Upon his return from Pitt Jr., Addington immediately approached the Secretary of the Admiralty and asked the Admiralty to come up with a detailed, "weekly" plan for the blockade of the Irish coastline for his reference.

He then wrote to the Duke of Norfolk to find out his attitude. The Duke of Norfolk was naturally supportive of the blockade of Ireland, but he suggested that now was not the best time, and that the best time should be a month or two before the harvest season. Of course, you should be ready now.

Two days later, at a gathering of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Prime Minister Addington's secretary revealed a secret to Matthew Bolton, who was attending the party, that "the Navy had developed a new weapon that could be used to blockade the coast of Ireland......"

In the eyes of many people, the reason why Matthew Bolton can become a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences is largely due to the light of Watt, although he himself is a good engineer, but to say that his real level, I am afraid there is still a gap between him and the level of being able to join the Royal Academy of Sciences.

But if you want to talk about the level of trading, Bolton can really say in the Academy of Sciences, "I'm not targeting any of you." After all, in this circle, "no one knows how to buy and sell better than I do".

Bolton's face immediately changed when he learned the news, and after confirming the news again, he made an excuse and left the field early with Watt.

On the carriage back, Bolton told Watt the news. Watt suddenly shouted, "How can this work?" We're just ...... And our ......"

"James, be quiet." "Don't get excited, I see what Mr. Dowding means, the government hasn't made a final decision yet," Bolton said. You think, such a big thing, not only involves us, but also many other people, such as those who do textiles. Once we do re-enter the war with France, think about it, what kind of losses will these people suffer? I am afraid that a large number of factories will close down immediately. At that time, I am afraid that the London Bridge will be crowded with people who want to jump the Thames, and maybe, because there are too many people, it will directly crush the London Bridge. Well, that's a nursery rhyme my mom sang to me when I was a kid, 'London Bridge is going to fall, it's going to fall, it's going to fall......'"

Speaking of which, Bolton actually sang.

Although he was not satisfied with Bolton's humorous Watt at this time, Bolton's nonchalant attitude still made Watt breathe a sigh of relief.

"Matthew, don't be like a child." "The question now is what to do with it. ”

"Of course, the first thing is to get the word out and let everyone know." Bolton replied.

……

Almost at the same time, in other places, some businessmen close to the Admiralty received similar news. Some people get even more detailed information, down to the point where they even have technical details.

Two days later, in the inaugural issue of a newly established tabloid, there was a news article entitled "The Royal Navy Has Successfully Developed a Secret Weapon, and the French Exclaim Invincible." What's even worse is that it is directly written in this news that this weapon that makes the French "exclaim invincible" is a mine.

The London police immediately seized the newspaper and arrested all the members of the tabloid — editor-in-chief, reporters, printers, newsboys — Mr. Anderson Sobhi. and interrogated him. During the interrogation, Mr. Sobi claimed that his source was a revelation from God, who appeared in his dream and gave him it.

Of course, this made the police angry because they felt that their intelligence was insulted, so a couple of cops repaired the guy so well that he didn't even recognize his mother. But Mr. Sobi did not give in, and whenever he could, even when the policemen were tired of repairing him, he did not stop preaching to the policemen during a short intermission

"God says the days are near, and you must repent! God is sovereign, I am the messenger of God, and you will go to hell like this! Yes, merciful God, have mercy on them and forgive their sins, for they do not know what they are doing......"

made several policemen depressed, this guy seems to really have a bit of a problem with his brain. But a psychopath, also run a newspaper? Moreover, the people sent by the Admiralty were very anxious to find out who was hiding behind this person.

However, it didn't take long for someone from the London Asylum to come to the door. According to them, this guy called Sobi is their patient.

"Ah, Sheriff John, this man is indeed our patient, and he has always had a problem with paranoia. Half a year ago, when our hospital was relocated, a group of patients disappeared because of the chaos. At that time, we also published a missing person notice in the newspaper and reported the case to your bureau. The asylum staff member named Woolf said.

