Chapter 231: The Royal Bullfighter Medal

As a collaborator for both sides of the Russo-Turkish War, Spain naturally received news as soon as the war situation began to shift.

Although Gao Da knew that the final outcome of the Russo-Turkish War would be a Russian victory, he did not expect the Russians to gain such a massive advantage so quickly while the war was still deadlocked in the early stages.

Fortunately, Spain had already signed arms trade treaties with both Russia and the Ottoman Empire; even if the war were to end now, Spain had already earned a substantial amount of capital.

Since the start of the arms trade between Spain and Russia, Spain had already brought in 30, 00 Russian immigrants. Half of these 30, 00 Russian immigrants remained in Spain proper, being settled in the Catalonia and Andalusia regions, while the rest were all transported to the various colonies.

Among them, the Congo Territory alone received over 3, 00 Russian immigrants, which brought the resident population of the Congo Territory to over 5, 00.

Of course, this is only counting the European population. If the local indigenous people were included, the population of the Congo Territory would be an exaggerated figure, at the very least in the millions.

Although Spain's development strategy in the Congo Territory was not particularly harsh, the number of local indigenous people had already decreased by as many as 100, 00 since Spain established the Congo Territory.

A large portion of these indigenous people fell while Spain was building railways, and some died in the plantations.

A reduction of 100, 00 people meant nothing to Spain; after all, the African continent had an inexhaustible number of indigenous people. The sacrifice of these 100, 00 people was worth it; currently, the development of the Congo Territory was quite rapid, with plantations being established one after another on the plateaus of the upper Congo River, and the railways were basically fully operational.

Just as Gao Da was lamenting the inability to obtain a large amount of labor from Russia, the diplomatic department received a request from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marquis of Everton, found Gao Da with an urgent look on his face to report this news.

"The Austro-Hungarian Empire is requesting our diplomatic support?" Gao Da expressed his agreement without much hesitation and said with a smile: "Tell the Austrians that this is our obligation and responsibility as allies."

"But don't forget to remind them that Spain is a weakened nation; the economic crisis has left our industry and economy in chaos, and Spain is unable to participate in the war in the Balkan Peninsula."

Gao Da's stance was very clear: giving the Austro-Hungarian Empire diplomatic support was fine, but joining the war was absolutely out of the question.

After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the thickest thigh Spain could currently cling to, so providing diplomatic support was a simple matter.

But war was not even worth considering; if a war truly broke out between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia, the situation would be far beyond Spain's ability to influence.

Wars between countries of this level involve armies of millions; what could Spain's 150, 00-strong army do? At most, it could only participate in one campaign, and even a slight loss would leave Spain severely crippled; joining the war was completely not worth the cost.

"The Russians have won, and now the Austrians are starting to get anxious." Gao Da thought for a moment and said: "But this doesn't quite seem like the style of Franz Joseph I, unless the Austro-Hungarian Empire has other backing."

"Your diplomatic department should closely monitor the movements of the British and Austro-Hungarian foreign ministries recently to see if the British have joined forces with the Austro-Hungarian Empire," Gao Da instructed.

"If the British stand with the Austro-Hungarian Empire for the sake of the security of Constantinople, then the situation in the Balkan Peninsula will be quite a spectacle."

"However, this is not a bad thing for us. If the situation in the Balkan Peninsula can become even more chaotic, it will be harder for us to attract the attention of other great powers."

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marquis of Everton, nodded, indicating that he understood.

The facts were indeed as Gao Da had anticipated; not only did the Austro-Hungarian Empire intend to stop the Russian offensive, but the British had the same idea.

Just the very next day, surprising news came from the Russo-Turkish War: a small British Royal Navy fleet had already appeared in the Sea of Marmara.

Although this detachment was not the main force of the Royal Navy, it was enough to demonstrate the attitude of the British government: that for the sake of the security of Constantinople, they would not hesitate to go to war with the Russian government.

At this time, more than 200, 00 Russian troops were already besieging the Plovdiv fortress, but upon learning of the appearance of the British fleet in the Sea of Marmara, the Russians ultimately slowed their offensive.

Seeing that they could not quickly occupy Constantinople, Russia planned to achieve its strategic goals through diplomatic channels.

In any case, the two sides of the war were Russia and the Ottoman Empire; Russia only needed to sign a treaty with the Ottoman Empire to end this war.

This was bad news for Spain, because after the Russian army slowed its offensive, the consumption of weapons and ammunition on the front lines also decreased significantly.

It was impossible for Spain to obtain large amounts of gold and mineral resources through arms trade anymore, as the warring parties no longer had any intention of expanding the scale of the battlefield.

Seeing that the situation in the Balkan Peninsula was not going to become chaotic, Gao Da turned his attention back to Spain.

As time reached November 1877, the nationwide bullfighting event organized and held by Gao Da finally came to an end.

This grand bullfighting event attracted the attention of millions of people across Spain and also promoted economic development in the major regions and around Madrid.

The economic data for the major regions was not yet that detailed, but during the second round of bullfighting competitions held in Madrid from August to October, the major bullrings in Madrid were almost always packed.

