Chapter 167, The Queen in the Wind (Part 2)
So, in the remaining few hours of the day's journey, Ambassador Toynbee introduced Queen Elizabeth to many things that had happened in recent years. Of course, the most talked about thing is the unprecedented catastrophe and hell that the British mainland has suffered in the past few years.
——The overwhelming atomic bombings at the beginning of the Third World War not only turned cities on the island of Great Britain into radioactive ghostlands one after another, but also completely destroyed the entire British industrial and agricultural infrastructure. When the war was temporarily extinguished in Europe and the nuclear explosions and bombings came to an end, the surviving British people sadly discovered that they no longer had electricity, running water and railway transportation, and their living conditions had regressed back to before the Industrial Revolution.
What's even more terrible is that due to the interruption of shipping during the war, since the end of 1946, no more Canadian wheat, Argentine beef, and American egg powder have been imported into the UK. The UK's food self-sufficiency rate before the war was only about 30%. With the collapse of various infrastructures, the remaining British farmers not only lost fertilizers, agricultural machinery, irrigation facilities and professional seeds, but even the mules and horses that pulled the plows were requisitioned by the government and the army, resulting in a decline in agricultural products. The further sharp decline in output is already threatening to starve to death in large numbers.
In fact, as early as when Queen Elizabeth left Britain to surrender to the Soviet Union, the soldiers and civilians on the island had already begun to fight each other for living supplies... To make matters worse, the "massage" of Iceland's crust due to successive nuclear strikes , triggering a major eruption of an Icelandic volcano. The huge amount of volcanic ash that entered the atmosphere brought two "years without summer" to the world, causing devastating damage to the agricultural and food production of almost all countries in the world. The British Isles, across the sea from Iceland, were naturally not immune. So, the British who survived the nuclear explosions and riots finally took up their hoes and sowed seeds in the ground. What followed was the climate change. Unexpected changes, almost no crops were harvested for two consecutive years. The various fighting and bloody conflicts among the hungry people further squandered the only food reserves and increased the death toll. As a result, by the time the weather gradually returns to normal this year, farmers on the island of Great Britain have already almost died of starvation and freezing.
Even if some people haven't frozen to death or starved to death, they have already eaten up everything edible around them, including seeds, in the previous two disaster years. Even if they want to sow seeds in the spring of this year, there will be nothing left. There were no seeds to sow, and no animals to pull the plow.
During this period, those British cities that survived the Soviet nuclear attack also became strangers one after another because of the lack of food. For example, Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, which escaped the nuclear explosion, was destroyed a year after the outbreak of World War III. According to the results of the Soviet Marine Corps' post-war landing reconnaissance, Edinburgh is currently deserted and completely abandoned. However, some chilling evidence was found of cannibals eating people in the city.
——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 back to the era of King Arthur more than a thousand years ago. It is the same darkness and turmoil, the same barrenness and lack, but there are no good kings and knights, no fairies and wizards, only radiation and gangsters. ...Those cities that were once glorious, even if they haven't turned into radioactive wastelands, are already covered with ruins and blackened craters. Even the manors in the countryside have most likely been looted. Many counties have become completely no man's land, and many survivors are hiding in dangerous caves, fortresses, isolated islands and hidden forests, almost becoming savages.
According to Toynbee's rough guess, it is estimated that there are only one or two million people left on the island of Great Britain today, which is even less than in Roman times...
The hard-hearted Soviets turned a blind eye to all these tragic scenes. Just to ensure the safety of passage in the Strait of Dover, they set up an outpost on the Isle of Wight on the other side of Portsmouth Harbor, and then sat back and watched the island of Great Britain decline step by step. Into a hell of famine and death.
As a result, by the time World War III ended, the island of Great Britain was already on its deathbed and could no longer be saved.
What's more, the Soviet Union, the future world leader, seems to have no intention of treating illnesses and saving lives...
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"...Oh God! The great British Empire...has turned into this? It is countless times more cruel than the Irish epidemic of the last century and the Black Death in the Middle Ages! I seemed to see the history of the collapse of the ancient Roman Empire repeating itself..."
Queen Elizabeth rubbed her forehead and groaned with a broken face, "...Doesn't anyone care about and show mercy to the people of this island country?"
"...Your Majesty, have you forgotten? What is the biggest event of our time? It is a world war! The eyes of the Soviets, Americans, Japanese, and the vast majority of people in the world are all focused on all fronts around the world. All other events pale in comparison to the military actions that determined the fate of the world, including, of course, the collapse of civilization and the humanitarian disaster that occurred on the island of Great Britain..."
"...In other words, everyone is busy killing people, and no one cares about saving others? Even if you want to save...you have to save your own people first?"
"...Almost...Your ancestor Queen Victoria had no mercy on the hungry people of Ireland, nor the Indian weavers in Bangladesh (because of the industrial revolution and unfair tariff system, the Indian cotton spinning handicraft industry went bankrupt in the Victorian era. Thousands of Bengali craftsmen and their families starve to death). How can today’s General Secretary Stalin be kind to the Anglo-Saxons on the island of Great Britain?”
