Flowers, Swords and France

January 1, 1862

On this day in the northern hemisphere, the European continent was covered with snow. People gathered with their families in the winter night to welcome the arrival of the New Year and look forward to good luck in the coming year.

But at the southernmost tip of the African continent, everything seemed so hot.

It was summer here, the hottest season of the year. It just rained last night, but now there was not a single cloud in the sky. The sun was hanging high above the world, scorching the earth, and the warm wind swept across the African wilderness. Not only could it not make people feel cool, but it seemed to want to squeeze out all the moisture in people's bodies.

In such a wilderness, a group of riders rode horses and galloped in the wilderness. In order to avoid the exposure of the violent sun, they covered themselves tightly.

Although they rode very fast, they seemed so small in this endless grassland, as if there was no way to get rid of this vastness.

"What an unpleasant hellhole." After riding in the hot air for a while, a rider couldn't help but complain in a low voice.

Unlike other riders who wore men's clothes and hats, this was a woman wearing a green riding suit and a silk scarf on her head. Her beautiful face and soft hair were hidden in the scarf, making her look like an Arab woman. However, despite such torture, she still did not fall behind after riding for such a long time, and her riding skills were obviously not inferior to others.

"Dorothy, how about we take a break?" A rider beside her asked with concern.

This gentleman was about thirty-four or thirty-five years old, with a handsome face. He looked younger than his actual age because he didn't have a beard, and his gestures were quite stylish, as if he was of extraordinary status.

"No, dear." The woman shook her head, "I want to leave this hellhole as soon as possible, and I don't want to stay for a minute longer."

"Well, let's hurry up." The man smiled, then turned to look at a rider next to him.

The tone became much more serious, "William, how long will it take us to get there?"

The man next to him was called William Jones, one of the gentleman's right-hand men. He was a rough-looking middle-aged man with a brown mustache and a pistol on his waist.

"We'll be there soon, sir, it will only take about half an hour!" he answered loudly.

"Very good, let's hurry up!" The woman named Dorothy was in high spirits, then picked up the whip and swung it hard on the horse's hips, urging it to run forward desperately, "Let's get there quickly, and then take a good bath!"

"Do as the lady says." The man shrugged, and then immediately whipped his horse.

As in the conversation, they are a couple, and the lady's name is Dorothy. Before getting married, her full name was Dorothy Spencer, the youngest daughter of the previous Earl Spencer. The Spencer family is a famous British aristocratic family. The family has long enjoyed a high reputation and has great influence in politics. After a long period of evolution, the family now has two main branches, the Earl of Sunderland and the Earl of Spencer, and is related to most of the British aristocratic families, and can be said to be a descendant of a famous family.

And the husband is Mr. Charles Turville. This gentleman is a businessman with a successful career. He married Dorothy several years ago. Through this step, he stepped into the British upper class society and took this opportunity to greatly expand his career. Now he has become a well-known rich man and is involved in many industries.

Today's group of people are the men of this couple. They assisted the couple to expand their business to the southern tip of the African continent and projected the glory and interests of the British Empire into the most desolate corner of the world.

Of course, most of these people don't know that this well-dressed young man who looks like an imperial gentleman is not actually British. His origin is in the country across the English Channel.

He met Dorothy in that country, and the two fell in love, and then she brought him to England - of course, Dorothy did not use her real name when she was there, but used a pseudonym.

After arriving in England, this gentleman also changed his name, and then began to reappear in front of the world as a British businessman.

Although he changed his place, his ambition for career did not die. On the contrary, with the help of his wife, he began to expand his business with a hundred times the enthusiasm, and his sights did not even miss this place thousands of miles away from England.

Although it seems to be a barren land, Charles knows that all the wealth and resources contained here are enough to make everyone cast their greedy eyes on this place.

When the sun finally began to slowly set in the west, the group of riders finally arrived at their destination.

This is a mining area. Although it has been opened for a short time, due to the resolute determination of the management, many mines and caves have been opened. These mines are bottomless, like a black eye looking straight at the sky. Inside these mines, the mines are winding like termite nests, and a group of dark-skinned miners, under the supervision of the supervisor, are like black ants walking through the nests, pushing one piece of ore after another out of the depths of the mines with a cart.

Outside these mines, there are some scattered houses. Although they are of a disgraceful earthy yellow color due to the building materials, they can finally show some signs of civilization.

The Tver couple jumped off their horses, and Dorothy breathed a sigh of relief when she took off her scarf, as if she had been freed from some shackles.

