The night is as bright as paint, without moonlight, and the blind eyes are blind and dark. Soon, on the winding and rugged mountain road, "fire dragons" are coming out of the valley and moving down the slope. Countless sounds of fast footsteps striking harassing the tired birds in the mountains, and the originally quiet mountain monument begins to get angry.

This is the vanguard of Andrew's army, composed of Major General Massena's infantry division and Brigadier General Mura's cavalry brigade. Massena served as the commander of the front enemy. It has been more than 6 hours since the end of the battle in the Rova River, and the soldiers have been marching in the hilly areas with torches for more than tens of miles. In order to surround the Spanish defenders on the front line of Manresa within the specified time, Massena ordered all participating teams to give up their bulky logistics supplies, retain only 6 pounds and 8 pounds of cavalry cannons, and all of them will be lightly equipped.

The Mediterranean climate was very stuffy in mid-July. General Massena, who was bumping on the horse's back, felt a little hot. Every time he walked forward, in addition to filling a large mouthful of cold water to quench his thirst, he had to unbutton a button, which could make the heat in his body emit. Until now, he had put his coat on the saddle and the white shirt fell to his chest, but it was still very hot. It seemed that under the influence of the commander, the soldiers also pulled the collars and exposed their necks, or pulled the cuffs of their shirts to their arms, but they did not pause at all in their steps and continued to move forward without saying a word.

Compared with Massena's behavior, Brigadier Mura, who was standing beside him, obviously paid special attention to his outfit. The buckles on his collar were never separated. He sat upright on his slender body on the horse's back, like a wax sculpture.

After suddenly returning, Massena asked Mura next to her with a strange expression: "Hi, little white-faced, have you seen the gendarmerie?"

The young face is Massena's affectionate nickname for General Mura, who loves beauty. Mura himself is certainly not happy. He has protested countless times but the result is invalid. After all, in front of Massena, Murah is half short of his age, qualifications or military achievements.

"Damn bastard, why don't you call the commander a novice?" This is Mura's habit of fighting back after every time he was called. After complaining, Mura said angrily: "I didn't see that they are elusive. When you don't violate military discipline, you can't find them. But once you make a mistake, you will always jump out as soon as possible, happily write down your number, and happily notify you to wait for the future ticket. Old bastard, you won't think you are going to drink a bar again."

"Shh, for God's sake, can you speak softly?" Massena was obviously frightened by Murah's words. It was because Massena himself had been caught by the gendarmerie three times because he was secretly drinking during the march. When it was the fifth time, after the battle, Massena himself would obediently come to the Military Law Office and wait for a day's confinement.

In the process of preparing for this war against Spain, in order to prevent the troops from wantonly destroying military discipline, Andrew also expanded the responsibilities of the military police. He personally notified the army and ordered the military police to dispatch inspection teams in various divisions, brigades, and regiment-level troops to supervise the military discipline and style of soldiers at all levels. However, Commander Andrew himself does not pay much attention to appearance on weekdays, so he did not take decoupling of discipline as one of the standards for punishment. Compared with other senior commanders, General Massena was the most casual, was recorded several times, and had been punished twice. It was no wonder that he cared so much about Murah's voice.

Mura looked at Massena in a mess and was obviously a little proud. She was about to continue to mock her, but she saw the commander of the vanguard running over.

"Report, Commander, Colonel Rana's infantry brigade, with the cooperation of the cavalry regiment, has conquered the town of Lower Sawadell, annihilated 4,000 enemy defenders, and our army suffered 600 casualties. The colonel requested instructions for the next operation."

"Well, tell Colonel Rana that the commander thanks for his achievements. Now it is..." Massena took out his pocket watch and confirmed the time. "It is 4 a.m., and the commander ordered the vanguard troops to remain unchanged according to the original plan. After a brief rest, a infantry regiment will be left to guard the town of Savadell. The remaining troops, including the cavalry regiment, immediately move towards Manresa. Be sure to arrive at the periphery of Manresa before 12 noon."

When the messenger returned to report, Massena himself forgot the bottle he had just touched. He turned over and dismounted, walked to a tree stump, ordered the major adjutant to expand the map, and with the help of the faint light of several torches above his head, he studied the combat deployment with Murah.

"We are now more than 40 miles away from the Rotara River. At the current marching speed, we should be able to reach the Rotara River within two and a half hours. Adjutant, what is the situation with the Rotara River?" asked Major Fox at his old subordinate.

