The Shadow of Great Britain

94: Chapter 54: Do You Understand Chinese?

94: Chapter 54: Do You Understand Chinese?

On the barge on the Thames River, Arthur leaned against the railing, smoking by himself and looking up at both banks, only to see numerous concrete sewage pipes tirelessly discharging tons of domestic sewage into the river.

The dark river water was like a pool of dense ink that could not be diluted, and the surface of the river was covered with layers of thick tar, almost all of which stemmed from the London Gas Light and Coke Company headquartered in Westminster.

Of course, aside from the tar, one could often see some novel objects floating on the river.

These included filthy, barely recognizable tattered clothes, various suspiciously sourced rusty knives, or half-used cosmetics and empty bottles of alcohol.

Or, if you were unlucky, you might encounter a highly decomposed corpse, almost unidentifiable in its original identity.

All sorts of corrupt bacteria thrived here, and any sane person would not like to linger here for a moment.

But the Thames River was still bustling daily, not only with sailors who had to pass through here to unload goods at various docks in London but also supported many “river cleaners” who made a living by salvaging waste.

Even though the Thames River was filthy and stinking, these poor people could not live without it.

Their daily livelihood depended entirely on retrieving some valuables from corpses or picking up some recyclable waste to resell.

On the opposite riverbank, through the misty weather, Arthur could see the distant silhouette of the Tower of London.

As a defensive fortress built during the time of William I, the Tower of London had been repurposed multiple times throughout its long history—as a castle, a palace, a treasury, an armory, a mint, and of course, most famously, as a prison.

The most well-known prisoner ever held in the Tower of London was none other than Elizabeth I, who never married.

She was imprisoned on suspicions of treason by her sister, Mary I.

But fortunately, since Mary I had no offspring, she eventually designated Elizabeth as her successor.

Thus, Elizabeth I became the only person charged with treason to ever walk out of the Tower of London alive.

Others imprisoned here were not so lucky.

Those who died here included at least nine princes, queens, and archbishops, at least thirty-three dukes, marquises, and earls, as well as dozens of barons and knights, other lower nobility.

However, the Tower of London did not always target nobility exclusively; in executing people, it treated nobles and commoners equally.

But the deaths of commoners were rather more ordinary, typically by hanging.

To highlight the nobility’s distinction, the execution of noble men required the use of a long-handled great axe for beheading, while noble women were burned at the stake.

But clearly, the nobles did not appreciate this special treatment.

During the execution process, there were several instances where the executioner’s axe was too blunt, failing to kill the victim with a single strike.

Thus, sometimes nobles even pondered overnight before execution, which posture would best allow the executioner to strike with force.

In the matter of how to make death happen, the British nobility occasionally envied their neighbors across the Channel in France.

Compared to being axed to death, the semi-mechanized guillotine was indeed considered a grand invention.

And the improved guillotine designed and personally scrutinized by King Louis XVI was an even more reliable and ingenious creation.

For any British nobleman, encountering such a device would surely elicit an exclamation—Brilliant!

Jokes aside, but the reputation of the Tower Hamlets district, home to the Tower of London, was as foul as the Tower itself.

Even within the chaotic East End of London, Tower Hamlets could be considered heavyweight.

Just looking at the areas under its jurisdiction reveals what kind of a region this is—Whitechapel, Ratcliffe, Hackney, Bethnal Green, and the bustling West India Docks filled with tempestuous sailors from around the world.

Male workers concentrated in shipyards, repair yards, foundries, cooperages, canvas factories, rope-making, and pulley factories, while women and child laborers were largely employed in the silk, lace, and shoemaking industries.

But regardless of how they are categorized, these industries all escape one summary—they are all labor-intensive industries.

The factories combined with the bustling docks throughout all seasons naturally gave rise to numerous cheap taverns and a thriving prostitution industry.

In the daily reports from Scotland Yard, these industries represented high population mobility and the consequent high crime rates.

Although Arthur often worried about the crime situation in Greenwich, whenever he looked across the Thames River at the Tower Hamlets district, his complaints would be swallowed back down.

The security situation here was so bad that Scotland Yard had to issue a warning to journalists visiting the area.

If journalists wished to visit chaotic parishes like Whitechapel, they had to apply in advance to Scotland Yard and could only enter the area accompanied by at least two officers.

In the eastern part of the Tower of London, what used to be an area for executing pirates and maritime wanderers had now amassed over three hundred thousand of London’s impoverished, still siphoning from Britain’s poor regions at an annual rate exceeding ten percent.

The destination for Arthur and his group today was also a district under Tower Hamlets—Cambridge Heath.

As soon as they disembarked from the ferry, they could feel the fiery breath of the dock.

It was June, the season when wool from South Africa and South America arrived in London, and the docks were crowded with sweating porters and groups of sailors shouting about going ashore for some fun.

According to the information provided by the counterfeiter Judd Martin, the crime organization ‘Little Brothers of Cambridge’ they were looking for was mixed in this vast crowd.

And finding these people, actually, was rather easy.

Arthur gave Tom and the others a wink, and the undercover officers from Greenwich immediately understood, dispersing into the bustling crowd.

After ensuring everyone was out of sight, Arthur calmly opened his coat, revealing the blue-and-white sailor suit underneath, and checked the dagger and flintlock pistol hidden inside his coat.

Only after ensuring everything was in order did Arthur take a broad-brimmed sailor hat from his pocket and put it on his head.

He found a busy intersection and leaned against a red brick wall, pulling out a flask of gin from his pocket and taking a couple of sips.

With two swigs of gin warming him slightly, a flush colored Arthur’s cheeks.

It was the lunch break at the factory, and many women from the nearby textile mills hurried to the roadside stalls to grab freshly made lunch.

Speaking of lunch, it was just some fast food, with fish and chips being the most popular item.

This was due to its affordability and because it was simple and efficient to prepare.

After all, the female workers typically had only fifteen to twenty minutes of break time; they had to solve their lunch issue quickly.

Otherwise, if they didn’t get back to work on time, they might lose their day’s wages.

As the saying goes, if you don’t do it, there are plenty who will; the East End of London lacks everything but labor.

The arrival of the female workers immediately threw the sailors, who hadn’t seen a woman in months, into a frenzy: they frivolously whistled at the ladies, occasionally mixing in a few vulgar words.

The seasoned sailors had already started to engage in business with girls who caught their eye.

The female workers had long grown accustomed to such scenes; after all, similar situations occurred almost daily at the docks, making it impossible to avoid.

Arthur also tried to mimic the sailors and whistle, but his skill was so crude that not only did it fail to spark any interest from the ladies, but it also drew taunts from nearby sailors.

Given Arthur’s limited understanding of linguistics, the words mocking him included at least Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and authentic American backwoods English.

This sufficiently demonstrated the diversity of British sailor culture, and faced with the sailors’ taunting, Arthur didn’t hesitate to retaliate.

He flipped off the sailors and said distinctly, “Laughing at your mom?

Idiot!”

Agares, who had been lingering near the fish and chips stand ready to sneakily grab something, couldn’t help but turn his head towards Arthur when he heard this.

The Red Devil exclaimed, “Fuck!

Arthur, you know Chinese?”