Rest Assured

Because of those damned France, the Spain army's first offensive suffered a crushing defeat. The "rebels" chased the army all the way into the trenches the army had dug, and then chased them back out of the trenches... If General Franco hadn't acted decisively and immediately ordered the artillery to open fire with grapeshot, blasting away both the fleeing cowards and the pursuing rebels, the army might have truly collapsed.

Even so, it was still a major defeat. According to the Mexico, the Spain army lost more than 300 corpses, more than 200 were captured, and countless others were wounded.

As for the Spain, according to their records, they didn't suffer many casualties; the number of dead was less than fifty. Moreover, they killed thousands of rebels. Because of the large number of killings, many soldiers developed psychological problems. To appease the soldiers and soothe their kind hearts, General Franco had no choice but to order a temporary retreat. It's clear that the Spain army was truly a benevolent force... Whether you believe it or not, the Spain pretended to believe it.

After this defeat, the Spain morale was low, and many soldiers felt that charging the enemy's trenches without trench guns was simply suicide. The soldiers were thus filled with murmurs and discussions.

"Herrera, let me tell you, that trench gun, it can fire in bursts. It can hold eight bullets at a time, and pulling the lever fires one shot. Each shot fires 12 bullets, and each bullet has about the same power as a revolver. One blast and a whole bunch of enemies are gone. It's incredibly accurate, one shot, one kill. Herrera, let me tell you, if you don't have this, and you go into the trenches and encounter someone with one, don't you think you're doomed?"

"Oh, Romero, you don't know, I heard that these guns were originally meant to be sold to us, but the people back home said they were too expensive, and our guns are usable... so we didn't buy them. Then the rebels found out and spent money to buy all the guns we hadn't bought..."

"Oh? Is that so?"

"Of course, I heard it from Guzman. His brother-in-law is a quartermaster, so he must have heard it from him..."

"If you ask me, if we're not equipped with trench rifles, we can't be stupid enough to charge in and die..."

"If you don't rush forward, the officer will shoot you dead."

As a result, due to low morale, the royal army was unable to launch an attack for several days. On the other side, the Mexico, who had won the battle, were also frowning.

"In this battle, we used up almost half of our Claymore and a third of our Little Melon, as well as a considerable amount of artillery shells. Well, we can't make our own rifled cannon shells, so we have to buy them. And then there are the trench gun bullets..." General Allende frowned as he reported to President Hidalgo.

"So, if the enemy launches a few more attacks like this, we'll run out of supplies?" President Hidalgo asked. "Why is this consumption rate so much higher than previously planned?"

"When we were making the plan, we didn't take the soldiers' situation into account. The soldiers were too excited at the time, so they used these things without restraint... Moreover, the enemy's attack methods were also different from what we had expected."

Then everyone fell silent.

After a long pause, President Hidalgo finally spoke, "Allende, my friend, tell me, if the enemy launches another attack, are our current supplies sufficient to repel them?"

"Perhaps... but Mr. President... I think we still need more supplies."

Perhaps anticipating the difficulties faced by the revolutionary army, after resting for two days, the Spain royal army launched another attack. This time, they attacked simultaneously from multiple directions. Although their attack was repelled again, and the Spain suffered heavy losses once more, the revolutionary army's resource consumption was even greater than in the previous battle. Allende had to appeal to Hidalgo again, hoping the president could find a way to procure more supplies. On the other hand, after this attack was repelled, due to the heavy casualties, the Spain soldiers even mutinied, forcing General Franco to promise to suspend the attack until the soldiers were equipped with trench guns.

With the spirit of "the more debt, the less worry," President Hidalgo, using mining rights in northern Mexico as collateral, once again requested loans from various banks. At the same time, the Spain also approached the Louisiana Bonaparte Arsenal, hoping to purchase a batch of trench rifles as soon as possible.

Bonaparte Arsenal immediately agreed. They told the Spain that the military trench rifles needed to be shipped from the mainland, which would take at least two months. However, if they were willing to pay more, they could also sell them civilian pump-action shotguns intended for hunting.

"We have three thousand civilian pump-action shotguns here, but as you know, civilian firearms are significantly more expensive than military firearms," explained Manager Oort of Bonaparte Arsenal Louisiana distribution office. "While the performance of the two types of guns isn't drastically different, civilian products are always more refined. For example, the stocks on military guns are just made of whatever wood they have. But the civilian versions are much more sophisticated; the stocks are made of genuine black walnut wood, which naturally increases the price. If you'd like to order these guns, we can ship them to you immediately."

So the Spain quickly decided to buy the three thousand trench guns from the France. To be honest, the Spain didn't need that many, but if they only bought half, the other half might soon be sold to someone else by those unscrupulous France.

Therefore, in order to prevent these civilian firearms from being sold to rebels, the Spain had no choice but to buy them all at the "preferential price" offered by the France.

"Sigh, if only we had known this would happen, we would have bought them before the expeditionary force even set off; it would have been much cheaper," Governor Gomez lamented.

On the other hand, the Bonaparte Arsenal deposited all the payments received into the Louisiana Development Bank. This money, barely deposited, was immediately taken out and lent to the "Mexican Republican Government," then turned back into payments for the Bonaparte Arsenal, and then deposited back into the Louisiana Development Bank.

"My friend, we are now so indebted that I can hardly sleep at night because of it," President Hidalgo complained to a friend. The friend, however, smiled and comforted him, "Mr. President, you should be relieved now. Think about it, the France have lent you so much money; how could they allow your business to fail unless the Spain are willing to repay their loan?"