Chapter 369

As Gao Da expected, after the Royal Army captured Casablanca, it did not gather to head north to meet with the Guard, but dispatched part of its forces south to attack the two large nearby cities of Settat and El Jadida.

Since launching the war, the Guard had already occupied more than 20,000 square kilometers of land. Currently, several large Moroccan cities were controlled by Spain, which was naturally a great achievement, and the Guard's commander, Andrew, also had hope of being promoted in rank.

The Royal Army naturally also wanted such military merits. Between Casablanca, El Jadida, and Settat, there was also a piece of land with an area of more than 10,000 square kilometers.

If they could occupy this land before heading to Rabat to meet up, the merits that the Royal Army could record in its merit book in the future would naturally be more.

Unlike the Guard. The Guard originally only had one division, and the commander of the Guard was still Division Commander Andrew, so there was naturally no need to worry about the distribution of credit.

The Royal Army had dispatched several divisions, and if they did not try their best to expand the results, the merits allocated to each division in the future would naturally be much less.

Currently, the results of each mainland division were not as good as the two colonial divisions in the south; if they headed to Rabat to meet up like this, even if they could capture Morocco's capital, these mainland divisions would have no face to return to Spain.

The treatment of Spain's mainland divisions and the colonies was worlds apart, and in this war, these mainland divisions had to obtain greater results than the colonial divisions.

If attacking El Jadida and Settat was not enough, they also planned to attack Khouribga further east.

In this way, they could expand the occupied land to a scale of nearly 20,000 square kilometers, and the credit would not be much less compared to the Guard.

While the Royal Army was moving south to attack several large surrounding cities, the two colonial divisions further south had already met in the Marrakesh region.

In fact, in the original plan, the two colonies were one in the east and one in the west, and would not meet so quickly for the time being.

It was mainly because after Spain's main army joined the battle, Morocco also transferred most of its troops to the northern region.

Rabat was after all close to the north, and at this time for Morocco, protecting its capital well was the top priority.

After all, the capital and northern Morocco accounted for the majority of Morocco's population; losing large tracts of land in the south was nothing, but losing several cities in the north was already a heavy loss for Morocco.

After the Moroccan government withdrew some of the southern garrison, the two colonial divisions in the south picked up a big bargain.

Many small cities encountered along the way basically had no defensive power, and most cities announced their surrender without any resistance when they saw the Spanish army.

This also allowed the two colonial divisions to very smoothly arrive at Marrakesh, which was also the largest city in southern Morocco.

Marrakesh was located in the central region of Morocco, and it was not far from El Jadida and Settat in the north.

From here, one could also see how much land the two colonial divisions had occupied; the occupied area to the south was at least tens of thousands of square kilometers, but because of the terrain, there were not many Moroccans on this land.

Although the land occupied by each army was only tens of thousands of square kilometers, if they were added together, it was already larger than the area of Portugal.

Although Morocco's territory was large, it could not withstand such losses.

At this time, except for the area around the capital Rabat and the region further east closer to the Sahara Desert, most of the remaining areas were already under Spain's control.

Within the Moroccan government, there was also despair about this war because there was no clear support from European great powers, and the surrender faction within the Moroccan government was already greater than the main war faction.

Although defeatism was prevalent in the country, the Moroccan nobles and royal family knew that officials would always be officials, but the royal family and nobles would 100% no longer be nobles.

Winning over officials was helpful for Spain to rule Morocco, but if the Moroccan nobles and royal family continued to be retained, it would instead make Spain's rule in Morocco unstable.

Therefore, the first thing after Spain annexed Morocco would definitely be to abolish the Moroccan royal family and nobles. This was also the reason why Morocco had not surrendered so far, because the royal family and nobles were not willing to give up the power in their hands, and they were also worried that Spain would liquidate them after winning this war.

In order to find a way out for themselves, the Moroccan government contacted the British ambassador to Morocco, seeking help from the British side.

The British ambassador politely declined Morocco's request but indicated that Britain was willing to provide asylum to the Moroccan royal family.

If the Moroccan royal family was willing, they could establish a government-in-exile in Britain and seek the restoration of the throne at some time in the future.

The reason why Britain was willing to accept the Moroccan royal family was mainly because they were not willing to give up Morocco.

The current concession was only temporary; in order to concentrate energy on winning the Boer War, they could only temporarily give up being enemies with the more powerful Spain.

But after winning the Boer War in the future, the British people's eyes would definitely be put back on Morocco.

By then, even if a war did not break out with Spain, they would definitely try every means to make Morocco independent from Spain's rule.

An orthodox Moroccan royal family would become quite important. As long as the Moroccan royal family still existed, the Moroccan nobles, for the sake of their own status, would naturally support the restoration of the Moroccan royal family.

