Chapter 55: The Burning of London

In October 1348, an exceptionally deserted enthronement ceremony took place at Westminster Abbey in London.

- After confirming the death of all the direct royal family members of the Plantagenet dynasty in England, Joan has just escaped from Bordeaux, France. Princess Plantagenet put on the crown and sat on the throne left by her father at the age of twelve: it stands to reason that princesses like her who marry far away from foreign countries often give up their inheritance rights before marriage, but since the marriage has not been consummated, and when they return to China, their parents, sisters and brothers are all dead, unless they are ready to find a distant relative from the countryside who can't beat the throne, otherwise the only way to make Princess Joan the Queen of England is to take the throne.

What's more, it seems that it is also unknown whether there are still distant relatives in the Plantagenet Dynasty alive.

Finally, out of the above considerations, as well as their own interests, the remaining nobles of the British mission, who fled from Bordeaux in a hurry, unanimously elected Princess Joan, who was "saved by angels", to ascend the throne as king, so as to seek a merit for themselves to support the dragon. As for the court magnates in London, it seems that they can't find half of the living people at the moment, so there is no need to bother these dead people to worry about mundane things in the graves.

In a sense, the enthronement ceremony of Princess Joan can be called quite high-end, not only the King of Scotland, the Queen of Naples, the Doge of Venice and other "heavyweight" dignitaries came to London to congratulate her, and it was not the archbishop who put the crown on her, but the most supreme Pope Clement VI in the whole of Christendom - because the clergy on the English side seemed to be too religious, and the depraved mundane thing of bathing was too strict, So he almost died in the plague, and he couldn't find a single bishop near London, so he had to trouble the Pope himself to preside over the coronation...... Finally, there are "angels" who sprinkle holy light and flower petals from the sky to bless her.

But from a practical point of view, the enthronement ceremony was very deserted, with no grand banquets and balls, no cheers and worships of the whole city—there are now less than 3,000 living people left in the whole of London, more than half of whom are mentally insane. And the English nobles who swore allegiance to Queen Joan were only a few survivors in the original dowry mission, and they couldn't even set up a shelf for the new court.

Dang Jean, on the plus side, Joan. Queen Plantagenet's hasty accession to the throne was, at least, not met with widespread skepticism and opposition in England, for the mighty nobles who had the power to oppose and question were now almost dead in the plague:

At that time, there were more than 80 nobles in the entire kingdom of England with castles and private soldiers, according to the records of the royal family; Among them, more than twenty nobles can confirm that they will be removed from this place, and the whole family will go to hell or heaven; More than forty nobles fled the castle and did not know where to hide; As for the remaining dozen or so nobles, they were still in their castles, and they received notices, some of which were noncommittal, while others said that they wanted to go to London to see the dignity of the new queen. However, several nobles of the court who were organizing the ceremony in London waited left and right until the day when the queen was scheduled to ascend the throne, and did not wait for any group of visitors-because of the sanitary conditions of this era, and the spread of plague in England today, the assembly and movement of large groups of men and horses were extremely susceptible to disease, so whether these noble lords were going to come to London to make armed demonstrations, or to observe the salutes and swear allegiance, almost all of them died of illness on the way, or were so frightened that they fled back again......

In addition, the sudden change of throne in the Kingdom of England was fortunate not to be involved in the military of other countries, which evolved into a common "War of Succession to the Throne" in European history - on the other side of the Channel, although the smoke of the Hundred Years' War was still theoretically permeating, and last year's armistice treaty had expired, the epidemic in the Kingdom of France broke out earlier than Britain, and the destruction was more tragic, and King Philip VI of France left Paris swallowed up by death. With the members of the royal family and cronies and favored courtiers, they did not know where to hide in the countryside, and even with the great powers of the Venetian merchants, they could not find any trace of the royal driver, and they did not even know if he was still alive...... Obviously, such a death-engulfed France was in danger of even maintaining its own existence, and it was naturally impossible to organize an invasion of England by crossing the Channel with its troops. According to forecasts, France, with a population of 20 million, will die at least 12 million to 14 million people in the catastrophe of the plague

Scotland to the north was a little quiet—as the sworn enemies of the English, when they heard the news of the epidemic of the great plague in England, the Scots, who had just suffered a great defeat at the Neville crossroads the year before and had their king captured, were overjoyed for a while. The pious Scots felt that God must be punishing the English, and that the wicked would not end well. As for good people like them, they don't have to worry about getting sick.

