shadow of britain

Chapter 526 Göttingen

The distance from Paris to Göttingen is about 400 miles, which may only take a day by train in the 21st century, but in the 19th century, a 400-mile overland journey represented a physically and mentally exhausting ordeal.

Although Arthur and his party had made every effort to advance towards the Kingdom of Hanover at the urging of the king, the fastest horse in Paris coupled with the most skilled coachman could only travel 40 miles a day, which meant that it took Arthur and his party ten full days to enter the Kingdom of Hanover.

In order to save time, the coachman took many shortcuts along the way. The road conditions of these roads were far worse than those of the main roads. Therefore, after several days of bumpy journey, Arthur finally understood why Napoleon had hemorrhoids.

He even privately speculated that the Duke of Wellington, who had been on the march all year round, might also have this problem.

Riding in a carriage was already so unbearable, God knows how they managed to ride on horseback for more than ten hours.

The situation was pretty good when I first left Paris. Away from the hustle and bustle of the city, I would occasionally look at the beautiful countryside, the neatly planned vineyards, and the golden wheat waves in the fields. These vibrant scenes always make people feel better.

But no matter how beautiful the scenery is, if you look at it for three days in a row, you will eventually get bored, not to mention that Arthur's butt was aching from being shaken.

However, what Arthur did not expect was that from the middle of the journey, even the beautiful scenery disappeared.

After passing through the Rhineland region in western Germany, the scenery along the way was completely changed. The prosperous and harmonious pastoral scenery completely disappeared, and even farmers leading cattle and sheep and carrying farm tools on the country roads were almost nowhere to be seen.

There were no conspicuous landmarks on either side of the narrow road, and although there were occasional rivers, they were far from the Rhine and the Danube, flowing freely and majestically. Wherever Arthur looked, the rivers were lazily meandering, just like the first day of work for the Scotland Yard police after their paychecks.

Although the land is flat, most of the ground is covered with trees, and the varieties of trees are boringly few. The two words birch and fir can summarize them all.

Seeing this, Arthur finally understood why the works of German poets often mentioned uncultivated areas such as "sand" and "swamp".

If a British poet often mentions these places, he is most likely a Lake School poet who opposes industrialization and urbanization and yearns for the pastoral life of the Middle Ages.

But the German poet mentioned these things not because he had any inclination or because he liked these natural scenery. He was probably just telling the truth and saying what he saw.

The journey was quite boring, but Schneider's little jokes still played a significant role in alleviating the problem.

Although Schneider himself didn't think he was telling any jokes, Arthur always felt that every word this guy said by chance was very comedic.

I still remember that a few days ago, the carriage that was running smoothly suddenly shook violently for a while.

Arthur was about to bend down to pick up his hat when he heard Mr. Schneider say something sinister: "Oh, it looks like we've entered Germany."

Originally Arthur thought that this sentence was just one of Schneider's daily jokes to discredit Germany, but just as he put on his hat, a road sign suddenly flashed outside the car window, and it read - Welcome to Prussia!

At this time, Mr. Schneider, who had already confirmed his identity as a prophet, straightened his scarf with disdain, then turned around and showed off his identity as a historian to Arthur.

"You should be thankful that it is peacetime now. Otherwise, according to the Prussian character, a tall foreign guy like you would have been dragged off the car and conscripted. Do you know Frederick William I? He is not interested in women, but he can't help himself for guys like you. He would capture any guy he sees and make him a soldier."

Although Arthur did not know as much about Germany as Schneider, he did study history for a few years in college.

Perhaps because they shared the same roots and Germanic blood, the governments of Prussia and Great Britain were both keen on conscripting men, and both sides did not care about nationality.

The Royal Navy's recruiting officers not only did such abominable things as dragging drunkards from pubs onto ships and detaining exiles to "line their pockets", but also led recruiting teams to raid weddings at night and kidnap grooms.

They even forcibly conscripted American sailors during the Napoleonic Wars.

Although the Americans repeatedly stated that they were independent and would never serve the evil king, the Royal Navy recruiting officers did not care.

They even deceived and misled the honest American sailors.

As for those who were not honest, he took out the Royal Navy's secret "Nine-tailed Whip", forcibly injected the "Nelson Spirit" into them, and taught them through practical actions what it meant to "fight every enemy, England".

It would have been fine if the Royal Navy only did this in domestic ports, but what is ridiculous is that they also forcibly conscripted American sailors in the Atlantic and Guangzhou, China.

The U.S. government and its representatives in China strongly protested against this action, calling it an infringement on U.S. sovereignty and civil rights.

But the Royal Navy would certainly not pay attention to any diplomatic protests. When the Americans found out that the British Foreign Office had read the protest and did not respond, they were so angry that they ran to the government to file a complaint, hoping that the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi could come forward to uphold justice.

You can't write two Germans with one stroke. The Royal Navy's recruitment methods were disgraceful, and the Prussian Army's recruitment methods were equally unacceptable.

However, since the Prussians' sphere of influence was too small, they could only ambush at the border and kidnap young foreigners in most cases.

The Prussian King Frederick William I mentioned by Schneider also set up a Giant Guard. This most elite force in Prussia was composed entirely of young soldiers who were over six feet tall.

At social banquets, other German princes and nobles would show off how much wealth, land, and beautiful girls they owned, while Frederick William I would show off that he had 2500 young men over meters tall. As long as he had these young men, wealth and land would not be a problem at all, and beautiful girls would also come to Prussia.

