Even though the belief in God had long since entered the island of Ireland, until the 12th century, the mainstream view of the European continent still treated Ireland as a rude and barbaric child, and the scattered Irish did not realize that their fate had been decided by others under this evaluation.

In 1155 AD, Pope Adrian IV, who was born in England, had been running for a long time to resist the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick the Redbeard, and in order to win over a helper who could be used, he issued the "Order of Praise" to his hometown King Henry II of England, awarding the English king the title of "Lord of Ireland".

It is not known whether Henry II really bought Adrian IV in his heart, but this chicken feather was immediately used as an arrow by Henry II, who coveted Irish land, and from then on he could "justifiably" send troops to occupy Ireland. In return as a symbolic return, the Kingdom of England was now required to pay a tax of one penny per household to the Holy See, a super-cheap deal.

However, Adrian IV was immediately punished for not getting what he really wanted from this dirty deal. In 1159 AD, Adrian IV lashed out at Frederick I in a speech and threatened to excommunicate him. After talking for almost an hour, Adrian IV, whose mouth was dry and excited, tried to drink some spring water to moisten his throat, but just as he was about to pour the water into his mouth, a stinky fly entered his mouth and stuck to his throat, and the pope was suffocated to death by a fly. According to the grapevine, the fly presumably flew from Ireland......

In 1541, the Irish Parliament, which was heavily controlled by the English government, formally passed the Irish Throne Act, which replaced the establishment of the "Irish Domain". Since then, Ireland has become a de jure independent kingdom, and the king of England has also served as the monarch, forming a confederation with England. This relationship lasted until 1801, when Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

……

Thursday, June 1, 1634.

Province of Munster. County Cork, in the wilderness south of Cork City.

Thunderous artillery fires rose and fell, and the snow-white smoke and acrid smoke from the continuous firing of the artillery filled the muddy fields of early Irish summer. Flags were lined up, men and horses were shouting, formations were crowded, and the pace was disheveled, and groups of English soldiers carrying spears or flintlock muskets advanced slowly. Rulin's spears swung like waves of wheat in the breeze, and a few hundred meters in front of the English phalanx, the marching procession of the Irish, beating drums, could be seen.

"Woo~~~"

A solid ball shell pierced the battlefield with an eerie screech, bouncing and crashing into the English phalanx after hitting the ground. The dust stirred up the screams one after another. English soldiers with spears fell to the ground in droves like crushed sprouts.

Immediately afterward, another solid iron bullet rolled in, and a group of musketeers in the direction of the trajectory was knocked out more than half on the spot, and under the kinetic energy of the cannonball, countless stumps mixed with atomized blood sprayed on the sides of the queue, hitting the pale English spearmen.

The shells of the English were not vegetarians, and the gorgeous 12-pounder cannons that arrived at the front line were also in the same posture, constantly raising mud and dust in front of the Irish resistance, and from time to time making small gaps in the Irish line. But overall. The Spanish phalanx of the English suffered even heavier losses in this artillery counterfire.

Looking at the bloody battle scene in front of him, the face of the commander of the English crusade army turned white. Although there had been many bits and pieces of battle reports before, the sight of the Irishmen marching towards them in a few neat and thin horizontal rows was still a great surprise, because they were obviously very different from the neurotic, vulgar, dirty Irish thugs in their minds. More critically. Except for a few cavalry and artillerymen, the Irish rebels did not have a single spearman, but simply "inserted" a blade in each flintlock pistol.

The war drums of the Irish Resistance were extremely rhythmic, and each soldier meticulously tread the beat. Carrying flintlock pistols and marching at a neat pace of 90 paces per minute, they marched towards the English army opposite. Several of their cannons have been firing several rounds in a row, although the results look good. But as the infantry on both sides continued to get closer, they had to abandon the artillery bombardment and retreated to the rear of the battle line.

"All of them are determined! Get ready! When an Irish rebel commander saw that he was 100 yards away, he immediately raised his sword.

The three rows of Irish soldiers at the forefront stopped advancing, and layers of flintlock muskets tumbled down, aiming at the English troops in front.

At the same time, the large phalanx of England on the opposite side also stopped, and the musketeers in the forefront also came forward to form a horizontal formation, and rows of flintlock muskets were also aimed at the Irish.

"Shoot!" The commanders of both sides waved their swords almost simultaneously, and suddenly rows of gunsmoke rose from the ranks of the two sides. With the roar of flintlock volleys, screams erupted in the ranks of both sides, and one person fell to the ground like a cut straw.

The Irish Resistance were formed in several three-row horizontal formations, and although the total strength was less than 3,000, the number of flintlock muskets that could fire at the same time far exceeded that of their opponents.

