Chapter 435

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

Even the ocean-going ship tickets for their group to come to Spain were gathered by everyone selling some assets.

But when they left Spain, the situation underwent a earth-shaking change. After Gao Da expressed his support for the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Spanish government soon passed a loan to the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

The share of the first loan was 10 million Pesetas, as an interest-free loan, and the repayment period of the loan was 10 years.

Although the amount of this loan is not high, that is for a country. The Irish Republican Brotherhood is just a political force similar to a party, neither recognized by the British government nor supported by most Irish people.

Under these circumstances, 10 million Pesetas of development funds for the Irish Republican Brotherhood is already equivalent to sending charcoal in the snow.

After getting this loan, Patrick Henry Pearse, after discussing with other members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, used most of the funds from the loan to purchase a large batch of weapons and equipment, including the previously mentioned 50,000 rifles, hundreds of artillery pieces, and dozens of machine guns.

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

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

All Irish officer training will be trained according to the standards and regulations of Spanish officer training, ensuring that these Irish officers who graduate from the military school can become the backbone of the future Irish military.

After obtaining a series of support, the group of the Irish Republican Brotherhood returned to Ireland happily, preparing for their independence work.

Before launching the final war of independence, they also need to obtain a large amount of public support within the Irish region, so as to trigger the resistance of the entire Irish people against the UK.

This point had already been determined when Patrick Henry Pearse and Gao Da negotiated. If they only relied on the power of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, even if Spain gave them support, the army they could arm would ultimately have a ceiling.

But if they could trigger the resistance of the entire Irish group against the UK, then how many people Ireland has, how many troops could be armed, and the influence and results that could be achieved would be far different.

After sending away the group of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, Gao Da turned his attention back to the Iberian Peninsula and began to pay attention to the situation of the Portuguese civil war again.

In order to save Portugal, the British government can be considered to have spent its blood. More than 50,000 British soldiers landed in Portugal majestically, and then rushed to the front-line battlefield to fight without stopping.

In order to cope with the pressure from the Spanish army, the British government carried out a small-scale mobilization on the mainland again, and plans to increase the total number of troops sent to Portugal to over 100,000 within one month.

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

Just a landing battle is enough to make the British army suffer heavy losses, and on the basis of heavy losses, the British army is not necessarily able to successfully land on the Spanish coast.

After all, the British Navy can no longer occupy a sufficient advantage. Under these circumstances, once the British large-scale landing behavior is discovered by the Spanish Navy first, it is likely to lead to the British army being sunk by the Spanish Navy on the ocean.

By then, maybe the landing battle would not have broken out, and the British army would have to be buried in the ocean in advance, becoming food for fish in the ocean.

Compared to a forced landing from the Spanish coast, Portugal is clearly a better choice. The British army can safely carry out in Portugal without worrying about threats from the coast.

The successfully landed British army has enough time to carry out full rest and preparation, which can allow them to maintain enough energy to invest in subsequent fighting.

Just this point alone makes it absolutely impossible for the British government to abandon Portugal, which has such an important geographical location. Although land war is not the British Empire's strength, the British government is confident that its finances are more affluent than Spain's, and they are confident in continuing to consume with Spain in the Portuguese region.

Since the British are determined to help Portugal, Gao Da naturally doesn't mind playing with the British properly.

Spain is really not afraid of anyone in this kind of land war with limited numbers. Let alone the UK, whose land army is not strong, even if the German Empire, known as the world's number one land army power, comes, Gao Da will not be worried at all.

The current situation of the Portuguese civil war is quite scorching, and the land controlled by the Portuguese Republican government supported by the UK is only less than half of the original Portuguese territory.

North to Coimbra, south to Setúbal in the south of Lisbon, east to Montemor-o-Novo in the west of Évora, this is almost the territory controlled by the Portuguese Republican government at present.

Olhão and Beja in the south of Portugal, and Braga, Porto, and Bragança in the north have all been occupied by the Portuguese Democratic Republic. Whether it is the land area or the population of the occupied area, the Portuguese Democratic Republic is not inferior to the Portuguese Republic at all.

Currently, the number of British troops in Portugal is about 50,000, and the vast majority of these troops are concentrated on the line from Lisbon to Montemor-o-Novo.

Gao Da plans to launch a fierce offensive against the Portuguese Republic's army and the British army on the front-line battlefield, that is, the line from Évora to Montemor-o-Novo, forcing the UK to mobilize a large number of troops to Portugal for support.

In this way, the British mainland's defensive power will definitely be empty, which can also create more opportunities for Patrick Henry Pearse's Irish Republican Brotherhood to launch a war of independence.

Once the UK deploys more troops on the line from Lisbon to Montemor-o-Novo, the Spanish land army will launch a surprise attack on Lisbon with the help of the navy, striving to occupy the capital of the Portuguese Republic before the British army reacts.

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

Because Lisbon in the rear was captured, these British troops want to escape, they can only head north, towards Coimbra.

Spain is not Germany in World War II, and Gao Da will absolutely not give the UK a chance for a Dunkirk evacuation. As long as Lisbon can be captured, Gao Da will annihilate as many British troops as the UK sends to Portugal.

Only by hurting the British once can they consider choosing to concede, thereby surrendering to Spain.