Primo truly was Spain's pillar that steadied the seas.
With Primo present, the Spanish Army naturally faced no risk of splitting apart. United as one, the Spanish Army was also fiercely eager to fight when facing the Carlist rebels.
On February 17, 1870, the Spanish Army led by Primo encountered Basque rebels in La Rioja, and the two sides immediately erupted into fierce gunfire.
Although the Spanish Army still had many shortcomings compared to the Franco-Prussian Army, when facing Basque rebels inferior to them in both numbers and equipment, it was truly like a father beating his son—leaving them utterly helpless.
The Basques could indeed scrape together over a thousand muskets, but they could not even assemble a double-digit number of artillery pieces.
Hoping to defeat a Spanish Army armed with large quantities of artillery through line infantry tactics was less realistic than hoping the Spanish Army would surrender outright.
But Spain was not Italy, much less France. It had no such tradition of surrender.
After being bombarded by Italian artillery—a cannon made in Italy—the Basques immediately became obedient.
This was also the greatest difference between regular armies and militia hastily assembled from civilians: discipline and morale.
As long as someone panicked and began to flee, it would be a heavy blow to the Basque forces.
Panic spread through the Basque forces like a plague, quickly affecting the morale of the entire army.
For a temporary force made entirely of civilians, once morale scattered, the army scattered with it.
There was no need to say more about what followed. After suffering several hundred casualties, this Basque rebel force decisively chose to surrender.
Although this was not the entirety of the Basque rebels, for Basque separatists, it was no different from a blow to the head.
The Basque army they had painstakingly assembled had not even held out for a full day before the Spanish Army. It had completely collapsed in merely an hour and a half.
The artillery deployment alone had taken more than half an hour. The two armies had actually fought for less than an hour.
By the time news that the Basque vanguard had been successfully wiped out by Spain reached the Carlists, it was already February 18, a day later.
Although Carlos VII was somewhat surprised by the speed of the Basque army's collapse, he would not mourn the Basques' losses.
Not only did he not mourn them, Carlos VII was even somewhat excited at this moment.
Because he believed he had discovered the opening to defeat the Spanish Army, an opportunity to perfectly swing around behind them and encircle them.
Why did Carlos VII think so?
Because the place where the Spanish Army and the Basques had met was La Rioja, south of the Basque and Navarre regions.
Meanwhile, the Carlist rebels had already successfully moved westward from Catalonia into Aragon, placing them southeast of the main Spanish forces instead.
If the Carlist army could pass through Aragon and enter the south of La Rioja, it could join forces with the Basque army in northern La Rioja to encircle the Spanish Army.
No matter how strong the Spanish Army's combat power was, once it was surrounded from both sides, it was destined to be unable to escape the Carlists' grasp.
Carlos VII took a map and silently went over his plan several times in his mind. In the end, he decided this was a golden opportunity that could not be missed.
Several senior military officers in the Catalan army also echoed Carlos VII, making him brim with confidence. He felt that Primo's military talent, so lavishly praised by the Catalans, was actually nothing special.
On February 18, the Carlist rebels advanced toward Zaragoza in Aragon.
Zaragoza lay at the center of Aragon. Advancing from there would allow them to encircle the Spanish Army in La Rioja, while retreating would make it the first line of defense protecting Catalonia.
This was also one reason Carlos VII was so confident. He felt his plan was simply perfect, accounting for both the possibility of a successful encirclement and the possibility of failure, with corresponding solutions for each.
Could Primo fail to see what Carlos VII could see?
Of course not.
In fact, after Primo's main Spanish force entered the Castile-Leon region south of La Rioja, it immediately split into two columns to deal with the Basque and Catalan rebel forces.
Primo's plan was to eliminate the Basques first, then drive straight through Navarre and northern Aragon into Catalonia, completely concluding the entire campaign to suppress the rebellion.
He led the main body of the Spanish Army, around thirty thousand troops, northward to La Rioja, where they ultimately encountered the Basque forces.
The other, smaller force had only around ten thousand men, but it carried dozens of cannons. Its purpose was to establish a defensive line in Aragon before Primo finished dealing with the Basques, preventing the Catalan rebels from taking the opportunity to enter Castile-La Mancha from Aragon and Valencia, threatening Madrid, the heart of Spain.
For the same reason, Zaragoza was extremely important whether for attack or defense, due to its central position in Aragon.
The detachment responsible for defending against the Catalan rebels also chose Zaragoza as the focus of its defenses, and the moment it arrived there, it had already constructed artillery positions.
Looking at it this way, Carlos VII did possess a certain degree of military insight.
But fatally, Carlos VII had never imagined that Primo had divided his forces in advance. He still believed that Spain's main army was entirely in La Rioja.
When the Carlist rebels finally arrived at Zaragoza after great hardship, what awaited them was ten thousand Spanish soldiers standing ready in tight formation, along with dozens of cannons.
The Carlos rebels also had artillery.
But their cannons were antiques from more than a decade ago, or even several decades ago. In rate of fire, range, and accuracy, they were far inferior to the advanced artillery the Spanish Army had recently purchased.
The disparity in the artillery duel between the two sides was obvious, and the soldiers' experiences were even more worlds apart.
The Spanish Army could calmly withstand the enemy's artillery bombardment, because the enemy lagged far behind in both the number and sophistication of its guns.
But for the Carlist rebels, the experience was nowhere near so pleasant.
Even for those Catalan separatists, seeing someone blown into several pieces right before their eyes was an absolute visual shock.
A single glance was enough to make Catalan separatists seriously reconsider their stance.
And for the civilians brainwashed into joining the rebel army, the brutal scenes of war were a tremendous shock to the soul.
When had ordinary people ever seen such a sight? Especially when it now looked more like they were being shelled one-sidedly.
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