African Nationhood

The Belém Palace is located on a hill in the Belém district of Lisbon and was built in 1559.

This was once the royal palace of the Portuguese kings and is now the nest of the republicans.

There is a small square in front of the palace, which has now become a fortress. In addition to heavy machine gun positions, there are also artillery positions in the square.

Huang Youcai looked at the fortress in front of him with a telescope and felt a little headache.

He regretted not bringing heavy artillery over here. The Republican rebels were condescending. They were the ones attacking upwards. If they wanted to break the opponent's position, they would have to pay the price of huge casualties.

This is undesirable and goes against his true intentions.

It would be great if the navy ships could enter the Tejo Bay. The naval guns on the warships could hit the palace. Unfortunately, the battleship was blocked from the bay by the coastal defense guns.

It is not easy to capture this stronghold quickly. The square in front of Belém Palace is equipped with "75 Miss Cannons". This kind of field cannon has a farther range, more than twice as far as an 80mm caliber mortar. .

If their mortars want to hit them, they have to get closer and hit them, so they become a living target for the opponent.

The only solution for now is to wait until it gets dark and the opponent has no vision, then they can get closer and fight in the dark.

……

Huang Youcai called Cai Yi over and asked him to find a telegraph office in the city to send a telegram to Ou Haiwa at sea.

Because they pushed along the railway line from Faro, all along the line became royalist territory.

Minister Kusero, who is staying at Setubal Port, can be contacted by telegram or telephone, and he can notify Brigadier General Ou Haiwa directly.

After Cai Yi left, Huang Youcai looked at the Republican rebels on the hills in the distance with a bit of pain. He thought it was an easy battle, but he didn't expect that it would become more difficult to fight towards the end.

When Cai Yi came back, he had a smile on his face.

The district general has ordered Kusero to organize a fleet from Barreiro and transport soldiers to attack these republican rebels.

Our submariners have also set off. They will follow the example of Faro Port and sneak into the river bend, and then attack from the side.

Also our seaplane can help a little bit.

……

Huang Youcai felt better after hearing what Cai Yi said.

There is no good way now. Anyway, we can only wait for the actions of other teams.

Time passed quickly, and at around 8 o'clock, Huang Youcai heard the sound of cannon fire on the hillside.

But it was not bombarded towards them, but towards the bank of the Tejo River.

From the sound of these cannons, it can be seen that these republican rebels showed no mercy to the royalist soldiers. It is estimated that the fighting in the river bend was very fierce.

However, the sound of the cannons stopped after a while, indicating that the attack organized by Minister Kusero was unsuccessful.

……

At around 10 o'clock, Huang Youcai's team heard the sound of propellers in the air, and everyone became happy. It was their own plane coming.

Many soldiers waved their arms crazily at the planes in the sky to vent their frustrations.

The plane was not here for reconnaissance this time, but to deliver bombs to the Republican rebels.

A bunch of red tassels fell quickly in the sky, and then there was an explosion sound of "boom~~~".

Because the bombs of the plane were not accurate enough, the Belem Palace Square and the Belém Palace were both hit by bombs.

This bombing caused chaos in the square in front of the Belém Palace, and the enemy's cries and moans made the battle even more tragic.

Huang Youcai and others looked at it from a distance and felt extremely relieved. However, there were too few planes to continue bombing, otherwise they could take advantage of the situation and rush over to attack the Republican rebels.

……

At around 11 o'clock, Cai Yi contacted the District Haiwa Department via telegram.

The two sides agreed that the submarine force would sneak into the Tejo Bay at night, and then the submarine force would land ashore to launch an attack with Huang Youcai's troops. At 12 noon, the seaplane came to Belém Palace and bombed it again.

Although the damage caused was not much, it was enough to change the mentality of the defenders in Belém Palace Square.

The plane is too scary. The bombs dropped will fall on the head at any time. It is impossible to prevent and there is no hope of victory. In despair, some people will be unable to hold on.

……

At around 1 o'clock in the afternoon, Huang Youcai had just finished lunch and was planning to find a place to relax for a while to recharge his batteries and wait for the general attack to be launched in the evening.

Suddenly chaos broke out in the Belem Palace Square, with gunfire and explosions.

Then they saw someone gesturing towards them, and the front-row scouts immediately ran back to report that there seemed to be civil strife in the enemy army.

Huang Youcai and Cai Yi immediately observed with telescopes and found that the square in front of Belem Palace was really attacking each other.

Cai Yi burst out laughing, "This is really a dog biting a dog, do we want to do it?"

Huang Youcai shook his head, "Let everyone get ready first, and then wait and see!"

After observation, it was determined that the enemy was not acting, and the fighting was really fierce, and then people kept running away from the square.

The people who ran down raised their hands while running. The troops in front immediately captured the Portuguese soldiers who escaped. After interrogation, they learned that the leader of the other side intended to surrender.

He hoped that the Nanhua mercenaries would come to rescue them quickly. After careful consideration, Huang Youcai decided not to take the risk.

No matter how hard the people here fight, they are dog-eat-dog. The harder they fight, the easier it is to consume ammunition and stamina.

It would be best to wait until one of them eliminated the other, so he issued an order for his men to be on guard and not to attack no matter what kind of fight they could achieve.

……

The civil strife among the rebels lasted only a short time, and the surrendering party quickly gained the upper hand. They beat the die-hards back step by step.

Not long after, someone from above came to invite Huang Youcai and asked them to go up and suppress the diehards who had fled into the palace.

Huang Youcai thought for a while and decided to let Cai Yi take half of the soldiers up to monitor these guys.

He took the remaining soldiers to hold the battle line to guard against the enemy's deception.

Cai Yi followed the order and led a thousand people to the square battlefield first. Huang Youcai led the remaining more than 3000 people and followed behind, keeping a distance and advancing slowly.

It took them nearly half an hour to climb the high slope and reach the square in front of the palace. Then Huang Youcai instructed his soldiers to quickly occupy the commanding heights and intact heavy machine gun positions.

In this way, they finally believed in the surrendering Portuguese army, and then the two sides communicated and agreed to let the surrendering Portuguese army explore in the front, while the Nanhua soldiers came from behind to attack Belém Palace.

Cai Yi asked Huang Youcai to hold the battle outside, and he led people inside.

Huang Youcai nodded. Not long after the soldiers entered, the sound of gunfire and grenade explosions came from the Belem Palace.

Huang Youcai felt slightly awkward looking at the pink palace. He turned his head to look at the surrounding scenery, but he quickly realized what he was doing and found a soldier at random. He ordered the other person to quickly go to the telegraph office to contact General Ou Haiwa at sea.

Inform them of the war situation here, lest they send seaplanes to bomb again, and then "the flood will wash away the Dragon King Temple".

……

The battle in Belém Palace lasted for more than half an hour, and then the Portuguese troops cheered for their surrender.

Cai Yi led his men out of the palace, and the surrendered Portuguese army came out carrying several corpses.

Cai Yi came over and reported, "These corpses are the leaders of the republicans. Some of them committed suicide and some were killed by the Portuguese army who surrendered."

Huang Youcai looked at the bloody corpses and couldn't help but spit.

"These guys are cheap!"

Cai Yi nodded in agreement, but he laughed again: "Our mission has been completed." (End of Chapter)