Ireland's County of Wicklow is located south of Dublin, bordering the Irish Sea, and is dominated by mountains and hills, with little access by land. After being expelled from Dublin by the Commonwealth army www.biquge.info the main force of the Irish Volunteer Army temporarily retreated to this place, originally to take a short rest in order to fight again, but the rear suddenly spread bad news, the rebels occupied Port Cork, the senior officials of the provisional government were either detained, or thrown into the rebel camp, the front-line troops were suddenly in turmoil, people were worried about the situation in the rear, and feared that the British army would take advantage of the situation, and in this case, the large-scale retreat was likely to evolve into a rout, once the British army really launched an attack, the losses suffered by the troops would be catastrophic……

The southern town of Canew in County Wicklow is about 70 kilometres north of Dublin, just over 50 kilometres from the coastal town of Waterford in southeastern Ireland and nearly 200 kilometres from Cork Harbour. On the third day of the fall of Cork Harbour to the rebels, the headquarters of the 1st Regiment of the Irish Volunteers moved from central County Wicklow to this small and unassuming place on the map.

On the same day, the Interim President of the Republic of Ireland, Orne McNeill, who had fled from Cork Harbour, also arrived in Carnew, and his panic was greatly eased by the protection of the troops. In the house vacated by the mayor, a weary McNell fell asleep after dinner and did not wake up until dawn the next day.

The mountains were full of camps of Irish volunteer officers and soldiers.

McNeil, of course, knew that the tents were basically supplies brought in by the Germans before the war, and many members of the Republican Brotherhood at the time wondered who would have a good house to sleep in tents. For a long time, these materials were backlogged in secret warehouses, and the waterproof materials used to make the tents were not perishable, and they were still intact after two or three years. Today, British submarines are cruising the waters around Ireland like sharks, and even with the escort of warships, the loss rate of German transports is still high, and every ton of cargo that arrives in Ireland is the most urgently needed for the war - which in turn proves how prescient the Germans were in bringing in tents before the war.

After a simple breakfast, McNeil munched on a few bites, and then summoned the commander of the 1st Legion, Lawlanders, and several of his capable men in the guest room. The men were dressed in the brand-new uniforms of senior officers, but the embarrassment and frustration on their faces contrasted sharply with the uniforms. Although they were rewarded for their bravery, this did not prove that they were up to the role of commander of a large force. In fact, before launching the armed uprising, Lawlanders was a secondary school history teacher, and most of his generals and colonels were of civilian origin, only a few of them had been local policemen or volunteers in the British army, and they could have the status they have today, the biggest advantage is that they joined the Irish Volunteer Army earlier, and they have certain leadership and command skills, but in terms of regular military quality, they are not as good as the group of young officers under Peirce who had gone to Germany for secret study.

Lawlandes' chief of staff reported: "We have just received information this morning that our 4th Infantry Regiment has arrived at Willistown, Waterfordshire, but has not been able to cross the Blackwater, and that the rebels have planted explosives on the bridge and ambushed the riflemen on the west bank of the Blackwater. ”

"Why can't the brave 4th Infantry Regiment force its way across the river?" McNeil stared at Laulanders, his tone soft and weak, and there was not even the slightest hint of fierceness in his eyes.

Lawlanders did not speak, but was "spoken" by his chief of staff: "Mr. President, our fighters do not want to fire on their fellow brothers, and no one wants to see the Irish shed blood and die in the civil war." ”

This answer made McNeil feel unreasonably annoyed: "The other side took out explosives and ambushed the riflemen, they completely disregarded the blood of their compatriots, but we are here to talk about mercy!" ”

The chief of staff explained with a look of grievance: "They threatened to detonate explosives before we approached the bridge, and the soldiers who tried to cross the river were shot at by them, but no one was injured." ”

"Enough!" McNeel couldn't bear to stop the noisy fellow, and he looked at Lawlanders with a wistful gaze, and the man whom he thought he could fully trust, said pitifully: "If we cannot put down the rebellion with all our hearts, the Republic of Ireland will be finished, and the whole of Ireland will henceforth be under the rule of a German. ”

Lawlanders was silent, and his generals and colonels seemed to have expected McNell to say this, one by one, like sculptures, without saying a word.

McNeil sighed deeply. As the patriarch of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the founder of the Irish Volunteer Army, he has great seniority, but his reputation within the Brotherhood and the Volunteer Army is not the highest, and a very important reason is that he advocates "peaceful independence". McNeill's original intention in forming the Irish Volunteer Army was not to fight a war, but to use this armed force as a bargaining weight with the British government when the British government was mired in war, and to win the maximum autonomy for Ireland through non-violent means. In the past, in meetings within the Order, or in conversations between comrades, he always bluntly said that, with the military and political power of Britain, Ireland would have to wait until the next hundred years to become a fully independent country, and that his efforts were made to prevent the Irish from shedding blood in a hopeless rebellion.

