British writer

10 Downing Street.

Prime Minister Cecil was sitting behind his desk with large beads of sweat on his forehead, which he had to wipe frequently with a handkerchief.

Several officials sitting opposite were also very uneasy.

They seemed to be waiting for something.

After a while, the door was pushed open with a "bang" sound.

Belfort flashed into the house,

"not coming."

"Huh~"

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Balfour smiled bitterly and said: "The workers didn't come here, probably because they couldn't figure out where the Prime Minister's office was, so they all headed towards the Palace of Westminster."

In fact, No. 10 Downing Street is the official residence of the First Chancellor of the Exchequer.

However, since this post was concurrently held by the Prime Minister, it has become generally regarded as the official residence of the British Prime Minister today.

Of course, workers don't know these things.

Cecil stretched out his hands dejectedly, rubbed the wrinkles on his forehead with his fingers, and said: "They are wandering around Westminster like headless chickens, but it shows that this rally and march are spontaneous, which makes it more troublesome." Woolen cloth."

Everyone was silent.

The seriousness of the matter needs no emphasis.

Cecil asked: "What's going on with the Tap Valley case?"

The officials looked at each other,

Suddenly, someone whispered: "Sir, isn't it your decision to handle this case?"

Cecil: "Huh?"

Judging from his expression, he was really unimpressed.

The Prime Minister has a lot to deal with, and the death and injury of a few railway workers is a trivial matter to him.

He asked: "I mean, let the court decide?"

This question is outrageous.

After another strange silence, someone whispered: "Sir, Barry Company is suing the Railway Employees Union. Do you think the union should be ordered to pay compensation?"

Cecil touched his head,

"So that's what I thought at the time."

Balfour whispered: "I advised you at the time that this method of judgment would violate the Trade Union Act of 1871, and it would also violate the Labor Disputes Act that is now on the agenda, and would cause a backlash. But伱……”

The following words are not stated clearly.

But everyone here could hear that what Balfour wanted to say was "to have his own way."

Cecil said nothing;

There are some mistakes that I really don’t want to admit.

Belfort had no choice but to continue: "In order to reduce the impact, I resorted to dragging my feet. The incident happened last year, and the court trial will be held this year, but what I didn't expect was..."

Everyone's eyes turned to the "Mirror" together, and they were worried.

Cecil mused,

Is it the Liberal Party?

As soon as he had this idea, he shook his head involuntarily, feeling it was too ridiculous.

The Liberals love workers' votes but never unions!

There's no reason for them to do such a thing.

Was that the Mirror's own decision?

This is possible.

That Chinese student named Lu Shi always did things unexpectedly and killed people invisible.

"yes! "Prime Minister" is a lesson learned from the past. It almost brought Cecil to the ground with a political satirical drama.

Fortunately, the queen is heading west,

Ahem...

Fortunately, the Queen did the right thing at the right time, otherwise Cecil's cabinet would have been dissolved on the spot because of the Royal Navy budget.

But is it really Lu Shi?

Cecil frowned and looked at the interview page of the Mirror.

After a moment, he said helplessly: "Although I don't want to admit it, I feel that His Majesty the King wants to cause trouble."

No one can refute this opinion.

When the king is interviewed, his staff, the Privy Council, must communicate with each other.

The current interview version includes both the king's interviews and the railway workers' interviews. Even children would not believe it if there was no shadow of Edward VII behind it.

As for the reason why Edward VII did this...

"Crazy."

Cecil didn't bother to guess.

He turned to Balfour and asked: "Has the case in the Taft Valley been decided?"

Belfort shook his head,

"not yet."

Cecil frowned, and after a moment, he said: "Someone must have known the tendency of the verdict in advance, so they took the initiative. In my opinion, this matter has nothing to do with the Liberal Party, but is more likely to be with the Independent Labor Party. But how they got in touch with His Majesty the King is puzzling..."

No one can figure it out.

Cecil simply didn't want to think about it and said to Belfort: "The most important thing now is to end this case vigorously and let Barry Company withdraw the lawsuit... No, withdrawing the lawsuit will not work. Barry Company must be sentenced to lose and then ordered to pay a sufficient amount." pension."

To eliminate the influence, the verdict must be made openly and in a clear and canonical manner. There is no point in withdrawing the prosecution.

Belfort understood immediately,

"I'll make arrangements right away."

Saying that, he was about to leave.

Cecil quickly shouted to stop him: "Wait a minute!"

He stood up and walked to the window,

Wow——

The curtains opened.

