Chapter 55: Burning London
In October 1348, a particularly deserted coronation ceremony was held in Westminster Abbey, London.
——Joan, who had just escaped from Bordeaux, France, after confirming the death of all direct members of the Plantagenet dynasty in England. Princess Plantagenet dutifully wore the crown and sat on the throne left by her father at the age of twelve: Logically speaking, princesses like her who marry far away from home would often give up their inheritance rights before marriage, but since marriage It didn't work out, and when I returned to the country, I found that all my parents, sisters, and brothers were dead. Unless I was going to find a distant relative from some remote corner of the country to take the throne, I would have no choice but to let Princess Joan become the Queen of England.
What's more, it seems to be unknown whether the current Plantagenet dynasty has any distant relatives still alive.
Finally, out of the above considerations and their own interests, the remaining nobles of the British mission who fled hastily from Bordeaux unanimously elected Princess Joan, who was "saved by an angel", to be crowned king, so as to find a supporter for themselves. achievement. As for the palace dignitaries in London...it seems that there are no living people left at the moment, so there is no need to trouble these dead people to worry about worldly affairs in their graves.
In a sense, Princess Joan's coronation ceremony can be regarded as quite high-end and classy. Not only "heavyweight" guests such as the King of Scotland, the Queen of Naples, and the Doge of Venice came to London in person to congratulate her and give her a wedding dress. The one who holds the crown is not an archbishop, but the most supreme Clement VI in the entire Christian world. Emperor - Because the clergy in England seemed to be too pious and prohibited such depraved secular things such as bathing, almost everyone died in the plague. Not even a bishop could be found near London. In the end She had no choice but to trouble the Pope to come and preside over the coronation ceremony in person... and finally "angels" sprinkled holy light and petals from the sky to bless her.
But from a practical point of view, this coronation ceremony was really deserted. There were no grand banquets and dances, no cheers from the whole city and worship from all the people - now there are less than 3,000 living people left in London. More than half of them are lunatics with mental problems. As for the English nobles who swore allegiance to Queen Joan, there were only a few survivors from the original wedding mission, and they couldn't even stand up to the new court.
Jean, on the bright side, Joan. Queen Plantagenet's hasty accession to the throne this time, at least she did not encounter widespread doubts and opposition in England - because the powerful nobles who had the power to oppose and question have all died of the plague:
At that time, in the entire Kingdom of England, there were about 80 powerful nobles with castles and private soldiers. According to royal records, more than 20 nobles among them have been confirmed to be removed from the list, and the whole family has gone to hell or to heaven. They went to heaven; more than forty nobles fled the castle and hid in unknown places; as for the remaining dozen nobles, they finally stayed in their castles and received notifications. Some people were noncommittal about this, and some Some people expressed their intention to go to London to see the new queen's appearance. However, several palace aristocrats who were organizing the ceremony in London waited around until the day the Queen was scheduled to ascend the throne, but they did not receive any visitors - due to the sanitary conditions of this era and the current spread of the plague in England, The gathering and movement of large groups of people are extremely susceptible to disease. Therefore, whether these noble lords were preparing to come to London to hold armed demonstrations, or to watch the ceremony to congratulate and swear allegiance, almost all of them died of illness on the way, or were frightened and fled back... …
In addition, the sudden change of throne in the Kingdom of England was fortunate enough not to suffer military intervention from other countries, thus evolving into a "war of succession to the throne" that is common in European history - on the other side of the strait, although Theoretically, the smoke of the Hundred Years' War is still lingering, and last year's armistice treaty has also expired. However, the epidemic in the Kingdom of France broke out earlier than in the UK, and the degree of destruction was more tragic. The King of France Philip VI simply abandoned Paris, which was devoured by death, and took the royal family members, confidants and favored ministers to an unknown nook and cranny in the countryside. Even with the extraordinary powers of the Venetian merchants, he could not find any trace of the King of France's chariot, and he did not even know about it. Is he still alive... Obviously, such a France, swallowed by death, is in danger of even maintaining its own existence. It is naturally impossible to organize an intervention army to cross the Channel and launch an invasion of England. According to predictions, France, which originally had a population of 20 million, will die at least 12 to 14 million people in this plague!
