Listening to the German radio, Churchill turned pale and trembled all over. "Treason, this is treason by Chi Guoguo!!"

They are working hard here to resist the German army, but these bastards actually want to steal the skin of the tiger and lure the wolf into the house? !

How abominable! !

"Send troops to surround and suppress them immediately!!"

Just when Churchill slapped the table angrily and roared, the broadcast on the radio did not end there. "Germany also welcomes the people of Ireland and Wales to hold high the great banner of resisting the British. His Highness Yannick promised that after the British are defeated, the people of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales can freely choose to establish independent countries or join the German Grand Confederation."

The faces of everyone present became extremely ugly, this move was really damaging.

The Welsh people, like the Scots and Irish, are all Celts from the European continent. The ancestors of Wales, the Britons, first landed on the British Isles in 1000 BC and were later conquered by the Roman Empire.

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Germanic people from the European continent began to enter the British Island. Two of the Germanic tribes, the Angles and the Saxons, landed on the British Island. These people are the ancestors of today's English people. Since then, the English have continued to grow. By the 9th century AD, Emperor Alfred the Great established the Kingdom of England, and Wales gradually became a vassal of England.

In 1277, King Edward I of England invaded Wales. Facing the approach of the English army, the Welsh agreed to surrender to Edward I, but only if a man was born in Wales, could not speak English, and his first words must be spoken in Welsh. The Prince came to govern the Welsh.

Edward I readily agreed to this request, and quickly took the queen, who was about to give birth, to Wales, so that the queen could give birth to her eldest son, Edward II, in Wales.

Edward II was born in Wales and could not speak English at birth, meeting all the conditions for a Welshman. Later, Edward II was named Prince of Wales by his father, and this title also became the title of the future British prince. . By 1536, England and Wales signed the earliest Act of Union in British history, and Wales was officially incorporated into the United Kingdom.

After being annexed to the United Kingdom, a large number of English people entered Wales because it was directly adjacent to England. Moreover, Wales has been controlled by the United Kingdom for more than 800 years, and it has been almost 500 years since it was officially annexed to the United Kingdom. Most of the Welsh people are not interested in Wales. Britain quite agrees with it, and a few Welsh independents just want to get more benefits from the central government.

Therefore, Churchill was not too worried about what might happen to Wells. The real thorn in the side of the British Empire was Ireland!

Churchill shivered and lit a cigar, frowned and was silent for a while. "Do you think the Irish will live in peace?" After asking this question, even he found it funny. To believe that the Irish would live in peace, it would be better to believe that God would come to save the British Empire. "If we send more troops to Northern Ireland in the name of protection, surely Ireland will take action?"

"That's 100%!" the Imperial Chief of Staff said with a wry smile.

Everyone knows that most Irish people hate Britain. Although Ireland is currently neutral, everyone can see that Ireland is ready to take action!

After all, this is their chance to gain independence from the UK and even win back Northern Ireland. The reason why they shouted "neutrality" was for the British. Once Britain sends more troops to Northern Ireland, Ireland may take the lead.

But they are helpless against Ireland. After all, if there is a way, Ireland will not become such a free state with a president. Although it is still a member of the Commonwealth in name, it is actually an independent country.

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, I think it is an unwise decision to send more troops to Northern Ireland now. It will only give Ireland an excuse to use troops. If we are forceful, it will only make it easier for the Germans."

Churchill asked with a frown. “But what if the Irish collude with the Germans and the Germans land in Ireland?”

The Imperial Chief of Staff shrugged. "Then we can only withdraw our troops from Northern Ireland and defend England with all our strength."

Churchill thought for a moment and asked reluctantly. "Is there no other way?"

"Yes, there is no other way." The Imperial Chief of Staff sighed deeply. Even if they attack Ireland with all their strength now, they will not be able to control the island of Ireland within a few days. At that time, the Irish people will sing and dance to welcome the German troops to land...

While everyone was sighing, the broadcast on the radio continued, and the content was about the grudges between Ireland and England that even the top British officials were unwilling to mention.

From 1845 to 1849, the "Potato Plague" broke out in Ireland. The production of potatoes, the food on which the Irish depended, was severely reduced. In many places, the harvest even failed. The Irish suffered a serious famine.

