January 1, 1862

On this day in the Northern Hemisphere, the continent is covered in snow, and people gather together in the winter night to welcome the New Year and hope for good luck in the coming year. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

And in the southernmost part of the African continent, everything seems so hot.

It's summer, it's the hottest time of the year, it just rained last night, but now there is not a single cloud in the sky, the sun in the sky is high above the top of the world, scorching the earth, and the warm wind sweeps across the African wilderness, not only does not make people cool, but seems to squeeze out the water in people's bodies.

In the middle of such a wasteland, a group of riders rode through the wasteland, covering themselves tightly from the fierce sun.

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

"What an unpleasant place to be." After a few moments of riding in the hot air, one rider couldn't help but whisper a whisper.

Unlike other riders who wore men's clothes and hats, this was a woman, dressed in a turquoise riding outfit, with a silk scarf wrapped around her head, and her beautiful face and soft hair were hidden in the scarf, making her look like an Arab woman. However, despite this suffering, after such a long gallop, she still did not fall behind, and it was clear that riding skills were not inferior to others.

"Dorothy, why don't we take a break?" Next to her, a rider asked with concern.

This gentleman was about thirty-four or five years old, handsome, and looked younger than his actual age because he had no beard, and he seemed to have an extraordinary status in his gestures.

"No, dear." The woman shook her head, "I want to leave this hellish place early, and I don't want to stay for a minute." ”

"Okay, let's hurry." The man smiled, then turned to look at one of the riders next to him.

His tone became much more serious, "William, how long will it be before we arrive?" ”

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

"It's coming soon, sir, and it will only take about half an hour!" He replied aloud.

"Very well, let's hurry up!" The woman named Dorothy perked up, then picked up the whip and swung it heavily on the horse's hips, urging it to run forward as hard as she could, "Let's get there quickly, and then take a good shower!" ”

"Do as Madame says." The man shrugged, and then immediately gave his horse a whip as well.

As in the conversation, they are a couple, and the lady's name is Dorothy. Before her marriage, her full name was Dorothy Spencer, the youngest daughter of the first Earl Spencer. The Spencer family is a well-known aristocratic family in Britain, and the family has a long reputation and great influence in political circles. After a long period of evolution, this family now has two main branches, the Earl of Sunderland and the Earl of Spencer, and is related to most of the aristocratic families in England.

And the husband is Mr. Charles Tver. The gentleman was a successful businessman who had married Dorothy a few years earlier. In this way, he stepped into the upper echelons of British society, and took the opportunity to greatly expand his career, and now he is a well-known and wealthy man who has been involved in many industries.

Today's group of people is the couple's subordinates. They assisted the couple in expanding their business to the southern tip of the African continent and projecting the glory and benefits of the British Empire into the most inhospitable corners of the world.

Of course, most of these people did not know that this well-dressed young man, who looked like an imperial gentleman, was not actually British, and that his origin was from the country across the English Channel.

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

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

Although he changed places, the ambition of that kind of business was not extinguished, on the contrary, with the help of his wife, he began to expand his business business with a hundred times more enthusiasm, and he did not even let go of this place thousands of miles away from England.

Although on the surface this is just a barren and barren land, Charles knows that all the wealth and resources contained here are enough for everyone to project their greedy eyes on this place.

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

This is a mining area, although it has only recently opened, but because of the determination of the management, a number of pits and caves have been opened, which are bottomless, like a black eye looking straight into the sky. Inside these mines, the caves are like termite nests, and a group of dark-skinned miners, under the watchful eye of the overseers, walk through the nests like black ants, pushing pieces of ore out of the depths of the pit with small carts.

Outside of these pits, there are a few scattered houses, which, despite their unflattering earthy yellow color due to the materials used in their construction, still give some signs of civilization.

The Tvers jumped off their horses, and Dorothy let out a long sigh of relief as she took off her scarf, as if she had been relieved of some shackles.

"This is the mine, sir." As the person in charge of the place, William Jones cautiously introduced the place to the Tvers, "I'm sorry that we have poor conditions here and can't accommodate you ......"

