I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 988 Quagmire
La Plessis turned to look at the bell tower and shouted angrily: "You coward! They will burn the town and our children will starve to death in Lisbon!"

Apinto glanced at him, continued to wave the white flag, and said in English: "Surrender, we surrender..."

The militiamen, who were already in disarray, saw that the congressman had surrendered, and their remaining will to resist collapsed instantly. They dropped their weapons and knelt on the ground one after another.

"Damn it, we can't give up!" La Plessis shouted anxiously, "Think about the peasants who are fleeing here!"

Only the hunters who had fled and a few townspeople were still gathered around him, about a hundred people at most, continuing to load and shoot.

At this moment, a teenager ran over and shouted to La Plessi, panting: "Captain, Commander, there are a lot of British people over at Hongzhushi Street!"

LaPlessi's mind suddenly buzzed.

Hongzhushi Street is on the south side of the church, which means that the British were in a position to encircle them.

The sword he had been holding slowly dropped down.

It has no meaning anymore.

Even if these people died here, the town would still not be saved.

If I could keep my breath, I could protect my family on the way to Lisbon. Although they would probably starve to death in the end...

"Everyone listen." He raised his hand to signal the militiamen, "Put down..."

He had just said halfway when he heard orderly gunfire from the north.

Soon, the British began to panic, leaving only thirty or forty people to continue confronting their side, and the other soldiers all turned around and lined up.

"Could it be that people from Rue Town have arrived?"

La Plessis immediately shook his head. The volley just now was definitely not something that the militia could do.

He suddenly shuddered.

No matter who comes to reinforce, this is definitely the best time to repel the British!
He shouted to the militiamen around him to gather and line up: "Our reinforcements are here, the British are in trouble! Everyone, follow me to kill them!"

Seeing this, the militiamen who had surrendered not far away picked up their weapons and quickly came over.

No one wants to lose their homes, especially after reading those pamphlets over and over again, people are more convinced that the British want to kill them through war.

Soon, La Plessis took the lead and rushed towards the British soldiers across the street. Nearly 200 people followed him, shouting.

To the north of the town, a company of French hussars suddenly attacked the British cavalry from behind, quickly disrupting their formation.

By the time the British cavalry reacted and hurriedly turned around to reorganize their troops, seventy or eighty of them had already been killed by the French army.

The British originally had nearly 300 people, but after the previous consumption and leaving some men to deal with the militia in the town, there were only more than 130 people left to fight the French army.

The French cavalry company had 115 men.

But the outcome of the battle was one-sided.

After dismounting, the French cavalry immediately formed a standard infantry line - this is the standard course for all cadets at the Paris Police Academy. Whether you are a cavalryman, artilleryman, or even an engineer, you have to start with horizontal and vertical formations.

The British, on the other hand, appeared very clumsy after dismounting.

But in the crowded streets of a small town, charging the infantry lines with cavalry would be a death wish. They had to fight on foot.

The French used rounds of carbine volleys to "knock" out a large number of gaps in the British army's ranks, forcing the latter to retreat one after another.

But soon, chaotic gunfire was heard behind the British.

La Plessis also broke through the British defenses and, together with the French, blocked them in the street in front of the church.

At 4 p.m., the British stopped resisting and declared surrender. La Plessis nervously looked at the majestic French soldiers in front of him and asked tentatively: "Thank you for helping us defeat the bandits. Are you here to collect grain?"

The French looked at each other in bewilderment. After a while, someone stepped forward and said in awkward Portuguese: "We are here to help. We came to Portugal to drive out the British. We are your friends."

The surrounding militiamen thought of their companions who had just been killed by the British cavalry, and immediately felt a sense of solidarity. They came forward and sincerely thanked the French army, and some even invited the French soldiers to their homes.

However, the French did not stay long. They only told La Plessis to go to the French camp in Viseu for help if he encountered a British attack in the future, and then left the town of Dusal with the British prisoners.

The townspeople who heard the news gathered at the entrance of the town, watching the French cavalry leave and talking about it, "Luckily the French suddenly showed up today, otherwise the town would be finished..."

"Damn the British. I heard they have blocked the French ports and are trying to trap the French. And our king is the British's accomplice."

"I didn't quite believe it before, but now it seems that the French army came to Portugal just to fight the British."

"I think we should help the French against the British."

"That's right, get the British out of Portugal!"

As dusk fell, the townspeople returned to their homes.

That night, Apinto was thrown into prison by the angry crowd.

The next day, after a simple election procedure, La Plessis replaced his seat as councilor.

The first thing La Plessis did after taking office was to send people to inform all the nearby villages and towns about what happened yesterday.

For a time, anti-Anglo sentiment spread rapidly around Coimbra.

Not to mention that no one enforced the Portuguese Crown Prince's "scorched earth" decree, even several officials sent to convey the decree were injured.

At the same time, with the promotion and publicity of the Security Bureau, this trend has begun to spread throughout Portugal.

In early autumn, as the war situation was going more and more smoothly, Spain decided to send another 1 troops to besiege Coimbra.

At this point, the number of Spanish troops fighting in Portugal had reached nearly 5.

Coimbra.

More than 120 cannons fired shells at the only two remaining bastions outside the city day and night.

Currently, more than 80% of Spain's logistical supplies are used to transport artillery shells for them, while food, wine and the like are almost all purchased nearby from Portugal.

This is 60 to 70 percent lower than the cost of domestic transportation.

On the other hand, the Portuguese people gradually discovered that the existence of the Franco-Spanish coalition did not have any impact on them. On the contrary, selling supplies to the army could increase their income.

Of course, this was mainly the result of the French army acting as gendarmes and helping Spanish soldiers maintain strict military discipline.

Wellesley tried to implement the "scorched earth" policy twice, but each time he was met with fierce resistance from the local militia and hunting by the French army, so he was forced to give up in the end.

In the west of Coimbra, at the Anglo-Portuguese joint forces command post.

Wellesley looked at the casualty data that had just been counted, his face filled with gloom.

Because the Franco-Spanish offensive was so fierce, even his new troops had begun to enter the bastion to assist in the defense.

However, last week his new army suffered more than 600 casualties, and the Portuguese soldiers suffered even more casualties, but they still lost a very important bastion.

If these last two bastions are breached, it will not be a matter of Coimbra being unable to defend itself, but of Lisbon falling!
He pondered for half the night, but finally reluctantly picked up his pen and wrote a letter to Prime Minister Grenville, requesting an additional 10,000 expeditionary forces to consolidate Portugal's defense line.

(End of this chapter)