Chapter 625: Good News

In the embassy office, Arthur was sitting with his legs crossed, drinking tea by the fire and flipping through the freshly-published mainstream Russian newspapers such as the Moscow Telegraph and Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

Perhaps because Russians are naturally more irritable than British people, even the content of the newspapers can be seen to be significantly different.

There is not much of the roundabout and weirdness of the Times, and the whole article is straightforward and aggressive.

"A Madman's Defense? A Traitor to a Nation! A Morbid Follower of the West!"

--Recently, the Russian literary world has received good news and bad news. The good news is that Pushkin's new work "The Bronze Horseman" is as high-level as ever. The bad news is that Peter Yakovlevich Chadayev, a thought parasite who betrayed the nation, a cultural traitor who was a bitch, and a loyal second dog of the French, published a defamatory work called "A Madman's Defense".

--His remarks are full of extreme contempt for the motherland and national culture, and he has completely lost the dignity and responsibility that a Russian should have. Not only did he baselessly belittle our great history, he also tried to impose the corrupt ideas of the West on us and tear apart the connection between Russia and its profound cultural traditions. Chaadayev is the poisonous snake lurking in the blood of our nation, intending to corrode our souls and destroy the foundation of our great culture.

——This person even shamelessly claimed in his works: I love my country more than any of them (Slavophiles), and I hope it will be glorious. I also know how to evaluate the noble qualities of our people, how to emphasize and preserve the characteristics of our country. But I have not learned to love our motherland with my eyes closed, my head lowered, and my mouth closed. I believe that only when a person can see his country soberly can he contribute to it. I think the era of blind love is over. Now the first thing we have to do is to bring the truth to the motherland. I want to love the motherland as Peter the Great taught me.

——It is true that Westernization reforms were carried out during the reign of Peter the Great. However, Peter the Great's reforms were not blindly following the West, but selectively absorbing Western technology and ideas according to the actual needs of Russia. Reform is not a simple transplant of Western civilization, but a strategic choice to ensure the survival and prosperity of the country. While learning from Western experience, Peter the Great always maintained the foundation of Russian culture and tradition, rather than completely abandoning the characteristics of his country.

——However, Chadayev turned black and white and made clever speeches. He claimed that Russia's history was a "hopeless road" and promoted a prospect of decline. However, who can believe that a truly rational philosopher would portray his country as so poor and decadent? His thinking pattern is extremely morbid and full of extreme denial of Russia. He denies our history, denies our culture, and even denies the future of our nation. This ignorance and despair just exposes his mental morbidity.

——If there is anything to be said about his article, it is that his title is right, "A Madman's Defense", which is the best title to describe himself. Chadayev, a jumping clown without patriotism! An Englishman and a Frenchman in Russian skin, or a hybrid of the two! A guy who can't even see the true value of his own country dares to accuse our great empire!

Arthur read the newspaper very seriously, and from time to time he would take out a pen to circle a few swear words and copy them into the notebook he carried with him.

After writing a page, Arthur would stop writing, stand up, hold up the notebook and repeat it several times in the office to deepen his memory.

Although he learned a few swear words from the country folk and the garrison when he was in Druisk, the vocabulary of farmers and soldiers did not support them to curse as gorgeously as the writers in Moscow and Petersburg.

Secretary Blackwell, who was holding a pile of documents, pushed the door open in a hurry, and ended up facing Arthur who was practicing pretending to be a Russian cultural hooligan.

Anyone would be stunned if they were scolded by their boss.

Blackwell apologized quickly: "Sorry, sir, I forgot to knock."

Arthur took out a handkerchief and wiped the saliva that splashed all over his mouth due to too much tongue flicking, and calmly comforted: "Don't be nervous, Henry, I'm not talking to you, I'm learning Russian."

The secretary was relieved, and he put the file on the desk: "Learn Russian from swearing? This is indeed a good way. I don't often praise people, but, sir, you did swear in a high-level way today."

Arthur took out a brand new snuff bottle from his pocket, threw it to the secretary, and motioned him to take a few puffs.

This is the communication method he learned from others after coming to Russia.

In Russia, if you meet a distinguished guest, in order to show your enthusiasm, the host will usually share a snuff bottle with him.

It's a pity that there were no cigarettes at that time, otherwise, it would be more convenient and hygienic to share cigarettes than to share a snuff bottle.

Arthur picked up a document and asked as he flipped it open: "What is this?"

Blackwell took a puff of snuff: "A report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, forwarded from the Lisbon Embassy."

"Lisbon?" When Arthur heard the location, he immediately thought of General Charles Napier, who had met him once in Liverpool: "Is the Portuguese civil war over?"

