He Became Napoleon’S Genius Son [EN]: Chapter 419

Became Napoleon’s Genius Son – Episode 419 (420/547)

(419) Spain is the Origin of Guerrillas

So, is the war really over?

“Get out of the way! The walls are collapsing!”

There are armies that cannot yet dream of the glory of victory, celebratory receptions, or triumphal returns.

The Zaragoza assault force, originally the Masséna Corps claiming to be the Spanish Liberation Army, is one such army.

They boldly broke through the Pyrenees border but were stalled at Zaragoza, engaging in a siege.

Especially due to the British new weapon, [rockets], they had been bogged down for over half a year.

However, in February 1807, Zaragoza was finally breached.

-Kukukung!

Watching the mines explode and the walls collapse, Chief of Staff Major General Serboni sighed.

“The damage is truly immense, Marshal.”

“The fellows who fought in the vanguard today fought quite well. What was his name again? Marc?”

“Jean Maximilien Lamarque, sir. He was originally under General Moreau but volunteered for the Spanish Corps this time. He is quite brave.”

Lamarque, born in 1770, is now a 36-year-old general.

He was a more solid general than Schérer, who was in charge of the main camp, or Honoré Reille, who was in charge of the rear, though less flamboyant on the battlefield.

However, in later original history, he is more famous than Schérer, Reille, or perhaps even Masséna.

This is because Lamarque’s death is a significant event in Les Misérables.

Of course, now he is just a general faithfully engaged in the siege.

Thanks to him, Masséna’s Spanish Corps finally broke through Zaragoza’s seemingly impregnable defense line.

Masséna nodded and raised his telescope.

“It’s a pity I couldn’t bring Oudinot, but he’s a good enough replacement.”

“Now, the British will retreat, right?”

“Yes. Besides, there are no natural defenses south of Zaragoza, so we can go straight to Madrid. Hmph, they were really tough enemies.”

Masséna, carefully examining the direction of the walls, raised his marshal’s baton.

“Then, advance! Into Zaragoza!”

Under the command of Schérer, the main camp division commander, cavalry regiments and line infantry advanced.

-Dududu!

But the south gate of Zaragoza’s fortress is noisy.

In fact, Masséna deliberately did not deploy a complete encirclement during the siege.

This was because his goal was to capture Zaragoza and open a [route of advance] rather than annihilate the enemy.

In short, it was proceeding in a completely different way from Napoleon’s wars in Central Europe.

Therefore, even if the walls were breached, the enemy could easily escape from the battlefield.

Of course, this was also intended by Masséna.

After confirming the troops disappearing to the south, Serboni reported with a click of his tongue.

“They’re giving up more easily than I thought. They should have retreated sooner.”

“Arthur Wellesley or Marquis Romana must have reached their limits.”

“Our army barely held out thanks to the supplies airlifted from northern Italy and the south.”

In any case, war is a money-guzzling hippopotamus.

Even though Masséna’s corps had not suffered any particular defeats, continuous engagements inevitably consumed food and gunpowder.

Since Chilean saltpeter had not yet been developed, French gunpowder, more expensive than British gunpowder, which had control over India, also played a part.

However, the supply system in northern Italy, which Eugene had created at the beginning of the Italian campaign, shone brightly.

With Milan as the axis, the industrial complex of Turin and the maritime logistics system of Genoa were linked, and supplies came to Zaragoza via Nice, Marseille, and Toulouse.

Of course, that meant that Masséna’s corps had been filling their bellies with the tasteless canned food from Milan’s [Marie Thérèse Compagnie].

Masséna shook his head.

“I don’t want to see canned food ever again. It’s hard to open with a dagger! Let’s go to Madrid quickly! Huh?”

At that moment, Masséna, who was entering the city, widened his eyes.

-Kireek, bang!

If he hadn’t had the agility he displayed during his smuggling days, Masséna would have already died when he saw the muzzle.

The bullet fired from the shining muzzle in the middle of the window passed Masséna, who ducked his head.

