The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 345 Loyal Ireland
At 1734:9 p.m. on September 2, , the two warships "Brandon" and "Carentuelle" of the Irish Navy gently drew a graceful arc on the sea, both sailed away from the "stunned" English merchant ship, and sailed towards the south, leaving behind several thick black smoke.

Several Irish naval soldiers standing at the stern unbuttoned their trousers, exposing their penises, and wantonly sprayed streams of water towards the English merchant ship. At the end, they blew sharp whistles as if provoking.

"We should have fired decisively and sunk the English merchant ship, letting those damn bastards go into the sea to feed the fish!" A thin Irish officer watched the soldiers' actions with a satisfied smile on his face.

"And then?" A bearded officer put down the telescope in his hand and turned to ask.

"And then? ...And then what?"

"Sinking the English merchant ships would mean that our Kingdom of Ireland would go to war with them. With our current strength, can we defeat them?"

"…We can't defeat England, but Qi is our ally. How could they watch Ireland resist England alone? If the English dare to invade us, Qi will teach them a lesson again!"

"The question is, will Qi allow us to provoke England so recklessly and then start a war?"

"..." The rather impulsive officer felt a little discouraged after hearing this.

According to the "Qi-Irish Security Treaty" signed by the two countries, although Qi has the obligation to defend the Kingdom of Ireland, when it comes to foreign military operations, Ireland's army and navy will accept the unified "guidance" and "management" of the Qi garrison supreme command, and must not provoke trouble without authorization or drag Qi into an uncontrollable war at will.

In other words, Qi had the final say on who to fight or which countries and regions to participate in the war. Qi could not rely on Qi's military protection to wantonly provoke other countries and thus drag Qi into them.

In fact, for Ireland, it seems that apart from England, there is no enemy that would make them provoke a war without reason.

Six years ago, with the support and help of Qi, Ireland, which had been enslaved and oppressed by the English for hundreds of years, finally became an independent country. However, the liberated Irish people never let go of their grievances against the English, and they always wanted to retaliate against England to avenge hundreds of years of hatred.

At the end of the Anglo-Irish War, according to the Treaty of Chang'an signed by the two countries, although England promised to withdraw all its colonial officials and troops from Ireland, it still retained the administrative rights over the three northern counties (Ireland's early independence prevented the English immigration area from expanding to the six counties in later generations) in order to maintain the survival and safety of the tens of thousands of English and Scottish immigrants who remained there.

Although the Irish were deeply dissatisfied with this, they could only endure all kinds of humiliation under Qi's strenuous "appeasement" and acquiesce that their country was temporarily in a state of division.

However, in order to make things difficult for the English, the Irish government and the public provided strong financial support to underground anti-British organizations in the three counties of Northern Ireland, and even allowed those resistance personnel to rest, recuperate and train within the country.

This triggered a strong protest from the English, who claimed that if the Irish government continued such provocations, they would make a strong counterattack.

Due to the restrictions of the Treaty of Chang'an, regular troops were not allowed to be deployed in the British-controlled Northern Ireland region, which forced the English government to recruit a large number of armed police and station them in the three counties of Northern Ireland to intensify the crackdown on Ireland's underground anti-British organizations.

In order to deter the resistance organizations, the English police would publicly hang the captured Irish resistance members, and the Irish people who funded and harbored the resistance members would be exiled to North America. In order to eliminate the soil for the survival of the resistance organizations, the English and Northern Ireland authorities would even deliberately expand the scope of the attack and try to expel all the Irish in the country.

The actions of the English further aroused the anger of the Irish people. Countless volunteers sneaked into Northern Ireland with weapons, joined local anti-British resistance organizations, and frequently launched violent attacks on English and Scottish immigrants.

In May 1732, a large-scale border conflict broke out between the British-controlled Northern Ireland and the Kingdom of Ireland, causing thousands of casualties. If Qi had not intervened in time, it might even have triggered an Anglo-Irish War.

Under the mediation of Qi, Ireland and England launched several rounds of negotiations in an attempt to completely resolve the issue of the three counties of Northern Ireland.

