Chapter 138: French Visitors (Combined Chapter)

Compared to those fellows purged from the military, the officials kicked out of the bureaucracy were far more pitiable.

The government would not provide them with any work, and for certain officials involved in extremely serious corruption, it would even pursue their past liabilities.

However, the effects were also visible to the naked eye. The rectification of the bureaucracy made every official in Spain fear for their own position; not only did the phenomenon of corruption decrease significantly, but the administrative efficiency between the cabinet government and the various regional governments also improved noticeably.

If it previously took several weeks for decrees issued by the cabinet government to be pushed through in various regions, now it took at most one week to see the implementation of the decrees in those places.

In reality, the regional governors and city mayors had no choice but to cooperate. After the enactment of the performance assessment bill, the progress of any single bill could potentially affect their performance evaluations.

Unless they truly did not care about their future in the bureaucracy, they had to take the various tasks issued by the cabinet government seriously and improve their performance as much as possible within the bounds of compliance.

After all, Spain was not a large country, and conducting reviews of the assessment status of officials in various regions and cities was something that could be easily accomplished.

In other words, if any official wanted to commit fraud in their performance assessment, even if they could deceive the assessment department, they would not necessarily be able to deceive the reviews of the cabinet government and the parliament.

Prime Minister Primo had also stated in advance that anyone found committing fraud or engaging in corrupt practices during performance assessments would be treated as having committed a crime against national security; not only would they be dismissed from their official posts, but all their assets would also be sealed.

Although Prime Minister Primo only gave a verbal warning, it still drew the attention of many Spanish officials.

There was no helping it; ever since Primo became Prime Minister, his way of handling matters had been swift, decisive, and extremely resolute.

The reforms had raised the butcher's knife against both the nobility and the church; Spanish officials did not believe they possessed a status comparable to such major powers as the nobility and the parliament, so naturally, they dared not provoke the authority of Prime Minister Primo.

If one were to collide with Prime Minister Primo's butcher's knife, that would truly be courting death. Prime Minister Primo currently lacked nothing more than a chicken to slaughter as a warning to the monkeys; many officials were not unaware of such a principle.

Why did the church remain silent when facing the impact caused by government reforms multiple times? Because the Catholic Church in Spain did not want to be that chicken.

Prime Minister Primo had to have great courage to push through reforms, which also meant that the first force to fall under Prime Minister Primo's butcher's knife would receive punishment even more severe and cruel than imagined.

While Prime Minister Primo was taking the knife to the bureaucracy, Carlo was simultaneously expanding the scale of his Royal Guard.

The so-called Royal Guard was, in fact, a special unit specifically provided for the sons of nobles to improve their personal abilities and resumes.

The members able to join the Royal Guard were basically all sons of Spanish nobles, which meant they were members of a force that naturally stood on the side of the King.

Carlo placed great importance on the cultivation of these noble sons. If these fellows were relatively outstanding in ability, they would be able to help him in the future.

Carlo not only invited outstanding professors from the Madrid Royal Military Academy to serve concurrently in the Royal Guard, but also carefully prepared individual training for every knight in the guard.

To put it bluntly, the current Royal Guard was an elite educational venue for noble sons, cultivating them into the outstanding high-ranking officers Carlo needed.

In the Royal Guard, besides receiving various levels of military and cultural courses, they also had to study knowledge such as noble etiquette courses, art courses, equestrian courses, swordsmanship courses, religious courses, and so on.

Currently, the number of knights in the Royal Guard had already exceeded one hundred, the vast majority of whom were the sons of dukes and grand dukes, with only a small number of sons of marquesses and counts able to squeeze into it.

There was no helping it; the financial costs to be borne for such elite noble education were also very high, so it was naturally impossible to be open to all noble sons at present.

Adding up all the nobles in Spain, there were at least several thousand, if not tens of thousands; all the noble sons perhaps already exceeded ten thousand.

Even if there were not many people under 20 years old who could receive education among them, there had to be a scale of at least several thousand people.

If elite noble education were provided to all these thousands of people, the funds required would be more than maintaining a division of the Imperial Guard.

