January 1, 1862

On this day in the northern hemisphere, the European 6 has been covered with snow. People reunite their families to welcome the arrival of the New Year on winter nights and look forward to good luck in the coming year.

But at the southernmost tip of Africa 6, everything seems so hot.

It is summer, the hottest time of the year. It just rained last night, but now there is no cloud in the sky. The sun above the sky is hanging high above the top of the world, scorching the earth, and the warm wind swept across the African wasteland. Not only can people not get cool, but it seems like they want to squeeze out all the moisture in people's bodies.

In such a wasteland, a group of riders galloped in the wasteland on horseback, and in order to avoid the exposure of the violent sun, they covered themselves tightly.

Although they rode very quickly, they seemed so small in this endless grassland, as if they could never get rid of this vastness.

"What an unpleasant place." After galloping in the hot air for a while, a rider couldn't help but complain in a low voice.

Unlike other riders wearing men's clothes and hats, this is a woman, wearing a green riding suit, with a silk scarf wrapped around her head. Her beautiful face and soft head were hidden in the scarf, making her look like an Arab woman. However, despite such suffering, after such a long time of galloping, she still did not fall behind. Obviously, her 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 is about 34 or 35 years old, with a handsome face, and looks younger than his actual age because he has no beard. He has a very stylish gesture and seems to have an extraordinary identity.

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

"Okay, let's hurry up." The man smiled, then turned to look at a rider next to him.

The tone became much more serious, "William, how long will it take for us to arrive?"

The person next to him was William Jones, one of the gentlemen's right-hand men. He was a rough and generous middle-aged man with a brown beard and a pistol around his waist.

"It's coming soon, sir, it only takes half an hour!" he replied loudly.

"Very good, let's whip it!" The woman named Dorothy was excited, then picked up the whip and swung it heavily on the horse's buttocks, urged it to run forward desperately and get there, and then take a good shower!"

"Do as the lady said." The man shrugged, and immediately gave his horse a whip.

As in the conversation, they were a couple, and the wife's name was Dorothy. Before getting married, her full name was Dorothy Spencer, the youngest daughter of the previous Earl of Spencer. The Spencer family is a famous aristocratic family in Britain. The family has long enjoyed a high reputation and has a huge influence in politics. After a long period of evolution, this family now has two main branches, Earls Sunderland and Earls Spencer, and is related to most of the aristocratic families in Britain. It can be said to be the descendant of a famous family.

Her husband is Mr. Charles Twell. This gentleman is a businessman with a successful career and married Dorothy several years ago. Through this step, he entered the upper class of the British society and took this opportunity to greatly expand his career. Now he has become a well-known rich man and has been involved in many industries.

The group of people today are the men of this couple. They assisted the couple in expanding their careers to the southern end of Africa 6, and projecting the glory and interests of the Great Britain Empire into the most desolate corner of the world.

Of course, most of these people don’t know that this young man dressed and looked like an imperial gentleman was actually not an Englishman. His origin was in the country opposite the English Channel.

He met Dorothy in that country, and then the two fell in love, and then she brought him to England, of course, when she was there, Dorothy did not use her real name, but used a pseudonym.

After coming to the UK, the gentleman also changed his name and began to appear in front of the world as a British businessman.

Although he changed his place, his career ambition was not extinguished. On the contrary, with the help of his wife, he began to expand his business with a hundred times of enthusiasm, and his sight did not even let go of this place thousands of miles away from Britain.

Although this place is just a barren land on the surface, Charles knew that all the wealth and resources contained here were enough to make everyone project their greedy vision to this place.

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

This is a mining area. Although it has not been newly opened for a long time, due to the firm determination of the management, many mine pits and mine caves have been opened. These mine caves are bottomless, like a dark eye socket looking straight into the sky. Inside these mine caves, the mine caves are like termite nests, and a group of dark-skinned miners, under the surveillance of supervisors, are like black ant insects passing through the nests, pushing pieces of ore out of the depths of the mine with small carts.

Outside these mines, there are some sporadic houses, although they appear to be unsatisfactory yellow due to building materials, but they can finally see some signs of civilization.

The Tweels jumped off the horse, and Dorothy breathed a long sigh as she took off her scarf, as if she had been lifted out of some shackles.

"This is the mining area, sir." As the person in charge of the place, William Jones carefully introduced the place to the Tweels, "I'm sorry that our conditions here are simple and we can't receive you..."

"It's okay, you just need to complete your job, and we're not here to enjoy it." Charles Twell said, gaze around, watching the busy scene in the valley.

