Chapter 208: Bullfighting Activity

For the people of the 1876 era, society in this age truly lacked a bit of fun. A large part of this was due to factory owners constantly squeezing their workers, leaving the workers with no time at all for rest or entertainment.

But it cannot be denied that the backwardness of technology itself and the lack of various entertainment activities were also among the reasons why people felt bored and dull.

Although Spain's media industry had given birth to entertainment newspapers specifically reporting on gossip, not all Spaniards would buy newspapers.

Once the public lacks sufficient entertainment projects to vent their emotions, over time, it will lead to the existence of various voices and forces opposing the government.

This also means that the current Spain is in urgent need of an entertainment project capable of stirring the emotions of the vast majority of the public, and this project must be warmly welcomed in Spain.

Looking across the whole of Spain, there is currently only one tradition that meets such requirements, and that is the bullfighting activity that has been popular in Spain for hundreds of years.

Spanish bullfighting originated from ancient religious activities and has a long history and tradition in the two Iberian countries of Spain and Portugal.

According to historical records, the ancient Roman Emperor Caesar, who once ruled Spain, was keen on bullfighting on horseback, and bullfighters were also seen as symbols of bravery and combat prowess.

Originally, this sport was only popular among the Spanish nobility; after all, the training for bullfighting and the preparation for related activities required a large amount of funds.

But because bullfighting caused a large number of casualties among the nobility, Philip V banned bullfighting activities among royal family members, which also allowed bullfighting to evolve from a noble privilege into a grand event for all people that ordinary citizens could participate in.

After a long period of development, bullfighting has become an irreplaceable tradition in Spain and an activity that a large number of Spaniards are fanatically keen on.

Bullfighters are regarded as brave and fearless men, respected and worshipped by all Spaniards.

For Gao Da, there is no activity more worthy of promotion than bullfighting. Bullfighters inherently symbolize a brave and fearless spirit; the more the Spanish public worships and respects this spirit, the more it can represent the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army.

The influence of national spirit on the combat effectiveness of an army is still quite significant. The combat effectiveness of the Italian army cannot be considered very strong, but it is definitely not too weak either.

Why was Italy's performance in World War I and World War II so poor? The main reason is that Italy's national spirit leaned more towards freedom and pleasure, while its sense of national concept and identity was weak, so naturally, they would not be willing to fight for the concept of the nation of Italy.

Spain, with its bullfighting tradition, clearly does not have such shortcomings as Italy. As long as it can be cultivated, even if the Spanish population is not large, it can ensure that the army formed by the Spaniards possesses relatively strong combat effectiveness.

The influence of a brave and fearless spirit on an army is quite significant. When all Spaniards admire this spirit, what reason is there to doubt the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army?

If it can be paired with the advanced rifles and artillery that Gao Da has prepared for his army, in situations where the numbers are not significantly different, the Spanish army has the confidence to fight against the army of any country.

Even if the numbers are inferior to the enemy, as long as they rely on the Mount Moleina for defense, Spain does not fear the attack of any country.

This is the belief brought by national spirit. When all Spaniards possess sufficient national cohesion and sense of identity, the Spanish army will become an enemy that no country in the world is willing to encounter.

Promoting the bullfighting movement, in addition to cultivating a brave and fearless national spirit, has another major advantage: it can promote the circulation of the economy.

The public needs tickets to watch bullfighting performances, which will increase the probability of currency circulation and promote the growth of the Spanish economy.

Bullfighting is also a major feature of Spain, attracting a large number of European people to travel and watch every year. There were no football or basketball games in this era; bullfighting was already one of the few large-scale activities capable of attracting the public's attention.

Although bullfighting also has many shortcomings, compared to the benefits brought by bullfighting, these shortcomings are not so important.

Gao Da decided to vigorously promote bullfighting activities, on one hand to infuse the Spanish national spirit with a brave, fearless, and combative character, and on the other hand to allow Spaniards to have more entertainment activities to vent their emotions and dissipate energy, while simultaneously stimulating economic exchange.

The largest bullring in Spain at present is the Laerta Plaza located in the center of Madrid. In the center of Laerta Plaza is a circular bullring, and every year from March to October is the bullfighting season in Spain.

The Laerta bullring can accommodate more than 3, 00 spectators at most; it is the largest bullring in Madrid and attracts the attention of a large number of Spaniards around Madrid.

The first step for Gao Da to vigorously promote bullfighting was to personally experience the charm of bullfighting and at the same time feel the level of support the public had for bullfighting activities.

At the end of September 1876, Gao Da personally arrived at the Laerta bullring and watched the bullfighting performance specially prepared for him by the bullring.

