shadow of britain

Chapter 204 Arthur's French counterparts (4K6)

One London, Wellington House, Apsley House.

The Duke of Wellington leaned on the bright red velvet sofa chair and looked at Arthur, who was neatly dressed in a police officer's tuxedo, a black top hat, spotless white gloves, and a police officer's knife on his waist.

The grey-haired Duke of Wellington tapped the table with his fingertips and said, "You seem to be in good spirits, young man."

Arthur just smiled: "If you called me over a few days ago, I wouldn't have this expression."

Wellington took a sip of tea: "Really? But yes, you used to get too close to me and Peel. After the Whigs came up, those who saw you as uncomfortable would inevitably clean up. But look at you This way, is this a smooth ride through the crisis?"

"That's it."

Arthur also didn't want to hide his relationship with the Whig Party. After all, for someone like the Duke of Wellington, it was completely unreasonable to target a small shrimp like him.

According to Arthur's understanding of the world, beggars and millionaires seldom envy each other, beggars only envy beggars with higher income, and the same is true for millionaires.

Everyone likes to fight against opponents of the same level. If they leapfrog the level to fight monsters, it is either a desperate person who has nowhere to go, or a madman who is overwhelmed.

Arthur said: "This time the Whig Party came up, and I was almost finished. But you should know that I graduated from the University of London. And the new justice, Lord Brougham, happened to be the chairman of the University of London's board of trustees. , I went to attend his lectures a few times before, and he had a pretty good impression of me, so he saved me this time."

"Brougham?"

When Wellington heard the name, he suddenly said: "I almost forgot about him, that weird lawyer, with his bad temper, it's not easy for you to have a good relationship with him. But you It is indeed good luck for the Whig Party to come to power after the death of the late King George IV. If the late King did not die, Brougham would not be able to get the position of Lord Chancellor. Queen Caroline won her divorce case, which has always been on her mind."

Speaking of this, Wellington changed the subject: "However, you are the one who came to see me today. Is Scotland Yard planning to hand over all my security work during the London meeting to you?"

Arthur heard the words and joked: "I hope you don't get angry because of this. Another British representative at the London meeting, the Foreign Minister, Viscount Palmerston, is personally responsible for the defense of Viscount Palmerston. I will take care of you, level Maybe a little lower."

Hearing this, the Red Devil on the side couldn't help snickering: "Oh! Arthur, you little bastard. You're planning to kill Rowan, and the Whigs planted mines for him and paid him back. Not counting, turned around and tripped him up on the Tory side."

Sure enough, when Wellington heard this, he raised his eyebrows and said: "Oh! Rowan's ability to adapt to the wind is strong enough. But let him do whatever he wants, anyway, I am only attending the meeting as a consultant this time. According to legal procedures, Palmerston's security level should be higher than mine."

Arthur smiled and leaned over and said, "With your broad mind, you really don't care about these details, but even though you don't care, as the person in charge of security, it is still necessary for me to conduct a detailed survey of the terrain and environment inside and outside the Apsley mansion. Investigate to make sure nothing goes wrong during the meeting."

Hearing this, Wellington stood up and knocked on the iron window of his house, and joked to himself: "Actually, there is nothing to investigate. Look at this window, it is so strong that it cannot be any stronger." The Thames Didn't the newspaper say that my whole body is made of iron? If you want to assassinate me, the Iron Duke, just throwing a few bullets at random will probably not work.

But if you want to investigate information, just investigate. I can understand your feelings. Before a battle, you don’t know anything about the terrain, troop strength, deployment, and weather. It will always make people feel uncertain.By the way, for this London meeting, when you are free, you can go and have a good chat with Mr. François Vidoc, who is in charge of the security work of the French ambassador Talleyrand.

But as far as police intelligence work is concerned, the French 'Security Brigade' under his jurisdiction can be regarded as the best in Europe at present.If you can learn one and a half moves from him, I believe it will be helpful to improve your work ability. "

Security brigade?
As soon as Arthur heard the name of this organization, he immediately understood what the Duke of Wellington meant.

In fact, when it comes to the establishment of the police organization, France is far ahead of the United Kingdom.

As early as 1667, King Louis XIV of France ordered the establishment of the Paris Police Department. However, because the law enforcement style of the Paris police was too violent, it was almost difficult to distinguish the French police from the army in the early days. Even at that time The highest officer of the Paris police is also the rank of lieutenant general of the police.

