Chapter 430: The Portuguese Democratic Republic

When the more heavily armed Spanish army was on the defensive, attacking the Spanish positions was a torment for the British army.

Under the Spanish army's dense fire suppression, the British army could not advance even an inch. After several hours of continuous fighting, not only did the British army fail to get close to the Spanish fortifications, but they were actually beaten back by more than a kilometer.

Although this did indeed move them out of the range of the Spanish artillery, it also meant that there was basically no possibility of the British winning this skirmish.

The facts were indeed as expected. No matter how the British army launched their attacks afterward, they could not solve the problem of their firepower being suppressed by the Spanish army.

Although this British force could be considered elite, expecting them to act like a suicide squad and charge the Spanish defensive positions under artillery bombardment and machine-gun fire was clearly wishful thinking.

If they had the buff of defending their homeland, these British soldiers might have done so. But the problem was that they were currently in Portugal as civilian volunteers; although Spain was also an enemy of Britain, the morale of the British army in a foreign land had never been that high.

Seeing several attacks repelled by the Spanish army, the commander of the British volunteer force had no choice but to choose to retreat.

Under these circumstances, it was completely impossible to shrink the encirclement. The only option was to request more reinforcements from Lisbon, use several times the number of troops to forcibly surround these Spanish forces, and then slowly wear them down; only then could the entire encirclement plan be completed.

Seeing the British army choose to retreat, the Spanish would not let go of such a good opportunity to beat a drowning dog. A large number of Spanish troops rushed out of their positions and began to pursue the retreating British army.

Watching the Spanish army rush out of their positions, the British army did not panic too much. They intended to counterattack on the spot to ensure their formation would not be scattered by the Spanish army.

But what the British soldiers did not expect was that before they could organize a counterattack, their own "pig teammates" sabotaged them.

Compared to the British army, which could be considered elite, the army of the Portuguese Republican Party could only be described as a rabble. The true elites were left on the main front; these Republican troops who followed the British army south were less like a regular army and more like ordinary civilians holding weapons.

Seeing the Spanish army charge out of their positions, these Republican soldiers panicked instantly. They had just been gasping for air under the suppression of Spanish artillery and machine guns, and now, seeing the Spanish army launch a charge, many soldiers immediately scrambled to speed up their retreat.

At first, only a small number of soldiers tried to retreat at a faster pace, but under the influence of the soldiers on each other, it soon turned into the collapse of the entire Portuguese army.

Although the entire army was still executing the retreat mission, compared to the orderly withdrawal of the British army on the other side, the retreat of the Portuguese army could only be described as chaotic.

The soldiers completely broke their formation and had no organizational structure at all. The biggest disadvantage of this was that the Portuguese soldiers did not recognize the officers around them, and naturally, they could not obey the orders of strangers.

By the time the Portuguese officers realized something was wrong, the situation was already completely beyond saving. The Portuguese army suffered a massive rout; many Portuguese soldiers, eager to retreat, did not even care about their comrades who had fallen beside them, stepping directly over them.

The messy troops caused panic in the hearts of all the soldiers; some soldiers did not notice the comrades under their feet and were tripped directly.

Such behavior appeared continuously within the Portuguese army, eventually leading to great chaos and a stampede.

At this time, the orders of the Portuguese officers had completely lost all effect; the Portuguese soldiers only wanted to run faster, and no one was willing to stop and launch a counterattack against the advancing Spanish army.

Although the chaos of the Portuguese army did not affect the British army, their collapse still left the flank of the British army completely exposed.

The disadvantage of "pig teammates" was fully manifested; the British army could have counterattacked on the spot, and as long as they repelled the Spanish pursuit, they could have ensured the safe retreat of all troops to Boliqueime in the rear.

But with the collapse of the Portuguese army, the flank of the British army was completely exposed to the Spanish army. If the British army dared to remain in place to counterattack at this time, the Spanish army could recklessly charge the British flank and form a counter-encirclement.

To avoid heavy casualties, the commander of the British volunteer force had no choice but to order the army to retreat and return to Boliqueime to regroup.

Because the order of the Portuguese army was in complete disarray, the British army naturally could not bother with them anymore.