This talented general, who is a Royal Navy geek like Thomas Cochrane and Sidney Smith, can be said to have made many extraordinary achievements since he was sent to Portugal by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

When Napier arrived in Portugal, the Azores were the only stronghold of the Portuguese liberals who supported the little Queen Maria II.

When Napier just arrived in the Azores, the liberal leader Count Villaflor immediately handed over the command of the remaining naval ships to Napier without any hesitation.

At this time, the troops led by the Queen's father, the Brazilian Emperor Pedro, were being surrounded by the authoritarian troops led by his brother, the despotic Prince Miguel.

In order to help him rescue the siege, the brave Napier led the remaining small fleet to transport the liberal army to the Algarve region in southern Portugal, ignoring the blockade of the absolutist navy, and successfully opened a second battlefield.

When he led the fleet back to the Azores, he was caught by the authoritarian navy who came after hearing the news.

At that time, Napier had 6 ships under his command, including 3 frigates, 1 light frigate, 1 ketch used for reconnaissance maneuvers and 1 small sailing ship mainly serving a support role, equipped with a total of 176 guns.

The autocratic faction's fleet can be said to be almost the best, with 4 battleships, 1 frigate, 1 Zibek ship, 3 light frigates and 1 brig, with a total of 372 artillery pieces.

Since the two sides were completely out of proportion in terms of numbers and firepower, Napier had no choice but to take advantage of the high maneuverability of his ships and lead the authoritarian fleet for two days at sea. After two days of maneuvering, Napier's fleet successfully formed its formation under very favorable conditions.

Due to the huge disparity in firepower between the two sides, Napier knew that if he wanted to win, he could only take advantage of the fact that most of the sailors in the Liberal fleet were retired British sailors and seize the enemy ships through close combat.

On July 5, 1833, the wind at sea finally changed. Napier immediately ordered the fleet to turn around, the rear team to the front team, move forward with full sail, and poke the absolutists in the eye!

After several hours of fierce fighting, Napier finally killed and wounded more than 300 autocrats, and successfully captured four battleships, a frigate and three ships. A corvette. The remaining absolutist fleet saw that the situation was not good and had to flee to Lisbon and Madeira.

Such an astonishing result made the French government, which had just announced its support for the Portuguese authoritarians, furious and lodged a stern protest with the British government.

But Napier's victory made British King William IV very unhappy. The sailor king had a relationship with Napier while serving in the Royal Navy, so in order to prevent the French from finding an excuse for Britain to intervene in the Portuguese Civil War, he also wanted to cajole To coax the king and take care of his little mood, the Admiralty simply removed Napier from the Royal Navy's officer list.

But delisting is delisting. Nowadays, whenever you mention Napier's name within the Royal Navy, it gets a thumbs up.

The Times and other newspapers did not even act on it. The major newspapers in Fleet Street directly promoted Napier's victory in Portugal as the glory of the Royal Navy.

Napier's position among Portuguese liberals has become increasingly stable. After the victory at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, Napier was awarded the titles of Portuguese Admiral and Commander of the Portuguese Navy. In the following September, Napier commanded the liberal army to successfully defend Lisbon, and was awarded Portugal's highest military honor, the Order of the Tower and Sword, and was named Count of Cape St. Vincent.

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This is almost like a tradition in the Royal Navy. A naval officer who is not popular at home because of his weird temper goes abroad to use his spare time, and ends up accidentally becoming the naval commander of another country.

Napier was commander of the Portuguese navy, Thomas Cochran was commander of the navies of Chile, Peru and Brazil, and Sidney Smith was commander of the Swedish navy. In addition, there are many naval officers who did not become naval commanders but served as fleet commanders and captains in foreign navies, such as George Thomson and Henry who commanded the navies of Colombia and Chile during the Latin American War of Independence. ·Purvis et al.

Although Elder has repeatedly complained that the Admiralty is unreliable and shady, at least as far as the current situation is concerned, the officers of the Royal Navy, as the kings of naval battles in the 19th century, their performance in the international labor market It can still be said to be of high quality and honest.

Moreover, this group of people can not only fight naval battles, but if you are willing to add money if necessary, you can also fight on land battles. Look at Napier, didn't he just defend Lisbon?

Arthur was looking through Portugal's detailed combat documents while listening to the secretary's report.