Ireland in 1845 relied on just one crop: the potato. More than 1.5 million agricultural workers have no other source of income to support their families, 3 million small cultivators mainly rely on potatoes for their livelihoods, and the wealthy class consumes much more potatoes than in the UK. When harvests fail, it is certainly the rural poor who bear the greatest risk.

The 1845 fungal harvest occurred in October-November, and the wealthier areas in the eastern part of the country were hardest hit, from where the disease spread westward. Entire seedlings rotted before they were harvested, and every household lost all its year's reserves.

Europe in the 1840s was still deeply religious, and there were attempts to unify Catholicism with emerging sciences such as geology, botany, or economics. Disasters like the potato disease, which reflected the biblical view of famine, only Can cause discriminatory remarks with religious overtones. Most British public opinion considers the issue through religious lenses: the "disaster" that struck Ireland is a warning against a life of luxury and carefree life. More extreme remarks linked the disasters the Irish were suffering to their religious "errors." For many, the lesson is clear: this “perverse” reliance on potatoes should end in order to eat more nutritious grain-based foods.

In the summer of 1846, potato scarcity exceeded the most pessimistic predictions. Between 3 million and 4 million people were threatened with death as harvests were destroyed unprecedented in modern European history. Only the UK has sufficient resources to deal with disasters, but the correct use of these resources requires administrative wisdom and political sincerity.

In the summer of 1847, disease-free potatoes were harvested. Many observers concluded that the famine was over and Ireland should rebuild on its own terms. However, since there were not many plants, the harvest was still pitiful. In fact, much of the island did not truly recover during this season, with hunger and disease still rampant.

In 1848, another attack of downy mildew completely wiped out people's illusions. What is even more cruel is that downy mildew is concentrated in areas that are no longer able to withstand the fourth famine. If conditions in the less impoverished areas improved slightly, the West and South experienced a disaster as severe as the "Dark Year" of 1847. In 1849 and 1850, disease struck again, leaving some areas dying.

In the "black year 1847", Nicholas Cummins, a local official in County Cork, Ireland, described this: "I walked into a farmhouse and the scene made me jaw-dropping. Six people who were emaciated due to hunger and looked like ghosts were lying on the ground. On a pile of dirty straw in the corner of the hut. I thought they were dead, but when I got closer to them, I heard a low moan in my ears. These 'people' are still alive..."

At that time, Britain was at its peak during the Victorian period, had completed the Industrial Revolution, and was recognized as the world's factory. Britain leads the world in terms of colonies, political system, economic development and other aspects. It is a huge colonial empire with nearly a quarter of the earth's land and nearly a quarter of the population. Britain was a symbol of prosperity, development and civilization in that era, and its national power ranked among the best in the world.

However, in the face of the unprecedented famine in Ireland, they remained indifferent and allowed the disaster to spread and the Irish people to leave their bodies everywhere. Even after the disaster became critical, when the first grain ship arrived in Ireland, the relief corn transported was inedible. Even if the corn was inedible, the application required extremely complicated procedures. Even the British government blocked spontaneous humanitarian aid.

Finally, after reading reports of the famine in Ireland in British newspapers, the then Sultan Abdulmersid of the Ottoman Empire was moved with compassion and announced that he would donate 10,000 pounds to the famine in Ireland. However, Queen Victoria asked the Sultan to donate only 1,000 pounds, because the Queen herself could only donate 2,000 pounds. So after donating 1,000 pounds, the Sudan "quietly" transported three shiploads of food to Ireland to aid the hungry.

Out of the need for its own interests, Britain abolished the Corn Laws in 1846 during the Great Famine, destroying the right of Irish grain to be freely imported into Britain, causing Irish wheat to lose its monopoly position in the British market, which in turn destroyed the Ireland's agricultural economy. British landowners in Ireland, after the repeal of the Corn Laws, ignored the famine in Ireland and mostly switched from wheat cultivation to animal husbandry. The ability to resist famine was greatly weakened, thus aggravating the development of famine to a considerable extent.

During the worst years of the famine, Ireland continued to export food to mainland Britain. Moreover, Ireland was a net exporter of food throughout the famine. This inhumane approach of taking advantage of the situation and taking advantage of the situation without caring about the life and death of the Irish people quickly turned this natural disaster into a man-made disaster.

Ultimately, the famine decimated the Irish population by a quarter (1.5 million people died) and forced 2 million people to emigrate overseas.

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