As the Field Marshal of the Kingdom of Portugal, the supreme commander of the Eastern League and the military and political commander of the City of Evora, Bellsford did not care about how many residents of the city were already, or were preparing to be buried in the fire, and even felt secretly happy, because the deceased did not need to drink water or have no clear water quota, so the guards could hold on for a while.

But when Lieutenant Colonel Smith learned from the mouth that thousands of burn patients were lying on the beds of various hospitals, ambulance stations, and churches. They urgently needed a lot of clean water to clean the wounds to slow down the fire poison damage caused by white phosphorus to prevent internal bleeding or complications of liver necrosis, Bellsford couldn't hold back and began to become furious and furious.

The angry British general ran out of the coalition command post, hurriedly heading towards the Town Hall building less than two blocks apart. Along the way, Bellsford smelled a disgusting smell of burnt and the terrible calls of the victims in his ears, but he was so heartless that he ignored it.

As soon as he rushed into the city hall, Bellsford blurted out the more than a dozen municipal officials who were gathered here to discuss how to rescue refugees, and severely accused them of neglecting their duties, despising the safety hazards in the city, and indulging indiscriminately the opportunistic behavior of profiteers, which led to the uncontrollable fire today.

"You should be sent to the military court and all hanged at the top of Evora!" After throwing the last cursed harsh words, Bellsford turned around and left the city hall building, leaving a room of Portuguese officials who looked at each other in anger and dared not speak out.

It was not until the British general and his entourage walked away and could not see the figure. In the silent parliamentary hall, the well-dressed noble officials dared to stand up and faced him one after another, surrounded the mayor and the speaker, and complained in a verbal manner.

"The great Portuguese motherland is not a colony of the British, and the barbaric Bellsford has no right to interfere with our power!"

"Yes, I strongly ask the British to hand over all water sources to the city council for supervision, and the city hall will be responsible for the unified distribution."

"It is urgent to save our compatriots with clear water, rather than watching them suffer from torture in the hospital bed!"

"But I think the defeat of this war is decided, so we should consider how to surrender to the French commander rather than stick to it!"

...

Of course, General Bellsford, who had gone away, could not hear the condemnation of the Portuguese officials. Even if he heard it, he disdained and regarded the flies as buzzing. With the British general's unrestrained and arrogant temperament, he would surely ridicule the urban nobles of Evora who felt good, ridiculed the short-lived prosperous era of the Portuguese Kingdom, and claimed that even if they wanted to contribute the Portuguese Kingdom to the British Empire and become their colonies, Downing Street and Buckingham Palace would not accept these down-and-outs who were about to die.

After the anger in his heart tilted, Bellsford must return to reality and face the bad situation in front of him. Whether it is a simple humane position or to avoid a new round of internal riots, those patients who were burned had to be rescued, but the amount of water distribution must be limited, and only urban aristocrats, officers at all levels, British citizens and their families are given priority treatment targets.

However, the disaster never came alone. A few minutes later, Major Harding, who was inspecting the fire scene, ran over and reported a difficult disaster to the commander: While rescuing the burn patient, three military medical officers and several medical assistants were injured by sticky semi-coagulant substances attached to the wounds of the injured. Although there was no life danger, these people were no longer able to perform their doctor's duties in the short term.

"The despicable, shameless, and vicious Desai, who is Satan and a tyrant, should go to hell and reunite with the demons, rather than continue to do evil in the world!" Bellsford jumped for a long time and scolded, but it was meaningless. If insults and curses could work, Andrew Desai had been flooded with the saliva of countless Spanish and angry Prussians.

The dawn faded and the sky was bright. There was another rumbling sound of cannons from the eastern suburbs of Evora Fortress. After the French mortar cannon position stopped for about half an hour, it opened fire again. This time, after the bullet body dragging the burning lead exploded in the mid-air of the city, what was thrown out was not a demonic flame, but leaflets, falling in all corners of Evora City in a scattered manner.

...

In fact, Bellsford should thank the prodigal merchants in various oak processing sites in Evora. If they had not ignored the city's safety regulations and took risks to use various flammable wooden boards, resulting in an extremely fierce fire in the east of the city, which greatly exceeded the French's own expectations. Perhaps Desay had already ordered the mortar company to conduct the second or even the third round of arson-blast attack.

As the initiator of the fire in the east of the city, Desai and his artillery commander predicted the initial effect of the arson bomb. He only wanted to consume Evora's storage water source and burn a lot, instead of burning the city's military and civilians to artificially create a panic in war. After all, Desai is not a cold-blooded butcher who likes to kill and set fire. The ultimate goal of using the arson bomb is nothing more than to force the Evora's military and civilians to give up their fantasies and surrender as soon as possible.

Unexpectedly, this kind of arson bomb with rubber and white phosphorus seemed to be too powerful (the unknown fact of the oak poke processing site) actually caused the east side of the city to fall into a sea of ​​fire and rolling smoke. The crazy fire was burning with the help of the upward airflow, creating a terrifying scene of fire all over the city. Even more than ten kilometers away, people there could see countless huge rolling smoke, gathering into larger black smoke columns, carrying the souls of countless unjustly dead into the sky and scattering into the wilderness.

