Chapter 435: Landing Plan

Before coming to Spain, the group from the Irish Republican Brotherhood, including Patrick Henry Pearse, could be considered quite destitute.

Even the ocean liner tickets for their group to come to Spain were only gathered after everyone sold off some of their assets.

But when they left Spain, the situation had undergone a earth-shaking change. After Yu Kaluo expressed his support for the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Spanish government quickly approved a loan for the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

The first installment of the loan was 10 million pesetas; as an interest-free loan, the repayment period was 10 years.

Although the amount of this loan was not high, that is only relative to a country. The Irish Republican Brotherhood was merely a political force similar to a party, neither recognized by the British government nor supported by the majority of the Irish populace.

Under these circumstances, 10 million pesetas in development funds was already a timely gift for the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

After receiving this loan, Patrick Henry Pearse, after consulting with other members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, used the majority of the funds to purchase a large batch of weapons and equipment, including the previously mentioned 50, 00 rifles, hundreds of artillery pieces, and dozens of machine guns.

In addition to these weapons and equipment, Spain would also help the Irish Republican Brotherhood establish a secret military school in the Irish region to help the Irish Republican Brotherhood train a more elite army.

During the formation stage of this secret military school, the instructors serving at the military school were all regular Spanish officers, and the interim principal was even a regular professor from the Spanish Royal Military Academy.

All training for Irish officers would be conducted according to the standards and regulations of Spanish officer training, ensuring that these Irish officers graduating from the military school could become the backbone of the future Irish military.

Having obtained a series of support, the group from the Irish Republican Brotherhood returned to Ireland in high spirits, preparing for their independence work.

Before launching the final war of independence, they still needed to gain massive popular support within the Irish region, so as to trigger a rebellion against Britain by the entire Irish population.

This point had already been determined back when Patrick Henry Pearse and Yu Kaluo were negotiating. If they relied solely on the strength of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, even with Spain's support, there would ultimately be a limit to the army they could arm.

But if they could trigger a rebellion against Britain by the entire Irish population, then they could arm as many troops as there were people in Ireland, and the impact caused and results achieved would be vastly different.

After seeing off the group from the Irish Republican Brotherhood, Yu Kaluo turned his gaze back to the Iberian Peninsula and began to focus once again on the situation of the Portuguese Civil War.

In order to hold onto Portugal, the British government could be said to have spent a fortune. More than 50, 00 British soldiers landed in Portugal in a grand display, and subsequently rushed to the front-line battlefield without stopping.

To cope with the pressure from the Spanish army, the British government conducted a small-scale mobilization at home and planned to increase the total number of troops sent to Portugal to over 100, 00 within a month.

From this aspect, one can also see how important Portugal is in the hearts of the British. If there were no Portugal, it would be absolutely impossible for Britain to attack Spain.

A landing battle alone would be enough to cause the British Army heavy losses, and even on the basis of heavy losses, the British army would not necessarily succeed in landing on the coast of Spain.

After all, the British Navy could no longer occupy a sufficient advantage; in this situation, once the Spanish Navy discovered Britain's large-scale landing operation first, it would very likely lead to the British army being sunk by the Spanish Navy while still on the ocean.

By then, perhaps the landing battle would not even have broken out, and the British Army would have to perish in the ocean ahead of time, becoming food for the fish in the sea.

Compared to a forced landing from the coast of Spain, Portugal was clearly a better choice. The British army could safely conduct operations in Portugal without worrying about threats from the coast.

The successfully landed British army had enough time to fully rest and prepare, which allowed them to maintain sufficient energy to invest in subsequent combat.

Based on this point alone, the British government would absolutely never abandon Portugal, which had such an important geographical location. Although land warfare was not the strong suit of the British Empire, the British government was confident that its finances were more abundant than Spain's, and they were confident in continuing to wear Spain down in the Portuguese region.

Since the British were determined to help Portugal, Yu Kaluo naturally did not mind playing properly with the British.

Spain was truly not afraid of anyone in this kind of land war with limited numbers. Let alone Britain, whose army was not strong, even if the German Empire, known as the world's number one land power, came, Yu Kaluo would not be the least bit worried.

Currently, the situation of the Portuguese Civil War was quite intense; the land controlled by the Portuguese Republican government supported by Britain was only less than half of the original Portuguese territory.

North to Coimbra, south to Setúbal south of Lisbon, and east to Montemor-o-Novo west of Évora, that was roughly the territory currently controlled by the Portuguese Republican government.

Olhão and Beja in southern Portugal, and Braga, Porto, and Bragança in the north had all been occupied by the Democratic Republic of Portugal; whether in terms of land area or the population of the occupied areas, the Democratic Republic of Portugal was not inferior to the Portuguese Republic in the slightest.

Currently, the number of British troops in Portugal was around 50, 00, and the vast majority of these troops were concentrated on the line from Lisbon to Montemor-o-Novo.

Yu Kaluo planned to launch a fierce offensive against the Portuguese Republican army and the British army on the front-line battlefield, namely the line from Évora to Montemor-o-Novo, forcing Britain to have to dispatch a large number of troops to Portugal for support.

In this way, the defensive strength of the British mainland would certainly be hollowed out, which could also create more opportunities for Patrick Henry Pearse's Irish Republican Brotherhood to launch a war of independence.

Once Britain deployed more troops on the line from Lisbon to Montemor-o-Novo, the Spanish Army would, with the help of the Navy, launch a surprise attack on Lisbon, striving to occupy the capital of the Portuguese Republic before the British army could react.

If Lisbon could be captured, the British troops deployed on the line from Lisbon to Montemor-o-Novo would fall into the encirclement of the Spanish army, and trying to break out would become very difficult.

Because Lisbon in the rear had been captured, if these British troops wanted to escape, they could only head north, toward Coimbra.

Spain was not Germany in World War II, and Yu Kaluo would absolutely not give Britain a chance for a Dunkirk-style evacuation. As long as Lisbon could be captured, for every British soldier sent to Portugal, Yu Kaluo would annihilate that many British soldiers.

Only by hurting the British once and for all would they consider choosing to concede, thereby surrendering to Spain.