The battle did not end with the fall of the wall. The British knew what they were doing to the Irish, so they put up an unusually fierce resistance, and in the end, of course, the 1st Division was victorious, but at the cost of hundreds of casualties.

This casualty figure frustrated Joyce, because if every station after that had to pay such a price to take it, his first division would not be able to fight a few battles. What made him even more annoyed was that at the last moment, the British set fire to the warehouses and burned a large amount of valuable supplies.

No matter how successful the operation is, the base areas will certainly suffer serious damage. These seized materials, under such a premise, are particularly important. As a result, more supplies were not seized, which made Joyce even more frustrated.

If Joyce had known the results of the Second Division, he would have been even more sad. The 2nd Division had already taken four stations in the direction of Watford in one day, and the casualties were still very small. The commander of the 2nd Division, O'Hara, was very bold, and he directly divided his troops of 900 men into four detachments, and attacked four military stations almost simultaneously, and all of them were successful. Of course, the capture of the second division was naturally more.

So in a fit of rage, Joyce not only killed the British, but also hung up the officers above the platoon commander of the "black dogs" who helped them participate in the defensive battle. Everything was burned anyway, and they didn't need to move it.

But what Joyce didn't expect was the effect of the news that he had taken the British garrison in a stormy way at night.

When this news came out, the British army immediately lost confidence in holding the station with small troops. Of course, they were forced by military orders and did not dare to leave their military stations and run away. But they don't dare, it doesn't mean that others don't dare, and the "black dogs" who were pulled in to assist the guards are different. Even if the British soldiers wanted to, they had nowhere to run. But if the "black dogs" want to run, there is really no problem at all.

In the past, the "black dogs" felt that they could fight the guerrillas with the British first, and if they could not fight and they surrendered, the guerrillas would also give them a "surrender their guns but not kill". In this way, it is natural to follow the British as guerrillas first. Because there is meat to eat with the British, and in case the British are finished, there is also a way out. But now it seems that at least follow the British to defend the station, in case of defeat, this retreat is really not necessarily possible.

And everyone has seen the results of the defensive battle, and it is really impossible to prevent it, so when Joyce led the army to attack the third station, he found that the defensive forces in the station were surprisingly small, so that many places could not be taken care of. The result was quickly beaten down by Joyce.

After the fight, Joyce asked and found out that there were originally more than 50 Britons and more than 300 "black dogs" in this military station, but after knowing that Joyce's army was approaching, the "black dogs" scattered in a hurry, and the result was ......

As a result, the Duke of Norfolk had no choice but to give an urgent order to abandon some of the less important strongholds, concentrate his forces on the most important ones, and order the repatriation of troops from the front. The transfer of troops almost means admitting the failure of the sweep, so some of the Duke of Norfolk's staff officers who were unwilling to fail asked the governor whether it was possible to recall only a part of the army first, because only a part of the army was needed to re-ensure the safety of the logistics line. However, this proposal was quickly rejected by the Duke:

"Ladies and gentlemen, one of the most common mistakes in the world is to continue to invest in what has already failed, because we are not willing to fail. Let us be generous and confidently admit that the rebels' move exceeded our expectations. Moreover, they have almost completed the truncation of the logistical line of our army.

Ladies and gentlemen, if we were to bring back an army, what would happen?

When an army is repatriated, it involves more than just an army. This kind of maneuver often creates a significant gap in the entire front, thus giving the enemy a chance to break through. Of course, considering that our enemies today may not have the ability to destroy even one of our troops in a field battle alone, we are not intolerable to this kind of defect.

But even so, this kind of transfer must be very careful and very organized. Military orders must not be given only to the army that has been transferred, but must be given new orders to each army involved. Even so, great chaos is inevitable. As a result, it is inevitable that our combat effectiveness in non-security areas will decline.

At the same time, tens of thousands of troops operate in hostile areas, and everyone knows how high the logistical requirements are. Even if one of the teams we recall now will be able to restore the lines of communication, will our troops on the front line be able to wait until that time? Yes, there are potatoes in the rebels' fields, but the potatoes are not yet ripe, and besides, do you want to spread our army apart and then dig potatoes in the ground like prairdogs all day?