It was not until Major Mardan repeatedly urged him under the observation deck that Desai came to his senses. He bent over and told the adjutant to fire a yellow signal flare, causing the mortar company to carry out a round of "civilized bombardment" and distribute leaflets to persuade the surrender to the city.

"Tell General Bellsford and all the military and civilians of Evora: Duke Hruna is admiring your determination to resist and tenacious spirit with great kindness, and is willing to wait for you to accept the ultimatum with more patience... I hope that within 30 minutes, please decide whether to surrender. If you choose to surrender, two white flags will be hung on the southern wall; otherwise, half an hour later, our army will carry out a fierce and unbridgeable shelling from any direction outside the city... In addition, the kind Duke Hruna is heartbroken by the serious casualties of innocent civilians in the city of Evora and announced that it will temporarily give up the bombing of the southern part of the city. Therefore, please transfer the residents of the east, west and north of the city as soon as possible to avoid unnecessary accidental injuries..."

After listening to the open letter from Lieutenant Colonel Smith to all citizens, the furious Bellsford grabbed the announcement from his adjutant, tore it into pieces, threw it on the ground and trampled it on the ground, and shouted furiously: "Damn Desai, Damn Frenchman, this is a blackmail of force, a naked threat, I will never accept it, I will never!"

Bellsford then issued a crazy order: "Let the Eastern Fortress organize a counterattack and destroy the French military mortar positions."

Smith retreated silently and after learning the commander's order, he lowered his head indifferently without any attempt to pass the order. Even without the arson bomb attack carried out by the French army, Evora's energy gradually disappeared, and there was no other way except to surrender.

In the city, every moment, there will be extremely weak and dying of illness, and more and more people will die of water and thirst. Some people will suddenly fall down and die as they walk on the streets, and even the bodies are not buried. There are even tragedies of blood merchants in the black market.

On the streets of the east of the city a quarter of an hour ago, Smith had seen groups of people crying and howling, and the ruins of burning houses. The adjutant had already understood that General Bellsford was completely crazy, and he only wanted to let more than 70,000 soldiers and civilians in the city accompany him to bury the sea of ​​fire, and together with this thousand-year-old ancient city, turn it into ashes.

"Sorry, General, no one will execute your absurd order that is intended to commit suicide, because it violates the moral bottom line of law and religion. If you go out and take a look, you will know that no matter Portuguese, British, soldiers, civilians, no longer willing to stick to this city of complete despair." Smith raised his head and replied calmly. This was the first time he, as an adjutant, disobeyed the orders of the battlefield commanders in person.

"The one who violates the moral bottom line is Desay, the French!" Bellsford then threatened his adjutant, "I will give you one last chance to convey my combat orders to the Eastern Fortress, otherwise I will send you to the military court in person!"

"No, General, we will send you to the military court!" The loud voice of water conservancy engineer Richard Jack came from outside the door.

He pushed open the door and walked in with Times reporter John Gerard. The latter also accused Bellsford: "General, I will publish your illegal resolution in major newspapers and magazines in London."

Behind the two, there was a large group of people, blocking the door, mostly Evora City Council and municipal officials. Obviously, everyone came together to follow the example of the Magna Carta movement and force General Bellsford to palace.

Bellsford was angry that someone had forced himself to break into his office. He shouted loudly for the guards on duty outside the door, but no one responded. Several British officials led by Major Harding also began to squeeze into the middle of the protesters. As Lieutenant Colonel Smith foresaw, everyone refused to execute this absurd order that Bellsford seemed to commit suicide.

After the betrayal of the relatives, he felt completely desperate. Bellsford felt that he was too tired and needed to go back to bed and have a good rest. However, before that, the commander signed his name in a blank document. As for how the guys behind him would flatter Desai, it was their business and had nothing to do with him.

15 minutes later, in accordance with the "order signed by General Bellsford", coalition soldiers raised two white flags on the flagpole of the southern city wall, and the Evora military and civilians finally chose to surrender to the Desay Division. According to the agreement, the French army will also provide necessary security guarantees for the personal lives and private property of more than 70,000 Evora military and civilians.

However, on the 27th, the war did not count as officially ended. According to ancient European practice, as the commander of the defeated side, General Bellsford must go outside the city and personally present his own sword to the winner, General Desay, the commander of the French army.

At this time, Bellsford was still sleeping soundly in his bedroom. Perhaps he felt guilty in his heart that the coalition officers and municipal officials who participated in the surrender were unwilling to wake him up. After understanding the situation, Desai was convinced. He waved his hand and asked the surrender ceremony to wait for it. However, before this, the fortresses of Evora had to open the doors, and the guns inside had to turn the heads inward, and were under the strict guarding of the French advance battalion.

It was not until noon on July 29, and the 15th day after the French siege, that General Bellsford finally woke up.
Chapter completed!