In the living room of the Golden Lion Hotel, words and laughter rang out from time to time.

Arthur asked, "Mr. Owen, did you serve in the U.S. Army in 1812?" ”

Owen shook his glass: "Well, although I always thought that fighting a war was a stupid thing, but given that the Royal Navy had already appeared off the coast of New York at that time, I, a New Yorker, would pick up a gun to defend my hometown." However, my service was short-lived, and I retired as soon as the siege of New York was lifted. ”

General Napier, who was sitting on the sofa, laughed and replied, "In that case, the shortest distance between us in 1812 was probably only a few miles. ”

Owen frowned and asked, "You are an officer in the Royal Navy?" ”

Napier just smiled and shook his head: "Not anymore, at least not now." I, like you, quit the Royal Navy on my own after that war. As you know, since the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the Royal Navy has had no rivals worth mentioning. If there is no war, there is no money, and it is better to stay there and do some business. ”

Arthur quipped, "Really? Sir, this is not the same story I heard from General Codrington. General Codrington said that he had been forcibly discharged by the Admiralty because of battlefield disobedience. ”

When Napier heard this, he only raised an eyebrow and said, "You kid knows my experience quite well. But did Codrington tell you that it was Gambier's rusty head that gave me the order? Gambier commanded the fleet on the principle of only one, that is, not to make mistakes, as for whether it was possible to expand the results of the battle, and when to strike to grab the maximum benefits, he did not consider at all. If I had listened to him, I would have had a problem with my brain. ”

Owen was also very interested in the internal anecdotes of the Royal Navy, and he couldn't help but ask: "Let me take the liberty of asking, is the Gambil in your mouth the Royal Navy Marshal Gambil?" ”

Napier squeezed a disdainful breath out of his nose: "Who else but him?" The Marshal of the Royal Navy's Office, if His Majesty had not served under him in his early years, how could he possibly sit in the position of Marshal with his achievements? However, it is not without any benefit to having Gambier as the marshal, at least everyone does not have to worry that he will be sent to the position of commander of the Grand Fleet again. He was far less harmful to sit in the office than to let him out. ”

Arthur replied with a smile: "It seems that Marshal Gambier's reputation in the Royal Navy is indeed not good. This is not the first time I've heard senior officers in the Royal Navy complain about his leadership. ”

"Huh?" Napier asked, "Who else have you heard scolding him?" Probably not General Codrington, right? Since he asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clean up, he is now more and more cautious in what he says and does. ”

Arthur replied, "General Sidney Smith, and General Thomas Cochran." ”

"The two of them, they can really scold Gambier."

Napier couldn't help but laugh out loud when he heard these two names: "When General Smith was a cadet on the Sunwich, he mixed with General Rodney. And when he was officially conferred the title, he became a subordinate of General Hood. Even if General Smith pointed at Gambier's nose and scolded him based on seniority alone, Gambier didn't dare to fight him.

Not to mention that General Smith's record was also brilliant, he was dissatisfied with the internal management of the Royal Navy, and directly resigned to Sweden to become a naval adviser to Gustav III. He commanded the Swedish Navy to smash the head of the Russian Baltic Fleet, and the three naval battles directly wiped out the Russian maritime power in the Baltic Sea.

After the war, he returned home with the title given to him by Sweden, and the Admiralty still soured him, and privately nicknamed him 'Swedish Knight'. ”

Arthur smiled and replied, "General Smith sounds like a wonderful man. ”

Napier laughed and said, "That's not all. When the French Revolution broke out, General Smith's operations were even more breathtaking. He was doing business in the Levant, but when news of the war came, he jumped on a ship and returned home without looking back.

As a result, before he returned to London, he met his old boss, General Hood, in the waters near Toulon, France. At that time, Toulon was unwilling to submit to the leadership of the French revolutionary government, so there was an uprising. Outside the city of Toulon was the counterinsurgency army sent by the Franco-Revolutionary government, and the leader of the army, you should also know, was Napoleon.