Hearing the British ambassador's guarantee, although the Moroccan royal family was a bit disappointed, it could be considered a way out. In the future, if they could not hold Rabat, they could also try to withdraw to London, form a government-in-exile there, and wait for the opportunity to return to Morocco in the future.

While Britain and the Moroccan royal family were discussing related matters, Spain was also preparing for the siege of the Moroccan capital, Rabat.

As time came to the end of May, the Spanish Royal Army and the Guard finally met in Rabat.

The two colonial divisions in the south had also captured Marrakesh at this time, and they were marching towards Rabat in the north, expected to arrive at Morocco's capital within a week to participate in this final feast.

During this period, the Royal Army captured El Jadida and Settat, expanding its occupied area to an area of more than 10,000 square kilometers.

While they were meeting with the Guard in Rabat, they dispatched a division of troops to continue attacking Khouribga and Oued Zem to the east.

If the offensive went smoothly, this division could continue to attack Beni Mellal to the southeast, incorporating all the essence land of central Morocco into its occupied range.

In this way, a situation would be formed where the Guard occupied northern Morocco, the Royal Army occupied central Morocco, and the colonial divisions occupied southern Morocco.

Although it looked like Morocco was divided into three, the greatest credit would definitely be the Guard and the Royal Army.

After all, the essence of Morocco was in the central and northern parts; although the south looked the largest in area, its economic value and population were not high, and there was only one city with a large population, Marrakesh.

Central and northern Morocco possessed many cities with large populations, and this point alone was incomparable to southern Morocco.

At this time, the Moroccan government also contracted all the remaining troops around the capital, trying to stubbornly resist the Spanish army's offensive.

Because Spain snatched away southern Morocco, at this time Morocco only had a population of just over 4 million.

Morocco organized nearly 200,000 troops in this war, and after the consumption of many wars, only less than 70,000 people could be used.

These 70,000 troops were all gathered around Rabat; those elite troops holding firearms had already been eliminated, and most of the remaining troops were holding cold weapons, guarding the capital with complex expressions, looking at the Spanish army in the distance with fear.

By the time the war reached this point, almost all Moroccans understood the gap between themselves and Spain. If it were not for Britain's support, Morocco would not even be able to form an army with thermal weapons.

In order to form that army of 5,000 people with thermal weapons, the Moroccan government spent a lot of manpower, material resources, and financial resources, and it took as long as 10 years.

The original intention of establishing this army was to prevent Spain's colonial invasion, and the Moroccan government wanted to avoid a tragedy like southern Morocco from happening again.

But unfortunately, the role played by this army was extremely limited. The army of 5,000 people with thermal weapons was almost completely depleted in just two days under the attack of the Spanish Guard.

Without the help of the thermal weapon army, the remaining Moroccan army was simply vulnerable in front of the Spanish army.

Morocco was after all an African indigenous country; even if the government had a trend of learning from the West, it was impossible to establish a large-scale industrial and military force like European countries in a short period of time.

Spain's military power was something that European great powers were wary of, so naturally, it was not something a small Morocco could contend with.

It is no exaggeration to say that the current combat effectiveness of the Spanish army, when facing troops of other countries of the same level, could only be fought into a bitter battle by the French and German armies.

The remaining armies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia, which were known for their army strength, could not take any advantage in front of the Spanish army. Even with the advantage of weapons and equipment, the Spanish army could conversely occupy a certain advantage.

It was just that because the populations of these countries were larger than Spain's, in most cases, they could not fight Spain with troops of the same scale.

The good news was that Spain's population had slowly increased, and there was hope to further reduce the gap with European great powers in the future. If they could annex the whole of Morocco, they could not only expand Spain's territory on a large scale but also take Spain's population scale to a higher level.

As long as these Moroccans who belonged to the white race could complete assimilation, they would not be much different from the Spaniards.

As long as Spaniards were encouraged to intermarry with Moroccans on a large scale, the mixed-race children born to both sides would be pure Spaniards in the future.

Let them come into contact with Catholicism and Spanish from an early age, and in the future, when these next generations grew up, their sense of identity with Spain would be higher, and naturally, there would be no such thing as Moroccans.

Currently, Spain's assimilation of the Moroccans in the South Morocco colony was very effective. Spain transported a considerable number of European immigrants to various colonies, some of whom were Spaniards.

The various colonial governments encouraged these European immigrants to intermarry with Moroccans, and the descendants produced by the intermarriage of these different ethnic groups, after Spanish-style education, naturally thought of themselves as Spaniards.

This was also one of the reasons why the proportion of Spaniards in various colonies continued to increase. Spain did not have any discrimination against these mixed-race descendants, and even the difficulty for them to obtain Spanish citizenship was much lower.

If Spain counted the Spanish descendants and mixed-race descendants in these colonies, Spain's total population should be able to increase by at least hundreds of thousands.

Second update of 3,400 words.

(End of this chapter)