"According to the outpost, the Rotara River is less than 30 meters above the river, and there is a large forest opposite the river. The sentry did not notice any signs of Spaniards' activity. In addition, the river flows very slowly, with a depth of only waist-length. Within 5 minutes, people can wade across the river. It is just that all artillery can be transported across the river, and the engineers need to use simple rafts to build at least 25 minutes in front and back." The major next to him replied.

"Very good, major. The direction of our army crossing the river is only more than 60 miles away from the town of Manresa. Since it is a plain grassland, I believe it will take only two hours to reach Manresa and meet with Colonel Rana's troops. Therefore, I suggest that after crossing the river, that is, at around 7 a.m., the entire army will first hide in the woods on the other side of the river, rest on the spot for 3 hours, wait until 10 a.m., and then head along the lower reaches of the Rotala River, and arrive at Manresa at noon. What do you think, Brigadier General Mura?"

"Of course there is no problem. My commander, the knights are all on the horse's back. The real hard work is the infantry walking on their feet." Murah agreed with the advice of the front commander without hesitation.

Hearing Murah's reply, Massena was about to get on the horse and continue to move forward, but unexpectedly met the second lieutenant of the military police who had previously issued him a ticket.

"Secretary, please do a favor!" Massena immediately rushed over and grabbed the lieutenant.

"Hello, General! I can serve you if you have anything to do?" The second lieutenant tied the reins and quickly saluted.

"It's very simple, my little brother, when I drink later, you can pretend not to see it." Massena said with a smile on his face.

"Sorry, General Massena, I can't!" The second lieutenant refused the commander's ridiculous request.

"Haha, I have a good relationship with your boss, Colonel Xia De. Maybe I can suggest him add an extra small silver star to you."

"I'm still sorry, Commander Citizen, your division is full of my companions. If I'm favored, let alone adding a silver star on my shoulder, I'm afraid I won't even have a lever (the symbol of a sergeant)." The lieutenant felt a little ridiculous when he heard General Massena's suggestion. After saluting, he was about to rush forward. But later he remembered something. The lieutenant turned to General Massena's ear and whispered: "General, your record is only 3 times at present. Well, you can also commit a foul, as long as you guarantee less than 5 times. May the commander bless you!"

After talking, the second lieutenant rode away and disappeared into the vast night, leaving only General Massena, who was stunned and Brigadier Murah, who was standing by the side when he heard the conversation between the two.

...

The vanguard of the French Legion marched hard on the mountain road, and Spanish reinforcements were also actively deployed in the direction of Lerida. There, after the urging of the Duke of Sanchez three times a day, 30,000 troops from central and southern Spain finally arrived at the town of Lerida on the afternoon of July 13, and joined the old duke's tens of thousands of miscellaneous troops.

The person in charge of commanding the coalition forces in the south and south was the old subordinate of Duke Sanchez, General Divaggio, who had been guarding Cordoba for many years. Divaggio, in his 50s, had a much grayish hair and beard, but he still did not look aged.

Duke Sanchez personally came outside the city to welcome the arrival of General Divaggio and his army. Divaggio has been under the command of the old duke since he was 18 years old. After more than 20 years of promotion, he was appointed as the commander of the garrison of Selivia by the King of Spain. The two have not had time to meet for more than 10 years. Now, the old friends reunited again, so they are naturally extremely excited.

"God bless you, God bless you, you still look so strong and mighty. It is God's will that makes Divaggio return to your service." Across a distance, Divaggio, with brown eyes, saw his old boss, immediately jumped off his horse and rushed straight towards the old man, lifted up His Highness's arm, and kissed warmly on the back of his hand.

"Your appearance is always so happy in Cordoba (Divagegio's birthplace). Alas, I'm old, you're old too. Now the whole of Spain has to rely on our two old ghosts to save the precarious fate of the kingdom." Duke Sanchez was obviously troubled by the current situation and started to whisper without saying a word. Only when he saw Divagg's ignorant eyes, the old duke woke up. While ordering Major Roque to receive the arrival of the follow-up troops on his behalf, he took the arm of his old subordinates and walked into the city.

In the old duke's private room, Duke Sanchez personally poured a glass of high-quality sherry for Divaggio and delivered it to the latter's hand. After two glasses gently hit, they drank it all. Duke Sanchez signaled Divaggio to sit down on the sofa and sit opposite him.

"How about it, Le's life in Selivia for more than 10 years is fine, how about his wife and children?" asked Duke Sanchez.

"It's all good, thank you for your concern." Divaggio's words were a little unnatural, and his body shook slightly.

Duke Sanchez noticed something strange and asked with concern: "What's wrong? Something happened at home? By the way, don't call me Your Highness the Duke anymore, or call me Commander by the name of the military camp."

