The previous governor of Ireland, the Earl of Stratford, a favorite of Charles I, had to adopt a moderate and tolerant policy towards Irish Catholics.

When the Earl of Stratford was executed by the citizens of London instigated by the Parliamentary Party, the social contradictions between the Irish Catholic aborigines and the Protestant immigrants in England, which had finally eased a little, began to intensify again, and became the fuse of the war between the Irish Catholic Union and the Noble Council to England, and it was one of the direct factors in the break between Charles I and the National Assembly.

History did not change much here, and the Scottish army, which Charles I managed to gather military funds to organize from everywhere, was defeated again by the Model Army of the English Parliament led by Cromwell in the late summer of 1645.

By selling his land and cubs to gain the back-and-forth support of Huamei, Charles I struggled to the death until the summer of 1645, but this defeat completely deprived him of the last capital of rebellion, and he had to seek refuge in Edinburgh with the Scottish Presbyterian Church and the local aristocracy.

Cromwell again obtained a batch of Chinese arms from the Dutch merchants at a high cost, and then began to move north into Scottish territory in the name of Scotland's repeated confrontations with England. England's model army was directed at Edinburgh, and it was very likely to put the Scottish Presbyterians and the nobles in the same pot.

To the despair of the hardcore royalists, the Scots, already suffering from the war, finally gave up their king this time. The Scottish Presbyterians and the nobility had to approach Cromwell privately to try to make peace, and after a brief bargain, Charles I was betrayed and sent to the Parliament of England in the Tower of London.

Charles I knew that he would be the first king in England to be judged by an inferior man, and that the dominant one was Cromwell, who not only cornered himself, but even seized control of the National Assembly.

The only thing that made Charles I a little fortunate was that it was half a year ago. In addition to letting his youngest daughter Elizabeth go to Huamei, he also let his French princess wife Maria flee to France with the remaining children to seek protection from the French royal family, which can be regarded as leaving a seed for the Stuart royal family.

The imprisonment of Charles I brought the entire English Civil War into the closing stage, and the royalists everywhere were desperately contacting external forces to find a chance to save Charles I while being lost.

In early October, the Elder Intervention Force announced the completion of its formation at Emden on the other side of the English Channel, and claimed to cross the English Channel to defeat the English Parliament. In particular, the radicals led by Cromwell were about to put a legitimate European monarch on trial.

The 8,000-strong Emden Intervention Army, which numbered only 8,000 nominally, included 2,000 German mercenaries from the royalist aristocracy of England in exile on the European continent, in addition to the 6,000 regular Emden troops commanded by Prince Rupert.

With a mere 8,000 troops, he wanted to bring down the now prosperous England Model Army, and probably even Frederick V himself did not have much confidence, so this looked more like a demonstration and intimidation.

What's even funnier is that this army, which is much smaller than the Prince of Orange of the Netherlands, who was invited to set foot on England soil decades later, unexpectedly finds itself in the awkward position of not having enough transport ships.

The Dutch merchants, who were inclined to the National Assembly of England, seemed to have little interest in earning Emden silver coins this time, even if Frederick V was trying to figure it out. There are only a few dozen convoys gathered around the port of Emden, and at most they can transport less than half of the troops and provisions.

This military intervention, which is said to have cost a lot of money, actually comically stopped on the coast, and made the kings of France, Sweden, and other kings who were in the final stage of the Thirty Years' War secretly laugh their big teeth.

Especially France. While they were extremely disgusted by Cromwell's dangerous challenge to the traditional European order, they were equally wary of Frederick V's attempts to eat English cake, after all, Charles I's wife was a French princess, and several of his children had taken refuge in France. It's just that because of the deep war, I really don't have the skills. France could only verbally express its dissatisfaction with the situation in the civil war in England.

Who will finally pick this English fruit is still a mystery.

……

……

Friday, October 27, 1645.

Early morning. In the rough North Atlantic, at the entrance to the North Sea Strait, a small American fleet from the direction of the Governor of Iceland was heading south at a cruising speed of 11 knots.

