Great time travel

Chapter 603: Welcome to the Era of Gentlemen and Ladies

Chapter 3. Welcome to the age of gentlemen and ladies

The village of Longburn, Hertfordshire, where the Bennet family lives, is about 25 miles from the capital, London, even closer than the distance from London to Windsor Castle.If it is placed in later generations, it will be at most one step on the accelerator on the expressway and drive for half an hour, and at most one hour will arrive.But in England at the end of the eighteenth century, this short 25 miles meant a long journey of at least half a day from early morning to afternoon.

When the seven members of the Bennet family drove into London in the afternoon sun in a private carriage suspected of being severely overloaded, what they met was not only the hustle and bustle of the big city, but also the smelly, dirty, floating car. Dirty air with all kinds of disease-causing bacteria...

——At this time, London, the foggy capital, has surpassed the turbulent and chaotic Paris to become the largest city in Europe, but many famous buildings that tourists from later generations often visit are actually built in Victoria half a century later. era.Such as London Tower Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, Regent Street, London Houses of Parliament (Big Ben)... Most of the neoclassical style squares, parks, residential areas, hospitals, libraries, schools, and Public fountains and street sculptures, etc., are still missing at this moment.On the contrary, the urban area of ​​London at this time is full of crooked old streets. These roads can be traced back to the Middle Ages. These roads are often so narrow that it is difficult for a carriage to pass through, and there is no complete drainage system at all. The stench was everywhere, and the air smelled of garbage, sewage, and excrement.

Bearing the unpleasant stench, the carriage meandered all the way, and soon got on London Bridge, but of course London Bridge today is not the magnificent suspension bridge with two granite square main towers in later generations, but a very shabby one. The wooden bridge looks quite old.London Bridge is also very crowded, and the carriage moves slowly, almost slower than walking.But it was convenient for the Bennet family to enjoy the... disgusting view of the Thames.

There is no way, a river that is as turbid and black as ink and exudes a pungent smell is really out of tune with the beautiful scenery.Although the water quality of the Thames River is quite disgusting, there are many sails on the river, and the boats and boats are connected. I don’t know how many wooden sailboats are crowded in the Thames River, which is not really open.Ship British high-quality and cheap industrial products to all over the world, and then transfer massive wealth back to the UK.

However, in fact, the current foggy London has not yet entered the worst nightmare era of the environment.Because in this day and age, even in Britain, the pioneer of the industrial revolution, the industrial revolution has only just begun.Trains and ships have not yet appeared, and it is only a short dozen years since Mr. Watt invented the new steam engine, and the real large-scale production of the Watt steam engine did not happen until recently.And it is mainly used in mines, and there are not many factories using steam engines as power.

(Just as the earliest computers could fill a room, the first Watt steam engines were riddled with problems and took a long time to improve.)

The first steam-powered cotton mill in human history was not completed until [-] in Manchester, the "Cotton Capital".As for London, where the land is expensive, there are even fewer new-style factories, and there may not even be a single one. Therefore, looking from the bridge, there is no terrifying scene of chimneys and soot covering the sky.What is even more impressive is the high and low spiers in the city, which are the unique architectural styles of churches.In Britain in the early days of the Industrial Revolution, the religious-based social organization life pattern inherited from the Middle Ages has not changed much.In London, this dominant position is reflected in a large number of luxurious churches located in the city center and aristocratic private chapels of all sizes.

Basically, now London is just a financial, religious, commercial center and consumer city, and the problem of industrial pollution is not too serious.

But even for the time being, there are not a large number of factories discharging sewage into the Thames day and night.The garbage and excrement produced by millions of London residents and hundreds of thousands of horses every day alone is enough to make the water of the Thames so dirty that no animals or plants can grow.And the smog produced by burning coal for heating and cooking with so many people living together is also enough to reduce the air quality of this city to the level of hell.Most of the time every year, the sky in London is gray and dark, with no trace of blue sky and white clouds at all, as if shrouded in boundless smog.