"This is the mining area, sir." As the person in charge here, William Jones carefully introduced the place to the Twell couple, "I'm sorry that the conditions here are simple and we can't accommodate you..."

"It doesn't matter, just complete your own work, we are not here to enjoy." Charles Twell said, looking around and looking at the busy scene in the valley.

"Are there enough people here?"

"At present, it can barely meet the needs." William Jones hesitated for a moment, and then explained carefully, "However, because the miners consume a lot of energy, although we have brought a lot of people from the tribes next to us, I am afraid that it will not be enough to meet the needs of the mine in the future..."

Yes, it is indeed not enough, because this is a super-large gold mine.

Buried under this land is the largest gold mine in the world at that time-although they certainly cannot monopolize the gold mine here, but in the first few years of excavation, they can dig up huge wealth for themselves, enough to make anyone tempted by it.

The labor comes from the black tribe next to them, and there is no need to pay attention to welfare. All they need to worry about is to keep it as secret as possible.

The gentleman nodded, without any expression, "Are there any other difficulties?"

"The mine is not deep now, so simple tools can be used, but after a long time we will need machinery like European mines, and the demand for labor will be greater, so the scale of the mine will inevitably be known to the outside world..." William Jones said all his thoughts, "Sooner or later, the Transvaal people will know that there is a big gold mine of ours on their territory, sir, I think this is inevitable."

He was right. Strictly speaking, they have invaded the border of the Transvaal Republic. Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal Republic, is only a few dozen kilometers away. This wasteland is the territory of these native white people in Africa.

In 1652, the first group of Dutch immigrants arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa to settle down, and then multiplied and established the first settlement of Europeans there. They were called Boers. In 1795 and 1806, Britain occupied the Cape Colony twice in order to control the important stronghold of the Cape of Good Hope.

At the subsequent Vienna Peace Conference, Britain purchased the Cape of Good Hope from the Netherlands for 6 million pounds and began to rule it. The descendants of the Dutch did not like the British rule, so in 1836, the Boers who were dissatisfied with British rule began to leave the Cape Colony collectively, and then they established colonies such as the Lydenburg Republic and the Winburg Republic in the northern interior. These colonies merged in 1849 to establish the Republic of South Africa (Zuid Afrikaansche Republik), also known as the Transvaal Republic. Another part of the Boers who moved out in other directions established the Republic of Natalia and the Republic of the Orange Free State (Republik Van Die Oranje Vrijstaat) in their east and south.

These Boers were very wary of the British and had always been wary of the British expansion into their territory. It is conceivable what attitude they would hold when they found a British gold mine in their territory.

Charles Turville did not speak, but turned to look at his wife.

"This is indeed troubling." Dorothy smiled and looked at her husband. "The arrogance of the lawless Boers must be curbed. They must be made to understand that the British flag must not be despised by them."

In William Jones's puzzled eyes, Dorothy explained to him casually, "I came to South Africa to investigate the activities of the Boers here and their oppressive treatment of British expatriates, and then provide a report to the cabinet for reference..."

"That's great, ma'am!" William Jones was greatly encouraged by the news, and he was so happy, "We should have beaten these Boers a long time ago! And those black guys next to them!"

As the person in charge of this mining area, he was most worried that the Transvaal Republic would discover their actions and send people to confiscate the gold mine. Although the force of the mining area was enough to suppress these black miners, it was difficult to withstand the firepower of the Boers.

But if there was the help of the British garrison, the situation would be completely different. What he ardently hoped for was that the imperial government would give these Boers a severe beating and make them submit. It would be best if the neighboring black Zulu Kingdom would also be given a good beating and turn the entire South Africa into a British colony.

During the conversation, the Turvilles came to the living area in the mine. On one side was the miners' dormitory, which was not much different from a shack, and on the other side was the dormitory for supervisors. As the owners of the mine, the Turvilles could of course use the wooden European-style building for managers.

When they passed the miners' dormitory, Charles found that on the fence outside the dormitory, there was a slogan he personally drafted, "work brings freedom."

"Will they be free?" Charles asked.

"According to the regulations, if they can work for five years, they can get freedom, sir." At this time, Jones showed a somewhat cruel smile on his face. "Of course, sir, I can assure you that none of these guys will survive for more than three years, and they will never have the opportunity to go out and talk too much."

This ridicule mixed with cruelty and humor caused a commotion among others, and some people even whistled.

No one felt any uneasiness about this, not even Ms. Dorothy Turville.

"Well done." Mr. Charles Turville nodded, then patted the other's shoulder, "William, you have proved that you are worthy of our trust."

