Chapter 232 London Experience (5.8K)
Although it doesn't matter whether it is England or Scotland.
These two countries, which both belong to the British system, actually know the reason why Dumfries Outpost was attacked.
But this matter was, after all, a border dispute, and some of the direct members of large chambers of commerce and even the people involved died in the riot.
Therefore no prior communication is required.
Scotland and England sent their respective investigation teams at the same time.
Representing England was Henry John Temple, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and the 28th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Although he was also a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge University, later generations generally believed that this person was talented enough to be selected as one of the top ten diplomats in human history.
But Xu Yun's impression of him was not good.
There is no other reason.
Gein was the main formulator of Britain's aggressive policy towards China during the two crows period.
Although Henry John Temple never went to the battlefield personally, in a sense, the sins on his hands were no less than Grant's.
Still the same sentence.
Xu Yun has no intention of continuing to live in this decadent country, but this does not mean that he has to look down on the foreigners who participated in the invasion, let alone feel any 'gratitude'.
Of course.
Friendly or disgusted, Xu Yun now has no chance to meet Henry John Temple:
As early as the day after activating the mission, Thomson called Xu Yun and Mai and drove the carriage out of Dumfries Post.
According to Thomson.
Just leave the political game behind the scenes to Henry John Temple, and there will definitely be an explanation anyway.
Academics like them got involved rashly, and they probably didn’t even know how they died in the end.
Therefore, after leaving mailing addresses with Gibson Lindsay and Ten Hag Rangnick.
The three of them happily headed towards the UK.
The town of Dumfries belongs to the border area between the Soviet Union and Britain. After passing through Dumfries, the front is the Carlisle region of England.
Of course.
Compared with Carlisle, Newcastle, which is on the same level as it, should be more famous.
After Carlisle is Leeds, and after Leeds are Sheffield, Birmingham and other major cities.
Xu Yun and the others marched peacefully for three and a half days without encountering any accidents.
Finally in the morning of the fourth day.
The group arrived in London, the capital of England and the current core city of European politics and economy.
Over the years, London's population continued to increase as the industrial revolution began and commercial trade flourished.
Nowadays, the population of London has exceeded one million. There is a prosperous scene everywhere, and the residents are very happy!
Outside the city checkpoint.
Xu Yun was sitting in the front room of the carriage, stretching his neck and trying to look forward with Mai Mai.
The towering chimneys that were vaguely visible were emitting endless black smoke, and the fog was so thick that people could not see the buildings further away.
The sound of coughing could be heard at the checkpoint one after another.
Here, people are clearly divided into two groups:
The nobles - or the upper class - sit in a gorgeous carriage, whose faces cannot be seen but can be imagined.
and
Common people with sallow complexion and haggard appearance, both men and women, look much older than their actual age.
Farther away in the corner of the city, you can still see ragged children, prostitutes, and a large number of drunkards holding a wine bottle in their hands and lying with their legs stretched out against the wall.
For these people.
It seems that the only way to dispel the haze that invades the body is by drinking continuously all day long.
This is a city with cool colors from head to toe.
Tall buildings and roaring machines always demonstrate the prosperity that belongs to the core of Europe.
But the incense generated at this peak did not spread to all living beings, but floated to higher clouds.
Heaven and earth.
Completely two different worlds.
Xu Yun looked up at the sky, and then at an old man not far away whose face was covered with mud.
I couldn't help but sigh deeply.
Since defeating the French Empire led by Napoleon in 1815, Britain has become the strongest hegemon in Europe.
Known as
The sun never sets on the empire.
But hidden under this power is the blood and tears of countless British civilians.
This matter actually dates back to the end of the 18th century.
At that time, with the unfolding of the Industrial Revolution, the amount of coal burned in London began to increase dramatically, and almost every industry used massive amounts of coal.
For example, countless new factories need to burn coal, and trains also need to burn coal.
Ever since.
Large amounts of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide are emitted into the atmosphere.
In the absence of any air flow disturbance, these gases and water mist condense together and mix to form yellow-brown smoke.
This is an extremely harmful gas, similar in nature to the smog of later generations, but much more toxic than the smog.
What's worse than the smoke is the living conditions of civilians at this time.
According to statistics in the book "The Life and Labor of the People of London".
In this period.