Although there was no overall data for every industry, the fast-food company Gao Da had founded earlier saw its sales almost double in the three months from August to October.

Ticket sales for the major bullrings were also a huge figure. Taking the largest, the Larta Plaza in Madrid, as an example, because the second round of bullfighting was equivalent to the finals, ticket prices were much more expensive than in the first round.

The first round of competitions was just the preliminary rounds for the major regions, with the goal of selecting excellent bullfighters from each region to come to Madrid for the second round of finals.

The minimum ticket price for the second round of bullfighting at Larta Plaza was 0. 5 pesetas, and that was for those particularly remote seats.

The ticket prices for those mid-range seats were as high as 0. 5 pesetas or more, and some seats with excellent viewing positions were priced as high as 1. pesetas or more, and they were even in short supply.

During the three months of the finals from August to October, Larta Plaza held at least three bullfighting matches every week, and every match was packed.

Larta Plaza alone, which could only accommodate 3, 00 spectators, sold over 150, 00 tickets during the three months of the bullfighting finals, and the revenue from tickets alone was already close to 100, 00 pesetas.

One Larta Plaza was certainly not enough to meet the demand of the finals. In fact, during the three months of the finals, more than ten bullrings around Madrid that could accommodate over 2, 00 spectators were used, and the total ticket revenue for these three months was already as high as hundreds of thousands of pesetas, not to mention that the major bullrings all had other profitable items, such as cooperating with beverage companies, food companies, and so on.

In fact, it wasn't just Gao Da's fast-food company that doubled its sales thanks to the bullfighting event; the Coca-Cola company in Madrid also increased its sales by more than double.

Especially in August and September, the climate in Madrid was still relatively hot. A cup of iced cola in the hot weather was quite refreshing, and coupled with the fact that the price of cola was indeed not high, Coca-Cola's sales almost tripled in these two months.

However, since entering October, cola sales began to gradually decline. This was unavoidable; iced cola could retain its internal gas, but if the cola were heated, the gas would all escape, and the cola would lose its soul.

Naturally, there wouldn't be many people drinking iced cola in winter, which led to lower and lower sales of cola in winter, but it would reach new highs again in the coming summer.

Come to think of it, holding such a bullfighting competition had yielded great gains.

According to statistics from the various bullrings, at least 3 million people across Spain had watched the bullfighting matches, which was already a quite massive figure.

At least half of the Spanish people were paying attention to the bullfighting events, and some of the outstanding bullfighters had also gained the love and adulation of the public.

Every major region took pride in producing an excellent bullfighter, and these bullfighters gathering in Madrid for the second round of finals further ignited the enthusiasm of the people from all over Spain to travel to and spend money in Madrid.

From the fast-food and beverage companies under Gao Da, one could also see how exaggerated the boost to the economy was from such a grand, nationwide bullfighting competition.

It was just that this era lacked so-called GDP statistics; otherwise, Spain's GDP growth this year would definitely have reached a new high.

It is worth mentioning that as the popularity of the bullfighting matches fermented, in the final months of the second round of finals, the Spanish bullfighting matches also attracted the attention of many foreign tourists.

According to government statistics, in the three months from August to October, at least 30, 00 foreign tourists came to Madrid to watch the Spanish bullfighting matches.

Among these 30, 00 foreign tourists, over 10, 00 were Portuguese, which was thanks to the railway connection between Portugal and Spain.

Most of the rest were Italians and French, as Italy and France were the closest European countries to Spain besides Portugal.

What Gao Da found relatively gratifying was that while the bullfighting matches attracted the attention of a large number of Spaniards, they also attracted the attention of many Portuguese.

The Portuguese and the Spanish are very similar, whether in language or religious culture; the differences between the two are not very great.

Spain has a bullfighting culture, and Portugal also has a bullfighting culture.

It is just that compared to Spain, where bullfighting culture is prevalent, Portugal's bullfighting culture is not as widespread, and bullfighting matches are only held for 2 to 3 months out of the year.

Coupled with the fact that the Portuguese government did not overly promote or push bullfighting matches, the Portuguese bullfighting culture had always been not very famous.

On the contrary, the Spanish government attached great importance to the nationwide bullfighting competition held by Gao Da.

The public opinion power controlled by the royal family and the government was heavily promoting this year's bullfighting competition, which allowed almost half of the Spanish people to learn about the news of the bullfighting competition.

Because of the close connection between Portugal and Spain, the Portuguese naturally learned of this news and were quite curious about the Spanish bullfighting competition.

Although Gao Da did not have the idea of annexing Portugal for the time being, to say he had no ambition for this piece of fat meat right at his doorstep would be absolutely impossible.

Since the bullfighting competition could attract the attention of the Portuguese, Gao Da would push even harder for the prevalence of bullfighting matches on the Iberian Peninsula.

Attract Portuguese tourists through bullfighting matches to strengthen economic and cultural exchanges between Portugal and Spain. Anyway, there was no major language communication barrier between the two countries; the Portuguese could even understand what the Spanish were saying without learning Spanish.

