Chapter 103 "Poison King" Victoria
"This is the best of times, it's the worst of times."
For Britain, it was the Golden Age, the pinnacle of the colonial rule of the British Empire, and the "sunset never sets" imperial period that the British miss.
Britain was the first to complete the Industrial Revolution, and its reputation as the world's factory is true.
The British naval strength was incomprehensible in the eyes of Europeans at that time. Even if the entire European navy was organized into a fleet, the British would still be able to sink it! This is the best evaluation of British naval strength.
For Britain's middle and upper classes, they can say so with pride.
"The plains of North America and Russia are our cornfields; Chicago and Odessa are our granaries; Canada and the Baltic Sea are our forest farms; Australia and Western Asia have our sheep lands; Argentina and the western grasslands of North America have our cattle ;Peru brings its silver; South Africa and Australia's gold flows to London;
The Indians and the Chinese grew our tea; our coffee, sugar cane, and spice plantations spread across the Indies; Spain and France are our vineyards; the Mediterranean is our orchards; and our coffee, which has long grown in the American South, Cotton fields are expanding to all warm areas of the earth. "
If you are a big noble or a big businessman, you can spend all day drinking and drinking, occasionally meeting up with a few friends and taking dozens of hounds with you to hunt at your friend's hunting ground.
If you are a middle-level person, such as a lawyer, civil servant, mid-level military officer, pastor, etc., this is an era where you can see the future.
Marry a wife who is decades older than you, hire a maid, rent a room in the city, have a few children and put them through high school. Although life is difficult, you can have a decent life.
For the lower class people in the UK, things are not so good. With a workload of eighteen hours a day, you may get involved in the machine if you are not careful.
If you are lucky enough to survive, you will be sent to the workhouse to die, usually due to wound infection, cold, pneumonia, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, etc. Of course, it may also be due to being forgotten and starving. die.
Even if you are born with supernatural powers and can always maintain vigorous experiences and will not die from fatigue, the poisonous smoke and wastewater in factories and cities will still make you sick.
Doctors in this era usually choose to bleed you. If the bloodletting is ineffective, they will consider amputating a certain part of your body until you cannot afford the consultation fee or die.
You don’t want to die inactive like this. You remember what Bacon said, “Knowledge is power.” However, you find that you have no time to study at all. You have to work eighteen hours a day. If you don’t work, you won’t have food.
Fortunately, you have unlimited energy, and you can study in the few hours when others are taking a rest. When you feel that you are already a talent, you went to take the British Civil Service Examination, but the people in the examination room refused to let you in. Because you have no fixed assets.
If you travel through time and become a child, congratulations, you no longer have to worry about finding a job. You can start working at the age of six or seven.
Digging chimneys and working in coal mines were popular occupations for children at that time. As long as you did hard labor for twelve hours a day in a small, cramped and dirty space, you could get five pence. How about that? Fair enough.
If you don't want to work, you are usually sent to an orphanage by your parents. You will see a group of fat managers eating a banquet on one side, and there is only half a sprouted potato in your bowl.
Even so, half of your potato will have to be bitten by the "boss" first. As for how much the "boss" bites, it all depends on the mood of the "boss". If you dare to resist, you will be beaten severely. If you are unlucky, you will most likely die in the orphanage. In the courtyard, your roommates will steal your clothes and shoes, so that you can truly "come naked and leave naked without taking away half of the clouds."
I don’t know whether the lower class people in the UK will puff up their chests with confidence when they think of the industry and wealth of the British Empire.
But I think they must really want to say "FUCK! Bloody hell"
For the Irish, Boers, Afghans, people from the two ancient civilizations in the East, and the millions of people exploited by British colonization, it was a worse era.
It is true that the British do not smoke opium, but when they drink opium soup, they have a cup of opium soup, which makes them suffer from headaches and brain heat, a cup of backache and leg pain, and their bodies are hollowed out? Have a drink! A child crying and refusing to eat? Have a drink!
There are indeed several countries on the European continent that ban their citizens from smoking opium, but they care more about the outflow of gold and silver than their citizens' bodies.
The "Poison King" once condemned opium, but he did not ban it at the legal level. Even the condemnation was done in private.
The "Poison King" did witness the glory of the British Empire. At the same time, she signed an evil document and used two wars to knock on the door of the ancient country and spread the poison of opium to the world.
At this time, the main force of drug trafficking for the "Poison King" was the Jews. The streets and alleys of Europe were full of Jews selling opium and wine. This group of people made huge profits by poisoning the people. This group of people really deserved to die.
Several Jewish families in the East contributed millions of pounds in taxes to the British government every year. Among them was the Sassoon family, which accounted for half of the opium trade and poisoned tens of millions of people in his life. As a result, no one knew about his sins. , and got a good death.
David Sassoon was originally a local official in the Ottoman Empire. To avoid the persecution of anti-Semites, he fled to Mumbai with his family, where he bought a British citizenship and began his life of cheating.
When the first box of opium arrived in the Eastern Continent, gold came in like snowflakes. David Sassoon made more money in a few years than his ancestors could make in several generations.
Once there was an upright official who destroyed his opium. He united all the opium dealers on this ocean and petitioned the British together, but this was not enough to persuade the British.
So he found his in-laws, who were also his biggest sponsors, the Rothschild family.
After paying a large sum of money, Britain finally decided to send troops. After that, Sassoon's business went smoothly without any obstacles, and even won him the title of "Little Emperor of Mumbai". His family was also called the Rothschild of the East and was worshipped by the Jews.
Franz didn't like opium, and he didn't like these opium dealers even more. He decided to do something.
The problem of Vienna is easy to solve. After all, the emperor's decree can even ban smoking, not to mention the addiction of opium.
Historically, Vienna was the first city in the world to ban smoking, because the emperor believed a prophecy that "a smoker will conquer Vienna."
Austria's problem needs to be solved, and the matter of Asia can only be entrusted to the church.
After all, for religious fanatics, there is nothing more glorious than destroying evil pagans.
Franz is also willing to see that the wicked are punished. As for procedural justice, Franz is not a saint. As long as the wicked get the punishment they deserve, why bother about the means?
I thought about it, I think, this book is for others to read, but also for me to read, and it is also an explanation to the readers who have been reading it.
I have cut nearly fifty chapters and changed several plots. Except for making some loyal readers feel that they can't understand it, there is no value.
So this book will be written according to the original rhythm, and those who don't want to read it can leave.