30.7% of people in London live below the poverty line, living without enough food and clothing.
Today, more than 5,000 civilians in London die from respiratory diseases every year.
More than 3,000 civilians died on the job - this is the number of deaths while on the job, not including those who died after returning home.
More than 7,000 civilians died from famine.
The former includes some nobles, while the latter two are 99% civilians.
Elizabeth Gaskell wrote a work called "North and South" in 1885, which described the lives of the lower classes in Britain. (If you are interested, you can go directly to watch the British drama South and North).
In addition to the love story between the male protagonist and the female protagonist.
You can see the bottom layer depicted inside, there is really no guarantee at all.
During that period, even children had to go to work. If they didn't come for one day, they would immediately lose their jobs.
It’s difficult to raise your salary!
It is still difficult to improve the working environment!
For example, the heroine's friend died of pneumoconiosis due to inhaling too much cotton wool.
There are too many people inside, just trying to survive and give their children a bite of bread.
In sharp contrast to the life of the people at the bottom, is the aristocratic life in London.
These nobles drink red wine and eat beef every day, recite 242 details to pay attention to at the banquet, and consider whether to spend dozens of pounds to buy jewelry tomorrow
In 1850.
The prosperity brought about by the Industrial Revolution has nothing to do with the people at the bottom who are just trying to survive.
"In the initial stage of capital, every pore is dripping with blood." This sentence is the best comment on this era.
Just when Xu Yun was feeling heavy, a weak voice suddenly came from his ears:
"Sir, please give me something to eat."
Xu Yun turned around and found a seven or eight-year-old girl standing next to him.
The little girl's face was dark, her eyes were bright, her clothes were ragged, and her hair was stained with mud and weeds.
He was obviously of standard white descent, but his complexion at this time was an extremely unhealthy sallow color.
When Xu Yun saw this, he couldn't help but feel calm.
Although he has never had a good impression of foreigners, and he himself is not a saintly person, the Huadun Biotech he founded later is almost losing his mind to the European, American and Japanese and Korean departments.
But this hostility does not include the current situation.
Anyone with a basic sense of empathy will inevitably feel a trace of pity when encountering this situation.
Then he thought for a moment.
He turned around and took out a few potatoes from the carriage, and Mai also took out a few loaves of bread in a tacit understanding and put them together at the front of the car.
Xu Yun packed these things in a small cloth bag, handed them to the little girl, and said:
"Take it, hold it tight, don't let anyone snatch it away. If you are very hungry, don't eat too hastily, as that is not good for your stomach."
Gulu——
The little girl swallowed, took the bag, bowed, and quickly ran back to the crowd.
Xu Yunjian said and Mai looked at each other and sighed.
As a result, before they could continue to sigh, Thomson, who had been watching with cold eyes, suddenly spoke:
"Two gentlemen, aren't you very touched after showing your love?"
Mai, a naive boy, didn't notice the sarcasm in Thomson's tone at all, and nodded vigorously:
"Yes, Mr. Thomson, this little girl is so pitiful."
Hearing his words, Thomson's lips curled up slightly:
"Pity? You should look at your pockets first before you speak."
Xiaomai was stunned when he heard this, and immediately looked at his waist.
After a while.
He suddenly let out a cry and quickly touched his waist with his hands:
"Hey, where's the cigarette pouch in my pocket?"
See this situation.
Xu Yun also gradually realized something, and quickly pressed the palm of his left hand on his waist.
fine.
The kidneys are still there.
But two gold nuggets that he was going to break into change were missing.
Then he looked at Thomson and asked thoughtfully:
"Mr. Thomson, is that kid a thief?"
Thomson sighed, nodded with a heavy face, and said:
"Yes, it should be a pickpocket group active in this area. I think the things she stole are not very valuable, so I didn't remind you about it."
"Sometimes it is a good thing to lose some money. It is better to have a longer memory than to be unable to recover from the loss in the future or even lose your life."
Xu Yun opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something.
But in the end he didn't speak.
Who would have thought that the little girl who looked miserable was actually a pickpocket?
And can steal things without either himself or Xiaomai noticing
Not to mention how superb her skills are, at least it cannot be something that can be accomplished in a day or two.
Think of this.
The title of a work suddenly appeared in Xu Yun's mind:
"Oliver Twist".
