shadow of britain
Chapter 590 Hastings's Circle of Friends
Chapter 590 Hastings's Circle of Friends
Russia is a country that cannot be understood by reason, nor can it be measured by ordinary standards: Russia has its own unique essence - we can only choose to believe in it. Russia's history is unique and amazing, and our reality is brilliant and dazzling.
The Slavs will never be good students of the West, because we are destined to be the mentors of all mankind. Russia has a bright future, dear compatriots, we can all see that Russia is entering its unprecedented millennium of prosperity!
— Fedoro Ivanovich Tyutchev
What is the biggest reason for our quarrel with the Russians? It seems to me that Her Majesty, Parliament, the Cabinet and the British people all have their own considerations. Perhaps it is anger at the atrocities committed by the Russians at the Battle of Sinop, or perhaps it is a protest against the Russian invasion of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia.
However, for me, the Russians are unwilling to unify scientific measurement units such as "year", "month" and "day" with the mainstream standards of the European scientific community. This is the biggest concern of scientific researchers like me at present.
Fortunately, this is not just a concern of the Royal Society. My friends at the French Academy of Sciences are also concerned about the Russians' unique approach to defining scientific units.
Therefore, the British and French scientific delegation is going to Crimea to tell our dear Russian friends in person: Although Mr. Tyutchev is a poet, even as a poet, he is still not rigorous and too frivolous in his definition of time. At least in Britain and France, our definition of a thousand years is usually 365242.5 days.
——On the eve of the Crimean War in 1853, Nature magazine's social science column, "Sir Arthur Hastings: The stubborn Russians are trying to hinder the development of science and technology"
Sorry, Your Majesty, Prussia has decided to remain neutral in this conflict between Russia and Britain. In this war, you'd better not count on Vienna, let alone Berlin. This is a collective decision of the Prussian monarch and his government, and also due to my personal habits.
To be honest, I have stood in the neutral zone between Britain and Russia 20 years ago. And I would like to remind you that when Sir Arthur Hastings led a British peace delegation to visit a few days ago, you tried to intimidate him, which was destined to be a bad move.
Of course, I am not accusing all British people of being narrow-minded. But you are a wise man and an impeccable ruler, so you must have insight into human nature and understand that there are exceptions to everything.
What's more regrettable is that under the current geopolitical situation, you have given him a perfect banner and indirectly facilitated the political reconciliation between Viscount Palmerston and Sir Arthur Hastings. These two guys who hate each other accepted the "political blind date" you arranged, endured the disgust and stayed in the same room, and were affectionate in front of the public like a newlywed couple.
Prussia and I both support your decision in spirit. However, in reality, you'd better focus on dealing with these two troublesome bastards alone. Oh, no, I almost forgot, there are actually three bastards, because Napoleon III also chose to stand on their side this time.
—Otto von Bismarck, Minister Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Prussia to the Russian Empire, writing to Tsar Nicholas I of Russia at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg in 1853
"lead?"
The young man's German vocabulary was apparently not very advanced, and he had not yet learned the word, which he guessed might be a rank among German university professors: "What is a leader? Do you mean an associate professor?"
"What is leadership? I'm stumped by your question."
Arthur carefully recalled what he had done at the University of Göttingen, and then explained to the young man in a serious manner: "The so-called leaders refer to those who do not engage in any specific affairs, but can monopolize all the credit."
The young man understood immediately after hearing this. He slapped his thigh and suddenly realized what had happened. Then he said sarcastically, "So you are the Tsar of the University of Göttingen."
Arthur glanced at the boy, opened the wine cabinet in the smoking room and poured some red wine: "If you don't plan to go back to Russia, then you can express it so bluntly. By the way, Russian college students don't seem to be much more cautious than German college students."
The young man paid no attention to Arthur's kind reminder.
He was laughing and didn't think there was anything wrong with making a joke about the Tsar.
Speaking ill of the Tsar in private was indeed a serious political issue in Russia, but the important thing was, wasn't he in Leipzig now?
Could a stranger who met him in the smoking room and a foreigner who taught at the University of Göttingen travel thousands of miles to Russia just to report his misdeeds to the Tsar?
In the eyes of the young Herzen, there was probably no other person in the world who was so mean and nosy.
Even in Russia, those lowly guys, the Russian secret police, were mostly concentrated under the command of Count Benckendorff, director of the Third Bureau of the Privy Council.
He came to Leipzig today on a whim to celebrate his graduation and to watch the premiere of the great musician Mendelssohn's new opera with his classmates.
If this coincidence could lead to an accidental encounter with a Russian secret police lurking abroad, then Herzen felt that he had to go to the gypsy witch for a fortune-telling.
The man leaning against the wall and smoking silently never looked at him straight in the eye. He looked arrogant and seemed to be too lazy to pay any attention to him, a progressive student at Moscow University.
Such behavior further confirmed Herzen's idea: this guy was making fun of him and deliberately teasing him.
Because he had offended the British gentleman not long ago by comparing his graduate school, the University of London, with Kazan University and Kharkov University, so his self-esteem was hurt, and he came up with such a vicious way to tease him.
Herzen had little contact with the British, but his father had lived in Paris for several years as a diplomat, where he met many gentlemen from the British upper class.
According to my father's description, the British seem to be like this.
Although they are as cultured as the French, the British are much more emotionally fragile than the French. They may say they don't care, but they may already hate you in their hearts.
Moreover, no matter whether their thoughts are truly morally noble, British gentlemen will pretend to be indifferent to the world. They always maintain a distance from others, as if they are afraid that getting too involved with others will cause them trouble.
Of course, the British are not without their merits.