In order to get these young men, he used all means of coercion and inducement. If necessary, he would even put pressure on neighboring states through diplomatic channels, asking them to provide Prussia with the most outstanding young men in their country.

If necessary, Frederick William I would not even mind launching an 18th-century Trojan War to snatch people.

The Greeks fought the Trojan War to win back the most beautiful women in the world, while the Prussians fought the Trojan War to win back the tallest and strongest men in the world.

However, although Arthur had some knowledge of Prussia in advance, Schneider had already given him a warning: "Don't expect anything from the German Junkers, let alone expect them to be gentlemanly. They are not the same creatures as the nobles from London and Paris. Arthur, I am not exaggerating. If you have met my father, my grandfather and my grandfather, you will know that I am not exaggerating at all."

Arthur also learned from Schneider that the word "Junker" actually only represented the land nobles in northern states such as Prussia. In fact, they should not be called nobles because many of them only had "von" in their names but did not even have a formal noble title.

These people are different from the wealthy nobles in western and southern Germany. They live in the barren environment along the way, leading a life that is neither very rich nor very poor. If they were in Britain, this group of people would be called the gentry.

Their lifestyle and mental outlook were very different from those of the aristocratic citizens in the wealthy cities of western and southern Germany. Compared with London and Paris, it was like a completely different world.

Moreover, due to poor economic conditions, most of them have not received a good education, and do not want to receive too good an education, because having or not having education will not affect their military service.

Therefore, if there were no wars to fight, the Junkers would have neither the opportunity nor the interest to see the vast and wonderful world outside.

Therefore, in Germany, Junker landlords are often associated with lack of culture and short-sightedness.

According to Schneider, they are "generally uneducated, unable to write coherent sentences, unable to express their ideas, and even unable to speak coherently, as if they have a stutter. They just string together nouns and nominalized words and end with an exclamation point."

Arthur initially thought it was just a stereotype of Schneider, but after eating a few meals at the roadside inn, he found that it was all true.

It's not easy to hide the temperament that shows that he has not been educated for many years just by opening his mouth.

Perhaps it was precisely because of the Junkers' lack of education that Prussia was so determined to vigorously promote educational reforms, forcing these people to study for a few years no matter what.

Baron Stein, the Prussian Minister in charge of educational reform, once made sharp criticisms of this phenomenon.

"The Junkers were a burden to Prussia because they were too numerous, mostly poor, and greedy for official positions, salaries, privileges, and all kinds of preferential treatment. Because they were poor, they could not receive a good education and could only attend poor military schools. Because they were uneducated, they were unable to take on high-level positions. Once they became high-level commanders, the damage to the army was simply catastrophic.

I can even say that the great defeat suffered by the Prussian army during the Napoleonic Wars was due to the fact that our commanders were not well educated! However, this large group of poorly educated people are shamelessly and arrogantly demanding high positions. They are both aristocrats and want to be bureaucrats. They are simply a disaster to their compatriots! "

However, in Arthur's opinion, it would not be fair to simply criticize these Junker nobles.

For from what he had observed in the inn, the Junkers were merely imitating their king.

Each of them tried their best to play the role of a stern, strict but kind head of the family.

And the Junkers did this not only to their wives, children and direct descendants, but they also wanted to act as father figures to their servants and peasants, just as the King of Prussia did to them.

If you describe a Junker as a stern but friendly authority and manager who is busy all the time for the livelihood of his family, he will definitely be very happy and enthusiastic to treat you to a drink.

Although this group of people cannot be considered good people, they are also considered normal people.

Although German newspapers were all critical of the Junkers whenever they mentioned them, they put all the blame on them.

But to be fair, this is nothing more than bullying the Junkers for their low cultural level. These people can't even utter a complete and fancy sentence, let alone write an article to defend themselves.

If they feel that the Junkers are blocking their way, then the first priority should be disarmament, because as long as the number of troops is controlled, the upward channels for most of the Junkers can be locked, and they will naturally not have such great influence.

But it was well known that it was impossible for Prussia to disarm.

Arthur was still thinking about Germany, while the two ladies sitting opposite him had not yet recovered from the twists and turns of their life experiences a few days ago.

Clara never imagined that the college student who complained in the pub about his huge foreign debts was actually a British diplomat.

Oh, maybe not now, but he has done much better and has become a well-respected university professor.

She was in a trance and recalled the complaints she had made to Arthur in the tavern that day.

This young man does have some of Thiers's shadow in him. He tells lies all the time, but he always has a backup plan for each lie, so no one blames him.

Moreover, those people not only did not blame him, but were actually grateful to him.

The Royalists thanked him profusely, and any suspicion Clara might have expressed about Sir Arthur Hastings was immediately refuted.

Because in the eyes of those country peasants who had never seen the dangers of Paris, the fact that a British knight was willing to risk his life to take them out of France already demonstrated his noble character.

But, in Clara's opinion, things are definitely not that simple.

If this young man is really Thiers II, the reason he did not betray the royalists today is not because he has morals, but because he feels that the current price is not high enough.

What does he want to do?
Clara was full of doubts.

However, she did not wonder for too long. As the shaking of the carriage became less intense, she saw from the window the entire picture of a small town rising on the horizon.

"Is that Göttingen?"

(End of this chapter)