Turning the Tables (4)

The battle did not end with the fall of the wall. The Britain knew what they had done to the Ireland, so they resisted fiercely. In the end, the Irish First Division was victorious, but at the cost of hundreds of casualties.

The casualty figures frustrated Joyce, because if every subsequent outpost required such a cost to capture, his Irish First Division wouldn't be able to fight many more battles. What angered him even more was that at the last moment, the Britain set fire to the warehouses, burning a large amount of valuable supplies.

No matter how successful this counter-offensive is, the base will certainly suffer severe damage. Under these circumstances, the captured supplies become especially important. Therefore, the failure to capture more supplies made Joyce increasingly frustrated.

If Joyce knew the Irish Second Division's achievements, he would surely be even more heartbroken. The Irish Second Division had captured four supply depots in the Waterford area in a single day, with minimal casualties. The Irish Second Division's commander, O'Hara, was incredibly bold; he divided his approximately nine hundred men into four detachments, which attacked the four depots almost simultaneously, and all were successful. Naturally, the Irish Second Division also amassed a greater spoils.

Enraged, Joyce not only slaughtered all the Britain, but also hanged all the officers of rank 1 and above from the "Black Dogs" who had helped with the defense. Since everything was burned, they weren't needed to move anything.

However, what Joyce hadn't anticipated was the effect that news of his nighttime assault to capture the British Army outpost would have.

When this news spread, the British Army immediately lost confidence in holding the outpost with a small force. Of course, under orders, they dared not abandon the outpost and run away. But their reluctance did not mean others dared not; the "Black Dogs" who had been brought in to help defend the outpost were a different story. Even if the British Army soldiers wanted to run, they had nowhere to go. But for the "Black Dogs," running away was no problem at all.

Previously, the "black dogs" (referring to the guerrillas) thought they could fight the guerrillas alongside the Britain. If they couldn't win, they could surrender and the guerrillas would grant them a "surrender and no death" guarantee. Naturally, they would follow the Britain and fight the guerrillas first. Following the Britain meant there would be food to be had, and if the Britain were defeated, there would be a way out. But now it seems that at least they're sticking with the Britain to guard the outposts. If they lose, that way out might not be so certain.

Moreover, as everyone has seen, the defensive battle was unsuccessful. So when Joyce led his army to attack the third outpost, he found that the outpost had an unusually small number of defenders, leaving many areas undefended. As a result, Joyce quickly captured it.

After capturing the outpost, Joyce learned that it originally housed over fifty Britain and more than three hundred "Black Dogs," but upon learning of Joyce's approaching army, the "Black Dogs" scattered in panic, and as a result...

As a result, the Duke of Norfolk had no choice but to issue an emergency order, abandoning some less important outposts and concentrating his forces on the most crucial ones, while also ordering troops to be recalled from the front lines. Recalling troops almost meant admitting defeat, so some of the Duke of Norfolk's advisors, unwilling to accept defeat, suggested to the governor that perhaps only a portion of the troops could be recalled, as a smaller force would be sufficient to re-secure the logistical lines. However, this suggestion was quickly rejected by the Duke.

"Gentlemen, one of the most common mistakes in the world is to continue investing effort in something that has already failed because of an unwillingness to accept defeat. Let us be generous and confident in acknowledging that the rebels' actions have exceeded our expectations. Moreover, they have almost completely cut off our army's supply lines."

Gentlemen, what would happen if we were to recall an army?

Recalling an army involves more than just that one army. Such a move often creates a significant gap in the entire battle line, giving the enemy the opportunity to defeat them piecemeal. Of course, considering that our current enemy may not have the ability to eliminate even one of our armies in open battle, we can tolerate this deficiency.

Even so, such troop movements must be carried out with extreme caution and organization. Military orders must not be sent only to the troops being transferred, but must be issued to every troop involved. Even so, significant chaos is still unavoidable. Consequently, our operational efficiency in non-security zones will inevitably decline.

Meanwhile, everyone knows how demanding logistics are with tens of thousands of troops operating in hostile territory. Even if we could restore the supply lines with a force we recall now, could our troops at the front wait that long? Sure, the rebels have potatoes in their fields, but those potatoes aren't ripe yet. Besides, do you all want our troops to be completely scattered, spending all their time digging potatoes like groundhogs?

