Liverpool, Old Docks, on the street in front of the Golden Lion Inn.

Arthur had been scouting along the roads of a nearby neighborhood since he left the tavern.

As a seasoned Scotland Yard detective, he quickly identified several locations where he could keep a permanent watch on hotel rooms, which could well serve as a refuge for the Red Devil's killer.

Although Arthur never believed the jokes that popped out of Agareth's mouth, this time the information was bought with his soul.

Signed on the contract in black and white, and stamped with the six-pointed star official seal engraved by the red devil, it is impossible for Arthur not to believe it.

No matter what Arthur thought, he didn't think Agareth would be willing to cheat for such a small business.

After all, the power of the law is not managed with one eye and one eye like the London Stock Exchange, and if Agareth dares to think carefully about the soul contract, he will 100% eat the iron fist of the law and be revoked from his indefinite devil's business license.

And as far as Arthur knows, the devil's industry does not allow unlicensed work, and even the rules that Baal, the demon leader, has to abide by, no matter how you think about it, it is not the turn of Agares, a person to go to the second-in-command of Cha Liang.

As soon as he thought of this, Arthur couldn't help but smoke a cigarette and muttered in his mouth for a while: "In my opinion, it seems that it is better to build Britain into hell than it is now." At least they are quite disciplined, and the quality of front-line salesmen is generally strong. After all, apart from hell, I have never seen a second-in-command anywhere who has to go to the front line to pull customers in person. ”

But while Arthur didn't think the Red Devil was alarmist about killers, it didn't stop him from thinking about who would be idle and running from London to Liverpool to assassinate a cabinet commissioner.

As a police officer at Scotland Yard, and a half-man who was temporarily promoted to this position to save the field, Arthur didn't even have time to make some disgusting remarks before he attracted such hatred. No matter how you think about it, this is unreasonable everywhere.

According to Arthur's experience in investigating criminal cases, all cases involving personal injury are nothing more than a few reasons.

Either because of personal vendettas, or because of financial interests, combined with a small number of spiritual issues such as faith, these three aspects are enough to explain the causes of all the murders that Arthur handled.

In terms of personal grievances, Arthur, as Superintendent of Scotland Yard, is certainly impossible not to offend people. At the very least, the prisoners who were sent to prison by his own hands must have wanted his life one by one. But the one who has the courage and the financial resources to hire a killer to deal with Arthur is very hard to find.

And in terms of economic benefits, Arthur simply calculated.

The shares of Thames Tunnel and Brunel Road and Bridge Construction, which Lionel Rothschild recommended he had previously recommended for him, have climbed out of the trough over the past year.

After the Ministry of Finance issued 200,000 pounds of municipal investment bonds, the Thames tunnel project soon received financial support from the government. The tunnel project, which had been stalled, was restarted at the beginning of the year, and the world's first underground railway built using shield technology is now nearing completion.

As a result of this positive news, the share price of the tunnel company has now doubled.

Another company owned by Arthur, Brunel Road and Bridge Construction Company, as Lionel said, won the bid for the design of the bridge across the Avon Canyon, and the stock price also rose.

Today, the net value of these two stocks has climbed to 1,700 pounds.

In other words, Arthur, who was blind-eyed, had already gained a 70% floating profit in the first year after he accidentally broke into the stock exchange market.

He quietly defeated 99% of the stockbrokers on the London Stock Exchange, and also showed London investors what the black hand is.

And before Arthur rushed to Liverpool to take over, the two companies had just announced their dividend plans for this year.

While the two companies that had just emerged from their troubles were not as generous as the insurance companies and banks, Arthur was still rewarded with more than this year's legal salary of £130.

Add to that the gifts Arthur received, the investment in "The British", the pocket money he earned from working part-time at concerts, and the money that he got from somewhere at the Hyde Park mansion and the high-level police meetings in Scotland Yard, even if it is conservatively estimated, he currently controls more than three thousand pounds of assets.

If Arthur's heart could be a little darker and get a touch of the police intelligence agency's operating funds, then he could push this data up a little more.

If anyone doesn't like Arthur in terms of assets, then the only person he can think of is Mr. Benjamin Disraeli, the majority shareholder of "British", after all, Arthur lent a huge sum of five hundred pounds in one go in order to help him in the election.

But then again, it's just a joke after all. Arthur didn't think his Jewish friend would kill him for the sake of paying his debts, after all, there were so many people with a debt relationship with Disraeli that five hundred pounds was not the largest loan in the loan.

Although Mr. Disraeli has made a lot of money this year, he still has a foreign debt of up to £4,000 still unpaid because of the debts he owes in his early years to run a newspaper, even if he does not count the money of Arthur and Alexandre Dumas.

Mr. Disraeli is usually more worried about whether he will be killed by the creditors than by the killers.

