On July 26, 1139, the son of Henry, the Count of Portugal, Enriquez, after careful planning, finally won a great victory against the pagans (Moors). On this day, the nickname "Alfonso" nicknamed "Conqueror" walked to the city of Evora, announced in public that he had become king, and then crowned himself as the first Portuguese king.

For hundreds of years, every July 26th, the people around Evora would spontaneously organize and gather near the walls where Alfonso I swore as the king of Portugal. They would hold various religious or folk commemorative ceremonies to commemorate the great conqueror, the first monarch of the Portuguese Kingdom.

Now, the residents of Evora City seem to have forgotten this glorious history hundreds of years ago, and the various clear water supply points in the city are where they gather together.

"The city of Evora will eventually fall slowly without much battle with the complete despair of the entire military and civilians!" This is the battlefield correspondent of the Times' Eastern Alliance Army in Portugal. John Gerrard truthfully recorded in his "Peninsula War Diary":

"On July 15, 1810, the day of the French Revolutionary Anniversary, more than 20,000 French troops, assisted by 30,000 black slaves who were liberated by the Duke of Hruna, used inhumane methods to drive out more than 30,000 Portuguese refugees and captured soldiers, and dug up a fortification surrounding the entire city's outer periphery, including more than 30 kilometers of infantry trenches, two chest walls, tall observation decks, and countless deer forts and fences to resist horses.

What is particularly terrifying is that French engineers have continuously filled tens of thousands of pressure-sensitive landmines in the vast grassland outside the city fortress, completely surrounding the ancient city, as well as nearly 80,000 urban residents, refugees from all over the country, and coalition soldiers who live in this city.

However, what really made Evora a hell on earth was the thirst offensive personally drafted by the Duke of Hruna. With his order, thousands of French engineers drove more than 30,000 civilian workers and the same number of blacks, not only blocked and cut off the water sources of the rivers in the upper reaches of the city, exposing the dry riverbed to the scorching sun, but also dug dozens of huge deep wells in the low-lying areas outside the city, destructively plundering the underground water sources of the city's city and introducing them into an artificial lake.

Every day before dusk, I had a bad habit. I climbed to the spire of the Cathedral of San Francisco, and through the monocular in my hand, I watched countless French soldiers jump into the clear artificial lake with their bodies and watched them play and play in the water with fear. Although the two places were about 4 miles apart, I could feel their joy and laughter, but the French soldiers could not imagine my throat that was thirsty and about to smoke due to severe water deficiency."

On July 17, the early morning of the third day of the siege, General Bellsford, the commander of the coalition forces, and jointly issued a notice to all the military and civilians of the city: In view of the difficult situation of the French army siege, in order to adapt to the long-term persistence of the city fortress, a "Interim Measures for the Management of Food and Water Sources in Evora in Wartime" was specially introduced.

This regulation allows urban residents and fugitive refugees to retain food for one month, and the rest of the food will be handed over to the city hall, and the government will purchase it at half price on the market; in addition, the livestock raised by civilians must be sold to the army, and no one can continue to feed it. In fact, on the night of the purchase of various livestock, whether cattle, horse, mules, and donkeys are slaughtered by butchers, it becomes a delicacy for the guardians to enjoy.

The most core part of this provisional regulation is of course the strict control of drinking water sources. According to regulations, the open-air fountains, bathhouses, cafes, and water diversion channels in the city of Evora were stopped and water was strictly prohibited. Especially the more than 100 deep wells in the city and the public and private water tanks, they soon became a military important place guarded by a large number of armed soldiers. Anyone who wants to enter the water source must hold a license personally approved and issued by General Bellsford.

The initial notice stipulated that each resident could receive 2.5 pints of water per day according to the head of the person (in the English system, 1 pint is about 1 liter). At this time, although the water volume is started to be monitored, it does not affect the public's livelihood of cooking and daily drinking water. Just don't think about using clean water to wash clothes, water flowers, or clean the house;

However, two days later, the regulation was revised and the genital water volume of residents was reduced to 1.5 pints. Therefore, many citizens simply gave up making fires at noon and instead relied on eating and storing dry food to assist in clean water to live. Although the reduction in water supply ratio makes life a little sad, it is not insurmountable;

On the tenth day of the French siege, that is, the third day after more than 30,000 refugees and prisoners of war were driven into the city of Evora by French soldiers, in the latest round of notices, the territorial water volume of each resident suddenly dropped to about 0.5 pints, only one-fifth of the initial announcement. Even the clear water volume obtained by the soldiers guarding the city was less than 1 pint.