"It's okay, you just have to do your job, and we're not here to enjoy it." Charles Tver said, his eyes wandering around at the bustling scene in the valley.

"Are there enough people here?"

"At the moment, it's barely enough to meet the demand." William Jones hesitated for a moment, then carefully explained, "However, because of the high consumption of the miners, although we have brought in a lot of people from the nearby tribes, I am afraid that in the future it will not be enough to meet the needs of the mines......"

yes, it's not enough, because it's a huge gold mine.

Beneath this land was the largest deposit of gold in the world at the time - although they certainly could not have it alone, but in the first few years of excavation, they could have unearthed a huge amount of wealth for themselves, enough wealth to make anyone tempted.

The labor comes from the black tribe next to it, and there is no need to worry about welfare, all that needs to be bothered is to keep it as secret as possible.

The gentleman nodded, not moving at all, "Are there any other difficulties?" ”

"The mines are not dug deep now, so rudimentary tools can be used, but in a long time we will need the machinery of the European mines, and the need for labor will be greater, so the size of the mines will inevitably be known to the outside world......" William Jones said all the thoughts in his heart, "sooner or later the Transvaals will know that they have a great gold mine of ours on their territory, sir, I think it is inevitable." ”

He was right, strictly speaking, they had invaded the borders of the Transvaal Republic, the capital of the Transvaal Republic, Pretoria, which was only a few dozen kilometers away, and this wasteland was the territory of these native African whites.

In 1652, the first Dutch settlers arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa and then multiplied, establishing the first settlements of Europeans there, known as the Boers. In 1795 and 1806, the British occupied the Cape of Good Hope colony twice in order to gain control of this important stronghold.

At the Vienna Peace Conference, Britain bought the Cape of Good Hope from the Netherlands for £6 million and began to rule over it. British rule was not liked by the descendants of these Dutch, so in 1836, the Boers, dissatisfied with British rule, began to leave the Cape colony en masse, and then they established the Republic of Leidenburg, the Republic of Winburg and other colonial areas in the northern interior. These colonies were merged in 1849 to form the Republic of South Africa (Zuidafrikaanscherepublik), also known as the Transvaal Republic. The other part of the Boers who moved in other directions established the Republic of Natalia in the east and the Republic of the Orange Free State (republikvandieoranjevrijstaat) in the east and south.

These Boers were very wary of the British, and had always been wary of their expansion into their territory, so one can imagine their attitude when they found out that there was an Englishman's gold mine in their territory.

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

"That's really troubling." A smile appeared on Dorothy's face, and then she looked at her husband as well, "The arrogance of the lawless Boers must be curbed, and they must be made to understand that the British flag will not be flouted." ”

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

"That's great, ma'am!" William Jones was so encouraged by the news that he was overjoyed, "We should have beaten these Boers a long time ago!" And those next to it! ”

As the head of the mine, his greatest fear was that the Transvaal Republic would find out about their actions and send people to seize the gold mine, although the force of the mine was enough to suppress the black miners, but it was difficult to withstand the Boer firepower.

But with the help of the British garrison, the situation would have been completely different, and what he had hoped for was that the Imperial Government would beat these Boers so hard that they would be honestly convinced, preferably along with the black Zulu Kingdom next to them, and turn the whole of South Africa into a British colony.

In the middle of the conversation, the Tver couple went to the mine's living quarters, which were not much different from the shacks on one side, and the overseers' quarters on the other, and as the owners of the mine, the Tvers could of course use the wooden European-style buildings for the managers to live in.

As they passed by the miners' quarters, Charles found a sign on the fence outside the dormitory, which he had personally drafted, "workbringsfreedom."

"Will they be free?" Charles asked.

"According to the rules, if they can do it for five years, they will be free, sir." At this time, Jones had a somewhat cruel smile on his face. "Of course, sir, I can assure you that none of these fellows will survive more than three years, and they will never get a chance to go out and talk a lot."

This joke, which was mixed with cruelty and humor, provoked a commotion among the others, some of whom even whistled.

No one was upset about it, not even Ms. Dorothy Tver.