Arthur even suspected that the kid wanted to run for parliament because he liked the civil immunity of the councilors.

In this way, while the council is in session, he can avoid being thrown into the debtor's prison and rightfully hide in the Palace of Westminster.

But even without civil immunity, British creditors are relatively lenient with parliamentarians.

As far as Arthur knew, the bankruptcy courts in London prosecuted merchants, civil servants, factory owners, and generals.

Several of the Royal Navy's biggest names had to move overseas to avoid debts, including Admiral Sidney Smith, whom Arthur had met before.

The University of London legend Elder Carter's entry into the Royal Navy is also suspected of having this in mind, at least Arthur can be sure that this kid didn't even pay the rent when he went to play fantasy rafting.

However, although the diversity of species in Britain can be witnessed in the ecosystem of the bankruptcy court, there is not a single case of prosecution of parliamentarians in the vast number of cases.

If Disraeli, the biggest stakeholder, had no motive, Arthur would have been left to classify the would-be attackers as religious.

Although Britain achieved religious tolerance early on, this does not mean that non-Anglicans can really be on an equal footing with Anglicans.

Catholics were only allowed to become members of parliament last year, and there is still overt discrimination against other faiths, such as Judaism, at the political level.

At the executive level, discrimination against non-Anglicans is even stronger. Even Scotland Yard, which has a Catholic superintendent, often includes religion as a criterion for judging offenders.

If there were two suspects, one Anglican and the other Catholic, then the Catholics would certainly be subjected to stricter interrogation.

Both in government and among the people, there is still a lot of distrust of Catholics in British society. Although they believed in the same God, the Britons believed that Catholics were spies sent by the Pope.

If one is not careful, they will cede the entire country to Gregory XVI of the Vatican.

And if this Catholic doesn't happen to be an Irishman again, that's even more so desperate.

In the eyes of the average British, the combination of these two identities is synonymous with evil walking on the earth. Lazy, unclean, and of low quality, while not being loyal to the king.

For this reason, before the establishment of Scotland Yard, once the Magistrate of London found that the Irish was suspected of committing a crime, it was equivalent to an immediate execution of the evidence.

Arthur was fortunate to be an Irish Catholic in that he was an Englishman, a small farmer who had come out of a pigsty in the countryside of York, and, most notably, a delirious little farmer uncle whom the devil had found.

So, while Arthur's Catholic faith may seem a little unreliable, the agricultural component of his body has made him very rooted.

And because Mr. Hastings is as unconcerned as ever about religious matters, he may not go to the Catholic church a few times a year, and this guy is a graduate of the University of London, a stronghold of atheism.

Therefore, Sir Peel was relieved to promote Arthur to the position of senior police officer after examining his files.

It may be strange to say, but in the British government, a person of little faith has an advantage over a religious person of Catholicism.

Arthur was able to get to where he is today, in his own words, half because of hard work, more than half because of luck, and the final word was perseverance.

No way, it's too hard for a devout believer to pretend.

When he first entered Scotland Yard, he only took a few shillings a week, what kind of play did he accompany them?

With Arthur's attitude, if someone really came to assassinate him because of religious issues, then Arthur felt that sending the killer might not necessarily be an Anglican, and the Catholic Church seemed more motivated to purge him of the Anglican spy who seemed to be a 'false conversion, and regretted it in the future'.

Arthur couldn't figure it out after pondering for a long time, when suddenly the sixth sense he had honed in the East Side reminded him that someone seemed to be approaching behind him.

Arthur quietly pressed his hand on the holster, and as soon as he turned to the side, he heard a polite greeting behind him.

"Good day, Mr. Hastings."

"Huh?"

Arthur turned his head, but the first thing he saw was not Gladstone, but Agareth, who was crouched on top of the woodcutter's head.

Arthur was slightly stunned, he didn't pay attention to the Red Devil who was crouching on the commanding heights of Britain in the future, but immediately remembered Gladstone's identity.

"Mr. Gladstone, I didn't expect to meet you here."

"That's why I just heard about your arrival at Liverpool. What is your impression of Liverpool? Need I tell you a little bit about what to see? ”

Arthur smiled and pointed to a block in front of him: "You don't have to worry about this." The citizens of Liverpool were very welcoming, and I was stopped by a couple of ladies shortly after I arrived in Liverpool yesterday. They took me by the arm, gave me a detailed introduction to Liverpool, and warmly invited me to visit my home. The fly in the ointment is that their accomplices, the children hiding behind me, have very clean hands. ”

When Gladstone heard this, he couldn't help but be embarrassed: "They are used to this kind of life, and I have tried to persuade them before, for example, to invite the ladies and children to listen to me talk about the Bible on the premise of inviting them to afternoon tea." ”