There was some movement in Scotland - as the sworn enemy of the English, when they heard the news of the great plague in England, the Scots, who had just suffered a huge defeat at Neville's Cross the year before, and even the king was captured, were overjoyed for a moment. mad. The devout Scots feel that this must be God punishing the English, and the evildoers will not have a good end after all. As for good people like them, they never have to worry about getting sick.
In order to help God, they quickly gathered an army of nearly ten thousand people and once again invaded England southward. With a fearless spirit, this Scottish army bravely crossed the border and entered England where the Black Death was ravaged. They robbed homes and houses along the way, but before they encountered any decent enemies, five thousand soldiers died suddenly. The entire Scottish army collapsed. From beginning to end, the two sides never fought a battle, and the Scots stumbled back - bringing the plague and some more terrible diseases back to Scotland with them...
As a result, the horrific scenes that had just occurred in places such as London and Oxford were quickly staged again in cities such as Edinburgh, Scotland - without the devastation of war, thousands of Scots fell one after another, leaving only The people fled the city in panic and spread the plague throughout Scotland: these Wallace's compatriots were isolated in Europe. In a remote corner of European civilization, their concepts of medical care are more backward than that of the English. Their bodies and residences are generally filthier than those of the English, and they are naturally more susceptible to diseases... Next, as another fleeing fleet arrives, The epidemic spread, and even the coldest places in the far north, such as Norway, Iceland and Sweden, fell to the pervasive plague.
——What’s even more sad is that the plague that was spread this time was not even just the original Black Death, but a complex set of severe plagues that Doraemon added: plague, typhoid, and cholera , malaria, smallpox, influenza, dysentery, yellow fever, measles, tuberculosis...most of the severe plagues throughout the ages are all available. And it comes from the 22nd century. Heat-resistant, cold-resistant and easy-to-spread varieties cultivated with future advanced biotechnology. Although most of them are not incurable diseases, they are not so easy to survive with human immunity.
Even in the most tragic and horrifying nightmares of medieval Europeans, they probably never imagined what a terrifying situation it would be like after so many plagues broke out at the same time... And now, this is a death catastrophe like the end of the world. , but it really came.
Therefore, in order to clear a clean place from this disease-ridden world, under the strong advice of the "angels", Queen Joan issued her first decree after ascending the throne: Burn London! Cleanse this filthy city with blazing fire! !
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
Over London, which was filled with dead air and stench, Wang Qiu spread out the white angel wings behind his back, holding the [Magic Encyclopedia Dictionary], enduring some indescribable shame, and recited a line that was out of moral integrity. Spell: "... Meow! My red partner, please let the world feel your majesty, dye the sky red, and give me a sea of fire! Meteor and fire rain, meow! (Japanese)"
With the final "meow" sound, hundreds of fireballs instantly appeared over London, lighting up the dark city. Immediately it fell like a torrential rain, quickly burning the crowded houses below that were filled with putrid stench and with corpses lying on them into a sea of blazing fire... In this era of underdeveloped productivity, and in England, which is relatively backward in civilization, , most of the buildings in London are made of wood, and there are even a lot of thatched sheds mixed in. After being scorched by the early autumn sun for so many days, they have already become excellent drying fuel.
Fortunately, before she started setting fire to the city, Queen Joan issued a warning, expelled the remaining survivors from the city, and opened the Tower of London to accommodate those citizens who were unwilling to leave London, so there were no charred people." The scene of Burning Man running around the streets.
A strong wind blew the flames through several narrow streets full of wooden houses, and then into some warehouses on the north bank of the Thames River, shooting up small clusters of flames. Then, countless sporadic flames gradually merged into a large fire, burning everything that could be burned. The flames twisted wildly, getting bigger and smaller, getting redder and hotter. The forest of fire turned into a huge waterfall of fire, and a series of crackling and popping sounds were heard, eventually spreading to the entire city. In this city full of flammable buildings, no matter which direction the wind blows, it will blow the fire into a large area. The flame turned into a fire blanket, and the fire blanket turned into a volcano, blowing away the surrounding air and turning into many hot updrafts, which made Wang Qiu bump up and down and stagger in the air.
The choking smoke and the stench produced by the burning corpses soon made Wang Qiu unbearable, so he had to leave the fire scene in a hurry and re-enter the Tower of London - in this "castle" An isolation zone has been opened around the "Shiwang Palace" in advance, and the fire cannot burn it.