"Yes, His Highness, no, the Commander," Divaggio hurriedly changed his words. "It was the problem in the south, and the Moors began to cause trouble in various cities again. There were various signs that under the instigation of British spies, a guy who claimed to be the descendants of Mohammed XII formed a unified Moorish armed force in the main gathering area of ​​Muslims. They relied on weapons and supplies provided by British troops from the Gibraltar Fortress to do everything they could to fight against the kingdom openly, destroyed churches in many towns and villages, killed Christians, and expanded their power to the Selivian area. At present, the situation in the south is quite tense."

"Damn British, damn Moorish!" The angry Duke of Sanchez smashed the coffee table with a punch, knocking down the two glasses of wine placed on it, rolling to the ground and immediately smashing them into pieces.

Duke Sanchez is certainly very clear about the facts stated by Divaggio. His desk was filled with military information reports from the southern situation countless times. The increasingly out of control also made the old duke worried, but the French invaders in the north were the current enemy, and the Moors were just scabies and minor injuries compared to them.

Suppressing the resentment in his heart, Duke Sanchez comforted General Divaggio and said, "Don't worry, at least the kingdom's army can still control the situation. When we solve the French, we will immediately lead our troops south and send all the rebels to the gallows. Sorry, I was too impulsive just now. Well, I will get two more wine glasses."

After saying that, the old duke got up and went to work hard, but when he turned around, a hint of sadness, anger, helplessness, and perhaps a hint of apology appeared in the corner of Divaggio's eyes. Time was very short, and when the master turned around again, Divaggio had already returned to his previous face.

Duke Sanchez re-created two goblets and poured wine for his subordinates and himself. Divaggio took the glass and asked casually about the changes in the battle situation in the north. "Master, how is the head general of Madrid now?"

The general Divaggio mentioned refers to the Brisbane general who took over the command of the old duke. The old general who relied on military merits naturally looked down on the guy who became a senior officer with his family power and the identity of the former queen lover. Especially his arrogant and domineering behaviors of killing girls made Divaggio, who was thousands of miles away, hated him.

Duke Sanchez drank the drink, sighed, put down his glass, and then slowly stood up, wandering around the room for a few minutes before turning around and said, "Perhaps, near Figueras, Brisbane was either a prisoner of the French, or lying on the grass or on the hillside."

"Your Highness, no matter how incompetent Brisbane is, he has used the most elite garrison cavalry in the kingdom, with a total of 20,000 people, at least 60,000 troops. Moreover, General Tasman and General Domjo's 30,000 troops cooperated." Divaggio opened his mouth wide and looked surprised. It was obvious that he did not believe in the Duke's judgment.

Duke Sanchez smiled bitterly and explained: "I don't want this to be true either. Although General Boca's battle report has not been sent to the base camp yet, my intuition clearly tells me that Brisbane and the 50,000 people he commanded have been surrounded and annihilated by the French Neo-Pyrenees Legion, and the commander of the French is the young commander named Andrew."

"Andrew? Is that Oriental born in Luzon?" Divaggio continued.

Duke Sanchez nodded and returned to his seat.

"Yes, it's him, a handsome young man under 25 years old, my major adjutant has seen it. The massacre in Luzon put the Kingdom of Spain in a very unfavorable situation in European public opinion. Whether it was the British, Prussians, Russians, Austrians, Italians, and the Holy See, they all expressed that they would no longer support us. Some countries even publicly condemn the Kingdom and demanded that His Majesty severely punish the legitimate sons, the Spanish Governor Antonio. But His Majesty refused and still supported his tough stance, which finally led to the full outbreak of the war. In fact, the massacre was just a fuse. For the Oriental, he had long been deliberately trying to launch a war against Spain, and he had prepared for it for a long time.

I did underestimate Andrew before. This young commander is even more cunning than the old fox and fiercer than the wild wolf. His strategic and tactical ideas are almost incomparable. After crossing the Ashes Pass and conquering the city of Figueras, in order to eliminate the vitality of the kingdom as soon as possible, he actually recruited a lot of strategic deception methods to lure the fool Brisbane into being fooled. His technique is unheard of and amazing. General Boca's front-line battle report has not been transmitted to me since the day before yesterday. Boca is a responsible and good boy, and he cannot stop contacting me for no reason. The only explanation is that the messengers were all killed by the French.

"Did the French conquered the town of Manresa?"

