Painted green and white, Train 47 is a regular passenger train running on the Limerick-Belfast rail line, plying Ireland's capital and the northern towns every two days. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoAlthough Belfast is the most Protestant city in Ireland and 95% of Limerick's inhabitants are Catholic, this does not prevent the rail between the two places from being the busiest passenger and freight route in the whole of Ireland. When the train leaves Limerick Central Station on time, all the seats and compartments are full. As the long journey began, most of the people were in good spirits, packed their luggage, and chatted with the passengers next to them, with few noticing that the train departed a few minutes later than the standard train schedule.

On the track in front of train No. 47, a guy who is much shorter than a normal train and whose carriage skin is painted with yellow and green camouflage is steadily heading north. The nose of the car looked like a large rhinoceros in heavy armor, with riveted armor plates everywhere, and the cab was tightly closed, leaving only metal shutters for looking outward; Its carriages vary in shape, some carry swirling turrets, some have forked antennas, and some resemble ordinary passenger carriages, with a faint view of the hole in the window curtains.

Next to the coffee table by the window of the carriage, Natsuki and Charlotte are leaning on each other, looking sweet like a young couple in love, but the environment they are in, the image in the eyes of others, and even the impact of their upgraded relationship are not comparable to ordinary couples.

Quietly looking out the window and feeling the breath of his sweetheart, Natsuki whispered: "During the time we lived in Bromberg, we often thought about how good it would be if we could live a peaceful life away from the world, but the venerable Creator wanted us to live under the spotlight of the whole world. There is an ancient saying in the East called "what comes is peaceful", which means adapting to the situation, not complaining or impatient, and living an active life. Now that I think about it, as long as we can stay together, what kind of life does it matter? ”

Charlotte's eyes had been closed for a while, as if she was enjoying the long-lost feeling of steadiness, and she replied motionlessly: "Yes, Jochen, you and I can't become an ordinary couple after all, and we can't ruthlessly give up this relationship, so we can only bravely face all the difficulties we will encounter!" ”

When he first met Charlotte, Natsuki never expected that the relationship between the two would have such ups and downs, such as parachuting and confessing, and eloping, and the great sadness of being separated from each other for several years. Along the way, I have enjoyed tenderness and sweetness, I have suffered from lonely thoughts, I have met different people, different things have happened, I have constantly thought about life, and I have come to the final conclusion only condensed in a sigh: "This relationship is destined to be cut off in this life." ”

Charlotte suddenly raised her head and looked carefully into Natsuki's eyes, as if to test whether he meant what he said, and after a moment, she pursed her lips and laughed.

"Do I have something strange on my face?" Natsuki asked deliberately.

Charlotte put a smile on her face, and then shook her head very seriously, but there was still a smile in her beautiful eyes.

Natsuki touched his chin and shaved it clean before going to bed, and now he could already feel the stubble, so he said, "Well, it's much older than before." ”

Charlotte's smile was obviously not this, she was not in a hurry to talk about it, but looked Xia Shu up and down, and said: "It is indeed very manly and attractive, no wonder it will make Her Royal Highness the most noble eldest princess of the British royal family fall in love." ”

Natsuki knew that she shouldn't be jealous or angry, maybe she was just curious, or a little jealous, so she laughed heartily.

"It's not easy to get the eldest princess of England to look at, but it seems to me that it's much more difficult to win Miss Charlotte Hill's heart."

Charlotte was surprised: "Oh? Is it? ”

"In those years, I sang for you, wrote poems for you, didn't think about tea and dinner for you, jumped from a few hundred meters for you, and flew a plane to land on an unknown meadow for you, none of these things have ever been done for Her Royal Highness Princess Mary!" Saying this, Natsuki was full of pride, and judging from Charlotte's happy reaction, such an answer was flawless.

The two of them were tired of talking for a while, Charlotte's eyes looked out of the window, and said with a little melancholy: "We all think that Her Royal Highness the eldest princess is a very good person." ”

Feelings pay attention to fate and feelings, there is a fate to meet, to be like each other, and then to fall in love with each other, and to achieve positive results, and personal ability and character have no necessary relationship. Natsuki has received thousands of courtship letters, including young girls from princely and aristocratic families, young ladies from wealthy merchant families, and many people with superior comprehensive conditions than Charlotte, but no matter how many obstacles and setbacks he encountered, he still waited for her without changing his original intention, which is enough to explain everything.

Before the two of them could discuss the topic of Princess Mary in depth, there was a polite knock on the door, and the incomprehensible fellow was O'Grady, the secretary of state. Before reporting to Natsuki, he glanced vaguely at Charlotte. Clearly, the Secretary of State was not curious as to why His Majesty was obsessed with such an Englishwoman who had no peerless looks, no fiery figure, and no charm to get along with, but was appropriately suggesting that his report was about Irish state secrets, and that it would be best to ask her to recuse herself until one could be sure that the observer was infallible.

