Francisco righteously pointed out the mistakes of the republican government in the past two years, leaving all the officials of the republican government speechless.

After all, their accusations against Francisco are biased. Replacing any one of them, under Francisco's circumstances, may not have turned the tide of events. In other words, Francisco's failure was caused by objective reasons, not subjective mistakes.

And every mistake that the republican government has made since the beginning of the war is a stupid act of nervousness. It can be said to be an insult to the front-line generals!

Delay the progress of the attack, let the future enemy help keep the gold, and leave the troops behind again and again to move the capital.......

The republican government, ready to pay the price for their so-called dignity, but instead of taking it on its own, it threw this heavy burden on the army, and let the soldiers pay for their ideals with their lives.

Indeed, this ideal is noble.

At first, the republicans proclaimed religious freedom, adopted a new Constitution, and embarked on reforms and legislation in agriculture, education, regional autonomy, etc. Strive to build a prosperous and powerful republic.

Later, however, the republican government over-oppressed the rightists despite the opposition of the rightists, leading to a rebellion and even a coup d'état by the rightists.

After that, the republican government showed insufficient awareness and cowardice of the war in the war. Repeated wrong decisions and actions led to heavy casualties among the Republican Army in the civil war.

If it weren't for the deep-rooted ideals of republican government, Francisco would not have embraced such a stupid government. It's just that ridiculous "find Germany to keep the gold and pay the deposit." Francisco had the urge to shoot all the officials of the republic.

In the end, it was Lieutenant General Dirks, who was in charge of the capture of La Palma and remained on the island, to break the confrontation between Francisco and the politicians. Trying to ease the atmosphere, he comforted: "Judging by the current situation, we are in control of the islands of Mecano and La Palma. That's more than 80,000 people and about 1,500 square kilometers of strategic depth. ”

Lieutenant General Dix pointed to the map of the sea area that had been hung on the wall of the hotel's temporary conference room and analyzed: "Take La Palma, where the provisional government is located, for example, not only has a large area of forests, but also has developed agriculture distributed in the coastal plain, and can also produce bananas, tobacco leaves, vegetables, sugar cane, fruits, grains, grapes, etc. Furthermore. La Palma is also home to winemaking, sugar, flour and other factories, making it self-sufficient in daily necessities. ”

A republican naval officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel also replied: "In addition, in the port of Santa Cruz de La Palma on the island of La Palma, our naval fleet can be repaired and maintained simply, and its combat effectiveness can be guaranteed. ”

The navy that the lieutenant colonel said was the only three gunboats and 15 armed merchant ships that the republican government had now. Such a fleet could not have been called a fleet elsewhere, but in the eyes of the Republicans, it was indeed all their existing naval possessions.

And the lieutenant colonel who spoke was the current commander-in-chief of the Navy of the Republican Army. That's right, a lieutenant colonel as commander-in-chief of the Navy! This is also a major feature of a terrible war.

Francisco sighed and said helplessly: "Since this is the case, then please ask our navy, which guarantees combat effectiveness, to prevent the enemy from landing as much as possible." I'll wait for your good news. ”

"You ......." the petty lieutenant colonel, as the commander-in-chief of the Navy, was clearly upset, but did not dare to refute Francisco's words. Of course, even if he claims that his navy can hold off the Nationalist army, which has 17 destroyers, few people may believe it. How much gold he, the commander-in-chief of the Navy, has, is well known to himself.

Looking at the lieutenant colonel, who had stopped prophesying, Francisco shook his head and ignored it. After a perfunctory military salute to a group of politicians who only knew how to shout slogans, Francisco left the conference room without looking back.

He didn't want to waste his time in this place where there were only empty ideals, not for a moment!

"General." After a while, Lieutenant General Dirks, who had just played a round in the conference room, also left the conference room and found Francisco, who was silently smoking a cigarette by the sea.

"How?" Francisco spat out a puff of smoke rings and smiled contemptuously: "You want to tell me your self-deceptive theories again?" Or do you really think that these two small islands can still make our Republican Army turn around? ”

After listening to Francisco's complaint without saying a word, Lieutenant General Dirks just slowly saluted him with a standard military salute, and then said with a serious expression: "Your Excellency, I said that not because I believe that two small islands can stir up any storms, but because as a soldier, I have no choice at this moment. ”

Looking at Francisco, who was silent after listening, Dirks continued: "Indeed, we lost, and it was ugly. However, since we have chosen to follow the ideals of the republicans, we soldiers can only think about how to fight to the best of our ability. Even if you know that you will lose! ”

"Just now at the meeting, you said that you can be self-sufficient in the necessities of life, but what about weapons and ammunition?" The silent Francisco asked Dirks coldly.

"It's a pity." Dix said in a deep voice with a lonely expression: "The weapons and ammunition cannot be replenished at all, and the inventory on the island is only a small part of what I brought at the beginning. Each unit also has about 2 standard base ammunition. ”

"Then what's the need to fight!" After listening to Dirks's words, Francisco shouted even more emotionally: "Do you have to die here, at the hands of your own people, to be satisfied!?" ”

"General!" De Sica, who was already a lieutenant general, grabbed Francisco's hands like a hairy boy, and said in a straight voice: "Even if the whole army is wiped out, we should also fight." At least let the whole world see the strength of our republicans! Let our ideals thus impress them even more! ”

It's a pity that Francisco was not affected by Dirks, he shook off his hand and said firmly: "This is a bloody ideal!" If you haven't experienced those large-scale battles, you won't understand how brutal it is to realize such an ideal. ”

Francisco looked at Deckers' eyes with a solemn expression, and said coldly, "Don't always think that you have to fight for the sake of ideals, as soon as you hear this kind of question, your blood will boil, and you will start to fight a big battle, and you can't wait to charge into battle immediately, fight on the battlefield, and shroud in horse leather." As a general, you have to think about your soldiers before that, will you be the one who dies on the battlefield, will you be the one who dies in the battle, and will the families who have lost their families be your families?! War is bloody, it is filled with life, thousands of troops and horses go, and a few people return, this is not a game, you can come again if you lose the game. Besides, we have already lost, so why pay more blood!? ”

"That's why you're running away from the war?" Dirks reluctantly tried to argue.

"Half Spain is dead, it is dead at the hands of the other half. The rest of Spain, can no longer continue to bleed......" Without answering Dicks' question, Francisco, after leaving a meaningful sentence, walked away alone along the coastline.

Dirks was left alone, torn between his bloody ideals and the harsh reality.