During the French Revolution, the Paris Police Department was reorganized into the Paris Police Headquarters. After Napoleon became emperor, it was reorganized into the Greater Paris Police Department. Their law enforcement style and scope of duties gradually moved closer to the modern municipal police.

But although the Paris police are gradually becoming civilized, their historical traditions are there after all. Even becoming civilized is only relative. In most cases, the Paris police still follow the hard truth that guns are better than mouths .

It is precisely because of their notoriety that even Arthur, the British counterparts of the Paris police, were also affected.

At the beginning of Scotland Yard's establishment, London citizens almost equated them with nouns such as repression, violence, and blood. This is one of the important reasons why Scotland Yard's front-line patrol officers are often attacked on daily patrols.

But in any case, in today's world, countries such as Britain and France that claim to be role models for the world hope to use as little violence as possible and do their best to bridge domestic conflicts. After all, no one wants to stage a show on their own territory. great revolution.

In order to at least look more civilized on the bright side, the Paris Police Department has come up with all kinds of crooked ideas.

As early as more than ten years before Arthur proposed to Sir Peel to establish the LPS, the French, who were quite creative in this area, had already taken the lead in carrying out the practice of domestic security and intelligence work.

The François Vidoc mentioned by the Duke of Wellington is the founder and head of the intelligence department of the Greater Paris Police Department. With a very proud resume.

At the age of 14, Mr. Vidok accidentally killed someone in a sword fight, so he had to flee his hometown.After a change of appearance, he came to Paris alone, but had a puppy love with a French actress, but this sister-brother relationship did not end well, and he spent all of Mr. Victor's money.

Just at this time, the French Revolution broke out, so Mr. Vidoc took advantage of the situation and sneaked into the army. His performance was not bad at the beginning, and he was very heroic in the first half of the battle.

But soon, his pushy and disobedient character got him into big trouble again. He proposed a duel to an officer who was against him everywhere, but was rejected.

Unconvinced, Vidok drew his sword and attacked directly. In the 1V15 battle, he successfully killed two officers, and was happy to be hanged after being subdued.

Before the execution, Mr. Vidok, who has always been bold, certainly would not sit still. He gave full play to his high-strength force, led the majority of inmates to escape from prison, and fled back to his hometown humming all the way.

His unlucky old man was also shocked after learning about his son's experience over the years. He could only pat his son on the shoulder and said earnestly: "You are like this, you will die on the street sooner or later. You should get married quickly." , at least leave a seed for our old Wei family first."

Vidok also followed his father's advice honestly and found a girl from his hometown to marry.

The good news is that within a few months of his marriage, Vidok's wife gave birth to a fat boy for him.

But Vidok was holding the child, thinking about why something was wrong.

No, isn't everyone pregnant in October?Why is my son born at six months?Could it be that he is gifted?

Unable to figure it out, Vidok finally left his hometown town on a rainy night, headed for Paris again, and was imprisoned again not long after because of fighting.

And many times of prison experience finally made him enlightened in prison. He learned the high-end craftsmanship of false certificates from an old French pickpocket, and was imprisoned repeatedly because of this.

The Greater Paris Police Department, who couldn't stand him, finally put him in a naval prison, but they obviously underestimated Vidoc's ability. It didn't take long for Vidoc to get a set of naval uniforms from the guards by bribery. Then swaggered out of jail.

And when he was captured again, the Greater Paris Police Department raised his risk rating to the highest level, so this time, he was sent to Toulon Prison, the most heavily guarded and managed prison in France.

However, Vidoc escaped from Toulon Prison again and again in line with the tenet of 'As long as the mind does not slip, there are always more solutions than difficulties'.

He and the Paris Metropolitan Police Department have been fighting for ten years like "you play 3 and I play 4, you play 5 and I play 6". With these experiences, Vidoc's reputation in France is growing, and many Friends in the underworld all regard Vidok as an idol.

However, at a banquet held by the underworld in Paris to celebrate Mr. Vidok’s nth successful escape from prison, Vidok just sneered, took out an ID from his coat pocket and patted it on the table: “Excuse me, I’m a policeman. .”

Soon after, the Greater Paris Police Department publicly announced that the respected Mr. Eugene François Vidoc had turned from the dark to the bright. Detective Team - Sreté.

And this Sreté is the predecessor of the Paris Security Brigade that the Duke of Wellington said.

The Paris Security Brigade, which has absorbed a large number of former criminals, is almost invincible under the leadership of Victor. With his network of connections in the Paris underworld for many years and his understanding of criminal psychology, in just a few years, he has successfully Reduced the crime rate in Paris by 40.00%.

