Chapter 166: The Queen of the Wind (I)

November 1949, England, a suburb of London

A silent procession, mixed with people and vehicles, is slowly moving along a dilapidated and abandoned road. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Even those once smooth asphalt roads have cracked and collapsed in many places, and weeds are growing wildly everywhere. As for the place that was originally a dirt road in the countryside, it is almost covered with vegetation. In addition, several bones are often stepped on from time to time in the grass. If you're unlucky, you'll kick out a mutilated skull in the grass...... Occasionally, a decaying tree falls in the middle of the road and must be moved away to continue the journey.

In the center of the procession, Queen Elizabeth sat in a bumpy jeep, and next to her, was Queen Margaret, who was already sleepy.

――It's been about five hours since I left the beach in the morning.

Raising her slender swan-like neck and squinting at the sun in the sky, which was clearly setting to the west, Queen Elizabeth calculated in her heart.

However, Windsor Castle, where the journey ends, seems to be far away......

At this moment, a long time has passed since the end of the volcanic eruption in Iceland, and the volcanic dust that once covered most of the world and brought climate disaster to the whole world has gradually settled and dissipated. In the crisp clear blue sky of autumn, the bright autumn day is sprinkling thousands of golden rays on the land of England. However, in the autumn sun, it was not the pleasing scenery of the English countryside that was illuminated, but the ruined ruins—deserted towns, burned villages, abandoned fields overgrown with weeds and saplings...... In the midst of the wild weeds and bushes, you can occasionally see the dry bones of human or livestock, or the wreckage of rusty cars.

Occasionally, a few lonely ghosts could be seen, hiding far away in the hills or woods on either side of the road, looking with numb but wary eyes at the British Royal Guards in bearskin hats and red uniforms, and the Soviet Red Army soldiers escorting them......

-- After receiving a pardon and an order of exile from Stalin, the loving father of steel, in the port of Dunkirk, France, the two Queen of England and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, as well as the last followers of the British government-in-exile, set out on the road home with trepidation and confusion.

Next, the landing ship of the Soviet Red Navy sent the returning exiles to a beach in southern England, where they were guarded and escorted by a team of more than 200 Soviet marines to the famous Windsor Castle, the intended place of exile and hometown of the two queens......

At this point, this group of people who have been away from the UK for many years has finally set foot on their hometown that has become extremely unfamiliar.

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Although, according to the map, there is only a distance of more than 60 kilometers in a straight line between the beach where they landed and Windsor Castle in the west of London, which is equivalent to a car running at full speed for an hour. But the truth is that these noble exiles walked for a whole day, and they covered less than a third of the distance - because the car could not run on the unmaintained, overgrown roads. In addition, the number of vehicles is insufficient, and most people can only carry their luggage on foot. In order not to break away from the team, the car in which the two queens were riding could only squirm slowly.

Under the autumn sun, the British Royal Guards, who had followed Prime Minister Churchill and Queen Margaret around the world for three years, dragged a somewhat loose queue of tired people and walked one foot at a foot deep and shallow on the overgrown country dirt road. The long black leather boots on their feet, which were not very suitable for long walks, had long been scratched by the branches and grass leaves, and they stepped on the dry, solid broken earth, making a monotonous noise of Kerakara.

All their energy had been drained little by little on this long road that had been deserted, no one had the strength to gossip, and all that was left in the ranks was the small noise of a pair of military boots stepping on the gravel, and the soft sound of lunch boxes, water bottles, and belt buckles colliding with each other, and the squirming black smoke of the cars that had been squirming at a low speed, and the rough and broken road made the axles creak and vibrate......

All these dull and chaotic sounds, mixed together in a haphazard manner, finally create a monotonous, complex, and sleepy subtle melody, which, combined with the desolate and silent decadent atmosphere around it, made everyone in the team feel as if the fatigue was invisibly amplified.

Less than an hour after the exiles had eaten a simple lunch in the wilderness and set out on the road again, Margaret, the sister of the two queens, had fallen asleep with her saliva saved. Prime Minister Churchill, who was sitting in another jeep, snored even more. As an elder sister, Queen Elizabeth felt as if she was about to be captured by the Sandman, so she had to cheer up and asked an old gentleman in the passenger seat:

“…… Mr. Toynbee, what is the current situation at Windsor Castle? We're just going to move in like that, okay? ”

-- The old gentleman in the passenger seat of the Queen's jeep, named Arnold. Joseph. Toynbee, a well-known scholar throughout Europe before the war, was professor of history at the University of London, director of the Royal Institute of International Studies, and the last British ambassador before Britain and the Soviet Union formally declared war...... As a result, after the outbreak of the Third World Outbreak, he was stranded in Moscow and unfortunately ate prison meals for almost three years.

It was only recently that Toynbee was released by the Soviets, and then ordered to return to Windsor Castle in Britain with the British diplomats who had been detained with him, as well as a number of British expatriates and British prisoners of war, to prepare for the resettlement of the two queens who were about to return home.

When the landing ship carrying the two queens docked, he led the people to stand on the beach and wait and greet them, and acted as a guide.

“…… Your Majesty, over the past month, I've taken people to clean up Windsor Castle as much as possible, and at least the most unsightly things have been cleaned up. My lady also did her best to make the room of the two Majesties as comfortable as possible. ”

Toynbee smiled wryly and said, "...... However, it is impossible to be exactly the same as before. More specifically, you'll understand it if you see it with your own eyes. ”

“…… Sounds bad! But it's also something that can't be helped. As the king of the dead country, it is good to have a place to live. Queen Elizabeth sighed, "...... What about London? Three years have passed since the nuclear explosion, has it regained any popularity? ”

Regarding Queen Elizabeth's question, Toynbee's face suddenly became a little strange, "...... Your Majesty, could it be that you really ...... Don't know at all? Haven't the Soviets told you anything about the outside world for all these years? ”

“…… I really don't know anything, Mr. Toynbee. Queen Elizabeth shook her head with a lonely expression, "...... For the last few years, I have been held in a secret prison in Kazakhstan in Central Asia, where I can't see the newspapers, I can't hear the radio, and I don't know Russian, if I hear something occasionally...... It wasn't until a month ago that I was taken out of prison and sent straight to Dunkirk. During the journey, apart from telling me that the war was over, and that he had given me a pardon and another exile order at the end, the Soviet agents who escorted me refused to say a single word to me...... In fact, I was surprised to meet Margaret and Mr. Churchill in Dunkirk. ”

“…… Well, understood, Your Majesty. I'll cut it short. Toynbee sighed and nodded, "...... First of all, the war did end last month, the Americans signed an unconditional surrender, Prime Minister Churchill also capitulated, and the Soviets won a complete victory. Then, the scene of London today should be as dilapidated and desolate as the towns you see along the way—if not more dilapidated......"

“…… How bad is it?! Queen Elizabeth's eyes widened, "...... How could the capital of the British Empire be like this all the time?!! ”

“…… The British Empire? Toynbee's expression was even more bitter," ...... Seriously, I don't even know if the UK still exists......" (To be continued. )