In the Battle of Sabuco at the end of August, although the main force of the British and Portuguese coalition forces achieved a tactical victory in the nearly perfect defensive terrain, they also taught the damn Frenchman a lesson from the high ridges. But in the end, it was just a "Pyros-like victory" that was not worth the loss. After paying the 11,000 casualties, Wellington only blocked the French on the northern front from Sabuco, and planned to completely defeat the Portuguese army first, but the strategic vision of counterattacking the Desai army was finally shattered.

As for the Massena Legion, the losses were also heavy. The number of casualties of officers and soldiers was close to 20,000. The most serious situation was the Sixth Army commanded by Marshal Ney. This French-army was the first to participate in the attack and was the first to be pursued by the coalition forces. By the end of the entire battle, the number of troops in the Sixth Army was reduced by 50%, and it had almost been crippled.

But despite the huge casualties, the 40,000 French troops compared with the 32,000 coalition forces still had an advantage in numbers. In addition, under the strong request of the chief of staff of the Spanish Legion, Marshal Victor had to give 6,000 French troops originally stationed on the southern front of Portugal to Marshal Massena's Portuguese army. Including the thousands of Dutch and Swiss mercenaries recruited by Madrid, by late September, Marshal Massena's troops had recovered to 52,000.

At the same time, the coalition forces commanded by Wellington were difficult to replenish. After hearing that Lisbon had completely surrendered to Madrid, some soldiers from southern Portugal chose to flee privately, and even the most cruel military discipline was difficult to work. In mid-September, the number of British and Portuguese coalitions dropped to about 30,000, including 16,000 British and 10,000 Portuguese troops, and 3,000 Spanish resistance troops in exile (from Rodrigo Fortress).

If the Massena Legion, after obtaining a large number of new forces, can regroup and rely on its absolute advantage in number and firepower to launch a series of fierce offensives against the multinational coalition where the morale of the army began to disintegrate, perhaps a few days later, General Wellington would have to give up the defensive battlefield in front of him and choose to carry out a general retreat to the Atlantic coast.

However, the two accidents happened in time to save Wellington and his army.

The first thing originated from the internal strife of the Portuguese Legion. After the Battle of Sabuco, Marshal Ney ran into the command post and whispered to accuse General Renier's second army of late, resulting in more than half of his sixth army casualties. The son of the irritable beer barrel merchant even spoke sarcastically and ridiculed the Italian lustful (Marcena) at the most intense moment of the frontline battle, and he still rejoices in the daytime in the command with several Portuguese ladies, which seriously damaged the morale of the army.

Faced with Marshal Ney's angry accusations, General Renier kept bowing his head and making no defense. After experiencing the "General Destin Incident", his habits became extremely silent. In fact, General Renier knew very well that Marshal Ney's various anger was not directed at him, but the commander of the Legion who liked women and was greedy for money.

Sure enough, after hearing Ney's unscrupulous provocative words, Massena slapped the table and glared at each other. They had profound conflicts since the beginning of the Portuguese Legion, and now they are constantly intensifying. Soon, the two men developed from adding up bad words to the point of drawing sword duels. Finally, the generals on the side barely pulled the two marshals away, thus avoiding a farce in the army.

However, the matter did not end there. Just as Marshal Massena re-planned his combat mission and was preparing to launch a thunder attack on the weak coalition forces, Marshal Ney led the Sixth Army, which had just been replenished with troops, and moved westward without authorization. His excuse was to collect food and fodder in nearby villages and replenish military supplies, and refused to implement the offensive orders issued by the commander.

In addition, the Eighth Army was suddenly ill due to the sudden attack of mental illness of General Juno (this was an old problem that fell after the first Portuguese war in 1808). The army was headless. General Renier's second army, supported by a single tree, was obviously unable to break through the 30,000 coalition defense line. As a last resort, Marshal Massena had no choice but to give up the combat target just planned. He ordered the Portuguese army to retreat backwards and retreat 10 kilometers away from the coalition defense line to rest again, and instructed Madrid to provide supplies for supplies. In addition, the commander also wrote a letter to Emperor Napoleon in Paris, strongly demanding the replacement of Marshal Ney who refused to obey the command.

In this way, the absurd behavior of the two French marshals made Wellington survive an imminent and major crisis. Soon, with the mediation of British Foreign Secretary Richard, the London Parliament and the Downing Street Cabinet urgently sent 5,000 soldiers to the British Expeditionary Force, some of whom were from Scotland and the other were drawn from the Marines of the Mediterranean Fleet.

The arrival of some reinforcements and the transport of military supplies finally increased the morale of the coalition forces. Taking advantage of the French retreating to the mountain pass, Wellington also rectified his army on the spot. At this time, a victory news from a friendly army greatly boosted the morale of the army.