In the telescope of the flagship navigator at the head, the lighthouse of Dublin Bay had confirmed that sail masts of various lengths were hazy in the fog that filled the bay.

This small squadron composed of the Alfalfa-class frigates of the Chinese and American fleets, the USS Ivy and the USS Azalde, had only recently covered a private fleet carrying machinery and construction supplies to the Governor-General of Iceland.

Ten years ago, during the Irish War, Huamei obtained the right to trade in Dublin, and this time the Huamei fleet passed through Dublin, nominally to replenish along the way, but in fact, at the invitation of the Irish Catholic Union and Lady Killarney Dai Qingqingqing, to put pressure on the English parliamentary army stationed in Dublin.

Now Ireland has reached the point of saber rattling, and there are also disputes between the Irish Royalists and the Parliamentary Party, and there is also the dissatisfaction of the Irish Catholic Union with England.

While Cromwell was concentrating on his victories in England proper, various forces across Ireland were attacking the Parliament of England under various slogans, including the 5,000 soldiers of the Home Council of County Cork, which had just joined the Catholic Union of Ireland.

Now the Irish Catholic coalition of more than 10,000 people is confronting the English Parliamentary Army, and the English Parliamentary Army, which is responsible for the Irish theater of operations, has only half the number of the former, so it can only adopt a retreat defensive posture, almost abandoning most of Ireland's towns and towns, and only holding on to the two large cities of Dublin and Belfast.

Under the influence of Cromwell's charisma, Robert Brown, who had painfully experienced the crushing defeat of the English Navy. Blake, already with another Navy rookie, George. Together, Monk became the core admiral of the new generation of admirals who followed Cromwell.

Blake was leading a small fleet to deliver reinforcements, supplies, and offshore support to Dublin as a rear admiral, while a dozen small and medium-sized warships with a displacement of only a few hundred tons were covering dozens of transports unloading at Dublin Harbor.

In the sequence of the Chinese and American Navy, the two Huamei Alfalfa-class warships that arrived in Dublin Bay are only frigates, but the hull with a full load displacement of nearly 1,500 tons is not a peaceful existence for the English Navy, which is currently struggling to rebuild. In Blake's eyes, it is full of great threats.

Although Huamei is still ostensibly following a neutral position, judging from various intelligence sources, Huamei has an infinite tendency to favor the anti-English forces in Ireland. Even in dealing with the English Civil War, the covert material aid provided by China and the United States to the Royalists exceeded the normal volume of trade with the Parliamentarians.

When the Huamei formation dropped anchor outside the range of the cannons of the Dublin Port Fortress, Blake also hurriedly summoned the officers and sailors to be on alert, hoisted the sails and untied the cables, and was ready for battle at any time.

On the bridge of the flagship Ivy, the commander-in-chief of the formation was Lieutenant Commander Ruyter. This hot-blooded and belligerent second-generation naval officer is 38 years old this year, which is already a standard middle-aged person in this era.

Aside from his crisp white and flashy navy officer's spring and autumn uniform, which was out of step with the traditional European dress of the moment, Ruyter had become more and more close to his historical image: stocky, with a well-groomed mustache and small eyes under a large cap.

"Sir. They seemed nervous and hostile...... Is it appropriate for us to anchor like this? In case ......"

A staff adjutant cautiously muttered to Ruiter's side that it was a bit dangerous for his own fleet to anchor in an English-controlled harbor without saying a word.

"It's just a gesture, and they don't necessarily understand our flag. As far as their sailboats are concerned, even if the war starts now, it will take them one to two hours to get out of the port, so it is not us who are really passive. ”

Ruyter smiled and lowered his binoculars. I felt a little smug about my decision to show up in Dublin Bay coldly. The order of the Admiralty Command was simple, to exaggerate the military concerns of the United States in Ireland from multiple angles, which made the English infinitely nervous.

