“…… In our view, the Irish Government's announcement distorts the facts and is irresponsible. In Belfast www.biquge.info, we have seen tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians flying across the border with tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians who have not yet made any statement from the Irish Government, which has not endorsed evidence that the aircraft were for non-military purposes, and that a significant number of them have been painted with the Irish Army logo. In accordance with the express terms of the London Armistice, until the sovereignty of the Belfast area is resolved, the British army is responsible for the military defence thereof, regardless of the outcome of the referendum two days later, at least yesterday, in Belfast, the British army is lawfully performing its defense, and the actions of the Irish have caused serious interference with this normal defence, we solemnly reiterate once again that the Kingdom of Ireland immediately ceases all acts that are not in good faith and affect the relations between the two countries! That's all for the Official Gazette of the British Government, thank you! ”

At the official press conference in London, in front of many invited journalists from various countries, Sir Rossell, assistant to the British foreign secretary, read out the latest diplomatic announcement issued by the British government in a subdued tone. The strongly-worded announcement pointed the finger at the so-called "Joachim Electrification", which caused a huge sensation the day before. In fact, it was not the content of the telegram that shocked people, because no matter how bizarre the diplomatic incident is, it is only for the sake of politics, but for the attitude of the Irish candidate for the throne through this telegram, and whether there will be a war between Britain and Ireland, and the more far-reaching camp game behind the confrontation between the two countries - and even trigger a new, larger world war.

People's mood has suddenly become a jumping number in the stock exchange, up and down, elusive.

Later that day, US President Wilson, who is on the other side of the ocean, issued a personal appeal in the hope that Britain and Ireland would exercise restraint on the Belfast issue and resolve the dispute through diplomatic consultations as much as possible. In order to mediate the matter, Wilson appointed the United States ambassador to Ireland to mediate, but the Irish government politely declined on the grounds that the candidate for the throne was not in the country.

Natsuki did not return directly to Ireland at the end of his visit to England, and the "Long Live Freedom" on his board disappeared from the view of the British ships under the cover of night after rendezvous with the "Belfast", which was unexpected, and the British government quickly learned a great deal - the Irish government prevaricated the various suggestions they put forward on the grounds that the candidates for the throne were not in the country and could not be contacted in time, which made it impossible for the British government to deal with the crisis by conventional means of negotiation.

Although the man in charge was not in the country, the movement of the Irish army proceeded in an orderly manner, and the British General Staff reported to George V and the Bona Law Cabinet almost every hour on the situation outside Belfast. As time passed, the Irish armed forces, which were originally hidden in the shadows, appeared one by one, and the size and power of heavy artillery groups, tank groups, and aircraft groups almost reached the upper limit of the British estimates, and even broke through. The seriousness of the situation was far more than that, and the British high-level intelligence showed that at least 20,000 German officers and soldiers had once again joined the Irish army as volunteers, and they were marching to the Belfast area in formation.

In the face of the protest raised by the British government, the Germans did not hurry to play Tai Chi, on the one hand, they said that the German officers and soldiers on active duty could never join the Irish army as volunteers, and if there was a violation, they would definitely be severely punished according to military discipline, and on the other hand, they suggested that the British government postpone the referendum in Belfast and start diplomatic negotiations with Ireland with a positive attitude, after all, the Irish government had made a lot of efforts to resolve the Belfast dispute in the previous months. The breakdown of several talks was largely due to the British government's refusal to back down.

On December 22, 1915, only 24 hours before the start of the Belfast referendum, Ireland's national defense mobilization system was fully operational. Upon learning of this information, Britain made solemn representations to the Irish government, demanding that Ireland immediately stop this military mobilization, which threatens the stability of the Belfast area, otherwise Britain will carry out the same military mobilization from the perspective of protecting national security.

The Irish government still replied for the same reason, as if it were barefoot and not afraid to wear shoes.

At this time, the British spy agency received a confidential information: the 45 x diameter 11-inch guns purchased by the Irish army from Krupp were not used in the modernized armored cruiser "Celtic", but were secretly deployed in the two coastal defense forts closest to Belfast, and the turret-style twin structure and semi-automatic loading machinery were used, and the rate of fire was much higher than that of ordinary fortress guns. The shells that deterred Port Klough were previously test-fired.

The classified information also revealed that, in addition to the old naval guns in Krupp's stockpile, the Irish army had acquired two new 13.5-inch guns removed from the British battlecruiser "Tiger", which were mounted on specially designed train cars to maneuver through the railway line, and the firing elevation angle was increased to 35 degrees, meaning that they could shell Belfast directly from their current border positions.

