On the third floor of the city hall, Captain Carls reported the results of the interrogation to Colonel Desay. Among the 32 captured municipal officials, including Parafos, there were 8 members of the Military Commission. As for the other five Military Commission members, they either recuperated at home due to illness or were on the front line to defend. The captured soldiers were locked in the basement of the city hall, ordinary officials were concentrated in the conference room on the second floor, while all members of the Military Commission were detained separately.

"How many of the captured Military Commission members are willing to sign a surrender order?" Desai continued.

"There are only two, and the other two are still hesitating. The last four, including General Parafos, have extremely firm attitudes." The former spy of the Toulouse Police Department was a little helpless because Colonel Desay strictly prohibited Captain Carls from using rough interrogation methods, which could only be coercion and induction. The time was too tight and the effect was not very good.

"There is no need to be frustrated, Captain, everything is going according to plan. We didn't expect these people to change their positions at the gun, at least before all the chips they thought were lost." Desai smiled and disagreed.

The news that the city hall and the Cathedral of Our Lady fell into the hands of the French were soon spread to commanders at all levels. Colonel Fernando also received bad news. When he arrived, General Ramirez, appointed as the supreme commander, was rectifying a force and preparing to launch a second offensive after dawn. On the left, three artillery pieces were parked, which were pulled by the gunners and were originally going to be used, but most officers firmly opposed it. They were worried that once the artillery was fired, the shells would be likely to accidentally injure the hostages in the city hall building, so they were put aside again.

When Colonel Fernando arrived, the five members of the Military Commission who escaped by chance and commanders from all lines of defense had arrived, including Father Busto and Parafoss, Countess Breta. At the interim meeting, General Ramirez's command was first confirmed, which was the first and only military service to be approved. Subsequently, the meeting had serious differences, and due to the lack of authoritative voices, everyone fell into endless quarrels.

As the most stubborn hardliner representative, Father Busto asked General Ramirez to launch an attack immediately, recapture the Town Hall building and rescue all captured hostages. At the same time, he also demanded that General Alonso, who was responsible for the defense of the Eastern Front, be held responsible. It was precisely because of his mistake that the French raided the Town Hall and the Cathedral of Our Lady through a secret passage. Although the secret passage had been discovered and destroyed, the major losses caused could not be compensated.

The Countess Breta immediately opposed the priest's suggestion, believing that the hostages could be rescued through peace talks. The French had already released their goodwill, and they also allowed the ambulance team to rescue the wounded in the square of the Town Hall, which was evidence. General Alonso and another commander also echoed. The war has been going on and there are internal difficulties and diplomacy. There are few commanders in Zaragoza who still believe that they still have the possibility of winning by chance.

Chapter 27 War or Peace (3)

The French had given a good price for surrender, and both nobles and generals could be treated well. If they were willing to submit a letter of loyalty to King Joseph, they could also promote the title of nobles. The only exceptions were the priests who rebelled, whether they were Emperor Napoleon or Marshal Rana, they hated the inhumane behavior of Spanish priests instigating civilians to kill French prisoners of war, and refused to sign a pardon order to resist the priests. Father Busto was one of them.

Whether it is the class interests they represent or the tragic ending they will face in the future, Father Busto would not allow the Interim Military Commission to negotiate with the French. Soon, the priest and his cousin of the former political allies had a dispute with each other. They represented their respective interests and positions and tried to suppress each other.

Colonel Fernando was not involved in the argument, and he turned his head and asked a captain behind him about the situation of the raid on the town hall building.

"Col. According to preliminary estimates, their number should be between 150 and 200. In terms of weapons, they have 3 rifles. We suffered losses when we first attacked. At present, our losses are about 600 people, and nearly a hundred prisoners are in the hands of the French. The enemy is unknown." The captain's last sentence was purely perfunctory. His evasive eyes made the experienced Colonel Fernando see through it at once, and the latter did not point it out.

"Who is the commander of the French?" Colonel Fernando continued to ask.

"It's not clear yet, but someone just saw a French officer who had come to the town hall as a negotiating envoy. His name was..." The Spanish captain rubbed his brows, as if trying to recall.

"Derny!" Colonel Fernando called out, and now he finally understood that the French commander who occupied the city hall was his old opponent, Lieutenant Colonel Desay, had just been promoted to colonel, a cunning and difficult guy.

At this time, the debate of the Provisional Military Commission also came to an end. In exchange, the aristocratic faction led by Countess Breta, including some commanders, agreed to Father Busto's suggestion to allow General Ramirez to launch another attack. If the military operation fails, the Provisional Military Commission will entrust Countess Breta to engage in peace talks with the French, or in other words, prepare to bargain with the other side on the conditions of surrender.

"No, ladies and gentlemen!" Colonel Fernando quickly stood up to stop and shared the information he had with everyone. He strongly suggested that you all be here, "You can no longer make unnecessary sacrifices, either negotiate or break through. The French colonel named Desai was sinister and vicious, and afraid of death. He must have a backup plan, otherwise he would not put himself in a dangerous situation of isolation and helplessness."

Colonel Fernando's call failed to get a response from others. General Ramirez, who was in charge of commanding the mission, was still ridiculing the liberal nobleman for being afraid of a French officer as old as his child after a defeat.

