The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1460: Chapter 231: Bizarre Plot Triggered by Unique National Circumstances

The dim winter light seeped into the room through the heavy curtains, with delicate London-style furnishings and a rug rich with Russian character complementing each other.

The birch logs burning in the fireplace emitted a slight crackling sound, contrasting with the howling wind outside.

Arthur placed his two hands on the carved solid wood desk where a map was spread out, the chaotic reports on the desk’s edge indicating he was busy handling urgent intelligence.

For the British Embassy in Russia, Sir Arthur Hastings was not only a cultural attaché, but he also served as a cryptographer.

Documents with the British Consulate in Tehran’s red wax seal had sparse text yet were densely coded.

Arthur lightly sketched out the key decryption words with a fountain pen dipped in ink, checking the intelligence content word by word.

Between the lines, the tumultuous situation in the Caucasus almost seemed to materialize: an avalanche in the Daria Canyon had cut off the Russian army’s supply line, their supply convoy was forced to halt, and the Caucasus mountain people’s cavalry launched a night raid, intercepting the Russian army’s forward posts, and seizing many crates of gunpowder and ammunition...

However, Arthur was not interested in these military developments; what puzzled him most was a high-frequency term that recently appeared in the intelligence.

Whether it was intelligence sent from the Tehran consulate in Persia or news relayed back by Captain Hutter from the Caucasus, they all mentioned a new leader emerging among the Caucasus mountain people recently—Daud Bey.

Although the intelligence on Daud Bey was very vague, there was considerable evidence showing that the scattered Caucasus mountain tribes were moving towards unification with Daud Bey’s help, and even though this new leader of the Chechens was not good at fighting, he was adept at organizing and coordinating the resistance movement. The Russian army even captured a ”Declaration of Independence” written by Daud Bey in English, French, and German from the Chechens.

Unless Arthur was crazy, how could he believe that a devoted Caucasus mountain man who had never left the mountains could write such a well-crafted trilingual document.

If Daud Bey was not Sir David Eckett, he must be the ”Times” reporter traveling with him, James Langworth.

In other words, Sir David and his team not only successfully broke through the Russian Black Sea blockade line and entered the Caucasus but also established contact with the Caucasus mountain people, even becoming resistance leaders.

A Brit, traveling from afar, enduring countless hardships, overcame numerous difficulties, making the liberation of the Caucasus mountain people his cause with no selfish motivation—what kind of spirit is this?

This is surely Saint-Simonism!

If Sir David’s deeds were told to Garibaldi and Herzen, they would certainly praise him greatly.

However, from the perspective of the British Foreign Office, which emphasizes discipline and is not known for tolerance...

Ha!

Sir David Eckett, when he just came of age, ran off to join Lord Byron in the Greek British Volunteer Army, violating the Foreign Office’s non-intervention policy towards Greece. Now, this First Secretary of the British Mission to the Ottoman Empire has again ventured into the Caucasus against Foreign Office policy...

If he weren’t so close with King William IV and the Ottoman Ambassador Lord Ponsonby was not his friend, according to Foreign Office regulations, even charging this guy with treason would be lenient!

In comparison to what Sir David Eckett has done, the other troublemaker, Sir Arthur Hastings, in contrast, seems almost like an exemplary figure of decorum and restraint.

Mencius said: The Black clan is for me (utilitarianism), this is without a monarch. The Eckett clan is with universal love (Saint-Simonism), this is without a father. Without a father or a king, one is a beast.

The small United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland’s Foreign Office actually produced two beasts, with Foreign Secretary Viscount Palmerston left with the Azure Dragon and right with the White Tiger; even seasoned European diplomats like Metternich and Talleyrand have never enjoyed such fortune.

Since Arthur reported the intelligence concerning Daud Bey to Ambassador Earl Dalhousie, who deeply appreciated his student’s responsibility to stabilize the British Mission in Russia under difficult circumstances, he agreed to Arthur’s request to conduct a month-long British-Russian cultural exchange in Moscow, allowing him to oversee intelligence activities in the Caucasus region from the front line.

Of course, if possible, the place Arthur would actually prefer to go is Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, but due to the strict restrictions on foreign diplomats’ activities, there’s no way he could obtain a pass for the Caucasus region.

However, during his time in Moscow, aside from waiting for intelligence, Arthur actually had quite a few things he could do.

Under his persistent recommendation, Governor of Moscow Dmitri Golitsyn Duke, reluctantly read Gogol’s monumental work ”Little Russian History” and was greatly impressed by the talent of this women’s college teacher.

Consequently, he naturally recommended this new star in Russian historiography to his cousin Moscow University Academic Director Duke Sergei Golitsyn, recommending him for the position of Associate Professor in World History at Moscow University.

However, Gogol seemed to be dissatisfied with this position, for even though Moscow University’s reputation far exceeds that of Kyiv University, as he said, he did not care which school he taught at, but only wanted a warm place to cure his hemorrhoids.