"Although the Portuguese Civil War is not completely over, it is almost over. The autocratic navy has been in decline since the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, and their army is also retreating. In addition, in order to support his daughter, the Brazilian Emperor Pedro also Increased aid to Portuguese liberals, the Lisbon embassy reported: During this time, General Napier is actively recruiting retired Royal Navy sailors from the Iberian Peninsula. Based on the recent movements of the liberal army, the Lisbon Embassy speculates that the liberals are likely to attack Minho and the area south of the Douro River in the near future. Launch an offensive. If they succeed in this area, the end of the Portuguese Civil War will be over."

"Well..." Arthur pinched his chin: "It seems that General Napier has been very proud of himself recently! Although the Portuguese count is not as valuable as the British, he can now basically be regarded as the number one figure in the Portuguese navy. This is comparable to staying at the Admiralty. It’s much more receptive.”

"Who says not?" Blackwell said with a smile: "If I were him, I would not come back. Who doesn't know that His Majesty the King does not like to see him, and Emperor Pedro of Brazil now simply regards him as the most trusted person? The little queen is not yet of age, and her father is in control of everything. If General Napier continues to stay in Portugal, let alone the earl, he may be able to become a minister in Portugal. "

Arthur muttered: "The premise is that he must not be like General Cochran. If it weren't for his bad temper, Cochran's status in South American countries would be unimaginable. He alone is Chile, Peru and Brazil. The founding fathers of three countries, but they just happened to be too unruly and unruly. The Holy Horse of Chile Ding, Bolivar of Peru, and Pedro of Brazil all dislike him. However, this bad temper is almost a common problem among geniuses. Even if you dislike him, you still have to rely on him to fight. But once the war is over, if I find any fault, I will let you go back to where you came from."

Blackwell pulled out a report from the document: "Sir, look at this, the news from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is said that the French are seeing that the Portuguese authoritarian faction can no longer hold on, and they seem to be preparing to jump to the liberal side. Go. Talleyrand also conveyed the message to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the French seemed to be interested in reaching reconciliation with us through the Portuguese Civil War, and by the way, they would also bring Spain and Portugal in to sign an alliance treaty."

"A treaty of alliance?" Arthur thought for a moment: "Against the Holy Alliance of Prussia, Austria and Russia?"

Blackwell nodded slightly: "No one has said it clearly, but this is actually the situation. What the Russians have done in the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Ottomans in recent years is really too arrogant, especially when they forced the Ottomans to sign That secret agreement actually wanted to put the Bosporus under their control. The French had not seen this coming. It was comfortable. After all, they had traditional interests in the Mediterranean. At that time, there was a parliamentary reform in the country, and later there was a civil war in Portugal, so we ignored the matter. Now Viscount Palmerston has come back to his senses. Come, I feel that I have suffered a great loss. And do you know what happened to Sir David Urquhart, the Consul of Constantinople?"

"David Urquhart?" Arthur recalled the name: "I shouldn't know this guy. What, did he do anything rude to our Foreign Secretary?"

Blackwell truthfully told the news he had learned during this period: "How should I tell you? Sir David Urquhart is a weirdo. After graduating from Oxford University, he was catching up with the Greek War of Independence. Due to the influence of Inspired by Byron, Shelley and others, he went to Athens to join the British Volunteer Group in support of Greek independence. Army. But I don’t know what happened during the war. Perhaps the Greeks did something that disgusted him, which made Sir David very disappointed in Greece. Not only did he no longer support Greek independence, but he began to sympathize with the Greek overlords. The Ottoman Turks, and then the Russians, the sworn enemies of the Ottomans, also hated them immensely.

After returning from Greece, Sir David joined the Foreign Office and volunteered to be sent to perform a series of diplomatic missions in the Near East. After working in various places in the Near East for several years, he was transferred to the embassy in Constantinople as first secretary, and this year he was promoted to consul. Originally, in the secret treaty signed between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, the terms regarding the Bosporus were a secret treaty and were not written on the surface. The Constantinople Embassy also spent a lot of effort to find out the information from the Ottoman court. After Viscount Palmerston found out about it, he thought it was too embarrassing, so he planned to pretend not to know about it first, and then slowly find out later. Of the place.

But Sir David became furious after discovering that Viscount Palmerston said nothing about the secret agreement. He passed the news directly to The Times without informing the Foreign Office, and also accused the Foreign Secretary of being a traitor to Britain and a coward who was weak toward Russia. Because of this, the pages of major newspapers in London are now full of speculations about Viscount Palmerston accepting Russian bribes. Viscount Palmerston was confused by him. In order to clarify the news, he demanded that our embassy in Russia immediately lodge a solemn protest with St. Petersburg. "

At this point, Blackwell's face suddenly became a little strange: "Sir, the ambassador is probably going to inform you of the news this afternoon. Maybe you will have to go with Count Dalamo."