Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 38 Confident Carlos

Primo is indeed the pillar of Spain.

With Primo there, the Spanish army would naturally not face the risk of splitting. The united Spanish army had a strong desire to fight when facing the Carlos rebels.

On February 1870, 2, the Spanish army led by Primo and the Basque rebels met in the La Rioja region, and the two sides immediately engaged in fierce fighting.

Although the Spanish army still had many shortcomings compared to the Franco-Prussian army, when facing the Basque rebels who were inferior in numbers and equipment, it was like a father beating his son, which made the Spanish army lose its temper.

It is true that the Basques could gather thousands of muskets, but they could not even gather double-digit artillery pieces.

It would be better to expect the Spanish army to surrender directly than to rely on line infantry tactics to defeat the Spanish army equipped with a large number of artillery.

But Spain is not Italy, let alone France, and it does not have that kind of tradition of surrender.

After being bombarded by Italian cannons (cannons made in Italy), the Basques instantly became obedient.

This is also the biggest difference between the regular army and the militia hastily formed by civilians, that is, discipline and morale.

As long as some people started to panic and run away, it would be a heavy blow to the Basque army.

The panic spread among the Basque army like a plague, and soon affected the morale of the entire army.

For a makeshift army composed entirely of civilians, if morale is lost, the army will also be disbanded.

There is no need to say much about what happened next. After suffering hundreds of casualties, the Basque rebels simply chose to surrender.

Although these were not all Basque rebels, it was a heavy blow to Basque independence activists.

The Basque army they had worked so hard to build did not even last a day against the Spanish army and was completely defeated in just an hour and a half.

The deployment of the artillery took more than half an hour, and the two armies actually fought for less than an hour.

By the time the news that the Basque vanguard had been successfully wiped out by Spain reached the Carlists, it was already a day later, on February 2.

Although Carlos VII was somewhat surprised at the speed of the Basque army's defeat, he did not regret the losses of the Basques.

Not only did he not feel regretful, but Carlos VII was even a little excited at this moment.

Because he thought he had found an opportunity to defeat the Spanish army and an opportunity to perfectly outflank the Spanish army.

Why did Carlos VII think so?

Because the place where the Spanish army and the Basques encountered each other was in La Rioja, which is the southern part of the Basque and Navarre regions.

At present, the Carlist rebels have successfully entered Aragon from Catalonia to the west, and are located southeast of the main Spanish forces.

If the Carlist army could enter the south of La Rioja through Aragon, it would be able to work with the Basque army in the north of La Rioja to implement its plan of encircling the Spanish army.

No matter how strong the Spanish army is, as long as they are surrounded on two sides, they are doomed to be trapped by the Carlists.

Carlos VII took a map and thought about his plan several times in his mind. Finally, he felt that this was an opportunity that could not be missed. Several senior military officials in the Catalan army also echoed Carlos VII, which made Carlos VII confident. He felt that the military talent of Primo, which the Catalans boasted about, was actually average.

On February 2, Carlos' rebels marched towards Zaragoza in Aragon.

Zaragoza is located in the center of the Aragon region. It can be used to encircle the Spanish army in La Rioja, and can also serve as the first line of defense to protect the security of Catalonia.

This is also one of the reasons why Carlos VII was so confident, because he felt that his plan was perfect, taking into account both the possibility of siege success and failure, and having corresponding solutions for both.

Could it be that Primo could not see the problem that Carlos VII could see?

of course not.

In fact, after the main Spanish army led by Primo entered the Castile and León region in the south of La Rioja, it immediately split into two groups to deal with the Basque and Catalan rebel forces.

Primo's plan was to eliminate the Basques first, and then go straight to Catalonia through Navarre and northern Aragon to complete the entire counterinsurgency operation.

He led the main body of the Spanish army, about 30,000 troops, north to La Rioja, and eventually met the Basque army.

The other small-scale force had only about 10,000 people, but they carried dozens of cannons. Their purpose was to organize a line of defense in Aragon before Primo dealt with the Basques, to prevent the Catalan rebels from taking the opportunity to enter Castile-La Mancha from Aragon and Valencia and threaten Madrid, the heart of Spain.

For the same reason, Zaragoza is located in the center of Aragon, which makes it very important both in offense and defense.

The branch force responsible for defending against the Catalan rebels also chose Zaragoza as the focus of defense, and built artillery positions as soon as they arrived in Zaragoza.

From this perspective, Carlos VII actually had a certain military vision.

But the problem was that Carlos VII never expected that Primo had divided his troops in advance. He thought that the main Spanish troops were all in the La Rioja region.

When the Carlos rebels finally arrived in Zaragoza, they were greeted by 10,000 Spanish troops and dozens of artillery pieces that were ready for battle.

Carlos' rebels also have artillery.

But their artillery pieces were antiques from more than a decade or even decades ago, and their firing speed, range and accuracy were far inferior to the advanced artillery pieces recently purchased by the Spanish army.

The artillery fire from both sides seemed to be very different, and the feelings of the soldiers on both sides were even more different.

The Spanish army could easily deal with the enemy's artillery bombardment because the enemy was far behind in the number and sophistication of its artillery.

But for the Kalos rebels, the feeling was not so wonderful.

Even for those Catalan independence activists, watching someone being blown into pieces in front of their eyes was an absolute visual shock.

Just one glance is enough to make Catalan independence activists think seriously about their position.

For those civilians who were brainwashed into joining the rebels, the brutal war scenes were a huge shock to their souls.

How could ordinary people have ever seen such a scene? Moreover, it seemed more like they were being bombarded unilaterally.

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(End of this chapter)