In the Third Portuguese War, the biggest enemy faced by the Massena Legion was not the coalition dominated by the British, but the hunger caused by the lack of food. Although in private, Wellington once complained that some Portuguese were unwilling to obey the coalition's orders and gave up their homes, burned barns, and firmly implemented the policy of strengthening the walls and clearing the fields. But in fact, the various grains collected by the French army along the Northern Front, such as barley, rye, wheat, corn, potatoes, livestock, etc., could only meet the needs of one-fifth of French soldiers. In addition, there were more than 40,000 soldiers and nearly 20,000 livestock (war horses and pack horses), and they could only rely on the food supply convoys in Spain.

Therefore, from Madrid, Salakaman, to Rodrigo Fortress, the supply transportation line directly pointed to the northern foothills of Sabuco, becoming the lifeline of the transportation of tens of thousands of French soldiers. This road, which is more than 600 kilometers long, is long and fragile. Along the way, there are mountains and undulating roads, and even light-armed soldiers feel it is difficult to move, let alone the heavy and slow baggage convoy.

In the early stages of the Portuguese war, a subordinate of General Wellington, the commander of the Portuguese guerrillas who were in charge of the ** command of the war, Colonel Trant (the British Portuguese) rarely took a frontal offensive against the elite Massena Legion. He and his guerrillas followed closely behind the French army like shepherds, occasionally causing minor trouble to the enemy from the side and rear wings. They never intended to take unnecessary combat risks, but just stayed outside a relatively safe distance and gained the advantage of the scattered French army.

Once the French army reacted and carried out siege and intercept, Colonel Trant and his troops would be like flexible groundhogs, breaking them into pieces, hiding into the mountains and ridges. With the natural geographical advantages of the locals, they would go around in circles with the French invaders in the dense primeval forest until the exhausted French soldiers had to retreat to the main roads and passes to garrison.

In addition to harassing the French army along the way, the Portuguese guerrillas were also responsible for "cleaning up" local residents who were unwilling to move, including stealing the farmers' food and livestock, burning barns, polluting water sources, and even shooting Portuguese compatriots who dared to resist the grain collection team in the name of treason. Of course, these brutal crimes ultimately came to the head of the French-army and had nothing to do with the just coalition.

When the French main force confronted Sabko with the coalition forces, Colonel Trant, who had always pursued the highest combat, gradually turned his attention to the French's baggage convoy. Starting from the end of August, in just three weeks, the Portuguese guerrillas, led by Colonel Trant, fought more than 10 consecutive times. They successfully ambushed at least 8 French baggage teams in the mountain jungle, killing and injuring thousands of French soldiers (battery soldiers), and successfully snatched away or burned a large number of food and military supplies.

However, as a large number of French reinforcements were transferred from Spain to the Portuguese battlefield, Marshal Massena immediately dispatched more regular troops to escort the baggage convoy to protect the life of his legion, making the Portuguese guerrillas extremely difficult to break the tactics. Colonel Trant and others also repeatedly fell into the ambush circle carefully designed by the French army, and the troops suffered heavy losses. The Portuguese guerrillas commanded by Colonel Trant once dropped from more than 10,000 to less than 4,000.

One has increased and the other has declined. After the French garrison on the border between Portugal and Western Portugal was transferred to the Portuguese battlefield for a long time, the Spanish guerrillas, commanded by Brigadier General Dias and Colonel Sanchez, became active again. They kept numbing a small number of French-army troops outside the Rodrigo Fortress day and night, ambushed the French baggage convoys entering and leaving the fortress, and even successfully captured a French general, sweeping away the gloom and bad luck that brought to the Spanish resistance troops after the Battle of Caishi Town.

After learning of the above situation, Colonel Trant quickly sent people to contact the commander of the Spanish guerrillas, Brigadier General Dias, and requested joint combat. Soon, Colonel Sanchez led a Spanish guerrilla team composed of 10,000 soldiers to secretly sneak into the Portuguese border. They cooperated with the 4,000 Portuguese guerrillas commanded by Colonel Trant, with a total strength of 14,000. At this time, Marshal Massena mistakenly believed that the Portuguese guerrillas behind him had only less than 4,000 people.

On September 15, 1810, Colonel Trant and Colonel Sanchez learned that a huge French baggage team was sailing from the border between the West and Portugal to Sabco. The convoy carried as many as 400 large trucks of food, fodder and ammunition. In order to ensure the safety of road trips, about 2,000 regular French troops and the same number of Dutch mercenaries (summoned by Madrid) were responsible for escorting the baggage team along the way.