General Hood feared that after the fall of Toulon, the ships in the harbor would be used by the French against Britain. So General Smith volunteered to sail into the port of Toulon in a small boat, and he took a few men with him to burn it in the port of Toulon, and he killed half of the ships of the Toulon fleet.

Because of this, the French have always held a grudge against him. After General Smith was captured in Egypt, they were reluctant to return General Smith to England, no matter what prisoners we had. The French sentenced him to life imprisonment for 'Toulon arson'. ”

As a historian, Owen has always been concerned about this kind of secret history: "How did he return to Britain?" ”

Napier replied: "It's thanks to our allies, the French royalists. They forged administrative documents and rescued General Smith under the guise of transferring him to prison. ”

"It's a legend." Arthur smiled and said, "The admirals of the Royal Navy have always had legendary experiences. ”

Napier shook his head sarcastically, "No, no, no, Gambier doesn't have such a legend. Oh, I can't say that, his story is also legendary in a sense. As an officer in the Royal Navy, sitting in the office for more than a decade, but rising to the rank of marshal, what could be more legendary? ”

Speaking of this, Napier couldn't help but sigh: "I joined the Royal Navy because I heard that the environment here is better than that of the Army, and I knew that both sides were equally bad, so I might as well go there with my cousins." ”

"Cousin?" Arthur briefly recalled the Army's active generals, and he asked, "You're talking about Major General James Napier of the Army?" ”

"That's right, three men of our Napier generation are all interested in military affairs, I went to the Royal Navy, and my two cousins went to the Army, one is James Napier and the other is Will Napier, and he also has a book on the history of the war, "The History of the War in the Pyrenees and the South of France", have you read it?"

When Arthur heard the name, his face suddenly became strange: "The book...... I read it when I was in college, and I remember when the book was published, didn't it cause some controversy in parliament and historiography? ”

Owen remembered: "If I remember correctly, there seems to be a unanimous opinion in literary criticism at the time that this book was 'the best French report ever had ever been made on this war.'" ”

Arthur smiled: "If I'm not mistaken, Blackwood seems to have posted at the time that fortunately, the commander of the Peninsula War was the Duke of Wellington, and if General W.W. Napier led this army, he would probably surrender directly to Napoleon." ”

Napier took a sip of tea: "If they like to scold, let them scold, the manhood of the Napier family is not something they can scold in a few words." In addition, they also want to thank us for having enough cultivation and stomach. If Corcoran had been dealing with this matter, he would have to bring someone to teach these guys a lesson. ”

Arthur asked, "Are you talking about the time when General Corcoran was suspected of manipulating the stock market, and as a result, he not only did not cooperate with the parliamentary investigation, but also took his officers to beat up the officials of the commission of inquiry?" ”

"More than that." Napier put down the teacup and said, "Didn't the Admiralty send someone over and let him beat him up too?" The admiralty fools didn't want to think about it, but Corcoran stood in court-martial, and scolded his boss Gambil for being a coward and a rat in the cabin. ”

Arthur asked, "But General Corcoran inherited his father's earldom this year, and his temper should have been curtailed, right?" ”

"Convergence? You're thinking too much. ”

Napier spoke: "He is obviously worse than he was before, and with a seat in the House of Lords, he is naturally more tough to speak to the Admiralty. If he hadn't been in command, how could the Admiralty have singled me out?

Alas, they can't hold Corcoran, but they can hold me! What a damn one! If I hadn't run any steamship company back then, I wouldn't have gone bankrupt and been reduced to being kneaded at will by the Admiralty. ”

"Steamship Company?"

Arthur was about to ask what was going on, but Owen on the side suddenly realized.

Owen said, "It turns out that you invested in the steamship passenger company that crossed the English Channel back then?" ”

Napier was amazed, "You know about this? ”

Owen commented: "I don't know, I've sat on it." But IMHO, the speed of the steamship does not seem to be much faster than the sails. The first ride is a novelty, but if it is a long-term round-trip, its ticket price is obviously much more expensive than a regular sail ferry. ”

Napier slapped his forehead: "Sure enough, even you, a layman, have seen something wrong." Alas...... Then again, I was also impulsive. Ever since I saw the steamship built by Robert Fulton in New York, I can't forget it.