After crossing the Thames River, there were still a lot of horse-drawn carriages going back and forth on the street, so the speed of the cars could only be maintained at a slow speed, creeping forward slowly, and the voices of hawking and bargaining in English lingered around, making it very noisy.From time to time, dirty children would throw their baskets on the side of the carriage to sell goods, causing the foul stench to come in through the windows of the carriage...Jane.Bennet obviously couldn't accept such a harsh environment. He covered his mouth with his white and tender hands, and found it difficult to breathe.

"... Tsk tsk, I can't take it anymore just like this? You newbies are so immature! Compared to those rotten dead cities in the biochemical end of the world, or the Stalingrad battlefield filled with gunpowder and bullets flying everywhere, this little The battle is really nothing!"

Seeing Miss Jane's disgusting and uncomfortable look, Mrs. Bennet, whose soul was changed by a senior reincarnator of infinite space, couldn't help but sighed in disappointment, "...if you can't even bear this level of test Wait, how will you survive in this cruel world in the future?"

Jane and Elizabeth: "..." It always feels like life in the future will be scary!How much longer can we live?

All in all, after night fell and the lights came on, before the bones of their bodies were bumped to pieces, the five Bennet sisters finally arrived at the destination of their trip to London—their relatives in London, Gardin of Tenen Temple Street Uncle Na's house.

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A certain ancient Greek sage wisely declared that every Greek city-state in his day could be divided into two, a city-state of the poor and a city-state of the rich, and that these two cities were always in a state of hostility or war.In the same way, London, the capital of the United Kingdom of Great Britain at the end of the eighteenth century, was actually composed of two completely different worlds, one belonging to a very small number of upper-class people, and the other belonging to the majority of lower-class people.

The former includes about 10,000+ nobles and rich people, as well as their servants, butlers and coachmen, etc. They live in high-class communities with good law and order and elegant environment, and the so-called London of gentlemen and ladies refers to this area Not a big range.

The latter has a population of more than one million, gathered like rats in a number of dirty and smelly slums full of vagrants, criminals and beggars.Since these poor people could barely pay taxes, the rulers of Britain never cared about the security of the slums.Occasionally a gentleman must go to the slums, usually with his own firearms, and killing the scum of society without getting into any trouble.

In fact, such places still exist in the modern world, such as the black districts of Detroit in the United States and the slums of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

How, then, is the distinction between the upper class and the lower class in England at this time?The amount of wealth is obviously an important factor, but in Britain, which has just entered the capitalist era, title, lineage and land are also very important reference standards.From top to bottom, the entire social class can be divided into royal family, nobles, gentlemen and commoners.The concept of a gentleman generally refers to the middle class in the UK, covering a wide range of people, and there are great differences between them.To sum it up simply, the gentry class is big or small landowners who own their own real estate and make a living from real estate income, but do not have a title (you will be promoted to a noble if you get a title).The longer a family has been in charge of a territory, and even a place name can be used as a surname, the more respected and status the surname will be.This is the legacy of the feudal tradition of noble lords in the Middle Ages. Only those who own real estate are the real people with status.The man who lives on his estate income, though perhaps poorer than the trader, is of a higher status.

(Many place names in modern Britain, such as Salisbury where Stonehenge is located, are the surnames of local hereditary nobles.)

To sum it up a bit more simply, if the mainstream value of socialist countries is "labor is glorious", then the mainstream value of modern Britain is the diametrically opposite "labour is shameful".To evaluate the status of a family, it depends on the family's source of income.Only the family where the landlord earns money by collecting rent for nothing is the highest status, and those who need to rely on work to support themselves, unless they are officials, whether they are lawyers, doctors, businessmen, or farmers, are all considered inferior. wait for someone!No matter how much money the family has, they can only be regarded as dishonorable nouveau riche!

——Later American lawyers who claimed to be social elites were actually expelled from the ranks of "respectable people" in Britain at the end of the eighteenth century...

To put it more simply, the landlord is supreme, and a gentleman can only be considered a gentleman if he has land. Unless he is a nobleman, only the landlord family is the most noble.

(It can be roughly compared to the ancient Chinese saying that "everything is inferior, only reading is high". In the UK, it is "only landlords are high"...)