The commander’s guards immediately fired.

-Bang! Bang! Bang!

However, despite being hit, the shooting did not stop.

-Kireek, bang! Kireek, bang! Kireek, bang!

Guns that were clearly old-fashioned matchlocks popped out from all over the city, and snipers opened fire.

The soldiers who had been marching triumphantly into the city scattered all at once in the face of the unexpected onslaught.

The corps command, riding on horseback, also had to retreat at once.

Brigadier General Gabriel Schérer, corps commander’s aide and commander of the direct division, ran up and shouted.

“Shots are being fired from the city!”

“Damn it, I confirmed that all the troops had retreated, what’s going on!”

“Citizens, it’s the citizens!”

Schérer, who had quickly grasped the situation even though he couldn’t break through it, shouted.

“Citizens are firing from the city!”

Suddenly, street fighting had begun.

In fact, European soldiers who had experienced the late 18th century were not familiar with this kind of street fighting.

It was common to decide the outcome in a battle or to fight around a fortress.

However, Masséna, a soldier who had experienced the civil war during the French Revolution, was surprised for a different reason and shouted.

“This doesn’t make sense!”

“Yes? Ah, right. Citizens, resisting a fully armed army!”

“Well, we saw that often during the revolution!”

Masséna shouted at the bewildered Schérer.

“What doesn’t make sense now is that they’re attacking our [liberation army]! Why on earth are the Spanish citizens attacking us? Not the nobles?”

The French army did not invade Spain to conquer it.

There was the justification of restoring the rightful king, the exiled Carlos IV, and driving out the invading British.

The support in Catalonia was also due to this justification.

But the citizens are attacking the French army, the liberation army?

“Someone, bring an interpreter who can speak Spanish! Now!”

Masséna shouted urgently, but the gunshots did not stop.

-Bang!

In the end, the Spanish Corps had to suffer more damage in the street fighting than in the siege.

***

It would be rare in history for a retreating army to be so relaxed.

“This is, well, [guerrilla warfare],” Arthur Wellesley said, passing through the mountainous area full of unpaved roads on the way south of Zaragoza.

Of course, to Wellesley, this level of road was no different from a fully paved road.

In any case, the places where Wellesley and his direct subordinates had fought ranged from southern India and the Deccan Plateau to northern India.

Wellesley’s [Red Coats] were the army that had repeatedly defeated the Mysore in the south and the Maratha Confederacy in the north.

In particular, in the Battle of Assaye against the Maratha Confederacy, they defeated 50,000 men with 5,000.

However, most of the British troops who came to Spain were not stationed in India, so from Wellesley’s point of view, they were mostly inexperienced recruits.

But even so, they were more disciplined than the Spanish army, so they looked like elite troops to Marquis Romana.

Looking around at the soldiers who had become docile thanks to the British army’s infamous whipping, Marquis Romana asked from his horse.

“Wh, what is that?”

“It means a small battle in Spanish. Right, Marquis Romana?”

“Oh, th, that’s how it’s interpreted?”

Wellesley laughed heartily and his eyes gleamed.

“What I saw when I fought the Hindus was that if ordinary residents have weapons and attack from cities or mountainous areas, it is difficult to repel even the most formidable regular army.”

“Oh, th, that certainly causes problems with supplies.”

“But, when I came here, I saw similarities to the battlefields of Mysore and Kottiote. The difference is that it’s a tropical jungle there, and this is an arid zone.”

Wellesley smiled, subtly boasting of his victories.

“We can sufficiently exhaust the French with this method. When they are completely exhausted, they will retreat. It’s possible if we give up just one element.”

The term [guerrilla] was originally coined by Wellesley in original history.

Fighting the French in Spain, Wellesley realized that a direct confrontation was difficult.

This was because the British mainland army was truly a ragtag group compared to the well-trained Grande Armée.

Moreover, the Spanish army was even more disorganized.

So Wellesley introduced the tactics of the resistance army he had seen in India to the Iberian Peninsula.