Outside I saw industrial workers holding various wooden signs with various slogans, walking toward the Palace of Westminster in a mighty manner.

One of the workers, who was particularly tall and seemed to be suffering from gigantism, held a sign in his hand with concise and concise language, either "Fxxk!" or "Shiit!", which was simply a facial expression.

Cecil's temples throbbed,

"The second thing is, I will resign tomorrow."

This incident was not unexpected.

In fact, members of the Conservative Party have a premonition that Cecil will not control the cabinet for too long.

It’s okay to forget that the Anglo-Boer War was a bad war.

And the Royal Navy backstab,

In this situation, we should have retreated long ago, left behind a better reputation, and left a political legacy for the Conservative Party.

As Cecil's nephew, Balfour was a little sad;

"Your Excellency, you..."

Cecil chuckled and said: "It doesn't matter. In the future, maybe I can even enter the palace~"

As leader of the Conservative Party, he served as Prime Minister three times.

1885～1886;

1886～1892;

1895 to present.

The most important "political achievement" is to implement the so-called "glorious isolation" policy in Europe to control the balance of power in Europe.

Belfort couldn't help but sigh,

"But……"

Cecil shook his head and said: "Besides, it's not necessarily a bad thing for me to retire like this. I can also recuperate my body. It's really time to retire."

Due to old age and frail health, he had to give up his concurrent job as foreign minister.

This is rare among previous prime ministers.

Cecil waved his hand,

"Okay, you all go down."

Everyone stood up, bowed to Cecil one by one as gentlemen, and filed out.

Balfour was the last;

He was about to salute, but Cecil stopped him and said: "Arthur, from now on, Daying will be yours."

Belfort said "hmm".

"I know."

Cecil added: "But our Majesty seems to have some thoughts of 'restoration'."

Edward VII was originally a king;

Can "restoration" be used in this way?

Balfour couldn't help laughing and said: "Uncle Robert, I understand what you mean. But I don't think I need to limit his power, whether it is the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party, the Independent Labor Party, or the Anarchists. A king with real power.”

Cecil shook his head,

"The world is different now."

He moved his eyes to the "Mirror" spread out on the table and said: "The media can empower an individual, even if that person is a king that everyone hates."

In fact, Cecil is not very confident in his own judgment.

He just had a vague feeling like this:

The media is the uncrowned king.

Belfort thought for a moment and asked, "What should we do?"

Cecil replied: "It is impossible to stop the Mirror now. It is better to pull than to fight. Fortunately, I read the interview section and the people's livelihood section and found that the Mirror has no partisan leanings. You can find ways to win over it." "

Belfort looked puzzled.

"But we have already had some unpleasant troubles with Lu Shi."

Cecil shook his head,

"It's me and Lu Shi who are having some unpleasant quarrels. It has nothing to do with the Conservative Party and it has nothing to do with you. Lu Shi and Cambridge University can laugh away their grudges, and so can we."

Balfour thought for a moment,

"Well, I think I know what to do. I'll go to the court first, and then I'll pay a visit to Fleet Street."

Cecil said: "Don't go to Fleet Street, go directly to Lu Shi's private residence."

He opened the drawer on his desk, took out a note and handed it to Belfort.

It had an address on Burya Road.

Balfour went to the door;

"I'll go today."

…

Two days later,

early morning.

Breya Road.

Lu Shi opened his sleepy eyes, rolled out of bed, and prepared to have breakfast after washing.

Natsume Soseki is holding his nose and shoveling our shit.

He finally finished the work, and then said: "Fortunately, the waterworks workers did not participate in the London strike, otherwise we pet owners would be in trouble."

Cats are animals from the desert, and their babies are compressed biological rotten eggs.

The weather in London is getting hot right now, and I can’t even think about it without running water.

Lu Shi said: "The general strike should end today."

Natsume Soseki nodded, and then asked curiously: "Sir Balfour came to visit the day before yesterday. He won't lie to us, right? Is the Marquis of Salisbury really going to resign today? Also, will the judgment on the Tap Valley case be pronounced today?"

Lu Shi replied: "No. Yes. Yes."

Natsume Soseki:? ? ?

"what are you saying?"

Lu Shi spread his hands and said, "You asked me so many questions at once, so of course I have to answer them in turn."

Natsume Soseki’s head was covered with black lines,

￣□￣｜｜

He asked again: "Do you think the Tafu Valley case was really that tragic?"

Lu Shi stopped eating breakfast.

After a long while, he said: "It will only be more miserable than what is published in the newspaper. Human language has boundaries, and many tragic situations cannot be described clearly. What's more, Mr. Andersson, the worker representative interviewed, has a limited vocabulary, which makes it even more difficult. .”