Now, this sentence has become a great irony for him.

In fact, as early as around 1910, the Germans quietly increased their investment in Ireland and provided secret military assistance to the Irish Republican Brotherhood and some branches of the Irish Volunteers, and the weak Irish Volunteers continued to grow. With the latest rifles, machine guns, and even artillery, there was a growing desire within the Volunteer Army for the prospect of an armed expulsion of the British army, and McNell should have noticed this, but when the signs of war in Europe became more and more apparent, he did not adjust his views to the situation, but stubbornly insisted that the Irish Volunteers could only consider an armed uprising unless the British forcibly recruited troops in Ireland, or if there was a strong hope of success.

As a result, the prestige of the Republican Brotherhood veterans and even rising stars in favor of armed independence grew within the organization, and McNeil's position was no longer what it used to be. After the outbreak of the war, Eamon Kanter took Pierce and others on a secret visit to Germany, and received a promise from Germany to provide a large amount of military aid and direct troops, and then at the high-level meeting of the Republican Brotherhood and the Volunteer Army, the majority was in favor of armed independence, and McNell had to accept this fait accompli. Later, the German Navy was victorious, the Irish Volunteers took the lead in launching an armed uprising, and the Germans also transported a large number of marines to Ireland as agreed. At this time, McNeil decided to proclaim the Republic of Ireland at Cork Harbour, and the whole country rejoiced when the announcement was made, and the people who supported Irish independence rejoiced. However, unlike these ignorant ordinary soldiers and civilians, McNell and his followers knew that the Republican Brotherhood had signed a series of secret treaties with the German government, including the establishment of the Kingdom of Ireland and the veneration of a member of the German royal family as the King of Ireland, although he did not approve of too deep cooperation with the Germans from the beginning, and these secret treaties were also decisions made by other leaders of the Republican Brotherhood and the Volunteer Army to bypass him, so in the strict sense, McNell did not fulfill the obligations of these secret treaties, And he did.

But judging from the series of actions taken by McNell after his honorable inauguration as President of the Republic of Ireland, he did not realize how powerful his opponents were - and even if he did, he did not have the time and ability to make careful arrangements and put them into practice.

Desperate, McNeil sneered: "Gentlemen, since you are not willing to be enemies of your former comrades-in-arms, then give me, the interim president of a failed Republic of Ireland, to the rebels to preserve your position and honor!" ”

"Mr. President, everyone sitting here has been born and died on the battlefield. In the past, we dared to straighten our chests in the face of the artillery and bayonets of the British, and today we are equally fearless in the face of the artillery and machine guns of the Germans. But our soldiers did not think so, the Republic of Ireland was established in such a hurry, its foundations were not solid, and many people did not even understand what it was. Now, the fact that the coups who oppose the republic do not want to overthrow the country, but to re-elect its state and its leader by means of a parliamentary vote is not enough to arouse the anger of the soldiers, and if we force them to attack, I can assert that the 4th Infantry Regiment will mutinier in less than a day, and the rest of the troops will be affected. ”

Laulandus' words made McNeil sit down slowly.

Then Lawlanders nodded to his chief of staff, and the officer took out from his pocket a piece of paper slightly larger than a slap, on which were written a few sentences in printed font, and the content looked simple.

Lawlanders handed the paper to McNeil.

"These are leaflets dropped by rebel planes, and more than half of our troops have received such leaflets." He explained that, as if to show comfort to McNeill, he used the word "rebel" that he had been avoiding until now.

McNeil grabbed the flyer and glanced at it, his face grim.

"To tell you the truth, our forces are on the verge of collapse. If you had to choose fairly, I'm sure most of the warriors would still choose you as the leader of the country, but the conditions are not equal. Without the support of the Germans, we suffered defeat in Dublin, and the troops needed to be reinvigorated, but now they were suffering a heavy mental blow. It is precisely because of this that our opponents dare to carry out a coup d'état with a small number of forces. Lawlanders said this, as if there was a following, but not a word.

"That being said, our decision to play Dublin was too rash and gave the Germans and their supporters a great opportunity." McNeil said wistfully, "Now, it seems that we have no way out but to surrender." ”

"No, we're not surrendering." "It's about negotiation, a peaceful and negotiated solution to the crisis, and letting the will of the people determine the future of Ireland." ”

"The will of the people? The will of the people has long been misled by the benevolence, fraternity, and selflessness of the Germans. McNeil sneered helplessly, "But what can be done?" We could not defeat the British on our own, and from the moment we decided to accept German aid and wage an armed war of independence, the fate of Ireland was on the course set by the Germans. They...... What a way! ”

(End of chapter)