In London, England, at the corner of a street, in a workshop with two fronts, several machines and many confetti are piled up in a mess, and a rickety sign hangs outside the workshop: Reuters. Next door, there is another somewhat dilapidated sign: the European Office of the Submarine Telegraph Line.

And at the moment, the owner of the two signs, Paul Julius Reuters, is deciphering the telegram that has just been received with excitement on his face. This is enough news to shock the whole of Europe! Reuters is sure of this!

His face was flushed, and he couldn't control himself with excitement.

Who would have thought that on the other side of the Atlantic, the emerging country, the president of the United States of America, that hapless man named Lincoln, would be assassinated! Moreover, before that, the northern army led by him was defeated, and even the capital of that country, Washington, was lost.

That's big news! As long as he prints the whole news at once, and distributes it in that fragrant mimeographed newspaper, it is conceivable that it will sell well all of London, nay, the whole Kingdom of Great Britain, and even the whole of Europe! Not only can I make a lot of money, but it is very likely that this small private news agency, which I have been running for ten years, can take this opportunity to become a well-known news agency, and even a large-scale newspaper!

Thinking of this, Reuters was even more like drunk brandy, and the whole body was very refreshed. He couldn't help but admire his wisdom and vision!

A native of Kassel, Prussia, he founded the news agency in his hometown 10 years ago and began to earn a living by passing stock price information between the Prussian cities of Achen and Brussels, Belgium. Later, the telegraph cables were laid one after another, and he began to relocate the company to London, England, and became a British citizen, using his savings in the past few years to deliberately open up the relationship with the London Telegraph Office, and provide data on the British stock market to traders in Paris, France through the submarine cable in the English Channel, and get some compensation. To this end, he poured almost all his savings on the telegraph office staff of the major port cities of the Kingdom of Great Britain where telegraph cables were laid, and maintained good relations with them. From time to time, therefore, a clerk of the telegraph office would provide him with some strange or unusual news, and he would always pay a certain amount of money, so as to make himself a reluctantly retainer of the Reuters news agency, and to expand its premises.

Unlike the previous news that the price of cotton in Liverpool has risen and the price of whale oil in Plymouth has dropped by half by half, this time, this news is extraordinary! Although he had not yet finished deciphering the entire telegram, he realized that this was a great opportunity to make a fortune and become famous!

So when a friend at the Plymouth dock telegraphed the shocking news he had heard from a passing clipper sailor, Reuters immediately got busy. He took all his savings out and sent his wife and helping son to the newspaper office to prepare for the publication of this great news that shook the real Europe, while he himself hurried to decipher the telegram while he thought wildly.

He knew that the most important thing at the moment was to hurry up and print the newspaper before the clipper arrived in London, and sell the news along with the newspaper! Moreover, not only England, but also France, but also Prussia, Belgium and the Netherlands, Austria and Russia, all the countries that paid attention to the civil war in the United States, he wanted to publish the newspapers as quickly as possible, and he wanted to make his Reuters famous in one fell swoop!

..........

The official residence of the British Prime Minister on Downing Street in Westminster.

Foreign Secretary Earl Derby, Secretary of State for the Navy Sidney Herbert, Secretary of State for War Panmel Ramsay, Home Secretary Howard, Secretary of State for Security Wallace, Postmaster Roland Hill, and Secretary of State for Trade Fox hurried to the office of Prime Minister John Russell.

"What's wrong? My Mr. Prime Minister! Earl Derby asked preemptively.

He is the oldest, and he is the former prime minister, the most senior, and he has never paid much attention to Russell, in his opinion, Palmerston was knocked down, and he should be the prime minister again, Russell is picking up the omission and robbing him of his position, so of course, he will not have a good face. Lately, however, his attitude towards Russell has changed slightly for the better, if not for anything other than the fact that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is now a mess, and he cannot help but rejoice that he has not been Prime Minister, but only Foreign Secretary. Thinking of the predicament of the kingdom now, he couldn't help but feel some sympathy for Russell, so his attitude towards him was slightly better.

Seeing Derby's question, the other three people Herbert, Ramsay and Fox also looked at British Prime Minister Russell with a serious face. They were all interrupted from their busy schedules and urged from their offices to run to the prime minister's office, saying that something big had happened.

"Something is wrong! There is big news in North America, Washington, the capital of the North, has been captured by Southern troops, and Lincoln, the president of the Confederacy of the North, has been assassinated in Baltimore! Russell's voice was a little hoarse and low, deliberately suppressed calm, but even so, everyone could still hear a trace of shock and disbelief. After speaking, Russell handed the two newspapers on the table to everyone: "This newspaper has already begun to report, and I believe that in a few hours, the news will be overwhelming." ”

The Earl of Derby picked up the newspaper and looked at it, the news was very simple, and the newspaper was very simple, and it could be seen that it was a newspaper specially ordered for this blockbuster news, and only this one news was published on the entire page, and two comments on the news were written casually below. One is from the position of Britain, believing that the American Civil War will intensify, although the Northern Union will not be completely defeated soon, but the defeat is certain, and the rest is how the European powers intervene in the North American Civil War and take the opportunity to divide the interests, and as the former owner of the Americas, Britain should take this opportunity to re-intervene in the affairs of the Americas and compete for interests. The other is from the standpoint of Europe, especially France, and also believes that the American Civil War will become clear and develop in favor of the South. France could strongly support the South, thus providing a barrier to a permanent French occupation of Mexico.

I have to say that this review is very pertinent, but it is too straightforward to make the derby uncomfortable. He flipped through the newspaper with some frowns and said to Roland Hill: "What is this Reuters newspaper, how can it be faster than our British government?" We, the members of the Cabinet, also need to learn about the events of the Americas from such small newspapers. How does the post office do it? ”

Roland Hill blushed, and he didn't know why the small newspaper called Reuters knew the news so quickly, and it stands to reason that the London post office in New York was the first European to know the news and send it back to London immediately. He was of civilian origin, an outlier among the many ministers of state, and he was not a member of the cabinet, and there was no place for him to speak, so he had to freeze there and say nothing.

Russell waved his hand to stop the Earl of Derby's questioning, and said, "Leave this alone for the time being, let's discuss, how should Great Britain deal with this news?" What to do with the North and South of the United States? ”

Although Russell asked several cabinet ministers for their opinions, he had inadvertently stated his position. "The North and the South of the United States", obviously, this sentence already speaks for itself, that is, he has seen the Confederate States of America in the South as an independent country.

Home Secretary Howard and Security Secretary Wallace each glanced at each other, they were now having a headache in their own mess, how could they still care about things far away in the Americas, shook their heads, and remained silent.

The Earl of Derby was the highest and the first to speak. He was a little unhappy with Russell's rebuke of the Postmaster and said, "How to deal with it? Of course, I will immediately summon the envoys of the two countries, and try my best to grasp the dominance of the United States, mediate the war between the warring sides of the North and the South, and strive for the greatest interests of our Great Britain! ”

Everyone's eyes lit up! is worthy of being the Earl of Derby, who has been the prime minister, old and spicy and capable, this sentence has reached the hearts of everyone.

Russell nodded, a little speechless: Who doesn't know that the Kingdom of Great Britain should come forward to mediate the war between the two sides and take the opportunity to fight for its own best interests? I asked how to intervene, how to obtain the right to mediate, and how to fight for the interests of the Kingdom of Great Britain in what ways. Rather than fighting for profit with empty words. The damn old thing seems to be incompetent. At that moment, he was unhappy, but he couldn't have a seizure, so he could only say to Fox, the lowest-ranking secretary of state in charge of trade: "Fox, what do you think about the US trade?" ”