"Well done." Mr. Charles Tver nodded, then patted the other man on the shoulder, "William, you have proven yourself worthy of our trust. ”

William Jones was so excited that he held his head high because he knew what his personal compliment meant. "I will continue to serve you wholeheartedly!"

Everyone could see that the Tver couple wanted to rest, so they immediately returned to their respective posts or went to rest somewhere else, while the Tver couple went to their exclusive lounge.

"I can finally take a shower with peace of mind!" Once in the room, Dorothy breathed a sigh of relief, and then walked to the bathroom on her own.

"Oh!" When they reached the main hall, Dorothy stopped, attracted by the contents on the table.

It was a hill of gold, with small grains of gold sand, gold pills the size of stones, and even gold nuggets the size of fists. The gold is piled up together, emitting a dazzling light. Obviously, this is what the managers here have piled up here in order to ask the couple for credit.

"We're almost ready to bathe in the pile of gold, Charles!" Dorothy called out the name, and then couldn't help but reach out and pick up a piece of gold about the size of her fist, the golden sheen and heavy feel were always enough to make everyone's heart flutter.

"That's not enough." Charles was much calmer, "We could have gotten more." ”

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

"Until Her Majesty's government conquers this place, you don't mind if your husband gets some pension money for you and your children, do you?" Charles asked.

"Of course." Dorothy tossed it lightly and threw the nugget back into the pile of gold, "The Empire needs your greed, and your greed is the driving force behind her expansion, isn't it?" ”

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

Relying on his past memories, he knew that there were large gold mines in South Africa, and after coming to settle in England and receiving the initial support of wealth and connections, he immediately sent an expedition to South Africa, and as expected, he received news of the gold mines.

This news would bring him a great deal of wealth, although it would come at the cost of provoking the Boer War, bringing concentration camps, death, war, and terrible suffering to the Boers, but it would not be a burden to him.

As they spoke, Dorothy stripped off her coat, leaving only the last of her silk underwear, fresh and shiny.

Although she gave birth to a child, she still maintained a good figure, just as slender as when the two first met.

"Aren't we going to take a shower together, honey?" She looked at her husband with a smile on her face.

Charles could not resist the temptation, and soon they went to the bathroom together, and stepped into the rough wooden bathtub together.

The cool water swept away the tiredness and dust on their bodies, and also lifted their spirits.

"It's like being alive...... Dorothy lay on her back in the tub, then plunged into the water, letting the cool water soak her hair, before she looked up from the water, "We've had enough of this trip." ”

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

"How's that going to work?" Dorothy's hair was so wet that her voice was a little muffled, "I must carry out the tasks I have been assigned with the utmost rigour, no matter how hard I try. ”

"Ahh Charles said casually.

"Besides, if I don't come and want the government to take a war risk, it's inevitable that some people will murmur in private, won't it?" Dorothy laughed, then put her leg on her husband's lap, "In order for Britain to continue her glorious journey, it is incumbent upon me to stand on the front line for her." ”

"Do you like war so much?" Charles was a little puzzled, "You're not like that. ”

"It's not that I like war or not, Charles ......," Dorothy lowered her head and pressed it to her husband's chest, "but the Empire must fight, or it will die in peace." ”

"Huh?"

"There are so many sons and daughters of London today who enjoy the glory and wealth of pleasure, and they laugh at the traditions of the past, and only want to indulge their desires, and become decadent in pleasure...... They are corrupting the spirit of Britain's once-proud spirit with their nonchalant attitude. Dorothy's voice became softer, as if whispering, "In my distant past, we British nobles were able to raise Cavendish and Wellesley, but I am afraid that in another generation, if we continue to forget our glory and endeavor, we will never be able to raise 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 Devon, and his father Charles Cavendish is the third son of the second Duke of Devon, William Cavendish, although Charles cannot inherit the duke's emblem because he is not the eldest son, but he still received a large amount of property from the family and passed it on to Henry Cavendish , and Cavendish was never married, He devoted these wealth to scientific research, and made remarkable achievements in his life, making many major achievements in chemistry and physics, and was known as "the richest scholar". 】

Charles could only smile bitterly when his wife confided in him, 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, and this sense of mission often worried her.

