Boom!

As soon as the convoy approached the old town of Bally-Shannon, the sound of explosions coming from the town startled everyone. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info Suddenly, the screeching sound of tires rubbing against the dirt road merges. Fortunately, the speed of the car is not fast, otherwise, the passengers will be embarrassed even if they are not knocked out of their noses and swollen faces.

Natsuki knew roughly what was going on, and although there might not have been an attacker nearby, he still took Charlotte in his arms, lowered his body slightly, and looked out through the car window very carefully.

In a moment's effort, the cars in front and back came to a crooked stop.

"Your Majesty, don't open the door!" Captain Murai greeted in a steady, powerful voice.

In the first half of the inspection line, Xia Shu and his entourage used a special train as the main means of transportation, and every time they arrived, they often only needed to take a car from the train station to the inspection site, so they always asked the local government to arrange vehicles. Starting from Ennikislin, there was no rail for the rest of the journey, and you had to take a car all the way, so the royal car was consigned from Limerick. At this time, the car that Natsuki and they were riding in was the bulletproof car LK20 tailored for him earlier by Limerick Vehicle Company, and its styling style is similar to the popular Mercedes-Benz luxury sedan, beautiful and generous, and powerful, the key is that the windows are made of tempered glass that was only used in battleships and airplanes, and the body and floor are wrapped with thin steel plates, which can effectively resist the attack of pistols at close range and rifles at long distances. In the previous attack in Limerick, the bulletproof sedan withstood the test of actual combat and became famous as news reports spread. Later, the Irish government chose it as a special diplomatic gift to the Emperor and Crown Prince of Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Emperor, the Ottoman Sultan, the King of Bulgaria, and other heads of state and dignitaries. It not only made a favor, but also launched a brand for the Irish vehicle industry.

At this moment, until the situation is clarified, it is obviously safer to stay in such a bulletproof car than to go out, and Natsuki certainly knows this, so he has no intention of opening the door at all, but quietly watches the well-trained members of the "Heimdall" guard quickly rely on the vehicle and the terrain to carry out combat alert. With their skills and combat experience, they believe that as long as they do not encounter attackers with heavy weapons, they can calmly deal with them.

Time passed quietly in a tense and oppressive atmosphere, and a few minutes passed, and nothing unusual appeared except for the explosion just now. If it weren't for the smoke from the explosion rising from the direction of the town, one might wonder if there was a collective delusion just now.

Captain Murai did not leave the sedan either, but he kept an eye on the external situation and issued tactical orders to his men from time to time. When all the battle posts he had sent to the periphery were in place and no potential threat had been detected, the alarm was temporarily lifted.

The captain opened the door first, and looked around for a while before standing by the door on Natsuki's side.

Natsuki rolled down the window: "Was it a grenade explosion?" ”

When it comes to the performance and sound of the weapons of the land, Captain Murai clearly has more say.

"Yes, it should be a grenade or an explosive of equal power. Wait and see, there will be conclusive news soon, and Your Majesty doesn't have to worry too much. ”

Having experienced the winds and waves of war, and being accustomed to seeing the lives and deaths of hundreds of people, Natsuki's courage and courage far exceed that of ordinary people, and the reason why he feels worried is precisely in response to the saying "the more you have, the more afraid you are of losing". He couldn't tolerate Charlotte being frightened or even hurt right under his nose, and he didn't want to fall into darkness when the good times came, but he didn't regret his previous decision to visit Ballyshannon as planned, because he wanted many people to see that he would not choose to flee at the slightest threat or trouble, and he wanted these people to understand that although his statecraft was based on positive means, the iron will of the soldiers was not worn out because of this, and when the situation required it, He's still the one who terrifies his enemies on the battlefield!

A moment later, a few sporadic gunshots rang out in the quiet town, and the atmosphere that had been somewhat relaxed suddenly tightened, and the brows of almost everyone present furrowed deeply: those extreme separatists were so bold as to dare to attack the king under the high vigilance of the military, it seemed that they really did not know whether to live or die!

At this time, a military communications vehicle derived from the Ford Model T sped up from the town of Bally-Shannon. After contacting the officers in the car, Captain Murai immediately reported to Natsuki: "When our soldiers were patrolling the town, they found explosives on the side of the road that the convoy was about to pass, but before they could investigate, an explosion occurred, and two soldiers were killed on the spot. The soldiers followed the detonating wire to track down the enemy, the gunfire just now should be a combat contact with the enemy, the situation is not yet clear, it is strongly recommended that you cancel your visit to the town of Ballyshannon and take a detour to Bandoron...... Uh, no, Your Majesty, maybe it's not safe to go to Bandoron, my advice is...... Immediately call for help from the nearby garrison, and we will return to the manor where we spent the night last night, and wait for reinforcements to arrive before leaving. ”

Seeing Captain Murai's nervous appearance, Natsuki knew that he was preparing for the worst for his own safety. The north is a lurking ground for hostile forces at home, and previous clean-up strikes may have eliminated the vast majority of the separatists as the Irish military had hoped, but it is also possible that they have not had the desired effect at all, or that new separatists have infiltrated from abroad. In recent times, these hostile elements may well have realized that the King's trip to the north had radically changed the domestic situation in Ireland, and that it would be difficult for them to exploit religious contradictions in the future, and that if they did not take advantage of this opportunity, they would lose all hope in the passage of time. These outlaws, some of whom had been part of Belfast's division and had received formal military training, others who may have lacked military qualities but had a fanaticism that were not afraid of death, whether they had five or six extreme thugs or twenty or thirty, or even more, if one or two of them were shrewd and cunning enough, might find an opportunity to assassinate the king under the noses of the police, the military, and the royal bodyguard.

