Chapter 436

In order to facilitate the offensive plan of a surprise attack on Lisbon, Spain can be said to have done all the paving.

Starting from September 16, under the suggestion of the Spanish army, the Portuguese Democratic Republic's army followed the Spanish army and launched a fierce offensive against the Portuguese Republic's army and the British army located in Montemor-o-Novo to the west.

The number of troops used by Spain and the Portuguese Democratic Republic in this offensive has reached nearly 100,000, and the number of defenders of the Portuguese Republic and the UK is also about 100,000.

Both sides engaged in fierce fighting on the land between Montemor-o-Novo and Évora, and the sound of gunfire and artillery never stopped, and their respective casualties were quite heavy.

In the three days from September 16 to September 18, the casualties of the Spanish army reached more than 5,000, and the casualties of the Portuguese Democratic Republic exceeded 10,000.

The situation of the British army is even worse than that of Spain. Just in these three days, the total casualties of the British army reached nearly 7,000, and this is because they were on the defensive side and took advantage.

The casualties of the Portuguese Republic's army are also not small, and the total number of casualties also exceeded 10,000.

Under the fierce offensive of the Spanish army, the front line has been pushed to the vicinity of Montemor-o-Novo. According to this trend, Montemor-o-Novo could be captured by the Spanish army within a few days.

Montemor-o-Novo can be said to be the last line of defense besides the outskirts of Lisbon. Once Montemor-o-Novo is captured by the Spanish army, the Portuguese Republic and the British army can only rely on Barreiro and Setúbal around Lisbon for defense, which also means that the Portuguese Republic's sphere of influence will shrink to the range of tens of kilometers around Lisbon, and cities in the north including Coimbra, Tomar, and Marinha Grande will have to be abandoned.

Just when the Portuguese Republican government was worried about this, a piece of news made the high-level officials of the Republican Party terrified instantly. According to news revealed by a small number of Portuguese immigrants who were won over by the Portuguese Republican Party to Spain, Spain is carrying out frequent troop movements in the Extremadura region and may continue to increase troops to Portugal by tens of thousands in a short period of time.

This is definitely not good news for the Portuguese Republican Party. The current Portuguese front-line battlefield has shown a trend of Spain and the Iberian Party pressing the UK and the Republican Party to fight.

If Spain continues to increase troops to Portugal, relying solely on Portugal's current existing troops, even with the help of tens of thousands of British troops for defense, it is completely impossible to hold Lisbon.

After confirming that this news is highly likely to be true, the Portuguese Republic government did not dare to have any hesitation and immediately contacted the British government, requesting the British government to send more troops for support.

When the British government received the news of Portugal's request for help, the British cabinet was actually also conducting quite intense discussions.

The current British Prime Minister, Arthur James Balfour, comes from the Conservative Party in the UK's two-party system. Since 1895, the Conservative Party has controlled the British cabinet for nine consecutive years, making the Liberal Party, which is also one of the UK's two major parties, the opposition party for nine years.

Controlling the government for nine consecutive years means that the British Conservative Party has mastered great political power during this period. Whether it is the Boer War or this Anglo-Spanish War, they both broke out during the term of the Conservative cabinet.

The tradition of the two-party system is that the opposition party opposes the ruling party, and this point is vividly reflected in the British government.

The UK used concentration camps and scorched-earth policies in the Boer War, and this point also became the reason for the Liberal Party to attack the Conservative Party.

Don't think that the Conservative Party can monopolize power by controlling the British cabinet; the British Liberal Party at this time only missed the Prime Minister's power because of internal divisions, but the Liberal Party's energy is still quite powerful.

The current leader of the British Liberal Party is Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who is the British Prime Minister who succeeded Balfour in history.

This is not over yet; within the Liberal Party, there are also Herbert Henry Asquith of the Liberal Imperialist faction and David Lloyd George of the pro-Boer faction, two legendary politicians who will also serve as British Prime Ministers in the future.

These three high-level officials of the British Liberal Party almost have a relatively unified attitude, which is to oppose the scorched-earth policy implemented by the British Conservative government in the South African region.

After the outbreak of the Anglo-Spanish War, there were also not small opposition voices within the Liberal Party, believing that breaking out a war with Spain at this time had no benefits for the UK.

And according to the evidence provided by Spain later, although the result of the Battle of Gibraltar was the total annihilation of the British fleet, the reason for the outbreak of the naval battle was indeed that the British fleet took the initiative to fire, and the Spanish Navy was passively defending.

This also means that the British government does not occupy public opinion support in this war. You can't just make the Spanish pay in blood because the Spanish Navy was passively defending and caused the British fleet to be annihilated, right?

With the subsequent heavy losses of the Mediterranean Fleet, the voices opposing this war spread from within the Liberal Party to the entire British political arena, and even included the Conservative Party as the ruling party.

Judging from the results achieved in this war so far, the UK can be considered to have lost everything.

The proud Royal Fleet was defeated by the Spanish Navy twice, and the Royal Fleet is now even afraid to launch a final decisive battle, which also means that the once-invincible Royal Fleet has begun to fear the Spanish Navy.

Although the land war has not yet been decided, it is better to count on winning against the Spanish on the ocean than to count on winning against the Spanish on land.

Regarding Spain's development over the years, the hearts of European countries are quite clear. Don't look at the scale of the Spanish army only ranking at the end of the major powers, but the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army is definitely first-class or even top-notch.

The British Conservative government wants to fight a land war with Spain at Spain's doorstep; isn't this showing off one's skill before an expert and asking for trouble?

The Boer War cost the UK more than 200 million pounds in military spending, which is equivalent to the total fiscal revenue of the British government for 2 years.

Such huge military spending made the British government recover for several years, and now there is another large-scale war no less than the Boer War. How do the British people see this?

The war has been fought to this point, and the Home Fleet only dares to shrink north of the English Channel, and the land army is completely not the opponent of the Spanish army.

Gibraltar has been occupied by Spain, and large areas of Portuguese territory have also fallen. What else is there to fight in such a war? Do we have to wait until Spain completely occupies Portugal for these stupid Conservative cabinet members to realize that the current UK is completely not the opponent of Spain?

Amidst the fierce quarrel between the pro-war faction and the pro-peace faction, the British cabinet received the news of the Portuguese Republican government's request for support.