Of course, despite the mainstream view, it is also very common for rich upstarts to hate the poor and love the rich, and to look down on the run-down squires.In fact, with the germination of the industrial revolution and the development of overseas colonies, the squires who live only on real estate income are rapidly becoming poorer and poorer than the wealthy industrial and commercial owners. Although the land rent income has not decreased, the upper class The average daily communication expenditure level of the country, but with the birth of a large number of nouveau riche, it is rising day by day, so that the traditional gentry began to become unable to make ends meet in order to maintain the living standards of the upper class.If the land is not much or too barren, in fact, it is just barely maintaining dignity.The truly wealthy upper class, in addition to having the status of a large landowner in the country, usually also needs to obtain additional income from emerging manufacturing industries, trade in overseas colonies, and plantations, so that they can live a luxurious life of luxury.As for their manors in England, they degenerate into just a status symbol, no different from famous horses, fancy clothes and yachts.

The Bennet family from Longbourn Village in Hertfordshire, although not considered a wealthy family, at least has a piece of land that has been passed down for many generations, so they can barely be regarded as upper-class people.And their relative in London, Uncle Gardiner, is a businessman. Although he is not considered poor in terms of wealth and wealth, his status in this era is quite awkward because of the lack of land, so their house is in London. The location is also relatively marginal, belonging to the transition zone between "high-class London" and "low-class London".The security environment of this place is not bad, at least it is not likely to be robbed in the street, and hygiene should not be too particular.Outside the curtains of the residences is the street full of sewage, and a few streets away is the real slum, which is nicknamed "the crow's nest".There are homeless people wandering around every night, and some orphans will find food in the garbage.

Still, as long as the curtains are drawn, this place is at least a place to sleep peacefully...

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After resting at Uncle Gardiner's house for one night, the Bennets who had changed their souls, or the two veterans of infinite space, left behind five "daughters" who were newcomers to infinite space. Go out to shop and scout the future battlefield.And the three old ladies in maiden skins, Mary, Kitty and Lydia, finally drank the tea they had been looking forward to for a long time at the breakfast table of Uncle Gardiner's house.

——Since the second half of the 240th century, the British have had the habit of drinking tea more generally, importing [-] million pounds of tea from the then Qing Dynasty every year.And because of the problem of exporting tea to North America, it led to the outbreak of the American War of Independence (the Boston Tea Party).

But the question is, what is this little gray-green thing that was placed in front of their eyes?It doesn't look like tea bricks either?Can this drink?

Three old ladies in girlish skins studied the weird-looking "suspected green tea" in clay pots for a long time, but in the end, with the mentality that they would not get sick after eating them, they took the small lump Put the lumpy gray-green stuff in a glass with boiling water, and take a sip and almost spit it out... oh my god!Are they still on earth?When did China have this kind of gourmet tea?It's even worse than the worst tea stems!Didn't these British people just get some leaves to pretend to be? (The truth about the tea leaves is even scarier than they imagined, so I won’t talk about it for now.)

On the other side, seeing the tangled faces of the three "sisters" who were about to wrinkle, Elizabeth, who was drinking hot coffee leisurely, couldn't help admiring her foresight... However, she only dared to put sugar in the coffee , but did not dare to add milk, because the milk they drank in London was really something wrong-if the fresh raw milk they drank in the countryside of Longbourne before was a bit fishy, ​​but it could still be eaten after being boiled and sugared, Now the milk that I drink at my uncle’s house in London is like swill, and the taste is so weird that it’s indescribable. It’s not like milk, but it has all kinds of flavors. I don’t know how black-hearted businessmen add it It's better not to touch something.

But what she didn't know was that the sucrose she sprinkled into the hot coffee was actually not a safe food...

Next, the bread that serves as the staple food is still as hard as ever, while the corned beef that is a must for English breakfast is even harder, and it can be compared to a wooden block in appearance.The taste of the butter is also very strange, so Elizabeth always has the illusion that she is eating soap, so she dare not touch it again after only one taste.

