Chapter 428: The Battle for the South

As the only territory directly bordering a British colony, the Congo Territory was invaded by British colonial forces in early August 1904.

But very quickly, the British army discovered something was wrong. The northern part of the Congo Territory was a vast expanse of primeval forest; apart from a few colonial settlements with roads, most of the land had no roads at all. The British army could only shuttle through the tropical rainforest, which not only made their movements slow and inefficient but also carried all sorts of risks of injury and death.

This also meant that large-scale operations by the British army were fundamentally impossible; whether it was logistics, supplies, or various other issues in the tropical rainforest, any of these could cause a large-scale army to suffer heavy casualties.

Since large-scale operations were not possible, they could only send small detachments to harass the Spanish colony.

But then another problem arose: Spain had stationed a large number of troops in the Congo Territory—there were two full colonial divisions totaling nearly 20, 00 men. How could these small detachments effectively disrupt the situation in the Congo Territory?

The British army launched multiple invasions of the Congo Territory in early August 1904, deploying thousands of troops at their peak, but all returned without success.

Compared to the primeval forests in the north of the Congo Territory, invading from the south of the Congo Territory might have been a better choice.

But for the British, mobilizing troops from the land south of the Congo Territory was absolutely out of the question. Because further south of the Congo Territory lay the British South Africa colony, and in the former Transvaal and Orange regions, a large number of Boers resided.

Due to the failure of the war, these Boers could only engage in difficult guerrilla resistance, but this also forced the British to maintain over 200, 00 troops in this land to suppress them.

Once troops were mobilized from this land, the Boers would very likely make a comeback. One must know that during the process of the British armed suppression of the Boers, they had carried out a series of inhumane concentration camps and scorched-earth policies.

The local Boers held deep hatred for the British; if these Boers were allowed to make a comeback, once they regained their strength, there would certainly be a third war between the British and the Boers.

It was not that the British were afraid of the Boers, but given the current diplomatic environment of the British, once a war broke out with the Boers, many countries would certainly choose to help them.

For the British, suppressing the Boers was even more important than invading the Congo Territory. Because even if they could successfully invade the Congo Territory, they would inevitably face a powerful counterattack from the Spanish army, and the war would not end so quickly.

But if they abandoned the suppression of the Boers, with the funding of Spain and a series of other countries hostile to the British, the Boers would soon make a comeback, and the Cape Colony, which was extremely important to the British, would also very likely be threatened.

Mobilizing troops from the north meant crossing primeval rainforests, and mobilizing from the south meant abandoning the suppression of the Boers, which left the British in a dilemma for a time.

The plan to invade the Congo Territory was also temporarily shelved; before colonial troops from India, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere arrived in Africa, the British would not plan any new invasion operations in Africa.

After all, the invasion operations of small detachments were just delivering military merit to the Spanish army and could not cause them any casualties at all.

On the contrary, the British army was like a thoughtful nanny, delivering supplies, weapons, and ammunition to the Spanish army.

Fighting like this would only cause the British army heavy losses; after all, no matter how rich the British government was, their weapons, equipment, and manpower were absolutely not to be wasted like this.

The invasion of the Congo Territory, which the British government had painstakingly planned, was abandoned halfway, and the focus of both governments shifted completely to the civil war in Portugal.

As if they had discussed it beforehand, the British and the Spanish both decided to compete in Portugal, using the situation of the Portuguese civil war to cause trouble for each other.

Time came to mid-August, and the Spanish immigrants who had spontaneously returned to Portugal were mostly gathered, and a volunteer immigrant army was soon formed.

The purpose of the Spanish side was also very clear: to emphasize the correctness of the Iberian Party and Pan-Iberianism through the event of immigrants being willing to fight for the Iberian Party, and incidentally to attack the inaction of the Republican Party government over the past decade or more.

Just imagine, if the Portuguese Republican government had achieved anything in terms of the economy, would so many Portuguese have chosen to immigrate to Spain?

For the Portuguese government, the more the population was lost, the more it represented the incompetence of the Portuguese government.

Although the so-called volunteer army organized by the British was formed earlier than the Spanish one, these soldiers actually arrived in Portugal later than the Spanish.

After all, the British were further away from Portugal, and in order to disguise these volunteer troops as being spontaneously organized by civilians, the British even forcibly scattered all the soldiers, letting them travel to Portugal on their own in various ways.

After arriving in Portugal, the Spanish volunteer army underwent simple arming and was then thrown into the fighting in Portugal.

This Portuguese civil war had long since evolved into a nationwide internal struggle, and the participating parties had changed from the original Republican Party and Iberian Party to multiple parties participating together.

Of course, most parties stood with the Iberian Party; the Republican Party, which had originally won over the hearts of the people, had instead become the evil dragon to be suppressed by the new dragon-slaying youths.

Currently, the forces controlled by the Republican Party were in the west and south; the capital Lisbon, the important western town of Coimbra, and the important southern town of Setúbal were all under the control of the Republican Party.

