After a night of fierce fighting, the stubborn British army was finally wiped out. More than 30,000 British troops were wiped out in this battle, and more than 12,000 of them were captured. The fly in the ointment was that Arthur Wellesley rushed out of the encirclement with more than 10,000 people and fled to the north one mile. Similarly, the loss of the French army was not small, mainly because the cavalry corps lost more than 8,000 people, accounting for more than half of the total number. Now only 4,000 people can continue to fight, and the infantry has also lost nearly 4,000 people. It is said that if you kill one thousand enemies, you will lose eight hundred.
Having just finished a fierce battle, although Xiao Jie really wanted to pursue Arthur Wellesley, but considering that the soldiers were too tired, he had to let them rest for a day, and only started the pursuit the next day.
The 10,000 remnants led by Arthur Wellesley fled north desperately. They wanted to return to Santander on the Green Coast, where a small fleet of the British Navy was stationed, hoping to leave Spain with the help of the navy. . Due to yesterday's defeat, they lost all their supplies and were seriously short of ammunition and food. Food is relatively easy to solve and can be supplemented by looting, but ammunition cannot be solved. During the escape of the British army, incidents of robbery, killing or **** by soldiers continued to occur, which made the Spanish people's favor towards the British army extremely decline, and they turned to support the French army led by Xiao Jie, who did nothing to them. Arthur Wellesley didn't expect that even when he left Spain, he indirectly helped Xiao Jie a lot.
Two days later, Arthur Wellesley fled to Victoria, where they had a small supply base. Since the French army was a day behind them, the current pursuers had only reached Logroño, and there was still a distance from Victoria. Arthur? Wellesley originally wanted to use this time to take a brief rest and gather troops. But at this time, the French Cavalry Corps took advantage of their speed and appeared outside Victoria. Arthur? Wellesley knew that if he was entangled by them, he would definitely die, so he had to leave a regiment to contain them, and led the rest of the army to continue fleeing.
In this way, the two sides chased and fled. On December 28, Arthur Wellesley and his party finally arrived in Santander, and now there are only two regiments left in his hands. The other two regiments They were all ordered by him to stop the French army. Their end was nothing more than being defeated or captured by the French army.
Arriving at the Green Coast, Arthur Wellesley felt much better, and took the initiative to meet with Rear Admiral Lawrence, the commander of the fleet stationed here.
"Major General, the situation in Spain is very bad now. We have suffered a great defeat. Now the French army is chasing us. I hope you can help us get out of here." Arthur Wellesley is a A famous general, but now he is so humble to a major general, which can be described as a rare spectacle in the UK in a hundred years. Arthur Wellesley is also very tolerant, and explained in detail the saying that a man can bend and stretch.
"Your Excellency, as far as I know, the Ministry of War has not ordered you to withdraw from Spain, has it? Also, my mission is to garrison here, and I have not received an order to help you leave Spain. So unfortunately, I am sorry for your request. Nothing can be done." The major general replied proudly.
Arthur Wellesley clenched his hands into fists, his knuckles turned white from being pinched. But reason still suppressed the anger in his heart, and explained: "Your Excellency, there is no way to do this. Now the French army is not far from Santander, and it is estimated that it will arrive here in a day or two at most." , In such a short period of time, we have no time to ask the military for instructions, in order to save the lives of the brave soldiers, I hope to get your help."
"Hmph! Brave soldiers, that refers to our navy soldiers. Your army is really useless, and you've been kicked out like a homeless dog." Lawrence mocked without giving any face.
"You." Being ridiculed like this, Arthur Wellesley finally couldn't hold back the anger in his heart, and said in turn: "Your navy is powerful, but you were completely wiped out by others in Barcelona. ? Even the first-class battleships were captured by others."
Now the other party is begging for himself! Dare to say that about himself, Lawrence became angry immediately, and quarreled with Arthur Wellesley. Seeing that things were out of control, Frank patted his head helplessly, and then hurriedly went to smooth things over, and he didn't know how many good things he said before pulling the two away. Then he said to Lawrence: "Your Excellency, please help us because we are all part of the British Empire, otherwise we will die this time."
"Well, let me tell you the truth. I want to help you too, but I still can't do anything?" Lawrence said with a sigh.