Natsume Soseki sighed,

"It's a pity that today's photography technology is not very good."

Lu Shi said: "We asked reporters from the Mirror to take pictures of the case a year ago, but they couldn't take pictures of the actual situation, only ruins. Moreover, human language has boundaries, but empathy has no boundaries. "

Natsume Soseki agrees 100% with this.

In that interview version, the most touching part was the simplest paragraph:

"

'Little Qiao bit off his toes in a daze because he was so hungry, but I think he ate the grass and had hallucinations; Bull was always looking for mice to eat, and we didn't know what he was doing. What method? Long is very good at coping with hunger. He always jokes that he is a beef knee bone without meat...'

"

It was precisely because of this passage that countless workers spontaneously took to the streets.

Natsume Soseki lamented: "The world is changing so fast. We have only been in London for a few months, and the Queen has passed away and the Prime Minister has also stepped down."

This is the characteristic of a time of great strife,

Politics, economy, science and technology, literature, sports, art, entertainment...

Which one is not changing quickly?

Lu Shi said, "Let's go out for a walk and buy a copy of today's Mirror."

The two went out.

As a result, they ran into a man and a woman.

The man is James Keir Hardy;

The woman is Emmeline Pankhurst.

They came together.

Lu Shi raised his eyebrows,

"Mr. Hardy, Ms. Pankhurst, why are you here?"

Hardy's face was filled with a smile,

"Professor Lu, let's go into the room and talk?"

Lu Shi did not get out of the way, but directly blocked the door and said, "You two, if we have anything to say, we will discuss it outside. At this sensitive moment, I don't want to cause any unnecessary misunderstandings."

Pankhurst was dissatisfied;

"you……"

Before she finished speaking, Hardy next to her glared at her, telling her to hold back what she said.

Hardy took out a copy of "Mirror" and handed it to Lu Shi,

Front page: "Chaos: Prime Minister resigns!" The tenure is at least a little longer than the softening period of a banana peel》

The headline was very tabloid-esque.

But from the content point of view, the article has a strict structure. The first paragraph quotes Cecil’s resignation:

"I acknowledge that, given the current circumstances, I am unable to fulfill the mission to which I was elected by the Conservative Party. Therefore, I have informed His Majesty the King that I will be resigning as leader of the Conservative Party."

This is the clear meaning of the founding,

What other content could be more explosive than this?

The following paragraphs of the article introduce what Cecil did during his three terms in office.

After these objective contents, there are also bitter and ironic comments: "Such a British Prime Minister is unheard of. He will be remembered for his 'heroism' in the Anglo-Boer War, his catastrophic ignorance, and the popularity of "Yes! Prime Minister". remember."

Hardy said: "Professor Lu, this paragraph is really well written."

Lu Shi didn't answer.

Pankhurst said: "I didn't expect that I would actually resign. I still have some conscience."

Hardy sneered,

"Conscience? I think it's just hypocrisy. If he really had a conscience, he would have resigned a long time ago, and he would not have chosen to quit after a strike of this scale got out of hand. If I remember correctly, he still He said, 'I am a fighter, not a coward,' and said he would never resign."

Pankhurst and Hardy have a tendency to talk to themselves.

Lu Shi was really too lazy to get involved with these things and continued to flip through the newspaper.

Second Edition: "Barry, Lost the Case!" Today's verdict in the Tapu Valley case"

This article is much more serious,

First, he briefly introduced the background of the case, and then predicted that Barry Company would lose the case in the future.

Finally, it was said that the injured worker’s pension would not be less.

Hardy looked at the sky and said, "It's not time for the court to open yet, right? Does the Mirror know that Barry Company will lose the case?"

Lu Shi said: "Those who work in the media should always have some internal sources of information. Moreover, the general strike in London is in full swing. If it continues like this, Daiying, as the center of the world, is about to shut down, and the court will be forced to rule against Barry under pressure. .”

Internal sources of information…

Hardy was lost in thought as he looked at the landing.

Pankhurst on the other side spoke: "Professor Lu, thank you for your support."

Lu Shi shook his head,

"The person you should be grateful to is actually His Majesty the King."

As he said that, he looked at Hardy,

"Especially you, Mr. Hardy."

Hardy was slightly embarrassed,

He also didn't expect Edward VII to be able to ignore his past grudges.

Lu Shi raised his hand,

"Okay, you two, let's stop talking here."

He handed the Mirror back and said: "I'm going to Fleet Street now."