Chapter 631 Double Happiness

Russia, St. Petersburg, along the Moika River, not far from the Winter Palace, the British Embassy.

Arthur sat in his office chair with his hands folded, holding a pipe in his mouth, his eyes fixed on the velvet-decorated brocade box on the table.

A second-class gold medal of Saint Anna inlaid with red enamel lay quietly in it, and the golden sword-shaped decoration and ribbon added a bit of solemnity and glory to its already gorgeous appearance.

As soon as he saw the medal, Arthur couldn't help but replay the scene of the Tsar awarding him the medal last night in his mind.

The Tsar, wearing a black military uniform inlaid with gold embroidery, appeared to the sound of music. He could stop the music by gently raising his hand, attracting everyone's attention.

The Tsar took the medal from the golden tray and put it on Arthur's chest personally. The delicateness of his movements seemed as if he was afraid of wrinkling Arthur's fine clothes. Such a gentle attitude and movement can almost make people forget that his nickname is actually "stick".

After the previous unpleasant diplomatic negotiations, the Tsar's words when awarding him the medal sounded even more ironic.

"In recognition of Sir Arthur Hastings' talent and wisdom in science, art, and culture, and in recognition of his outstanding contributions to maintaining world order, as well as his profound understanding and contribution to the relationship between Britain and Russia, I, Emperor of the Russian Empire, Nicholas I, hereby award him this medal of honor and trust - the Second Class Order of St. Anna."

At the end, after the awarding ceremony, the Tsar even patted him on the shoulder in a very intimate manner for the first time, encouraging him, "This is not only a reward for you, but also an expectation for your future."

Reward...

Arthur did receive it, and the Second Class Order of St. Anna was very gorgeous.

The ribbon hanging diagonally from the right shoulder to the left waist, with a wide red ribbon, was also very beautiful.

Moreover, the Order of St. Anna awarded to Arthur by the Tsar was a military version of the Order of Swords, so he also received a Russian court ceremonial sword for symbolic decoration.

But what did the Tsar mean by future expectations?

Arthur was puzzled.

Let me make persistent efforts and continue to oppose him?

If it was for this, then Arthur felt that the Tsar did not need to give such a big gift, because he had originally intended to do so.

But if you think about it from another angle, the Tsar might be using the awarding ceremony to show his magnanimity to the British delegation, and to show his tolerance as a leader of a great country?

Arthur pondered for a while, and this possibility was indeed very high.

After all, many leaders know how to use this way of doing things. After all, for them, the things of playing the red face are naturally done by their subordinates.

Even if we ignore the diplomatic impact, it is too ugly for the Tsar to blow his beard and glare at the cultural counselor.

Arthur took out the Order of Saint Anna and weighed it gently in his hand. It must be said that this piece of medal was heavy and felt very heavy, at least fifty or sixty grams. You know, the main body of this medal is made of pure gold. Even if you ignore the enamel decoration on it, the gold content is at least 30 to 40 grams.

Although according to the currency value conversion, this gold is only worth four or five pounds, but it is obviously much more comfortable to hold such a large piece of gold in your hand than a few paper bills.

Dongdongdong!

"Come in."

Private secretary Blackwell pushed the door open and came in: "Sir, I just received news that the Russians have withdrawn from Moldavia and Wallachia."

Arthur couldn't help but raise his eyebrows when he heard the news: "Withdrawn? Are you sure?"

"Yes, it's official news." Blackwell smiled and placed the document in front of Arthur: "I heard about what happened in the Winter Palace yesterday from Colonel Stuart. You really showed your ability this time. At least half of the credit for the Russians' withdrawal should be attributed to you. The first time you appeared in an important diplomatic occasion, you have made such a great contribution to Britain. I believe that His Majesty the King and Viscount Palmerston will look at you with new eyes."

Hearing this good news, Arthur was not happy at all. Instead, he took a puff of cigarette and frowned even tighter.

Blackwell was puzzled: "What's wrong with you?"

Arthur stood up, with his hands behind his back, looking out the window at the busy traffic on Nevsky Avenue: "What ability, what merit, what new attention, Henry, how deep is the water in the Volga River, do you know?"

Blackwell was confused by Arthur's words: "The water in the Volga River? Have you measured it?"

"No. But I know that no matter how shallow the water in the Volga River is, it is enough to drown me." Arthur muttered: "I don't have any great ability, and sometimes I like to make mistakes, but after suffering a lot, even a stupid person can understand some simple common sense issues."

"Common sense?" Blackwell held the document and pondered. After a long pause, he said, "Are you saying that most people don't even know common sense?"

"What else?"

Arthur paced and flipped through the several Chinese classics that Pushkin had sent him this morning. "The most basic common sense is to know yourself. I don't think that I can make the Tsar order a withdrawal with just a few words. If I really had this ability, I wouldn't have been kicked from London to St. Petersburg."

Agares nodded in agreement and said, "Yes, Arthur, your evaluation is very pertinent. I just like frank villains like you. You drowned someone in the Thames Swimming Competition. If you hadn't been rescued in time, you would have sunk to the bottom now."