This also led to the frantically fleeing Portuguese soldiers not caring about the lives of their comrades at all; in order to fight for a sliver of a chance to survive, they fled toward Boliqueime in the rear using both hands and feet.

For the Spanish army, this was of course a good opportunity to beat a drowning dog. Although only the Portuguese army was in chaos, the Portuguese army was also their enemy.

Those thousands of British troops retreated in an orderly fashion, while the luck of the tens of thousands of Portuguese troops was not so good. Although thousands managed to escape by luck, nearly half of the people did not escape for various reasons.

Finally, after a rough count, the casualties on the Spanish volunteer side were only a few hundred, with less than a hundred dead and only a little over a hundred seriously injured.

The casualties on the side of the Iberia Party army were a bit higher, but the total casualties were still less than a thousand.

The casualties on the British side were not certain, but the number of dead British soldiers was already close to five hundred, which also meant that the casualties of this British volunteer force would certainly not be low.

The heaviest losses were suffered by the Portuguese Republican Party's army. Out of a full army of ten thousand, after this battle, fewer than five thousand had escaped back.

Spain and the Iberia Party captured nearly three thousand Republican soldiers, over a thousand Republican soldiers were killed directly in this battle, and hundreds more died during the collapse of the Portuguese army.

This battle directly changed the landscape of southern Portugal and destroyed the British army's plan to encircle the Spanish army.

After several consecutive battles, the combat-ready strength of the British volunteer force was less than three thousand, and the more than ten thousand sent by the Republican Party had less than five thousand combat-ready troops left.

It was easy for these soldiers to hold Boliqueime, but it was quite difficult to continue attacking Faro or Loulé to the east.

There was no other way; the British volunteer commander could only request that the Portuguese Republican government send more reinforcements to ensure that the situation on the southern front would not be affected.

After winning this battle, the approximately three thousand captured Republican soldiers were reorganized by the Iberia Party, which brought the number of Iberia Party troops on the southern front back to a scale of seven thousand.

After many battles, the Spanish volunteer force currently had only about four thousand troops left. The remaining soldiers had either died in battle or had been transported back to Spain for medical treatment due to severe injuries.

Although there were victories and defeats in the fighting against the British volunteer force, the Spanish army was still the one gaining the advantage overall. However, because the number of volunteers sent by Spain was only a little over five thousand, it was difficult to play a key role on the main battlefield of the Portuguese civil war.

The role of the Spanish volunteer force was to contain the British volunteer force and, incidentally, help the Iberia Party occupy more Portuguese territory; that was all.

The main battlefield still had to rely on the Iberia Party and other opposition parties' armies to fight; doing this could not only reduce the hatred between the Spanish and the Portuguese but also allow the Iberia Party to stand completely on the opposite side of Britain.

Yu Kaluo did not want the defection of the Portuguese Republican Party to happen again; no matter who held the political power of Portugal in the future, they had to maintain diplomatic consistency with Spain.

The news of the volunteer force's failed attack soon reached Britain, which made the British government, which had originally wanted to rely on the volunteer force to change the landscape of the Portuguese civil war, somewhat angry.

The British government decided to stop pretending and would forcibly interfere in the Portuguese civil war, treating Portugal as a springboard to attack the interior of Spain through Portugal.

On September 1, 1904, the British government announced the dispatch of an additional 15, 00 volunteers to Portugal and signed the "Anglo-Portuguese Alliance Treaty" with the Portuguese Republican government.

Unlike previous economic alliances, this alliance treaty included all cooperation, including military and economic, and pointed its defensive target at the two countries' common enemy: Spain.

The next day, the British government high-profilely announced the issuance of a loan of 10 million pounds to its ally, Portugal, of which 5 million pounds was an interest-free loan with a repayment period of 25 years. The other 5 million pounds was a low-interest loan with a repayment period of 35 years.

The purpose of the British government was also very obvious: to high-profilely announce its support for the Portuguese Republican government and to help the Republican Party win this civil war at all costs.

After the British made their stance known, Spain immediately took action.

The media in Spain reported extensively on the British behavior of forcibly interfering in the Portuguese civil war and provided public opinion support for the Iberia Party.