In October 1732, Ireland, England and Qi signed the Dublin Agreement on the Northern Ireland issue, agreeing that within ten years, the three counties of Northern Ireland would gradually carry out political reforms, establish local autonomous governments, and then form a united kingdom with Ireland in the name of a special autonomous region. Except for diplomacy and military affairs which would be handed over to the royal government, the Northern Ireland autonomous region would enjoy a high degree of autonomy and promised to implement national reconciliation within the country and give equal political rights to all ethnic groups in Northern Ireland.

Although the Irish government was not very satisfied with this "muddy" agreement, it also knew that without the mediation of the Qi people and their strong support, let alone obtaining the territorial sovereignty of the three counties of Northern Ireland, the security of the entire kingdom itself could not be guaranteed.

After being enslaved and oppressed by the English for hundreds of years, Ireland was already poor and destitute, with more than 80% of the people being poorly clothed and hungry. Before independence, English Protestants and churches occupied three-quarters of all land in Ireland, six-fifths of all houses, and % of houses in walled cities and fortified locations. In contrast, more than % of the Irish lived a very poor life like livestock, living in huts without chimneys, doors, stairs, and windows.

Fortunately, the State of Qi extended a friendly hand to them, not only helping the Irish people drive out the English colonists, but also doing its best to support the Irish in establishing an independent kingdom of their own.

Since its independence, Qi has provided the royal government with more than 2.6 million yuan in low-interest loans and free aid. In just six years, the entire Kingdom of Ireland has undergone earth-shaking changes.

New towns were built, smooth public roads extended infinitely from Dublin to all directions of the country, factories and shops were opened one after another, and even the first railway in Europe was opened within the kingdom.

The cattle, sheep and furs that had been ruthlessly plundered by the English now brought huge wealth to the kingdom through the operation of the Qi Trading Company.

The peat that had been sleeping underground for thousands of years was also managed and mined by Qi merchants and shipped to the European continent, North Africa and the Mediterranean, bringing Ireland a steady stream of wealth.

With the support of Qi's capital, Ireland's traditional advantageous product, flax, regained its vitality and became the most important export commodity of the royal government. With the support of Qi, Irish fishermen not only obtained the right to fish in the North Sea fishing grounds, but also enjoyed a 1731% reduction in taxes and fees in Changxing fishing grounds (i.e. Newfoundland fishing grounds) (in order to obtain more fiscal revenue, Chen State established a taxation office in Changxing Island in and began to collect fishery taxes and licensed fishing fees in the fishing grounds), and had the right to choose fishing operation areas first.

The few years after independence can be said to be the fastest period of economic development in the Kingdom of Ireland. According to Qi's economic adviser, the growth rate is "geometric."

Although, to date, more than half of the more than one million Irish people are still in poverty, and 40% of them still cannot get enough food, many poor people still die of hunger and cold in the cold winter.

But the entire kingdom is full of hope and longing for future life.

Because the evil and brutal English would never again be able to ride on their heads, enslave and exploit them at will.

The days ahead will get better and better.

All of this came from the help and support of Qi. From the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers to the common people and ordinary businessmen, the people of Ireland were full of endless gratitude and trust towards Qi.

Although, there are many people with insight who have pointed out that the reason why Qi supported the Kingdom of Ireland was just out of geopolitical needs. With Ireland, Qi could control England and further intervene in the affairs of the European continent, thus providing a solid strategic support point for Qi to establish global maritime hegemony.

so what?

In this world of great struggle where the strong prey on the weak, small and weak countries have no guarantee of survival and can only rely on big and strong countries to survive.

Decades ago, the Irish once placed their hopes for national liberation on France, but they were ruthlessly exploited and deceived time and time again, and more Irish people were sacrificed.

But the people of Qi were different. They not only contributed money and effort to help the Irish win liberation and independence, but also spared no effort to provide various financial and material assistance after the war, hoping to build the Kingdom of Ireland into a "model country in Europe."

