Capítulo 1860: Chapter 804: The Sun Never Sets, But It’s Finally Setting
“Go and see!” He led two soldiers, cautiously approaching the site of the firefight.
No bodies.
Only a few fresh bloodstains, several shell casings, and… an abandoned backpack. Jackson kicked the backpack, and a few crudely printed flyers rolled out, bearing the “Broken Crown” emblem and provocative slogans: “Why do English soldiers fight?” “Your blood fattens the politicians in London!” “Scottish freedom, English liberation!”
And there was a map, marking several nearby paths and the routes commonly used by patrols.
“It’s not smugglers…” a soldier’s face turned pale, “Is it a propaganda team? Or did they deliberately draw us to fire?”
Jackson felt a chill.
He suddenly looked up towards the direction of the village. The sound of gunfire must have traveled there.
Almost simultaneously, the walkie-talkie crackled with an agitated voice from headquarters: “Black Village patrol team! Report imdiately! Why did the shooting occur? Villagers reported hearing intense gunfire! Were there any civilian casualties?!”
“No civilians found… We were attacked by suspected rebel scouts and have driven them off…” Jackson tried to explain.
“Withdraw imdiately! Right now! The dia is already heading there! Damn it!”
When Jackson’s patrol team hastily withdrew to the temporary base, Black Village had already erupted in chaos.
Villagers gathered at the entrance, discussing in fear and anger. Several bold young n even ran near the firefight site, using ho caras to capture the shell casings, bloodstains, and those flyers.
More critically, stray bullets from the firefight had struck the wall of a farmhouse at the village’s edge, less than three ters from a couple in the kitchen. Although there were no casualties, the wall full of bullet holes and shattered windows beca irrefutable evidence of “military recklessness endangering civilians.”
Local tabloid reporters and BBC regional reporters arrived quickly onsite. On screen: alard villagers holding flyers printed with the “Broken Crown” emblem, pointing at bullet holes on the wall and shouting angrily at the caras: “They fired at us! Just for a few worthless papers!” “This is England! Not Northern Ireland! Not even a Scottish gorge!” “Our children are in the army to protect these? Letting the army aim guns at their own?”
Jackson’s patrol team was quickly isolated for scrutiny.
The military initially tried to maintain a unified narrative, claiming “encountered ard militants, exchanged brief gunfire, rebels escaped.” But villagers’ testimonies, bullet holes on the wall, and those “subversive” flyers aid at the English public made this explanation riddled with holes.
“Border tensions led to military misjudgnt, firing at suspected targets, nearly causing civilian casualties,” this version spread rapidly in local dia and early internet forums. Although mainstream dia remained restrained, the “Black Village incident” was like a thorn, piercing into the already discontented English dostic public opinion.
The third phase of the “Spring Planting” plan, due to this unexpected and bloody “trigger event,” was suddenly thrust into the spotlight.
Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester… Those radical groups and dissatisfied public previously contacted by Reinhardt’s people quickly seized this opportunity.
Detailed reports of the “Black Village incident” and the “Broken Crown” symbol began appearing on protest banners in these industrial cities. The slogans swiftly shifted from specific economic demands to sharp questioning of the military, governnt, and even the system:
“The Scots’ blood hasn’t dried, yet now English blood must flow?”
“Who is instigating war? Who is concealing truth?”
“Don’t be buried with the Empire!”
Sporadic small-scale protests erged, though not yet forming a nationwide wave, but that restless atmosphere already made the London police departnt and Military Intelligence Five feel a chill down their backs.
They realized the enemy might not only be in the Scottish highlands but possibly at the next street corner.
anwhile, the turmoil in overseas territories did not subside despite London’s promises of “pacification.”
Kingston, Jamaica, February 25.
The situation spiraled out of control.
