Chapter 426: Recovering Gibraltar

The whole world was shocked by the result of this naval battle. When people learned that the Spanish fleet traveled thousands of kilometers to sneak attack the British Mediterranean Fleet in Malta, and also successfully sank five British battleships and heavily damaged two battleships, they immediately realized that the war between Britain and Spain would not develop as they had expected.

The British Navy, which lost five more battleships, was no longer so powerful, and Britain's throne as the world's number one naval power was already crumbling.

Two consecutive naval battles made the British Empire lose face; these two naval battles caused Britain to lose a total of ten battleships, and there were two battleships that could not continue to be put into the war in a short period of time.

This added up to twelve battleships; for most countries in the world, twelve battleships was a naval lineup they dreamed of but could not build.

You know, before the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, there were only five countries in the world with more than twelve battleships; besides the four traditional great powers of Britain, France, Germany, and Russia, the only remaining country with more than twelve battleships was Spain.

After the end of the Russo-Japanese War, Russia's number of battleships only remained at eleven, which also caused Russia's naval strength to instantly fall to the world's fifth.

Originally thought that Russia's loss in the Russo-Japanese War was already quite heavy, didn't expect that there would be a country that could make Britain experience a heavier loss than Russia.

This was twelve battleships! Any country possessing twelve battleships could instantly become a world top-eight naval power.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, as a great power, only possessed seven battleships. The island nation, a newly emerging force that had just defeated Russia, currently only possessed six battleships.

Under such circumstances, Spain could make Britain directly lose ten battleships and indirectly lose two battleships, which was already a result shocking enough.

European countries immediately realized that the Spanish Navy absolutely had one or more powerful battleships in service. Precisely because these battleships formed a crushing effect on the battleships of the British Mediterranean Fleet, the Spanish Navy could so easily defeat the British Mediterranean Fleet.

Now European countries had to consider: could Britain, whose Mediterranean Fleet suffered heavy losses, still defeat Spain in the next naval battle?

If Britain could not defeat Spain in the naval battle, then could Britain still win this war?

If Spain won this war, where should the world situation go?

The war between Britain and Spain made Europe instantly fall into a fog, the European situation became chaotic, and the high-level government officials of all countries in the world realized that a more critical moment might be coming.

The Navy's long-distance sneak attack on Malta took three days, and the Army's storming of Gibraltar also took three days.

Although Spain used giant guns of 10 inches or more, the strength of the Gibraltar fortress was not just talk. The two sides engaged in fierce fire exchange in these three days, and the shells fired by the Spanish Army had already reached hundreds of thousands, which could be said to be consuming tens of millions of pesetas of funds every day.

Consuming so many shells was not without results. Gibraltar was originally a narrow peninsula about 1 kilometer wide and 7 kilometers long; currently, the front 3 kilometers area had been completely occupied by the Spanish army, and the British army could only rely on the winding tunnels under the fortress to resist the Spanish army, but they couldn't hold on for too long.

Not long ago, Kaman Esposito, as the commander-in-chief, reported the progress of attacking Gibraltar to Gao Da, swearing that he would end the battle within a week.

Gao Da naturally also hoped to recover Gibraltar a little earlier; in order to achieve this goal as soon as possible, Gao Da decided to continue to "increase the intensity" (a Chinese idiom meaning to put more pressure) on the British army in the Gibraltar fortress.

How to increase the intensity? Naturally, it was to dispatch more artillery with larger caliber and greater quantity, and together give the Gibraltar fortress a "rain of shells."

Because Gibraltar had a relatively narrow terrain, it was very difficult to mobilize artillery from the front. But this was not without a solution. Precisely because Gibraltar was surrounded by the sea on three sides, the threat of the Navy to Gibraltar would be greatly increased.

Plus Spain had already defeated the British Mediterranean Fleet, it could completely draw a portion of warships to surround Gibraltar from all sides.

Surrounding from all sides could not only improve the firepower of attacking Gibraltar but also strike the military heart and combat will of the British army in the Gibraltar fortress to a great extent.