At first glance, Captain Muray's suggestion was indeed a more prudent approach, but Natsuki quickly sorted out the pros and cons of the current choices. Returning to the Grady family's manor at a critical moment and receiving the favor of the Grady family will make the old Gaelic nobles grasp a very influential argument, that is, the king still needs the support and help of the old nobles at a critical juncture. In the future, when dealing with the issue of the status of the old Gaelic nobility, it will be difficult for Natsuki to firmly grasp the initiative as before. On the other hand, the earlier purge of hostile elements by the Irish government and military in the north involved a part of the old Gaelic aristocratic families, and a severe trial was given to several of them with more conclusive evidence and a more egregious nature.

In the final analysis, at this life-and-death moment, the only thing Natsuki can trust is the army and his personal guards.

Natsuki looked around through the car window, it was still early, and the nearest garrison should be able to arrive before dark, so he instructed Captain Muray: "Send a telegram to the General Staff, and ask them to move a battalion of troops and combat vehicles as soon as possible, while we will rest and wait for reinforcements in this lakeside place." ”

The road on which the convoy was located was only forty or fifty meters from the lake, and the lake adjacent to Bally-Shannon was connected by a river, about five kilometers long from east to west, less than a kilometer wide from north to south, and the waters were only accessible to small boats, while the road was surrounded by open terrain and farmland, and there was no dense vegetation within two kilometers, which might not be militarily conducive to holding on, and if only a small group of enemies had to be guarded against, the situation would be different.

Captain Murai, although he had misgivings about the king's order, resolutely chose to carry it out. Under his command, all the cars were off the road and parked on the side of the road in seemingly irregular positions, half of Heimdall's elite members were on guard on the perimeter, half of them relied on the terrain of the vehicles to form an inner ring of defense, and the royal chamberlain and the accompanying officials used everything at their disposal to set up a temporary resting place for the king and his English lover—and before all this was done, new news came from the town of Ballyshannon that the military troops had killed one of the attackers at the cost of two dead and one wounded. Wounded and captured, they were supposed to have planted and detonated the previous explosives, and no other suspicious persons were found in or around the town for the time being.

Two platoons of soldiers were temporarily stationed in the town of Bally-Shannon, who were on guard during the King's visit to Bally-Shannon, along with the local police, some members of the Royal Guard and the King's personal guard. Such a garrison force is more than enough to deal with a normal situation, but the situation he is facing now has obviously broken through the norm, and Natsuki has to switch to a combat perspective to consider the problem. Standing at the convoy stop, you can clearly see the castle-like building standing on the shore of the lake, it has been transformed from the private residence of the aristocracy into a comprehensive public municipal place of the local government, the privacy and comfort of the previous are basically gone, and it seems better to use it as a temporary shelter than the open air, but to get there by land requires passing through a small half of the town of Ballyshannon, where Natsuki would have ambushed if he had been the commander of the hostile operation. So, he decisively rejected an officer's suggestion, and instead told the officer who had come to report to return to the town and bring the attacker he had just captured to himself.

After a quarter of an hour, two cars arrived with six heavily armed soldiers and their captives. Natsuki originally thought that this would be a young man with a green face, but he didn't expect it to be a long-haired woman who looked like a young woman, through the stains and blood marks on her face, she could vaguely see her handsome appearance, and her dark brown eyes were very beautiful, but at this time she stared at Natsuki with extremely resentful eyes.

Natsuki didn't talk to her directly, but asked the officer in charge of escorting her here in front of her: "Did the interrogation come out of anything?" ”

The officer shook his head with an embarrassed expression: "This man has a very hard mouth and refuses to say anything. ”

Knowing that the other party did not disclose any information, Natsuki deliberately asked, "Is the one who died her husband?" ”

Hearing this question, the woman, whose face was pale due to pain and blood loss, sneered: "My husband has already died at your hands, but it's a pity that I couldn't send you to hell with my own hands today, if you still have a little bit of manly demeanor, you will directly end my life!" No matter how hard you ask, I won't tell you anything. ”

"Really?" Natsuki looked her up and down curiously, this dress was a woman who came to join in the crowd, even if people looked at her a few more times, they would only be attracted by her good looks and good figure. She was injured in the leg, which should be the key reason why she couldn't escape, and the wound was bandaged before being sent here, but the large blood stains on her skirt still looked shocking.

The woman looked directly at Natsuki with a sneer comparable to the extreme cold of the deep sea: "Could it be that Your Majesty has forgotten the Buckley family on the shores of Lake Norn so quickly?" ”

Natsuki replied with the same sneer: "Oh, that Buckley family who smuggles taxes and communicates with foreign countries, it seems that there are only two people sentenced to death, one is the head of the family, and the other is his nephew. This case is conclusively incriminating and has undergone a fair trial, and if you want to blame, you can only blame them for doing what the law of the country does not tolerate! ”

(End of chapter)