Gentlemen, let's face reality. Every second we delay, the greater our losses become...

Generally speaking, the most difficult part of military operations is not attacking, but retreating. This is especially true when retreating in front of the enemy without achieving the objective. The British Army is relatively good at this tactic, but the "Security Army," who are already poorly trained and whose morale is not high, can only say, "We can't do it."

In addition, the county detachments and district squads, adhering to the principle of "picking on the weak," generally avoided fighting the British Army if they could fight the Security Army. As a result, the more than 40,000 "Security Army" were in complete chaos, and the British Army could not simply abandon them all in their base areas—that would be tantamount to handing over equipment to the "rebels." However, taking care of them and leading them along made the entire retreat a mess.

The guerrillas, naturally, took advantage of this opportunity to fire a few shots here and lay a few landmines there. Although the casualties inflicted on the Britain were limited each time, the total number of casualties increased dramatically when these small numbers were added up. If the governor hadn't ordered the British Army to bring out as many "Security Army" as possible, many British Army officers would have preferred to simply ditch the "Security Army" and go back on their own.

The retreat, accompanied by the "Security Army," proceeded slowly and clumsily. Finally, when all troops, or "suspected troops," had returned to their starting positions and the losses were tallied, the British Army had suffered over a thousand casualties in this campaign (primarily due to the Claymore Mine).

As for the "Security Army," there were basically no casualties to be counted, because they simply abandoned the dead and the wounded. However, the number of "missing" members of the "Security Army" was alarmingly high. Of the more than 40,000 Security Army, less than 34,000 returned, with 6,000 to 7,000 "missing."

Besides the six or seven thousand people who "disappeared," they lost even more weapons. They lost more than half of their firearms. Needless to say, these items were donated to the cause of the Ireland people's liberation. However, the Ireland guerrillas were so unprofessional that they didn't even issue a receipt.

Thus, the Britain second major offensive ended in a dismal fashion. Both sides returned home to assess their gains and losses and draw conclusions.

Such a failure naturally required an investigation into who should be held responsible, and the Duke of Norfolk was summoned back to London to face parliamentary questioning. During the questioning, when the Whig Party asked "who should be held responsible for this failure," the Duke frankly admitted that he had to bear "his own responsibility" for the defeat. However, he also pointed out that his misjudgment was due to the France increasing their support for the Ireland rebels. He stated, "The Ireland question will not be resolved in the short term unless the France hand in Ireland is severed."

The Whig Party MPs were naturally very dissatisfied with the Duke of Norfolk's statement, but none of them intended to pursue the matter further. The reason was simple: the Britain also play the "you say he can't do it? You do it then" game. Through questioning the Duke of Norfolk, even the Whig Party understood one thing: Ireland was now a fire pit, and no one who jumped in would suffer. So it was best to let the Tory Party remain there.

The Whig Party quickly adopted a unified narrative, stating that the Duke of Norfolk's work in Ireland had been excellent and effective, and that the current deterioration was not the Duke of Norfolk's fault, but rather the result of the Tory Party government's failure to sever ties France and Ireland.

The Tory Party government, of course, retorted, pointing out that the reason for these problems was that Whig Party were holding the government back in Parliament.

Of course, that alone is not enough. The most important thing now is to stop the Ireland from receiving any more foreign aid.

Therefore, the Britain first contacted the France again and proposed new peace terms.

Compared to before, the Britain are now offering much more sincere terms. They have almost recognized all the rights France has acquired on the Europe continent except for Hanover, and they are even willing to reclaim Hanover through an exchange.

In the past, France would probably have accepted these conditions. Even now, many people would find them acceptable. But Joseph strongly opposed them. He said to Napoleon, who had returned to France for vacation, "If there is truly peace? Where will you go to win glory?"

"And you, Joseph," Napoleon replied, "Where will your Military-Industrial Consortium get its money?"

Therefore, France put forward a peace proposal: for the sake of peace, the Britain should grant the Ireland a high degree of autonomy, allowing them to establish a truly autonomous government that represents Ireland people, based on the Society of United Irishmen.

Thus, the peace talks naturally broke down.