Chapter 369: The Siege of Rabat

Just as Luo Suo had anticipated, after capturing Casablanca, the Royal Army did not summon the troops to head north and rendezvous with the Imperial Guard; instead, they dispatched a portion of their forces south to attack the two large nearby cities of Settat and El Jadida.

Since the start of the war, the Imperial Guard had already occupied over twenty thousand square kilometers of territory. Several major Moroccan cities were now under Spanish control, which was naturally a great achievement, and the commander of the Imperial Guard, Andre, was therefore in line for a promotion in military rank.

The Royal Army naturally desired such military merit as well. The area between Casablanca, El Jadida, and Settat also comprised over ten thousand square kilometers of land.

If they could occupy this territory before heading to Rabat to rendezvous, there would naturally be more achievements to record in the Royal Army's future book of merits.

Unlike the Imperial Guard, which originally consisted of only one division, and was commanded by the division commander Andre, there was naturally no need to worry about the distribution of credit.

The Royal Army had deployed several divisions; if they did not strive to expand their results, the credit shared among each division in the future would naturally be much less.

Currently, the results of each mainland division were not as great as the two colonial divisions in the south. If they were to head to Rabat to rendezvous just like this, even if they could capture the Moroccan capital, these mainland divisions would have no face to return to Spain.

The treatment of Spanish mainland divisions and colonial divisions was worlds apart; in this war, these mainland divisions had to achieve greater results than the colonial divisions.

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

In this way, they could expand the occupied territory to a scale of nearly 20, 00 square kilometers, and their credit would not be much different compared to the Imperial Guard.

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

In fact, according to the original plan, the two colonies were one in the east and one in the west, and they would not rendezvous so quickly.

This was mainly because after the main Spanish army joined the battle, Morocco also transferred most of its own troops to the northern region.

After all, Rabat was located near the north, and for Morocco at this time, protecting its capital was the top priority.

After all, the capital and the population of northern Morocco accounted for the majority of all Morocco; 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 its southern garrison, the two colonial divisions in the south picked up a big bargain.

Many of the small cities encountered along the way basically had no defensive strength, and most cities declared surrender without the slightest resistance upon seeing the Spanish army.

This also allowed the two colonial divisions to reach Marrakesh very smoothly, 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 this, 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, though due to 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 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 near the Sahara Desert, most of the remaining areas were already under Spanish control.

Within the Moroccan government, there was also despair regarding this war, because without clear support from European powers, the surrender faction within the Moroccan government had already become larger than the pro-war faction.

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

Winning over officials would help Spain rule Morocco, but if the Moroccan nobility and royal family were kept, it would instead make Spain's rule in Morocco unstable.

Therefore, the first thing Spain would do after annexing Morocco would definitely be to abolish the Moroccan royal family and nobility. This was also the reason why Morocco had not surrendered so far, because the royal family and nobility were unwilling to give up the power in their hands, and they were also worried that Spain would settle scores with 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 point in the future.

The main reason why Britain was willing to accept the Moroccan royal family was that they were unwilling to give up on Morocco.

The current concession was only temporary; in order to concentrate their efforts 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 would certainly turn their eyes back to Morocco.

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

An orthodox Moroccan royal family would appear 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 was at least a way out. If they could not hold Rabat in the future, 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 the matter, Spain was also preparing for the siege of the Moroccan capital, Rabat.

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

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

During this time, the Royal Army captured El Jadida and Settat, expanding their occupied area to over ten thousand square kilometers.

While rendezvousing with the Imperial Guard in Rabat, they dispatched one division of troops to continue attacking Khouribga and Oued Zem to the east.

If the attack went smoothly, this division could continue to attack Beni Mellal to the southeast, bringing all the prime land in central Morocco into their occupied scope.

In this way, a situation would be formed where the Imperial 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 certainly belong to the Imperial Guard and the Royal Army.

After all, the prime parts of Morocco were in the central and northern regions; 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 populous cities, and this point alone was incomparable to southern Morocco.

At this time, the Moroccan government also gathered all its remaining troops around the capital, attempting to resist the Spanish army's attack stubbornly.

Because Spain had snatched southern Morocco, Morocco now only had a population of just over 4 million.

Morocco organized nearly 200, 00 troops in this war, and after the consumption of many battles, there were currently less than 70, 00 people left that could be used.

These 70, 00 troops were all gathered around Rabat; those elite troops holding firearms had already been wiped out, and most of the remaining troops were holding cold weapons. They guarded the capital with complex expressions, watching the distant Spanish army with fear and trepidation.

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

In order to form that army of 5, 00 people with thermal weapons, the Moroccan government spent a huge amount of manpower, material, and financial resources, and it even took as long as 10 years.

The original intention of establishing this army was to prevent Spanish colonial invasion; the Moroccan government wanted to avoid the tragedy that happened in southern Morocco from happening again.

But unfortunately, the role played by this army was extremely limited. The army of 5, 00 people with thermal weapons was almost completely depleted after only two days under the attack of the Spanish Imperial Guard.

Without the help of the thermal weapon army, the remaining Moroccan troops were simply vulnerable before the Spanish army.

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

Spain's military power was something that European powers were wary of, and naturally, it was not something that 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, only the French and German armies could make the Spanish army fall into a bitter battle.

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

However, 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 been slowly increasing, and there was hope to further reduce the gap with European powers in the future. If they could annex the whole of Morocco, it would not only expand Spain's territory on a large scale but also allow Spain's population scale to reach a higher level.

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

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 the Spanish language from a young age; 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 Moroccans in the southern Moroccan colony was very effective. Spain transported a considerable number of European immigrants to various colonies, among whom some were Spanish.

Various colonial governments encouraged these European immigrants to intermarry with Moroccans; the descendants produced after these different ethnic groups intermarried, after Spanish-style education, naturally considered themselves Spanish.

This was also one of the reasons why the proportion of Spaniards in various colonies was constantly increasing. Spain had no discrimination against these mixed-race descendants, and the difficulty for them to obtain Spanish citizenship was even 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.

3, 00 words, second update.

(End of chapter)