William Jones was so excited that he held his head high, because he knew what the gentleman's personal praise meant. "I will serve you wholeheartedly as always!"

Everyone could see that the Turville couple wanted to rest, so they immediately returned to their respective posts or went to other places to rest, while the Turville couple came to their exclusive lounge.

"Finally, I can take a bath with peace of mind!" As soon as she came into the room, Dorothy breathed a sigh of relief, and then walked to the bathroom on her own.

"Oh!" When she came to the main hall, Dorothy stopped and was attracted by the things on the table.

This is a small hill of gold, with small grains of gold sand, gold pills as big as stones, and even gold nuggets as big as fists. These golds piled together and radiated dazzling light. Obviously, this was specially piled here by the managers here to win credit for the couple.

"We can almost bathe in the gold, Charles!" Dorothy called out the name, and then she couldn't help but reach out and pick up a piece of gold that was almost as big as her fist. The golden luster and heavy feel are always enough to make everyone's heart beat.

"These are not enough." Charles was much calmer, "We can get more."

"Yes, more..." Dorothy seemed to be infected by him, "We can get this piece of land blessed by God for Her Majesty's Government!"

The original text is available at Six # 9 @Books/Bar!

"Before Her Majesty's Government conquers this place, you don't mind your husband getting some retirement money for you and your children, right?" Charles asked.

"Of course." Dorothy threw the gold nugget back into the pile of gold with a light toss, "The Empire needs your greed, your greed is the driving force of its expansion, isn't it?"

"I am very happy to have made such a great contribution to the Empire." Charles smiled.

Relying on past memories, he knew that there were large gold mines in South Africa. After settling in the UK and gaining initial wealth and connections, he immediately sent an expedition team to South Africa, and as expected, he got news of the gold mines.

This news would bring him huge wealth, although the price of this wealth was to provoke the Boer War, which brought concentration camps, death, war and terrible suffering to the Boers, but it was not a burden for him.

While they were talking, Dorothy took off her coat, leaving only the last silk underwear, which was fresh and shiny.

Although she had given birth to a child, her figure was still well maintained, as slim as when the two first met.

"Don't we take a bath together, dear?" She looked at her husband with a smile on her face.

This temptation was of course difficult for Charles to refuse, so soon they came to the bathroom together and stepped into the rough wooden bathtub together.

The cool water swept away their fatigue and dust, and also lifted their spirits.

"This is what it feels like to be alive..." Dorothy lay on her back in the bathtub, then suddenly dived into the water, letting the cool water soak her hair, and then raised her head from the water, "We've had enough of this trip."

"Actually, you don't have to work so hard." Charles next to her stroked her smooth back, "I can write the report to the government for you by myself."

"How can that be?" Dorothy's hair was wet and stuck to her face, so that her voice was a little fuzzy, "I must perform the assigned tasks with the most rigorous attitude, and I can't retreat even if it's hard."

"Ah, it's amazing." Charles said casually.

"Besides, if I want the government to take risks in war without even coming here, it will inevitably make some people murmur in private, right?" Dorothy laughed, and then put her legs on her husband's legs, "In order for Britain to continue her glorious journey, I must stand on the front line for her without hesitation."

"Do you like fighting so much?" Charles was a little confused, "You are not like this normally."

"It's not a question of whether I like fighting or not, Charles..." Dorothy lowered her head and pressed it against her husband's chest, "It's that the empire must fight, otherwise it will die in peace."

"Um?"

“Too many of the young men in London now enjoy honor and wealth. They seek pleasure and laugh at the traditions of the past. They only want to indulge their own desires and become decadent in their enjoyment... They are using their indifferent attitude. Corroding Britain's once proud spirit." Dorothy's voice became very soft. , as if whispering in a low voice, "In my distant past, our British nobles were able to cultivate Cavendish and Wellesley, but I am afraid that in another generation, if we continue to forget ourselves If we lose our glory and progress, we will no longer be able to cultivate a new generation to defend this empire!"

[Wellesley refers to the Duke of Wellington, and Cavendish refers to the great British scientist Henry Cavendish (1731-1810). He is a member of the Cavendish family of the Duke of Devonshire. His His father, Charles Cavendish, was the third son of William Cavendish, the second Duke of Devonshire. Although Charles was not The eldest son could not inherit the ducal title, but he still received a large amount of property from the family and passed it on to Henry Cavendish. Cavendish remained unmarried throughout his life and invested the wealth in scientific research. He made great achievements throughout his life. He has made many significant achievements in chemistry and physics, and is known as the "richest scholar". 】

When his wife confided, Charles could only smile bitterly in his heart. His wife was usually funny and talkative, but whenever she talked about the responsibilities of the empire, she was filled with an inexplicable sense of mission. This sense of mission was also It often made her worried.

