I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1135 Ceuta Fortress
In the command post of the security organization coalition, General Onorato di Giwa, the commander-in-chief of the Sardinian Legion, looked at the order document in his hand and finally managed to say after a long while, "This... isn't it a bit too long?"

"Perhaps... I should go back and report to His Majesty the King..."

The French officer in front of him smiled and said, "Please rest assured, the General Staff has obtained His Majesty Victor Emmanuel IV's approval. I believe his messenger will arrive in Ancona soon."

This officer is an official of the General Staff of the Mediterranean Security Organization.

Just now, he delivered to General Giva the General Staff's order—in order to prevent Naples from retaliating and to supervise their strict adherence to the ceasefire agreement, the security organization has decided to deploy troops to Ancona on a rotating basis.

Ancona is a city located just west of Abruzzo, only five or six days away.

The Sardinian Legion was honored to be among the first to be stationed there. They will remain there for a year before being replaced by the Modena Army.

Yes, Joseph has not yet taken action against Sardinia, the mastermind behind this nationalist incident in northern Italy.

First, Sardinia will certainly insist that it was a frame-up by Young Italy—and since there are no tape recorders in this day and age, you really can't produce any solid evidence.

Secondly, even if the Sardinian royal family were forced to admit their involvement, upon closer examination, it wouldn't be considered a particularly serious offense. The most severe punishment would have been for Victor Emmanuel IV to declare self-exile and allow his brother to succeed him as king.

This was of no consequence to Sardinia.

Joseph was prepared to severely punish Sardinia, that traitor, and at least break it into two or three countries.

However, there is currently no excuse to take direct action.

Therefore, Joseph ordered Lavalette not to touch the top leaders of Young Italy for the time being, and even those who were arrested were not questioned about their backers.

This was all to make Sardinia lower her guard as much as possible.

Before sending troops to Naples, Joseph personally wrote a letter praising Sardinia's importance in security organizations and urging them to send more troops to set an example for other small countries.

Then, in the name of the Security Organization's General Staff, the 10,000 Sardinian troops were left in Ancona.

This is Sardinia's elite Royal Guard—having this force less in crucial moments will reduce a lot of resistance.

As for the one-year garrison period, if no action is taken against Sardinia before then, Modena, which is supposed to rotate troops, will find various excuses to delay, preventing Sardinian troops from returning home.

At the same time, Joseph also secretly deployed a force of several thousand men to Parma under the pretext of going to Mantua to relieve the troops.

……

West coast of Morocco.

Anfa Port.

The muffled roar of cannons shattered the morning's tranquility.

With three Spanish Navy third-class ships and four fourth-class ships launching fierce suppressive fire on the port, the port's two main gun emplacements fell silent after only a dozen minutes of counterattack.

The Moroccan garrison was shocked – according to their tacit understanding with the British, there should have been a British fleet patrolling outside the port of Anfa at any time, so how could they have allowed Spanish warships to approach?

Unbeknownst to them, Soult had the Spanish send more than ten ships to risk luring the British fleet away, and then launched an attack during this brief opening.

Half an hour later, several troop transport ships launched small boats, and 1 soldiers of the Spanish Royal Infantry Battalion landed on the beach under the cover of artillery fire.

Yes, Soult's main force was still a Spanish infantry regiment, about 1500 soldiers.

Portuguese mercenaries were ill-equipped for a landing assault, let alone the Algiers tribal soldiers, who couldn't even row a boat. Fortunately, the Moroccan defenders were completely unprepared, and the Spanish quickly captured the northernmost fort and found a few still-usable cannons, which they then turned to fire into the harbor.

Immediately afterwards, more than two thousand Portuguese mercenaries slipped into the port's barracks area through the blind spots of the southern fort, and quickly routed the already disorganized defenders.

Sirte took control of the port of Anfa at 1 p.m. that day.

More than an hour later, the British fleet finally realized something was wrong, abandoned the Spanish warships, and hurriedly returned.

But by this time, the port's fortifications had all fallen into Spanish control and the Spanish had begun firing at them.

Inside the port, the boilers of 12 steam paddle steamers used for inland waterway transport were already heated, and Spanish and Portuguese soldiers were constantly boarding the ships along the gangplank.

At 3:30 p.m., these steamships, carrying more than 2300 soldiers, sped upstream along the Umm Raibia River.

According to Sirte's plan, they would turn into a tributary of the Umm Raibía River west of Tadlai, and finally abandon ship and land 30 kilometers east of Marrakech.

These steamships would then return to Anfa Port to bring back logistical supplies.

After that, they had to rely on ordinary ships for transportation, because these steam paddle steamers only carried enough coal for one and a half round trips—there was nowhere in Morocco to refuel.

Before dusk the following day, Sirte's "one-off" amphibious fleet had arrived near Demnat.

The soldiers lit torches and climbed onto the riverbank overnight.

Due to the incredible speed of the steam paddle steamer, the messenger traveling from Anfa to Marrakech was still halfway there.

After daybreak, Sirte led his raiding force straight to Morocco's "Southern Capital".

His soldiers carried only four days' worth of personal rations and enough ammunition to fire continuously for three and a half hours.

Those two 4-pound cannons only had a total of 120 shells.

But in his opinion, that should be enough.

The following afternoon, Sirte saw the majestic walls of Marrakech through his telescope.

The leisurely caravans coming and going outside the city indicate that the area has not yet entered a state of war preparedness.

Without any hesitation, he immediately led his team to launch a fierce attack on the east gate.

The battle went very smoothly. When the cannons roared, the Moroccan defenders even thought it was some kind of celebration taking place in the city.

It wasn't until Sirte's infantry controlled the city gates that they managed to muster two or three hundred men to launch a negligible counterattack.

Three hours later, after defeating a well-organized Black Guard, Sirte had completely taken control of the ancient city and surrounded the Dabagia Palace.

However, the palace was defended by more than 4 royal guards. Sirte bombarded it for two days with two pitiful 4-pound light cannons until the first batch of 1500 soldiers in oar-drawn boats arrived and finally broke in.

The chief steward was brought before Sirte and spoke tremblingly for a long time before the translator finally understood that Sultan Suleiman had gone to Meknes at the beginning of the month.

Meknes is Morocco's "northern capital" and administrative center—their sultan would frequently travel between the two capitals to effectively manage the country, which is divided by mountains.

Just then, the young eunuch behind the chief eunuch uttered a series of frightened words. The translator hurriedly said to Soult:
“My lord, he says that the Sultan’s brothers Hisham and Ibrahim are currently in Marrakech. He can give directions; please don’t kill him.”

(End of this chapter)