The cheering crowd, the high-spirited bulls, and the bullfighters holding red cloths with determination together formed a shocking scene inside the bullring.

Upon learning that Gao Da was going to watch the bullfighting performance in person, the bullring had made meticulous preparations. The bullfighter performing for Gao Da was the most famous bullfighter around Madrid, who had been undefeated in recent years and had easily defeated thousands of bulls.

It is a pity that there is no such thing as a "Bullfighter March" now. Such a blood-pumping and shocking scene could only have the shouting and cheering of the audience and the angry roars of the bulls as background music.

This also gave Gao Da a new idea: before vigorously promoting bullfighting, he must first tailor a song for bullfighting, named the "Spanish Bullfighter March."

A majestic and high-spirited accompaniment, combined with the brave, fearless, and confident bullfighting of the bullfighters—this is the perfect match.

A bullfight does not involve fighting just one bull, but rather three bullfighters appearing in succession to fight a total of six bulls.

For the safety of the bullfighters, the bullfighters are not alone; they are equipped with three banderilleros and two mounted picadors.

After watching the entire bullfighting performance, Gao Da left the Laerta bullring quite satisfied, and before leaving, he did not forget to encourage the person in charge of the Laerta bullring.

As the King of Spain, Gao Da personally watched the bullfighting performance at the Laerta bullring, which also attracted the attention of some news media.

Although the publication of newspapers by newspaper offices is subject to control, because this was not considered negative news, these newspaper offices were not stopped from reporting the news about Gao Da watching the bullfighting performance.

This also aroused the attention of the public; after all, during the Bourbon Dynasty, bullfighting was banned among royal family members, which was one of the reasons why bullfighting transformed from a noble sport into a civilian sport.

Gao Da watched the bullfighting performance at Laerta Plaza; does this mean that this young king also has a certain interest in the sport of bullfighting?

The public was quite concerned about this; they were all curious about how His Majesty the King would treat this sport, as it was, after all, an ancient tradition of the Spaniards.

After returning to the Wang Gong, Gao Da discussed the plan to promote the sport of bullfighting with Butler Luo Lun.

Butler Luo Lun was quite supportive of this, but also put forward his own suggestions: "Your Majesty, if you want to vigorously promote the sport of bullfighting, relying solely on the current number of bullrings is completely insufficient.

The largest bullring around the Madrid area is the Laerta bullring, and the Laerta bullring only has 3, 00 seats. Even counting those standing on the side, the maximum capacity of the entire bullring would not exceed 5, 00 people.

If your plan is to develop bullfighting into a large-scale national sport, the scale of such a bullring is far from enough.

I suggest that while vigorously promoting the sport of bullfighting, we should build large-scale bullrings in the suburbs of Madrid to ensure that a large-scale bullring can accommodate at least ten thousand spectators for a single bullfighting performance.

This is not only conducive to the promotion of the sport of bullfighting but also conducive to economic exchange in the Madrid area. If every bullfighting performance can attract tens of thousands of people to watch, it will not only promote local economic exchange but also attract more tourists."

Gao Da nodded, quite approving of Butler Luo Lun's point of view.

Spain's bullfighting tradition is very long-standing, and there are bullrings built at different times in various places. In particular, the southern region of Spain, Andalusia, is the region with the richest bullfighting culture in all of Spain and also possesses multiple historic bullrings.

But no matter how long the history of these bullrings is, they have a significant shortcoming: they cannot accommodate more spectators.

The scale of bullrings varies in all sorts of ways depending on the size of the city where they are located and the financial resources of the builders.

Generally, the scale of a bullring is around 2, 00 to 3, 00 seats, and there are individual large bullrings that can accommodate more than 4, 00 people, but they basically do not exceed 5, 00 people.

After all, if you want to have more seats, you can only constantly expand the area of the bullring. And for those seats further away from the bullring, their viewing experience is not very good.

For the sport of bullfighting, a larger-scale national-level bullring is very necessary. Bullfighting activities held in this larger-scale bullring will be better able to attract the attention of domestic and foreign citizens and even become a representative activity of Spain.

After Butler Luo Lun put forward his proposal, Gao Da immediately expressed his affirmative attitude: "You are right, Butler Luo Lun. Bullfighters indeed need a large-scale bullring that can accommodate more than ten thousand spectators, and this new bullring will also become one of the representative buildings of Spain.

Butler Luo Lun, the task of building a large-scale bullring in the suburbs of Madrid is handed to you. I don't care how much money it costs, but I hope the bullring we build has enough Spanish characteristics and can attract bullfighters and spectators to come."