Although some British people's politeness is fake, they can pretend it for their entire lives, which is particularly admirable.
However, even though the British were very polite, Herzen's father still insisted that French gentlemen were far better than British gentlemen, at least in terms of being friends.
Having said that, Herzen came to watch the show today, and he didn't want to make any more enemies for no reason.
Especially since it is possible that he made the mistake first this time.
He wanted to ease the relationship with Arthur, so he took the best social trick among college students and said, "Would you like to have a drink? My companions and I brought Levi's sparkling wine."
But as soon as he said this, Herzen regretted it.
Although Levi’s sparkling wine is indeed his favorite, he likes sparkling wines with citrus, green apple, pear, peach, apricot and other fruit flavors. But in the eyes of older people and professional wine lovers, this is a very childish taste. Liking to drink sparkling wine usually means two things.
First, it means that the drinker is a young man with little experience.
Second, if he is not a young boy, then he can only be a country bumpkin who has never seen the world.
Of course, there are occasional special cases.
Whenever this happens, we need to apply Hegel's logical dialectics and organically combine the first and second points.
As expected, as soon as Herzen's words came out, Arthur, who had never looked at him straight in the eye, looked seriously at his black hair that was slightly drooping due to shame.
But what Herzen didn't expect was that Arthur not only didn't ridicule him at the first time, but also asked tentatively: "I haven't tasted Levi's sparkling wine yet, how sweet is it?"
Herzen blushed and replied, "I don't always drink sweet drinks. Occasionally I'll have some dry drinks to shake things up."
"No need." Arthur patted the shoulder of the young man he just met with a smile: "Just have the kind you usually drink."
The Red Devil, who was riding on the sofa, couldn't help but raise his palm to fan his nose in disgust when he heard this, as if he smelled something stinky: "What is this called? This is called: Baal got lost and mistakenly entered the public dung field - hey! Damn it, I found the right place!"
After that, Agares did not forget to teach Arthur a lesson: "Arthur, since you were shot, the effect of your labor reform has been very good. Now the only thing I am not satisfied with you is that you can't give up your low taste in wine knowledge."
Arthur urged Herzen to lead the way, and when he was about to leave the smoking room, he found an opportunity to retort, "But my taste in smoking has always been better than that guy who bought an intestinal smoke therapy device. Havana cigars are already strong enough, Agares, you don't need to add anything else to it."
Bang.
The sound of the door closing startled Herzen.
He looked back at Arthur, who was smiling, and muttered to himself, "The British are really like this. Their facial expressions are different from their inner thoughts. He must be mad now."
Arthur noticed the uneasy expression on his new friend's face. The Tsar of Göttingen, who was eager for some sweet treats, quickly issued the "National Seal Bull" to show goodwill to the foreign resident who was not under his rule, saying: "Don't mind it. This is a special custom of ours in Britain. Lock the bad luck in the smoking room to prevent it from running out and harming the ladies. You know, gentlemen are stronger than ladies. Even if they are nailed to the cross, they can be resurrected. And what about ladies? Even if they are as strong as Mary Magdalene, they will burst into tears after seeing the scene of the execution."
Herzen could hardly hold back his laughter when he heard this fellow's religious joke.
He quickly covered his mouth, and only when he realized that no one was looking at him did he laugh in a low voice with relief: "You were lying to me before. The Tsar would never make such a joke."
Arthur didn't deny it, but he didn't admit it either. He just shrugged and said, "The Tsar of Russia might not, but the Tsar of Göttingen is different."
Herzen was more convinced that this guy was also a college student. He politely took off his hat and bowed, saying, "Well, Mr. Tsar, I hope our sparkling wine can match the specifications of the court banquet."
Arthur followed Herzen upstairs to their box.
Not long after, the truly mad Red Devil popped his head out from behind the door panel.
He waved the tube of the smoke therapy device in one hand and threatened: "If I had known this would happen, I should have shoved this thing into your mouth while you were lying in the coffin!"
The Red Devil rolled up his sleeves and trotted up the stairs. He locked his sights on Herzen's box and walked through the door, ready to teach Arthur a lesson.
However, as soon as he entered the box, he found that the atmosphere here was not right.
Half of the people in the room were listening with smiles on their faces as Herzen introduced their new friends to them.
The other half of the people stood stiffly beside the sofa with bottles of wine in their hands, or sat upright in their chairs looking around, looking quite restless.
Arthur's eyes were fixed on the leader who was fidgeting. He gave him a meaningful look, then opened his arms and said enthusiastically, "Otto, what a coincidence, you are here too?"
Bismarck, who was still having a headache due to a hangover, kept coughing. He felt that he must have offended the goddess of luck in the past two days, otherwise he would not have been involved in the turmoil of Young Italy, and it would be impossible for him to go out with his classmates to find some drinking buddies, and thus fall into the surveillance of the villain Hastings again.
Arthur saw that Bismarck did not respond to his arrival, so he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows at him.
The clever Bismarck knew that if he wanted to enjoy the wine today, he could only accompany Arthur to finish this play.
However, he was not going to give up resistance completely yet. At least secretly, he had to make it difficult for Arthur, at least to let him feel the pain of a hangover.
Bismarck stood up and hugged Arthur, saying, "It seems that no one can escape today. Arthur, my dear old senior, everyone in Göttingen doesn't know that you are a great man!"
Upon hearing this, Herzen's classmates stood up and welcomed him.
"Otto, it seems that your Göttingen's combat effectiveness has increased again."
"But now that Sasha is back, our Moscow State University has gained strength."
"The game has just begun, the outcome is still unknown!"
(End of this chapter)
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