“Is there enough staff here?”

"It is still barely able to meet the demand at the moment." William Jones hesitated for a moment, and then explained carefully, "However, because the miners consume a lot, although we have brought a lot of people from the tribe next to us, we may not be able to meet the needs of the mine in the future..."

Yes, it's not enough, because it's a large gold mine.

What is buried under this land is the largest gold mine in the world at that time. Although they certainly could not take over the gold mines here, they could dig for themselves a huge amount of wealth, enough to make anyone tempted by excavation after several years of excavation.

Labor comes from the black tribe next to him, and there is no need to pay attention to welfare. All you have to worry about is to keep it as confidential as possible.

The gentleman nodded without saying anything, "Is there any other difficulties?"

"The mine is not dug deep now, so simple tools can also be used, but over time we need machinery like European mines, and the labor demand will be greater, so the scale of the mine 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 there is a big gold mine on their territory, sir, I think this is inevitable."

He was right, strictly speaking, they had invaded the borders of the Transvaal Republic, which was only a few dozen kilometers away. This wasteland was the territory of these native white people in Africa.

In 1652, the first Dutch immigrants arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa to settle, and then thrived, where they established the initial settlements of the Europeans, known as the Boers. In 1795 and 18o6, Britain occupied the Cape of Good Hope colonies twice in order to control the important stronghold of the Cape of Good Hope.

At the later Vienna Peace Conference, Britain purchased the Cape of Good Hope from the Netherlands for 60,000 pounds and began to rule it. The British rule was not favored by the descendants of these Dutch people. So in 1836, the Boers who were dissatisfied with the British rule began to leave the Cape colony collectively, and then they established colonial areas such as the Leedenburg Republic and the Winberg Republic in the north. These colonies merged in 1849 to establish the Republic of South Africa (Zuida kerepub1ik), also known as the Transvaal Republic. Another part of the Boers who moved out in other directions established the Natalian Republic and the Orange Free State Republic (repub1ikvandieoranjev kerepub1ik) in the east and south of it.

These Boers are very alert to the British and have always been very careful about the British expanding into their territory. It is conceivable what attitude they would have when they found a British gold mine in their territory.

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

"This is really troublesome." Dorothy smiled and looked at her husband, "The arrogance of the lawless Boers must be curbed, and they must understand that the flag of Britain is absolutely not to be despised."

In William Jones' puzzled vision, Dorothy explained to him casually, "I came to South Africa to investigate the activities of the Boers here and their oppressive treatment of the British expatriates, and then provide reports to the cabinet for reference..."

"That's great, ma'am!" The news inspired William Jones, and he was so happy. "We should have beaten these Booleans long ago! And the niggers next to us!"

As the head of this mine, what he was most worried about was that the Transvaal Republic showed their actions and sent people to confiscate the gold mine. Although the force in the mine was enough to suppress these black miners, it was difficult to resist the Boers' firepower.

But if the British garrison helps, the situation will be completely different. What he is eagerly looking forward to is that the imperial government beat the Boers hard and convince them honestly. It is best to beat the Zulu Kingdom next to him, and turn the entire South Africa into a British colony.

During the conversation, the Teveers and his wife came to the residential area of ​​the mine. On one side was the miner's dormitory that was not much different from the shack and the supervisors' dormitory. As the owners of the mine, the Teveers and his wife could of course use the wooden European-style building dedicated to the management.

When they passed by the miners' dormitory, Charles now put on the fence outside the dormitory with his own slogan "orkb day ngsreed (labor brings freedom)".

"Will they be free?" asked Charles.

"According to the rules and regulations, if they can be done for five years, they will be free, sir." At this time, Jones showed a somewhat cruel smile on his face. "Of course, sir, I can guarantee you that no one of these guys can survive for three years, and they will never have the chance to go out and talk too much."

This teasing mixed with cruelty and humor caused a stir among others, and some even whistled.

No one felt any uneasy about this, and even Ms. Dorothy Tweel did not.

"Good job." Mr. Charles Twell nodded, then patted the other person on the shoulder, "William, you prove that you deserve our trust."

William Jones was so excited that he raised his chest because he knew what his husband's personal praise meant. "I will serve you as always!"

Everyone could see that the Tevells wanted to rest, so they immediately returned to their respective positions or went to rest elsewhere, while the Tevells came to their exclusive lounge.

"I can finally take a shower!" As soon as I arrived in the room, Dorothy breathed a sigh of relief, and then walked towards the bathroom by herself.