In short, it is a method of harassing the enemy by using terrain, cities, and popular sentiment.

This method, combined with the arrogance of the French army, was even more effective.

Of course, since Wellesley is the first to introduce the [stylized] method to Europe, Marquis Romana is hearing the term for the first time.

“Give up? What are you talking about?”

“The capital, the royal family, the government.”

“Not one thing? Wait, what did you say?”

The moment Marquis Romana opened his mouth wide, Wellesley looked at the marquis, who was the age of his father, and smiled.

“Look at Napoleon. In every war, he focuses on only one element, the enemy army. Now is the new century, the 19th century. The 19th century [modern warfare] should focus only on the annihilation of military power!”

Of course, it is true that the trend of war is changing after the French Revolution.

Also, Marquis Romana is a modern soldier who has had quite frequent contact with the French army.

But the marquis could not help but be shocked at the idea of abandoning the king.

“But are we going to abandon our king to defeat the enemy army? The government too? Even the capital?”

“Why are you being like this, Marquis? Anyway, the new king is just a puppet set up by the British, the great nobles, and the French exiled royalty, isn’t he?”

“Ahem! That’s, I shouldn’t say that carelessly.”

Marquis Romana coughed at Wellesley’s too blatant words.

But in fact, everyone knows that the new king, Fernando VII, is a puppet.

Besides, isn’t the self-proclaimed Louis XVII, a French exiled royal family member and not even British, sitting as regent?

“In the end, what’s important is to drive France, Napoleon, out of Spain. To do that, we must defeat France’s core, its military power. But Spain doesn’t have an army capable of that!”

In the end, Marquis Romana had no choice but to acknowledge Wellesley’s words.

“I’m ashamed.”

“Then we must use the residents! We must make them burn with animosity towards France. Hindus go wild when they are religiously insulted!”

“Oh, certainly the French ignore the church. Also, our farmers are devout Catholics.”

Having received a Enlightenment education, Marquis Romana is not exactly a fanatic.

In fact, even in Spain, which is famous as a backward country, nobles have received quite modern education.

But the situation is different for the peasant class.

They are more devout and more staunch fanatics than French farmers.

“Then the answer is simple. The enemies are infidels. So, fight to protect your faith! For the guardian of Catholicism, Fernando VII!”

Marquis Romana was impressed as he watched Wellesley spout words that Fernando VII would never even think of.

“Britain has really sent us a great general. Now, where are we going?”

“We’ve decided to abandon Madrid, right? We need to reorganize the army in Andalusia, to the south.”

“There’s a suitable place.”

Marquis Romana suddenly opened a portable map and replied.

“Valdepeñas, let’s wait for the enemy here.”

Now the Spanish army has decided to abandon the king.

***

However, the French army could not even reach Valdepeñas, which would remain as Spain’s victory in later original history.

“We’ve captured the king fleeing from Madrid!”

Masséna, who had run ahead, nodded heavily as he listened to Lamarque’s report.

Anyway, they had conquered the capital Madrid and captured the [fake] king.

They had missed the French throne claimants and the British had escaped, but this alone meant that they had completed their mission for now.

“We’ll take the king and send him to Paris.”

“But there’s a problem, Your Excellency.”

“What is it?”

Lamarque swallowed hard and said.

“The citizens of Madrid are now in an excited state and are flocking to the streets!”

Masséna twisted his lips as he looked at the armed citizens appearing in various parts of the city center.

“If he calculated even this, then Arthur Wellesley is truly amazing.”

“Yes? Marshal, what are you going to do?”

“Can I retreat here? If I do, my military career and France will be over.”

Masséna is used to riots.

No, most veterans of the French Imperial Army are.

Why?

Because during the Great Revolution, winning was a revolution and failing was a riot.

“We’ll shell them. The Imperial Army will never retreat in the face of rioters!”

There was a method that Napoleon used at the time.

-Shwiik, Kwang!

Grapeshot began to be fired in Madrid.

February 12, 1807.

It was the day that Spain would remember the French Imperial Army with blood.