In addition, the eggs on the table are not scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, or fried eggs, but cracked eggs and boiled until they are half-ripe, sprinkled with a little pepper to make a half-baked egg sauce, and then eat with bread... …Westerners may like it very much, but many Chinese can't stand it at all.Especially Elizabeth herself before time-traveling, she hated the half-cooked fried eggs in the cafeteria when she was a student.

As a result, the only thing that can be eaten on the entire table is lettuce leaves, coated with some unknown strange meat sauce, and then sandwiched into slices of bread to make a sandwich... For pampered modern women It is said that eating in this dark cuisine country is really a technical job.

Meanwhile, her "sister," Jane, was lying upstairs in her bedroom, undergoing another, more horrific ordeal.

——As an adult woman, she naturally wouldn't be ignorant of monthly menstrual holidays.But the problem is, because she traveled to another world and changed her body, she really doesn't know her current menstrual cycle...

As a result, on the night of arriving at Uncle Gardiner's house, her period suddenly came, and it was so heavy and violent that it stained a large area of ​​the bed sheet red.

What's more, she didn't find Jane until this time.Bennet's body still has dysmenorrhea...

To make matters worse, perhaps because of the exhaustion of the journey, Jane's pain this time was extremely severe, as if she was being rolled through her abdomen by a meat grinder. Got to have a nervous breakdown.

However, the real problem is not dysmenorrhea, after all, it is something that modern women cannot avoid.The most terrible thing is that I noticed Jane.After Bennet’s “hemorrhaging” and moaning in pain, her warm-hearted Aunt Gardiner not only rushed to change her sheets and clothes immediately, but also carefully took care of her to take a dose of “home medicine”... The curative effect seemed to be very significant, and after taking the medicine, Jane soon fell asleep peacefully.

Elizabeth was relieved at first, until after breakfast, she happened to notice the name label of the "home remedy".

"...This is...opium cream?!!" Elizabeth's eyes widened in disbelief, "...you gave Jane this?!!"

What surprised her even more was that Aunt Gardiner admitted it frankly with a smile in the face of her own condemnation and questioning!

"...Well, that's right, opium cream. Is this a common medicine that every household in London has to keep? Colds, coughs, headaches, diarrhea, and just... when women can't get that thing down every month, You have to take a little bit. Don’t you have any at home? This is not very good!”

Aunt Gardiner graciously stuffed an unopened box of opium paste into her hand, "...then take some back for Jane by the way!"

Looking down at the opium cream that was stuffed into her hand, and then looking up at Aunt Gardiner who was glowing red, the corners of Elizabeth's mouth twitched for a moment, and she didn't know what to say—this aunt seemed to have no Realize that opium is a drug!

Then, in addition to being shocked, she couldn't help but feel a little confused: According to her aunt, she and her uncle's family should have taken opium regularly, but now it seems that although aunt's skin has been a little loose, her appearance is also the same. Average, but his complexion is still very good, and his body is too plump, which is not at all comparable to those yellow and emaciated opium ghosts in his history textbooks in his impression.What exactly is going on?Why did the same opium cause so much trouble in modern China, but it was regarded as a common drug in Britain and nothing happened? !

However, the historical fact is true. At that time, opium did not cause any serious social problems in Europe at that time...

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——It is difficult for many modern Chinese to imagine that before the Opium War, opium in Britain was probably more rampant than in China under the Qing Dynasty.In major pharmacies in London, opium is generally regarded as a "panacea" to cure all diseases. From cough syrup to pain relief ointment, at least half of the medicines contain opium ingredients.It was especially appalling that British pharmacies in this day and age were also offering a baby pill for women who were tired of having small babies: for busy women, a noisy baby is a nightmare, isn't it?no problem!Just take this medicine and it will instantly quiet your children and never bother you again... because it has opium in it.As a result, many unlucky British children were so quiet that they would never cry again because they had taken too much opium-containing medicine, and then because they were too quiet, they didn't cry for milk in time, so they just fell asleep in their sleep, as if Like the little match girl in the fairy tale, she starved to death peacefully...

