Chapter 19: Countering Violence with Violence
Chapter 19: Fighting Violence with Violence
Hearing this, Arthur politely raised his hand and said, “I don’t remember having such a grandfather and am not really interested in being a grandson to anyone else.”
Colonel Fitzroy heard this and looked Arthur up and down.
“And you are?”
“I’m the museum man you weren’t going to have.”
Fitzroy froze for a moment, then smiled shyly.
“I didn’t expect it to be such a coincidence that you were actually here. But it’s fine, I can take this opportunity to explain the reason for the refusal to you in person.
It’s really not that you’re not good enough, you fully meet the Beagle’s requirements for a museum scientist.
It’s just that this is an order from the Admiralty Headquarters, and I, as a captain as well as a soldier, must resolutely carry out the order.”
“But ……” Elder was still trying to fight it.
But Colonel Fitzroy interrupted him.
“Don’t but. Elder, the man who gave the order this time, even your uncle is in no position to negotiate with him.
This friend of yours is in excellent condition, and I think he will find work that will suit him.
Besides, as you know, the Royal Navy is a highly disciplined organization, and obeying orders is our natural duty.
So now, shut up and carry out your orders.”
At the end of his words, he then nodded at Arthur with full of apologies, “Young man, I’m really sorry.”
Arthur sighed slightly, but he quickly accepted reality.
“That’s all right, Mr. Colonel. As you said, the Royal Navy is a disciplined organization. I understand your difficulty, as I have been in a similar organization before.”
“You’ve been in a similar organization?”
Fitzroy thought for a moment as he reasoned out the answer to himself, “Wow! I knew you weren’t a bit of a noob. Organizations, yes, organizations! You probably used to be placed in the Army by your family to serve, right? I’m glad to hear there’s even an organization there.”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than Fitzroy sensed something was wrong and apologized with embarrassment on his face, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be sarcastic about the Army at all. It’s a great place, isn’t it?”
Hearing this, Elder took the opportunity to follow with a grimace, “That’s right, not only is the Army organized, they even have discipline!”
Fitzroy knew that he couldn’t dwell on this issue any longer, so he hastily opened his mouth to say goodbye, “Have a good time, I’ve got business to attend to, so I won’t be accompanying you any longer.”
With those words, he hurriedly walked into the gates of the Royal Naval Academy under the watchful eyes of the two of them.
Arthur looked at Elder, who was looking oddly at his side, and asked, “Does Colonel Fitzroy despise the Army so much?”
“What do you call that, Arthur.”
Elder said, “What do you mean Colonel Fitzroy despises the Army, it’s clear that the whole Royal Navy despises the Army. It’s a melting pot of villains, whoring, bullying, brawling, verbal abuse, corporal punishment, drunkenness, gambling, underpayment of wages, rank and file, underdogs, all the bad words in the world you can apply to the Army.”
“And the Royal Navy is good?”
“Of course not, the Royal Navy was just as brutal once upon a time, but the good thing about it is that all our officers have been on the ground floor for at least six years, so they understand the difficulties of sailors, and they more or less take that into account when assigning work.
And the mutiny on the west coast of Puerto Rico in 1797 was a wake-up call for the Admiralty.
Sailors on board the Royal Navy frigate Hermione were subjected to long periods of abuse by their officers, forced to work long hours, verbally abused and beaten, and ordered by the captain to hang from the mast for seven or eight hours if they did not do a good job.
One night, the sailors who could not stand it any longer joined together and used their cutlasses and bayonets to slash the sleeping officers for a dozen times.
The surviving officers, along with the sadistic captain Hugh Piggott, were tied to the Hermione’s battering ram and dragged a dozen nautical miles before being thrown overboard and fed to the sharks.
And at the end of the story, the Hermione’s sailors sailed the ship to the North American colonies and swore an oath of allegiance to the U.S. government.
Since then, the Royal Navy has created the position of Master Mariner, who is responsible for writing the ship’s log, and who will record everything that happens on board and store it in a safe. No one was in a position to order him to open the box until he returned to the ship. The Admiralty would also regularly check the logbook and punish officers if they were found to be guilty of oppressing the men.
While this didn’t always work, the internal morale of the Royal Navy did improve somewhat since the mutiny on HMS Hermione anyway.
But the Army hasn’t had anything like that happen to it for a while, so how dare you expect military discipline from them when it’s still been a primitive society there, where even officer positions can be obtained by donations?”
Saying this, Elder suddenly seemed to remember something as he slapped his head and said.
“Damn! Arthur, I shouldn’t have said this to you. It’s my fault for letting you go and quit your job before things were settled.”
Elder was filled with guilt, he simply didn’t know how to face Arthur.
Just as he was thinking about how to make amends, a policeman with a civilized cane in his waist leaned over.
“Arthur? Is that Arthur?”
Arthur whipped his head around to see that it was his former old colleague who spoke.
He reached out and said hello, “Good morning, Dennis. I thought I could stay away from the police after I got out of that suit.”
I was surprised to hear that Dennis was simply shocked and delighted.
“Arthur, I can finally find you! I just walked back from your side of the house, omg, omg, omg, omg, I thought you had moved away. My Arthur, you hurry up and come with me to Scotland Yard!”
Arthur frowned at that, “To Scotland Yard? That old bastard Willox has really started an internal investigation on me?”
“Ughhh! It isn’t! An internal investigation has indeed been initiated, but the targets of the investigation are not you, but Tom and Tony!”
“Huh?” A sudden twinge of discomfort grew in Arthur’s mind, “What’s wrong with those two?”
Dennis chagrined, “After you resigned the day before yesterday, the more Tom and Tony thought about it, the more they felt bad in their hearts.
So the two of them blocked Sheriff Willox’s way home after work yesterday and gave him a good beating.
The nature of this problem is very serious, they lose their jobs in the second place, not good follow-up they will be sent to the magistrate’s court trial.
As you know, those two poor guys can’t afford a defense attorney, so you’re the only one who can give them a way out.”
Arthur blushed and pulled on Officer Dennis, “You take me there right now.”
But before he could leave, Elder over there spoke again.
“Arthur, I’m really sorry about today. But if you still need help there, you can always look for me, trust me, I can connect you with a professional lawyer.”
Unexpectedly, Arthur seemed as if he didn’t care about that, he took his elbow and pinned Elder.
“It doesn’t matter, if you can’t get on the ship, you can’t get on the ship, and that story you told about the sailor mutiny was pretty good. It’s not like I didn’t get anything out of it, at least the story you just told taught me one thing.”
“What truth?” Elder was a little confused.
Arthur paused for a moment as he stood still and spoke.
“Reasoning like conscience and public morality are preached to good people, and when dealing with those who are cruel by nature, they have to be put on a bit of a leash, or the situation will never get better.”
Elder sniffed and thought for a moment, “It seems …… like this is the reasoning.”
And the Red Devil, who had not spoken for a long time, surfaced again, and he put his arm around Arthur’s shoulder and let out a loud laugh.
“That’s right! Arthur! You’ve finally figured it out. Hurry up and get rid of that sheriff who’s full of obedience and orders!
We’re not going to be able to reason anymore, you’re going to have to go and talk some force into him!”
(End of chapter)