At noon the next day, Marquis Talavera watched the French Army receding eastward and complained to the officer beside him with a dark expression:
"Those cunning French! We've already secured every region north of the Douro River. There's no need whatsoever to protect any supply line.
"He wouldn't even take my advice and go to Penafiel. God, he just wants to hide in the rear and loaf around!"
Penafiel lay thirty kilometers east of Porto. If necessary, it could also provide support to the troops from Spain besieging Porto.
Yet Junot insisted on stationing his troops at Real, nearly a hundred kilometers away, so that he could "protect the logistical supply line."
One had to know that Real was only 120 kilometers from the border with Spain. It was absolutely in the rear of the Franco-Spanish Allied Forces.
However, under the Franco-Spanish Alliance Agreement, Marquis Talavera had no authority to command Junot's troops.
So after venting for a while, he could only lead his army toward Porto in frustration.
The Franco-Spanish Allied Forces had previously launched a surprise attack and easily taken Almeida Fortress on the Spanish-Portuguese border. After that, they encountered almost no resistance along the way and reached Porto in less than twenty days.
Thus, everyone in Madrid now believed he could take Porto in short order, placing enormous pressure on him. Yet at such a critical moment, Junot was abandoning him to rest and reorganize. How could he not be filled with resentment?
Meanwhile, after the French Army's winding marching column had headed east for most of the day, Major Renier, commander of the Skirmisher Battalion, finally could not hold back any longer. He approached Junot's side and asked quietly, "Regiment Commander, are we really going to Real?"
He gestured toward the soldiers beside them. "Look, everyone