However, this empire will eventually be destroyed. He said in his heart.

"What are you thinking about so much?" He caressed the other person's hair, and then said softly, "Let's just live our lives."

"If we all only care about ourselves, who will protect Britain? The Romans died because they were too rich, and their nobles eventually became worthless because of decadence... I think our empire is also on the same terrible path. "If it is not stopped," Dorothy disagreed with her husband, "The end of this road is destruction. I shudder to think that our children and grandchildren will live in a world without the British Empire... So to avoid this, Britain must always be vigilant and compete with each of her opponents to the end, so that the fighting spirit and honor of her ancestors can Passed down from generation to generation, only in this way can our empire maintain its glory. "

"And do you know what the price of all this is?" Charles couldn't help but ask.

"I understand that it is continuous blood and massacre, but so what? But for the empire, even cruelty is more useful than incompetent mediocrity." Dorothy said with emotion, "If our descendants are addicted to Degenerated and forgotten under the shadow of ancestors The glory brought by past conquests, and even shouting for the death of every dog, then our empire is over! I would rather our descendants die on the battlefield than see him take us to stay. The wealth below lives as carefully as a snail!”

Alas, there is nothing more to say. Ciel couldn't help but smile inwardly.

While most people were indulging in the glory of Victoria's empire and enjoying the wealth and splendor brought by the colonies all over the world, she was worrying about her motherland. She was afraid that this empire would be shattered in just a short moment like a mirror in the mirror. Turn into nothing in a dream.

She was the British Empire's most loyal supporter and its most ruthless critic.

"The empire cannot be stagnant. Stagnation and decline are the same thing. When we think it's acceptable to stop, we are actually dead..." Under Charles's gaze, Dorothy looked at herself. He continued, "So Charles, I support the war between Britain and the Boers, and support Britain's struggle against any opponent - as long as this If the struggle can expand the interests of Britain, then it is good. I hope that our descendants can continue this and let Britain continue to rule everything. It is a pity that all this status quo makes me have a bad feeling. If the empire is handed over in the future, It would be too scary to give it to a bunch of libertines and losers, but it’s a pity that London is full of such useless kids!”

"Perhaps you can count on the Duke of Marlborough and his family?" Charles shrugged, "Maybe they can contribute a great figure to your empire who can represent an era."

"The Duke of Marlborough's family?" Dorothy was stunned for a moment, and then couldn't help laughing, "Come on, I know their details much better than you. These people named Churchill have no ability, they are just people who stick to their family business. , tremblingly He's just a poor guy, that is, Randolph looks a little bit like him, but I think his intelligence is nothing more than that. Besides, he is only a teenager now. Who knows if he can do something decent in the future... maybe not Just like family.”

As she spoke, Dorothy sighed and looked up at the sky outside the window in the distance, as if she was worried.

Of course she wouldn't know about Winston Spencer Churchill, because this guy wouldn't be born until 1874, and even his father, Randolph Churchill, is still just a teenager at this time. .

"So, we still have to let our children come." After a moment of silence, she said leisurely, "I will let our children grow up under our teaching and nurturing, let them understand the importance of enterprising spirit, and then I will arrange their future, let them enjoy the protection of Her Majesty the Queen, have a bright future, and become the pillar of the empire in crisis and the beacon of progress... Charles, when this war against the Boers is over, you will have a title... Our children must have a title to enter and leave the court, and our merits are worthy of this."

"The Earl of Johannesburg, it always sounds It doesn't feel so gratifying. "Charles frowned, then asked in a low voice, "Will our descendants be proud of such a difficult title?"

"Hahahaha..." Dorothy was embarrassed for a moment, then couldn't help laughing, then pinched her husband's face, "You can think of a good title, right?"

It was already afternoon, and the sunlight turned into golden sunlight, sprinkled on her white body, making her show a wonderful luster, then stretched out her hand, gently stroked the towering peaks, and then slowly slid down until it stopped at the creek forest.

Dorothy groaned, and her face seemed to be a little charming.

"Then let's contribute another warrior to your empire?" Charles couldn't bear the desire in his heart anymore, turned over and covered his wife in a splash of water.

Dorothy blushed, hugged her husband with a smile, and let the two stick together, until the real piercing came, she couldn't help whispering. "I love you, Charles."

The water rippled in the basin, stirring up waves and quietly hiding the suppressed groans of the two people. (~^~)