On July 25, John Gerard interviewed water conservancy engineer Richard Jack, who asked the latter directly, "According to the current supply of clean water, how long can the city of Evora last?"

The water conservancy engineer who was drunk by a few bottles of whiskey barely opened his eyes. He sniffed the pungent smell of alcohol and kept smirking. When he repeatedly questioned the Times reporter, he murmured to himself: "In 30 days, if there are still 1,000 people who survive, it is the greatest miracle God has given to the city; 20 days later, 10,000 survivors need to muster up the courage and try to drink their own urine; so 10 days, perhaps seven days later, the residents of this city will die of thirst."

John Gerrard's heart sank, and the city's water shortage was far beyond his worst imagination. He turned around and rushed to the coalition command to ask for an interview with General Bellsford, but was blocked by the guards outside the door. The British war correspondent was told that the general was unwell and would not meet anyone in the short term, nor would he accept an interview with Times reporters.

But in fact, at this time, Bellsford was kneeling in front of the city bishop, repenting to God for the failure of the night attack last night. Under Major Harding's strong persuasion, Bellsford finally agreed to a combat plan proposed by the staff officer, changing the original breakthrough plan to send an 800-strong raid team (mainly British troops), carrying 1,600 pounds of black gunpowder. It was planned to secretly lurk out of the city at midnight on the 24th. The main goal was to blow up the river dam several kilometers above the city; if possible, the raid team would destroy a group of deep water shafts excavated by the French outside the city.

In order to cooperate with the raid, Bellsford ordered Portuguese General Paul Coelho (who has been released back to the city by the French) to atone for his merits and command more than 10,000 Portuguese soldiers (including some militias) to launch a series of feint attacks in various directions such as the southeast, west and north of the city. The goal is to advance at least 1 kilometer without caring about the cost of casualties, and strive to attract French firepower to cooperate with the secret operations of the British raid team.

The raid officially began at 11:00 that night.

More than 10,000 Portuguese soldiers were driven away by the commander behind them. They trembled and cried, and rushed to the land of death. When the first two rows of soldiers stepped on the first batch of mines as scheduled, the horrific scene of flesh and blood in the sky and the remaining limbs flying across the sky scared everyone out of their courage, and they threw down their weapons and turned around to retreat. Although the supervisor was shouting desperately and demanding their subordinates to shoot and kill every deserter immediately, everyone, including the British army, collectively refused this order of massacre of innocent comrades that violated humanity.

Only to the east of the city, the Portuguese army led by General Paul Coello himself bravely broke through the French minefield after paying a heavy price of more than 800 people. They struggled to jump over the fort, bypassed the horse-resisting horses, and attacked the defensive infantry trenches in one go. However, the good luck of General Paul Coello and this Portuguese army also ended here.

Under the guidance of the flares that the French artillery continued to fire, the Portuguese officers and soldiers who had nowhere to hide were trapped in the trenches. The dense spike oak forest made them unable to move, and became an excellent target for French soldiers to shoot at will. Only less than 1,000 of the 3,000 people were captured due to injuries or turned around and fled to the fortress. All the other 2,000 officers and soldiers, including General Paul Coelo, were killed.

Because the feint attack in other directions ended in failure, General Coelho's unilateral sacrifice became meaningless. After Major Harding's raid team lost one-quarter of its troops, they had to give up the raid plan.

In this nearly suicide operation, the coalition officers and soldiers suffered a total of nearly 5,000 casualties, of which about half were minor and serious. At some special purpose, French soldiers who were driving a large cart with rescue medical flags and drove a large cart were also given to more than 600 coalition wounded soldiers captured by Evora Fortress at noon the next day. Since many people were broken by landmines, they needed to undergo an amputation immediately. At the scene of the surgery, wound healing and wounded soldiers, etc., they consumed dozens of times the amount of water that ordinary people had to...

At this point, the entire sky of Evora began to permeate the war-weariness of pessimism and disappointment. Even Major Harding did not dare to propose a risky suggestion of surprise attacks or breaking through. The city has been besieged by the French army for more than ten days, and the water source is severely scarce. In addition, the reckless raids caused heavy casualties in officers and soldiers. All of this made the morale of the army extremely depressed, and the people's hearts became increasingly floating and uneasy.