Plus the news that the British Mediterranean Fleet was defeated, the British army in Gibraltar would not say that the military heart was shaken, at least the morale would also be greatly reduced.

Following Gao Da's order, the Spanish Navy also acted again, launching a siege on Gibraltar.

At this time, the Spanish Navy had completely let go of its heart; the threat of Britain to Spain had been greatly reduced. Even if it immediately erupted into a naval battle that decided the outcome of the war with Britain, the Spanish Navy also had full confidence that it could win the naval battle.

Previously, European countries feared Britain because the throne of the world's number one naval power had been sat on by Britain for too long. In terms of the navy, everyone naturally had a kind of fear psychology toward Britain.

But the Spanish Navy fought the British Navy twice, letting everyone discover that Britain's power seemed to only stay on the surface.

If the *Dreadnought*-class battleship was not born, relying on the existing navy, it would be very difficult for Spain to make the British Navy suffer twice.

But there was no way, this time was precisely the era of the replacement of battleships and dreadnoughts. Whoever could prioritize mastering dreadnoughts could obtain the right to speak in naval warfare.

The British lagged behind Spain in the research and development of dreadnoughts, so they had to bear the corresponding consequences.

Gao Da had always been thinking about recovering Gibraltar, which also led to the Spanish Navy dispatching battleships and battlecruisers with a total number reaching two digits for this, with a posture of blowing all the mountain heads of Gibraltar flat, marching toward Gibraltar in a mighty manner.

The arrival of this fleet also made the war in Gibraltar end quickly, because Gibraltar, with a total area of less than seven square kilometers, really couldn't withstand such a fierce bombardment from Spain.

On July 28, 1904, the Spanish army officially entered the core part of the Gibraltar fortress, declaring that this land occupied by the British for more than a hundred years returned to Spain's embrace again.

It was also on that day that the news that Spain successfully recovered Gibraltar instantly became a hot news item in all of Spain and even the whole of Europe, highly concerned by Spanish people, European people, and high-level government officials of all countries.

Recovering Gibraltar was good news for Spain, but in order to recover Gibraltar, Spain also paid a huge price.

First was in terms of personnel casualties. Shells could indeed destroy the Gibraltar fortress, but the task of occupying Gibraltar still needed soldiers to execute it personally.

In the final occupation link, the British army that luckily survived caused great trouble for the Spanish army, and also made the Spanish army suffer casualties of nearly a thousand people.

It was precisely because of the desperate resistance of these British troops that the British garrison of several thousand people on Gibraltar was almost completely annihilated, and only a few soldiers had the luck to become prisoners because they surrendered early.

In fact, keeping some British soldiers as prisoners was also intentional by the Spanish army. Because of the final fierce counterattack of the British army, Spain bore a large number of casualties.

This also made Spain launch a more intense revenge against these remaining British troops; none of the hundreds of British troops remaining in the fortress could walk out of the fortress alive.

Having these prisoners, the British government naturally could not frame Spain for massacring prisoners.

Within Spain, when the people learned that the army only used one week to recover Gibraltar, people couldn't wait to gather together with their relatives and friends to celebrate this moment that could be considered the greatest for Spain.

As the King of Spain, Gao Da's name was also mentioned many times by the Spanish people. It was also from this day that Gao Da officially became the greatest king in the hearts of the Spanish people, and the Spanish people's support for the monarchy and the king climbed to the peak; no one could shake Spain's monarchy or threaten Gao Da's status anymore.

For Spain, the war progressed to here, and it had actually sounded the prelude to the victory song.

Unless the British Navy also produced products similar to *Dreadnought*-class battleships to compete with Spain's *Dreadnought*-class battleships, otherwise they could not "reverse the wind and turn the plate" (a Chinese idiom meaning to turn the tide).

Even not to mention reversing the tide, it would be quite good if Britain could ensure that its colonial empire did not collapse.

When the news that the Mediterranean Fleet suffered heavy losses was sent back to Britain, it instantly caused panic and shock among the British people. ===== CHAPTER 427 =====