The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1537: Chapter 261: Observing Light from Darkness, Controlling Movement through Stillness (Part 4)

Moreover, rather than instigating a war between the Afghans and Punjabis and thus allowing Russians to exploit the situation, it is clearly in Britain’s interest for them to coexist peacefully.

Ensuring peace between the Afghans and their neighbors is the first step; the second step is to reintegrate the divided Afghanistan, helping them establish a unified regime to guard against the ever-present risk of Russian invasion.

As for who should be the Afghan leader, Lieutenant Burns naturally supports Dost Muhammad of Kabul.

Unfortunately, Muhammad is not the only candidate; Camran, who controls Herat, is also a key figure to watch.

This is because before Lieutenant Burns, Lieutenant Connot of the East India Company had already visited the Afghan region, and he considered Herat a critical military point.

The experiences of Lieutenant Connot on this journey could indeed be called a legendary travel memoir.

In 1831, Lieutenant Connot had just finished his vacation in Moscow and planned to return to work in India.

Due to his status, while crossing the dangerous Caucasus region, the Russian government warmly dispatched Cossack Cavalry to protect him.

Upon reaching Persia, the adventurous Connot didn’t choose to return to India by sea; instead, he opted to traverse the desert and Afghan plateau on a route never traveled by predecessors.

During this journey, Connot faced life-threatening situations several times, encountering highway robbers and slave hunters, nearly being mistaken as a spy by warring Afghan warlords, and came close to dying from a high fever a few days before arriving in India.

He finally realized why this path was untrodden; most predecessors had perished along the way.

Fortunately, he completed this arduous 4,000-mile journey, spending three years crafting a booklet titled ”A Journey Overland from Britain to Regions North of India, via Russia, Persia, and Afghanistan” chronicling this epic adventure.

More gratifying was a recent encounter in London with an enthusiastic editor from the ”British” magazine while struggling with publishing funds. The editor greatly appreciated Connot’s work, agreed to publish it, and even offered a substantial price.

Of course, such significant money surely comes with conditions.

However, the condition seemed hardly a demand to Connot; the editor merely hoped for: a slight exaggeration based on a detailed analysis of possible invasion routes and the likelihood of success in Russian Generals’ plans to invade India.

For the publisher, such requests were reasonable since writing in this manner creates hype, which directly affects sales volume.

Connot gladly accepted this.

Yet, Connot didn’t anticipate the book’s success post-publication, even prompting the Duke of Wellington to meticulously study his results on the recommendation of his party’s rising star Benjamin Disraeli.

The already worried Duke of Wellington found himself sleepless after reading this book, recalling the troublesome diplomatic reports sent from St. Petersburg by Sir Arthur Hastings weeks ago, discreetly accusing Foreign Secretary Viscount Palmeston of a soft stance towards Russia.

Consequently, the restless Old Duke immediately dispatched someone to the Foreign Office to request recent diplomatic reports analyzing the situation in the Caucasus Region.

The result was predictable; more than half of these diplomatic reports were authored by Arthur, and the perspectives nearly everywhere corroborated Lieutenant Connot’s observations and speculations.

Thus, the Duke of Wellington decisively penned a letter which crossed the ocean, landing on the desk at the British Embassy in St. Petersburg.