Chapter 596: The Attacking Boy

Biggest day for Covent Garden on Saturday.

The peddlers, who had stocked up enough to sell for a whole week, drove to the Garden Market in their wagons or ox carts.

Along the way, Mi Gao saw at least 5,000 transport vehicles, among which there were many small traders, some of them were carrying plates and some were carrying baskets.

In fact, the garden market has expanded to the extreme, covering an area so vast that it can almost be concluded that it is the largest market of this era:

From Long Acre Street to Strand Street, from Fort Street to Bedford Street, east, west, north, and south, stretched at least a few hundred yards in each direction.

"Every road that leads to the market has very little to see except vegetables, and the sidewalks are lined with piles and piles of vegetables, either waiting to be sold to customers or to be pulled away by trucks.

The stone road is dyed green by the leaves trampled by shoes. Walking inside, you can find bags of apples and potatoes, bundles of broccoli and rhubarb, and the area to the east is almost covered with hills of cabbage and radishes. blocked. "

After retracting his gaze, Mi Gao has already completed the draft in his heart, which is his new habit——

Influenced by Master, the little guy will carefully observe the things he sees in his life every day, and do it quickly and accurately.

After all, this is the most basic skill for detectives and investigators, and it must be practiced more.

"Brother, what do you buy today?"

"A dozen white radishes, four pounds of the freshest lamb, half a basket of peas, and half a basket of broccoli."

Chat content is exceptionally simple.

If you want to ask the reason, it is naturally because of the regular customers and they are very familiar with each other.

I saw that the guy named Bob sorted out the things that Mi Gao asked for in twos and twos. During this period, almost no second was wasted.

"Seven shillings and fivepence, isn't it?"

"That's right, it's not like you don't know that the price of this store has always been the same."

Bob is an entrepreneurial joint boy. According to him, he created job opportunities for himself, first doing chores for the stall owner for free, then helping to pick up things, and then helping to pull goods——

In return, they get four nutritious meals a day.

A month ago, the stall owner completely let go of his trust and handed him a whip that symbolizes authority, so that he can help sell goods and take care of the ox cart.

And this guy is also very good at doing business. Other stall owners either refuse to do small-scale transactions, or sell some small and damaged goods to individuals. A large number of high-quality goods adopt a competition model, and senior buyers take the goods to deal with. .

Only this store has high quality and doesn't care too much about shipments.

Of course, the unit price will also rise relatively.

But today is different. After Bob took the money from Mi Gao, he tapped it quickly and said with a smile:

"The owner is not here. I can be the owner. You are also a regular customer. In addition, members of the royal family are coming to London today, so I will charge you five coppers less."

With that said, a few coins were stuffed back into Mi Gao's hand.

"Big shots? Princess Helena and the Princess of Wales..."

Obviously, Mi Gao has heard about this for a long time, but he doesn't know exactly when they will come.

"That's right, since the Queen's assassination, everyone has been worried that the city has been abandoned by the royal family, but after nearly seven days, there is finally a result."

When it came to the princesses, Bob became very talkative. He interrupted Mi Gao and talked about it endlessly, even specifying when and which station the princesses would arrive.

"If you're not mistaken, the place where the special train stops is not far from here, and you can see them in half an hour." Mi Gao was a little excited.

The adults at the bottom, who are used to darkness and injustice, don't have much awe of the royal family, and even resentment, but also intend to be incited, or passively awakened.

And the lower class children, even the middle class and nobles, all have a kind of worship for the queen and her children.

When Mi Gao first met Lu Li, when he went to buy dinner, he liked to buy the tin box of mashed potatoes with the national flag and royal emblem printed on it.

It is not difficult to see from this that he is actually a traditional patriot, even though he has a very difficult life and has to go to the streets day and night to shine shoes for others.

"Take a good look for me. When you come to buy vegetables tomorrow, tell me well. People here are really inseparable."

There was helplessness and loss in Bob's tone.

Instead of watching the excitement and expressing their patriotism, the street boy who had just had a good life decided to stay by the stall, let new friends who had just met but are more familiar go and have a look, and then tell about it for himself.

In this way, Mi Gao hurriedly left the market.