For Carlo at present, it was of course still better to limit the number of knights in the guard as much as possible, prioritizing the cultivation of the sons of dukes and grand dukes.

However, in the future, the number of the Royal Guard would still need to undergo large-scale expansion. This was because the number of new-style nobles would become increasingly large in the future, and the foundation of these new-style nobles was not that strong.

The old-school nobles of Spain could afford the expenses of cultivating their children because they had sufficient foundations and could bear any expenses for cultivating their children.

But the assets of the new-style nobles were far inferior to those of the old-style nobles, and they would also lag a step behind in the education of their children.

New-style nobles were equally important to Carlo; since the new-style nobles were likely unable to afford the education expenses of elite nobles, Carlo could only expand the scale of the Royal Guard as much as possible, incorporating the sons of new-style nobles into the elite noble cultivation system.

Moreover, compared to the sons of old-style nobles, the descendants of new-style nobles would have higher loyalty to Carlo.

After all, the titles of the old-style nobles had nothing to do with Carlo; they only chose to be loyal to Carlo because he was the King of Spain.

But the new-style nobles were different. The titles of the new-style nobles came from Carlo's enfeoffment; everything they had was granted by Carlo, so their loyalty to Carlo would naturally be higher.

Furthermore, compared to the old-style nobles, they had no other choice. Old-style nobles still had a large amount of assets to be a wealthy man, but if the new-style nobles did not entrench themselves by the King's side, they were actually just small landlords with noble titles, and there was nothing comparable to the assets of the old-style nobles.

The Royal Guard generally recruited noble sons over 12 years old. They would receive 4 years of elite noble education in the Royal Guard and undergo training for more than 2 years.

After completing all education and training, they would be arranged to serve in the Imperial Guard or the Royal Army, or engage in other professions.

But no matter where they worked, their future potential would not be low. The nobles also knew exactly this point, so they not only had no rejection of the establishment of the Royal Guard, but instead tried every possible way to stuff their sons into the Royal Guard.

Of course, those stuffed in were generally second sons and sons further down the order. The eldest son would definitely inherit the title in the future, and the second son would have fewer assets, so it was better to join the Royal Guard to find more opportunities.

Although the Royal Guard was more of a military cultivation, it would not ignore the cultural education of noble sons.

If there were noble sons who were not very suitable for military work and more suitable for civil service work, Carlo did not mind cultivating them in the direction of officials.

In any case, after these noble sons entered the military or the bureaucracy, they would also strengthen the royal family's influence in these places.

The European noble system had this benefit: no matter how high the status of a noble was, they ultimately still had to be loyal to the King.

Because without the noble system, the King would also be gone; the King and the nobles were highly bound, and the King was the greatest noble in the noble system.

After this military reform, the scale of the Spanish military would be even more massive. Just the domestic army and the colonial army combined were close to 150, 00 people, and if the Imperial Guard were added, it was already close to 170, 00 people.

Such a massive military's expenses could be maintained, but the pressure on the logistics department would also double.

Carlo also wanted to strengthen the training of various units, and the consumption of bullets and shells in the future would also become more and more. Under various factors, it was also very necessary to make certain changes to the logistics system in the troops.

If one followed the traditional logistics system, it would likely be unable to meet the current combat needs of the troops.

The transportation of shells alone was enough to give the logistics department a headache, not to mention that breech-loading rifles had a faster rate of fire, and the consumption of bullets would also increase several times over.

There was not much that could be done at present, only to strengthen the local logistics management system in various places as much as possible, while doing a good job in transportation to meet the needs of troops in various places for weapons and equipment.

Fortunately, the expansion of the troops required a long time, coupled with the time required for the production of weapons, the logistics still had a long time to change.

In addition to expanding the scale of the Royal Guard, Carlo also established the Royal Pharmaceutical Company, specifically engaged in the research of biotechnology and the development of drugs.

In order to promote the establishment of this company, Carlo spent a great price to hire many top experts in biology and medicine from all over Europe, inviting them to come to Spain to work.

The bargaining chips for the invitation could be described as full of sincerity. In addition to an income higher than their original salaries, there was also a house in Madrid, as well as a certain amount of shares in the pharmaceutical company, and so on.

