Nottingham is far north of London.
Naturally, William III would not stay in London to prove his ambition like Chongzhen, but would immediately flee elsewhere before the Ming army arrived.
William III seemed to have already made plans to escape. On the day he was ordered to patrol Northern Nottingham, he rode a carriage on the railway track to Nottingham.
Influenced by the Ming Dynasty, England also laid railways, but it had not yet built steam locomotives, so it could only use horses to pull the cars on the rails.
However, this mode of transportation is indeed much faster than running a horse-drawn carriage on the road.
Therefore, William III fled directly to St. Albans that day.
The English nobles also fled London one after another.
They have seen the power of the Ming army, and naturally know that they are no match for the Ming army. Although they love Daying very much and hate the Ming Dynasty very much, this does not prevent them from fleeing London for their own safety.
Monmouth and Xu Qianxue were unable to escape.
Because the former was the illegitimate son of Charles II, he was pushed out by William III to negotiate with the Ming army. There was no doubt that he would take the blame for peace. If he fled, he would naturally be disobeying the king's order.
Xu Qianxue was pushed out by William III because he was Han Chinese and had little foundation in England. Together with Monmouth, he was responsible for contacting the Ming army.
After defeating the British navy, the Ming army sailed the warships directly into the Thames River, then pointed its naval guns directly at the City of London, and launched a violent bombardment of the City of London.
Finally, the Ming Dynasty Marine Corps, which was responsible for attacking England, landed directly and surrounded the city of London.
At this time, Monmouth and Xu Qianxue had no choice but to surrender and kneel down at the Palace of Westminster to welcome the Ming army.
Chen Guozuo, the guerrilla general of the Ming Dynasty Marine Corps, came to the Palace of Westminster because of this. After seeing Monmouth and Xu Qianxue kneeling outside the Palace of Westminster, he took a special look at Xu Qianxue and spat. Said: "You idiot! You are actually a dog for Yingyi! Take him down!"
Xu Qianxue was shocked after hearing this.
He didn't expect that Chen Guozhuo would take him away.
Monmouth hurriedly helped Xu Qian learn: "Wait! He is now the earl of our British Empire and the son-in-law of our previous king Charles II. Please let him go!"
Chen Guozuo ignored Monmouth and insisted on having Xu Qianxue dragged down.
He was also acting according to the order, so naturally he didn't need to explain anything to the Westerners from Monmouth.
Xu Qianxue also shivered a little.
He basically guessed why the Ming army wanted to take him directly.
Therefore, Xu Qianxue shouted directly: "Spare my life, spare my life, I was wrong, I was really wrong, my uncle is Gu Tinglin, my uncle is Gu Tinglin!"
Chen Guozuo ignored Xu Qianxue's shouting and led his troops directly into the Palace of Westminster. Looking at the splendid hall, full of Western paintings and exquisite sculptures, he said:
"Everything that can be taken away will be confiscated, and anything that cannot be taken away will be burned directly! Let the local people who have organized the work bring the kerosene prepared on the ship. In addition, the engineering and demolition team is ready to blast!"
"You're going to burn down the Palace of Westminster?"
Monmouth reacted immediately.
He couldn't care less about Xu Qianxue being arrested for the moment, and immediately stopped in front of Chen Guozuo, waving his hands and saying:
"General, no, you can't do this! This Palace of Westminster is the parliament building of my British Empire! It is the symbol of the highest power! It is the most eye-catching palace of my British Empire! How can you Burn him?! Do you know how much money the British Empire spent on building the Palace of Westminster?!"
boom!
Not long after a thick gun butt flew over.
Monmouth sat down on the ground and felt as if someone had kicked him hard in the chest.
Then, Monmouth saw a large group of military officers and soldiers holding guns and rushing in in an orderly manner, and began to confiscate all the treasures inside frantically. The key point was that the confiscation was very orderly.
The large wooden box that had been prepared long ago was carried in by the invited British and foreign migrant workers.
And these British and foreign migrant workers also actively carried out the boxes filled with treasures.
Burning down the Palace of Westminster seemed to be no big deal to commoners like them who were born as serfs, and there was even a hint of excitement and excitement.
For some of them, it is very satisfying to participate in the destruction of such a gorgeous palace while they cannot enjoy it.
