Chapter 167: The Queen of the Wind (Middle)

So, for the remaining hours of the day's trip, Ambassador Toynbee babbled on and on to Queen Elizabeth about many of the things that had happened in recent years. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Of course, the most talked about is the unprecedented catastrophe and purgatory that has befallen Britain in the past few years.

-- The overwhelming atomic bombing at the beginning of World War III not only turned cities on the island of Great Britain into radiation ghost fields, but also completely destroyed the industrial and agricultural infrastructure of the entire United Kingdom. When the war was temporarily extinguished from Europe and the nuclear bombing and bombing were over, the surviving British were saddened to find that they were deprived of electricity, running water, and rail transportation, and that their living conditions had returned to before the Industrial Revolution.

To make matters worse, due to the cut off of shipping during the war, from the end of 1946 onwards, no Canadian wheat, Argentine beef, or American egg meal were imported into the UK. Britain itself, on the other hand, had a pre-war food self-sufficiency rate of only about 30 percent. With the collapse of various infrastructures, the remaining British farmers not only lost fertilizers, agricultural machinery, irrigation facilities and professional seeds, but even the vast majority of the mules and horses used to pull plows were requisitioned by the government and the army, which led to a further collapse in the output of agricultural products, and it was already a rhythm of starvation to death in large numbers.

In fact, as early as when Queen Elizabeth left Britain for the surrender of the Soviet Union, the soldiers and civilians on the island had already begun to fight each other for supplies...... To add insult to injury, a series of nuclear strikes on Iceland's crust triggered a major eruption. The huge amount of volcanic ash that entered the atmosphere brought two "summerless years" to the world, and caused a devastating blow to the agricultural and food production of almost all countries in the world. The British Isles, across the sea from Iceland, were not spared – the British, who survived the nuclear bombings and riots, managed to pick up their hoes and sow seeds in the ground, only to be greeted by a climate change that saw almost no crops for two consecutive years. The various fighting and bloody clashes between the hungry people further wasted the only food reserves and increased the death toll. As a result, by the time the weather gradually returned to normal this year, the farmers on the island of Great Britain had already starved to death and froze to death.

Even if some people have not frozen to death or starved to death, they have already eaten up everything they can eat, including seeds, in the previous two disaster years, and even if they want to sow seeds at the beginning of spring this year, there are no seeds to sow, let alone livestock to pull plows.

During this period, the British cities that survived the Soviet nuclear attack also went to strange places because of the lack of food. For example, Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, which escaped the nuclear bombing, was destroyed a year after the outbreak of World War III. According to the results of the reconnaissance of the landing of the Soviet marines after the war, the current Edinburgh was deserted and completely abandoned. However, some evidence of cannibalism in the city was found, which was chilling.

- Obviously, these "cannibals" in Edinburgh should have been civilized people, and they were all forced to break through the lower limit by the pressure of survival......

All in all, the current Britain has almost regressed to the time of King Arthur more than a thousand years ago, the same darkness and turmoil, the same barrenness and deprivation, but there are no virtuous kings and knights, no fairies and wizards, only radiation and bandits...... Those once-glorious cities, if not yet radiant wastelands, are already full of ruined walls and charred craters. Even the manors in the countryside have probably been looted. Many counties have become completely no-man's land, and many of the survivors have become almost savages by hiding in treacherous caves, forts, isolated islands, and hidden forests.

According to Toynbee's rough guess, there are only one or two million people left on the island of Great Britain today, even fewer than in Roman times......

The hard-hearted Soviets turned a blind eye to all this horrific spectacle, and in order to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Dover, they set up an outpost on the Isle of Wight on the other side of Portsmouth Harbour, and then sat back and watched the island of Great Britain descend into a hell of famine and death.

As a result, by the time the Third World War was over, the island of Great Britain was already on the verge of death, and it could no longer be saved.

What's more, the Soviet Union, the future world leader, does not seem to have any intention of curing the disease and saving people......

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“…… My God! The great British Empire turned out to be ...... How did it turn out like this? It is countless times more cruel than the Great Famine in Ireland in the last century and the Black Death in the Middle Ages! It was as if I was seeing the history of the collapse of the ancient Roman Empire repeating itself......"

Queen Elizabeth rubbed her forehead and groaned with a broken face, "...... Isn't there anyone who cares and has pity on the people of this island nation? ”

“…… Your Majesty, have you forgotten? What is the biggest event of our time? It's a world war! The eyes of the Soviets, the Americans, the Japanese, the vast majority of people around the world are watching the military operations that will determine the fate of the world on all fronts around the world. All other events paled in comparison to the war, including, of course, the collapse of civilization and the humanitarian catastrophe that took place on the island of Great Britain......"