The area controlled by the Iberian Party was closer to Spain, and its headquarters was even established in Elvas, only tens of kilometers away from Badajoz, Spain; doing this allowed them to easily obtain material support from Spain.

As for the other series of parties supporting the Iberian cause, they were distributed in various cities in Portugal, both in the north and the south.

Originally, there were many parties around the capital Lisbon, but after the outbreak of the civil war, these parties either succumbed to pressure and joined the Republican Party or were directly wiped out by the Republican Party; there were currently no other parties opposing the Republican Party.

It could also be seen from the map that the Portuguese region controlled by the Republican Party had been nibbled away at the edges, and the parts in the east and north that were closer to Spanish land were in the hands of all the opposition parties.

Precisely because the Portuguese land had been nibbled away at the edges, the importance of the capital Lisbon was infinitely increased.

In addition to the strategic value and significance of the capital itself, Lisbon was currently also the material transport hub under the control of the Republican Party.

Once Lisbon was captured by the Iberian Party, the Portuguese government under the control of the Republican Party would be split in two, and a Portugal cut into two parts would find it very difficult to integrate the effective forces of the whole country again.

It could even be said bluntly that once the capital Lisbon was broken, the Republican Party would find it difficult to stir up any more trouble.

After all, the reason why the Republican Party could currently continue to stalemate with the Iberian Party and other opposition forces, besides the continuous support from the British, was that it occupied the capital, serving as the legitimacy of the current Portuguese government.

Once the capital fell and the Iberian Party and other opposition parties formed a new Portuguese government, the ruling legitimacy of the Portuguese Republican government would also cease to exist.

Most of the grassroots Portuguese people would not care whether it was the Republican Party or the Iberian Party ruling the country; whoever occupied Lisbon could become the legitimate government of Portugal.

Therefore, for the Portuguese Republican government, holding onto Lisbon was the only thing they had to do at the moment.

With the support of the British government, the Portuguese Republican government armed an army of nearly 100, 00 men and committed most of these troops to building a defensive line around Lisbon.

As of now, the construction of this defensive line was quite successful.

It was not that the Iberian Party's army had not tried to launch an attack on Lisbon, but they had at most advanced to Coruche next to the Sorraia River, only to be repelled by the Republican army.

After the more than 5, 00-strong Spanish volunteer army arrived in Portugal, the Iberian Party quickly adjusted its offensive strategy.

Judging from the current situation, even with the help of the thousands of Spanish volunteer troops, it would be very difficult for the Iberian Party to capture the Lisbon defensive line head-on.

Since they could not capture Lisbon in a short time, it would be better to set their sights on other parts of Portugal. The Republican Party had placed most of its troops on the Lisbon defensive line, which actually meant that the other lands controlled by the Republican Party were very empty, and the difficulty of capturing these lands was also much simpler than capturing Lisbon.

Under the planning of some Spanish officers, the Iberian Party quickly formulated a new offensive plan, setting their sights on the southern region of Portugal, such as Beja and Faro in the far south.

The Portuguese government's defensive line did not include these lands; after all, they were already very far from Lisbon, and wasting troops on these lands would weaken the defensive strength of the Lisbon region.

Since the Portuguese government did not focus on protecting these areas, it also meant that the Iberian Party had hope of capturing these lands in a short time.

Once they held more and more land in their hands, the Iberian Party could also unite with other opposition parties to announce the formation of a new Portuguese government and declare the original Portuguese Republican government illegal.

Although doing this could not immediately make the Portuguese Republican government completely lose its legitimacy, it could affect the stability of the areas ruled by the Portuguese Republican government.

To put it bluntly, the current Portuguese Republican government was still just barely holding on. If it lost the support of the British, the Portuguese Republican government would soon be defeated by the Iberian Party.

Under these circumstances, the Iberian Party was not afraid of entering a war of attrition at all.

On the contrary, for the Portuguese Republican Party, the longer this civil war dragged on, the more dissatisfaction the public would have with the Republican government.

By then, even with the support of the British government, the Republican Party would have to weigh the opinions of the angry public.

On August 17, 1904, with the more than 5, 00-strong Spanish volunteer army as the main force, plus more than 5, 00 men from the Iberian Party, an army of over 10, 00 men was formed and marched aggressively toward Beja in southern Portugal.

Beja was an important town in southern Portugal and also an important transportation hub and strategic location. Once Beja was captured, Faro and other places further south would basically be within easy reach.

The Spanish army quickly demonstrated a combat effectiveness completely different from that of the Portuguese army; although they were fighting in a foreign country, the soldiers did not have the slightest bit of timidity.

From Elvas to Beja, the Spanish army could be said to have been like a hot knife through butter, quickly capturing a series of towns including Évora, Alvito, and Cuba in succession, with their spearhead pointing directly at the southern Portuguese city of Beja.

The geographical location of Beja was still quite special. With the Diana River at its back, it was naturally a defensive line.