afterglow

Chapter 225 Coronation Ceremony;

Chapter 225 Coronation Ceremony;

The full and bright moon in mid-autumn slowly rises into the night sky, and many people who are busy all day can hardly relax. They are accompanied by relatives and friends, eating moon cakes and chatting, so leisurely.

At this moment, it was only noon in the British Isles thousands of miles away.

The gentle wind is blowing, carrying the humid and salty sea atmosphere. Portsmouth at noon in September can be described as extremely cool. The sun shines with thousands of rays, but you can hardly feel the heat.

Next to the No. [-] wharf on Well Island, the huge battleship Longshuo is moored here, and the officers and soldiers of the ship are entering the cabin one after another for lunch.

"I always feel that someone is peeping in the dark, tsk tsk tsk, I don't know if I'm worrying too much."

On the way to the officer's restaurant, a staff officer complained to Lin Xunzhen, who was walking beside him, about his strange feelings.

The latter replied nonchalantly: "How could the British miss this great opportunity? The hills on the island and the buildings opposite the pier, these places must have people they sent to observe and measure from a distance."

"Hey, that's right." The staff officer nodded slightly, "Let them test it. Anyway, over the past two years, they have collected almost all the external information about this ship that they can see."

"That's the reason, as long as you don't come in." After entering the restaurant, Lin Xunzhen stretched out his hand and opened the chair, "Besides, all the countries participating in the ship review are doing the same thing, and the embassy must be very busy. .”

Not only are they busy with diplomatic affairs on the surface, the military attaches of the embassy will naturally not miss this rare opportunity to measure the warships participating in the ship review.

The Long Shuo of the Ming Dynasty Navy, the Ekaterina the Great of the Tsarist Russian Navy, the Luxembourg of the German Shepherd Navy, and the Moreno of the Argentine Navy were all arranged to berth at several piers on Weir Island. Obviously, the British made such an arrangement. There are ulterior motives.

Because of this trip to the UK, the Mid-Autumn Festival can only be spent overseas, so the Longshuo specially refrigerated a batch of selected sweet-scented osmanthus in the huge cold storage before sailing.

In addition to moon cakes in the past two days, osmanthus flowers that have been prepared have been used to make osmanthus cakes.

On the side deck, Wu Yuanqin, the right servant of the Ministry of Rites who came with the ship, stroked his beard and said with a smile: "I think the soldiers are all in high spirits, very good. I will repeat this one more time. It is a matter of the face of the country, so we cannot relax."

"You can rest assured that you will never go on a business trip." The captain replied, and the accompanying officers also clasped their fists in salute.

Afterwards, Wu Yuanqin and Honglu Temple Shaoqing Qiao Liang disembarked and left.

As the imperial envoys of the Ming Emperor, they were going to directly participate in the coronation ceremony of King George VI and the subsequent ship review ceremony.

At the same time, present the letter of credence and gifts.

After arriving in London from Portsmouth, the two imperial envoys arrived at the Ritz Hotel, and were immediately led to their respective rooms by the waiters.

Wu Yuanqin sighed and said: "When I witnessed His Majesty's ascension to the throne, I was only in my 20s and just entered the official career. Time flies like a passing horse. It has been more than 30 years."

"Yeah, time doesn't forgive people." Qiao Liang echoed.

The two remained silent, and the elevator slowly ascended.

After getting out of the elevator, Wu Yuanqin said again: "This time, representatives from all countries are gathered together, let's see how the British people behave."

Qiao Liang nodded thoughtfully and said, "It depends on whether to continue to be tough or to be gentle."

"How can the English make a gesture of weakness?"

"It's hard to tell. It's not uncommon to have a carrot in one hand and a stick in the other. Besides, maybe the British will recognize the situation someday."

"If that's the case, they wouldn't take the initiative to propose it." Wu Yuanqin knew that the British Empire also wanted to save face in many cases.

"It would be great if that's the case," Qiao Liang smiled. "They want to be decent, so they should give it to them."

Of course, the British are not stupid. The Ming people coveted the Nanyang region and devoted themselves to turning it into a back garden. This can be said to be inevitable.

How could a huge empire tolerate the power of other countries blocking its door for a long time?
Before that, the British had never given in at all, and had always insisted that if Ming invaded and subverted the interests of the British Empire in Asia, then war would be absolutely inevitable.

Daming also tried many times, sending fleets to cruise, sending people to openly collect topographical data, and deliberately provoking overseas Chinese to make troubles. Naturally, the British side repeatedly protested diplomatically.

