Chapter 114 The Battle of the Portuguese Throne - Part 11: Cartaia (Part 1)
A few days later, news of the Spanish reinforcements finally came.
"Your Majesty, Madrid's army is about 50,000 people passing through the Baedic Mountains. The mountain road is rugged, and it will take at least five days to arrive in Seville"
"Carlos IV's army has arrived in the southern port city of Ayamonte and is advancing towards Aval"
Qitade quickly asked someone to hang up the map.
Chucey, this Joshuo Special Division, is also the position of Chief of Staff of the Guards, and now points a wooden stick to the map to explain it to everyone.
"Your Majesty, everyone, Carlos IV's army obviously went south along the Guadiana River, the boundary between Portugal and Spain, and its estuary is Ayamonte"
"From the east of Ayamonte, there are three rivers: the Piedras, the Odier and the Riotto River, and the 15,000 men led by the Governor of Andalusia and the Marquis Soroc stayed in the Huelva city between the Odier and the Riotto River"
“Ayamonte is less than a hundred miles from Huelva, but there are four rivers”
Qitade asked, "You mean..."
Chucey said: "Carlos IV has a complete army, and another 50,000 troops came to Madrid, which totaled 80,000 people. However, we only have two divisions in Seville. If they were all in Seville's decisive battle, it would be inappropriate."
"The four rivers above are all very wide and deep, and can drive large ships at least thirty miles upwards, and there are bridges on the river."
"The terrain of this area is quite flat, but not wide. The Baedic Mountains are about fifty miles north of the north"
"The Baedic Mountains are too rugged, and the Madrid army is definitely not that fast, and Carlos IV's army will definitely be much faster, and it will be able to meet with Soroc in less than a day"
"The Ministry of Service recommends that we can take advantage of our maritime advantages and transport one and a half divisions of troops to reach between Ayamonte and Huelva, first destroy the bridge on the Guadiana River where Ayamonte is located, and then wait for the army of Carlos IV to cross the Piedras River and then destroy the bridge on the river"
"In the end, the decisive battle was launched with the Piedras River and the Odiel River, but the bridge above the Hodiel River in Huelva is preserved"
"At this time, our army attacked the tired Carlos IV army, and Sorok of Huelva City, saw this, would definitely come out to rescue him, and then destroy the bridge above the Odiel River and annihilate these two armies"
"The enemy has difficulty in communication. If you want to spread the news to the Madrid army, which is still winding on the mountain road, it is obviously not that fast. They will probably retreat after they know it. If they insist on coming to Seville, there will be only a dead end"
"In this way, we don't need to face an army of nearly 100,000 at the same time, and we can also force Carlos III to negotiate"
"At the same time, in Lisbon, it is estimated that the new army and old noble army of the surrounding castles have also arrived. If you want to become the king of Portugal, you must eliminate those nobles. This is an excellent opportunity. Zhang Muxun's division launched a fierce attack on him at the same time."
"After the demise of the noble army, coupled with the news of the destruction of the Spanish army, Malik, Sebastian and others in the city had no choice but to welcome His Majesty into the city"
Qitad nodded, "That's it, just leave only one brigade here. Chucey, you and Batel all go there. After arriving, Chucey's army enters along the Odiel River, and then lands on the west bank, bringing a complete division"
"In the end, one brigade was left to monitor Sorok in Huelva's east, and two brigades advanced westward"
"Batter led two brigades into the Piedras River, and once Carlos IV's army all crossed the river, destroy the bridge immediately, and then landed on its east coast!"
A trace of worry suddenly appeared on Chuchei's face, and Qitad smiled and said, "What else is there?"
Chucey said: "As soon as we leave, there will be only one brigade here. If the local army from Andalusia comes again..."
Qitad shook his head, "Since the city of Seville was burned down, everyone in danger of the nobles and knights of other cities were in danger and they did not dare to fight. They would not come back. Besides, you can go to those two rivers for up to one day, and you can annihilate Carlos IV in two or three days after completing the siege of Carlos IV."
"At this time, Madrid's army is probably just crossing the Baedic Mountains, and it's still a distance from Seville. Moreover, our main forces are all on the magical island and have the advantage on the water. What do they do to me?"
"What's more, I have a Marine Corps here, it's okay"
....
As Kitard expected, Carlos IV's army had crossed the Guadiana River and was moving towards Huelva.
Carlos IV, 32 years old this year, never led an army. Naturally, Carlos III would not let him lead the army alone, but instead let the current Marquis of the Field Marshal Alfonso, assist him.
However, Carlos IV himself obviously didn't know this. He proclaimed himself the commander of the Madrid Guards and the commander of the First Division, which was quite like the style of Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty.
In order to protect His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Carlos III also arranged a hunting camp trained by the Prussians for him, and he was always around him.
The commander of the second division is Questa, Count of Aragon, and O'Neill, Count of Castilla. These two people appeared in later Napoleonic Wars, but they were all unreasonable. They were nothing but counts from the core territory of the Spanish Kingdom.
