Chapter 431

With the establishment of the Portuguese Democratic Republic and the United Kingdom sending more troops to Portugal, this war between the UK and Spain has entered its second phase: a land war unfolding around the Portuguese civil war.

The British government initially announced an increase of only 15,000 troops, but later changed its plan, deciding to send another 35,000 troops to fight in Portugal.

With this back and forth, the number of troops the UK plans to send to Portugal has already exceeded 55,000.

Although this number of troops does not seem large, these soldiers were all mobilized from the British mainland; they are truly elite British Army troops, not the cannon fodder gathered from the colonies.

On the Spanish side, in order to help the nascent Portuguese Democratic Republic resist the pressure from the UK, Gao Da also decided to send three infantry divisions, two cavalry divisions, and one artillery division to fight in Portugal.

The total number of these troops combined is just over 50,000, exactly matching the number of troops sent out by the UK.

The UK's act of increasing troops in Portugal actually facilitated Gao Da's original plan to rotate troops to fight in Portugal. After Spain also increased its troops in Portugal, the number of Spanish troops available to fight in Portugal became even greater, which also means that more soldiers will be tempered on the battlefield at the same time.

Just as the UK and Spain were mobilizing their domestic troops on a large scale, intending to have a head-on confrontation on Portuguese soil, countries across Europe were also having their own discussions about this war.

The ones most concerned about the situation of this war are the main countries of the two major military blocs, the European powers led by Germany and France.

France is definitely the most concerned about this war, because this war will, to a certain extent, affect France's situation.

This is no exaggeration; after all, of the two countries in the war, one has a historical feud with France, and the other is just to the south of France. The essence of this war is the struggle between the UK and Spain for control of the Strait of Gibraltar, and France is a Mediterranean coastal country; the Strait of Gibraltar controlled by the UK and Spain is exactly what France wants.

When the Spanish Navy defeated the British fleet twice in a row, the French government immediately held a long meeting. This meeting not only discussed why Spain was able to win in the naval battle, but also discussed what impact a Spain that won the naval battle would have on the European situation.

The French government's conclusion on this is that they hope this war will last as long as possible. The UK is France's historical enemy, and although Spain has a cooperative relationship with France, it is not France's ally.

Considering Spain's such important geographical location, France hopes that Spain and the UK will both suffer losses. This way, no one will be able to affect France during the war, and France can focus on dealing with the powerful Germany with its ally, Russia.

Of course, in addition to hoping that the UK and Spain will fight more and more fiercely, the French naval department is also trying to develop a brand-new warship, hoping that this will allow the French Navy to have more powerful combat effectiveness.

You must know that before the outbreak of this war, Spain was only recognized as the world's third-largest naval power.

The European powers did not expect that the Spanish Navy could have such powerful combat effectiveness and defeat two British fleets in succession.

The defeat of these two fleets also caused the British Navy to suffer heavy losses. For the first time, the UK chose to retreat in terms of naval warfare, turning instead to fighting a land war with Spain in Portugal.

This is something that European countries, including France, did not expect. They originally thought that the result of this war would be the British Navy blockading Spain, Spain being trapped in its own territory, forced to fight a defensive war, and then watching the British invade its colonies, finally surrendering to the UK in helplessness.

But what did Spain do? Through two naval battles, it made the UK afraid to launch a final decisive battle, forcing the UK to abandon its advantages and turn to competing with Spain on its weaker land army.

As long as the UK cannot blockade Spain, the probability of Spain failing in this war will be greatly reduced. Unless the UK can subsequently develop new warships comparable to Spain's powerful warships, Spain is already in an invincible position in this war, and the British government will sooner or later choose to concede.

Regarding the situation of the war between the UK and Spain, European countries see it quite clearly.

The UK and Spain each have their own advantages; the UK's strength is reflected in its navy and the recovery ability of its colonies, while Spain's strength is reflected in its land army's combat effectiveness and national cohesion.

Once the UK cannot fully exert its naval advantage, this war will fall into a protracted war of attrition. Spain is indeed unable to land in the UK from a distance to win, but the UK is also unable to occupy Spain's territory or cause huge damage to Spain's colonies.

If it continues to be fought like this, sooner or later one side will have to choose to concede. Considering Spain's strong national cohesion, the one that will eventually concede will most likely be the UK.

Once the UK is defeated in this war, although it will not have a major impact on the UK's international status, it also represents one thing: the UK's status as the world's number one naval power is not impregnable.

This will also prompt the major European powers to develop their navies frantically, chasing and surpassing the UK's naval status. By then, it will not be so easy for the UK to stabilize its status; after all, the reason the British Empire dominates the world is because of its powerful navy.

Once it cannot maintain its advantage over other countries in terms of the navy, the UK is actually just a slightly powerful European country, with nothing special about it.

Because the UK's mainland is separated from the European continent, and the UK's mainland is composed of several islands. This also leads to the fact that the development ceiling of the UK's mainland is ultimately worse than that of France, Germany, and Russia.

Even for Spain, which originally had a poor mainland environment, after localizing Morocco, the development ceiling of its mainland also exceeds that of the UK's mainland.

If Portugal can be merged, then needless to say, the development ceiling of Spain's mainland will far exceed that of the UK's mainland, which is also the UK's own flaw.

The attitude of France's allies is similar to that of France; Tsar Nicholas II also hopes that the UK will suffer heavy losses in this war.

When Russia learned the news that the British fleet had been defeated by the Spanish Navy twice, Tsar Nicholas II even celebrated it privately.

Russia's current situation is not very good. After the failure of the Russo-Japanese War, many revolutions and uprisings have broken out within Russia, and many people are disappointed with the government and the Tsar.

As the supreme ruler of Russia, Tsar Nicholas II certainly understands the current status quo of Russia, and is also very dissatisfied and angry with the UK, the culprit who caused Russia's defeat and the backer of the island nation.

To put it bluntly, this war was launched entirely under the instigation of the British. If the island nation did not have the support of the UK, it would be impossible for them to develop so smoothly, and even more impossible to possess a fairly powerful navy in such a short time.

Germany's industry and economy are already so powerful, and they have spent a long time developing their navy, but so far they are only the world's fourth-largest naval power.

Why should a small island nation become the strongest naval power under the major powers? Isn't it because the UK, as its ally, is building its navy on a large scale?

Although the island nation is the real culprit that defeated Russia, Tsar Nicholas II's anger has basically been transferred to the British.

Russia and the UK originally had huge contradictions and hatred, and now Nicholas II's hatred for the British only increases and does not decrease.

He wishes that the UK would suffer heavy losses in this war; it would be best if both the navy and the land army were defeated by the Spanish, and the British falling into the abyss would be the best news.

If it weren't for the fact that Russia's own finances and industry are not strong, Tsar Nicholas II would even want to contact the Spanish government to provide them with a batch of interest-free or low-interest loans to help them better resist the British.

Regarding the attitude towards the war between the UK and Spain, the two major military blocs have rarely maintained consistency.

It is not just France and Russia that hope the UK and Spain will fight more and more fiercely; even Germany, on the other side, hopes that the losses of both sides in this war will be as large as possible.

Germany at this time is relatively contradictory. On the one hand, Germany accelerated the expansion of its navy through the Fleet Law promulgated in 1900, and successfully became the world's fourth-largest naval power after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, not far from Spain, the original world's third-largest naval power.

At that time, the total tonnage of the Spanish Navy was only 100,000 tons more than Germany's, the total number of battleships was only 6 more than Germany's, and the number of cruisers was about the same.

Give Germany a few more years, and Germany has the hope of catching up with Spain and thus ranking among the world's third-largest naval powers.