Gentlemen, let's face it, for every second we delay now, we lose a second......"

Generally speaking, in military operations, the most difficult thing is not to attack, but to retreat. Especially if the goal is not achieved, it is even more difficult to retreat in front of the enemy. The British army was able to complete such tactics relatively well, but it lacked training in the first place, and now the morale is not very high, and the "security army" can only say that "the concubines can't do it".

In addition, those county brigades, district squads, or whatever, they all uphold the principle of "persimmon picking up soft pinching", and basically can fight the security army, but not the British army. As a result, more than 40,000 "security forces" were in a mess, and the British army could not really leave them all in the base areas - if that was the case, it would be tantamount to sending equipment to the "rebels". However, if you have to take care of them and take them with you, the whole retreat will become a mess.

The partisans, naturally, took advantage of this opportunity to shoot twice here and plant a few mines there, and although the casualties inflicted on the British were limited each time, when these small numbers were put together, the final number suddenly became larger. If it weren't for the Governor-General's insistence that the British army must bring out the "security forces" as much as possible, many British officers would have been eager to get rid of these "security forces" and go back by themselves.

The retreat with the "security forces" proceeded slowly and clumsily. Eventually, when all the troops, or "suspected troops", had withdrawn to their starting positions, and the losses were counted, the British had suffered more than 1,000 casualties in this campaign (mainly due to broadsword mines).

As for the "security forces", there are basically no casualties, because whether they are dead or injured, they have been directly left behind. But on the side of the "security forces", the number of "missing" is a bit scary. Of the more than 40,000 security forces, less than 34,000 returned, and 6,700 were "missing."

In addition to the six or seven thousand people who were "missing", they also had even more missing weapons, and they lost more than half of their firearms, needless to say, all of which were donated to the cause of the liberation of the Irish people, but the Irish partisans were so irregular that they didn't even open a receipt.

Thus, the second sweep of the British ended in a hurry. Both sides went back to their homes to take stock of the gains and losses, and began to summarize.

Of course, responsibility for such a failure must be investigated, and the Duke of Norfolk was also asked to return to London to be questioned by Parliament. When questioned about who should be held responsible for this defeat, the Duke frankly admitted that he had to bear "his own share of responsibility" for this defeat, but he also pointed out that he had made a mistake because the French had increased their support for the Irish rebels. And said: "If the hand of the French is not cut off for Ireland, the problem of Ireland is not a problem that can be solved in the short term." ”

The Whig MPs, of course, were very unhappy with the Duke of Norfolk's statement, but no one had any intention of pursuing the Duke. The reason is actually simple. Because the British will also forget "you say he can't do it, you can do it". And through the questioning of the Duke of Norfolk, even the Whigs understood one thing, that is: Ireland is now a fire pit, and it is not good for anyone to jump into it. So it's better to let the Tories stay there.

So the Whigs quickly unified their voices, they said. The Duke of Norfolk's work in Ireland was excellent and fruitful, and the deterioration of the situation was not the fault of the Duke of Norfolk, but the failure of the Tory government to sever the French and Ireland's ties.

The Tory government, of course, also retorted, pointing out that the reason for these problems was that the Whigs were dragging the government back in Parliament.

Of course, this is not enough, and the most important thing now is to prevent the Irish from continuing to receive foreign aid.

To this end, the British first made contact with the French again and proposed new terms of peace.

Compared with before, the conditions of the British can be said to be quite sincere, they almost recognize all the rights that France has obtained on the European continent except Hanover, and even Hanover, they are willing to take back by way of exchange.

If it had been before, such a condition, France would probably have accepted it. Even now, many people find it acceptable. But Joseph was very much against this. He told Napoleon, who had returned to France for a vacation: "What if there was really peace? So where are you going to win the merit? ”

"And you, Joseph." Napoleon replied, "Where is your military-industrial complex going to get money?" ”

So the French put forward a peaceful counter-proposal, and the French suggested that, for the sake of peace, the British should give the Irish a high degree of autonomy and allow the Irish to establish a real self-government on behalf of the Irish on the basis of the United Irish Union.

As a result, the peace talks naturally broke down.