After wrestling for so many years, the emperor and ministers of the Ming Dynasty have already regarded temptation as a routine action. Maybe one day the British will really lower their proud noble heads?

The sunny and sunny October [-]nd is the coronation ceremony of the King of England. The atmosphere of London has changed accordingly. There is a bit of excitement in the solemnity. Most of the people who left home to visit are also full of interest. The streets are full of traffic , The police are everywhere trying to maintain order.

The process of the coronation ceremony depends to a certain extent on the historical period and the will of the monarch, but it is generally similar, at least the basic process will not change.

The coronation ceremonies in Britain from ancient times to the present have basically chosen between Canterbury and Westminster.

This time, George VI chose to be crowned at Canterbury Cathedral.

At [-] o'clock in the morning, under the escort of the royal cavalry, George VI and his wife Elizabeth set off from the Tower of London to the cathedral, passing through Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square.

The coronation ceremony of the monarch was naturally presided over by the archbishop himself. After the 42-year-old George VI slowly sat down on the chair with a history of more than 700 years, the archbishop began to read the duties and obligations that the king should perform.

Finally, he solemnly asked: "Your Majesty, the king's coronation oath is regarded as the same as the law, are you willing to take the oath?"

George VI nodded solemnly and said, "I am willing to swear."

"Are you governing with respect to the customs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and other territories."

"I will."

The archbishop then took the oath and George VI signed his name with a pen.

At this point, the coronation oath officially came into effect, the archbishop slowly glanced at everyone present, and then motioned for the consecration.

Trumpets and music sounded, and all the British and Commonwealth representatives in the cathedral shouted "God save the king" in unison.

Then, the orb symbolizing religious authority, the scepter representing the power of the monarch, and the golden dove symbolizing justice were all awarded to George VI successively.Finally, the archbishop placed on the king's head a gold St. Edward's crown made in the seventeenth century.

After moving to the throne aside, all members of the royal family present knelt down to pay respects.

After the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, the king and queen will take a parade in the famous golden carriage and return to Buckingham Palace after the end.

The Royal Guards in their tall bearskin hats, bright red tunics and black trousers always draw attention, and in this pre-Internet age, seeing them attire for the first time is all the more curious.

"It's just to show off your martial arts. This kind of bearskin top hat is the favorite of the French. They even set the height of the hat for different arms, and they also put on many fancy accessories." Qiao Liang explained to Wu Yuanqin: "Waterloo After the war, the British guards also changed to this hat, saying it was to commemorate the hard-won victory."

The latter thought for a while and commented: "This attire is much lighter than that of General Han."

"I don't want to wear armor now, do I? I haven't seen it for several times."

"Depending on the day and location, at least those at Xi'an Gate and Chengtian Gate are all in armor."

Wearing armor, holding an axe or a pumpkin hammer, the weight of tens of catties is not easy even for a strong young man, especially in the scorching summer, when the heat is unbearable, so the big Han generals in the Forbidden City often He went to stand guard wearing only his uniform and carrying a pumpkin hammer.

As the coronation ceremony came to an end, the ship review ceremony, which attracted the attention and attention of all countries in the world, also followed.

The ship review ceremony of the British Empire is often held in the Spithead Strait, which is between the main island of the United Kingdom and the Isle of Wight. Southampton is to the north of the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth is to the northeast. It has been the core of the Royal Navy since ancient times. base.

On October [-]th, in the calm Spithead Strait, George VI's coronation parade officially began.

In addition to the 147 warships of various types from the Commonwealth of Nations, there are also [-] representative ships sent by foreign navies, with an unprecedented scale.

According to the arrangement of the British, the order in which foreign navies are inspected is the United States, France, Russia, China, Argentina, Germany, Greece, Holland, and so on.

The meaning contained in this order is naturally unusual, and it is similar to Ming's initial prediction, but it is not sure which of France and Russia will come first. Now it seems that the British still pay more attention to their old enemy on the other side.

The rising sun in the east shone with light, and there was no trace of wind and waves in the calm strait, only the wake left by the warships passing by.

Looking down from the sky, nearly [-] large and small warships can't be seen at a glance, densely packed, as if a child has arranged all his toys neatly together.

The feeling of being in it is even more shocking. There are warships on the front, back, left, and right, surrounded by steel hills of several thousand tons and tens of tons. This kind of oppressive feeling makes people excited and nervous at the same time.

On the bridge of the Longshuo, a group of naval officers were equally excited.