However, this empire will inevitably be wiped out after all. He said in his heart.

"What do you want to do so much?" He stroked the other man's hair, then said gently, "Let's just live by ourselves." ”

"If we are all for ourselves, who will defend Britain? The Romans died because they were too wealthy, and their nobility ended up being worthless because of decadence...... I see that our empire is on the same terrible path, if not stopped. Dorothy disagreed with her husband, "The end of this road is destruction, and I shudder at the thought 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 to the end with each of her opponents, so that the fighting spirit and honor of our ancestors can be passed on from generation to generation, and only then can our empire maintain its glory. ”

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

"I know it's a lot of blood and carnage, but so what? But for the Empire, even brutality is more useful than incompetent mediocrity. Dorothy said with emotion, "If our children and grandchildren indulge in the degradation of their ancestors, forget the glory of past conquests, and even cry out for the death of every dog, then our empire will be finished!" I would rather our children and grandchildren die in battle than see him live like a snail with the wealth we have left behind! ”

Hey, I didn't say that. Charles couldn't help but smile bitterly.

While most people indulge in the glory of Victoria's empire and enjoy the splendor of colonies around the world, she is thinking about her homeland, fearing that this empire will be shattered in a short moment, and will be a dream bubble.

She was the most loyal supporter of the British Empire and the most ruthless critic.

"Empire cannot stand still, stagnation and decline are one and the same, and when we think 'it's acceptable to stop,' we're in fact all done......," Dorothy said to herself under Charles' gaze, "so Charles, I support the war between Britain and the Boers, and the struggle between Britain and any adversary—and so long as it advances Britain's interests, then it is good, and I hope that our descendants will continue all this, and let Britain continue to rule over everything, It's a pity that all this situation makes me have a bad premonition, if the future empire is handed over to a bunch of prodigals and losers, it will be too frightening, but it's a pity that London is now full of such waste children! ”

"Maybe you can count on the Duke of Marlborough's family?" Charles shrugged, "Maybe they'll be able to contribute to your empire with a great man who can represent an era." ”

"Duke Marlborough's house?" Dorothy was stunned for a moment, and then couldn't help laughing, "Come on, I know their details much better than you, these people surnamed Churchill have no ability, just some poor worms who keep their family business and tremble, that is, Randolph is a little bit like that, 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...... If you don't do it, it's the same as your family. ”

As she spoke, Dorothy let out a long sigh and looked up at the sky outside the window in the distance, as if she was worried.

Of course, she would not have known about Winston Spencer Churchill, for this fellow would not have been born until 1874, and at this time even his father, Randolph Churchill, was still a young man.

"So, we have to let our children come." After a moment of silence, she said leisurely, "I will let our children grow up under our teaching, let them understand the importance of enterprising, and then I will arrange a future for them, so that they can enjoy the shadow of Her Majesty, get a bright future, and become the pillar of the empire in the crisis and the light of the way...... Charles, when this war against the Boers is over, you will have a knighthood...... Our children need a knighthood to enter the court, and we deserve it. ”

"The Earl of Johannesburg, it doesn't always sound so pleasant." Charles frowned, then asked in a low voice, "Will our children and grandchildren be proud of such a mouthful title?" ”

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

It was already afternoon at this time, and it turned into golden sunlight, which shone on her white body, and made her show a wonderful luster, and then stretched out her hand, gently caressing the rising peaks, and then slowly slid down until she was in the brook and forest.

Dorothy snorted, and there seemed to be a little coquettishness on her face.

"Then let's give your empire another warrior, shall we?" Charles could no longer hold back the lust in his heart, and rolled over and crushed his wife in a splash.

Dorothy, on the other hand, blushed and hugged her husband with a smile on her face, and let the two of them stick together, until she could not help but murmur when the real piercing was heard. "I love you, Charles."

The water rippled in the basin, stirring up waves one after another, and quietly hid the muffled hum that the two people had suppressed. (To be continued.) )