Chapter 438: Capturing Lisbon

After sufficient pre-war mobilization, Lieutenant General Kaman, the commander-in-chief of the landing operation, led three infantry divisions and one artillery division as they boarded trains heading south toward Andalusia in grand fashion. These troops would board transport ships at the southern Andalusian port of Cadiz to launch an assault on Lisbon before the British could react.

Because it was clear these troops would face massive casualties, Spain provided them with exceptionally luxurious material supplies. Not only were the soldiers equipped with ample weapons and ammunition, but all their food supplies prior to boarding the transport ships were provided at the highest standard of the Spanish military.

All ordinary soldiers in the three infantry divisions and one artillery division were provided with unlimited white bread and beef and mutton every day. They had a glass of milk in the morning, paella for lunch, and a stew made of Iberian ham and seafood for dinner; it could be said that every meal was rich and contained meat.

The officers and ordinary soldiers were treated the same, as this was already the highest level of food supply Spain could provide.

After all, the total number of soldiers across several divisions reached tens of thousands; it was not that more exquisite and luxurious dishes did not exist, but it was impossible to supply them to tens of thousands of people simultaneously.

As the commander-in-chief of the operation, Lieutenant General Kaman did not plan to distinguish between the food supplies of officers and ordinary soldiers. At least for the duration of this campaign, the food supply for even the highest-ranking officers and the ordinary soldiers was exactly the same.

The port of Cadiz was quite far from Lisbon, and to avoid attracting the attention of the Portuguese Republic and the British military, the Spanish Navy escorting the transport ships chose to stay far from the Portuguese coast, detouring deep into the Atlantic Ocean to quietly approach Lisbon.

Although this increased the secrecy of the mission, it also significantly increased the distance from Cadiz to Lisbon.

Originally, it would have only taken one day to arrive, but after such a detour, the fleet took nearly two days to finally see Cape Espichel south of Lisbon.

Although Lisbon is located in the western part of Portugal, it is not coastal; rather, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean via the Tagus River, and Lisbon happens to be situated on the northern shore of the bay inside the Tagus River.

This meant that to attack Lisbon directly, one had to enter the bay where Lisbon is located from the Tagus River, which would increase the risk for the Spanish military's attack on Lisbon.

Therefore, when the Spanish General Staff formulated the plan to attack Lisbon, they decided to prioritize an attack on Cape Roca to the west of Lisbon, occupy a beach in an area where the Portuguese Republic's defensive forces were relatively weak, and then advance east to attack Lisbon after the large-scale landing of troops.

Because of the obstruction caused by the Tagus River and the bay, the location of Lisbon formed a peninsula, and Lisbon was situated exactly in the southeastern part of this peninsula.

Once the Spanish military occupied the western part of the peninsula and cut off the connection between Lisbon and the north to the east, this capital, which was very important to Portugal, would become an isolated city.

By then, if the defenders of Lisbon wanted to obtain material supplies, they could only do so through the bay, transporting supplies to Lisbon via sea.

But in terms of naval power, Spain already held the advantage. Even the Royal Navy of the British Empire dared not engage the Spanish Navy, let alone the small-scale Portuguese Navy.

Under these circumstances, once the Spanish military gained a firm foothold west of Lisbon, capturing the city would become a matter of course.

When the Spanish fleet was close enough to the Portuguese coast, it no longer needed to disguise itself. After confirming that there were no Portuguese or British fleets in the surrounding waters, several small troop transport ships were the first to approach the coast. The soldiers on these ships needed to occupy a large stretch of coastline for the subsequent troops, facilitating their landing.

This also meant that these vanguard troops had to face the dual pressure of the Portuguese military on shore and the coastal defense batteries; having to seize a large area without being familiar with the terrain meant that casualties were certainly unavoidable.

Although they knew the risks of this trip were extremely high, the Spanish soldiers on the transport ships did not show the slightest cowardice. They looked at the coast ahead with firm gazes, their hands gripping their rifles tightly.

"Soldiers, the moment for our motherland and His Majesty the King to test us has arrived. Ahead lies Cape Roca. I demand that you, at all costs—even if it means filling the gap with your lives—occupy a stretch of coastline for the subsequent troops to land."

"Leave the enemy's coastal defense batteries and heavy firepower to the Navy; the remaining Portuguese military is your greatest enemy. I don't care if these Portuguese have discovered our landing plan or not; you must brave their fire to occupy a stretch of coast. Do you all understand?"

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

In reality, no pre-war mobilization was needed. When the officers of all levels shouted, "The moment for our motherland and His Majesty the King to test us has arrived," the Spanish soldiers were all filled with hot-blooded fervor; at that moment, they could not wait to immediately board the coast before them and use their own lives to occupy a large stretch of coastline for the subsequent troops to land.

Seeing that the morale was ready to be used, Lieutenant General Kaman no longer hesitated and immediately issued the order to begin the operation.