“…… In other words, everyone is busy killing people, and no one cares about saving people? Even if you want to save ...... Do you have to save your own people first? ”

“…… Pretty much...... Your patriarch, Queen Victoria, had no mercy on the hungry people of Ireland or the Indian weavers in Bangladesh (because of the Industrial Revolution and the unjust tariff system, the Indian cotton spinning industry went bankrupt in the Victorian era, and 10 million Bengali artisans and their families starved to death). How could today's General Secretary Stalin be kind to the Anglo-Saxons on the island of Great Britain? ”

Toynbee replied with a sigh, "...... Two years ago, after learning through some channels of the tragedy that was taking place in Britain, I immediately tried my best to send letters and letters everywhere, and finally I was finally received by Molotov, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union. As a result, this Mr. Molotov first expressed deep sympathy for the British people in dire straits. Secondly, it claimed that all the countries of Europe were now struggling with terrible famines, and that the Soviet Union was able to provide only a limited amount of relief supplies, so that it was impossible to divert the supplies that should have been allocated to their own people and allies to help the enemy people who were still resisting the Red Army – who made Prime Minister Churchill insist on unconditional surrender at that time?

Although these words sounded like a pretext, I tried to send a telegram to Prime Minister Churchill in my own name through the Soviets, persuading him to stop the completely useless resistance as soon as possible for the sake of the lives of tens of millions of Britons, and not to let the Anglo-Saxon nation on the island of Great Britain go to ruin. Outcome...... As you should guess, Prime Minister Churchill did not reply to this telegram until the end of the war......"

“…… Oh! Damn Churchill! Hypocritical Molotov! Queen Elizabeth exclaimed excitedly, "...... Not even acknowledging that Britain had withdrawn from the war? Didn't I, in my capacity as the monarch of the United Kingdom, openly hand over the scepter and crown to Stalin? What else do they want? ”

“…… This one...... IMHO, in the eyes of the liberal camp of this recent world war, or rather, according to the propaganda position of the US government in wartime, I am afraid that you, who have surrendered on your knees, have given up the crown and are tantamount to abdication. And your sister Margaret is the real queen. ”

Toynbee smiled wryly and said, "...... To use an inappropriate analogy, in Stalin's eyes, Your Majesty, who voluntarily surrendered to the Soviet Union but was deposed by his own government, is roughly equivalent to Hess, the deputy head of Nazi Germany, who flew to Britain to sue for peace nine years ago, but was held as a prisoner of war...... Since the opposing camp did not recognize that Britain had surrendered, and you could not effectively rule Britain at the time of surrender, it was only natural that the Soviets would not recognize that Britain had withdrawn from the war - and you could not tell all the British soldiers and civilians to lay down their arms......"

“…… Other words...... You also think that I made the right choice at the time, but I simply don't have the ability to carry it out, right? ”

Queen Elizabeth said a little sullenly, "...... Mr. Toynbee, although it is certainly too late to ask so now, I would like to know whether the future and destiny of the United Kingdom would have changed a little better if my voluntary surrender, or even a defection, had really been able to get Britain out of the war, and to a certain extent with the aid and support of the Soviet Union. ”

“…… Let me put it this way, sir, if you say that the British Empire when you surrender your crown is like a decayed ship that has been flooded to the deck by the sea, with its sides cracked, its keel broken, its masts collapsed, and the sailors fleeing...... But as long as you get rid of the entanglement of the sea in time and find a sandbar to run aground, then at least you can use the remaining hull wood to piece together a new boat and go to sea again. ”

Toynbee spread his hands and replied, "...... Having missed this last chance, the current British Empire ...... It's like the whole ship has sunk to the bottom of the sea, and it has been smashed to pieces, and we who survived are just floating on the surface of the sea with a few broken planks...... How far you can float and whether you will be bitten to death by sharks is all you can do is pray for God's blessing......"

When Queen Elizabeth heard this, she couldn't help but be silent for a long time, and finally she could only sigh softly: "...... May God bless the Britannica......"

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In the evening, the exile party traveled only about twenty kilometers and camped for the night in a small village called Pulborough.

In the twilight of dusk, the silent village was darkened, without a single glimmer of lights or people, only the scorched ruins of collapse and the rancid smell that permeated the air, making everyone frown. When I looked closer, I saw that the village was full of dead bodies, and at the entrance of the village, there was a mutilated corpse lying in the ditch, with all the clothes stripped clean, being bitten by a group of wild dogs, and even the intestines were pulled out...... It seems that when everyone did not know, there was once a bloody conflict between groups of displaced people in this place.

Although the pungent stench of corpses is disgusting, it is even more dangerous if camped in the wilderness and forests. In desperation, the people had to throw the corpses into a wooden house, douse them with gasoline and burn them. Instead of living in the remaining houses, they lit a few bonfires in the small village square for cooking and heating, and after dinner, everyone slept in cars or wrapped in blankets around the fire.

Queen Elizabeth slept badly that night, and was awakened several times by nightmares, and when she woke up, she saw the shadows of the black trees cast shadows on the ground, and when the night wind blew them, they became devils with teeth and claws, and then turned into terror with the night and pounced on her...... She had the illusion that she was not traveling on the land of her homeland, but on an expedition in some wild land far away from civilization, and that monsters or natives might attack at any moment......

So, on the second day, Queen Elizabeth unsurprisingly had two dark circles on her face.

The noble group of exiles then made a two-day trek through the largely uninhabited lands of southern England, seeing countless burned, abandoned and forgotten villages and towns before arriving at their destination, Windsor Castle in Windsor, Berkshire.

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ps: I was warned again, asking the author not to talk about state affairs, in order to keep this book from being a eunuch, I had to stop complaining about it in the future. (To be continued.) )