Let us ask, when faced with a country that sincerely helps Ireland, how can we not feel gratitude from all walks of life?
Ireland and Qi signed a series of military alliance agreements, and Qi also deployed a large number of military forces in Ireland accordingly, with a total of more than 5,000 army and naval officers and soldiers stationed to provide it with all-round military support.

This military alliance made Ireland heavily dependent on Qi for security and defense, and it followed Qi's lead in everything.

The Irish Navy's only two steam warships, the Brandon and the Carentuelle, received an order from the Joint Operations Command a few days ago to provide escort missions for a supply convoy heading to the Mediterranean.

The fleet had just sailed not far from the port when it encountered the English merchant ship near St. George's Channel.

The nosy Irish naval officers and soldiers immediately stepped forward quickly, stopped the English merchant ship, and humiliatingly ordered the English to lower their sails and anchors and accept their safety inspection.

After some deliberate provocation, the Irish Navy issued a serious warning to the English, telling merchant ships not to get too close to the Irish waters, otherwise it would be considered an invasion next time and would be sunk without mercy.

The Qi military advisers accompanying the fleet took a tacit attitude towards Ireland's "small-minded" behavior and did not interfere too much.

Soldiers have to show some courage. Letting them vent their anger on their old enemies can provide a kind of emotional value and boost morale for subsequent military operations.

"Sir, our Qi State has mobilized nearly 10,000 naval and land forces this time. We should be able to take that big island, right?" The fleet's navigator, Navy Lieutenant Xuanjie (Major) Li Chaoxian gently placed the nautical chart in his hand on the table and looked at the fleet commander, Navy Lieutenant Zhaoxin (Colonel) Weng Shinan with an inquiring look.

"As long as the Spanish dare not turn against our Qi State, no one can stop us from seizing that big island." Weng Shinan held a valuable jade pipe in his mouth, his face full of confidence, "Oh, even if Spain is determined to snatch that big island from us, how can their mediocre naval warships pose a substantial threat to us? Could it be that tens of thousands of Spanish troops can swim all the way from the mainland to the island?"

"Will the Spanish become angry and start cooperating with the Austrians?"

"Hahaha..." Weng Shinan laughed and took the pipe from his mouth. "Why did Philip V join Louis XV's camp and declare war on the Austrians? It's because he urgently hopes that his son born to Isabella Farnese of the Duchy of Parma can obtain Austria's territory in Italy. As a good father, he especially hopes to obtain the Duchy of Mantua for his eldest son Don Carlos, who is already the Duke of Parma. Well, he even hopes to get the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. In addition, he also hopes that his second son Don Philip can obtain the two kingdoms of Naples and Sicily. In this way, they can extend the influence of their Kingdom of Spain to Italy again, thereby gaining a more favorable geostrategic advantage. Under such circumstances, how could Spain turn to cooperate with the Austrians?"

"In this way, Sicily will be in our Qi's hands!" Li Chaoxian's slightly nervous expression relaxed after hearing this. "Compared to the unattainable Crete, Sicily is more strategically located, larger in area, and richer in land and resources. If we make it our overseas territory and build it into a solid maritime base, it will be even more powerful for us to control the entire Mediterranean."

"Yes, as long as our Qi State controls Sicily, and with the help of the Zhongyang Island (now Malta) naval base, we will be able to cut the vast Mediterranean into two parts. Any European country that wants to enter the eastern Mediterranean region will have to rely on us and be under the strict control of our Great Qi Navy."

"However, the hundreds of thousands of local people on Sicily are a huge problem for our Qi State. Their race, religion, culture, and language are very different from ours. It will definitely cause us considerable difficulties in ruling and managing them."

"What's the difficulty?" Weng Shinan said disapprovingly, "By using various methods, such as expulsion, forced migration, and forced conversion, a large number of people will be cleared out. The remaining few local residents will be assimilated sooner or later as the Han people continue to move into our Great Qi. For such a strategic location, our Qi must completely control it and not allow anyone to take it away."
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(End of this chapter)