However, even with the horrific risks mentioned above, opium cream is still the most stocked drug in the average household in the UK. It is regarded as a common medicine for headache and brain fever, and it is very popular among people like modern aspirin: because at that time Medical conditions are backward, and there is no clear understanding of germs and viruses, and the cause of disease is not clear, so as long as it can make patients feel more comfortable and relieve some of their pain, it is a good drug.In this case, the narcotic and analgesic properties of opium are naturally very useful.

In fact, for many mild ailments such as colds and gout, human beings can rely on their own immunity to survive and eventually recover naturally, but the pain during the period is unbearable.And opium can just relieve the pain during this period and make people survive this difficult time.Of course, if one encounters an inflammation that cannot be dealt with by one's own immunity, the abuse of opium will instead cover up the symptoms and delay the treatment... But the problem is that at the end of the eighteenth century when no antibacterial drugs were invented, even if the cause of the disease was diagnosed , What effective treatment plan can those Western quack doctors come up with?Let patients die of bloodletting like Washington, the founding father of the United States?Die in the intestines like King Charles II?Or more disgusting vomiting?Rather than tormenting the dying patients like this, it is better to let them smoke opium in the last period of their lives and live a little more comfortably!

Generally speaking, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Britain and even in the whole of Europe, not many people thought that opium was a bad thing, and there was even a British writer named De.Quincy wrote an "Ode to Opium" with a pen and a pen, which praised opium to the sky.Even the priests of the church who once accused "opium of depraving" regarded it as a pastime like liquor and tobacco.During the Victorian era, almost every Briton took opium at some point in their lives, and taking opium was as much a part of life as drinking or smoking.On the one hand, they regard Chinese people smoking opium for pleasure as a "unique oriental custom", but on the other hand, they pour opium into their bodies unscrupulously in the name of curing diseases.

However, although opium was abused without control and many people were killed, there were not many social problems caused by opium in Europe.Even though almost all Europeans have used opium to some extent, the number of people who are really addicted to drugs is extremely limited, even much less than the number of alcoholics who die from excessive drinking every year... So, so After some comparison, on the issue of the Opium War, people really have to think deeply, is it necessary to fight this war?What is the problem with opium?Or was there something wrong with Chinese society in the Qing Dynasty?

Because of such a huge cognitive gap, when the Opium War broke out, the Chinese thought it was a war against drugs, but the British firmly refused to admit it, because the British really did not regard opium as a drug at that time, but regarded it as a drug. Opium dens and coffee houses are legally maintained in London as pastimes in much the same way as spirits, tobacco, tea, and coffee.The modern British view of the Qing Dynasty’s smoking ban is probably similar to the modern Chinese’s view of the Arab world’s alcohol prohibition. The first reaction is that the government of that country is imprisoning the people, and there must be something wrong with their minds.Chinese people think that opium dealers are heinous drug dealers who deliberately harm people’s health, but British people think that this is probably the same as secretly selling alcohol to Arab countries. It just violates the local unreasonable laws. The Chinese are purely nervous , make a fuss about.

What?Smoking too much opium will kill people, so it should be banned?So how many alcoholics die of alcoholism every year?Is there still a ban on alcohol for this?

In short, in the thinking of the British government and high society at that time, according to the principle of reciprocity, since the Chinese can export tea to the UK, then the British should also be able to export opium to China... I have to admit that the Chinese The field of anti-drugs seems to be a little too far ahead.

——A proverb goes: half a step ahead of the times is a genius, but one step ahead of the times is a tragedy...

Closer to home, I was shocked to learn that my uncle’s family has been opium ghosts since childhood, and several cousins ​​have been taking opium since they were zero years old—Aunt Gardiner also bought the baby medicine containing opium , and now the main countermeasures for the British to treat a lot of common diseases such as colds, gout, stomach problems, arthritis, etc. are the ignorant and ignorant Elizabeth after taking opium.Miss Bennet couldn't help being horrified, but she couldn't think of anything else, so she could only stare at the opium cream in her hand, wondering how to explain this to Jane after she woke up.

In fact, in this world, apart from dark cuisine and opium abuse, there are many more disasters that they need to face next.

For example, losing their "parents" in this world unexpectedly, and bearing the full malice of this cruel society alone...