"And how did you find here?" Sheriff John asked.

"You know, we haven't given up looking for them, especially Anderson Sobie. His uncle was a rich man and came to see him every year...... Soon, he's going to visit Sobie. Well, he's one of the big donors to our hospital. So we've been looking for him all the time, including through private investigators.

A few days ago, Detective Sherlock Moriarty told us that he got word that there was a man who looked a lot like the Anderson Sobby we portrayed was moving here, and we came to him......"

"Are you sure this person is Anderson Soby? Is there any proof of this? ”

"Absolutely." Woolf replied, "Sheriff, we have brought a set of information about Anderson Sobi from when he entered our hospital five years ago. Including his handprint records from five years ago. ”

"Can you show us?" Sheriff John said.

It was verified that the palm prints on the five-year-old record brought by Woolf were indeed from the same person as the palm prints of Anderson Sobby who had been imprisoned. Sergeant John informed the Admiralty about this. But the Admiralty decided that it was a conspiracy and that there must be spies and saboteurs behind this man.

"In other words, what this madman said is well-founded?" Sheriff John asked.

"Sheriff, I have to remind you that you crossed the border and asked questions that shouldn't have been asked." The Admiralty officer named Charles said.

"Ah," Sergeant John was taken aback, but he quickly recovered, "well, then, there is only one possibility. ”

"What is possible?"

"A man knows a secret, and for some purpose, he wants to get out of it, but he knows it's dangerous, so he finds this madman, and influences him by some means, hints at him, and makes him feel that he has been inspired by God, and then he makes it come out. Well, Mr. Charles, I think that's probably the case. ”

"So can you catch the guy who hinted at him?"

"I'm afraid it's going to be hard." Sheriff John decided to tell the truth, "First of all, this guy must be a madman, and anything he says is probably fantasy and gibberish. It is very difficult for us to get any valid information from his mouth, and even if we do, we cannot use his confession as evidence against that person in court. ”

"We don't need evidence, we just need names." Charles replied.

"Even then, it's still very difficult." Sheriff John replied, "Honestly, how to get valuable information from a madman is beyond our business. We have no experience dealing with madmen. And, legally, there is no reason for us to stop the London Asylum from taking him back. In fact, even if I had tried everything, I would have kept him with me for an extra day or two at most. But this is actually not useful for investigations. If you must continue your investigation, I suggest you go straight to the London Lunatic Asylum. They might be a little more experienced. ”

Originally, the rest of this matter should be the lace news of various tabloids that will end. And because the madman's newspaper is published in very limited quantities, it seems that this matter should not have caused much trouble.

But then the Frenchman's "Sun Daily" reported the joke in a prominent position on the joke page, but in the report, there was a very interesting sentence: "But the interesting thing is that this madman was not first found by the people in the madhouse, but was first arrested by the police on suspicion of 'leaking state secrets'." Of course, as for what exactly is 'confidential' allegedly leaked in his report, because the newspaper has too little to publish, we have not yet found out. If any readers have really seen it, please write to us and let us have a long insight. ”

The Sun was just the beginning, and then the newspapers of the Free Press Alliance of England followed suit and put the news in their regular news columns. Of course, their goal is the people's freedom of speech.

"A neurotic, who wrote something fantastical, would have just laughed it off. But our police department arrested him with great fanfare and even used violence to force him to confess...... Today they can take a psychotic and torture him to the police station for writing a crazy story, and destroy his crazy words; Tomorrow, in order to cover up a scandal like the Lancet, they can tie the journalists who exposed the scandal to a stake and burn them to death with the newspaper they exposed the truth as fuel. The Sun is a French newspaper and they can go back to France in the future, so they only see jokes, but we can hardly sleep at night because of worry and fear. ”

At the same time, the merchants of the Textile Confederation became active, and they constantly visited the councillors, inquired of them, and asked them to protect their interests honestly if they had taken their money.

。