In order to help God, they gathered an army of nearly 10,000 men and invaded England again. The Scottish army, with a fearless spirit, crossed the border and entered England, where the Black Death was raging, plundering homes along the way, but before they could meet any decent enemy, 5,000 soldiers were suddenly killed, and the entire Scottish army collapsed. There had never been a single battle between the two sides, and the Scots stumbled back – and by the way, the plague and some more terrible diseases......

And so, the horrors that had just been seen in places like London and Oxford were quickly repeated in cities such as Edinburgh in Scotland - thousands of Scots fell one by one without the ravages of war, and the rest fled from the cities and scattered in terror, bringing the plague all over Scotland: these Wallace compatriots were secluded in the remote corners of European civilization, and their concepts of health and hygiene were more backward than those of the English, and their bodies and dwellings were generally dirtier than those of the English, and they were naturally more susceptible to disease... … Then, with the spread of the fleeing fleet, even the bitter cold of Norway, Iceland and Sweden fell in the face of the pervasive plague.

-- What is even more tragic is that the plague that has been spread this time is not even the original Black Death, but a complex of severe plagues that have been added by Doraemon: plague, typhoid, cholera, malaria, smallpox, influenza, dysentery, yellow fever, measles, tuberculosis...... Most of the fierce plagues throughout the ages are all available. And it is still from the 22nd century, with the future advanced biotechnology to cultivate heat-resistant and cold-resistant and easy-to-spread varieties, although most of them are not incurable, but it is not so easy to rely on human immunity to carry over.

Even in the most tragic and terrifying nightmare of medieval Europeans, it is estimated that they never imagined what kind of horror it would be like after so many plagues broke out together...... And now, this apocalyptic death catastrophe has really befallen you.

Therefore, in order to clear a clean abode from this disease-ridden world, under the strong advice of the "angels", Queen Joan boldly issued her first will after ascending the throne: to burn London and purify this filthy city with raging flames

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In the sky above London, which was full of lifeless air and foul-smelling London, Wang Qiu spread the snow-white angel wings behind him, holding the [Encyclopedia of Magic], endured some indescribable shame, and recited a mantra in a loud voice: "...... Woo Meow Crimson Companion, please let the world feel your majesty, dye the sky red, and give Meow a sea of fire Meteor Fire Rain Meow (Japanese)"

With the final "meow" sound, hundreds of fireballs instantly appeared over London, illuminating the dark city. It then fell like a torrential downpour, burning the rancid houses below, with their bodies lying on their backs, into a sea of blazing fire...... In this era of insufficient productivity, and in England, where civilization was relatively backward, most of the buildings in London were made of wood, and even mixed with a considerable number of thatched sheds, which had been scorched by the early autumn sun for so many days, and had already become an excellent fuel for drying.

Fortunately, before the city could be set on fire, Queen Joan issued a warning to expel the remaining survivors from the city, and opened the Tower of London to accommodate those who did not want to leave London, so there were no scenes of charred "burning men" running around the streets.

A gust of wind blew the flames through a few narrow streets full of wooden houses, and then into some warehouses on the north bank of the Thames, raising small tongues of fire. Then, the countless scattered fires gradually converged into a large area, burning everything that could be burned in one qiē. The flames writhed wildly, flickering louder and smaller, burning redder and redder. From a forest of fire to a huge waterfall of fire, a series of crackling sounds were heard, and eventually spread throughout the city. In a city full of flammable buildings, the wind blows in either direction, blowing the fire into a large area. From the flames to the fire blanket, the fire blanket turned into a volcano, blowing out the surrounding air, turning into many blazing updrafts, blowing Wang Qiu in mid-air up and down, staggering and crooked.

The choking smoke and the stench of the burning of the rotting corpses soon made Wang Qiu unbearable, so he had to hurriedly leave the fire and re-enter the Tower of London, which was surrounded by a pre-existing barrier, and the fire could not burn.

