I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 934 Iberia's Strategy

At noon the next day, Marquis Talavera looked at the French army heading eastward and complained to the officer beside him with a dark face:

"Sly French, we already control all areas north of the Douro River, and we don't need to protect any supply lines.

"He wouldn't even take my advice to go to Penafiel, God, he just wanted to stay in the back and be lazy!"

Penafiel is 30 kilometers east of Porto and can provide support to the Spanish army besieging Porto when necessary.

However, Junod insisted on stationing his troops in Real, nearly 100 kilometers away, in order to "protect the logistics supply lines."

You know, it's only 120 kilometers from Real to the Spanish border, which is definitely behind the Franco-Spanish coalition forces.

However, according to the Franco-Spanish alliance agreement, Marquis Talavera had no right to command Junot's troops.

So after complaining for a while, he reluctantly led his troops to Porto.

The Franco-Spanish coalition forces had launched a surprise attack and easily captured the Almeida Fortress on the Spanish-Portuguese border. They encountered almost no resistance along the way and reached Porto in less than 20 days.

So now everyone in Madrid believes that he can break Porto in a short time, which makes him feel very pressured. But at this critical moment, Juno wants to leave him to rest, how can he not be resentful?

On the other side, after the French army's winding march eastward for most of the day, Major Regnier, the commander of the skirmish battalion, finally couldn't help but come to Junot's side and whispered, "Master, are we really going to Les Halles?"

He gestured to the soldiers beside him: "Look, everyone is waiting to do something big, there is no need to rest at all."

"Take a break?" Juno patted him with a smile, "Were you confused by the girls in Madrid last month?
"Of course not. We are going to prepare to rescue the Spanish army."

Reinier's eyes suddenly lit up, but he was puzzled: "But there seems to be no enemy in the east..."

Junot nodded. "We are not going to Real. This is just to deceive the Portuguese spies. You know, the Spanish can't hide any news.

“The General Staff believes that a decisive battle with the Anglo-Portuguese army in Porto is very disadvantageous to us.

"The British can bring in supplies by water. And the place is surrounded by water on both sides, and there are strong fortresses."

Regnier agreed: "We will also face the problem of too long supply lines, and the British may attack our supply lines at any time."

"That's right. So the General Staff decided to have a decisive battle with the enemy on the east bank of the Tamega River." Junot pointed forward with his whip, "We are going there to set up a defense line now. Oh, you have to take some people to Real to show up in the next few days. There must be Portuguese spies there."

The Tamega River is a north-south river more than 40 kilometers east of Porto, which flows southward into the Douro River.

Regnier asked again: "You seem not to have told the Marquis of Talavera about our battle plan?"

"Yes," said Junot matter-of-factly, "so that the British would not be suspicious when he retreated from Porto."

What Junot did not say was that, according to the French General Staff's plan, the battle east of the Tamega River was only the first battle.

The Franco-Spanish coalition would then continue to retreat, eventually blocking the British army again in the upper reaches of the Douro River.

It is less than 50 kilometers from the Spanish border city of Lumbrales, making it very convenient for supply, while the British and Portuguese troops have to obtain logistical supplies from Porto. The French army can also constantly harass the enemy's supply lines.

This is the correct way to conduct a war of attrition.

For Portugal, it is imperative to recapture the Almeida Fortress on the eastern border, so they will definitely drag the British army to the French army's preset battlefield.

At the same time, the Franco-Spanish coalition forces will continue to launch diversionary attacks on the southern front.

Olivenza in southern Portugal, the orange-producing area, had only three or four thousand soldiers stationed there. The Franco-Spanish coalition could break through there at any time and then head west to Lisbon. The British army would then have to go back and forth to put out fires in both the north and south.

As for Spain, this time they have sufficient confidence to consume the energy.

……

Royal Palace of Madrid.

The Spanish Minister of the Interior, Campos, glanced at the seven or eight archbishops in front of him and said in an irrefutable tone:
“I believe you all understand the importance of this war to retake our country’s western territory.

"So we must win this battle!"

He signaled his assistant to unfold a gold-rimmed document and gestured to the people in front of him:
"This is the latest decree issued by His Majesty."

The archbishops stood up hurriedly to show their solemnity.

Campos continued: "Each parish will 'sponsor' 30 to 80 escudos of military expenses within two months, depending on its income."

Before he finished speaking, several archbishops present had their eyes widened in shock.

Escudo is a gold coin issued by the Spanish government. 1 Escudo is equivalent to approximately 11 francs.

In other words, the King of Spain required each parish to pay military expenses ranging from 330 million to 880 million francs.

There are eleven dioceses in Spain alone. If they all paid in full, the total amount would be more than 5 million francs!
As for the overseas dioceses, although they are not very wealthy, it should not be a problem for them to come up with another three or four million francs.

This is the "terrible background" of Spain!
The church is extremely powerful and has been desperately trying to fill its pockets with money for hundreds of years, almost draining the country of its last drop of blood.

Spain's national strength was getting worse and worse, and the greed of the church was one of the core factors.

Gombos was certain that the church could come up with this amount of money!
Archbishop Jiménez of León protested immediately:

"Count Campos, the church's property belongs to God. Your Majesty has no right to do this!"

The Archbishop of Aragon nodded and continued:
"And the church doesn't have that much money..."

Campos had expected this to happen. The Spanish church was deeply rooted and had long controlled all aspects of Spain's politics, economy, and culture.

Even a capable king like Carlos III, through his lifelong efforts, only slightly weakened the church's interference in politics.

These archbishops joined forces and even the king was helpless against them.

However, this time, Gombos sneered: "Are you curious why Archbishop Ortiz and Archbishop Serrano didn't come today?"

The archbishops present looked at each other, but no one knew the reason.

Gombos said calmly, "Because they will soon step down as archbishops."

Archbishop Jimenez immediately said: "How is this possible? The Holy See will never adjust the archbishops of three dioceses at the same time..."

Gombos raised his hand to interrupt him: "In fact, the messengers sent by the Holy See to take back their pastoral staffs and rings are already on their way, and will arrive at each diocese by next week at the latest."

(End of this chapter)