But Joseph quickly understood the reason behind it.
The British Government was nowhere near as wealthy as it had been in history, so it could only choose to sacrifice Portugal's interests to stabilize the Porto defensive line. This already counted as a tremendous victory for France.
One had to know that, in history, France had dispatched a full 65,000 troops, along with such famed generals as Massena, Ney, and Junot, and spent nearly two years before forcing Duke Wellington to implement a scorched-earth policy.
Yet now, Junot had taken only 5,000 French troops into Portugal and achieved the same result.
However, faced with a scorched-earth situation, the Spanish Army's logistics would soon become impossible to sustain.
Then the original plan would be completely impossible to carry out.
Once the Spanish Army, having exhausted its logistical supplies, suffered Wellesley's counterattack, it would certainly be unable to withdraw in an orderly fashion and would be completely shattered. Even if Junot launched an ambush at Lagoaça, so long as he did not utterly annihilate the Anglo-Portuguese Army—Junot's 5,000 men could at most rout several tens of thousands of enemy troops—the subsequent war in Portugal would become France's burden alone.
What Joseph wanted was for Spain to wear down the United Kingdom, not for France and the United Kingdom to wear each other down.
Therefore, the most urgent matter was to preserve Talavera's 30,000 troops first.
He immediately said to Berthier, "Have Marquis Talavera withdraw to Almeida Fortress as soon as possible.
"At the same time, order Junot Corps to abandon the ambush plan and proceed to Porto to receive the Spaniards."
Berthier said in surprise, "Your Highness, that would mean abandoning all the gains we have achieved so far."
Almeida Fortress lay on the Spain-Portugal border. This was practically a direct retreat back