Joseph Guiter asserted, "What good are Generals? The women of our "faubourgs" know as much as they do." Fabre demanded and got 100 Jacobins to be sent from Paris to be distributed within the army as "Civic Apostles" where they stirred up trouble among the enlisted men. On 14 May 1793, General of Division Louis-Charles de Flers took command of the army which numbered 12,000 men of whom only 9,000 were armed. Five days later, Ricardos with 15,000 troops attacked and beat 5,000 French soldiers at the Battle of Mas Deu. After the action, the defeated troops were seized by a sudden panic and stampeded back to Perpignan in utter confusion. Meanwhile, Ricardos turned back to reduce the Fort de Bellegarde. Flers used the time to build the fortified "Camp de la Union" under the walls of Perpignan where his drilled his 12,000 men. The Siege of Bellegarde occupied the invaders from 23 May until the place fell on 24 June. With his supply line to Spain secure, Ricardos moved against the "Camp de la Union" on 17 July. He intended to unnerve the French by bombarding them with 100 field pieces. In the event, the French artillery under the direction of Jean Fabre de La Martillière outdueled the Spanish guns and Ricardos withdrew. The Battle of Perpignan involved 12,000 French and 15,000 Spanish troops. Despite his victory, Flers' reputation was damaged by his former association with Charles François Dumouriez who had defected to the enemy. At this time the Spanish captured the town of Villefranche-de-Conflent west of Perpignan. On 7 August the representatives on mission removed Flers for the crime of "having lost the confidence of the citizen-soldiers". He was sent to Paris where he was guillotined on 22 July 1794. On 7 August 1793 General of Division Hilarion Paul Puget de Barbantane accepted the army command from the representatives on mission, assuring them that he wanted to "wash out his original sin" of being an aristocrat. At the same time, General of Division Luc Siméon Auguste Dagobert was sent inland with 3,000 reinforcements to the Cerdagne. Dagobert with 6,500 soldiers defeated Manuel la Peña at Puigcerdà on 28 August.