Chapter 166: The Generals’ First Encounter
Chapter 165 – The Generals’ First Contact
At this time, the lounge was already a lot more lively than before when Arthur first arrived.
While the ladies and gentlemen invited to visit were chatting in the lounge with champagne glasses in their hands, Arthur was busy in the courtyard debugging the Faraday Cage with hand-cranked generator that had just arrived here from the Royal Society.
Arthur turned the hand-cranked generator and raised the discharge rod to aim at the Faraday cage, and it didn’t take long to see a wire-thin arc of electricity form between the cage and the discharge rod.
When Arthur finished debugging and raised his hand just to wipe the sweat off, he realized that three generals had actually come behind him at some point.
Needless to say, these three were none other than Major General Thomas Cochran, Lieutenant General Edward Codrington, and Admiral Sidney Smith.
General Smith cupped his chin and muttered, “Kind of interesting,” while observing the discharge lever.
Codrington, on the other hand, dragged his glass of red wine and smiled as he spoke, “Admiral Smith, I kid you not. Mr. Hastings is the current researcher of electromagnetism second only to Michael Faraday, look at this pole that can discharge electric arcs, is that something that an average person can come up with?”
When Cochran heard the name Faraday, he first shivered, then frowned and inquired in Codrington’s ear, “The temper of this Hastings, shouldn’t be as violent as Faraday’s, right? I last time but and he mentioned a mouthful of things to kill the enemy with chlorine gas, the result was that he violently drove out of the laboratory ……”
This time, without waiting for Codrington to reply, Arthur picked up the conversation, he put down the discharge lever and spoke, “Mr. Faraday’s temper is still quite good in most cases. He got angry with you because it really isn’t very humane to engage in chemical warfare with chlorine gas.
Chlorine gas is far more brutal and destructive than you can imagine, and its preparation process is not particularly complicated, so if you insist on putting this thing into war, the enemy will soon use it against you as well.
If you intend to treat the precious sailors of the Royal Navy as disposable, then by all means do so, and it won’t be long before Britannia reaps the rewards of a horde of invalids with pulmonary aftereffects who will be unable to work for the rest of their lives.
Besides, even if you wanted to gain a battlefield advantage through science and technology, you wouldn’t have to use chlorine gas at all. I think Britain’s current crop of brilliant scientists could support one of the world’s most advanced navies.
It is only when the weak challenge the strong that these means need to be utilized. If one day the Royal Navy, which is now capable of dealing with the attacks of three maritime powers at once, declines, I believe that you, who was hailed by Napoleon as the ‘Sea Wolf’, will also still be able to utilize your excellent tactical abilities to lead us to defeat our strongest enemies once again.”
Cochrane was about to get angry, but when he heard Arthur’s words, he instantly lost his temper.
He tapped Arthur’s shoulder with his wine glass and said at the other two generals with a smile, “Look, look! Scientists are just more level-headed than those brain-dead contraptions in the Admiralty! Young man, if it wasn’t Gambier who was in supreme command during the Battle of the Basque Waterway, but you, then we would have definitely won.”
Sidney Smith also nodded slightly, “It seems Mr. Hastings is going to be a bit nicer to work with than Faraday. When Elder said you were a cop earlier, I thought you were no good as a person. It seems that Scotland Yard isn’t all bad guys, a few decent things come out now and then.”
When Arthur heard this, he just smiled and said back, “That’s right, in that respect, Scotland Yard is like the Royal Navy.”
General Cochrane laughed at this, and with a raised eyebrow he wryly replied back, “Parliament is actually one and the same.”
Codrington laughed at his words as he handed Arthur one of the two glasses of wine in his hand, he pointed to Cochrane, who was currently serving as a member of the House of Commons, and then to Arthur, Smith & himself, and opened his mouth to ask.
“So, now, the cream of Scotland Yard, the Royal Navy and Parliament are all here?”
General Smith raised his glass and clinked glasses with the crowd in turn, “Come on, let’s have a toast, and good luck to all of those sons of bitches from fucking Scotland Yard, the Royal Navy and Parliament!”
Only the clinking of glasses could be heard, and the four of them raised their glasses and drank.
General Smith finished his drink and couldn’t help but savor the aftertaste in his mouth, “Tastes good, still this Hawk is strong enough!”
Cochran is interested in putting down the wine glass to pick up Arthur put down the hand-cranked generator with the discharge lever, he turned the generator discharge, while inquiring: “Mr. Hastings, you say, is there a possibility …… is that we give this thing to it applied to the battlefield? That is, let’s have the soldiers carry one of these generators on each of their backs, and while advancing, release lightning toward the enemy with the discharge lever.”
Arthur thought about the kind of scene depicted by Cochran, he always felt as if he had seen it somewhere, he was silent for a long time, suddenly as if he thought of something, he tentatively asked, “Magnetic …… Magnetic Explosion Infantry?”
