To De Celin's surprise, the southern Carlos forces, supported by this batch of emergency arms, not only quickly repelled the attack of the still chaotic government forces, but also joined forces with the greatly expanded Carlos army that had just captured Bilbaye, and flanked Catalonia.

Catalonia, like the Basque Country, is located on the border between Spain and France, and like the Basque Country, part of Catalonia was ceded to France due to the war between France and Spain.

Serrano had just stabilized the regime, but before he could rescue Catalonia, the region was lost under the triple blow of a combined attack by the Carlos faction and the local uprising.

Carlos declared that the Catalans would be given the same high degree of autonomy as the Basques, allowing the Catalans to establish their own state, the Duchy of Catalonia, to make their own laws, to establish their own parliament, to establish their own government, and at the same time the Catalan government made the same commitment as the Basque government, that it would recognize Carlos' dominion over Catalonia and support Carlos in this war until Carlos took control of all of Spain.

The Basque Country and Catalonia were occupied by the Carlos, and the entire border region between Spain and France became the power of the Carlos.

At this time, Germany negotiated with Britain that it would be better for Carlos to rule the Basque Country and Catalonia, which had always been independent, and divide them with the Spanish government. The Spanish government would continue to rule the central, Castilian and Aragon regions inhabited by the Castilians. Let Carlos rule the Basque, Catalan settlements.

In this way, almost the most developed coastal areas of Spain, such as the northeast, northwest and southeast, were divided into the area ruled by Carlos, leaving only the most backward central mountainous zone for the Spanish government.

Regardless of whether this division can be accepted by both sides of the Spanish Civil War, once the division is successful, the Carlos faction supported by Germany will become a pro-force in the western part of France, and both the Basque Country and Catalonia have territorial disputes with France, and they will inevitably maintain close relations with Germany in the future and attack France together with Germany.

In order to put an end to a possible conflict between France and Germany as soon as possible, the British were inclined to accept this division and let the Spanish mine be extinguished as soon as possible.

The British therefore asked France if they could support Carlos' rule of the Basque Country and Catalonia without threatening French territory, and the French, having found out that Britain had taken swift action considering such a dangerous situation.

With the independence of Catalonia and the Basque Country, there was instability in the western border region of France, and some independents appeared in both places, who called for the union with the Basque Country and Catalonia and secession from France.

This gave the French government an excuse to send troops to the Basque and Catalan regions of France, which clashed with the local ethnic forces, and France used Catalonia and the Basque Country to support these French rebel forces, so it sent troops directly across the border, and when the situation of the Spanish government was in crisis and Britain might support a plan in favor of Germany, France took decisive measures and directly intervened with troops.

At this time, Carlos's main force had begun to fight a decisive battle with the Serrano army, which had stabilized the situation, and the rear was very empty, and the invasion of the French army caught Carlos' forces off guard, a large amount of territory was lost, and the morale of the army began to be unstable.

Behind Carlos's backstage, Germany immediately issued a strong protest, demanding that the French troops immediately withdraw from Spain and stop interfering in the Spanish Civil War.

France, for its part, said it was not an invasion of Spain or an intervention in the Spanish Civil War, but retaliation for the Basque and Catalans for supporting the rebellion in France.

Seeing that Carlos is in a good situation, after the occupation of Catalonia, the area controlled by Carlos has been contiguous, and the ruling area is relatively rich and densely populated, and has gradually gained the advantage in the civil war with the Spanish government, and it is possible to unify Spain, at least have the ability to divide these border territories with France.

But at this time, the French did not play according to the routine, no longer stood behind the support, but jumped directly to the forefront, so how can Germany accept.

Seeing that France would not withdraw its troops, Germany issued an ultimatum to France.

France was required to withdraw its troops within twenty-four hours, otherwise Germany would mobilize, and at the same time the German standing army began to assemble towards the German-French border.

These 24 hours are the crucial 24 hours, and war or peace can be decided within these 24 hours.

In the event of a war with Germany, France felt that it would be very difficult to fight Germany alone, so France urgently inquired about the attitude of the Great Powers.

First of all, Britain, which has become closer and closer to France in recent years, France made it clear that France could not allow a power hostile to France and allied with Germany to rule Spain, or appear on the western border of France.

Britain only wants to ease the contradictions, and there are no contradictions between the countries of the mainland, nor is it in the interests of Britain, so it is also necessary for the continental balance policy to keep France and Germany in confrontation. At the same time, it took into account the policy of competing for hegemony with China, and enlisted France and Germany to support Britain in its confrontation with China.