"Oh!" When we arrived at the main hall, Dorothy stopped and was attracted by the things on the table.

This is a hill piled up from gold, with small grains of gold sand, golden balls as big as stones, and even gold nuggets as big as fists. The gold is piled up together, emitting dazzling light. Obviously, this is what the managers here specially piled here to seek credit for the couple.

"We can almost take a shower in the pile of gold, Charles!" Dorothy shouted this name, and then couldn't help but reach out and pick up a piece of gold that was about the size of her fist. The golden luster and heavy feel were always enough to make everyone's heart beat.

"Those are not enough." Charles was much calmer, "we can get more."

"Yeah, more..." Dorothy seemed to be infected by him, "We can get this land blessed by God for Her Majesty's government!"

"You don't mind your husband getting some pension money for you and your children until Her Majesty's government conquers this place, right?" Charles asked.

"Of course." Dorothy threw the gold nuggets back into the pile of gold. "The empire needs your greed, your greed is the driving force for her expansion, isn't it?"

"I am very happy to have made such a great contribution to the empire." Shir smiled.

Relying on past memories, he knew that there were large gold mines in South Africa. After he came to England to settle and received the initial wealth and connections, he immediately sent an expedition to South Africa, and then he got the news about the gold mine veins.

This news will bring him huge wealth. Although the price of this wealth is to provoke the Boer War and bring concentration camps, deaths, wars and terrible torture to these Boer people, it is not a burden to him.

While they were talking, Dorothy took off her coat, leaving only the last silk underwear, bright and bright.

Although she gave birth to a child, her figure still maintained a good shape, just as slim as when the two first met each other.

"Don't we take a shower together, dear?" She looked at her husband with a smile.

Of course, Charles couldn't refuse this temptation, so they soon came to the bathroom together and stepped into the rough wooden bathtub together.

The cool water swept away the fatigue and dust on their bodies, and also cheered up their energy.

"It's like living..." Dorothy lay on his back in the bathtub, then suddenly pierced into the water, soaking the cool water into her head, and then raised her head 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 spine, "I can write the report to the government alone for you."

"How can that be done?" Dorothy's head was so wet that his voice blurred. "I must perform the tasks assigned with the most rigorous attitude, and no matter how hard I work, I cannot retreat."

"Ahhh, it's so awesome." Shire said casually.

"Besides, if I want to let the government take risks without coming, it will inevitably make some people mutter privately, right?" Dorothy smiled, then put her legs on her husband's legs. "In order for Britain to continue her journey of glory, I must stand on the front line for her."

"Do you like war so much?" Charles was a little confused, "You are not like this usually."

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

"Um?"

"There are so many young men in London who enjoy honor and wealth. They seek pleasure and laugh at the traditions of the past, and only want to indulge themselves in pleasure and become decadent... They are corroding the spirit that Britain once proud of with their indifferent attitude." Dorothy's voice became very light, as if he was murmuring in a low voice, "In my distant past, our British nobles were able to cultivate Cavendish and Wellesley, but I am afraid that another generation will be born. If we continue to forget our glory and progress, we will never be able to cultivate a new generation to defend this empire!"

[Welsley refers to the Duke of Wellington, and Cavendish refers to the great British scientist Henry Cavendish (1731-181o). He is a member of the family of Cavendish Duke of Devon. His father, Charles Cavendish, was the third son of William Cavendish, the second Duke of Devon. Although Charles was not the eldest son and could not inherit the duke's emblem, he still obtained a large amount of property from the family and passed it to Henry Cavendish. Cavendish was unmarried for life and devoted these wealth to scientific research. He made great achievements in his life. He made many major achievements in chemistry and physics, and was known as the "richest scholar."]

When his wife was talking, Charles could only smile bitterly in her heart. His wife was usually funny and talkative, but whenever she talked about the responsibility of the empire, she was filled with an indescribable sense of mission, which often made her worried.

However, this empire will inevitably be destroyed. He said in his heart.

"What do you want to do so much?" He caressed the other person's head and said gently, "Just live our own life."

"If we all care about ourselves, who will protect Britain? The Romans died because they were too rich, and their nobles eventually became worthless because of decadence... I see that our empire is also on an equally terrible path, if not stopped." Dorothy disagrees with her husband, "The end of this road is destruction. I shuddered when I think that our descendants will live in a world without the British Empire... So to avoid this, Britain must always be vigilant, compete with every opponent of her, so that the fighting spirit and honor of our ancestors can be passed on from generation to generation. Only in this way can our empire maintain its glory."

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