Before that, in order to prevent the vegetable basket from being broken in the middle, he spent some money and bought a large reinforced basket at the stall opened by the Irish woman——

The women wore recognizable, loose gowns fastened at the bottom to reveal thick petticoats and boots, and velvet or straw bonnets.

There is no doubt that this is the Irish woman.

Before receiving relevant teachings, Mi Gao would not summarize this phenomenon at all.

Therefore, Lu Li is indeed a good teacher. Apart from strengthening the body of the apprentice, he can teach many things.

Of course, he didn't know that his apprentice didn't go home immediately after buying groceries, but slipped to the train station to join in the fun.

"looking at what?"

On Baker Street, Duke, who was temporarily staying on the second floor of the clinic, walked up to Lu Li and yawned.

Immediately afterwards, there was movement downstairs.

Pan Ming, Bai Yu and the others managed to find a way to rent an expensive apartment on the street. They would come here on time every day if they didn't have any task arrangements or private schedules.

"The relevant information about the Tully Street fire incident has been compiled." Lu Li opened the file package and said while arranging the papers, "Part of it was sent by Police Officer Wensley. Although Scotland Yard is not involved in this case, They've been paying attention."

"What about the rest?"

Duke slowly set up the cup and poured the hot water that Mi Gao had prepared in advance.

Then there is the coffee can, which contains ground coffee powder, which is not worth the price of gold, but it is not cheap either.

"morning."

"morning."

Several people greeted familiarly, then sat down in their seats, sipped the fragrant coffee, and waited for Mi Gao to bring back breadsticks and various ingredients needed for the day.

"The other part was provided by Yang Yuanyuan. I have to say that she is really good at intelligence."

Lu Li kept stirring with a small metallic spoon, and at the same time, couldn't help admiring.

The document clearly gave detailed information about the fire case. It not only drew a context map, but also deliberately marked the source of the information and gave different degrees of evaluation.

Some on-the-spot investigations, or relevant evidence found, are marked in blue.

Some statements can find more than three witnesses, but there is no physical evidence to support them, so they are marked in green.

One or two people insist on a certain statement, lack of evidence, and logically unreasonable, then they will be marked in red.

Frankly speaking, Yang Yuanyuan is much more professional than Scotland Yard's intelligence officers and recorders.

"Then read it first, and then circulate it in order. After reading all of them, express your personal opinion."

As he spoke, Duke poured two spoonfuls of milk and a spoonful of sugar into his coffee cup.

The second floor was quiet again, and everyone was waiting patiently, and looked forward to taking action as soon as possible, so that they could relax their bodies for nearly a week and have a good activity.

[At five o'clock in the afternoon, the workers in the warehouse are preparing for the suspension of goods trading on Sunday. These goods to be traded in the Financial City are stacked next to the Thames River next to London Bridge, near the intersection of Borrow High Street and Tully Street place.

It was found that a warehouse named Scoville was full of jute, saltpetre, grease, soybeans, and spices (ginger, pepper, cochineal and red pepper)

Not far from it, is a cotton warehouse, followed by a row of docks (hay docks), and below that are servants' docks, which are used to trade sulfur, grease, saltpeter, jute and paint]

[When the fire started, almost everyone left because of the Sunday rest. No one knew where the source of the fire was. In just a few minutes, the fire spread to the surrounding area, especially when passing through the cotton warehouse, the red flames rose rapidly. Fleeing, directly devouring Hay Wharf and Attendant Wharf]

[The logs that stored the grease split and spilled into the river, and the water caught fire. A distillery owner named Hodges acted as a firefighter himself before the London Fire Brigade intervened.

Then, several combustible manufacturers, such as Price Candle Company, also reached out to help.

About twenty minutes later, all the private fire brigades were assembled. They had five fire trucks, and they were unable to put out the fire.

Around 6:40 in the evening, the professional team arrived at the scene, and the water fireboats were also dispatched, but the water level was too low at that time, and the fire pump could not work at all. And the progress on the ground is not optimistic. A lot of grease flowed to the street and ignited ankle-high flames (this article comes from the narration of surviving firefighters).

