Chapter 433: Visitors from Ireland

To hold back the Spanish army before the British army arrived, the Portuguese Republican government spared no cost.

Although they issued general mobilization orders in all regions under their control, the recruitment reports from various places were not ideal; on average, only a few hundred people were willing to enlist each day, which was nowhere near enough to fill the vacancies on the front lines.

After intense internal discussion within the Portuguese government, a new conscription order was successfully passed by a majority vote. This new order did not rely on the previous voluntary enlistment, but instead chose to enforce mandatory conscription in all areas controlled by the Republican government.

Every household of Portuguese people living in these areas was required to provide one laborer to enlist in the army or pay a fine of 500, 00 Reals.

The Real was the official currency of Portugal and its colonies, but because of its low denomination, it was used only within Portugal's sphere of influence.

Due to Portugal's complex original relationship with Spain and Britain, the British Pound and the Peseta were also used in small amounts as currency units within Portugal.

The specific exchange rate between the three currencies was: 1 British Pound equals 25 Pesetas, which equals 4, 32 Reals.

From this, one could see that the fine imposed by the Portuguese government on families unable to provide a laborer for the army was quite heavy.

A full 500, 00 Reals, equivalent to approximately 2, 50 Pesetas, was more than six times the current average annual income in Spain.

For Portugal, where the average annual income was even lower than in Spain, this fine was enough to drain the savings of most families, and some families could not pay it even if they sold everything they owned.

The reason the Portuguese Republican government set such a heavy fine was, in reality, to prevent the Portuguese public from choosing to pay the fine instead of providing soldiers.

For the Portuguese Republican government, they were actually not short on money. With a steady stream of capital investment from the British government, plus the fact that the various weapons, equipment, and strategic materials consumed on the battlefield almost all came from Britain, they did not have much trouble regarding funds.

Instead, the issue of manpower had become the biggest problem for the Portuguese Republican government. If the manpower deficit on the front lines could not be solved, the collapse of the front-line situation was only a matter of time.

Under such forceful conscription measures by the Portuguese Republican government, tens of thousands of new recruits were indeed drafted in a short period of time.

There was also not enough time to give these new recruits training. The plan put forward by the Portuguese Republican government was to treat these tens of thousands of new recruits as reserve troops, letting them train while fighting in positions further back on the front lines.

When the troops on the very front line could no longer hold, that would be the time for them to play their part. With the addition of these tens of thousands of troops, the number of soldiers in the Portuguese Republican government's army broke through 100, 00 again.

With these troops, they could at least delay the Spanish army for several more days, by which time the British army would likely have arrived.

As long as they could hold out until the British army arrived, the situation on the front lines would naturally be the Britishers' concern; for the Portuguese Republican government, this would solve their biggest current problem.

In addition to the forced conscription that resembled kidnapping in the homeland, the Portuguese Republican government also issued war mobilization orders to its two major colonies in Africa, demanding that the West African and East African colonies provide at least 100, 00 troops to the homeland within one month, and at least 20, 00 troops as reinforcements every month thereafter.

The West African and East African colonies in Africa were the only two large colonies Portugal had left, and this was the only place besides the homeland where they could obtain manpower supplies.

Although mobilizing troops on a large scale in these two African colonies would likely trigger unrest in the colonies, this was no longer the biggest problem for the Portuguese Republican government.

As long as the current predicament facing the homeland could be solved, even if the colonies were in chaos for decades, it would be entirely worth it to the Portuguese Republican government.

If the homeland fell, it would be impossible to hold on relying solely on the colonies. Furthermore, the British government promised Portugal that during the outbreak of this war, the British government would guarantee the safety of Portugal's two African colonies, ensuring that no country would launch an invasion against them.

This was also the reason why the Portuguese Republican government felt at ease conducting conscription in the two African colonies; after all, there were still many indigenous people in these two African colonies, and arming these indigenous people into an army could mobilize at least hundreds of thousands or even millions of troops.

The news of the Portuguese Republican government's forced conscription was soon learned by the Iberian Party and Spain.

Yu Kaluo was not surprised by the Portuguese Republican government's actions; after all, the other side could not remain indifferent when the front line was about to collapse, and they would certainly use various methods to slow down the Spanish army's offensive until the British army reached Portugal.

But these Portuguese had never thought about what would happen even if this batch of British reinforcements could reach Portugal. First of all, in terms of military combat effectiveness, the British army was not as good as the Spanish army.

Secondly, Spain could flexibly mobilize troops according to the situation on the Portuguese battlefield. If these British troops could hold back the Spanish army's offensive, Spain could easily mobilize more troops to support Portugal.

As for Britain, although Britain could also mobilize troops, the time required to mobilize troops was several times that of Spain; distant water could never quench a near thirst.

The current Britain did indeed have a large population, with a total domestic population of over 40 million, and it also possessed India, a colony with a population of hundreds of millions.

But Spain was not inferior at all. Spain's population was approaching 39 million, and the number of indigenous people in its several African colonies was also in the tens of millions or even over a hundred million.

Under these circumstances, whether comparing elite domestic troops or colonial troops, Spain was not afraid at all.

Coupled with the fact that Spain had already begun some small maneuvers against Britain, the longer this war dragged on, the greater Spain's chances of winning actually were.

By the time Britain's homeland and colonies showed signs of collapse, let alone the United States, which did not want to enter the war now, even the major powers of Europe would likely want a piece of the pie.

After all, for the countries of Europe, only interests were important. Once the benefits brought by intervening in the war far exceeded the risks, even countries with relatively good relations with Britain would inevitably consider the pros and cons of both.

As time reached September 11, the first batch of 15, 00 British soldiers formally supporting Portugal finally stepped onto the port of Lisbon.

The Portuguese Republican government could be said to have been looking forward to these British troops; on the day the British troops arrived, they held a small welcome ceremony for them, and subsequently, these troops were thrown into the fighting on the front lines.

These British troops also knew the urgency of the front-line battlefield. Although they were somewhat exhausted from traveling on transport ships for the past few days, the situation on the front lines was also quite tense.

For this formal support of Portugal, the British government had given a strict order to ensure the safety of the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, at all costs, and to eliminate the Portuguese Democratic Republic, a country not recognized by other nations, as much as possible.

As long as the Portuguese Democratic Republic was eliminated, the excuse Spain used to intervene in the Portuguese civil war would have completely disappeared. By then, unless Spain was willing to bear the infamy of interfering in another country's internal affairs, the Spanish army would have to withdraw from Portugal.

If such a situation could be achieved, it would count as a not-insignificant victory for Britain. Even if they could not recover Gibraltar later, they would still be able to influence the Strait of Gibraltar to a certain extent through Portugal, ensuring that such an important strait would not be controlled solely by Spain.

At the same time that these British troops who arrived in Portugal were engaged in fierce combat with the Spanish army, a group of mysterious people who had traveled by boat from the Ireland region of Britain to France, and then taken a train south to Spain, finally arrived in Madrid, the capital of Spain.

The leader of these people was a relatively young intellectual, and the group following behind him were also mostly young people in their twenties or thirties.

After these people arrived in Madrid, they looked at the prosperous world-class city that resembled London and could not help but exclaim: "What a beautiful city!"

Seeing the prosperity of Madrid, their confidence in this trip grew significantly. What they were about to do was an extremely dangerous operation; if they could not obtain Spain's support, this operation would likely face failure or even a more devastating outcome.