Chapter 438

After sufficient pre-war mobilization, Lieutenant General Kaman, the general commander of the landing operation, took three infantry divisions and one artillery division and boarded the train south to Andalusia majestically. These troops will take transport ships at Cádiz, a port in the south of Andalusia, and launch a surprise attack on Lisbon before the British react.

Because it is clear that these troops are about to face huge casualties, Spain's material supply for these troops is quite luxurious. Not only did they let these soldiers carry sufficient weapons, equipment, and ammunition, but all food supplies before they took the transport ships were also supplied according to the highest level of the Spanish army.

All ordinary soldiers of the three infantry divisions and one artillery division can be supplied with unlimited white bread and beef and mutton every day, with a glass of milk in the morning, seafood rice at noon, and Iberian ham and seafood stew in the evening, which can be said to have meat in every meal and rich meals.

The treatment of officers and ordinary soldiers is the same; after all, this is already the highest level of food supply that Spain can provide.

After all, the number of soldiers in several divisions adds up to tens of thousands, and there are more exquisite and luxurious dishes, but it is impossible to supply tens of thousands of people at the same time.

As the general commander of the operation, Lieutenant General Kaman also does not plan to distinguish the food supply of officers and ordinary soldiers. At least during the time period of this battle, the food supply of higher-level officers and ordinary soldiers is exactly the same.

The port of Cádiz is quite far from Lisbon, and in order not to attract the attention of the Portuguese Republic and the British army, the Spanish Navy escorting the transport ships chose to stay away from the Portuguese coast, detour to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, and quietly approach Lisbon.

Although doing so increased the confidentiality of the mission, it also greatly increased the distance from Cádiz to Lisbon.

It originally only took one day to arrive, but after such a detour, the fleet took nearly two days to see Cape Espichel in the south of Lisbon.

Although Lisbon is located in the west of Portugal, Lisbon is not coastal, but connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the Tagus River, and Lisbon happens to be located on the north coast of the bay inside the Tagus River.

This also leads to the fact that if you want to directly attack Lisbon, you must enter the bay where Lisbon is located from the Tagus River, which will increase the risk of the Spanish army attacking Lisbon.

Therefore, when the Spanish General Staff formulated the plan to attack Lisbon, they decided to prioritize attacking Cape Roca in the west of Lisbon, occupy a beach in an area where the Portuguese Republic's defensive power is relatively weak, and after the army lands on a large scale, attack Lisbon from the east.

Because of the obstruction of the Tagus River and the bay, the place where Lisbon is located forms a peninsula, and Lisbon happens to be located in the southeast of the peninsula.

Once the Spanish army occupies the west of the peninsula and cuts off the connection between Lisbon and the north to the east, this capital, which is very important to Portugal, becomes an isolated city.

By then, if the defenders of Lisbon want to obtain material supplies, they can only use the bay and transport supplies to Lisbon by sea.

But in terms of the navy, Spain is already at an advantage. Even the British Empire's Royal Fleet does not dare to fight the Spanish Navy, let alone the small-scale Portuguese Navy.

Under these circumstances, once the Spanish army is allowed to gain a firm foothold west of Lisbon, capturing this city becomes a matter of course.

When the Spanish fleet is close enough to the Portuguese coast, the fleet does not need to disguise at all. After confirming that there are no Portuguese and British fleets in the surrounding waters, several small transport ships approached the coast first. The soldiers on these transport ships need to occupy a large beach for subsequent troops, facilitating the landing of subsequent troops.

This also means that these advance troops need to face the dual pressure of the Portuguese army on the shore and the coastal defense artillery, and they have to seize a large area without being familiar with the terrain, so casualties are definitely unavoidable.

Although they know that the risk of this trip is extremely high, the Spanish soldiers on the transport ships have no timidity at all. They looked at the coast ahead with firm eyes, and held their long guns tightly in their hands.

"Soldiers, the moment for the motherland and His Majesty the King to test us has arrived. Ahead is Cape Roca, I require you to spare no cost, even if it is to fill it with your lives, you must occupy a coast available for subsequent troops to land.

Leave the enemy's coastal defense artillery and heavy firepower to the navy to solve, and the remaining Portuguese army is your biggest enemy. I don't care if these Portuguese have discovered our landing plan, in short, you must occupy a coast under their firepower, do you all understand?"

On several small transport ships, officers of various units were conducting the final pre-war mobilization.

In fact, no pre-war mobilization was needed. When officers at all levels shouted the sentence "The moment for the motherland and His Majesty the King to test us has arrived.", the Spanish soldiers all had their blood surging, and they wished they could immediately board the coast in front of them and use their lives to occupy a large coast available for subsequent troops to land.

Seeing that the morale was available, Lieutenant General Kaman no longer hesitated and immediately issued the order to start the action.

With Lieutenant General Kaman's order, several transport ships began to approach the coast rapidly, and the soldiers on the ships were also doing the final preparation work, checking the bullets of the guns and the materials they carried.