Arthur glared at Agares fiercely, but before he could show his middle finger to the red devil, a half-smiling cough sounded in his ears.

Blackwell obviously knew Arthur's dark history. When he first heard that the knight crawled out of the coffin, he was so happy that he couldn't even straighten his waist.

And what Arthur didn't know was that some British jokes about his resurrection from the dead were privately circulating among the embassy attachés.

Something like:

The heart has been penetrated, but the person has not been penetrated, the people are resentful, and the destiny is ugly. Sir Arthur climbed out of the coffin and said there were more people to take care of.

What does the story of Sir Arthur Hastings’s resurrection from the dead tell us? This tells us that even God will give hard-working civil servants three days of vacation!

London Coffin Shop's most fashionable billboard of the year - Sir Arthur Hastings also used our coffin. Although he crawled out after three days, he said it was the most comfortable one he had ever laid on!

Of course, Blackwell would never tell Arthur these jokes until his death.

As for Agares, although he knows the jokes, he's not a meddling devil.

The Red Devil has always loved talent, and his hobby is collecting jokes, not joke tellers.

Blackwell tried his best to recall the kind smile of his late grandmother, and tried his best to suppress the upturned corners of his mouth: "Then what do you think is the reason for the Tsar's withdrawal?"

"Then I don't know. This question is not a matter of common sense."

Blackwell's head was full of Arthur jokes, and the British's innate tendency to test the edge of danger pushed him inadvertently: "Then, maybe this will be an Arthur moment."

"Arthur moment?" Arthur couldn't help frowning when he heard this new term: "Is this some fashionable new term?"

"No, this is my personal invention."

"What does it mean?"

Blackwell said seriously: "This is mainly used to describe an event that seems to have ended, but will actually return to the public eye in a stronger way. It sounds like your ups and downs life experience, when you came from Scotland After you were eliminated, everyone thought you were finished, but now you have become our cultural counselor.”

Arthur waved his hands after hearing this: "Henry, don't flatter me, I don't like this rhetoric."

"I promise I didn't, Jazz."

Arthur was thinking about the 'Arthur moment' in Blackwell's words. He was so focused on trying to figure out the Tsar's intentions that he didn't even notice the corners of his subordinate's mouth trembling unnaturally.

"But what you said does make sense. The Tsar is not someone who compromises easily. If he retreats here, he will definitely make demands in other places. I can even speculate that the Tsar may have been considering starting from Molda. After all, Via and Wallachia retreated. In addition to Britain, there is also Austria. But if he takes the initiative to retreat, he cannot use the withdrawal as a bargaining chip... Maybe he has been waiting for us to protest to the Winter Palace. In this case, he will withdraw from the Danube River. Withdrawing troops from the basin seems to be respecting Britain's opinion."

When Blackwell heard this, he seemed to remember something. He took out another document and put it in front of Arthur: "This... is really possible. The Tsar's actions seem to be really hurting us, the Austrians and the people." The Ottomans released goodwill. This morning, while announcing the withdrawal, the Winter Palace also announced that it would abandon the Ottoman Empire's indemnity to Russia stipulated in the previous Treaty of Adrianople, and the Tsar just summoned the Austrian minister to reiterate Russia's willingness. desire to maintain the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire with Austria.”

When Arthur heard this, he was slightly relieved. However, as soon as his butt touched the stool, he stood up again in an instant: "What about the secret treaty concluded between Russia and the Ottomans? Did the Tsar give up that he could ask the Ottomans during the war? The power to block the Dardanelles and Bosporus?”

Blackwell opened the document and shook his head regretfully: "It seems that your suspicion is justified. His Majesty the Tsar's concession should be to retain this power that we cannot tolerate the most. However, compared to not giving in even an inch, , at least the Russians gave Britain a The steps. The fact that the Foreign Secretary, Viscount Palmerston, did not give a blank to His Majesty the King and Fleet Street on this issue is also a credit to our Embassy in Russia. It is probably not possible to get the Russians to relax their right to block the Strait. It will be solved in a while.”

Arthur held his forehead. He sat up and poured a cup of tea: "As expected...it seems that I got lucky. The withdrawal was planned by the Tsar early in the morning. I just happened to run into his plan..."

Agares sneered when he heard this and said, "Really? Then you are really lucky! My dear Arthur."

When Arthur heard the red devil's sinister tone, his action of pouring tea froze slightly.

For some reason, what Talleyrand once said to him suddenly rang in his ears - I have never shied away from being a capable state activist, but I also never take my role too seriously. In any case, a wind vane should not be used as a compass, and a compass should not be used as a revolving door. All are useful, but no one is indispensable. If I seem indispensable, it's not because I actually contributed to anything, but because people like me. Therefore, if I have to give the credit to someone, they are willing to give the credit to me.

The Tsar likes me?

Arthur thought this inference sounded ridiculous.

Although the old French cripple rarely said or did anything wrong in his life, and he always came out on top in the political game of choosing sides.