The Portuguese, who had always been known for their tough personality and kindness, could not bear it. Citizens took to the streets and gathered near various reservoirs and water supply points. At first, they were just begging, hoping that the soldiers would give more water, but were sternly rejected. The angry people began to insult and curse the damn British. Soon, some people in the restless crowd threw stones and hard and hard food at the guards.

In order to prevent citizens from being provoked by French spies and causing large-scale riots, the officer immediately ordered the soldiers to use bayonets and stocks to drive away the crowd. After confessing to God, General Bellsford became tough again. He abandoned the city hall and ordered the whole city to implement military control martial law. Before the time of supplying water, more than five people were not allowed to gather in public places. Those who refuse to obey would be imprisoned or executed immediately.

In addition, Bellsford once again significantly reduced the water supply rations for urban residents, with each citizen 0.2 pints per day (about a small can of water), 0.4 pints for soldiers, 0.5 pints for officers at all levels, British citizens and municipal officials.

On the afternoon of July 26, just as the Times reporter climbed the spire of the Man's Bone Church and looked at the French soldiers playing happily in the artificial lake with envy expressions, a large-scale civil riot broke out in the clear water distribution point on the circular square in the center of Evora.

Dissatisfied with General Bellsford's cut of the city residents' clear water quota without the consent of the city hall, thousands of citizens collectively shouted the slogan "I want to drink water, don't die of thirst" and rushed towards dozens of city firefighting trains (manpowered water pump trucks) loading clean water. The soldiers guarding the train were immediately panicked. One of the soldiers stepped forward and spread their arms to try their best to stop the citizens from fighting for water sources, but were pushed to the ground by the crazy crowd. Countless feet stepped on the soldier and trampled him to death.

After witnessing the tragic situation of their comrades, more than a hundred other soldiers also lost their minds. Regardless of the advice of the officers in charge, they raised their weapons and fired violently at the crowd. After the gunshots, dozens of citizens fell in pools of blood, and the blood gurgled slowly flowed on the pebbles on the circular square like a small river.

Thousands of citizens were bizarrely angry, and the pain of losing their relatives prompted them to forget about the competition for water sources. Instead, they rushed to more than a hundred soldiers not far away, vowing to strangle the men who killed their relatives. A large-scale turmoil became more and more intense... Half an hour later, when 3,000 fully armed soldiers were urgently transferred to the city square to participate in the armed suppression, the riots of thousands of citizens were gradually subsided.

That night, John Gerard recalled in his battlefield diary: "This is an unforgettable massacre. The corpse transporting vehicles coming and going sent at least 800 bodies away. Countless injured people were lying in the arms of relatives and friends, covering the bleeding wounds tightly, and moaning in a low voice...

From then on, everyone at the scene, including those British soldiers and Portuguese soldiers who came to suppress the chaos, began to cry and wail heart-wrenchingly, feeling like the end of the world has arrived...

Whether soldiers or civilians, they are victims, and it has become meaningless to talk about who is and who is not. The only question is whether our General Bellsford accepts the ultimatum sent by the French and takes the initiative to disarm the city; or continue to stick to this city that is about to die and let more citizens die for it?"

What disappointed many people was that General Bellsford, whose heart was as hard as granite, did not choose to surrender. As the highest military and political officer of Evora, he warned everyone: "As long as a breath remains, we will never surrender to the French! No, never!" The only change is that Bellsford ordered the ban on coalition soldiers. The additional water distribution of officers at all levels and city officials was as high as other civilians, each person had only 0.2 pints of water supply per day.

After hearing the vows of the British general, John Gerald was also desperate. He witnessed with his own eyes that this ancient civilization city, which was originally vibrant, was transformed into a abandoned city trapped by thirst. The citizens were full of misery and the sound of suffering was endless. Every moment, the land was thirsty and dying of illness could not be counted... "Evora was once a beautiful city, but at this time, there were devastated, and corpses were everywhere, becoming a living hell on earth!"

But what the Times war correspondent was unexpected was that the scene presented on July 26 was not the real hell of the city of Evora, and its tragic fate was just beginning...
Chapter completed!