty decide to speed up the internal security system. construction work.”

Shubinsky took a sip of Georgia wine, as if the fatigue from the journey was cured by this sip of wine. He continued: "So, a large number of experienced officials from the Third Bureau like me were transferred back to China to take charge of the training process. Expanding the recruitment of new members to work in the third bureau.”

Speaking of this, Shubinsky did not forget to joke: "At a certain period of time, I was almost equivalent to you, the former principal of the London Police School. Basically, all the members of the Third Bureau who were trained intensively in Moscow were Take my class.”

When Arthur heard this, he seemed to remember something. He smiled helplessly: "No wonder you came to Scotland Yard to visit me before returning to China and specifically asked me for a few internal training manuals."

Shubinsky laughed and gave Arthur a thumbs up: "I have to say, Arthur, you are not only a good judge of cases, but also a master at compiling manuals. You shouldn't mind that I am teaching , I borrowed some of the fruits of your labor, right?”

"Of course I don't mind." Arthur clinked glasses with Shubinski casually and said: "To tell you the truth, you only borrowed part of it, and the Kingdom of Hanover might even copy all my works."

"The Kingdom of Hanover?"

Shubinski thought about it for a while and immediately figured out the joints. He raised his elbow and punched Arthur's chest. He smiled evilly and said, "I knew you didn't come to Germany to be a teacher. Yes. Even if the British don’t respect talents, they can’t send a person who can serve as a military police commander to do any scientific research.”

Bismarck sat with his head buried next to Arthur, drinking alone. He didn't dare to say anything here.

Although he also believed that the military police commander was a higher-end talent than a scientist, he didn't know if Garibaldi, Herzen, and the bunch of idiot students at the University of Göttingen would also hold the same view.

Arthur asked: "What about you, Sergey, are you still doing training work?"

"Hiccup!" Shubinsky shook his head: "The training work has come to an end. And now... my work content is actually similar to yours. It is related to education, but it does not deviate from the national security work."

"Are you responsible for monitoring college students?" Arthur blurted out.

"Um?"

Shubinski was stunned by Arthur's question, but when he saw Arthur raising his hand and patting his chest, he reacted: "I almost forgot, you are probably doing this now. No. Yes, Moscow University is my place. The young people there are restless, and there have been several political incidents in recent years. My job is to tell them to study honestly and work honestly after they finish their studies. , Be a person who is beneficial to the country. Of course, there are always some young people who do not listen to advice, so at such times, you have to use the 'whip'."

Arthur sympathized with Shubinsky and said: "Oh, Sergey, I can understand how difficult this job is. These little bastards have never been exposed to society, and college life gives them the opportunity to idle around. , and when such a group of people get together, they will start to daydream. If you control them too strictly, your good reputation in society will be ruined. I don’t know which of your Excellency’s family they are, and arresting them rashly will affect your career. But if you are more relaxed, my God, they can make trouble for you anytime and anywhere. Work! Did you know that the 'Frankfurt Garrison Incident' happened not long ago? I was transferred to the University of Göttingen just after this incident."

Shubinsky swayed his glass and nodded with deep approval: "I know that a group of students almost flushed the arsenal. In fact, a similar incident almost happened at Moscow University, but because we discovered it early, , that’s why it didn’t cause a big disaster. I don’t even dare to think what the consequences would be if a ‘Frankfurt Garrison Incident’ happened in Russia...”

Having said this, Shubinsky couldn't help but shuddered: "His Majesty the Tsar might twist my head off."

"Stop complaining, Sergey." Arthur commented: "Compared to being deprived of public office and then having your family exiled to Siberia, this is already a good outcome."

Shubinsky held the wine glass and stared at the calm glass of wine and said: "You are right. Perhaps Volkov, who was in charge of Moscow State University before me, was worried about this, so he kept insisting on taking part in Kremlin's work. All the students involved in the Tsky incident were sentenced to severe sentences. If these students don’t go to Siberia, then it will be me and my family who go to Siberia.”

Arthur quickly captured the crux of the question: "What was the Kritsky incident?"

"In general, they are a group of mindless students who are dissatisfied with reality. Volkov accused them of joining a secret society and conspiring to overthrow the tsarist government. The evidence is that this group of people spread Pushkin, Ryryev and Bolsheviks everywhere. Reshaev’s Forbidden Poems.”

"Is that all there is?" Arthur chuckled in a low voice: "If we follow this standard, I should be arrested."

Shubinski vaguely knew that when Arthur was in London, he should have done some dirty work in private without telling the superiors. Because when he was at the Russian Embassy, ​​he asked Arthur to buy several copies of Elder Carter's forbidden works.

Shubinsky smiled and waved his hand: "So! This is their stupidity. What did a few young students do? They ruined themselves in vain! If they were just like you, secretly buying and selling some adults If you can make some extra money from your work, the sentence may not be so heavy. These young people must understand that playing with liberal words is dangerous, and engaging in secret activities is unthinkable. Tears for Poland, a bold word can be exchanged for several years of exile. Not only did the works they distributed for free not earn a single ruble, but they were jailed, exiled, and exiled. The only person who benefited was Volkov who caught them. Not only did he not have to worry about the students causing him trouble, he also took the position of commander of the Moscow Military Police in one fell swoop. "

Arthur pretended to be surprised: "Just for such a small incident, you can get the position of commander of the military police?"

"No, one small incident alone cannot make you the commander of the military police."

On a whim, Shubinsky began to teach Arthur how to behave in Russian officialdom: "Volkov's success lies in that he turned a small incident into a big event. He successfully convinced the Winter Palace that this was a conspiracy. The large-scale rebellion was the aftermath of the Decembrist uprising. It is a pity that he did not find guns and ammunition from the students, otherwise he would not be serving as the commander of the military police in Moscow, but working at the headquarters of the Third Bureau in St. Petersburg. Gone."

Arthur joked: "Sergey, it seems that you are far less motivated than your predecessor. With such a good opportunity, instead of staying in Moscow to thoroughly investigate the students' activities, you are still in the mood to go to Leipzig to watch "Turandot" ”

"Watching "Turandot" is also part of the job..." Shubinsky, a veteran, added without missing a beat: "In our industry, you can encounter opportunities at any time. The relationship between work and life must be well balanced, and enjoying life must not be a problem. Just for a better job?”

Shubinski didn't want to tell Arthur the truth, but Arthur had the means to get him to speak.

The swineherd is not only good at raising pigs, he is also good at fishing.

As we all know, one of the secrets of fishing is to be willing to cut materials and make nests.

What's more, Arthur had just picked up these materials on the roadside, so it wouldn't hurt him to spread them out.

Arthur said regretfully: "Really? Sergey, I thought you came to Leipzig today for those Russian students."

Arthur did not finish his words, but asked Bismarck the question halfway through: "Otto, what are the names of those guys?"

Bismarck was suddenly called by name and was so frightened that he almost lost his grip on his glass: "I... I just remember that there were many named Nicholas among them."