However, it is not a good thing to be superstitious about him.

Because nothing but solid science can block the way of speech, people can express different opinions on anything.

oh! Damn it!

He said this too!

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Arthur, who was deeply trapped in Talleyrand's maze, finally understood how Napoleon felt back then. As a proud man, it is really difficult for you not to chop this lame man to death.

But you must not do this, because you always have to carefully consider whether Talleyrand is right, and in most cases, the lame man is always right.

However, although this inference is absurd, it is better to treat it as a hypothesis first.

Although Arthur is just a novice in diplomacy, his old skills in investigating crimes have not been lost.

Investigating a case is the art of constantly eliminating various possibilities and ultimately leaving the one possibility closest to the truth.

Arthur sat back in his chair and tapped his fingers on the table unconsciously: "Henry, go and help me make a list, including officials in the Winter Palace who have been in close contact with the Tsar recently, especially those who have expressed their views on Ottoman affairs. people."

"all?"

“There’s no need to give them all.”

"Got it, Jazz."

"The premise is that you don't care about your promotion speed."

"Well……"

When Blackwell heard this order, he suddenly felt that it would be better for this bastard to go back to the coffin and lie there for another three days.

He originally made an appointment to attend a cultural salon where famous ladies gathered in Petersburg tonight. For this purpose, he specially bought a beautiful evening dress and ordered a brand new pocket watch.

But Jazz's words made all his good wishes come to nothing.

Seeing Blackwell's sad look, Arthur couldn't help but lectured: "Henry, I usually tell you to read more, but you don't take it seriously and say that the various manuals of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are enough."

He took out the "Tao Te Ching" given to him by Pushkin on the table and pushed it in front of Blackwell: "Now let me ask you, as the personal secretary of the cultural attaché, do you understand what is written on it?"

Blackwell defended himself in a roundabout way: "Diplomats should indeed master multiple foreign languages. Although I don't know many, but... Latin, Greek, Russian, and French are enough, right?"

"In other words, you can't understand?"

Blackwell only thought that Arthur was showing off his official power. He glanced at the square characters in the book and was sure that Arthur would not be able to understand it. So he pretended to ask for advice humbly, and said teasingly: "If you don't mind, can you explain it to me?"

"Huh!" Arthur saw through his thoughts and struck out deliberately: "I always have three treasures, hold on to them and protect them: the first is kindness, the second is frugality, and the third is, don't dare to be the first in the world! Henry, these three, You are so consistent and guilty of all of them.”

"Do you really understand?" Blackwell was stunned for a moment: "You couldn't have made it up randomly, right?"

Arthur saw that this kid was not as smart as Ridley, so he was about to give him a good repair.

Unexpectedly, a young attendant stumbled in outside the door and reported to Arthur: "Sir, there is a translator from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, named Yakinv Bichulin, who said he was introduced by Pushkin."

"Bichulin?"

Arthur still remembered this name. This was the godless priest mentioned by Pushkin, and he seemed to be translating many classics brought back from China recently.

Arthur left his secretary and stood up to straighten his collar: "Did Mr. Bichulin tell you what he came to do today?"

"That's not true, but he stuffed a newspaper into me as a certificate and said that if you don't believe it, he will give it to you."

"newspaper?"

Arthur took the newspaper from the attaché's hand and was faced with dense Chinese characters.

The first article in the newspaper was "A Brief Biography of the French Revolution and Restoration"

During those twenty-six years, the rebellious ministers and military officers had many great reputations, but there was one unparalleled name that has rarely been compared from ancient times to the present. His name was Napoleon the Terrible, and Napoleon the Violent Weng. The two of them could be used alone, or they could be used together. Dual-purpose, it says: Napoleon is ruthless and Weng Po Na dominates the land. He calls himself Emperor Yun - Napoleon.

During the twenty-sixth year of Qianlong's reign, the land of Panaba was born in a state in the Central Mediterranean named Gorsiga. His father was a lawyer, and perhaps his mother had an affair with a military officer and gave birth to him. When Napoleon was young, he went to the capital of France to study martial arts. When he was a teenager, he worked as a small military officer guarding cannons...

When Arthur saw this, he couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth.

Needless to say, if you can come up with such an honest and elegant Chinese translation for Napoleon as "Napoleon's evil force breaks Napoleon's land", and randomly arrange Napoleon's origin, you can even think about this kind of authentic article, and 99% of it is British. Written by people.

Sure enough, the author column clearly read: Morrison.

The name Morrison may seem unfamiliar at first glance, but if the name Robert Morrison is mentioned, many people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will definitely know who it is.

He was the secretary and translator of Lord William Napier, the new commercial director in China and cousin of General Charles Napier, who was enjoying success in Portugal.

Since Bichu Lincoln took out such a good thing from the bottom of the box, Arthur naturally had to meet him no matter what.

If nothing else, at least he had to finish reading this review of Napoleon's destruction of Napoleon, right?

If he had enough time, he even planned to translate the article into French and send a copy to Louis.