Charlotte saw the other party's intentions, she was not the kind of person who was spoiled, she was not annoyed by the careful vigilance of the secretary of state, but she did not blindly obey the hints of the secretary of state, but left the sofa and sat at the desk, leaving them five or six meters of space to talk.

Seeing that Natsuki didn't say anything about this, O-Grady didn't want to say more, but deliberately lowered his voice during the report: "The security work along the line has been properly deployed, and the only people who know His Majesty's movements at the moment are a few cabinet ministers and senior officers of the general staff of the three services, and the people who know the exact travel time are limited to the latter, so it is said that there should be no loopholes." ”

Natsuki bowed her head slightly to indicate that she knew. The Irish royal family and government do not have special trains, and the King, Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers who wish to travel by rail must either charter a number of carriages on ordinary trains or use the military's special trains. On the other hand, Ireland has a complex terrain, the road transport network is more convenient than the railway, and the automobile industry has developed rapidly recently, and the Irish are accustomed to taking a car for short and medium-distance travel, and it is also convenient to take a plane or a ferry if it is a long journey through the north and south of the island of Ireland. Of course, the Irish government has invested heavily in the construction of three main railway lines and a number of branch lines, and what is needed is not only economic indicators on paper, but also the railway has significant advantages over road and air transport in terms of passenger and freight capacity, and the speed and efficiency are ideal compared to sea transportation, and it has high economic significance and strategic value.

Xia Shu's tour of the north this time was to borrow a special military train from the general staff of the three services. Its primary purpose was not for warfare, but for use as a mobile command center in wartime and, if necessary, as an emergency refuge for the royal family and high-ranking government officials. As a result, it is configured with an emphasis on defense and communication capabilities, as well as a certain level of comfort. It is worth mentioning that Ireland itself only has a train maintenance factory and no production system, from the locomotive to the passenger and freight cars need to be purchased from Germany, this military special train is also a genuine German made, but it belongs to the post-war redundant materials, so the price is not as high as ordinary imported goods.

O'Grady went on to report: "A telegram came from the Cabinet Office half an hour ago that the German Ambassador, Earl Bill, had paid a visit to Prime Minister Horders this morning, suggesting that it would be unsafe for His Majesty to go on a tour at this time, and that it would be better to postpone the trip...... This must be the opinion of the German royal family and government. ”

Natsuki snorted lightly, noncommittal. More than two years after Ireland's independence, the political situation in most parts of the country is stable and orderly, and the people live and work in peace and contentment, except for the northern counties, which have been in turmoil repeatedly, and the Irish government has recently adopted a decisive and tough tactic against the separatists, and many Protestants have been implicated, so that the religious conflict that was once calm has shown signs of re-intensification. The King of Ireland chose this time to tour the North, and nearly half of the Cabinet Ministers were opposed, while even supporters insisted that the King's personal safety should come first.

In the eyes of ordinary people, His Majesty Joachim, who grew up in a German royal family and is now the king of Ireland, should have a large number of dutiful guards with him, but this is not the case. He had been in the army for many years, and had long been accustomed to the hard and self-reliant way of life of the army, and never needed his adjutants to worry about his own life, and it was not until he became the youngest general in German history that he was assigned a full-time guard. Becoming a candidate for the throne of Ireland and later being crowned to the throne, Natsuki slightly strengthened his personal defenses, but it was far from the standard common to European monarchs. The advantage of this is that they can set an example by making Irish officials at all levels abstain from luxury, greed, arrogance, and rashness, and the good atmosphere of honesty and honesty, and self-denial, which effectively ensures the efficiency of Irish official administration. The downside is obvious, when he was unexpectedly attacked on St. Patrick's Day, if it weren't for the bulletproof design of the car and the desperate efforts of the garrison on guard, he might have followed in the footsteps of Archduke Ferdinand.

Nominally, the Royal Guard of Ireland was responsible for the security of the Irish royal family, but in addition to protecting the king's personal safety for a while, it gradually became an elite special operations force on special missions, and even made a big splash in the Liverpool raid on the remnants of the Belfast Division. This time, at the strong request of cabinet ministers and military generals, Natsuki agreed to transfer a small team of people from the Royal Guard and officially formed his own personal guard.

The official guard was named "Heimdall", the guardian of the Rainbow Bridge in Norse mythology. The Guard, including the medical officer, consisted of 22 members, led by Captain Lem Murai, who was of Irish descent and had served in the German army for many years and had experienced the Great War, followed by 2 non-commissioned officers, 1 medical officer, and 17 soldiers. Unlike the tall and handsome royal honor guards, most of the officers and soldiers who entered the "Heimdall" were mediocre in appearance, but all of them were steady, loyal and reliable men.

(End of chapter)