Chapter 32: Capitalist Turmoil

"Very good." Carlos VII nodded with considerable satisfaction. The impatience in his eyes was nearly overflowing: "Now we just wait for those dissatisfied factory owners to jump out themselves and deal a fatal blow to that fellow Primo, who has no respect for the Bourbon dynasty."

"Only the Bourbon family are the masters of Spain; Savoy should stay in Italy. They are not fit to lay a finger on Iberia."

The situation in Spain was now very clear. Everyone believed that those money-grubbing capitalists could not possibly give up resistance; they would absolutely spare no cost for the sake of the money in their hands.

And that was indeed the case.

The counterattack from the factory owners and capitalists came quickly.

On January 19, 1870, the Madrid Workers' Newspaper published a piece denouncing the government.

This report did not mention at all the Labor Law's purpose of guaranteeing workers' income, but instead condemned the government for disregarding the revenues of factories and enterprises and blindly demanding that they bear additional expenses.

At the end of the report, it also mentioned that if the government did not promptly cancel such erroneous decrees, it would very likely cause a large number of factories and enterprises across Spain to go bankrupt, thereby leading to massive worker unemployment and consequently affecting the workers' income.

This report looked very reasonable, but it could not withstand scrutiny at all.

The additional expenses of factories and enterprises mentioned in the report were, in reality, the wages they should have been paying to the workers in the first place.

If paying workers their due wages would lead to the bankruptcy of factories and enterprises, then what necessity was there for such factories and enterprises to exist?

Before Carlos could counterattack with his own public opinion tactics, the capitalists' second move arrived.

On January 20, the high-profile Spanish Sun Newspaper was attacked.

The attackers first used stones and other hard objects to smash the newspaper office's windows, then climbed inside to destroy some of the equipment used for printing newspapers.

The capitalists' fearlessness toward the government and Wang Quan made Carlos somewhat angry, and he became determined to exclude big capital from the ruling class of Spain.

On January 21, the Spanish government quickly passed the "Spanish Labor Law" bill and announced that, effective immediately, the provisions of the Labor Law would be strictly enforced, requiring all factories and enterprises within Spain to pay worker wages on a weekly or monthly basis; those in arrears would be fined ten times the amount, and in serious cases, the factory or enterprise would be sealed.

Once such a decree was announced, it immediately caused an uproar among the capitalist class.

The capitalists had originally thought that Primo and Carlos would back down; they did not expect them to choose to firmly oppose capitalism.

In order to protect their wallets, the capitalists chose to unite one after another; they wanted to imitate the previous Primo and restart a revolution in the Kingdom of Spain.

On January 22, factory owners and business owners around Madrid united, incited a portion of workers and radical republicans, and launched a large-scale parade on the streets of Madrid.

It had to be admitted that the capitalists' brainwashing of the workers was still effective. Some workers, hearing the newspaper say that factories would go bankrupt if they bore additional expenses, also began to worry about whether they would lose their jobs.

Although most workers were rational, a small portion of workers still chose to stand with the capitalists under such worries.

After the parade broke out, Primo ordered the army to suppress the parade while secretly mobilizing troops to control the order in Madrid.

The purpose of these capitalists was certainly not just a parade, and Primo's attention could not possibly be entirely drawn away by these marching crowds.

For Primo, who was well-versed in military affairs, these small movements of the capitalists could not hide from his eyes at all.

Sure enough, while the parade was being suppressed, another smaller-scale marching group carrying various weapons and equipment was heading in a grand manner toward the Wang Gong and the parliament.

In the eyes of these capitalists who had once participated in the Spanish revolution, revolution was still very simple. One only needed to take advantage of the chaos to occupy the Spanish Wang Gong and the government, and the King and government officials would surrender.

They didn't even need to take action themselves; the palace guards and the Spanish army would voluntarily defect to them.

When these people approached the Wang Gong in a grand manner, they were completely dumbfounded.

The Wang Gong was not in chaos like the last revolution, and what greeted them was not a defecting Spanish army.

Looking at the palace guards standing in battle formation in the distance, many in the riotous crowd swallowed hard, as if they had seen the situation clearly.

"By order of Your Majesty, if you lay down your weapons and surrender now, Your Majesty will only pursue those who instigated the rebellion. If anyone dares to take a step forward, it will be considered a rebellion against Your Majesty and Spain, and you will be executed on the spot!" The captain of the palace guards, Qiaodi, rode a black steed, holding an Italian-made rifle in his hand, and shouted at the rebel crowd not far ahead.

"Don't be fooled by him; no one will forgive us, and neither will God. Our only choice is to storm the Wang Gong and make Spain a true republic; God will bless us!" The leader of the rebel group, seeing that the situation was unfavorable, hurriedly incited the crowd's emotions to save the morale that was about to collapse.

"The purpose of the Labor Law is to protect your interests; those greedy factory owners will not go bankrupt just because they pay your wages. Wake up, my subjects, look behind you; those greedy capitalists are the enemies of all Spaniards!

I swear to you in the name of God and in the name of the King of Spain that you will not lose your jobs, nor will you be held accountable for today's events.

You have been blinded, your eyes covered by evil capitalists. But now is not the time to repent to God; we need to defeat all the enemies of Spain together, that group of insatiably greedy capitalists, and then we can talk about other things.

Please believe me, for the sake of Spain, please put down the weapons in your hands." Seeing that the morale of the rebel group was somewhat collapsing, Carlos naturally would not let this good opportunity slip by and shouted toward the distance.

Hearing Carlos's call, many in the rebel crowd were moved.

Not many in the rebel group were willing to die for the capitalists. What the workers were worried about was whether they would lose their jobs; if their jobs could be guaranteed, how could they stand up against the government and the King?

As for those radical republicans, they naturally would not defect just because of a few words from Carlos.

However, this was a good thing for Carlos; those who did not put down their weapons were, of course, better off being sent to see God immediately.

After thinking carefully for a moment, many workers were still willing to believe in their King. After all, the few things this new King had done since taking office were good things for them; wasn't this more trustworthy than those capitalists who docked their wages?

With this thought in mind, many workers who had been deceived laid down the weapons in their hands and involuntarily stood further away from the capitalists' lackeys and the radical republicans.

"Very good, my subjects. Those who have laid down their weapons can come over; I swear to God that you will still be subjects of Spain, and this matter has nothing to do with you." Seeing that many people on the opposite side had already laid down their weapons, Carlos nodded with satisfaction and said to the crowd opposite with a smile.

Hearing Carlos say this, the workers on the opposite side hurriedly walked toward the palace guards. Some of the capitalists' lackeys also gave up their weapons because they saw no chance of winning, disguising themselves as ordinary workers to surrender to the palace guards.

First update, asking for support!

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(End of this chapter)