Although the shares given to them were not much, the Royal Pharmaceutical Company would definitely be a large enterprise in the future, so the value of that tiny bit of shares in the future would not be low.

It was precisely because of such generous rewards that it indeed attracted several top biological and medical experts within Europe.

In addition to letting them serve in the Royal Pharmaceutical Company, Carlo also let them serve as honorary professors at medical schools in Spain, cultivating more talents in biology and medicine for Spain.

Current medical technology was still too backward, which led to a low survival rate for newborns, affecting Spain's population growth.

A considerable portion of newborns born each year would die due to various diseases; these were all the future population of Spain, so it was naturally better to save them if they could be saved.

Carlo's requirement for the pharmaceutical company was to engage in pharmaceutical research and development work as much as possible; no matter what type of drug it was, in short, study what could be studied, and manufacture what could be manufactured.

In the short term, Carlo did not consider letting the pharmaceutical company make a profit. Even in the long term, Carlo never thought about how much income the pharmaceutical company could generate.

The main purpose of establishing the pharmaceutical company was strategic; by laying out the research and development of certain important drugs in advance, Spain would maintain a world-leading position in the field of medical technology.

What Carlo did not expect was that at the end of September 1872, the Spanish government welcomed an unexpected guest.

Yes, this guest was the famous Adolphe... no, Adolphe Thiers, the first president of the French Third Republic, and also the current supreme ruler of France.

Of course, the reason why Thiers was famous in Europe, besides his suppression of a certain movement, was that he personally signed the diplomatic document for reparations of 5 billion francs to Prussia.

Perhaps the citizens of Paris also did not expect that the action they initiated because they opposed the government's weakness toward Prussia would ultimately make the government even weaker toward Prussia.

Of course, the French government also had an extremely tough side. It was just that the Third Republic's toughness was shown to the movement of the citizens of Paris; through cruel and bloody suppression, Thiers successfully became famous throughout Europe.

How cruel was the scene of the suppression at that time? French newspapers once reported the scene of the massacre: "A blood canal flowed from a barracks into the Seine, and several hundred meters of river water were polluted, presenting a long and narrow river of blood."

Yes, it was that famous bank of the Seine.

This suppression of the citizens of Paris lasted for a full month; more than 30, 00 people were massacred, and the number of people exiled and imprisoned reached more than 100, 00.

However, although the movement of the citizens of Paris was suppressed, the interior of the French government was still quite chaotic.

Many countries' governments and media did not look favorably upon the French Third Republic because the lifespan of the republican system in France was not long.

The power of the French Royalists was extremely strong, strong enough to easily destroy the power of the republican system.

It was just that the Royalists were also divided into several factions internally, namely the Legitimists supporting the Bourbon Dynasty, the Orléanists supporting the Louis-Philippe Dynasty, and the Bonapartists supporting the Bonaparte family.

If these Royalists united, they would occupy the majority of seats in the French National Assembly and could easily pass the National Assembly to restore the imperial system of France and re-establish an empire.

But unfortunately, these three Royalist factions supported different families, and there was destined to be only one Emperor of France, which also meant that it was impossible for there to be any compromise between the three Royalist factions.

It is worth mentioning that this fellow Thiers also called himself a Royalist. While he wanted to restore the imperial system of France, he was also afraid that putting an Emperor's position on the heads of the French people would lead to the renewed opposition of the French people.

Precisely because of the fierce contradiction between the supporters of the republican system and the monarchical system, coupled with the dissatisfaction of many French people with the government's cowardice toward the former Prussia, which was now Germany, as well as the cruelty of suppressing the revolution, the interior of France was now very chaotic.

In order to suppress the revolution of the French people, Thiers could be considered to have gone all out. He promulgated a law requiring all those who propagated a certain ideology to be sentenced to 2 to 5 years of imprisonment, and also sealed all trade union organizations, canceling the freedom of publication and association.

In order to repay the 5 billion francs in reparations promised to Prussia, the Thiers government issued a large amount of national debt, and each issuance was oversubscribed.

Coupled with a large amount of loans to capitalism, up to now, more than half of the 5 billion francs had been repaid by the French government.