"It's not that fast yet. It should be our opponent. Andrew sent a small force deep into the rear of our army, implementing harassment tactics, and cutting off the information channels between the two places. I also sent cavalry teams to search, but found nothing, and lost a lot of cavalry. Two hours before you arrived, that is, around 1 pm today, the French also blew up the only two bridges on the Ebro River. My engineers are working day and night, but they need to be used normally until tomorrow morning. Even if the army set off immediately, they will have to arrive at Manresa Town as soon as possible on the morning of the 15th. Their purpose is not to delay the time for reinforcements to set aside time for their main force to siege Manresa Town, which General Boca is stationed."

When Duke Sanchez said this, he felt a little decadent and felt listless.

"Since that's the case, why don't we garrison on the spot and ask General Boca to evacuate the town of Manresa." Divaggio tried to ask the Duke to express his own opinions.

"No!" Duke Sanchez stubbornly denied, "During the days of fighting and long-distance raids, Andrew's legion is exhausted. We must seek battle with him, destroy or defeat them before his strength is supplemented, so as to stabilize the situation in the north. Otherwise, once Andrew gains a foothold, the French in the west arrives at the Ebro River, and the situation in the south continues to turmoil, and then the entire kingdom will fall into an irresistible situation. Now I just hope that the independent and helpless General Boca can last longer, consume more French military strength, and create more favorable conditions for future battles, that's all."

"How likely do you think we are to win?" Divaggio tentatively, and there was a slight tremor on the corner of his mouth, but Duke Sanchez, who was worried, did not notice it.

"I don't know, maybe it's because of it, maybe it's just suicide." Duke Sanchez was not discouraged. He said extremely firmly: "As long as there is a glimmer of hope, we must fight to the end, in order to defend His Majesty the King and for the honor of soldiers."

"In order to defend His Majesty the King, is this bastard king really worthy of our service? For the honor of the soldiers, countless people need to die for him?" Divaggio asked himself in his heart.

...

In the dense woods more than ten miles away from the town of Lyrida, Colonel Shish was anxiously waiting for the team's return to his operation. His subordinates were tasked with completely blowing up the two only bridges near the town of Lyrida.

Since receiving the order from Commander Andrew, Colonel Shius has led a 421 special forces brigade and entered more than 200 miles in Spain. They were divided into several combat groups, each lying ambushed between the towns of Lerida and Manresa, carrying out activities to attack the enemy's commanders and destroy the Spanish traffic lines.

So far, they have completed 23 ambushings, 35 assaults, and killed 685 enemy commanders and soldiers and Spanish outposts (according to the regulations on the Special Forces Operations, no prisoners will be left behind during the period of going deep into the enemy). The results of the battle have completely interrupted the traffic connection between the two places, but the Special Forces Brigade also suffered five excellent soldiers. Compared with the losses suffered by the enemy, the casualties of the Special Forces Brigade can be ignored, but in the eyes of the commander Colonel Xiushe, any soldier under his command is extremely brave and not comparable to the incompetent Spanish army. 1,000 Spanish people are not as good as one special force.

Once, because the raid was exposed, two soldiers injured on their legs retreated smoothly to cover their companions and took the initiative to stay and delay the enemy. When they were shot several times by Spanish pursuers, they lit the medicine tied around their waists without hesitation, and died with the Spanish who were preparing to capture them. This was a tragic scene witnessed by Colonel Soushi, and it was yesterday afternoon.

The commander who had been used to life and death, still cannot forget it today. However, he imagined more that Lieutenant Madieu's mission today, completely blowing up the two only bridges near the town of Lerida under the enemy's eyelids.

It is 2:25 pm now, and Colonel Shush has confirmed the time. If less than 5 minutes later, the Colonel will not continue to wait, but will order the evacuation of the woods and start the new tasks assigned by Commander Andrew.

A burst of rapid horse hooves came from outside the woods. Colonel Shush and the special forces lying in the woods held their weapons tightly, waiting for news from the sentry.

"Password!"

"In the name of revolution!"

"It's Lieutenant Madieu and the others." Colonel Shush stood up straight and confirmed that his subordinates had returned safely.

"Report to the commander, the mission was completed successfully and the two bridges were completely damaged." Lieutenant Madieu came over and whispered to report the results of the operation.

"Very good, are there any casualties?"

"Commander Andrew blessed me, only the tiger was shot in the butt. Poor tiger, it seems that he can only marches on the back of a horse." The lieutenant laughed softly, but it attracted serious silent protest from the subordinate nicknamed "Tiger".

"Enough, there is a new mission now." Colonel Modification suppressed his smile and continued: "The commander ordered us to rush to a monastery in Segvia immediately and secretly rescue Princess Sophia who was imprisoned there. The first few teams have already set off first. Damn, you are a few minutes late, and I will leave too. Get packed up quickly, and in 5 minutes, everyone will set off!"
Chapter completed!