We all know of our raised peoples and our martyrs in those bitter agostos. But sometimes we forget the involuntary help we receive from distant lands.
When we were tired of Spanish domination, with isolated insurrections, here and there, with rages and pains everywhere, Napoleon Bonaparte appeared. In that complicated game of chess that was played in Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte made the play we needed in that part of the board for us to give check to the King of Spain, in our own territory.
When the Napoleonic troops invaded Spain, it was the beginning of the end. With the war and the famines, the monarchy lost more than 800,000 inhabitants. Before this weakened enemy, with the destruction of infrastructure, industry and agriculture, we initiated the final insurrection.
Spain was divided. There were groups that supported Napoleon in his fight against the parasitic monarchy. And there were also those who fought the French. Holding a government more than 600 miles from Paris was not easy. Just carrying messages required special commands that were ambushed at every step they took. The Spanish guerrillas fired, threatened, cheated, distracted, attacked again, retreated without casualties, and attacked again. The losses were huge. Napoleon had a complicated panorama. And they presented the solution.
He was a peasant from Toulouse, illiterate, who walked miles with boots or barefoot, regardless of rain, heat or snow, without resting, without eating or drinking water, loaded with ninety pounds of backpacks. In fights with a clean fist he left the ground covered with dead and plaintive wounded. His most sophisticated weapon was any stick or knife with which he doubled the number of victims. He would knock down a horse, grabbing it by the ears, or split the skull of an ox with a single punch.
He was 6'3", weighed more than a 220 pounds and his face was cut, with a horrible scar that ran from his left eyebrow to his chin. His appearance could not be more intimidating. "This is the man, Emperor," they told Napoleon. He can cross enemy territory and take the messages we need to Madrid. Nobody will dare against him.
Napoleon, from his height of 5'6", raised his eyes and undeterred, said: "I prefer the one who cut his face."
In chess you also have to know how to distinguish where the true force is.
Correa Stankevi, from Uruguay, vs. Díez, from Ecuador. 1 ... RxP + !!; 2: RxR, P8N = Q; 3: P6B, QxR + 4: K4B, Q5B. And the black controls the diagonal, the white can not crown, and the other black pawn crowns, just in case.
This story was originally written by my friend Ramiro Díez in Diario EL TELÉGRAFO under the following address: https://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/columnistas/1/hay-gente-mas-brava-que-los-mas-bravos If you are going to use it, please quote our source and place a link to the original note. www.eltelegrafo.com.ec