Kirkland sniffed and pointed at Arthur with great joy, “Yes, yes, yes! I read in the Royal Society Journal before, the principle of the hand-cranked generator is that magnetism generates electricity, so calling it the Magnetic Explosive Infantry doesn’t seem to be much of a problem indeed. Moreover, you actually got the name right so quickly, doesn’t it seem like my idea has some feasibility?” Seeing this giddy look on Cochran’s face, Arthur couldn’t be bothered to brush him off, and could only politely remind him, “Though for now, I don’t think that this amount of power output from a hand-cranked generator is enough to support its use as a weapon, and considering the varying physical qualities of the soldiers, not every one of them possesses a stout arm to turn the generator.
However, I think you may be able to apply to the Ministry of the Navy for experimental research first, for example, temporarily try to use it to electrify the fish as well, maybe this can solve part of the supply problem of the ocean voyage fleet?”
Arthur was originally joking, but he didn’t expect Cochran to actually seriously mull it over, then nodded and said, “That’s true, I’ll think about it.”
And just as Arthur was chatting with several generals, Mrs. Codrington, who was originally waiting in the lounge, with graying sideburns and in full regalia, also ran out unwillingly.
The lady complained, “Edward, the guests are all inside, how can you, the man of the house, run here to hide from the rest of the world?”
General Codrington sniffed, scratched his bald head, and laughed cheerfully, “My dear, am I not helping Mr. Hastings with the preparations for the scientific demonstration? Haven’t you ladies of the Blue Stocking Society been dying to meet this up-and-coming scientist of Britain?”
“Have they?” Mrs. Codrington said with slight skepticism, “And what exactly are you helping Mr. Hastings prepare for?”
General Smith took General Codrington’s shoulder in a grandiose manner, his face clouded with a layer of red, he was already a trifle tipsy before the reception had even begun, “Don’t worry, Anna, your Edward naturally knows how to treat a guest. He has just come to give Mr. Hastings a glass of hock to help refresh the young man.”
“What? Whoa! My goodness! Edward, will you save me the trouble?”
Mrs. Codrington, with a concerned look on her face, lifted up her skirt and walked down the steps, rushing at Arthur with concern and asking, “Mr. Hastings, I remember you telling me earlier that this experiment could be somewhat dangerous, and I don’t suppose you’re drunk?”
Hearing this, Arthur said in relief, “My drinking is not very good, but a glass of hock is still not a problem.”
General Codrington also nodded and said, “I told you, a little bit of wine for a young man is nothing. I was thinking of coming to Mr. Hastings to be my scientific secretary when I’m transferred back to Naval Headquarters. If you want to have a good future in the Royal Navy, how can you fight without drinking?”
Hearing this, Kirkland couldn’t help but follow with a big grin and said in a conspiratorial manner, “That’s right, if you can drink, you don’t need to know how to fight. Look at our Marshal Gambier, right? There’s no one who knows how to make our former Royal Navy Marshal and Minister of the Navy, now His Majesty King William IV, happy with a drink better than he does.”
At that, he patted Arthur on the chest and whispered in his ear, “Boy, if you had gotten in with Admiral Sidney Smith a few years ago, he’d still be an active Admiral. But now he’s an old man dodging debts, and do you know why he lives in Paris? It’s because if he lived in London he’d be sued by his debtors again in a couple of days and thrown into debtors’ prison by your Scotland Yard police.”
Hearing this, Arthur also finally understood why Cochran’s notoriety could spread all over South America and Britain.
Just based on this mouth of his, if he didn’t have his old father, the Earl of Dundonald, and his two older brothers who were serving in the army and the navy respectively to cover him up, it was probably not as simple as being ordered to be forcibly discharged from the army when he had committed a crime before.
Arthur looked up at the gradually darkening sky and politely inquired to Mrs. Codrington, “It’s about time, so why don’t you be the one to go and call out the guests. This kind of large-scale experimental apparatus is really not suitable to be carried inside, so let’s put the first scientific demonstration of the day outdoors.”
Mrs. Codrington sniffed and pressed her handkerchief with some concern.
Today was the first time she had hosted a salon dinner in months, especially since she hadn’t expected Mrs. Cowper, who had always politely declined her invitations, to inexplicably accept them.
Mrs. Cowper as the entire stands in the entire London upper class social circle of the top figure, Mrs. Codrington today in any case do not want to lose face in front of her.
After thinking about it, Mrs. Codrington only had to open her mouth: ”Mr. Hastings, didn’t you say that you have a scientific assistant today? You see that you’ve been drinking, so in order to prevent accidents, why don’t we just let that scientific assistant do the things that are dangerous, and you just do the safe ones instead.”
Hearing that, Arthur didn’t object, he nodded slightly and said, “That would be fine, then please, please tell Mr. Elder Carter that Arthur Hastings needs him to get into the cage immediately.”
“Into the cage?” Mrs. Codrington sniffed, “God! I had thought this cage of yours was for monkeys, are you sure you really want Mr. Carter to need to get into it for the sake of science?”
Arthur sniffed and had to correct himself, “You can’t say that, ma’am. In my opinion, the monkey’s contributions to science are far beyond Mr. Carter’s.”
(End of chapter)