Great time travel

Chapter 166, The Queen of the Wind

November [-], England, outside London
A silent migratory team, mixed with people and vehicles, is slowly advancing on a dilapidated and deserted road.

Even those once smooth asphalt roads have cracked and caved in many places, and weeds are growing wildly everywhere.As for the place that was originally a dirt road in the country, it was almost covered by vegetation.In addition, it is common to step on a few broken bones now and then in the grass.If you are unlucky, you will kick out an incomplete skull in the grass... Occasionally, there will be rotten trees falling in the middle of the road, which must be removed to continue on the road.

In the middle of the procession, Queen Elizabeth was sitting on a bumpy jeep, and beside her was Queen Margaret, who had already been drowsy.

——From the time I left the beach in the morning, about five hours have passed by now!

Raising her swan-like neck, squinting at the sun in the sky, which had obviously slanted west, Queen Elizabeth calculated in her heart.

However, Windsor Castle, as the destination of the journey, seems to be still very far away...

At this moment, a long time has passed since the end of the Icelandic volcanic eruption, and the volcanic dust that once covered half of the earth and brought climate disasters to the entire world has gradually settled and dissipated.In the clear and clear blue sky of autumn, the bright autumn day is shedding thousands of golden lights on the land of England.However, what is illuminated in this autumn sun is not a pleasing English countryside field scenery, but a decaying and messy ruin-empty towns, burnt villages, overgrown Abandoned fields of grass and saplings...Among the overgrown weeds and bushes, you can occasionally see a few dead bones of humans or animals, or rusty car wreckage.

Occasionally, I can see a few guys who look like lonely ghosts, hiding far away on the hills on both sides of the road or in the woods, looking at these bearskin hats and suits with numb but vigilant eyes. The British Royal Guards in red uniforms, and the Soviet Red Army soldiers who escorted them...

——After receiving the pardon and exile order from Stalin, the father of steel, in the port of Dunkirk, France (the place of exile is Britain), the two British queens and Prime Minister Churchill, as well as the last batch of followers of the British government-in-exile, With full of apprehension and confusion, I embarked on the road back home.

Next, the landing ship of the Soviet Red Navy sent the group of returning exiles to a beach in southern England. A Soviet Marine Corps of more than [-] people was in charge of guarding and escorting them to the intended destination of the two queens. The place of exile and hometown - the famous Windsor Castle...

So far, the group of people who have been away from England for many years finally set foot on the hometown that has become extremely strange again.

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Although according to the map, there is only a straight-line distance of more than 60 kilometers between the beach where they landed and Windsor Castle in the west of London, which is only equivalent to running a car at full speed for an hour.But the fact is that these noble exiles walked for a whole day, and only completed less than one-third of the distance-because the car could not run at all on the poorly maintained and overgrown roads.Moreover, the number of vehicles is not enough, and most people can only walk forward with their luggage on their backs.In order not to leave the team, the car in which the two queens were riding naturally could only wriggle slowly.

Under the autumn sun, those British Royal Guards who have followed Prime Minister Churchill and Queen Margaret around the world for three years dragged a somewhat loose queue due to fatigue, walking deep and shallow on the weeds country dirt road.The black leather boots on their feet that were not very suitable for long journeys had long been scratched by the branches and grass leaves, and they stepped on the dry and firm broken soil, making a monotonous clacking noise.

On this long and uninhabited road, all their energy has been exhausted little by little, and no one has the energy to say gossip. The only thing left in the team is the small noise of a pair of military boots stepping on the gravel. As well as the light sound of lunch boxes, kettles and belt buckles colliding with each other, the car that has been creeping at a low speed sprays choking black smoke, and the rough and broken road makes the axles creak and vibrate...

All these dull and chaotic sounds are mixed together without any rules, and finally create a monotonous, complicated, and sleepy subtle melody. Coupled with the desolate and silent decadent atmosphere around, it makes everyone in the team feel excited. The feeling of exhaustion seemed to be amplified a lot invisibly.

Less than an hour after the exile team had a simple lunch in the field and set out on the road again, the younger sister of the two queens, Margaret, had already fallen asleep drooling.And Prime Minister Churchill, who was sitting in another jeep, snored even more.As the elder sister, Queen Elizabeth felt as if she was about to be captured by the Sandman, so she had to brace herself up and asked an old gentleman in the passenger seat:
"...Mr. Toynbee, what is the current situation of Windsor Castle? Is it okay for us to just move in like this?"

——The old gentleman sitting in the passenger seat of the Queen's jeep is named Arnold Joseph Toynbee. Before the war, he was a well-known scholar throughout Europe. The director of the Institute of Problems, and the last British ambassador before Britain and the Soviet Union officially declared war... As a result, after the third world outbreak, he was stranded in Moscow and unfortunately spent nearly three years in prison.

It wasn't until not long ago that Toynbee was released by the Soviets, and then he was ordered to take the British diplomats who were detained with him, as well as some British expatriates and British prisoners of war, and return to Windsor Castle in Britain. The two queens hit the front stand.

When the landing ship carrying the two queens docked, it was he who led the people to wait and greet on the beach, and acted as a guide.

"...Your Majesty, in the past month, I have led people to clean up Windsor Castle as much as possible. At least the most unsightly things have been cleaned away. My wife has also done her best, thinking Make the rooms of your Majesties more comfortable."

Toynbee said with a wry smile, "...However, it is impossible to be exactly the same as in the past. You will understand more specifically when you see it with your own eyes."

"...It sounds like the situation is very bad! But there is nothing you can do about it. As a subjugated king, it is good to have a place to live." Queen Elizabeth sighed, "...What about London? ? It’s been three years since the nuclear explosion, has it regained any popularity there?”

Regarding Queen Elizabeth's question, Toynbee's face suddenly became a little strange, "...Your Majesty, do you really...don't know at all? In the past few years, the Soviets have not told you any outside news news?"

"...I really don't know anything, Mr. Toynbee." Queen Elizabeth shook her head with a lonely expression, "...for the past few years, I have been imprisoned in a secret prison in Kazakhstan in Central Asia, look No newspapers, no radio, and even if I did hear something occasionally, I didn't know Russian... I was taken out of prison until a month ago and sent directly to Dunkirk. The journey Among them, apart from telling me that the war was over, and finally gave me the pardon and another exile order, the Soviet agents who escorted me refused to say a single word to me... In fact, for I was also very surprised to see Margaret and Mr Churchill in Dunkirk."

"...Okay, I understand, Your Majesty. I'll make a long story short." Toynbee sighed and nodded, "...First of all, the war has indeed ended last month, and the Americans signed the unconditional surrender agreement, Churchill The Prime Minister capitulated, and the Soviets won a complete victory. London, then, should look as dilapidated and desolate as the towns you see along the way - if not more dilapidated and desolate..."

"...It's so bad?!" Queen Elizabeth's eyes widened, "...how can the capital of the British Empire keep becoming like this?!!"

"...British Empire?" Toynbee's expression became more bitter, "...To be honest, I don't even know whether Britain still exists..."