Then, as soon as Wang Qiu jumped into the corridor through an open window, he saw Ma Tong wearing a white linen robe and a gold crown from nowhere, standing in front of the window, playing with a lute commonly used by medieval troubadours, humming and singing some strange tune.

“…… Senior Sister Ma Tong, what are you doing here? Wang Qiu sighed and looked at this funny senior sister with a black line in his head.

“…… Of course, I learned to imitate the legendary deeds of the famous Roman tyrant Nero, and played the piano and sang while watching the city burn down."

Ma Tong shrugged his shoulders and replied in the same way as above, "...... Originally, the twelve-year-old Queen Lori was supposed to perform, but she refused to live or die, claiming that she couldn't play a musical instrument, shoved the crown into my hand, and then hid in the prayer room with her head covered and chanted......"

“…… Ahem, I think, Senior Sister Ma Tong, don't sing with your broken voice, and you don't know how to play the lute at all, is it interesting to stand in this place and smoke second-hand smoke? Wang Qiu rolled his eyes and complained, and at the same time choked on the black smoke floating in from outside.

“…… That's true, yes. Ma Tong rolled his eyes, then happily dropped the lute, and at the same time covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief, and looked out of the window, only to see bursts of suffocating heat like in a molten iron furnace, and countless brilliant golden snakes dancing on the streets and rooftops not far away. The whole of London seems to have turned into a hell of flames, which makes people palpitate to watch.

“…… Speaking of which...... Isn't it just disinfection and killing rats? It seems that there is no need to make such an exaggeration and burn the whole of London."

She turned around from the window and asked Wang Qiu with some confusion, "...... The price of setting fire to the city like this is really very heavy."

“…… There is no way, because this is the only successful experience in British history that can quickly extinguish the plague in London," Wang Qiu shrugged helplessly, "...... In the history of our world, since the Black Death in 1348, the plague has been repeated several times in London, but the cause has never been found and it has not been controlled. The last time the plague of London caused by the plague broke out in 66 years, when 100,000 people died in London, and the epidemic lasted for more than a year, but it was never controlled, which made the whole country panic and the government and economy were in chaos. In the end, it was the Great Fire of London in '66 that finally solved the problem of the plague in London - this fire not only destroyed thousands of houses, razed half of London to the ground, but also burned hundreds of thousands of rats in the city, the rats hiding in the cellars had no place to hide under the terrible fire and suffocating heat, and the germs were destroyed by the heat of the burning fire, so that the plague did not explode for a long time.

Therefore, with the entire city completely contaminated by germs and the vast majority of citizens reduced to rotting corpses, with the technical conditions of this era, the only effective countermeasure is to make up our minds and burn the city and all the qiē inside: the plague bacillus is very strong, and can survive for decades on the surface of things like clothes, blankets, furniture, house ceilings, beams, etc., even if we can eradicate the rats and fleas in the city and cut off the regular vector of the Black Death, But as long as there are so many people who like to be greedy and cheap, and secretly take the relics of the plague dead back for their own use, then all the epidemic prevention measures will be in vain...... But there must be a lot of such poor people right now."

“…… So you set fire to London and let the germs and the city perish? Ma Tong nodded slightly in understanding, "...... Use a flame to purify a qiē...... This seems to be a solution that is not a solution, but unfortunately it is too cruel. ”

“…… Who's to say it isn't? But what else can be done? Do you want to leave London to fend for itself in the plague? If that were the case, the city would become a giant source of pollution, turning all sides into a place of death for the plague gods. Even if we stay in the Tower of London, we have to worry about the plague all the time, and we can't feel at ease, so we still burn them all to the net."

Wang Qiu spread his hands, and then turned his attention back to the burning city fire outside. The scene of hellfire raging in the world is really unforgettable--the red ground, the red sky, the red clouds, the red river, the red firelight, all the things seem to be dyed with an indescribable fantasy and tragic color like the mythological drama "Ragnarok".

London, which was devoured by the plague, gradually turned to ashes in this fire. At the same time, tens of thousands of citizens of England were reduced to ashes.

And far from London, there are many more English who are dying, and it is too late to save them one by one...... In this case, if Queen Joan does not wish to rule a kingdom of the dead, then she needs to find a way to acquire a new group of subjects......

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