Chapter 427 - Portugal's Last Ditch Effort

King Luiz de Avis Sat upon his throne within the city of Lisbon. In his hand was a letter signaling the end of the Iberian Union. King Felipe de Trastámara had issued a letter to his Portuguese counterpart informing him that he would be suing for peace with the Austro-Granadan alliance. 

With the death of the Castilian King and its royal family, Castile was ripe for the taking, and Felipe had planned to take advantage of this. The Portuguese King was shaking with rage as he read the letter that informed him that his only other ally in the Iberian Peninsula was backing out of their short-lived alliance. 

He could not believe he would be so utterly backstabbed by the King of Aragon. The very idea that he would be left to fight this war on his own had almost completely dashed any hope of victory within his heart.

However, when he read the following sentence written in the latter, he sighed in relief. King Felipe of Aragon had promised to send Portugal the foreign volunteers that he had received from the Pope's call to Reconquista. This meant that despite the surrender of Aragon, roughly 300,000 men would continue its fight against the Austro-Granadan Alliance. With this, Luiz believed he had a fighting chance.

Thus he managed to calm his wrath as he finished reading the document. Just when he was about to order yet another invasion attempt through the sparsely defended lines of Granada, his Marshal came storming into the Throne Room; there was a look of panic spread across his face.

This detail caused deep concern to arise in the depths of Luiz's heart. His blood began to boil once more as he was forced to inquire to his Marshal about the reason for his overtly anxious expression. An irritated tone erupted from the King's voice as he questioned the man kneeling before him.

"Speak! What has made you so anxious?"

The Marshal struggled to utter the words contained deep within the depths of his mind; it was as if every time he came close to uttering what he had learned, the panic would strip him of his ability to speak. After fumbling around with his words for some time, he finally managed to profess the knowledge that had been reported to him by his nation's spies.

"The Byzantines have arrived in Granada! I do not know how Hasan has managed to gain their support, but thirty thousand Byzantine soldiers now march towards our borders, equipped with weapons more advanced than the ones issued to their Granadan counterparts!"

Upon hearing this, Luiz's expression sank before tearing apart the document in his hands. It was extremely obvious to the man who was responsible for such devastating news. The King of Portugal's face was practically glowing red as he vented his frustrations by screaming as loud as he could. 

"Damn you, Berengar! Damn you to the depths of hell for bringing your Byzantine allies into Iberia! What gives you the right to interfere with our centuries-long Reconquista!?!?"

The very idea that Berengar had not only sent his troops into Iberia but also received the military aid of the mighty Empire to the east instantly shattered Luiz's resolve to invade the Granadan trenches. Instead, he knew that the tables had turned, and his enemies would soon be marching on his borders.

Though he had roughly three hundred thousand men at his command, the enemy army now had approximately a third of his forces, and they were far more technologically advanced. Such news meant that he would be forced to fight a defensive war to maintain his rule over Portugal. Thus he did not hesitate to do what was necessary to secure his Dynasty's reign. 

"I want our smiths to produce as many arkebuses as possible and outfit every man and child capable of bearing arms with them! We must defend our lands from this foreign menace at all costs!"

In response to this, the Marshal immediately began to protest, for he could not conceive how they would manufacture such a significant amount of firearms in such a short period of time.

"But your Majesty, we do not have the means to produce such a vast amount of weapons! There are too many men to arm!"

King Luiz immediately threw his chalice at the wall as he began to chastise his Marshal. The man was making excuses, and Luiz refused to listen to them. As such, he instantly began to make a counterpoint to the Marshal's objection.

"Then you will work the furnaces day and night until sufficient arms have been prepared! I don't care if you have to burn the Buçaco Forest; see it done!"

The Marshal gazed at his Monarch as if the man had gone insane; while such drastic action may be able to aid in the manufacture of a small portion of the required firearms, the Marshal still believed that creating the necessary amount of weapons in the given time frame was impossible.

More importantly, even if they managed to manufacture such a staggering amount of firearms, where would they get the gunpowder needed to utilize them? The Austrian Royal Navy had cut off their trade routes overseas, and Europe severely lacked natural saltpeter mines. 

Unfortunately for the Portuguese crown, they were unaware of a large concentration of the precious material within the area of Catalonia known as Collbató. Thus when the Marshal brought up this point of contention, King Luiz nearly had a stroke.

"Your Majesty, even if we were to be able to manufacture such a large supply of the weapons, how will we use them without gunpowder!?!"

In truth, the King was in such a state of fury that he had failed to think about this critical component. All of his plans to arm a massive army of hundreds of thousands of soldiers with arkebuses had come crashing down. Thus, he was left with few options to successfully defend his borders. 

It took the King some time to cope with the fact that he was completely and utterly doomed, yet despite this reality, he still refused to submit. After all, he would never yield to the man responsible for the death of his firstborn son! With great determination, he clawed his way out of depression and spoke forth his decree.

"We will make do with what we have! If we can't smuggle gunpowder and firearms into our Kingdom, then we will throw wave after wave of men at the enemy forces until we have secured victory!"

The moment the King said these words, the Marshal beneath his command had lost all hope of victory. He knew that such a tactic would not work against their enemies. Whether or not he believed this mad strategy would succeed, his duty was to fulfill his orders. Thus he kneeled before his King before vocalizing his acceptance of the task set upon him. 

"Your Majesty, I will fulfill your orders, but know this, even if we manage to survive the onslaught of our enemies, the loss of life will be so severe that our Kingdom may never fully recover!"

Despite the Marshal's words of warning, the King of Portugal was determined to get revenge for his son's death. As such, he simply glared at his Marshal once more before uttering words that were filled with contempt.

"Your opinion is duly noted, Marshal; now go and fulfill your orders!"

After saying this, the Marshal left the Throne Room of the Castle within Lisbon. As the man in charge of the Kingdom's armies, he knew that the King's plan was suicide. Thus he had no intent to go through with it. Instead, he planned to immediately defect with his family and cross over to Morrocco to live the rest of their lives in exile. 

As for King Luiz, the moment his Marshal had left his Throne Room, he collapsed onto his throne, mentally exhausted from the ordeal. He gazed upon a crude portrait of his son that hanged on his wall while lamenting his loss. 

"My son, if I had known that you would have perished in that battle, then I never would have allowed you to lead the charge. I swear to God in Heaven that I will avenge your death. Berengar von Kufstein will die by my hands!"

After making such a bold claim, the King of Portugal passed out on his seat of power. He had gotten too little sleep since the death of his son, and now it had finally caught up to him. While Luiz slept upon his throne, various government officials raided the Kingdom's treasury, with the intent to flee to North Africa with as much wealth as they and their families could carry. 

While the leading officials of the Portuguese Kingdom fled to Morroco, the Triple Alliance would fortify their position on the border, waiting for the peace accords between Austria, Granada, and Aragon to be finalized. It was only after the peace treaty had been signed between the three nations that the Triple Alliance would march its forces into Portugal with the intent of total conquest.

What meager defense could the Portuguese manage without their Marshal and the Kingdom's treasury? That remained to be seen. One thing was sure, Berengar did not intend to leave Iberia until after the entire Kingdom of Portugal had fallen to Granadan rule. Thus the war in Iberia continued in a direction that heavily favored Granada and her allies. 

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