At the same time that the British Foreign Office received the telegram from the French Embassy, the Telegraph Office of The Times also received a message from the French Havas Agency...or rather in the name of the Havas Agency.
When the Times telegraph operator translated the Morse code into text and read it through, he immediately broke into the office of the editor-in-chief of The Times.
"Editor-in-chief, big news! Big news!" The telegraph operator shouted loudly to the editor-in-chief who was lying on the table while shaking the telegram in his hand.
The editor-in-chief, who heard the telegraph operator's call, opened his sleepy eyes, yawned and asked lazily: "What's the big news?"
"Look! Look!" The telegraph operator quickly photographed the telegram in front of the editor-in-chief.
The editor picked up the telegram and began to check the contents of the telegram. After a while, the originally lazy editor suddenly became "miraculously" stunned.
"It is indeed big news!" the editor clenched his fists excitedly and said: "It must be placed on the front page, and there must be an eye-catching title... It must also appear in today's newspaper!"
"But, editor-in-chief, our today's newspaper has already started printing and typesetting! If we ask workers to revise the typesetting now, I'm afraid it will waste a lot of cost. Otherwise, we should wait a day!" The telegraph operator made suggestions to the editor-in-chief based on cost considerations.
road.
"No! We can't wait until tomorrow!" the editor said firmly, and then explained to the telegraph operator: "The most important thing about news is timeliness and timeliness! The success of a newspaper depends on whether it has first-hand news! Late
Publishing in one day will certainly save us some money, but the impact will be ten times the cost and is irreversible.
We absolutely cannot let our loyal subscribers get the information they need to lag behind the press!”
"Other newspapers? You mean besides us, there are other newspapers that have also received this news?" the telegraph operator asked doubtfully.
"I'm sure! It's definitely not just our family that has received this news. I'm afraid many influential newspapers have received this news!" The editor-in-chief responded to the telegraph operator in a determined tone.
"Why do they do this?" the telegraph operator still asked in confusion.
"We don't need to understand why! We just need to know that when we received the telegram, we already had competitors!" the editor responded to the telegraph operator, and then gave him an order: "You can do it now
Go to the printing factory and tell the printing factory workers to stop printing immediately and wait for the next step!"
"Yes!" the telegraph operator who received the order quickly replied.
"Go!" The editor-in-chief waved his hand and reminded: "Remember to move quickly!"
The editor-in-chief, who watched the telegraph operator leave the office, opened the drawer and took out the paper and pen. This time he wanted to personally polish the short news into a more readable article.
.
After sitting in the office and polishing it for more than an hour, a brand new article appeared on the page.
After reading the article carefully, the editor-in-chief is quite satisfied with the article he wrote.
Although I have not written an article for a long time, my writing skills have not shown any decline.
"I need a title that fits this article!" The editor muttered quietly, and then wrote one title after another on another piece of draft paper.
However, he was dissatisfied with every title, always feeling that it lacked some critical meaning.
"What title should I give?" The editor-in-chief scratched his head twice.
The editor-in-chief who really couldn't imagine the title had to search out all the recent domestic and foreign newspapers. He hoped to find the answer from these newspapers.
Until he saw a certain headline in "Le Bonaparte", inspiration immediately poured into his mind like a fountain.
The editor-in-chief seized the opportunity and quickly recorded his thoughts, and an article titled "A Letter to the Prime Minister of Britain" "appeared" on the draft paper.
After writing the article, the editor took a look at the time. There were still nearly three hours until dawn (5 o'clock), so he had to hurry up.
Therefore, the editor-in-chief prepared to go to the printing factory in person to hand over the task.
…
When the editor-in-chief arrived at the gate of the printing factory, the entire printing factory was eerily quiet, and all the workers inside the printing factory seemed to have left.
"No way! Didn't I ask them to wait!" Looking at the quiet printing factory in front of him, the editor-in-chief felt anxious in his heart.
Just when the editor-in-chief thought that the printing factory was empty, a figure walked out of the printing factory.
The figure glanced at the editor standing under the gas lamp and said quickly: "Editor, you are here!"
The editor-in-chief quickly walked up to him. It turned out that the figure was the telegraph operator in the printing factory whom he had photographed. He quickly asked: "What on earth is going on? Why is there no movement at all in the printing factory?"
"Didn't you say not to start construction? So I didn't let the workers start construction!" the telegraph operator responded to the editor,
"Look at my brain!" The editor then remembered that he had indeed told them not to do anything.