In the first round of shooting, the English musketeers were scattered, and more than 200 English musketeers were knocked over on the spot, while only a few dozen of the Irish rebels were killed or wounded.

Before the remaining English musketeers could retreat into the spear phalanx, the second group of Irish horizontal musketeers began to fire a volley again, this time with the English spearmen, falling in the hundreds.

By the time the third group of Irish rebel musketeers stepped forward and began to raise their guns, the English phalanx was already in disarray. Amid the roar of flintlock muskets, the flag of the royal family of England fell to the ground, and the routs who had discarded their weapons retreated towards a small river to the north, completely ignoring their own dying wounded.

The small cavalry of the Irish Resistance launched a well-timed pursuit, constantly cutting a handful of tails out of the retreating crowd and devouring them, until the artillery shells from the rear of England on the other side of the river were still able to retreat.

"Dear Mr. Mario! The English are collapsing again, haha! A rebel leader rode up to Captain Donasius on his horse, his face smug and proud, "Maybe in three days, we'll be able to drink beer from Cork!" ”

But they all retreated into the fortifications. A strong assault is unlikely. Donahew raised his binoculars and looked at the defeated English army retreating across the creek under the cover of the fortress artillery, and felt a little uneasy in his heart, "We have wasted too much time in this area, maybe the English want to hold us back with a seemingly empty Cork City." With more than 200 casualties today, we need to gather all the troops that are scattered elsewhere. ”

"The English of Kerry are even less courageous, and we don't go north to give them a daily church thanksgiving to God. If a new enemy appears, we'll be sure to hear in advance! The rebel leader smiled disdainfully, as if there was no English army in his eyes today, in his opinion. No one has been able to defeat the current well-trained Irish rebels.

"I hope so......" After turning his gaze to the northwest and staring for a moment, Donasius suppressed the uneasiness in his heart.

As dusk fell, the victorious Irish rebels sat in a corner of the battlefield, admiring the corpses that had been swept away a few hours earlier, and laughing at the cities on the other side of the northern river, as if they were about to usher in one of the greatest victories in the history of the Irish rebellion - the capture of Cork, Ireland's second largest city after Dublin, and thus igniting the entire Irish rebellion.

……

Nearly 60 miles northwest of Cork City, in Killary County's Killary Territory, the church in the small town of Killary rang a series of bells.

On the streets of a small town, which is far cleaner and more hygienic than any other town in Ireland, groups of women, children, and young are looking nervously at the end of the street. It wasn't until a troop of cavalry appeared escorting an ornate carriage that the expressions on people's faces eased slightly.

"God bless you, Dear Miss Dai Lin!" The moment when the simple old woman holding the two children received the holiday gifts from Dai Qingqing. Quickly draw a cross on your chest and bend down to salute.

"God bless all the children! Happy holidays! ”

Dai Qingqing smiled and walked to the next family. The townsfolk on the side of the street smiled when they saw that their lord was completely free from the fear of being surrounded by war.

"There are gifts for all the kids on the street!" The mercenaries in the guard, while keeping on guard, also took off the gift pockets from the carriage behind them. One by one, they were stuffed into the hands of people on the side of the street.

A few years ago, Dai Qingqing brought the "Children's Day" into the territory of Kirari, almost every year today, no matter how windy or rainy. She would come to Killarney to hand out gifts to the town's children. This kind of public appearance and the eagerness of the townspeople has given Killarney a peculiar custom that has been formed in a short time.

The "Cork County War" that took place in the spring of this year has been going on for almost three months, and although the Irish resistance army has won a far more brilliant victory than their ancestors, and even the entire English army in County Cork has been defeated, the few people in their right minds still see something bad. That is, no matter how many victories the Irish rebels fought, the concentration of English troops in Ireland continued unabated, and even in Terrely, the capital of County Kerry, less than 20 miles north of Killarney, the local English rulers had assembled a new army ready to move south into County Cork to quell the rebellion.

The war is raging all around Killarney's territory, and the Killarney territory itself is in a very delicate state of calm and stability, which makes it feel like something is going on. In a place as fat as Killarney's territory, both the Irish Resistance, which calls itself the "Rebels" and the English Crusaders, who claim to be the "Defenders of Order", could fall victim to them overnight, and this kind of thing is completely common in the current Thirty Years' War in Europe.

"Qingqing, it's getting dark, let them send it." After watching the drama of "Fun with the People" for a while, Dai Botong jumped off the horse at this time and walked in front of Dai Qingqing, stopping the other party from wanting to continue to go deep into the street.