At that time, there was no steamship company in the whole of Britain, and I thought to myself that these people were so stupid that they couldn't even seize such a good business opportunity. As a result, I realized that there was a reason why Britain did not have a steamship company. The speed is not much faster than that of a sail battleship, and in most cases it has to rely on sails as auxiliary power, and this thing is also very waste coal, which is not cost-effective in any way. ”

When Arthur heard the name Fulton, he couldn't help but laugh: "Why are the admirals of the Royal Navy all its supporters?" General Sidney Smith recommended Fulton's mines to the Admiralty every day, and General Thomas Cochran liked his submarines, and you ......"

Before Arthur could finish his sentence, Napier asked, "Submarine?" That's right! I almost forgot about this before. Maybe after I'm done with this trip, I can consider opening another submarine company? ”

When Arthur heard this, he hurriedly advised, "Don't be in a hurry to make a decision yet. Before starting a company, you should probably visit Paris. If the French hadn't dismantled Fulton's invention, the submarine he invented would have been parked near the Seine. ”

"Really?" Napier took out a notebook from his pocket and carefully recorded: "What's the name of that submarine?" When I have some free time, I stop by Paris. ”

Arthur laughed and replied, "That Fulton submarine is called the Nautilus. However, I think it's better for you to write an article with it than to use it to start a company. ”

Owen also quipped: "? So it seems that I need to go with it? Maybe I'll be inspired to leave an immortal masterpiece. ”

Arthur shook his head with a smile and said, "Mr. Owen, your fame is already great. Let's leave the Nautilus to someone else, but maybe let's talk about the reason why you gave New York that nickname in "The Hodgepodge"? ”

"Nickname?" Owen was stunned for a moment, then laughed and said, "Oh! You're talking about Gotham, right? I just filled it in with my hand, it didn't make any special sense. If you have to find out the meaning, well, Gotham means the village of fools. But that aside, I didn't expect you to read "The Hodgepodge", which must have been in the magazine for more than 20 years. ”

While they were talking, Louis pushed the door open and walked into the living room.

He smiled and said, "Mr. Owen, Mr. Napier, your ship is ready. The ships of Schwyaw & Sons were under the Azores and the other in transit in the West Indies. ”

When Owen and Napier heard this, they all picked up the wooden suitcases beside them and got up and said goodbye: "Mr. Hastings, thank you very much this time." ”

Arthur also got up with a smile and said, "I'm looking forward to meeting you two next time, I wish you all the best." ”

As he watched the two of them leave the parlor under the guidance of the servants, he suddenly turned his head to Louis and asked, "Is my car about to leave too?" ”

Louis nodded slightly: "At 1 o'clock this afternoon, not only you will be accompanied by the car, but also the officials sent by the Liverpool City Council to London to report on their work, plus the lobbyist group of the Liverpool Association." Of course, the diplomat from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also on the list. ”

When Arthur heard this, he pulled up his collar and nodded: "It seems that everyone is in a hurry, then let's go out now, remember to call Alexander and Heinrich together." Louis, during my time at Liverpool, it's up to you here. ”

"Rest assured. But...... Arthur, there's something I don't know if it's inconvenient to ......."

Arthur put on his coat and gloves and said without raising his head: "About your cousin, Valewski?" ”

"Hmm...... If you find out his whereabouts, or go one step further and find him directly, can you ......?"

"Would you like to see him?"

"Yes, but don't worry, our meeting will definitely not harm the interests of Britain."

Arthur brushed his gloves, looked up at Louie, and suddenly smiled: "Louie, you don't need to emphasize this to me. When it comes to harming the interests of Britain, who can compare with the Britons themselves? The greatest enemy of every nation is itself. Even if you want to do it, you will harm the interests of France, oh, yes, and Poland. ”

"So ......"

Arthur pushed open the door of the meeting room: "You want to meet, no problem. However, only if it is ...... I want to make sure that he didn't shoot the gun in the back. ”

(End of chapter)