So before Britain was also willing to accept Germany's proposal that Carlos secede the Basque Country and Catalonia, but in the case of France's resolute opposition, Britain was more willing to support France, after all, Germany was already too strong and destroyed the balance, and Britain needed to support France to maintain the balance.

Therefore, Britain promised France that it would support France's attitude, not for Carlos's secession, and not for Carlos to rule Spain. By this time, Serrano had welcomed back the son of Isabella II from France, and quickly ascended the throne as King of Spain, for Alfonso XII.

Britain expressed its readiness to recognize the legitimacy of Alfonso XII. But it was hoped that France would still be able to withdraw its troops from Spain and at the same time put pressure on Germany to stop supporting the Carlos regime.

The new king of Spain, Alfonso XII, performed quite well, attacking both politically and militarily, politically announcing the amnesty of the Carlos faction, recognizing the autonomy granted by Carlos to the Basque Country and Catalonia, breaking the support of these regions for Carlos, and militarily going to the front line, while the Carlos army, which was occupied by the French in the rear, was disheartened and retreated.

As long as it occupies it for a while, Carlos will be completely defeated, and in this case, France is really not willing to withdraw its troops.

At the same time as the contact with Britain, France was also in contact with China, and France could not get Britain to absolutely support France, and France had the luxury of getting support from China.

But France was disappointed, and China said it would remain neutral without affecting its interests.

At this time, France, which was under the threat of Germany and had difficulty breathing, did not know whether it regretted giving up the Sino-French alliance back then. They abdicated their obligation to support China against Britain, and at the same time lost China's protection of France.

In France, the attitude of whether to give in is also very inconsistent, one side believes that France's current national strength is not yet able to fight Germany alone, and the other side believes that such a submission is too humiliating, and France will always bear the shame of succumbing to the Germanic barbarians, and half of the cabinet members said that once the French army retreats under German pressure, they will announce their resignation and the French cabinet will fall.

The French have been shouting for revenge for so many years, and when it is really time for the enemy to show his sword, France looks unusually afraid.

The British never took a stand, but in fact they did not want France to go to war with Germany, and if France was defeated, the European continent would be even more unbalanced. Britain will no longer be able to find the strength to counter Germany, so it is better not to go to war.

Therefore, while Britain did not give guarantees to France and hoped that France would withdraw its troops, it was also secretly putting pressure on Germany to withdraw its ultimatum. And a tough statement against Germany that Britain would not be on the side of Germany in the event of an attack on France. At the same time, it was announced that the British Mediterranean Fleet would be transferred into the English Channel, openly declaring that it was to deal with a possible war. In fact, pressure on Germany.

This is somewhat similar to the situation in history, historically, after the Franco-Prussian War, in 1875, France not only raised 6 billion francs under the patriotic enthusiasm of the people, forcing Prussia to withdraw its troops from France, and the people subscribed for bonds remaining, the French government decided to strengthen armaments, planned to buy 10,000 military horses, and the French parliament also passed a new army establishment law.

The convergence of these two events aroused the wariness of Bismarck, who believed that the French were intent on Germany, and he hoped that France would stop agitating revanchist sentiments and slow down the pace of rearmament. It was decided to put pressure on France, made anti-French remarks, threatened to strike at France, and created the famous Franco-German crisis. At this time, European countries supported France, especially Britain and Russia, the two major powers, clearly opposed Germany, and even Germany's ally Austria-Hungary expressed that they did not want the crisis to escalate and refused to support Germany. Bismarck had to back down and publicly state that Germany had no plans to attack France.

This time, Britain was also putting pressure on Germany, but without the support of the great power Russia. Another factor that makes Britain dare not support France too clearly is that China is the world's largest power.

Britain put pressure on Germany, and Germany asked about China's attitude, and China made it clear that if war broke out between Germany and France, China would remain neutral, but if Britain attacked Germany, China would declare war on Britain.

There was no alliance between China and Germany, and there had been a brief alliance between Leopold during his struggle for the Spanish throne, but it was only a short-term alliance for Leopold's succession to the throne. The conclusion of a long-term, open, alliance against Britain was not because China was unwilling, but because Germany did not want to confront Britain.

This time Germany was already in a difficult situation, and either chose to fight to the end, insisting on the ultimatum to France and supporting the victory of the Carlos forces in Spain, or succumbing to British pressure and announcing the withdrawal of the ultimatum.