"Oh......" Arthur joked, "and now it seems that they didn't listen." But, Mr. Gladstone, your efforts are not in vain, for at least afternoon tea and onion rings are in their stomachs. If you can put forward a proposal for a free afternoon tea in the House of Commons after you are elected, at least I personally support you. ”

It was just a simple joke, and a smile appeared on Gladstone's face again: "Mr. Hastings, although the distribution of afternoon tea is simple and straightforward, it will not solve the problem of poverty, crime and moral decay in Britain. ”

Arthur took off his hat and fanned: "No way, I'm a simple-minded Scotland Yard policeman, I can't understand what you said is more complicated." I can see what you mean by saying that giving out free afternoon tea will make the ladies let go of my arms. But if you talk to me about protective duties, navigation regulations, or the Corn Laws, or whatever, I'm a little confused. ”

Gladstone was also skeptical when he heard Arthur's words, he didn't think that Arthur was really as simple as he said, after all, a really simple person could not sit in the position of Superintendent of Scotland Field.

But on his resume, Arthur seems too single.

Whether it is investigating cases, swordsmanship, playing the piano, or engaging in electrical research, Arthur's ability is mostly professional.

On the surface, his rapid promotion was mostly due to the praise of his superiors for his excellent professional quality. Of course, Gladstone can't rule out the possibility of a deal behind the scenes.

But Arthur has only been a year since he became the superintendent of Scotland Yard from a farmer's boy, and how much money can he get to run the relationship in such a short period of time? Not everyone has a father who can give 80,000 pounds to his son to marry a daughter-in-law at any time.

Gladstone laughed and replied, "You're being too humble. If you can understand the relationship between magnetism and electricity, you can understand the grain method. If you don't understand it for a while, it just means that you haven't put your mind to it. ”

"That's right." Hearing this, Arthur deliberately patted the document bag in his hand: "My mind is on this right now. ”

"Is this a customs declaration?"

"Huh?" Arthur smiled and asked, "How did you know that the customs declaration was with me?" ”

Gladstone replied with a smile: "I heard from a friend that he started working in foreign trade at the age of twelve, and entered the customs department at the age of sixteen. ”

The Red Devil, who was crouching on top of Gladstone's head, asked knowingly, "Arthur, what are you doing at twelve?" Oh! I almost forgot that when you were 12 years old, you first stepped into leadership and finally started to be qualified to manage the pigsty. ”

"It hasn't changed now." Arthur glanced at him, then replied with a smile, "If that happens, maybe I've already met him." If you're free another day, you can introduce me to me. But what about this document...... Unfortunately, Mr. Gladstone, you guessed it wrong, this is not a customs declaration. Today, in order to investigate the smuggling information, I went to the street to have a brief chat with the local residents, but all the questions I asked were useless things, and it was really in vain that I had made a transcript for so long. ”

"Intelligence? Record? Gladstone asked, "What did the citizens say to you?" ”

Arthur pondered for a moment, and pulled out the words he had prepared from his stomach.

"It's nothing more than complaining that the City Council is too strict with Liverpool. The shopkeepers said that since the declaration of the state of emergency, the sailors in the port have been locked in their ships and cannot go to the city to consume money.

The docker said: "Because of the port control, there are fewer and fewer jobs to be found every day. Squatting on the dock for a day may not be able to make a few orders, and some of them can only eat one meal a day in order to save money.

Factory workers are complaining about dockers competing for their jobs, and Liverpool's recent wage rates have been falling recently, but the prices of necessities are rising. If this continues, I am afraid that the next time London sends someone to Liverpool, it will not be the Chancellor's Hall and the Home Office, but the War and Colonial Affairs Department. ”

Gladstone's eyes widened, "War and Colonial Affairs? ”

Arthur nodded: "That's right, military control. Although the Cabinet has been cautious about using this tactic since the Peterloo tragedy, given that there have been thousands of riots in Liverpool before, I cannot rule out the possibility of martial law. ”

With that, Arthur pulled out a few more pieces of paper from his file bag and handed them to Gladstone, "I've also inquired about something I don't need, but you might be interested." Truth be told, Mr. Gladstone, although you were not elected to the Legislature, your campaign slogan of 'clean up corruption' won my heart. To show my support for you, I'd like to give you some clues about your presentation. Of course, I can't guarantee that this is true, because I have neither the energy nor the ability to investigate this stuff. ”

Gladstone took the papers, glanced at them, and immediately understood what was in them.

Although he didn't know very specifically, he had always heard about it in the circle. Moreover, he also heard Arthur's overtones, and he wanted to solve the problem properly, rather than running to Liverpool to smash the field.

Gladstone silently folded the file and put it away, then smiled and invited, "Thank you for your support." As a token of appreciation, I'd like to invite you to a social dance tonight. The guests are some of the most talented young people in Liverpool, I'm sure you'll have something in common, I wonder if you'd be interested in participating? ”

(End of chapter)