At the same time, British and foreign migrant workers, under the command of the Ming army, began to move bundles of firewood that had been prepared and placed them around the Palace of Westminster. Specialized sergeants poured kerosene on them.
Monmouth looked at the Ming soldiers and migrant workers coming and going, his heart ached like a knife, and he couldn't help but shed tears.
After all, this is the prestigious palace of his British Empire!
"They're going to burn down our Palace of Westminster!"
"These hateful Orientals, I want to fight them to the death!"
"They're a bunch of robbers!"
The English bourgeoisie who did not escape in time were also extremely angry when they saw this scene, and some even clenched their fists and vowed to come over and fight the Ming army in a bloody battle.
However, a large number of Ming troops stood around with guns and live ammunition, so some radical British barbarians were stopped by their relatives and friends.
After the Palace of Westminster was evacuated and empty, Chen Guozuo used the first torch made from a Ming Dynasty lighter to ignite the firewood that had been doused with kerosene. , and soon a raging fire broke out.
The bright red flames wildly engulfed the Royal Palace of England standing on the banks of the Thames.
The painter brought by Chen Guozuo carefully painted the scene at this moment in preparation for presenting it to Emperor Tianqi for his royal viewing in the future.
However, the heroes in Monmouth shed tears.
This is indeed a great insult to them.
The fire burned for three days and three nights. In the end, the entire Palace of Westminster was completely burned black, like a rapidly aging woman, covered with dark wrinkles.
boom!
boom!
boom!
The Ming army then arranged explosives inside the palace.
A series of explosives went off, completely blowing the blackened Palace of Westminster into ruins.
Chen Guozuo then ordered Monmouth to be taken into custody, and led the entire army to Oxford, and captured the city of Oxford. The scholars, academic materials and experimental equipment of Oxford University here were naturally confiscated by the Ming army.
Next, Chen Guozuo also temporarily used the University City of Oxford as his headquarters, and asked Monmouth to negotiate with him here. Of course, he said it was a negotiation, but in fact he wanted Monmouth to sign the drafted treaty.
"First, commercial restrictions on Ming Dynasty should be fully liberalized. There should be no bill restricting the circulation of commodities in Ming Dynasty. All previous bills suspected of commodity circulation should be invalidated;"
"Second, cede the area south of Winchester as the residential area for Ming expatriates;"
"Third, compensate 10 million taels of white silver, all of which will be converted into gold;"
"Fourth, we, the Ming Dynasty Confucian scholars, are allowed to rent and buy land and set up schools in England, and we are not allowed to block their enrollment;"
"Fifth, allow Ming merchants to hire British barbarians to go to sea to work anywhere;"
"Sixth, railway construction can only be done in cooperation with the Ming Dynasty;"
"Seventh, hand over your king and accept the trial of our Ming Dynasty judge;"
"These are our requirements. You need to sign them as soon as possible! It is limited to one month. If this period is exceeded, we will continue to attack other places."
Chen Guozuo said.
"Understood! I will convey your wishes to all members of Congress as soon as possible."
Monmouth replied.
…
Nottingham.
After William III arrived here, members of the House of Representatives also arrived here one after another, and after Monmouth conveyed the withdrawal conditions proposed by the Ming Dynasty, the Parliament reconvened.
"They ceded land to pay compensation again! This Ming Dynasty is really greedy!"
In the parliament, after learning about the conditions proposed by Ming Dynasty, Cavendish couldn't help but slap the table and said: "How can our British Empire be allowed to be slaughtered by it!"
"Hand over this king! What crime do I have? All the bills are actually introduced by the parliament. Why do I have to suffer this! Why do these hateful orientals always want to catch us kings!"
William III also looked at the MPs present with anger and fear.
"Although I want to arrest you, the king, it actually means that our parliament does not have the power to decide the king, and only the Ming Dynasty can decide who the king of our British Empire is. These are the original words of the people of the Ming Dynasty."
Monmouth, who had come to deliver the news, spoke.
"Damn it! None of the Orientals are good! They are all shameless robbers!"
Cavendish therefore continued to curse in annoyance.
"The most serious thing here is actually allowing businessmen from the Ming Dynasty to hire people from the British Empire to work overseas. This is digging up our roots!"