Frank thought that the other party was still trying to evade, and quickly said: "Your Excellency, please rest assured, if we have to bear any responsibility for this matter, we will bear all the responsibility, and the general will never be blamed."
Lawrence knew that the other party had misunderstood, thinking that he was afraid of taking responsibility. Quickly explained: "This is not a question of taking responsibility, it is really that we are a little weak. My fleet is very small, only a third-tier battleship and 7 gunboats, 5 fast boats and 3 supply ships boat, and you have more than 5,000 people, we simply do not have the ability to take you all away."
This is a problem. Arthur Wellesley originally wanted to ridicule the other party for being so aggressive since he didn't have the ability to speak, but thought it would be better not to irritate the other party at this time, so he swallowed his words.
"Then can we gather some ships nearby?" Frank asked.
Hearing Lawrence's answer, both Arthur Wellesley and Frank frowned into a "Sichuan".
"Could it be that we have to abandon some soldiers again this time?" Arthur Wellesley and Frank looked at each other, and they both read the meaning from each other's eyes. Maybe it's because I don't feel ashamed after doing this kind of thing a lot, or Arthur? Wellesley nodded first.
After understanding what Arthur Wellesley meant, Frank asked, "Your Excellency, how many people can you take away at most?"
Lawrence thought for a moment and replied, "Up to 2,000 people, this is already our limit."
Both Arthur Wellesley and Frank fell silent, but they were not thinking about how to solve this problem, but were thinking about taking those people away.
"Your Excellency, please give us some time to think about it. We will think about it before answering you." Frank finally said.
"Okay then, but you better hurry up. According to what you said, the French are about to catch up. It seems that Santander can't hold it anymore, so we have to retreat." Lawrence sighed. Because their retreat represented another failure for Britain to intervene in the affairs of the European continent.
"We'll get back to you as soon as possible," Frank replied. And then left with Arthur Wellesley, starting to feel bad about taking those people away.
Arthur Wellesley and Frank discussed for a long time, and finally decided to take those people away, and those people abandoned in Spain. Those officers must be taken away, as well as Arthur Wellesley's immediate family and various elites. The rest of the insignificant people are discarded like garbage.
After confirming the candidate, Frank found Lawrence again. Lawrence told him to quietly gather the people who were to be taken away at the pier at two o'clock in the morning, and they left at night. You must know that if other soldiers know that they have been abandoned, it will be a big deal. Mutiny and so on are good. If they want to kill them as officials because of anger, it will be troublesome.
When Arthur Wellesley and the others were thinking about leaving Spain, Xiao Jie's army was already very close to Santander. Among them, the cavalry corps had already arrived in Bilbao, only about 60 kilometers away from Santander. , at their speed, they can arrive in two hours at most.
"Cavalry, General, the French cavalry has arrived." An officer hurriedly ran into Arthur Wellesley's headquarters.
"What? They came so fast. Organize troops to block them." Arthur Wellesley ordered quickly. And sent Frank to inform Lawrence, let him advance the plan.
On the afternoon of the 28th ~www.mtlnovel.com~ the cavalry corps finally reached Santander and launched an attack on the British army, but was blocked. As a last resort, they had to stop their attack and wait for the arrival of large troops. This just gave Arthur Wellesley time to flee.
The situation was critical, and Arthur Wellesley ignored those who were determined to be taken away from Spain. He only called together officers at all levels in the name of a meeting, and then brought them aboard the Navy's warship. I can't take care of that much anymore.
The officer's flight caught the attention of the soldiers. At this time, they no longer cared about defending the French, and ran to the pier one after another, hoping to leave here on a navy warship. The change of the British army attracted the attention of the French cavalry corps. They launched an attack again, but they basically encountered no resistance. When they arrived at the pier, they found that the warships of the British Navy had already left, leaving only these soldiers who were too late to evacuate. Being abandoned, these soldiers had no resistance anymore and surrendered to the French army one after another.
Arthur Wellesley's departure marked the failure of Britain's intervention in France's occupation of Spain. Arthur Wellesley stood quietly on the deck. He didn't know what would be waiting for him after returning home. Maybe it would be a court-martial.
(To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to .FU., more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)