Marquis Alfonso is a hereditary nobleman in the Castile region. He joined the army at the age of fifteen and has rich experience in war. More than a decade ago, he was one of the main generals of his attack on Portugal and fighting the Kingdom of Morocco in North Africa and the Sultanate of Algiers.
Alfonso was also Carlos III's niece, so he asked him to assist Carlos IV. Carlos III was still very relieved.
Since the reform of the new army, the number of Spanish new army cavalry accounts for one-third of the number of war horses in Andalusia is obviously the only one in the whole of Europe.
In other words, their organization is almost the same as that of the Truqin army, with the power of a division and the cavalry of a brigade!
In addition, they also have a large number of field guns used for land combat. However, Truchen's 12-centimeter field gun and a portion of ammunition are only more than a thousand kilograms, but the Spanish Cannon field guns of the same caliber have more than 3,000 kilograms, which require four horses to pull.
Truchen's field cannon only needs to be pulled by a camel horse.
After crossing the Guadiana River, Carlos IV could not help but feel relieved - he finally arrived in Spain's own territory. Although they did not suffer much loss in Portugal, they still received harassed by the Portuguese from time to time in the countryside due to the corrupt military prostitutes.
Faced with the power of an army, the Portuguese obviously harassed at night. Because they were not familiar with the place, Carlos IV obviously did not dare to send troops to pursue them casually. Although the nobles in Portugal were towards them, most of them were ordinary people in the vast countryside.
After coming to Spain, there is no need to worry about these things. Although the Truchens occupied Seville, their number was limited. Faced with the Spanish army that could arrive at any time, they could not divide their troops - this is also the consensus view of Carlos III and Marquis Alfonso.
Such a large army had obviously fallen into the sight of the secret spies arranged by Truchen in Andalusia. At this time, the fleet had already brought five brigades to the Bay of Cadis. The news of Carlos IV's army could be telegraphed to the ship at any time.
In today's world, only the Truqins can do this. With the telegraph machine, the Truqins' fighter jets have greatly enhanced their choices, several times stronger than the Europeans.
Assuming this was the British in Seville, and their army was rich, due to inconvenient communication, even if they learned that Carlos IV's army was coming, they had no choice but to fight in Seville.
When Carlos IV's army was crossing the Piedras River, the Truchens' warships had already penetrated into the Guadiana River and blew up the only stone bridge on the river with their naval guns.
In addition to preventing Carlos IV's army from going around behind, this approach also blocked Valladolid and Bigo's two armies who were still in Portugal.
Then Batel (the brother of Qitad's brother-in-law Yamankara) took two brigades to land from the east bank of the Guadiana River, and captured the small town of Ayamonte, leaving a marine battalion to stay in case the Spaniards repair the bridge, and then took two brigades to follow Carlos IV.
By the time Carlos IV crossed the Piedras River and entered the city of Cartaya in the east of the river, they had been marching for half a day. For the European army at this time, this had reached its limit, and it was impossible to continue the march without rest.
At this moment, a cavalry brigade below Batel also came to the Piedras River!
The Truchen warship also entered the river at this time and captured the dock near the bridge, and immediately began to build a position in Hedong!
Carlos IV could not have known about such a situation, but he is now facing a dilemma - the army has been marching continuously for half a day, and it is a time of fatigue. Moreover, he does not know the number of enemies. In order to prevent accidents, he can only let the hunters figure out the situation first.
The city of Kartaya is five or six miles away from the Piedras River. It is surrounded by forests and farms. It is easier for well-trained hunters to understand the situation.
For Truchen's army, it is obvious that it is impossible to "strengthen cover thirty miles ahead" (when marching, it is necessary to implement a solid wall and clear the fields on the main roads ahead of thirty miles to prevent the enemy from knowing the movements and stillness of one's own side). Truchen's thirty miles of Truchen's strong cover is only effective on the vast and sparsely populated grasslands.
It's not possible to come to densely populated European regions.
However, this is what the Truchen army wants. Just when the Spanish hunters began to investigate, the Truchen army had already built a position near the stone bridge on the Piedras River. Since the stone bridge was close to the dock, the field artillery she carried was able to hang to the shore as soon as possible!
How many enemies have arrived? Spanish hunters can't detect the Qing Dynasty with their feet alone. After the construction of the blocking position in Hedong and all the cavalry of a brigade were stationed in, they finally found out the number of people.
The reason why Battel made a brigade of cavalry suddenly emerge was mainly because he was worried that Carlos IV's army would not enter the east of the Piedras River, but would be arranged separately in Hedong and the west. If that were the case, he would risk driving the enemy troops in Hexi and drive them all to Hedong.
Two hours later, the infantry army behind also arrived. It was dusk, and the hunters finally figured out the number of enemies coming from the west.
However, the bridgehead blocking position has become more solid under the expansion of the cavalry brigade. After the two brigades settled in, the cavalry brigade can attack at any time. It would be useless if Carlos IV walked around from the shallow water upstream of the Piedras River to behind them, because the dock was controlled by the Truchens and could be replenished at any time.
Chapter completed!