I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 981 Wellesley's New Army

The Kattegat Strait is the junction between Northern Europe and Western Europe.

In the captain's room of the British Royal Navy's first-class battleship "Britannia", a captain saluted Commodore Peakes and handed over the document under his arm:
"General, the latest news is that they have signed the treaty at noon today."

Pixar's expression froze. The treaty the officer was talking about was the so-called "International Convention on the Law of the Sea".

"So soon?" He took the documents and frowned, "Weren't they still arguing about 'territorial waters' yesterday?"

"Yes, General. But the French soon gained the support of Russia and Austria, suppressing other opinions."

Spain will certainly not go against France on the issue of the Maritime Convention. After all, the Portuguese front still relies on the help of the French army.

Pixar opened the report in his hand. On it was a copy of the International Law of the Sea signed just a few hours ago. The article about territorial waters read:

The territorial waters extend 6 nautical miles from the coastline...

The following contents include: Exclusive economic zone, which is 100 nautical miles from the coastline. Each country has the right to manage fisheries and mineral mining within this area...

Dispute settlement mechanism. For violations of the law of the sea, countries can appeal to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which will mediate or make a ruling by the arbitrators...

The regime of passage through international straits...

The peculiarities of the territorial waters of island countries...

The rights of landlocked countries to enter and exit the ocean...

Pix threw the report on the table with a gloomy face and waved his hand for the officer to leave.

This time he was ordered to lead more than 20 warships to block the vicinity of Denmark in order to intimidate the countries participating in the Convention on the Law of the Sea, but obviously this did not have any effect.

In fact, this was also expected by the British government, but the opposition attitude still had to be expressed.

First of all, France has taken full advantage of justice and morality by waving the banner of "the ocean belongs to all countries" and "free trade". It can be said that except for the United Kingdom, other countries are very supportive of this convention.

Secondly, there are too many countries signing the convention.

After hearing the news, Britain immediately began lobbying European countries to boycott the organization, but France's mobilization was obviously more successful, eventually convening more than 80 countries.

The British Navy is indeed very powerful, and when it threatens a country alone, even Russia has to think carefully.

But if it threatens more than 80 countries at the same time, it would be equivalent to putting Britain in opposition to the whole of Europe.

The next day, the first plenary session of the International Maritime Convention closed. Ships flying flags of various countries left the port of Copenhagen one after another, completely ignoring the British warships that were eyeing them not far away, and slowly sailed into the Baltic Sea.

Brigadier General Peakes sighed silently and muttered quietly: "It's just a treaty without any binding force anyway, so let the French be proud of it."

As a person living in the eighteenth century, it was indeed difficult for him to understand the tremendous influence of such an international organization on people's thoughts and consciousness.

This will indeed not be able to restrict the British fleet in the short term, but once the people of various countries recognize the law of the sea as justice, the blockade of the British fleet will be a challenge to justice and will be hated by everyone.

When this mentality affects the government level, it will turn into diplomatic pressure.

What's more, Joseph will definitely take the initiative to speed up the process.

……

Central and western Portugal.

Downstream of the Mondego River, in Coimbra. The Portuguese corps commander, Luis dos Santos, looked at the Spanish army retreating like a tide through the telescope and excitedly said to the Marquis of Wellesley: "General, they are retreating, we won..."

"It's nothing." The Englishman calmly pulled the reins and walked down the hill. "Talavera has been attacking Coimbra for a week, and his soldiers are already exhausted.

"Once our flanking attack is in place, we can retake Mortagua this afternoon."

He looked at the herald at the side and said, "Order the Scottish Guards to take action."

"Yes, General!"

Yes, as early as a week ago, Wellesley led his troops from Porto to the vicinity of Coimbra, but he only sent 3 Portuguese to assist in the defense of the city, while the main force was stopped dozens of kilometers away on standby.

Until today, he suddenly launched a full-scale counterattack against the Western Army.

The Spaniards, who had the numerical advantage, collapsed at the first blow and soon began to retreat to the northeast.

The pursuing Anglo-Portuguese coalition forces did not seem to be in a hurry and kept advancing in neat formation. Although they killed many Spanish soldiers, they seemed to be getting farther and farther away from the main force of Marquis Talavera.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, when Talavera finally stopped hearing the sound of gunfire behind him, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and said to the herald, "Let the Ruines Corps set up a defense line in the valley ahead. The others will return to Mortagua to rest."

"Yes, General."

Before the herald had gone far, Marquis Talavera heard gunshots coming from the north.

He frowned and said to the staff officer: "It should be the guerrillas nearby. Send cavalry to take a look..."

However, he immediately realized that something was wrong because the gunfire was becoming more and more frequent, which was definitely not the firepower that the guerrillas could possess.

He hurriedly urged his horse to the nearby earthen slope. As soon as he raised the telescope, he saw that the Toledo Legion on the left wing had been broken through in the middle by the British in red uniforms, and a large number of soldiers were fleeing towards him.

He hurriedly shouted to those beside him: "Order Ruinis to defend immediately, quickly!"

Ruines was the most elite troop under his command. By the time the British vanguard appeared near the Spanish center army, Ruines had already formed three infantry lines on the north side.

Hundreds of British skirmishers then charged under the fire of artillery.

The distance between the two sides quickly closed, and the British began to shoot.

The soldiers of the Ruinis Legion immediately discovered that the firepower from the opposite side was extremely fierce.

The other side can fire four shots in the time it takes them to fire three times!

Before the British infantry line could approach, their skirmishers defeated Ruines' first infantry line.

This cannot be blamed on the Spaniards' poor combat effectiveness, but rather on the fact that they were facing Wellesley's new army equipped with new percussion cap guns and bulletproof inserts.

This was also the first time that the British Expeditionary Force had a direct battle with the Spanish Army after landing in Portugal - even the battle near Coimbra was fought by a "mixed formation" of British and Portuguese forces.

The 2500 soldiers of the Scots Guards were like a lion breaking into a flock of sheep. They quickly broke through Talavera's central defense line and drove tens of thousands of Spanish troops to the vicinity of the Mondego River.

At the same time, the main force of the Anglo-Portuguese coalition forces coming from the direction of Coimbra also arrived at the battlefield.

When the Marquis of Talavera could see the rushing river in the distance, night finally fell and the British stopped the attack.

(End of this chapter)