The guerrillas first cleaned up the various mountain villages that the baggage team had to pass during the march. They forced the residents to relocate the depths of the jungle unconditionally and tried their best to destroy the roads and bridges. This made the French scouts unable to find villagers familiar with the local road conditions as a guide, and the French army, carrying 400 large trucks, slowly advancing on the rugged path, crawling speed like a snail.

At this time, the French commander of the baggage team seemed to have a premonition of danger and was pressing towards him step by step. He sent several messengers to send emergency rescue requests to Marshal Massena, hoping that the commander would send more troops to escort the baggage team. However, Marshal Massena, who was angry with Marshal Ney, disagreed with this. In the eyes of this commander, the 3,000 French regular troops were enough to encircle and wipe out the 4,000 Portuguese guerrillas who were lacking training and were depressed, so it was not worth mentioning at all, nor would it send troops to travel long distances. Because these soldiers were busy collecting military rations in nearby towns, they also had to accumulate wealth and beautiful women for Massena himself.

After late September, two commanders of the Spanish-Portugal coalition forces decided to lead 14,000 guerrillas to defend along the Estrera Mountains, spreading the net of heaven and earth, just waiting for the French to jump into their pre-set traps.

On September 27, when the French army's baggage team was about to arrive at Guadal, they were blocked by the guerrillas of the two countries, who were waiting for battle there, and the two sides started a fierce battle on the outskirts of the city. At the beginning of the battle, the French commander's heart was actually a hot-headed mistake that drove the Dutch mercenaries who were not strong in combat and were extremely exhausted to take on the vanguard of the troops and launched an attack on the enemy in front of them.

Soon, the weak attack of the Dutch soldiers failed, and some war-weary foreign mercenaries even turned against the Portuguese, which immediately caused the French army on the other side to be in chaos and the morale of the army. Although the French commander quickly sent a supervising team to barely stabilize its defensive positions and repelled the counterattack of the guerrillas several times, the initiative on the battlefield was completely lost.

By the morning of the next day, the French army, which was in a state of persistence, had lost nearly a thousand people. The coachmen of the baggage convoy who did not participate in the battle sneaked away while the darkness left 400 unmanned vehicles parked on the battlefield. The battle lasted until nearly 4 pm. The remaining French troops in the encirclement were less than half of the original number, and they were almost all of them.

The French soldiers who were still alive were lying on the muddy land, looking exhausted and hungry. Although the hundreds of large trucks behind the soldiers were full of food, they could not make fire under the sniper of the riflemen, and could only be tortured by the terrible scenes in front of them. Many people instead envy the dead comrades around them, because the latter had escaped the pain of the world.

After dusk on September 28, the desperate French commander finally ordered the surrender to the guerrillas of the two countries. More than 400 large trucks loaded with food and fodder and military supplies became enemy spoils intact. The French army was killed and seriously injured and injured at 1,800, and another 1,500 were reduced to prisoners of war. In the entire supply convoy, only more than 50 people jumped out of the encirclement of the guerrillas of the two countries.

Soon, when the news of the battle from Guadal reached the coalition command, Wellington and his generals were immersed in the joy of victory. Because this was the first time since the Portuguese war, the coalition forces encircled and annihilated the French-army, which was reorganized by the brigade.

A few days later, when Colonel Trant and Colonel Sanchez's joint guerrillas went around and went to the rear camp of the coalition forces, the soldiers of the Red Shirt, who had always been arrogant and arrogant, actually walked out of the barracks under the leadership of General Wellington. They lined up neatly on the road and gave the heroic army the highest honor with warm applause.

Unfortunately, the joy in front of me was always too short. Just when Wellington returned to the headquarters, the intelligence department sent an emergency secret letter saying that the approximately 26,000 Catalan senators commanded by Marshal Desay, carrying a large number of artillery and supplies, had left the military camp in the northern suburbs of Lisbon, and was heading along the Tejo River (called the Tagus River in Spain) towards the second line of defense of the coalition forces.

The situation suddenly fell. Everyone was still singing and laughing. Everyone suddenly became silent. Everyone's faces looked extremely ugly, and waves of haze surged in their hearts. From General Bellsford in the prisoner-of-war camp to General Hill on the sickbed, the British Empire had lost two senior commanders and tens of thousands of coalition officers and soldiers in the face of Marshal Desay's offensive.

After hearing this, Colonel Sanchez, who had just bragged to each other, immediately put down the wine in his hand. He stood up and said goodbye to General Wellington, saying that the Spanish guerrillas had completed the joint combat mission and must return to the border between Spain and Portugal immediately. The real reason was that the Spanish colonel was determined to be unwilling to fight with the Devil Desai army, because this was a real lesson obtained by more than 100,000 Spanish undeads or captured people. Moreover, the Cadiz government also strictly prohibited its subordinate troops from proactively provoking Desai.
Chapter completed!