This was quite exaggerated. 5 billion francs was not a small number; for the Spanish government, it was simply an astronomical figure.

According to the fiscal revenue of the Spanish government, repaying such a sum of reparations would take at least 20 years or more. Even if national debt were continuously issued and loans were continuously taken from private capital, it would be impossible to pay it off within 15 years.

But the French government managed to do it, which also proved one thing: the development of French capital and the scale of industry and economy were still very massive, which was also the reason why France became a super power.

It was just that, although the French government could raise 5 billion francs in a short time, this did not mean that 5 billion francs was not important to them.

The French government bore a large amount of national debt for this, and a heavy economic burden also fell on the French people.

At the same time, capital also gained a large amount of power through the way of lending to the government. France was already gradually transitioning to capitalism, and the impact caused was extremely profound for the future development of France.

Back to Thiers' visit to Spain.

This matter was relatively sudden; even Prime Minister Primo only learned of it the day before Thiers arrived in Spain.

When Carlo learned of this news, Thiers was already about to arrive in Madrid.

However, fortunately, Carlo did not need to come forward personally; the identity and status of Prime Minister Primo were enough to come forward to welcome President Thiers.

Regarding the arrival of this French president, although Carlo was caught off guard, he knew his intention after thinking carefully.

There was no helping it; the development of the current situation was somewhat beyond the expectations of the French government.

Looking carefully at the development of the current European situation, it was undoubtedly fatal for France. First was France's complete failure in the competition with Prussia; the status of the hegemon on the European continent had already reached the hands of the Germans.

The second was the policy of isolating France proposed by German Prime Minister Bismarck, which currently seemed to be taking shape.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia were negotiating certain things, which suddenly made the French a little anxious. If the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia reached a certain compromise, the biggest contradiction on the European continent at present would become the German-French contradiction.

And the Austro-Hungarian Empire was constantly showing favor to Germany; did this also mean that the Austro-Hungarian Empire would move closer to Germany?

The Germans would of course not refuse the favor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; after all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire could also play a good role in isolating France.

At the same time, Italy was an ally of Prussia before Germany was established, and the Germans had not given up on Italy as an ally.

The royal families of Spain and Italy are of the same house, and they also have a covenant with the Austro-Hungarian Empire; the two sides are related by marriage.

Considering the worst-case scenario, the Germans are highly likely to form a four-nation alliance including Germany, Austria, Italy, and Spain, completely isolating the French in Western Europe.

If the Germans truly achieve this, then the French need not speak of development. To the north of France are the Low Countries; Britain, France, and Germany all possess influence in the Low Countries, so it is impossible for France to dominate alone.

Among all neighboring countries, only the neutral state of Switzerland remains, and the route south to colonize Africa could potentially be cut off by a union of Spain and Italy.

The French must exhaust every means to prevent the formation of a four-nation alliance, otherwise, the future development of France will suffer a devastating blow.

And among the four-nation alliance, the one currently easiest to approach is Spain.

Why say this? The Austro-Hungarian Empire is actively moving closer to Germany; it is impossible for France to win over the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Italy is an ally of the Germans, and at the same time, because it recovered southern South Tyrol, it has eased the conflict between it and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

On the contrary, the French are occupying the Savoy region ceded by Italy, and if one looks at the family name of the Italian royal house, isn't it Savoy!

Under such circumstances, it is extremely difficult to win over Italy, and Italy's direction for colonization in Africa also happens to conflict with France.

The only remaining option, Spain, although allied with the Austro-Hungarian Empire and of the same family as the Italian royal house, fortunately has no major ties to Germany.

For now, as long as an alliance between Spain and Germany can be avoided, at least France can ensure through Spain that it will not be completely blockaded.

There is also good news in that the British will also prevent Spain's colonization in Morocco, and Spain needs a powerful ally to help itself.

The Germans may not be willing to offend the British for the sake of Spain, but the French do not care about that much.

France can barely protect itself, so it naturally must exhaust every means to win over Spain, thereby breaking the blockade route the Germans have devised against France.

A 5, 00-character two-in-one chapter, seeking support!

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(End of this chapter)