[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-rise-of-the-empire-spain":3,"chapter-rise-of-the-empire-spain-rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-38":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Rise of the Empire: Spain",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2364966,4632,"Chapter 38: Confident Carlos","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-38",38,"\u003Cp>Primo is truly the anchor of Spain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With Primo present, the Spanish army naturally would not face the risk of splitting. The united Spanish army, when facing the Carlos faction rebels, also possessed a very strong desire to fight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On February 17, 1870, the Spanish army led by Primo and the Basque rebels met in the La Rioja region, and both sides immediately engaged in intense gunfire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the Spanish army still had many shortcomings compared to the Franco-Prussian army, when facing Basque rebels who were inferior in both numbers and equipment, it was truly like a father beating his son, leaving them no room to complain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Basques could indeed scrape together a thousand muskets, but they could not even scrape together double-digit numbers of artillery pieces.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Relying on line infantry tactics to defeat a Spanish army equipped with a large number of artillery pieces—one might as well count on the Spanish army to surrender directly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Spain is not Italy, and certainly not France; it does not have that kind of tradition of surrender.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After being bombarded by Italian cannons (cannons produced in Italy), the Basques immediately became obedient.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is also the biggest difference between a regular army and a militia hastily assembled from civilians: discipline and morale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As long as someone panics and starts to flee, it is a heavy blow to the Basque army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The feeling of panic spread through the Basque army like a plague, quickly affecting the morale of the entire force.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a temporary army composed entirely of civilians, once morale dissipates, the army dissipates with it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There is no need to say much about the scene that followed; after suffering hundreds of casualties, this Basque rebel force quite simply chose to surrender.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although this was not the entirety of the Basque rebels, for the Basque separatists, this was no different from a blow to the head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Basque army they had worked so hard to assemble did not even last a day in front of the Spanish army, collapsing completely in just an hour and a half.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of this, the deployment of artillery took more than half an hour; the time the two armies actually spent fighting was not even an hour.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the time the news that the Basque vanguard had been successfully wiped out by Spain reached the Carlos faction, it was already the next day, February 18.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Carlos VII was somewhat surprised by the speed of the Basque army's collapse, he would not feel sorry for the losses of the Basques.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, not only would he not feel sorry, but Carlos VII was actually somewhat excited at this moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because he believed he had discovered an opportunity to defeat the Spanish army, finding a chance to perfectly flank and surround the Spanish army from the rear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why did Carlos VII think so?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because the place where the Spanish army and the Basques encountered each other was located in La Rioja, which is the southern part of the Basque and Navarre regions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the current Carlos faction rebels had already successfully moved west from Catalonia into Aragon, placing them to the southeast of the main Spanish force.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the Carlos faction army could pass through Aragon into the south of La Rioja, they could realize the plan to surround the Spanish army together with the Basque army in the north of La Rioja.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how strong the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army was, as long as they were surrounded on two sides, they were destined not to escape the palm of the Carlos faction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Carlos VII took a map, silently calculated his plan several times in his heart, and finally felt that this was an excellent opportunity that could not be missed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Several high-ranking military officials in the Catalan army also echoed Carlos VII, which made Carlos VII full of confidence, feeling that the military talent of Primo boasted about by the Catalans was actually just average.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On February 18, the Carlos faction rebels marched toward Zaragoza in the Aragon region.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zaragoza is located in the center of the Aragon region; advancing can achieve the encirclement of the Spanish army in the La Rioja region, and retreating can serve as a first line of defense to protect the safety of Catalonia.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was also one of the reasons why Carlos VII was full of confidence, because he felt his plan was simply perfect, taking into account both the possibilities of success and failure in the encirclement, and having corresponding solutions for both.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Could Primo not see the problems that Carlos VII could see?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course not.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, the main Spanish army led by Primo, after entering the Castile and León region south of La Rioja, immediately split into two routes to deal with the two rebel forces of the Basques and Catalans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Primo's plan was to prioritize eliminating the Basques, and then strike directly into Catalonia through Navarre and northern Aragon, completely completing the entire suppression operation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He led the main force of the Spanish army, an army of about 30,000, north to La Rioja, and finally met the Basque army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The other small-scale unit had only about 10,000 men, but they carried dozens of large cannons, with the goal of organizing a defensive line in Aragon before Primo finished off the Basques, to prevent the Catalan rebels from taking the opportunity to enter the Castile-La Mancha region from Aragon and Valencia, threatening the heart of Spain, Ma Deli.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was the same reason: because Zaragoza is located in the center of Aragon, it is very important for both offense and defense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The branch unit responsible for defending against the Catalan rebels also chose Zaragoza as the focus of their defense, and built artillery positions the moment they arrived in Zaragoza.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking at it this way, Carlos VII actually did have a certain amount of military vision.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the fatal thing was that Carlos VII never expected that Primo had divided his troops in advance; he still thought that the entire main Spanish army was in the La Rioja region.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the time the Carlos faction rebels arrived in Zaragoza after much hard work, they were greeted by 10,000 Spanish troops and dozens of artillery pieces standing in battle array.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Carlos rebels also had artillery.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But their artillery were all old antiques from a dozen or even decades ago, far inferior to the advanced cannons recently purchased by the Spanish army in terms of firing speed, range, and accuracy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The artillery duel between the two sides looked like a huge gap, and the feelings of the soldiers on both sides were even more worlds apart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Spanish army could calmly deal with the enemy's artillery bombardment because the enemy was far behind in both the number and sophistication of their artillery.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But for the Carlos rebels, the feeling was not so pleasant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even for those Catalan separatists, watching someone being blown into pieces right before their eyes was an absolute visual shock.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just one glance was enough to make the Catalan separatists seriously reconsider their position.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And for those civilians who had been brainwashed into joining the rebels, the cruel scenes of war were a huge shock to their souls.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How could ordinary people have seen such a scene? Not to mention that it currently looked more like they were unilaterally being shelled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First update, asking for support!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of this chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1241,"2026-06-25T09:27:12.995Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","342b82d260bc00fee41729d50bb026142ebde0517ab13c9891665e1cee746cad","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-39","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-37",493,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Frise-of-the-empire-spain-cover.jpg"]