Then, just as Wang Qiu jumped into the corridor from an open window, he saw Ma Tong, wearing a white linen robe and a gold crown from nowhere on his head, standing in front of the window and fiddling with it. A lute, commonly used by troubadours in the Middle Ages, hummed some strange tune.
"...Senior Ma Tong, what are you doing?" Wang Qiu sighed and looked at this funny senior who was posing with a black line on his forehead.
"...Of course I am learning to imitate the legendary deeds of Nero, the famous tyrant of ancient Rome, watching the fire burning the city while playing the piano and singing!"
Ma Tong shrugged and gave the above embarrassing answer, "...Originally, the twelve-year-old Loli queen was supposed to perform, but she refused to do it and claimed that she didn't know how to have fun. He put the crown into my hand, then hid in the prayer room and recited sutras with his head covered..."
"...Ahem, I think, Senior Sister Ma Tong, you should stop singing with your broken voice! And you don't know how to play the lute at all! Isn't it interesting to stand here and smoke secondhand smoke?" Wang Qiu turned the page Bai Yan complained, and at the same time he was choked by the black smoke floating in from outside and coughed repeatedly.
"...That's true." Ma Tong rolled his eyes, then dropped the lute in half-hearted mood. At the same time, he covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief, and looked out the window, only to see waves of people coming towards him. Like the suffocating heat wave in a furnace, countless brilliant golden snakes were dancing on the streets and rooftops not far away. The whole of London seemed to have turned into a flaming hell, which made people feel horrified.
"...Speaking of which...isn't it just disinfection and killing a mouse? There seems to be no need to go so far as to burn down 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 is really very heavy!"
"...There is no way, because this is the only successful experience in British history that can quickly extinguish the London Plague!" Wang Qiu shrugged helplessly, "...In the history of our world, since the Black Death in 1348 After the epidemic, the plague returned in London It broke out several times, but the cause was never found and the plague could not be controlled. The last time the Great Plague in London was caused by plague, it broke out in 1665. At that time, 100,000 people died of the disease in London, and the epidemic lasted for more than a year. , but can never be controlled and engage in The whole country was panicked, and the political economy was in chaos. In the end, it was the Great Fire of London in 1666 that finally solved the plague problem in London. This fire not only burned thousands of houses, but also destroyed half of London. Flat ground also burned London to death There were 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 wave. The germs were also eliminated by the high temperature of the burning city fire, making the plague last for a long time. No more outbreaks within the time
Therefore, when the entire city has been completely contaminated by germs and most of the citizens have turned into rotting corpses, with the technical conditions of this era, the only effective countermeasure is to make a firm determination and destroy the city and everything in it. All burned: Yersinia pestis is very powerful and can survive for decades on the surfaces of clothes, blankets, furniture, ceilings, beams and the like! Even if we can eliminate the rats and fleas in the city and cut off the regular transmission vector of the Black Death, as long as there are some people who like to take advantage of others and secretly take the relics of the plague victims back for their own use, then all epidemic prevention measures will be ineffective. It's all in vain...but there must be many such poor people now! ”
"...So you set fire to burn London to the ground, and let the germs and the city be destroyed together?" Ma Tong nodded slightly to express his understanding, "...use flames to purify everything...This seems to be a non-solution!" It’s a pity that it’s too cruel.”
"...Who says it's not? But what else can be done? Should London be left to fend for itself in the plague and ignored? If this is the case, the city will become a huge source of pollution. , turning all directions into a place of death for the plague god. Even if we stay in the Tower of London, we have to worry about contracting the plague at all times, so we have to burn them all! br>
Wang Qiu spread his hands and then turned his attention back to the fire burning the city outside. The scene that is like hell fire raging in the world is really unforgettable - the red ground, the red sky, the red clouds, the red river, and everything under the red firelight seems to be dyed. It has an indescribable fantasy and tragic color, like the mythological drama "Twilight of the Gods".
London, devoured by the plague, gradually turned to ashes in the fire. At the same time, tens of thousands of English citizens were reduced to ashes. And far away from London, more English people are dying, and it is too late to save them one by one... Judging from this situation, if Queen Joan does not want to rule a kingdom of the dead, then she needs to find a way to obtain A new group of subjects...