When the spice warehouse full of peppers caught fire, the smoke with a strong and pungent smell blocked the view and forced the firefighters to retreat...]

Next, is to change the strategy.

Firefighters began spraying nearby buildings and streets with water to stop the fire from spreading, but their efforts were in vain.

Starting from the director old Bradwood, the team members began to sacrifice one by one.

After eleven o'clock that night, the house on the front of Tully Street started to catch fire, and the oil depot behind it contained tens of thousands of barrels of asphalt, and liquid flames flowed out.

By this point, the fire had reached its peak and the entire neighborhood was forced to abandon.

At three o'clock in the morning, with the help of people from all walks of life, the fire was contained in one area.

Only passers-by and hawkers are as happy as a festival. They sit in a good position in the distance and watch this visual feast, which can be called:

Group obsession.

The crowd fought frantically to watch the excitement and grab seats. All windowsills, roofs, and tower tops, wherever they could settle, were crowded with people.

The open fire lasted at least ten days, and from time to time a huge flame burst into the sky, and the capitalists, regardless of size, suffered heavy losses.

[While the poor profited from the fires, men and women from nearly all neighborhoods, with their children, jumped into the unburned stretch of river to collect the grease that floated on it.

It didn't take long for the shipowners to realize that they were busy collecting precious oil. They were extremely diligent and didn't want to stop for a moment.

Meanwhile, dukes and MPs visited the still smoldering ruins and ordered the survivors of the fire brigade to exhume the body of the chief.

It was at this stage that the mass madness ended, and people crowded every path leading to the ruins, silently waiting for the body of that upright gentleman to be transported out...]

After patiently reviewing it for about half an hour, Lu Li heaved a sigh of relief and handed the document to Duke who was next to him.

One thing to say, he really didn't find too many valuable clues, but he had a clear understanding of the ins and outs.

At first glance, there may not be much suspense in this tragedy. The high probability is that a temporary worker lacks safety awareness and throws away the ash or cigarette butt that has not been completely extinguished, and it happens to be not far from flammable objects.

However, in the current world full of spiritual returns, if you think about it with your toes, you know that things are not simple, and there must be some big secret hidden.

But... where should the clues be found?

The fire that lasted for several days and nights, under the action of various combustion aids and explosives, burned most of the area to red ground.

Then, there was another heavy rainstorm, which washed away all possible remaining clues.

Thinking of this, Lu Li couldn't help but feel a headache. No matter how powerful an investigator is, there must be a direction to work on.

As for using the cheating device, traveling through time and space to go back to the past again will not work——

The mysterious pocket watch can take the user back up to twelve hours to the future, the same reason.

Go to the initial fire point first. If there is an area such as a basement, there may be a certain chance of rescuing and finding something.

at the same time.

Duke, who quickly browsed through the documents, was amazed. He really admired Yang Yuanyuan's ability to collect information, which is rare.

In order to verify certain statements and make the conclusion more convincing, the girl made a special trip to the court.

From the fire to the present, the courts are full of people accused of stealing fat from the water, which, in the eyes of fair judges and respectable capitalists, has flowed into rivers and sewers but still belongs to its owner.

A second-hand dealer was accused of buying more than a ton of such grease from residents, and the legal owner of the grease was very realistic, selling it on the street and in the market.

This proves one thing. The fire has supernatural factors involved, but there are also physical factors. The opponent is not as exaggerated as imagined. It can burn several blocks and the Thames River continuously for days and nights.

While everyone was thinking and discussing, the Princess train arrived at the Financial City Railway Station.

It has been a week since the last assassination of the Queen, and the public appearance of the main members of the royal family has too much significance.

Therefore, as soon as the train stopped, enthusiastic cheers erupted from the crowd, especially when someone in the front row shouted that they saw Her Royal Highness, and the high emotions of the onlookers boiled up again.

"Take off your hat!"

shouted the men.

"She is coming!"

the women shouted.

All rushed forward as far as they could, waving hats and handkerchiefs, and jumping up and down, to get a glimpse of the princess.

And Mi Gao, who was holding the basket, squeezed to the front with his physical advantage, he was only a few steps away from the princess.