Founded in the 13th century, Liverpool spans the Plantagenets, Lancastrians, Yorks, Tudors, Stuarts and present-day Hanoverians.

The relative peace of mind also contributes to the diversity of local architectural styles, from the Gothic with its angular spires, to the Tudor style, known for its striped façade and half-timbered construction, or to the Georgian architecture that has been in vogue for a century, combining the curvilinear forms of the Baroque with the elements of Rococo ornamentation.

Castle Street, where Liverpool's City Hall is located, is where Tudor style gathers.

It's just that today's Arthur obviously doesn't have time to admire these centuries-old buildings, even in the countless balls of bright lights, beautiful men and women, and dignitaries, the Scotland Yard superintendent from London has become a small focus.

There is a steady stream of guests who come to toast and chat, perhaps because the climate in Liverpool is much better than London's, so Liverpudlians are also more enthusiastic than Londoners.

Whether it's the smoking room, the recreation room, or the corner of the ballroom and restaurant, Arthur always has a few fresh faces to talk to wherever he goes.

These people range from government officials who work in various departments in Liverpool, to young men who work in various businesses in the local area, and of course, some are motivated young people like Gladstone who are interested in entering politics.

However, according to Arthur's observations, there is a certain difference between Liverpool's political leanings and London's.

In London, the Tories and Whigs were largely divided.

At Liverpool, the number of people who hold a Toley position is significantly higher than the one who holds a Whig position.

But when you think about it, it's not that hard to explain.

As a city that made its fortune from the slave trade, most Liverpudlians were inextricably linked to the slave business. How, then, could they have liked the Whigs, who had introduced the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act?

Not to mention, Mr. William Wilberforce, an advocate of abolitionism, was not satisfied with simply abolishing the slave trade. Now, he wanted to take advantage of the Whigs' return to power to abolish slavery in Britain and the overseas colonies, and free the slaves who had been sold before the abolition of the slave trade.

And according to the first motion put forward by Wilberforce and his supporters, these abolitionists did not want to give even a penny to the slave owners. They claimed that if slave owners wanted compensation, then they should go to the slave traders who sold them slaves.

Naturally, such behaviour has provoked a huge backlash in Liverpool, and it is understandable that Liverpool City Council has been everywhere from age to age.

In the ballroom, Arthur waltzed with a young lady, and in the dim light, their ears were filled with the whispering of other dancers.

The lady seemed to be inquisitive, and although she had danced with the Liverpool sheriff before, it was the first time she had come into contact with the head of a new vigilante called Scotland Yard.

Whether it was Arthur's epaulettes, the king's court sword, or what happened to the officers of Scotland Yard in their daily lives, she was interested.

On Arthur's side, he had guessed early on that most of the ladies would ask this.

Thanks to the year he had known the ladies of the Blue Sox Club, he now had a preliminary understanding of the topics that the ladies might be concerned about.

The secret history of the palace is certainly the one that piques their interest the most, but unfortunately, Arthur doesn't know much, so the few reserves of knowledge can only be used as a killer feature.

However, Arthur who can't talk about the king's housework, and who talks about the folk is still handy.

Frankenstein, the origin of species, marriage lawsuits, and the case of prostitution, if you really can't do it, let's talk about Mrs. Berkeley's little leather whip and Earl So-and-so who left Madame's room refreshed at night.

However, when talking about these issues, you still have to be careful not to raise the emotions of the ladies too high at once.

Since coming to London, Arthur has learned that the ladies are really going to faint on the spot when they are too excited. He had long thought it was a fabrication of 'unscrupulous people' like Dickens, Alexandre Dumas and Disraeli.

But in reality, due to the corsets commonly worn by ladies in this era, they flatten the lungs, change the position of the ribs, and squeeze some organs on the spine, even to the lower abdomen.

As a result, ladies often have breathing and blood supply difficulties, which also affects their appetite and further forms a vicious circle.

Of course, in Arthur's opinion, who was knowledgeable about chemistry, those toxic cosmetics should also be responsible for the fainting phenomenon of the ladies.

However, it is not always the case that the fainting of the ladies is caused by physiological causes, and it is also a social tool for them.

Since women are considered to be synonymous with vulnerability and sensuality, fainting in public is also in line with society's perception of them, so it is not considered rude, but rather an act of grace.

Ladies are free to use this trick when they are tired or don't want to continue the conversation with the guests, and from Arthur's observation at the banquet, it usually works very well.

It's just that the lady Arthur met today is obviously overenergy, and she doesn't want to faint for a while.

"You waltz very well, did you ask someone to learn it? Or which lady brought you through the door? ”

"Really? Thank you for the compliment. If a few of my friends heard this, they would be very happy, and I basically learned to dance with them. ”

"To be able to teach such wonderful students as you, they must be regulars at social banquets."

