Chapter 430: Portuguese Democratic Republic

When the Spanish army with more powerful firepower was on the defensive side, for the British army, attacking the Spanish army's position was a kind of torment.

Under the dense firepower suppression of the Spanish army, the British army could hardly advance an inch. After continuing to fight for several hours, the British army not only failed to get close to the Spanish defensive works but instead was forced to retreat more than a kilometer.

Although doing so indeed stayed away from the coverage range of the Spanish artillery, it actually also represented that there was basically no possibility of winning this encounter battle for the British army.

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

Although this British army could be considered elite, wanting to rely on them like a "dare-to-die team" (a Chinese idiom meaning suicide squad) to risk the Spanish artillery bombardment and machine-gun fire to capture the Spanish defensive position was obviously thinking too much.

If there was a "defend home and country" buff, these British soldiers might do so. But the problem was that they were going to Portugal to fight in the capacity of a civilian volunteer army; although Spain was also Britain's enemy, the British army in a foreign land had never had such high morale.

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

Under such circumstances, wanting to shrink the encirclement was completely impossible. Currently, they could only request more reinforcements from Lisbon, use several times the troops to forcibly surround these Spanish troops, and then consume them slowly; only then could the entire encirclement plan be completed.

Seeing this British army choose to retreat, Spain would not let go of the good opportunity to "beat a dog in the water" (a Chinese idiom meaning to hit someone when they are down). A large number of Spanish troops rushed out of the position and launched a pursuit toward the British army that was gradually withdrawing.

Seeing the Spanish army rush out of the position, the British army did not

But what the British soldiers did not expect was that before they even had time to organize a counterattack, their own "pig teammates" had already 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 all left on the main front; these Republican troops who followed the British army south were less like regular soldiers and more like ordinary civilians holding weapons.

Watching the Spanish army charge out from 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, it was only a small number of soldiers attempting to evacuate at a faster speed, but under the influence of the soldiers on each other, it soon turned into the rout of the entire Portuguese army.

Although the entire army was still carrying out the mission of retreating, compared to the British army on the other side that was evacuating in an orderly fashion, the evacuation of the Portuguese army could only be described as chaotic.

The soldiers completely broke their formations and had no organization at all. The biggest disadvantage of doing this was that the Portuguese soldiers did not recognize the officers beside them, and naturally, they could not possibly obey the orders of a stranger.

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

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

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

At this moment, the orders of the Portuguese officers had completely lost all effect; the Portuguese soldiers were thinking only of running quickly, 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 rout still left the flank of the British army completely exposed.

The disadvantage of "incompetent allies" was fully manifested; the British army could originally have launched a counterattack on the spot, and as long as they repelled the pursuit of the Spanish army, they could have ensured that all troops retreated safely to Bolikaime in the rear.

But with the rout of the Portuguese army, the flank of the British army was also completely exposed before the Spanish army. If the British army dared to remain in place to counterattack at this time, the Spanish army could unscrupulously strike the British army's flank and form a counter-encirclement against them.

In order to avoid excessive casualties, the commander of the British volunteer army could only helplessly order the troops to retreat and return to Bolikaime to regroup.

Because the order of the Portuguese army had already become completely chaotic, the British army naturally could not go and look after the Portuguese army anymore.

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

For the Spanish army, this was naturally a good opportunity to beat a dog that had fallen into the water. 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 ten thousand or so Portuguese troops was not as good. Although thousands managed to escape by luck, at the same time, nearly half of them did not escape due to various reasons.

Finally, after a rough count, the casualties on the Spanish volunteer side were only a few hundred, among which fewer than one hundred died, and only a little over one hundred were seriously injured.

But it was very clear that as the ruling party of Portugal, the number of seats owned by the Republican Party was the largest and occupied a huge advantage, which was also the reason why they could control the Portuguese presidential throne.

The casualties on the British army side were not certain, but the number of dead British soldiers had already reached nearly five hundred, which also meant that the casualties of this British volunteer force would certainly not be small.

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

Spain and the Iberia Party captured nearly three thousand Republican soldiers; more than one thousand Republican soldiers died directly in this battle, and hundreds more died during the process of the Portuguese army's rout.

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

After several consecutive battles, the British volunteer army had fewer than three thousand combat-ready troops left, and the ten thousand or so sent by the Republican Party also had fewer than five thousand combat-ready troops remaining.

It is easy for these soldiers to hold Bolikaime, but it is quite difficult to continue the offensive eastward to Faro or Loulé.

There was no other way; the British volunteer army commander could only request that the Portuguese Republican government send more reinforcements so 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 allowed the number of Iberia Party troops on the southern front to reach the scale of seven thousand again.

After many battles, the Spanish volunteer army currently only has about four thousand troops left. The remaining soldiers have either died in battle or have been transported back to Spain for treatment due to the severity of their injuries.

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

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

The main battlefield still has to be fought by the armies of the Iberia Party and other opposition parties; doing this can 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 the British.

Gao Da does not want the defection of the Portuguese Republican Party to happen again; no matter who controls the Portuguese government in the future, they must maintain diplomatic consistency with Spain.

The news of the volunteer army's offensive being thwarted soon reached the UK, which made the British government, which had originally wanted to rely on the volunteer army to change the landscape of the Portuguese civil war, somewhat angry.

The British government decided to stop pretending and insisted on forcibly intervening in the Portuguese civil war, viewing Portugal as a springboard to attack the Spanish interior through Portugal.

On September 1, 1904, the British government announced the dispatch of an additional 15,000 volunteer troops to Portugal and signed the "Anglo-Portuguese Alliance Treaty" with the Portuguese Republican government.

Unlike previous economic alliances, this alliance treaty includes all cooperation, including military and economic aspects, and points its defensive target toward the two countries' common enemy, which is Spain.

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

The British government's goal is also very obvious, which is to high-profilely announce its support for the Portuguese Republican government and to spare no cost in helping the Republican Party win this civil war.

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

The media within Spain reported extensively on the British behavior of forcibly intervening in the Portuguese civil war, providing public opinion support for the Iberia Party.