"The British have spent most of their wealth this time."

"Yes, several major fleets have drawn ships, do you remember?"

"Ten ships in the home fleet, nine ships in the Mediterranean fleet, more than 100 ships in the reserve fleet, more than [-] submarines and a dozen auxiliary ships."

"Focus, capital ship."

Lin Xunzhen replied casually: "Ten battleships and battlecruisers, and four aircraft carriers."

When the battleship Ekaterina the Great sent by the Tsarist Russian Navy slowly passed by, the battleship Long Shuo of the Ming Navy followed closely behind.

What makes everyone very dissatisfied is that the Russians seem to be deliberately causing trouble?The originally normal chimney suddenly gushed out wisps of black smoke, which became thicker and thicker, just passing over the Longshuo behind it.

This situation lasted for a few minutes, and by the time they passed the ship review area, the bridge and flag of the Longshuo had been obviously stained and blackened.

Although it is an old ship more than [-] years ago, the Ekaterina the Great underwent modernization a few years ago, and the old twenty small Yarrow-style oil-coal mixed-fired boilers were replaced by eight new ones. Heavy oil boiler.

It is not difficult for a ship powered by a steam turbine to achieve this effect of pulling black smoke. It only needs to make the heavy oil under the boiler burn insufficiently.

So everyone agreed that this was intentional by the Russians!
Although Daming and Tsarist Russia have been enemies for hundreds of years, but on this occasion, they used shady tricks...

"Dirty! Isn't this deliberately disgusting?!"

"It's so troublesome to scrub..."

"Let's block the door after we dock in port!"

For a moment, everyone in the bridge was indignant.

The captain was originally the calmest one. After all, in a diplomatic situation, it is better to have one more thing than one thing less.

However, when he picked up the high-powered binoculars to observe the Catherine the Great in front, he could clearly see the sailors lined up on the rear deck laughing.

So the captain wasn't calm any more, and with his head full of black lines, he complained in a deep voice: "Your job!"

At this time, Lin Xunzhen, who had been silent all this time, suddenly said, "It's no fun to come to the door to reason after the fact, how about now?"

More than a dozen eyes fell on him, a gentleman never waits for revenge, right?
"Now? What should I do? Can you still make the smoke float backwards?" the deputy captain asked doubtfully.

Lin Xunzhen smiled lightly, "No, no, when the salute is fired next..."

When he finished speaking, everyone was staring at him, but no one said anything.

Hey, isn't this a little too much?It is easy to cause diplomatic disputes, right?
The captain closed his eyes and pondered for a while, and felt that it seemed to be okay, so he nodded in agreement.

Now that the captain agrees, everyone has no objection, and they each go to make preparations.

Lin Xunzhen walked up to a speaking tube and shouted: "No. [-] turret, prepare two color-coded rounds later, one for the left gun and one for the gun."

"Ah? Next is the salute." The turret commander of the No. [-] turret thought he heard it wrong.

About two quarters of an hour later, as more than a hundred large and small warships had undergone inspection, the next step was to stop the ship and fire a salute.

In order to avoid being hurt by the huge blast when the main gun fired, the sailors on the front and rear decks left quickly to ensure that no one was ready when they were cleared.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Dazzling orange flames spewed out from the muzzle of the guns, and more than a hundred warships in the entire strait fired salutes, and the sound of the guns shook the heavens and the earth.

If simple formation sailing is nothing, then the current salvo can really lift people's hearts high, and the representatives of various countries watching the ceremony on the shore were shocked by such a magnificent scene.

However, at this moment, the triple-mounted 400mm main gun of the No. [-] turret of the Longshuo inadvertently and slowly lowered its angle.

Under the control of the sailors, the propellant charge and the Type [-] color-marked ammunition were successively lifted into the turret chute by the bomb lifter, and then pushed into the barrel by the hinged bomb pusher.

"boom!"

Two 400mm color-coded bombs flew out at high speed. After a short flight, they smashed head-on into the No. [-] stern turret of the Ekaterina the Great battleship, which was only a few hundred meters away.

The color marking bullet is modified based on the training bullet. The dyeing agent is pre-installed under the hood, which can dye the splashed water column when it falls into the water, so that the ballistic trajectory can be distinguished during shelling.

In an instant, as if a paint bag had been smashed on the door, the rear deck of the Ekaterina the Great was in a mess.

The red and yellow stains were splashed, and the teak deck seemed to be a child's palette, full of red and yellow pasted together.

(End of this chapter)

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