"I can't hide anything from you. That's right, a few of my friends soak there almost every day. And it's not just London, they are also a bit famous in Parisian social circles. ”

"Paris? Oh, my God! I'll just say how you can see some French style in your dance steps. Since you have French friends, you definitely speak French, right? ”

"Un peu, a little bit, if it's just a simple exchange, it should be fine."

When the lady heard this, she immediately switched words, and a series of French words smashed into Arthur's face, and it took him a long time to figure out what it meant.

Arthur smiled and replied, "As the French often say, there is no fire in the lake, you can slow down a little." ”

As soon as Arthur finished speaking, he caught a glimpse of a stout figure flashing past him.

The fat French man put his arms around his dancing partner's waist and flashed briskly, leaving only a French sentence in Arthur's ear: "Arthur! Je te dis merde！ ”

Arthur's brows furrowed suddenly when he heard this, and he turned his head to look at Alexandre Dumas: "Did you scold me just now?" I can hear Merde. ”

Alexandre Dumas smiled nonchalantly and replied, "Arthur, this is a special usage, although most of the sentences with merde are used to scold people, but this is a blessing." You know, I'm a playwright, and I often bless actors with these words in our business. If you think that if there is more horse manure in front of the theater, it means that business is much better than before. ”

When Dumas's dance partner heard this, he couldn't help laughing: "Monsieur Dumas, you are really funny. ”

But Arthur asked with a straight face: "Then the question is, if I am an actor, who is horse manure?" ”

When the dancing partner in Arthur's arms heard this, her face couldn't help but change, and she took out her handkerchief and rebuked with a red face: "It's rude, it's so rude!" ”

Dumas's dance partner also sensed that something was wrong, and she let go of her hand and said goodbye to Alexandre Dumas: "I'm sorry, Alexander, I have to go with me to see Jeanne." ”

Arthur was free, and the little smoking gun finally had a chance to get his pipe out of his pocket, and he poked Alexandre Dumas with his elbow and said, "Go?" Going to the smoking room? ”

Alexandre Dumas rolled his eyes and said, "Arthur, what are you doing with that stubble?" Now, I've got to get a pot of on my head that says the lady is horse manure. ”

Arthur hugged Alexandre Dumas as he walked towards the smoking room, and said, "Alexander, I really didn't expect that your words to be really a blessing." ”

"Or else?! Now your horse manure is gone, and so is mine. Arthur, you are hurting others and yourself! ”

Dumas huffed and walked into the smoking room with Arthur, perhaps because the ball had already begun, and there were obviously not as many guests as there had been before.

In the huge smoking room, only Heine and Louis were smoking and chattering.

"I looked up a few copies of the Brit magazine and simply flipped through them. Truth be told, the freedom of the press in Britain is broader than I thought. If you had a copy of the "Outline of Napoleon's Thought" in Austria, it would have been banned by Metternich, and the Austrians would not have been able to say even a good word about Napoleon. ”

"No way, that's how losers think. They had never defeated France, so Metternich had a long history of resentment and fear. This is evident from the fact that he kept my brother under house arrest like a canary. Metternich did not treat him as a prince of Austria at all, he only saw that he was the son of Napoleon. ”

"Then again, why did you end up working as a police officer at Scotland Yard? Although the surname Bonaparte is not as influential as it used to be in Europe, it is not reduced to the level of beating people on the street with a stick in his waist, right? ”

"Heinrich, what shall I tell you? The Bonaparte surname was not only an honor, but also a heavy burden. Maybe it's because of the blow of the failed uprising of the charcoal party in Italy, and I don't want to think too much about it for now. It's good for me to do something simple with peace of mind, people always have to find something to do for themselves, don't they?

And you think of the profession of a police officer so lowly that I wonder if you are a Prussian. When I was a military school in Switzerland, I heard that in Prussia if you don't use honorifics for the police, you think you will be arrested and put in prison, right? ”

"Huh! True, in my opinion, this is the reason for the lowliness of this profession. ”

Arthur pushed open the door and lit his pipe, puffing: "If you follow your evaluation system, then the British police should be slightly more noble than their Prussian counterparts." ”

Dumas was still discouraged, and he said, "That's right, it's like the difference between Je te dis merde and merde. ”

Louis saw Arthur come in and asked, "Then again, what are you going to do with Liverpool?" Although the Wharf Board and the Port Authority have apparently begun to quarantine merchant ships as required, who knows whether they have secretly transported the goods as smuggled goods to the nearby cliffs for concealment and distribution. And today Liverpool's city council seems to have decided to send a representative to London to protest the cabinet's segregation policy. ”

Arthur waved his hand and said, "I believe that the Royal Navy's anti-smuggling fleet will definitely increase their efforts, so we don't need to worry about this." And this time we came to Liverpool, smuggling is not a key issue, what the cabinet wants is actually to suppress the cases in Liverpool, and the reason why they have to treat smuggling strictly is because they feel that the cases are imported through smuggling. However, it is debatable whether cholera was transmitted through miasma on ships. ”

Louis replied, "But before we understand the cause, wouldn't it be safest to follow the rules set by the cabinet?" As long as the orders of the cabinet are strictly implemented, even if something happens in the end, the responsibility will not be placed on us. ”

"That's right, if you're just running for yourself not to have an accident, of course it's the safest way to do so. But that's not the question that comes to mind, Louie, and I'm not idle when you go to investigate during the day. Do you know what I went to look up? ”

With that, Arthur pulled out a map crawling with small red dots from his jacket pocket.