At around 7:5 in the morning, the red sun was rising and the sky was getting brighter. General Ramirez's troops had gathered and recruited a total of 800 soldiers, all of whom had served for at least half a year. The attack direction was mainly the main entrance of the Town Hall Building, and some people would detour the flanks and attack the barricade connecting the Town Hall Building and the Cathedral of Our Lady.

Originally, General Ramirez also planned to send people to directly capture the Cathedral of Our Lady because the latter was low and the short windows were easy to climb over, but it immediately attracted firm opposition from all clergy. Because the French had moved the statue of Our Lady to the main entrance of the church to be placed, they were worried that if they were careless during the battle, the spiritual sustenance of all the Zaragoza people would be destroyed.

"It seems that the hardliners defeated the compromise party." Desay looked at one end of the square, and the Spanish defenders who had already assembled, smiled and said to his adjutant as if he was ridiculed: "For hundreds of years, the Spanish have never learned how to compromise with the enemy. Every time they are at the end of their lives, they can only think of peaceful liberation."

Before Lieutenant Charles could make a sound, Desai asked again, "Lieutenant, have you found a mask for me?"

"Yes." The lieutenant took out a pair of masks for the nuns to make from his backpack and handed them over to the Desai Commander.

"By the way, the second lieutenant. I'll give you a suggestion or advice. If you don't want to smell the human barbecue later, it's best if you have such a mask like me. Haha!" As soon as he finished speaking, Desai turned around and left. The sinister laughter echoed in the room made Charles' face look extremely ugly.

On the second floor of the town hall, in a room opposite the square, Penduwas squatted on the floor, carved the three guns around him over and over again, filled them with ammunition, and placed them in a corner within reach. The burning bullets in the backpack were also taken out, with a total of 6 bottles. The soldiers on the first floor were held because the terrain was not conducive to throwing the burning bullets, and all the burning bullets were handed over to other floors, or to use them with comrades connected to the corridor of the Cathedral of Our Lady.

Penduwas put on asbestos gloves and carefully opened the glass bottle plug, slowly pulled out the wet fire-burning cloth strip from the alcohol solution, leaving only one fifth of the length in the bottle, and then re-sealed the bottle opening with the plug to ensure that it would not leak.

Silva watched quietly. He was initially assigned to the first floor guard, but when he learned that his fellow villager was on the second floor, he took the initiative to contact the sergeant, hoping to be with Penduas. Sergeant Reedes immediately agreed that the latter did not want to see the troublemaker wandering in front of him. Silva came here not to consider safety, but to be comfortable with his fellow villager. Although Penduas often did not give him a face, overall, it was still very good.

He handled both hard work and tiring work, just like preparing a moor bottle. Silva suffered a lot, and there was still a large dark spot on the back of his right hand, which was a vague pain. It was an unfortunate addition to the combustion-projection process.

"Penduath, why do you think we are always besieged by several times, or even dozens of times, of Spaniards?" When the fellow villager finished his work, Silva, who was active, could no longer help but find a topic.

"You can choose not to come yesterday. Colonel Desai said that you can not pursue the timid escape from the battle." Penduwas answered angrily and asked unfairly.

"Bao, I'm not timid. I just want to be qualified as a non-commissioned officer after the war, and I have ten times the monthly military salary." Silva defended.

"There is no problem behind it. Colonel Desai promised that if you want to be lazy, you will definitely not be able to obtain the rank of non-commissioned officers." When Penduas was still preparing to teach his fellow villagers a lesson, a dense drumbeat sounded from outside. Two soldiers who were still chatting outside also ran back to the room where Penduas was, waiting for the order.

Soon, a non-commissioned officer began to shout in the corridor on the second floor, "Attention, the Spaniards are coming to die again, make your final preparations, just like in the training ground, you must listen to my orders before firing, and inflaming bullets are not allowed to be used for the time being."

In the attack, the Spaniards still adopted the old five-row square formation. In the square, nearly 600 soldiers participating in the attack on the main entrance of the city hall were divided into five horizontal lines to form a dense formation. There was an officer in the middle of each horizontal line, and the three bravest drummers were walking in the most prominent position in the front. The highest commander of the entire team, General Ramirez, also personally participated in the attack. He rode a tall horse and marched at the far right end of the second row.

The military music of the drummers pounded, guiding the progress of the Spanish soldiers behind him, one by one, one by one, like a long rolled up wave line, trying to launch a new round of impact on the reef. Listening to the enemy's drum beats and the sound of footsteps getting closer and closer, all the French tried to hold their breath, hold their rifles tightly, and stare at their prey.

100 meters, under the constraints of the officers, the Spanish soldiers no longer fired randomly. They hugged the bayonet rifles and leaned slightly together to seek a moment of comfort;

At 90 meters, several French rifled rifles were the first to open fire. Their target was the Spanish commander riding on the horse. A bullet hit General Ramirez's left shoulder. The latter hummed low and fell down. Fortunately, the adjutant behind him arrived in time. Before the commander's head collided with the ground, he rescued General Ramirez and sent him to the rear for treatment. In the queue, an elderly major officer jumped out, drew out his saber, and took the initiative to assume command duties.

At 80 meters, when the Spanish soldiers began to enter the effective range, Sergeant Reedes on the first floor of the city hall left the observation port and loudly ordered the soldiers who were ready for shooting.

"Everyone has it, raise your gun, aim at the first row, and fire!"

"Replace the gun, raise the gun, aim at the first row, and fire!"

...
Chapter completed!