Toynbee sighed and replied, "...Two years ago, after learning about the tragedy that was happening in Britain through some channels, I immediately tried my best to send letters and messages everywhere. Finally, I finally got the support of the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union. Molotov's interview. As a result, Mr. Molotov first expressed his deep sympathy for the British people in dire straits. Claiming that all countries in Europe are currently struggling with terrible famines, and the amount of relief materials that the Soviet Union can provide is limited, so it is impossible to divert the living materials that should have been allocated to its own people and allies to provide relief to the Red Army who are still resisting The people of the enemy country - who made Prime Minister Churchill insist on unconditional surrender at that time?
Although these words sounded like an excuse at first glance, I still tried to send a message 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 British people. Let the Anglo-Saxon nation of Great Britain be destroyed. As a result...you can probably guess that until the end of the war, Prime Minister Churchill did not respond to this telegram..."
"...Oh! Damn Churchill! Hypocritical Molotov!" Queen Elizabeth shouted excitedly, "...You actually don't admit that Britain has withdrawn from the war? Didn't I openly surrender to Stalin as the monarch of the United Kingdom? A scepter and a crown? What else do they want?”
"...This...with all due respect, from the perspective of the liberal camp in this recent world war, or in other words, according to the propaganda stance of the US government during the war, I am afraid that you have given up the crown by surrendering, which is tantamount to abdicating the throne. And your sister Margaret is the real queen.”
Toynbee said with a wry smile, "...to use an inappropriate analogy, in the eyes of Stalin, Your Majesty, who voluntarily surrendered to the Soviet Union but was deposed by his own government, was probably equivalent to flying to the UK alone nine years ago. Hess, the deputy head of Nazi Germany who sued for peace but was detained as a prisoner of war... Since the opposition is The Fang camp did not admit that Britain had surrendered, and you were actually unable to continue to effectively rule Britain when you surrendered. It was natural for the Soviets not to admit that Britain had withdrawn from the war - you had no way to order all the British military and civilians at that time Put down your weapons..."
"...That is to say...you also think that my choice at that time was correct, but I just didn't have the ability to execute it, right?"
Queen Elizabeth said somewhat gloomily, "... Mr. Toynbee, although it is definitely too late to ask this now, I still want to know if I had surrendered on my own initiative at that time, or even switched sides, would it really have made Britain more capable?" Withdrawing from the war and receiving aid and support from the Soviet Union to a certain extent, will the future and destiny of the United Kingdom become slightly better? ”
"... Let's put it this way, Your Majesty, if we say that the British Empire when you gave up the crown and surrendered, it was like a decaying ship that had been flooded by the sea water. The ship's sides had been cracked, the keel had been broken, and the mast had collapsed. The sailors have already begun to flee... But as long as they get rid of the entanglement of the sea in time and find a sandbank to beach, they can at least use the remaining hull wood to piece together a new boat and go back to sea."
Toynbee spread his hands and replied, "...because of missing this last opportunity, the current British Empire...is equivalent to the entire ship sinking to the bottom of the sea, and being smashed to pieces, and it cannot even be fished out. Up, those of us who survived are just holding a few broken wooden boards and drifting on the sea... How far we can float in the future, and whether we will be bitten by sharks, we can only pray for God's blessing... …”
When Queen Elizabeth heard this, she couldn't help but be silent for a long time. In the end, she could only sigh: "...May God bless Britain..."
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In the evening of that day, the exile team had only traveled about twenty kilometers and camped for the night in a small village called Pulborough.
Under the twilight of dusk, this silent village was filled with darkness, without a trace of lights or people, only the collapsed charred ruins, and the putrid smell that filled the air, making everyone frown. Taking a closer look, I saw corpses scattered everywhere in the village. At the entrance of the village, there was a mutilated corpse lying in the ditch. All his clothes were stripped clean, and he was being bitten by a group of wild dogs, including his intestines. They were all taken out... It seems that when no one knew it, a bloody conflict between refugee groups once occurred in this place.
Although the pungent corpse odor is disgusting, it may be even more dangerous if camping in the wilderness and forest. In desperation, everyone had no choice but to throw the corpses into a wooden house, pour gasoline on them and burn them on fire. Then they didn’t dare to live in the remaining houses anymore. Instead, they lit a few bonfires in the small square of the village for cooking and heating. After dinner, everyone either slept in the car or wrapped themselves around the fire. Sleeping on the spot with a blanket.
Queen Elizabeth had a bad sleep that night. She was awakened by nightmares several times. When she opened her eyes, she saw dark trees casting shadows on the ground. When blown by the night wind, they turned into demons with teeth and claws. Then they turned into terror together with the night and pounced on her. Come... It gave her the illusion that she was not traveling on the land of her motherland, but on an adventure in a wild and foreign land far away from civilization. Monsters or indigenous people might attack at any time...
So, on the next day, Queen Elizabeth unexpectedly had two dark circles on her face.
Next, this noble team of exiles trekked for two days through the almost uninhabited land of southern England, seeing countless burned, abandoned and forgotten villages and towns, and finally arrived at the destination of their trip. Destination: Windsor Castle in Windsor, Berkshire.
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※ ※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※PS: I was warned again and asked the author not to talk about state affairs. In order to prevent the book from being published by eunuchs, I had no choice but to stop complaining about it in the future.