Louis and the others came over and took a look: "What is this?" ”

Arthur took off his pipe and said, "You came to the Police Intelligence Bureau late, so you don't know what we used to do. The predecessor of the Police Intelligence Service was the Provisional Bureau of Surveys and Surveys and Statistics for the London Region, and Sir Peele, the Home Secretary at that time, gave us the task of measuring and counting the narrow streets in the East End, and arguing the correlation between the narrow streets and crimes such as assaults on the police, so that the Home Office could introduce a bill to Parliament to expand the renovation of the streets of the East End.

However, due to the fall of the Tories Party and the reorganization of the LPS into the Police Intelligence Bureau, this issue was temporarily shelved. However, issues are put aside, and I have learned the ability to find relevance through maps. Due to the early outbreak in Liverpool, there is also a considerable amount of data available for cholera mapping. If you look at this map, what can you see? ”

Heine pondered for a moment and said, "Cholera mostly occurs in poor settlements? ”

Alexandre Dumas also analyzed: "The red dots are very dense, so if the disease does not break out, it will be a group." Does this mean that the miasma theory is actually correct? Slum places are often poorly located, so once an area is contaminated with miasma, there will be a large-scale outbreak of cases. ”

Louie's gaze swept over the map, he frowned and thought for a long time, then suddenly pointed to the blank area in a bunch of red dots on the map and asked, "Why is this place okay?" It's also a slum, and there's no reason why the surrounding area is all polluted by miasma, but it's the only place that's clean! ”

Arthur smiled and said, "I was thinking about this before, so I made a special trip there this afternoon." It turned out that the place was a Porter beer processing factory, and most of the people living in the neighborhood were employees. ”

"You mean to say? Can beer stop cholera? ”

"What's the reasoning?"

"It's unheard of, what the hell is going on?"

Arthur nodded, "I went to talk to the local residents about their illness, and they told me that not all Liverpool distilleries have this kind of good luck, they are just exceptions. When I asked what was different from other wineries, they told me that the owners of this brewery were generous, and as long as they didn't steal the products from the factory and sell them, all the employees who worked here could drink and go home with a glass. As a result, the families of these distillery employees never drank water, but only drank wine to satisfy their hunger, like the medieval aristocracy, and even used beer to cook. ”

When Dumas heard this, he couldn't help but wonder: "If beer can prevent cholera, why was the first case in Sunderland an old sailor?" Sailors take wine for their lives! ”

Louis pinched his chin and guessed, "Could it be the type of wine?" Only Port beer works? ”

Heine began: "So, are you going to inform the Liverpool Board of Health and ask them to give out free beer to the citizens for a few months?" I don't know if this will work or not, but the owners of Liverpool's distilleries will be immensely supportive of your decision. ”

Arthur smiled and shook his head, "Heinrich, you do have a word. If you want to succeed in Liverpool, the focus is not on whether you are right or not, but whether you can make money. If I say that drinking alcohol can cure diseases, all the alcohol industry operators will support me. But their support alone is not enough.

Moreover, in my opinion, it is not necessarily a cure for drinking alcohol, but more likely to be a problem with the water source. If you look at this picture, the red circles of the outbreak are almost all centered around the wells, which would be strange if it was all a coincidence. ”

Heine's eyes widened when he heard this: "This ...... Seems to be the case? ”

Alexandre Dumas frowned and said, "Are you going to seal the well?" But this doesn't seem to be any different from quarantined merchant ships, and they don't seem to be very popular. ”

"No, it's not just the wells, it's the sewage system that's in disrepair." Arthur began, "Everything in this place needs to be renovated. Of course, the premise of the refurbishment is that Liverpool can prove to parliament that cholera is really caused by unclean water. ”

When Louis heard this, he almost instantly thought of the document he handed over to Arthur today: "Arthur, you want to?" ”

Arthur smiled and nodded, "I have already forwarded that document through personal relations, and they will definitely send someone to explain to me the problems related to the expansion of the port." However, I didn't really plan to give them trouble, on the contrary, I wanted to support them in another big project. But the premise of the project is that they have to listen to me. ”

Agares, who was lying on the edge of the window, was amazed when he heard this: "You are worthy of the gold medal swineherd in the York country, Arthur, you do know how to feed the piglets!" Now, you don't need to ask for it, swing the trough, and they will all come to you with a smell. ”

(End of chapter)