After Kesselring and Richthofen left, Wilhelm stretched deeply and walked to the window. The window of this office overlooked the garden, which had transformed into a fairy-tale-like world of ice and snow in winter. Various snow and ice sculptures, crafted by masters, looked like exquisite artworks, diverse and well-arranged; viewing them was a visual and spiritual delight.
Wilhelm spotted Queen Elizabeth sitting alone in a distant gazebo, so he went downstairs to the garden gazebo.
"Your Majesty, what are you thinking about here?" Wilhelm greeted her and sat on the bench opposite. There were heating pipes under these gazebos, with warm air continuously rising, making the gazebo quite warm. "Your Majesty, I noticed yesterday that you were very interested in space exploration. Shall we continue our discussion?"
Queen Elizabeth slightly furrowed her brows, looking at him coldly without speaking.
Seeing this, Wilhelm shrugged and called for his secretary. "Bring my easel over here."
Soon, the secretary brought over his easel and set it up. Wilhelm, while mixing his paints, muttered, "Leonardo da Vinci painted the 'Mona Lisa,' so I'll paint an 'Elizabeth.' Would Your Majesty please model for me?"
Queen Elizabeth stood up abruptly, ready to leave the gazebo, but Wilhelm spoke, "Your Majesty, if we struggle here and someone sees, it might not look good."
"..." Queen Elizabeth glared at him, calling him shameless under her breath before sitting back down reluctantly. "Then let's talk about space exploration."
"No problem, I can paint and talk at the same time."
"!!" Queen Elizabeth's hands, resting on her knees, clenched into fists as she glared at him, as if she could devour him.
Wilhelm leisurely began to paint on the canvas. "Your Majesty, are you sure you want to keep that expression? If this painting survives to future generations, it might be titled 'Raging Elizabeth.' Aren't you worried about being ridiculed for ages?"
Queen Elizabeth's mouth twitched slightly. She took a deep breath, forcibly controlling her facial expression to maintain a look of indifference.
While painting, Wilhelm said, "Where did we leave off yesterday? Advancing into space, right..."
After chatting and painting for over half an hour, the secretary, Anna, hurriedly entered the gazebo. "Your Highness, troops entering Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, have been attacked."
Wilhelm dismissed it casually. "Isn't being attacked quite normal? What's there to fuss about? Just eliminate them."
Anna whispered, "The attackers were civilians from Belfast."
"Hmm?" Wilhelm frowned. "Are they genuine civilians or British soldiers disguised as civilians launching the attack?"
"It's unclear, so General Busch is requesting permission for indiscriminate shooting."
An hour earlier, an advance tank company had arrived in Belfast. Since all towns along the way were undefended, they excitedly charged into Belfast, heading straight for City Hall in the city center.
As a port city and capital, Belfast was not as bustling as typical large cities but resembled an old European port town. Tank after tank formed a long snake formation, advancing onto the main road leading to the city center, with City Hall at the end. There were many pedestrians on the road; some ran away quickly when they saw the tanks approaching, while others watched with complex expressions.
Several Irish soldiers sitting on the outside of the tanks excitedly waved at these people. "Hey, cheer! Ireland is unified!"
At that moment, something unexpected happened.
Suddenly, a series of crackling gunshots rang out from around them, and the Irish soldiers on the tanks were shot and fell off.
"Enemy attack!! Fire! Fire!!!" As the tank company's captain was frantically giving the order to open fire, the civilians around suddenly attacked. They pulled out bundles of stick grenades from trash cans or snow piles beside the road, shouting "Long live the British Empire" and similar slogans as they rushed towards the tanks.
A stick grenade bundle is multiple grenades tied together; detonating one would cause the others to explode due to the initial blast's energy. However, these grenades and explosive packs are area-effect weapons; the explosion disperses in all directions and isn't concentrated like the shaped charge of an armor-piercing projectile, so they require a large amount of explosives for limited effectiveness and must target weak spots like the engine hatch, turret ring, or tracks to disable a tank.
They shoved these bundles under the tank tracks; some even crawled under the tanks with the bundles, leading to violent explosions that tore through steel.
In just moments, the tank company lost half its vehicles, most with destroyed tracks, unable to move.
"Damn it! Retreat! Retreat!!" The captain hastily ordered a retreat; they had moved too fast for the infantry to keep up, leading to this predicament. The only option now was to withdraw from the city.
Bang! A Molotov cocktail was thrown from a nearby building, smashing onto the road and immediately igniting.
Then, like flowers scattered by a goddess, Molotov cocktails rained down from above, many hitting the tanks. Some hit the turret, others the front armor, and a few fortunate ones hit the engine compartment, igniting the engines. The Jackal tanks had no automatic engine fire suppression system; once the engine caught fire, it meant crew members had to stick their bodies out under gunfire to use extinguishers, a near-suicidal task.
The tank crews also fought back fiercely; those with destroyed tracks indiscriminately fired bullets in all directions. Some tankers even opened their hatches to operate the anti-aircraft machine guns mounted on the turrets, shooting at anything that moved within sight until they themselves were hit and fell.
After losing another four or five tanks, the remaining tanks managed to retreat from the city center, many of them blackened by the Molotov cocktails.
"So General Busch is requesting an order for indiscriminate shooting?" Currently, Ernst Busch was commanding the foreign legions in Ireland; known for his fierce combat style and ruthless methods, he would show no mercy if such an order were given. Belfast would likely see few survivors.
Wilhelm glanced at Queen Elizabeth, who looked grave across from him, and asked, "What do you think, Your Majesty?"
Queen Elizabeth said solemnly, "Your Highness claims to be fighting for justice; naturally, you wouldn't massacre innocent civilians."
Wilhelm gave a smile that was hard to read. "Of course, I wouldn't massacre civilians, but that Churchill might not say the same. Miss Anna, inform Dr. Goebbels to report this incident well, let the whole world see how the Churchill government has dragged innocent civilians into the war. Those despicable British soldiers are hiding behind civilians, using them as human shields to attack our troops, while our army, unwilling to harm innocent people, has withdrawn from Belfast."