Chapter 16: Chapter 15: The Spanish Plan to squash the Cuban revolt

Madrid, Kingdom of Spain

 “Is this news true?”

“Yes sir. Our forces in Cuba are now on the defensive from the rebel attacks. About one thousand seven hundred men are lost, either killed or missing, in the ambush including Teniente Coronel Jose Diaz sir. Aside from the troops we lost in the ambush, our losses in the other areas are minimal but the regions of Holguin and Las Tunas are already in the hands of the rebels.”

The Spanish General Staff is currently having a meeting in the Spanish High Command Headquarters. The atmosphere of the meeting is rigid due to the grave news they receive from the Cuban Governor General. The disaster of the ambush is greater than they expected, almost the entire detachment sent in the operation is annihilated, and all of the troops are regular Spanish troops, not colonial troops. These would hurt the Spanish military reputation and would have grave consequences. The death also of a high-ranking officer in the ambush would give a reason for the opposition faction in the government to investigate the military and they would be labeled as incompetent.

They didn’t even include counting the death of colonial troops during the uprising. The reason that there are only minimal casualties in other areas of the uprising is that more of the casualties in those are colonial troops, not the regular ones.

“Does King Alfonso already aware?”

“Yes sir. He just called for a meeting tomorrow afternoon after he arrived from Cordoba. He wants us to prepare reports and plans to crush the rebellion to be presented tomorrow at the meeting. Also, all head ministers of all branches would be present in the meeting.”

All officers in the General Staff know that King Alfonso is furious. He just cut off from his country’s tour to call upon an emergency meeting regarding the rebellion. It also seems that he wants an explanation of how the Spanish army is ambushed in its own lands. That would be a big shame and humiliation for the entire country.

“Does the public already knows?”

“Our own media are still not aware sir but the American media have already released the news regarding the ambush. It would not be long before the public would know the ambush.”

“Prepare a press release of the information. We must be the first to release the ambush so we can spin the tale. We can use this to cause a public outcry and call for revenge on the fallen soldiers.”

The Spanish Chief of Staff, General Silvestre Mancilla, wants to salvage the situation by twisting the story. He wants that it is the military that would release the news first to the general public and twist the story so that the damage would not be that devastating to the military. He wants to use the situation to arouse the public sentiment for the support of a larger military operation.

In order to have a larger military operation in Cuba, it needs a larger financial budget to do so. And General Silvestre Mancilla wants to use public support so that the King and the General Court would increase the budget. But this would put them at odds with the civilian government and those who oppose increasing the military budget in the government.

Some of the Spanish generals feel discomfort about the Chief of Staff’s plan to use the deaths of more than thousands of people to just arouse the people. They think that there is a need to increase the troops to crush the rebellion but they don’t want to use the deaths of other people to have their way.

In addition, it is also the Chief of Staff’s fault together with the Cuban Governor-General that this ill-prepared and rushed operation had taken into action that resulted in this fiasco. The Generals were feeling discontent due to the actions of General Silvestre Mancilla that is also known in the ranks as an arrogant and corrupt individual, he only reached the position due to nepotism and favoritism of the previous Chief of Staff.

“Sir I think we also need to contact the Kingdom of Mexico so they can send immediate help and support to our troops on the ground. Our reinforcement from the mainland would take weeks to prepare and the troops in Cuba needs immediate assistance. We can also ask the Germans to aid us by sending a voluntary detachment in crushing the rebellion.”

“I know that the Germans would send but would the Mexicans agree?”

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“I think they would agree sir. The Americans are the ones who are the most possible nation that is supporting the rebels, so I think the Mexicans would not let a newly independent nation having close ties with the Americans to emerge. It would be better for Cuba to remain in our hands because both us and the Mexicans are allied with the Germans.”

All of the people present, including General Silvestre Mancilla, are contemplating whether to call for support from the Kingdom of Mexico. The kingdom is once part of the Spanish Empire and just get its independence less than a hundred years. There is still lingering wariness between the two powers but because of the rise of their powerful northern neighbor, the United States of America, makes the two powers close due to a mutual threat.

“I would agree.”

“No objections”

“Agree”

“Agree”

One by one, the people in the meeting agreed to ask for help from the Mexicans. The Generals think there are more merits in asking for help than not. They can’t move the troops in their colony for the fear of another rebellion.

“Chief, we can deploy the Atlantic fleet to blockade any incoming ships that might be carrying weapons and supplies to the rebels. The Caribbean fleet is already having trouble patrolling the entire area and shell shore detachments of the rebels,” the Chief of Navy added.

The entire Caribbean fleet has only one outdated battleship, four outdated destroyers, three frigates, and two dozen torpedo boats. The fleet was scattered across the entire Caribbean and is not enough to cover the entire region to patrol.

Adding the Atlantic fleet would lessen the burden of the Caribbean fleet. It can also increase the interceptions of illegal smugglers’ ships. The Atlantic fleet is a newer fleet of the Spanish Navy equipped with modern ships and weaponry trained and armed by the German Empire. The fleet consists of three new battleships, six destroyers, and six frigates. Sending this fleet to the Caribbean would make the Spanish navy the most powerful fleet in the region, discouraging illegal smugglers to smuggle weapons and supplies.

“We can also send one division of the national guards stationed in Madrid to reinforce Havana sir.”

“I agree.”

“No objections”

The generals are starting to pitch in ideas that they could to crush the rebellion. The meeting continues for hours, and the general staff are exchanging information and plans to combat the rebellion. They also formulate a strategic plan on how to retake the regions lost and assigned officers and generals to lead the army.

The meeting had last until the early morning of the next day, all of the general staff are tired and weary after the long meeting, but they are confident enough that their plans and objectives would be achieved. They immediately order all military in the country to mobilize and start limited conscription. They also had called the National Guard to make up the numbers. They need to let the world to see that they would make the enemy pay the price for such atrocity. This is their way of showing their strength to the world.

They want to let the world see that they are still a powerful empire with a powerful army throughout its long history.

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