Although it was known that the leak of this information was deliberately carried out by the Irish, and it could not be ruled out that it was artificially exaggerated or deliberately concealed, the British military was still disturbed by it, after all, some of the Krupp guns and the "Tiger" naval guns were already corroborated, and it was entirely possible that they were used to attack the Belfast Line, but the German and Austrian siege artillery did not mention anything.

With the disparity in technology and the weakness of the British navy, sending more British soldiers to Belfast seemed to have lost its proper meaning. From a technical and tactical point of view, there was originally a solution to the problem, which was to send two Queen Elizabeth-class super dreadnoughts to the North Channel, but they had already removed the rangefinders, and the artillery bombardment on the opposite shore could rely on the guidance of the ground forces, and it would be bad if they ran into the Irish battle cruisers.

"It seems that His Highness has already set up a situation to lure us into it step by step. No matter how much we tried to be careful, we still couldn't escape in the end! At an emergency meeting of the British Cabinet, Bonner-Law could not help but lament.

The most prescient Secretary of War Kitchener snorted coldly: "What else can be done now besides fighting?" ”

The Leader of the House of Commons, Sir Jervis, President of the Privy Council, cautiously asked: "Do we have a chance of winning with the home army alone?" ”

"It will depend on how much sacrifice the Irish army can show." Kitchener replied without thinking.

Judging by the performance of the Irish in the War of Independence, there was little doubt about this statement, so Sir Jervis bowed his head and remained silent, and the rest of the Cabinet Ministers reacted similarly.

Admiral Stutty, Chief of the General Staff of the Navy, who was present at the meeting, said at this time: "Actually...... As long as the officers and men of the Royal Navy are not afraid of sacrifice, it should not be a problem to block the St. George's Strait and the North Strait with lightning-striking ships. If we can guarantee that the sea route between Britain and Belfast is generally safe at night, it should help the army to hold the line! ”

"If only it were that simple." "Our defence was designed with serious consideration given to the possibility of the Irish army acquiring and using heavy siege artillery, and it will be remembered that the budget was far more than Parliament could have accepted, and the time it would have taken was unacceptable to us in military strategy, so it was abandoned." Most of today's defensive lines are built according to the conventional level, and can only resist artillery of less than 200 mm caliber, while the largest caliber siege artillery owned by the Allied camp is said to be more than 400 mm caliber and has a range of more than 12 kilometers, and with only one or two of these monsters, the Irish army can break through a hole in our defensive line. In the capacity of His Highness and the attitude of the Germans towards us, do you think that such fears would be unfounded? ”

Because of Kitchener's fiery personality, his colleagues privately gave him the nickname "Tyrant", and although he was a very unpopular fellow, often ignoring the opposition of his colleagues, and even circumventing the restrictions of the law under the banner of taking the bigger picture into account, one has to admit that he was quite strategically accurate, and he was the only competent British cabinet minister during the war.

Seeing that the cabinet members and the army generals attending the meeting were silent again, Kitchener's eyes widened angrily: "Anyway, you don't believe what I say, just wait and see!" ”

Prime Minister Boehnard Law hurriedly reassured: "Your Excellency, don't be impatient, most of us are not professional soldiers, and our understanding of military strategy is naturally not comparable to that of yours, and it is not surprising if the Irish deliberately colluded with the Germans in order to confuse us and create false information that they did not borrow heavy siege artillery!" ”

Kitchener's face softened slightly, and he sighed: "It's a pity that it's too late to say this, based on the intelligence of all parties, the Irish army has deployed 6 to 8 11-inch guns with a fast rate of fire, 12 to 16 old 8.3-inch or 9.2-inch guns, and at least 50 6-inch heavy howitzers outside Belfast, and the fire is very fierce." Two days earlier, they had shown us the armoured and fighter forces, and the worst was that Belfast's perimeter line would be breached that day, and Belfast would hold out for two days and be captured by Christmas. ”

Everyone was stunned.

"And what's the best plan?" Prime Minister Bona Rau asked.

"The best?" Kitchener shook his head helplessly, "Hold on for four or five days and survive this Christmas, but before the New Year, the Irish will surely capture Belfast." ”

Sir Jervis reluctantly asked, "But if the sacrifice of the Irish army is not as strong as we think, and their use of technical weapons is much inferior to that of the German army, is there a chance that there will be a turnaround?" ”

Kitchener glanced at him, and said angrily, "Then please pray sincerely!" ”

(End of chapter)