After the protagonist Oliver in this work arrived in London, he mistakenly entered the den of thieves organized by Fagin, among which there were no fewer than ten children who were trained as pickpockets.
"Oliver Twist" was written in 1838. The social background is not much different from today's, and there is a lot of information in it that can be used as a reference.
Therefore, in this day and age, child pickpockets are actually a very common 'tool'.
"Nowadays, with the development of industry, many children in London become orphans and wander around every year, which makes it more difficult to distinguish those young pickpockets."
Thomson looked at the direction in which the little girl disappeared, and shook his head with emotion:
"The finances stolen by these young pickpockets are basically handed over to the gang leader, and they actually don't get much."
"Like the bag of food you and Maxwell gave her, three or four potatoes and an equal amount of bread, right? She can get half a piece of bread and one potato, which is considered too much."
After saying that, he let out a long sigh, patted the wheat on his face, which looked like "the city has a lot of tricks", pointed at the checkpoint and said:
"Okay, it's time for us to enter the city, let's hurry up and get down to business."
Although the town of Cambridge, where the University of Cambridge is located, is not within the city of London, London is a large city that must be passed through to get to Cambridge.
After passing through the north of London, the distance to Cambridge is less than 60 miles on a smooth road.
That's why Thomson chose to enter the city today.
At the same time, he had another purpose in entering London, and that was.
He was going to say goodbye to Xu Yun here.
After all, according to what Xu Yun said before.
He disembarked from the Port of Aberdeen in Scotland, intending to travel to London to visit relatives and seek a way out.
It's a pity that he met a shady driver and was left halfway, so the subsequent story came into being.
Now that they were passing through London, there was no need to take Xu Yun to Cambridge University.
Fifteen minutes later.
Thomson and his party passed the checkpoint and entered London.
"Luo Feng."
After entering the city, Thomson looked around and asked Xu Yun:
"Where does your relative live? Maxwell and I will send you there."
"Now that we know the specific address, it will be easier for us to write letters to each other in the future."
When Xu Yun heard this, he pretended to think about it and said:
"I think it was at 13 Bessim Street, Islington."
"Besim Street?"
Thomson was stunned for a moment, his eyes immediately widened a little, and then he said:
"Luo Feng, didn't your relatives leave any other alternative addresses?"
Xu Yun glanced at him pretending to be confused, and asked knowingly:
"Of course not, Mr. Thomson, what's wrong?"
Thomson frowned when he saw this, and said after careful consideration:
"Luo Feng, I'm afraid you don't know. Two years ago there was a cholera outbreak in London. Islington was the hardest hit area, so many buildings were knocked down and abandoned at that time."
"Bessim Street is in the very heart of Islington and the residents there have either moved or have moved."
Hear this.
Xu Yun quickly pretended to be clueless again, like a Poseidon pretending to be innocent:
"Huh? No way?"
While making this expression, he also gave himself a score in his heart:
90 points!
In 1848, a cholera outbreak occurred in London, killing more than 52,000 people. It was also the most serious cholera outbreak in British history.
Among them, Islington and Camden are the hardest hit areas by cholera, with a mortality rate of 68%.
Xu Yun's main field of study in his life was biology, so he naturally remembered the time and the most central location of such a major event.
Although the current timeline has changed, the cause of the cholera outbreak has nothing to do with scientific theory.
Therefore, Xu Yun was more than 80% sure that this cholera had also occurred in the dungeon.
Of course,
If the cholera really didn't break out due to the flapping of butterfly wings, Xu Yun had other ways to make his 'relatives' disappear.
His eyes returned to reality.
Xu Yun looked at Thomson with big eyes and small eyes for a few seconds. Then he put on a hesitant expression and said:
"Mr. Thomson, the address I got was left by my aunt in a letter seven years ago. There is no other backup address."
"Now that something like this has happened, I guess there is no chance of finding them."
After speaking, he paused and continued:
"But Mr. Thomson, my original plan was to stay and work in London after meeting them, and then use the salary I earned to raise tuition fees to study at university."
"I originally planned to apply for University College London to be an auditor, but now that I have met you and Mr. Maxwell, I would like to take the liberty to ask."
"I wonder if I have the chance to study in Cambridge?" (End of Chapter)