In order to praise Vidok's work achievements, the overjoyed French King Louis XVIII directly pardoned all crimes committed by Vidok in the past.

Of course, the reason why Vidok was able to do so successfully was not entirely due to his contacts and experience.

He also introduced many technological innovations and institutional reforms in policing, such as undercover police, ballistics, criminal file preservation systems, plaster casts of criminals' shoe prints, non-fading ink, crime scene protection mechanisms, and so on.

Because Vidok was so successful, Scotland Yard also studied his pioneering work at the beginning of its establishment, and incorporated some of them into Scotland Yard's "Police Execution Manual".

Arthur also had the idea of ​​going to meet the old man, but the funds for the activities of Scotland Yard were too tight, and the Tory Party was unable to protect itself, even if Sir Peel trusted him again, it was impossible. During the political turmoil in London, Arthur was allowed to travel to Paris with public funds.

But unexpectedly, Arthur didn't go to find Vidok, but Vidok came to the door himself.

However, it can also be seen how much the French attach importance to the London meeting if a capable person like Vidok, who has been in the Paris security intelligence system all year round, comes with him.

But when Arthur thought of this, he suddenly felt something was wrong.

He frowned slightly, and muttered, "It's more professional for the police to do security, but sending Vidok over here is probably to get Alexander back?"

Arthur suddenly trembled in his heart. It would be no small matter if Dumas was lost at the stall of the London meeting.

Although Alexandre Dumas is not a high-ranking official, due to the previous exaggeration by the news media, this fat man has become an important symbol of Britain's defense of justice.

Although this kind of face-saving problem is actually not very meaningful, it can profoundly affect the public opinion environment and the support rate of political parties.

Although most people in the UK do not have the right to vote, this does not mean that the Whigs and Tories dare to ignore their voices. The imagination of the people is the power base of politicians.

For this kind of problem where the person directly responsible can be found, the two parties do not mind pushing individuals to apologize.

If something really happened at that time, even if Lord Brougham wanted to protect him, he might have to weigh the pressure of public opinion.

Thinking of this, Arthur suddenly felt that it was necessary to meet the famous Mr. Vidok immediately.

Although it may be difficult for me to pry the truth out of his mouth, even if I can get some news sporadically, it will be of great benefit to Scotland Yard's action deployment during the meeting.

Arthur was thinking about these things when the Duke of Wellington, who was leaning on the sofa chair and holding a glass of red wine, suddenly spoke again.

"Arthur, would you mind doing me a little favor?"

Arthur came back to his senses, and asked with a smile, "Is it a personal favor, or a public one?"

The Duke of Wellington shook his red wine glass: "It doesn't matter, both are fine. If you only use one identity, I'm afraid you won't be able to handle this problem. And since you are in charge of my security during the London meeting, then I will give you a The two orders should also be reasonable, right?"

Arthur didn't refute this, he thought about what the Duke of Wellington had said before, and suddenly said with a smile: "Do you want me to act like Mr. Vidock?"

"No, I need you to do better than him."

The Duke of Wellington got up and paced: "Although I know this may be difficult for you, we have some differences with the French and Russians on the issue of Belgian independence. Some things, from my point of view It's not very convenient, but if you inquire from below, you may get some surprises.

For the French, you can start with Vidok. As for the Russians, I heard from a few friends that there is a new pianist at the Almark Club recently, named Arthur Hastings?That little gadget called the gramophone that you brought along is also very satisfying.

At the club dinner last week, I heard from Mrs. Cowper that Mrs. Leven, the wife of Count Leven, the Russian ambassador, also ordered one from you?I don’t know about that gramophone. Did you send it to her? "

The Duke of Wellington has already said so much, how could Arthur not understand what he meant?

Arthur let out a sigh of relief, took off his hat and smiled wryly, "Your Excellency, you really gave me a problem."

The Duke of Wellington laughed loudly. He patted Arthur on the shoulder and said, "Young man, you just need to exercise more. But don't be too stressed because of this matter, although the Whig Party and the Tory Party belong to Different camps, but in external affairs, we have always been consistent.

As long as you can get this thing done, the Whig side will be very happy too.Of course, even if it doesn't work, it's not a big deal.Anyway, with Brougham around, you probably won't have any problems. "

Arthur heard the words and looked up at the pendulum clock in the corner. The hour hand was exactly at twelve o'clock. When the bell rang, Arthur put one hand on his chest and bowed slightly: "Your Excellency, take orders."

　One more chapter later

　　
　
(End of this chapter)