After the first transport ship reached the shore, with the order of the leading officer, a large number of soldiers began to surge out of the transport ship majestically, and then immediately headed towards the coast.

Although most of the main force of the Portuguese Republic is on the front line, there are still a small number of troops deployed on the coastline to prevent the sudden landing of the Spanish army.

But because the Portuguese Republic's troop strength is really limited, and because Portugal's coastline is relatively long, only a small section of the coastline has relatively solid defensive power.

Because of the importance of Cape Espichel and Cape Roca to Lisbon, these two terrains do have a considerable number of Portuguese troops defending them.

When the Spanish fleet approached the coast and launched a beach landing, the Portuguese army also discovered the Spanish army's actions belatedly.

"Damn it, that's the Spanish army!" The Portuguese army stationed in Sintra finally discovered the figure of the Spanish army on the distant coast, and the Portuguese soldier leading the way shouted in horror.

Although these troops are stationed in the far rear of Lisbon, protecting the rear coast of Lisbon, this does not mean that these troops are elite regular troops.

On the contrary, in order to coordinate with the British army, the vast majority of the elite main force of the Portuguese Republic is on the front line, and those troops that have been mobilized for a period of time and have initially possessed combat effectiveness after brief training are also deployed on the front line.

These troops deployed in the rear are either new recruits who have just been mobilized and have not been trained much, or they are militias organized by the Portuguese government in various regions.

Although these militias are also members of the Portuguese army, they do not need too frequent training, nor do they need to go to the front line to fight, they only need to defend in the rear of Portugal and some important cities.

It is precisely because of this reason that under the background of the Portuguese Republican government's forced conscription, many Portuguese men chose to join the militia instead of being forcibly conscripted by the government as soldiers.

The army stationed in Sintra is not a militia, but they are pure new recruits. The triangle area formed by Sintra, Amadora, and Mafra covers most of the peninsula area where Lisbon is located. The number of Portuguese troops stationed in this area is as high as thousands, and the defenders of the Lisbon area can also come to support at any time.

In the eyes of the Portuguese, such defensive power is already quite solid. Beach landing is not an easy thing at all. Although the Portuguese army only has thousands of defenders, fortunately, Lisbon is not far from here, and the army can arrive in a few hours in the case of walking, and if it is by car or carriage on the highway, the time can be shortened to about an hour.

Under these circumstances, let alone a part of the Spanish army forcibly landing, even if Spain lands on the coast on a large scale, the Portuguese army should be able to resist for a period of time.

Although the Portuguese government's fantasy is beautiful, when the landing battle really started, the Portuguese soon understood what kind of army truly possesses combat will.

The early small batches of Spanish troops successfully landed on the beach, but when the subsequent large troops landed, they were still counterattacked by the Portuguese army that reacted.

This is the time for the advance troops to play their role. Although the Spanish soldiers who landed on the coast at the beginning were only about a thousand, these soldiers did not retreat at all, and engaged in fighting with these Portuguese soldiers who rushed over without hesitation, forcing back the Portuguese army's several offensives.

During this period, several coastal defense artillery pieces deployed by Portugal on the coast wanted to create some trouble for the Spanish army's landing, but they were soon destroyed by the Spanish Navy.

This is the confidence that the naval advantage brings to the Spanish land army. Although the land army's artillery cannot play a big role in the landing battle, the artillery on the navy's warships can still play a huge role.

More importantly, the range of the navy's artillery is as high as several kilometers or even more than ten kilometers, which actually means that some Portuguese troops have already entered the range of the Spanish Navy.

For these Portuguese troops, the Spanish Navy naturally will not be polite. Of course, because those advance troops have already engaged with the Portuguese army, the navy must also be careful when bombing the Portuguese army, trying to bomb as far as possible to avoid accidentally injuring friendly forces.

With the support of the navy, the Spanish army on the front line can unscrupulously seize the coast. They don't need to worry about Portugal's heavy weapons, they only need to focus on seizing more areas for the large troops in the rear.

And on the Portuguese army side, these Portuguese soldiers who can only be counted as new recruits, when facing the earth-shattering naval gun bombardment of the Spanish Navy, several questions arose in their hearts: Who am I? Where am I? What am I going to do?

The one that bombed the most happily was the Spanish flagship, the battleship Dreadnought. A full 10 305mm 35-caliber artillery pieces unscrupulously poured their firepower onto Portugal's coastal defense artillery and stationed troops, and one coastal defense artillery platform after another was destroyed under such bombardment.

Even coastal defense artillery platforms with defensive facilities could not withstand the attack of such large-caliber artillery, let alone the Portuguese army, which was just a group of new recruits.

As long as a company of troops is hit by such a shell, basically the entire company loses its combat effectiveness. Even if it is just unfortunately affected by the sound wave of the shell explosion, it will cause instant dizziness and the brain will completely lose thinking.

Under such fierce bombardment, on the contrary, those soldiers closest to the Spanish army were not affected at all.