Following Lieutenant General Kaman's order, several transport ships began to approach the coast rapidly, and the soldiers on board also performed their final preparations, checking the bullets in their guns and the supplies they were carrying.

After the lead transport ship reached the shore, following the order of the officer leading the unit, a large number of soldiers began to pour out of the transport ship in a grand fashion, subsequently advancing toward the interior of the coast immediately.

Although most of the Portuguese Republic's main force was on the front line, there were still a small number of troops deployed along the coastline to prevent a sudden landing by the Spanish military.

But because the Portuguese Republic's troop strength was truly limited, and because Portugal's coastline was relatively long, only a small section of the coastline had defensive forces that could be considered stable.

Because of the importance of Cape Espichel and Cape Roca to Lisbon, these two locations did indeed have a significant number of Portuguese troops defending them.

When the Spanish fleet approached the coast and launched the amphibious landing, the Portuguese military also belatedly discovered the Spanish military's actions.

"Damn it, that's the Spanish military!" The Portuguese soldier leading the unit stationed in Sintra finally discovered the traces of the Spanish military on the distant coast, and he shouted with a terrified expression.

Although these troops were stationed in the deep rear of Lisbon, protecting the rear coast of Lisbon, this did not mean these troops were elite regular forces.

On the contrary, in order to coordinate with the British military, the vast majority of the Portuguese Republic's elite main forces were on the front line, and those troops that had been mobilized for a period of time and possessed basic combat capability after brief training were also deployed on the front line.

These troops deployed in the rear were either new recruits who had just been mobilized and had not yet received much training, or they were militias organized by the Portuguese government in various regions.

Although these militias were also part of the Portuguese military, they did not require overly frequent training, nor did they need to go to the front line to fight; they only needed to defend the rear of Portugal and some important cities.

It was precisely for this reason, against the backdrop of the Portuguese Republican government's forced conscription, that many Portuguese men chose to join the militia rather than be forcibly conscripted by the government as soldiers.

The unit stationed in Sintra was not a militia, but they were pure new recruits. The triangle formed by Sintra, Amadora, and Mafra covered more than half of the peninsula area where Lisbon was located. The number of Portuguese troops stationed in this area reached several thousand, and the defenders of the Lisbon area could also come to support at any time.

In the eyes of the Portuguese, such defensive strength was already quite stable. Amphibious landings were never an easy thing. Although the Portuguese military only had several thousand defenders, fortunately, Lisbon was not far from here; the troops could arrive in just a few hours on foot, and if they took carriages or cars via the road, the time could be shortened to about an hour.

Under these circumstances, let alone a portion of the Spanish military forcing a landing, even if Spain landed on the coast on a large scale, the Portuguese military should have been able to resist for a period of time.

Although the Portuguese government's fantasy was beautiful, when the landing battle truly broke out, the Portuguese soon understood what a military with true combat will was like.

In the early stages, a small batch of Spanish soldiers successfully landed on the beach, but when the subsequent main force landed, they were still met with a counterattack launched by the Portuguese military, which had reacted.

This was the moment for the vanguard troops to play their role. Although there were only about a thousand Spanish soldiers who initially landed on the coast, these soldiers did not retreat in the slightest; they engaged the arriving Portuguese soldiers without hesitation and managed to beat back several of the Portuguese military's offensives.

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

This was the confidence that naval superiority brought to the Spanish Army. Although the Army's artillery could not play much of a role in the landing battle, the artillery on the Navy's warships could still play a huge role.

More importantly, the range of the Navy's artillery reached several kilometers or even over ten kilometers, which actually meant that some Portuguese troops had already entered the range of the Spanish Navy.

Naturally, the Spanish Navy would not be polite to these Portuguese troops. Of course, because those vanguard troops were already engaged with the Portuguese military, the Navy also had to be careful when bombing the Portuguese troops, bombing as far away as possible to avoid friendly fire.

With the support of the Navy, the Spanish troops on the front line could occupy the coast unscrupulously. They did not need to worry about Portugal's heavy firepower weapons; they only needed to focus on seizing more territory for the main force in the rear.

As for the Portuguese military, these Portuguese soldiers, who could only be considered green recruits, faced the Spanish Navy's ship-borne artillery bombardment, which was like the destruction of heaven and earth, and several questions arose in their minds: Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?

The one bombing most joyfully was the Spanish flagship, the battleship *Dreadnought*. A full ten 305mm 35-caliber guns poured their firepower onto the Portuguese coastal defense batteries and stationed troops without restraint, and one coastal defense battery after another was destroyed under such bombardment.

Even coastal defense batteries with defensive facilities could not withstand the attack of such large-caliber artillery, let alone a group of Portuguese soldiers who were just green recruits.

As long as a company of troops was hit by such a shell, that company would basically lose its combat effectiveness. Even if they were just unfortunately affected by the sound waves of the shell's explosion, it would cause instant dizziness and a complete loss of brain function.

Under such violent bombardment, it was actually the soldiers closest to the Spanish military who were not affected at all.