When I arrived at Tolosa City, I hoped that the baggage team would stay overnight outside the city, in an abandoned medieval castle. It was backed by mountains and was surrounded by rivers on both sides. Only the city of Tolosa, 500 meters away, is easy to defend but difficult to attack, and it is difficult for rebels to attack.

But my suggestion was unanimously opposed by the soldiers, and everyone strongly demanded to enter the city for fun. Now, the officers do not support me. They think that damn Spain is the wealth of the general, the ruins of the officers and the hell of the soldiers, so they must enjoy it well before they are sent to the ruins and fall into the hell.

At night, what I was worried about happened. Two soldiers disappeared in Tolosa City, and should be said to have been kidnapped by rebels. After receiving my report, the local garrison sent people to search for it for a while and announced that the situation would be over. There was no result.

A French lieutenant in charge of finding people told me that this is the norm. Whenever a baggage team is kidnapped, it means that on the road ahead, a large number of Basque rebels who are not afraid of death will soon come to trouble the French baggage team. The lieutenant kindly advised me that he must stay in Tolosa City, waiting for other passing troops before joining the ranks.

Damn Spain, damn Basque rebels.

I began to regret it a little, not because of the danger brought by the rebels, but because they caused trouble to my itinerary, which made me unable to arrive at Hruna in time to visit General Desay before December.

I still accepted the lieutenant's kindness, and in fact I had to do so, because the officers and soldiers of the baggage team were frightened and worried that the unfortunate encounter between the former commander and the two companions would come to them again.

For several days, we were honestly staying in Tolosa City, and on the other side, the rebel guerrillas kept "surveying" outside the city wall. It was obvious that these people had learned the details of the baggage team from the mouths of the captured soldiers. They were monitoring us, like wild wolves in the bushes, quietly waiting for their prey.

Fortunately, the food reserves in Tolosa City were quite abundant, and the soldiers did not have the opportunity to announce their private bags. The turnaround appeared on the fifth day. On November 25, 120 cavalry and 600 infantry led by Colonel Santona came from Victoria. Their mission was to protect our baggage team.

Thank God, we finally gathered a reorganized infantry regiment and a company of cavalry, so the baggage team continued to set off. As usual, I chose to hand over the command of the baggage team to Colonel Santona. He smiled and didn't care much.

This crazi and meticulous colonel focused more on two large trucks of the baggage team. As the interim commander, I knew the secrets of the two large trucks, and the military pay for troops stationed in various parts of Victoria was estimated to be as high as 5 million francs.

Colonel Santona also told all the French in the city that in the Battle of O'Connor on November 19, 30,000 French troops led by Marshal Sirte destroyed 53,000 Western troops led by General Aresaga. More than 4,000 Western troops were killed and 15,000 were captured, while the French army lost only more than 1,700.

That night, the wine in Tolosa was swept away. Not only French soldiers, but also French immigrants and merchants, as well as Spanish subjects who were loyal to King Joseph.

Thanks to the protection of the Santona Colonel's troops, the baggage team was much more at ease along the way, so we could barely cheer up and enjoy the scenery along the way. Soon, our mood returned to irritability and anxiety. There were many hills on both sides of the Limestone Avenue, and we could see the guerrilla contact stations and observation points on each hill, and the more contact points we walked forward, the more contact points we would go.

The guerrillas often reconnaissance on the main road, and immediately fled as soon as they saw the large army. When the troops passed, they returned to their original position. A soldier who had fallen 50 steps down was almost certainly going to be attacked. The guerrillas had a great psychological impact on us, because several unlucky soldiers disappeared in the woods just to collect firewood and boil water.

Colonel Santona issued an order to other officers, requiring the troops to keep moving forward as a whole, because any person who pulls the team is at risk of being attacked by guerrillas. From the first day of entering Spanish territory, this strange way of marching has been with us. After the troops suffered casualties, Colonel Santona issued a cruel order that no one could search for missing soldiers. We understand this approach, because reckless actions would put more innocent soldiers in danger.

Every evening, the colonel can bring us to the campsite in time, a town or abandoned castle with good protection measures, instead of sleeping in the wilderness. The perfect fortifications made the rebels' several sneak attacks failed. Except for the dead rebels, other prisoners, both men, women, young and old, were ordered by the colonel to hang them all on the same big tree. Sometimes such revenge must continue to the nearby villages.