Duke John intervened at this time, and then explained: "The greatest value of our British Empire to the Ming Dynasty is the large number of farmers who have lost their land. These farmers are very cheap labor force, and they are also the reason why we can continue to maintain land interests." But now they want to take away these cheap labor forces, which will undoubtedly put us in a desperate situation!"
"That's right, we can't agree!"
Cavendish replied.
King William III also said: "Yes, we cannot agree to this matter. We have to talk about it again and tell the people of the Ming Dynasty that we can cede more land, but please be noble and do not punish the king."
“How can we continue to cede more land?”
John raised objections at this time and said: "In my opinion, it is better to allow them to capture the king, and then try to prevent them from forcing us to relax the restrictions on allowing our civilians to go to sea to work."
"You! Are you going to give up on me as the king too?!"
William III suddenly stood up and shouted questions at these MPs.
The members of the House of Representatives were silent.
Only Monmouth, who had been silent all this time, spoke first and shouted loudly: "Everyone, we have no power to bargain, we only have the opportunity to sign or not to sign! Sign it quickly, otherwise, according to his instructions At the request of the country, we have to make a decision within a month, otherwise, they will continue to attack our other towns."
"This is really bad news. The Ming army seems to be determined not to give up until it achieves its goal! Is this God's will and does it require us to agree?"
John said at this time that his woolen yarn textile factory was mainly in the Birmingham area, not in London, so he was quite worried that the Ming army would directly attack other places.
Other British and Yi nobles have their own industries elsewhere, and since the Ming Dynasty forcefully broke through the door of England and dumped a large amount of goods to England, the British nobles had to move their factories and workshops to the Ming Dynasty, and the goods could not reach them. of the inland areas while continuing to maintain interests.
Therefore, these British and foreign nobles began to have to admit that it was not a question of whether to sign, but a question of whether the treaty must be signed.
William III looked at these British and barbarian nobles who had reached an agreement very depressedly, and couldn't help but secretly sighed: "If I had known that these English nobles were so cowardly in front of the Ming Dynasty, I would not be the king at all, and let Monmouth be the king. ”
Next, William III's wife Mary II was elected as the new King of England by the British and Spanish nobles.
Mary II entrusted the Duke of Monmouth to take William III to Oxford, where the Treaty of Oxford was signed with the Ming Dynasty.
At this point, the Ming army began to withdraw from England and retreated to Winchester, which already belonged to the Ming Dynasty, for rest and reorganization.
Mary II was naturally sad when she saw her husband William III being taken away, but while she was sad, she was also completely disappointed with these English nobles.
"Although it is the Ming Dynasty from the East that caused the current situation of our British Empire without any sovereignty and without any dignity of a powerful country. However, this is a major change that has not happened in a thousand years. We cannot stop it, because even God cannot stop it. We hate the Ming Dynasty. It’s useless, and what’s really worthy of being hated is that none of the men in our British Empire are angry! They are servile, cowardly and incompetent!”
Mary II even expressed her dissatisfaction with the British and Spanish nobles after Monmouth signed the treaty and returned to power.
Monmouth hung his head in shame, because Queen Mary had also affected him, and thought to himself: "If I had known that the British Empire would be like this, James II should not have been allowed to fall into the water."
"Of course I am not referring to you, brother, but I hope you know that if the British Empire wants to get out of its current predicament, it cannot rely on the people in the House of Lords. They only have their own interests in their eyes!"
Mary II said.
Monmouth nodded: "In fact, it is better to rely on these people than to rely on the people of the Ming Kingdom. After all, the Ming Kingdom is the strongest. I think we should change our strategy and try our best to satisfy the Ming Kingdom for our dominant position in the British Empire. It does not need to send troops to deal with us in the short term. At the same time, we should strive to strengthen ourselves and get rich! Take this opportunity to develop industry and strive to have a stronger industry like the Ming Dynasty. This may prevent us from being annexed by the Ming Dynasty in the future."
"That's what you said! Let's do it like this. I will hand over all the royal family's property to you, and you can organize people to do this."
Mary II said, and then couldn't help but wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes: "My poor husband, he will be separated from me by thousands of miles from now on, and I don't know if I will meet him again in this life."