Of course, this alone is not enough. At this time, a small Portuguese fleet sailing from the Azores to the port of Kenmare in Ireland was also carrying a shipment of munitions. The most important of these is the long obsolete organ machine guns in China and the United States, with as many as 60 units. In addition, there were 500,000 rounds of 15 mm large-caliber paper shells for organ machine guns.

The arms, tightly wrapped in moisture-proof packaging, were consignees to the Armed Guards of the Barony of Killarney. Of course, if necessary, it could be any other Irish local power that was dissatisfied with England.

On the orders of Ruyter. A small liaison steamboat was lowered from the Ivy, and half an hour later, with a low thud, sailed into the misty Dublin Harbour. After another half an hour, Blake finally verified the purpose of the gorgeous fleet that suddenly appeared in the sea fog, and then secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Resupply and protect the gorgeous merchants who evacuated from Dublin?

Blake suddenly felt an indescribable feeling of nausea in his heart. At this moment, Dublin has been surrounded by anti-English Irish "rebels" for several months, the city has long been subject to military control, most of the foreign trade has been stagnant, not to mention the Dutch merchants who are bold enough are gone, how can there be any American merchants staying?

Are these Americans planning to take advantage of the situation and find an excuse to invade Ireland from the sea, as they did ten years ago?

If it weren't for the support of Huamei, if it weren't for the internal contradictions of the year, the Irish War ten years ago, the Spanish expeditionary force would have been driven into the sea by the English garrison led by Cromwell.

The naval battle ten years ago, which destroyed the main force of the English Navy, forced to abandon the flagship and the commander-in-chief tearfully led the rearguard fleet to retreat in a hurry, Blake, still remembers it vividly.

Combined with the current situation in the country, especially the current situation in Ireland, Blake is more certain of Huamei's intention to intervene militarily in Ireland again. After all, judging from the shape of shì, the current anti-English forces in Ireland are even stronger than they were ten years ago, especially the Barony of Killarney, which has extended its tentacles into the Catholic League of Ireland.

"Your Excellency Cromwell, if the American fleet blocks the straits, we will have no chance of winning at sea...... To solve Dublin's dilemma, we must gather more strength and defeat the rebels quickly before they officially intervene, but we can't afford to wait much longer......"

After seeing off the liaison envoy sent by Huamei, Blake hurriedly wrote a letter in the command module. It should be said that this is the only war idea that most English admirals can find at present, and the blockade of England and Ireland by the Chinese and American navies ten years ago has made Ireland's English army suffer the bitter fruit of losing sea supremacy and reinforcements.

Even now that the Dutch have acquired more advanced Chinese and American arms, and even captured the stocks of the Loyalist army several times, the quality of the cannons and guns of the English Navy is much higher than it was a decade ago, but Blake still believes that the English Navy is far from being a match for the Chinese Navy.

At present, only before the Chinese and American navies intervene militarily in Ireland can they quickly defeat the anti-British forces in Ireland with absolute land superiority.

……

While Blake was pondering and couldn't find a solution, two days later, the Ivy suddenly received a telegram from the Navy Headquarters. Ruytel, who was about to take advantage of the port supply to show off his might in Dublin for two more days, was suddenly shocked by the content of the telegram.

The order sent to Ruyter by the General Command of the Navy was simple: to immediately go to the port of Nantes in France to carry out an emergency evacuation operation, and nothing else was said.

"Withdraw all the merchants? Ready for war with the French? And what about Ireland? Pinching on the brief message, Ruytel's heart was full of doubts.

At this moment, like Lieutenant Commander Ruyter's doubts, the commanders of several other Chinese and American ships that were on combat readiness cruises on the North Atlantic route received urgent orders from the Navy General Command and began to adjust their course and set off for the American Azores.

In the American capital of Manchester, Foreign Minister Swembaugh began to urgently summon the French ambassador and handed over a letter of protest with the strongest wording since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The cause was that a Chinese merchant ship was burned in the port of Nantes, killing and wounding many people, and the United Chinese American Commercial House in Nantes was also looted and burned. (To be continued......)