After passing through deserted or burnt villages and paths, all the recruits who came here for the first time will be covered with a shadow. The land covered with crops has disappeared, leaving only dry wasteland. I believe the recruits are already regretting that they should not have enlisted in the army, left French paradise, and reported to the Spanish hell in a hurry.

Although I don't like Spain and the Spanish, the architectural style here is indeed very beautiful, including ancient Romans, Arabs, medieval times, and French libraries. Moorsa is a beautiful small town, but that happened two days ago, because the town refused to pay taxes and supported the rebels, which had been completely destroyed by the French army.

We saw all the tombs of churches and monasteries being dug out because there were rumors that there were a large number of treasures. On the road and in the nearby fields, there were corpses of murdered Spanish people, the doors were forcibly opened, and the streets were covered with torn women's clothes and damaged furniture.

No one was interested in a ruin, and we even refused to have lunch near Moorsa. We requested a temporary rest until we climbed several mountains in a row and felt obviously exhausted. Colonel Santona was allowed to use temporary military rations, both officers and soldiers, two black bread each, plus half a pound of canned ham, and no wine.

This canned ham, produced from the Dominion of Hruna, known as "Spam Lunch Meat", is extremely delicious. The soldiers praised it as the most delicious meat product in the world. Some experienced veterans also burned the bright red lunch meat into a paste and spread it directly on the black bread. In addition, it also sprinkled with salt and raw onions. It seemed to have a better taste, but I didn't try it.

Since the launch of Spam lunch meat, it has become a military product that has been well received by soldiers from all over the world. It can be opened and eaten immediately within a two-year shelf life. Unfortunately, Hruna's production is too small and the price is not expensive, with 2.4 francs per can (2 pounds). Ordinary officers are only assigned one can every two weeks. As for soldiers, they only have the opportunity to taste Pam lunch meat when marching or fighting.

...

The following is a short story added by this lieutenant colonel:

However, after half a year after I arrived in Hruna and became the chief engineer of the Desai Division, I was extremely disgusted with this endless damn deliciousness. Whenever the troops were in a hurry to march or during a battle, the soldiers had to start stewing, fried, boiling, and braised Spam under the supervision of the sergeant. According to General Desai, 2 pounds of Spam can provide soldiers with 3,500 calories of heat energy and sufficient daily salt intake.

The so-called big card, heat energy and other terms originated from Dr. Kava obtaining the academic report of the academician of the Paris Academy of Sciences. I briefly understand it. Compared with the real canned lunch meat supplied by the Desai division, the Spam lunch meat from foreign friendly forces is extremely unscrupulous. In order to reduce costs, the so-called lunch meat is simply a hodgepodge of animal offal and drainage. It is sold to the public for 12 riyals. I suspect that the overall cost is less than 1.2 riyals.

...

In the next three days, we chose the Royal City, Belgra, and Salina as our campsite. Although the itinerary was very difficult and the dangers of the guerrillas were always there. But the soldiers were properly distributed every day. We cannot say that we felt good, but so far, we have not encountered any major difficulties, and only seven soldiers were missing or killed.

On November 30, we reached our first destination, Victoria City.

Victoria is definitely a beautiful large city. The sunshine on the square is very beautiful, and the whole architectural style is amazing. There are many balconies and windows near the square, because the traditional bullfight is held in the square, and the square is surrounded by new buildings. The old town is built on a hill with only three streets that cross the city. In addition, the countless paths can only be described as stairs. Although the Spanish forced prisoners to clean day and night, the paths were still very dirty. In fact, these are futile, because in addition, there are many areas in the old town that emit an unbearable smell of sewage.

Colonel Santona, who completed his mission, said goodbye to us and also brought two trucks of military pay.

In the next two days, the soldiers were taking the allowance to search for flowers and flowers in the city, but I kept visiting the local garrison dispatcher to ask if any troops were ordered to rush to Zaragoza. During this period, I met several good friends, such as Inspector Bepie and General Tabert. They were very busy during the day and had time only at night.

Three days later, another baggage team arrived in Victoria from the French border, and their destination was also Zaragoza, so I invited us to go on the road together, but I followed the advice of Inspector Bepie and General Tabert, but did not agree.

Sure enough, in the afternoon of the same day, unfortunate news came from Miranda Town, 15 kilometers away. The invading convoy of supplies was suddenly attacked by a large number of guerrilla bandits on a deserted path near the town. The supply vehicles were plundered or set fired. Only 100 of the 300 soldiers survived, and some were also covered with gunshot or knife wounds.

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Chapter completed!