Who would have thought that after writing an article, I would forget about it.
"You should hand this to the workers in the printing factory immediately and let them rush to work!" the editor handed the article into the hands of the telegraph operator and said to him.
"Okay!" The telegraph operator nodded and entered the printing plant.
The editor-in-chief also followed suit and entered the printing factory.
"Wake up! Wake up quickly! We are still working!" The workers were awakened by calls coming from their ears. They forced themselves to fall asleep and started working.
After working for nearly two and a half hours, tens of thousands of newspapers were produced by printing factory workers.
Looking at the ink-stained newspapers hanging on the rope, the editor nodded with satisfaction.
In another half an hour, these ink marks will solidify.
…
When the first rays of dawn emerged from the sparkling waters of the Thames River, the editor-in-chief began to order the workers in the printing plant to remove all the newspapers from the ropes.
Exhausted printing factory workers reluctantly collected and piled tens of thousands of newspapers.
It was already around 6 o'clock, and newsboys from various neighborhoods in London arrived at the door of the printing factory as if they had agreed on the time in advance. They lined up to wait for the newspapers.
"Come one by one!" The editor enthusiastically directed the workers to distribute the newspapers to the newsboys, and then told the newsboys to sell more newspapers.
After all the newsboys received their own newspapers, the editor looked at the remaining newspapers.
It was already 7 a.m., and the Times newspaper deliveryman arrived at the printing plant.
"This is yours...this is yours..." The editor-in-chief handed the newspaper into the hands of the home delivery people and told them to deliver the newspaper to the subscribers.
Although the newspaper delivery boys present were all wondering why the editor-in-chief was here, none of them dared to step forward and ask the editor-in-chief.
After all the newspapers were distributed, a feeling of exhaustion swept over the editor-in-chief's body.
"I'm going back to rest! You should go back early too!" The editor-in-chief yawned and said to the telegraph operator, and then left the printing plant.
…
Nine o'clock in the morning, No. 10 Downing Street.
As Prime Minister of the Cabinet, Palmerston officially started his new day's work.
He first asked his private secretary about his schedule for today. The private secretary shook his head and told Palmerston that he had no plans for today.
If there is no emergency...
"So, I can take a proper rest for the day!" Palmerston responded to the private secretary with a smile, and walked to the sofa to sit down.
"Your Excellency Prime Minister, of course!" the private secretary nodded respectfully.
"That's good!" Palmerston nodded, and then ordered to his private secretary: "Can you bring me the Times on the table? I want to take a look!"
As a loyal user of The Times, Palmerston did not want to let go of any issue.
Although the Times now criticizes him far more than praises him, this has not weakened Palmerston's interest in the Times at all.
After all, which cabinet has not been criticized by The Times? How can it be prime minister if it cannot tolerate even a small criticism.
"Yes! Prime Minister!" the private secretary handed the newspaper to Palmerston.
After receiving the Times, Palmerston looked at the headline titled "A Letter to the Prime Minister of Britain" and was convinced that the content of the Times was probably a criticism of a certain cabinet minister.
After all, who wants to write to the Prime Minister if they have nothing to do?
Thinking of this, Palmerston couldn't help but gloated. He was very happy to see his ministers suffer.
After all, most of the ministers who are currently forming the cabinet with him do not have many common interests with him, and there are even some who oppose him.
After defeating the Aberdeen cabinet, the cabinet formed by Palmerston was a hardline cabinet in name, but in reality it was a cabinet under the guise of a hardliner.
The members of the cabinet handled the Russian Empire very differently from Palmerston. Some cabinet ministers believed that the British Kingdom should stop occupying the Sevastopol Fortress and negotiate peace with Russia as soon as possible. Others believed that the British Kingdom should stop occupying the Sevastopol Fortress.
After Crimea, start a dialogue with the Russian Empire.
Palmerston himself was dissatisfied with both groups.
According to his ideas, the Russian Empire must be completely direct, the Caucasus, Crimea, and the coast (Odessa) should be restored to the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Finland should be returned to Sweden, and the Polish region should be established as a Grand Duchy of Poland.
The Kingdom of Prussia can expand to the Baltic Sea, and the Austrian Empire should expand to Bessarabia...
In short, in Palmerston's blueprint, the best outcome would be for the Russian Empire to transform back into the Grand Duchy of Muscovy.