The meeting between Stratford and Cavour was very mysterious and short-lived. After a brief exchange of ideas, the two parties broke up immediately. Cavour returned to Turin while Stratford crossed the Strait of Gibraltar.
Return to London to report.
In fact, Stratford's trip back to Stratford was not really about reporting on his work. It was mainly about contacting friends in the country who also hate Russia, such as Congressman Thomas Atwood, Congressman Robert Cattrall Ferguson, and George DeLacy.
Vince.
This group of people are extremely hostile to Russia, and they constantly concoct some theories about the Russian threat, advocating that in order to safeguard the interests of the British Empire, Russia must be attacked, and it is best to dismember Russia.
The influence of this group of people was quite huge. Before the Crimean War, when the prime ministers were hesitant to combat Russia's arrogance, but also worried about triggering an unprecedented war similar to the Napoleonic Wars, it was these people who
People exerted strong influence and forced Britain and France to declare war on Russia.
Of course, the current threat from Russia is not that obvious yet. These anti-Russian people are more interested in creating public opinion and laying the foundation for future actions. They are quite interested in the plan brought by Stratford.
Because this is equivalent to letting France and Austria take chestnuts from the fire, allowing them to withstand a direct attack from Russia, just to test Russia's strength.
Rumors quickly spread throughout London, and various gossips about Russia's intention to send troops to the Balkans became widespread, leaving the Russian ambassador to Britain, Baron Brunov, both confused and shocked.
Because this baron has not heard the slightest hint of using troops against the Balkans from home. Logically speaking, there is no reason not to notify such a heavyweight ambassador like him first about such a big event. Otherwise, how will he respond once a war breaks out?
But Baron Brunov was not surprised by these rumors, and even felt that there was some truth to them. The use of troops in the Balkans had actually always been the national policy of the Russian Empire. Nicholas I had already done it once in 1829, and in recent years, it has
As the conflicts caused by the Holy Land issue became more and more intense, it is not surprising that Nicholas I preferred to use war to solve the problem.
Moreover, Baron Brunov knew his Majesty very well. He was a complete soldier. He only believed in force and had always disdained diplomacy and civil servants like them.
A few years ago, when Nicholas I visited England, he failed to notify him of the arrival time of the ambassador, which forced him to put down his work and wait at the dock like an idiot.
Now it is even more normal not to tell him about the intention to send troops to the Balkans. Anyway, His Majesty thinks that he is just a sounding board.
Baron Brunov was extremely dissatisfied with his master and his work. He didn't feel any respect, and naturally he didn't have much motivation to work. He basically worked as a monk and clocked the clock, just reminding the country about London.
After the rumors in the Balkans, they were let go.
And this kind of work attitude is undoubtedly quite fatal. Baron Brunov's negative response naturally makes those rumors more rampant - look at the Russians who have acquiesced, how could there be any lies!
All in all, in the last days of 1847, international public opinion was quite unfavorable to Russia. Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Neserrode was confused. Somehow, Russia became the target of public criticism in Europe.
The only one who was happy about this situation was probably Nicholas I. Yes, you read that right, this His Majesty was actually very happy!
He felt that he had made the whole of Europe tremble, which was the most direct manifestation of Russia's national power. He liked this feeling of making the world fearful and was intoxicated by it. In short, Nicholas I was in a good mood at the end of the year.
Europe is scared, Crown Prince Alexander has finally begun to defend his position, and Turkey is trembling under the strong pressure. Do you think he can be unhappy with so much good news?
Some are happy and some are sad. There are also many unhappy people, such as our protagonist Li Xiao, who is in a very bad mood at the end of the year. The reasons come from several aspects, the first of which is the order of Nicholas I.
The punishment results for the last banned book incident came out. Li Xiao was fined for half a year's salary due to management negligence. In fact, Li Xiao didn't care about this little money. He was no longer poor and had nothing to do with his salary when he first traveled through time.
Have a good time.
Whether it's royalties or cooperation with Duke Mikhail, his income has increased dramatically. Even without salary, he lives a happy and happy life. What really hurts Li Xiaodan is that he has to go to every regiment of the naval infantry around St. Petersburg to do publicity.
Review. This not only made him lose face but also wasted a lot of his precious time.
This was already troublesome enough, but who would have thought that Archduke Constantine would come out again and find trouble with the 748th Regiment in various ways. Today, he issued an order for the officers of the 748th Regiment to rectify their internal affairs, and tomorrow he deliberately delayed the 748th Regiment.
It is time to replenish logistics supplies, or simply find an excuse to deduct the military pay of the officers and soldiers of the 748th Regiment.
Anyway, there are all kinds of small tricks happening one after another. If the 748th Regiment had not passed the integration in front and the officers and soldiers had full confidence in Leonid, otherwise they would have fallen apart sooner or later if they were so casually tossed around by Grand Duke Constantine.
Even here, Leonid was too tired to cope with it. He originally planned to take care of the training himself but had to start a career as a running team. Today he went to the Admiralty to collect food and grass, and tomorrow he went to the logistics department to collect uniforms. Otherwise, he had to visit relatives to find a back door to offset the disadvantages.
Archduke Standing's little stumbling block.
Anyway, Leonid, who had always been upright, was so angry with Grand Duke Constantine that his evaluation of the Grand Duke fell again and again, and he was really close to swearing.
Li Xiao was not only troubled by Archduke Constantine, but he also got into a verbal spat with a foreigner for no apparent reason. Sir William Symonds, chief designer of the British Royal Navy, suddenly opened fire on Li Xiao in the naval journal, placing Li Xiao before
The article he wrote disparaged Li Xiao as worthless, saying that he was just a clown who only knew how to play with numbers and knew nothing about shipbuilding.
So why did Sir Simonds suddenly confront Li Xiao? Is there any grudge between them?
Personally, I really don’t have any, but conceptual grievances are everywhere. Because this chief designer Symonds is really special. Since the Royal Navy established the post of chief designer of naval shipbuilding, Sir Symonds is the first non-professional technical person.
Chief designer by birth.
Let's put it this way, Sir Symonds is more accustomed to the older way of shipbuilding. He believes that shipbuilding relies more on experience rather than science. He believes that the chief designer does not need to pay attention to mathematics and physics, as long as he has enough experience.
.
All of Li Xiao's previous articles advocated a more scientific way of building ships, opposed blindly commanding based on the so-called experience from ancient times, and opposed designing ships based on experience alone. Do you think they can still compete with each other?