Chapter 2359 - 299: "Old Friends

For Mr. Shubinsky, oh no, perhaps we should now call him General Shubinsky.

Yes, General!

Although he is only a fifth-rank army commodore, nonetheless, Shubinsky has officially become a general, with embroidered cuffs and collar on his uniform.

However, Shubinsky’s method of promotion is slightly different from that of his old friend Sir Arthur Hastings.

It is well known that Sir Arthur has taken the major route in recent years, while General Shubinsky has targeted the grassroots market.

Of course, although the two have different means of promotion, at the essence, whether it is Arthur or Shubinsky, their key point for promotion is "loyalty."

Shubinsky’s ability to be promoted to commodore and transferred to the Third Hall headquarters mainly relied on the series of major, significant liberalism cases he uncovered at Moscow University.

If you use the general terms within the Third Hall to describe it, General Shubinsky’s acclaimed achievements at Moscow University would be repeatedly uncovering cases of ideological infiltration guided by foreign forces.

But if you lay out the related dossiers, you’d find that these so-called major cases are nothing more than a few notebooks, a box of letters, a pile of confiscated lecture notes, and dozens of students who were expelled or exiled.

However, much to Shubinsky’s regret, despite progressing quickly over the years, when compared to his old friend Sir Arthur, there is still quite a disparity.

Permanent Deputy Secretary of British Home Affairs?

My goodness!

In the department, how many heads are above his?

Shubinsky considers himself an "expert in Britain," after all, he worked for several years at the Russian Embassy in Britain.

He counted over and over, and seemingly, apart from the Home Secretary, the Political Secretary and the Permanent Secretary of the Home Office, there is no one daring to claim more power than him, right?

Fourth figure in the department?

My goodness!

If this were Russia’s Home Office, the fourth figure would usually be the Director-General of the Police or the Director-General of Administration.

The former is the most powerful director within the Russian Empire, not only controlling public security and foreigner management but also having the authority to supervise city administration.

Although the latter is not as powerful as the Director-General of the Police, the Administration Directorate controls personnel authority. They can propose appointment and dismissal recommendations for provincial administrative chiefs and are responsible for administrative supervision and financial oversight of local governments. Additionally, they manage annual report reviews of local officials and coordinate frontier affairs.

Thinking about this, Shubinsky suddenly feels that despite bearing the general rank, he still has no proper standing to show off in front of Arthur.

As Shubinsky steps on the stone path towards the Clarendon Hotel, he repeatedly ponders the ranking within the British bureaucratic system.

Unable to figure it out, he chooses to abandon the thought.

In any case, he assumes that Arthur wouldn’t humble himself with vanity tricks in front of a foreign guest like him.

The waiter escorts him into the private room, where Arthur is already waiting for him.

Upon seeing his old friend, Arthur couldn’t help but laugh and stand up, speaking in Russian: "Sergei Sergeyevich! My old brother!"

"Come on, Arthur old friend." Shubinsky removes his hat, laughing heartily: "Your Russian is still as bad as ever. Better speak English, or even German."

Arthur, hearing this, doesn’t get upset but laughs heartily and waves the waiter to bring wine: "I’ve heard! You’ve become a general now."

"It’s hardly a general, just a commodore." Shubinsky takes the cigar handed by Arthur: "What is a commodore? Russian generals, even if not a thousand, there are still several hundred; a fifth-rank official in our place doesn’t even qualify to be a provincial governor. But you, old friend, permanent deputy secretary of British Home Affairs? That’s something I couldn’t achieve in a lifetime."

Arthur lightly rotates his wine glass, smiles, and waves his hand: "We’re all just doing errands for others. Apart from differing monarchs to be loyal to, what other differences could there be?"

Shubinsky inwardly sneers at Arthur’s words, yet maintains a cheerful smile: "You, that’s too modest."

Shubinsky doesn’t fall for Arthur’s schemes, and Arthur certainly doesn’t consider the Moscow Tiger from the Third Hall a kind-hearted person.

After all, he knew from Herzen’s letter how Shubinsky rose through the ranks and prospered.

However, his correspondence with Herzen completely ceased in 1835.

Knowing Herzen well, Arthur believes this aspiring youngster from Russia isn’t of the same reckless character as Bismarck, so if Herzen suddenly stops writing to him, there are only two possibilities: either Herzen is dead or exiled.

Considering Herzen’s family background and ideological inclination, Arthur believes the latter possibility is much higher.

As for how Herzen got exiled?

Who orchestrated his exile?

Of course, openly questioning Shubinsky about this would be impolite.

But, although Arthur didn’t inquire, it didn’t stop Shubinsky from bringing it up himself.

Shubinsky inhales his cigar, the smoke slowly dispersing in the private room.

"Old friend, you don’t know, life in the Third Hall is becoming increasingly challenging." Perhaps because he’s not in Russia, Shubinsky dares to openly speak of things he wouldn’t say domestically: "The little rascals at Moscow University are becoming more disruptive one by one. If they were just writing nonsense in their dorm rooms, I’d turn a blind eye. But nowadays, what’s trending... new philosophy, new liberalism, new reason from Germany, especially those reading Hegel, I catch each one of them, and as I catch them, these little rascals multiply like wild weeds in the fields!"