A large-scale bullring that can accommodate tens of thousands of spectators will immediately become a landmark building in Spain once it is built. Although this will cost a lot of money, if the promotion of bullfighting activities goes relatively smoothly, the subsequent income from tickets and corresponding commercial operations will be enough to pay for the cost of building the plaza.

It is precisely because of this that Gao Da is not worried about the investment in building the bullring; building such a large-scale venue is entirely more beneficial than harmful.

Hearing Gao Da's instructions, Butler Luo Lun nodded solemnly, indicating that he understood.

The fact that there were no restrictions on funds proved Gao Da's trust in him, so naturally, he had nothing more to say.

Building a bullring also has no technical difficulties; Spanish construction teams have a lot of experience with such projects.

The only difficult part is the site selection for the bullring; it must not only be chosen in a place with convenient transportation to facilitate the subsequent arrival of tourists but also be chosen in a place far from the city center of Madrid so as not to affect the future expansion of Madrid.

You must know that Madrid is currently the city with the largest population in Spain and is growing in population at a very fast speed.

In terms of population growth, only Barcelona can compare with Madrid; these two cities are also the twin stars of Spain.

Because of the constant population growth, the scale of the city of Madrid is also constantly expanding compared to a few years ago. If the site selection of the new bullring affects the subsequent urban expansion of Madrid, this may be a problem in the future.

It is better to consider the issue of Madrid's urban expansion early; it neither affects the construction and subsequent operation of the bullring nor hinders Madrid's urban expansion, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

Up to now, Madrid has officially become the first and only city in Spain with a population exceeding 500, 00.

A population of over 520, 00 makes the capital of Spain a large city in the true sense, and it is also the current cultural center, economic center, and religious center of Spain.

The population of Barcelona is only a little over 430, 00, which is still inferior to Madrid. But the speed of Barcelona's population expansion is in no way inferior to Madrid's, and perhaps one day in the future, Barcelona's population will have the hope of surpassing Madrid.

After all, Barcelona has the advantage of sea transport, which Madrid does not possess. Madrid is located in the exact center of Spanish territory, and its geographical location is relatively important.

But precisely because it is located inland, Madrid's transportation can only rely on railways and roads, which to a certain extent also limits Madrid's development.

The matter of the large-scale bullring is solved; what needs to be done next is to think about how to promote the faster development of bullfighting activities.

If you want bullfighting activities to develop faster, the simplest way is to hold relatively official competitions, while preparing generous prizes, and letting Spanish newspaper media spread the word extensively to trigger the public to spontaneously pay attention to bullfighting competitions.

But there is bad news at the moment, which is that the Spanish bullfighting season is about to pass. The time for Spanish bullfighting is generally from March to October, and it is already early October, so the bullfighting activity is about to end.

This also means that if you want to vigorously promote bullfighting activities, you can only start from March of next year.

Fortunately, there are only a few months in between, which can be used to prepare for the holding of bullfighting activities and to let bullfighting activities spread to all parts of Spain through news, attracting more tourists and public attention, increasing the attention and heat of the competition, and at the same time increasing the level of excitement.

Not many days later, Gao Da established the Spanish Bullfighting Association, specifically responsible for promoting bullfighting activities and operating subsequent bullfighting events, etc.

And just a few days after its establishment, the Spanish Bullfighting Association announced the first national-level Spanish bullfighting competition they had meticulously prepared.

The Spanish Royal Bullfighter Competition is the official name of this competition. The entire competition will be divided into two major stages, held in various parts of Spain and the capital, Madrid, respectively.

The first major stage is from March to July of next year, which will be held in the bullrings of major regions of Spain to select a total of ten outstanding bullfighters from the major regions of Spain, who will then gather in Madrid for the second round of the competition.

The second major stage is from August to October of next year. The outstanding bullfighters selected from the major regions will gather in Madrid to present more exciting bullfighting performances in Madrid.

The three-month competition period will screen out the most outstanding bullfighters in Spain. In addition to the traditional rewards of applause, bull ears, and bull tails for bullfighters, the final winning bullfighter will also receive a personal reception from Gao Da and the title of Spanish Royal Bullfighter.

In addition to these honorary rewards, the top ten bullfighters in each major region will have varying amounts of financial rewards. After going through the final three months of competition and screening out the top ten most outstanding bullfighters in Spain, these ten bullfighters will receive even more generous rewards, with the minimum being a check for thousands of pesetas.

As for the most outstanding bullfighter who wins the title of Royal Bullfighter, in addition to the honorary reward, he will receive at least a check for more than 10, 00 pesetas, which is already several dozen times the annual income of an ordinary Spaniard.

(End of chapter)