Gradually influence all Portuguese people by strengthening economic and cultural exchanges, so that the Portuguese would not be repulsed by Spain, which could also expand the possibility of Portugal being incorporated into Spain.

As for the domestic environment in Portugal, it was much worse than the current Spain. If he could wait for the chaotic period in Portugal to allow Portugal to be incorporated into Spain through peaceful means, that would naturally be the best possible outcome.

Even if Portugal could not be incorporated into Spain through peaceful means, he could still influence a portion of the Portuguese people, making them not repulsed by joining Spain.

Under the influence of this public opinion, Spain's expansion into Portugal could become more legitimate and reasonable, and it would be less likely to be repulsed by the Portuguese after annexing Portugal.

In fact, as early as mid-to-late October, the bullfighting competition had basically ended. Through several rounds of quite fierce competition, the most excellent bullfighters in Spain were finally selected.

Of course, in addition to the bullfighter who won first place, the top ten bullfighters in the country, and even the top ten bullfighters in each major region, would receive different amounts of financial rewards.

But only the first-place bullfighter could receive the honor of being personally received by Gao Da, and would also be awarded the title of Spanish Royal Bullfighter.

The Spanish Royal Bullfighter title is only awarded to one person each year, so this title is quite valuable.

After all, one had to win round after round of bullfighting matches from the large number of bullfighters in Spain to finally obtain the title of Royal Bullfighter; the level of difficulty was by no means low.

Bullfighting is not some entertainment activity, but a quite bloody and extremely dangerous challenge. Even the most excellent bullfighter would not dare to have the slightest bit of contempt when facing a fierce and robust bull.

The bullfighting competition was a huge success, but there were also a large number of casualties during the process.

According to statistics from the major regions, thousands of bullfighters participated in the Spanish bullfighting competition this year, but only about 100 were able to go to Madrid to participate in the second round of competition.

And the two rounds of competition resulted in hundreds of people being injured, among whom more than a dozen bullfighters were directly gored by bulls during the matches and died on the spot, and dozens more died due to relatively serious injuries and wound infections.

As the Spanish bullfighting competition becomes more and more prosperous, hundreds of people will lose their lives in the bullfighting competition every year in the future.

This is a quite exaggerated figure, which also represents the high risk of bullfighting activities.

But compared to the benefits brought by the bullfighting competition, the casualties of hundreds of people were acceptable to Spain.

Bullfighters take great risks to participate in bullfighting competitions, and once successful, they also receive great rewards.

The checks received by the top ten bullfighters in each major region started at at least 300 pesetas, and some regions with better economies issued checks as high as 500 pesetas, which was already more than three times the annual income of an ordinary Spaniard.

And the top ten in the second round of the bullfighting competition could receive a check of at least 1, 00 pesetas, and the first-place check was as high as 2, 00 pesetas, which was twenty times the average annual income of a Spaniard.

In addition to these generous check rewards, what attracted bullfighters was the love and adulation from all the Spanish people.

After more than half a year of public opinion propaganda, the Spanish public loved and praised the brave and fearless spirit of the bullfighters, and bullfighters were also the most beloved heroes in Spain.

During the bullfighting competition, several newspapers also published small picture books about the bullfighting competition, which vividly told stories about bullfighters and allowed the bullfighting competition to be understood and followed by more Spanish people.

Judging from the current effects, Gao Da's plan to establish the brave and combative attributes of the Spanish character through the bullfighting competition was quite successful.

Under the influence of this attribute, the formation of Spain's reserve forces was also quite smooth. The people did not seem to fear death; at least they did not fear a death like sacrificing their lives for the country.

Even, let alone the reserve forces, there were already parliamentarians proposing to expand the scale of Spain's army to bring Spain's armed forces back to the first-class level in Europe.

Unfortunately, such a proposal was ultimately rejected because the current Spain did not need too many active-duty troops, which would only create greater trouble for the treasury.

But no matter what, the more brave and fearless the Spanish people are, the stronger the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army will be; this will not be changed.

Gao Da was looking forward to the future performance of the Spanish army in war. If it developed according to this trend, the Spanish army would evolve into an elite army with extremely strong combat effectiveness, and in the future, it might even be able to clash with the German army.

Of course, this was on the premise that the number of troops and the weapons and equipment of the Spanish army were all improved. If the number of troops was insufficient and the weapons and equipment were still backward, then let alone clashing with Germany, clashing with any great power would be enough to leave Spain severely crippled.

In early November 1877, Gao Da received the only bullfighter who won after multiple rounds of competition, Sebastian Xia Pu, and awarded him the medal and title of Royal Bullfighter.

This Royal Bullfighter medal had no practical use; it was just to prove the identity of a Royal Bullfighter. However, since it was the first bullfighter medal issued for the first bullfighting competition, it still had a certain commemorative value and significance.

At the very least, Sebastian Xia Pu himself was quite happy and excited when he received this medal; after all, this was a medal personally awarded to him by Gao Da, who had also pinned it on him.

5, 00-word two-in-one chapter, seeking support!

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(End of chapter)