An originally planned peaceful march turned into city-wide riots due to police excessive tension and radical elents within the protest group. Governnt buildings were hit with Molotov cocktails, shops were looted, the British flag was publicly burned. The Governor’s Mansion was besieged once again, this ti with sporadic gunfire.
Television images transmitted back to London: smoke-filled city, frenzied crowds, exhausted and terrified police officers, and the Union Jack shrinking in the flas. The background music was reggae mixed with indignant shouts and a clearly audible slogan: “British, get out! Pay our blood debt!”
Almost simultaneously, in Nairobi, Kenya, a “Historical Justice Commission” composed of several tribal chiefs, intellectuals, and activists, held a news conference drawing international dia attention. They presented a thick docunt listing over a hundred charges from land plunder, resource theft, to forced labor, cultural destruction, and for the first ti proposed a specific, preliminary compensation estimate totaling hundreds of billions of British Pounds, demanding formal negotiations with the British governnt.
In India, though the governnt remained cautious, public and academic voices grew louder. Calls to return fad diamonds like “Kohinoor” once again topped headlines, with influential newspapers starting to serially publish articles, calculating the wealth extracted from India by the British East India Company and colonial governnt periods.
Once a domino starts to fall, its montum becos unstoppable. Bermuda, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago… Within various Commonwealth mbers or overseas territories, calls for more autonomy, re-examining relations with Britain, even discussing the possibility of independence, are noticeably growing.
The “pacification delegation” sent by London often found themselves besieged by local dia and protest groups as soon as they stepped off the plane, overwheld.
European television news and newspapers now cover “Britain’s plight” extensively every day. From guerrilla warfare in Scotland, to sporadic unrest in England, and turmoil in overseas territories. Each headline more sensational than the last: “Multiple Crises Under the Sunset of the Empire,” “Can London Still Control the Situation?” “From Glory to Distress: Britain’s 1997.”
In Brussels, the postponed European security eting finally reconvened, but the atmosphere was entirely different. French and German representatives no longer ntioned “diation,” but repeatedly inquired about the “latest developnts in Britain’s situation” and “reliable plans to ensure the situation doesn’t further spill over.” The undertones of distance and self-preservation were unmistakable.
Privately, high-level mbers of the French External Security General Bureau (DGSE) and the German Federal Intelligence Agency (BND) began urgent secret consultations. The agenda shifted from “how to assist Britain” to “how to prevent unrest from spreading to the European Continent if Britain partially falls out of control,” and “how to conduct ‘necessary and cautious’ contact with xico to understand its strategic boundaries.”
Big Bear then put forward a draft at the United Nations Security Council on “respecting the self-determination rights of people and peacefully resolving historical issues.” Though the wording was vague, it clearly suggested intent and received private applause from several forr colonial countries. The Panda Country representative’s speech called on “all parties to exercise restraint and resolve differences through dialogue,” while emphasizing that “international relations should be based on mutual respect and equality,” which sounded like a veiled criticism to the British.
The wind had changed completely.
The Pri Minister at 10 Downing Street was sleepless all night, his eyes sunken, as if he aged ten years overnight. He looked at the recently delivered, classified assessnt report from Military Intelligence Five, the title was striking: “Potential Risks of ‘England’s Spring’ and Chain Reaction Simulation.”
The report’s conclusion highlighted a passage in red:
“The current situation is no longer a matter of single crisis managent. The Scottish conflict, overseas territory unrest, and dostic social dissatisfaction amplify each other, creating a resonance effect. Conventional political and military asures may be inadequate to simultaneously address all. Suggest considering unconventional diplomatic avenues, directly contacting key external actors to seek de-escalation even at… significant cost.”
“Significant cost…” the Pri Minister muttered, his trembling fingers brushing over those four words. He seed to see Queen Victoria’s portrait staring down at him from the wall, her gaze filled with disappointnt and mockery.
“The Sun Never Sets is collapsing!”
This thought appeared in his mind, yet he couldn’t shake it off, no matter how hard he tried!
…
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