"That would have undone years of hard work, didn't you notice? They were scared in their hearts. Dai Qingqing blocked Dai Botong's hand and looked very angry, "It's you, do you still plan to stay here and enjoy the war?" ”

"Minister, the Prime Minister told you not to stay in Killarney this time anyway. This is not our war! Dai Botong pulled Dai Qingqing's hand, and the mercenaries around him turned their heads one after another, while the townspeople on the street showed angry expressions. Even if they already knew this foreigner who was said to be a good friend of the lord.

"Well, I know I've worried everyone, but look at the inhabitants here, if I'm not there, who's going to restrain the English people in the north? I don't intend to make the people here pay an irreparable price for some of these plans! If you really care about the safety here, you should ask the Reichstag to stop supplying arms to England! Dai Qingqing argued fiercely in a language that the surrounding Killarney townspeople couldn't understand, and her face turned red with excitement.

"Because we don't need Ireland to settle the war and our position is still 'neutral'! They (the Irish) were in too much of a hurry, and it was not necessarily in our interest to attack Cork City, which would lead to many uncontrollable things. Dai Botong felt very powerless. What he was worried about still came, Dai Qingqing had already developed unimaginable feelings for this Ireland.

"Mr. Dai, we will protect Miss Dai Lin as much as possible, this is our duty." The mercenary captain who retired from the Foreign Legion and joined the Killarney Territorial Guard walked up to Dai Botong at this time, and politely gave a Chinese American salute, "As long as we ensure our ammunition supply, I believe that the soldiers of the Guard can exert the combat effectiveness of a battalion!" ”

"Miss Lord! Miss Lord! ”

At this moment, a servant of the Rose Manor gasped and ran into the street, but was stopped by several mercenaries of the Guard.

"There's an English lord in Traely City. Eddie Butler, please go back! The servant gasped and gestured in the direction of the Rose Manor to the south.

"It's still here...... Go ahead, I'll go back and see what I can do for you...... I will inform the local domestic companies to withdraw as much as possible. Dai Botong shook his head slightly. He sighed before stepping into the carriage.

Looking back at Dai Botong in the distance, the gift in Dai Qingqing's hand was hanging in the air, and he didn't put the gift down even though a child under his knees shouted happily.

……

Year 1633. Charles I entered Edinburgh, Scotland, and was officially crowned King of Scotland. However, the cold and moody King of England did not know which nerve was short-circuited, and it was not long before he began to meddle in the affairs of the Church in Scotland.

Charles I appointed William. Lauder is the Archbishop of Canterbury. With its assistance, he began to impose a prayer book drafted by the London side on the Church of Scotland in order to unify the religious activities of the two countries.

This was a hornet's nest, and the citizens of the Scottish Low Countries were enraged, and they collectively swore an oath of national loyalty to the Scottish Presbyterian Church, openly rejected the new prayer book from the English side, and the First Episcopal War of Scotland broke out.

The Scots were so faceless that Charles I was furious and sent an army, intending to use force to make the Scots obey his will. But the Scots did not "disappoint" Charles I, and the Scottish army, which was good at mountain warfare, accelerated the overflow of American flintlock pistols and crushed the English army.

In order to salvage the defeat, Charles I began to plan the Second Bishops' War. After the last dissolution of Parliament, Charles I, who had almost forgotten what the President of the National Assembly was like, had to convene Parliament again to raise military funds. But the complaints of the parliamentarians before discussing the appropriation bill caused Charles I to be ignored again.

Soon after, Charles I, frustrated the National Assembly, which had lasted only a few weeks, and arbitrarily ordered the imposition of various war surcharges, including those which had been severely cracked down on England's shipping industry. And just as Charles I tightened his belt and sent an army to attack Scotland for the second time, there was shocking bad news from the Irish side. In the spring of 1634, the rebels in the Irish province of Munster, which had been dormant for many years, revived, and this time even stronger than before, and many improvised English armies were crushed in an instant.

Before Charles I could fully understand the matter, the second army he sent to attack Scotland failed again, and it was even more complete than the last time, and the Scottish army that launched the counterattack even occupied part of the territory of England, and England was in a dilemma of being attacked from the belly.

The emergence of the Irish rebels has caused a butterfly effect far greater than the sum of its predecessors. Charles I reconvened Parliament seven years earlier than in history, made a number of compromises to the National Assembly in order to turn the tide of the war, and was at the mercy of others.

The National Assembly, which had made great concessions to the royal family with its own "hemorrhage therapy", was also more proactive than before, and began to seriously deal with the greatest challenge facing the Kingdom of England since the Middle Ages. On the one hand, they installed their own officers in the royal army, mobilized troops in Ireland in the name of the king to suppress the rebellion, and on the other hand, they entered into difficult negotiations with Scotland. In any case, England must have paid a high price for the follies their king had done. (To be continued......)