Chapter 37: Expansion of the Palace Guard

Primo could be said to be a man of his word.

Having just mentioned the abolition of the tithe to Carlos the day before, he had his party's deputies submit a proposal for the abolition of the tithe in the House of Representatives the very next day.

The current House of Representatives was less a place of collective deliberation and more a place where Primo deliberated alone. Having secured a majority of seats in the house, Primo easily passed the proposal, and the tithe that had plagued Spanish farmers for centuries was abolished just like that.

Before the farmers could even react, the Spanish clergy was left completely bewildered.

The Chief Archbishop of the Spanish clergy, Archbishop Pedro of Toledo, was filled with questions, staring at the newspaper in his hands in disbelief.

The newspaper clearly stated that, according to the vote in the House of Representatives today, the tithe was abolished throughout Spain, effective immediately!

"Damn it, the government has no right to cancel our tithe; this is a right granted to us by God!" Archbishop Pedro felt a sharp pain at the thought of the massive annual income he would lose due to the cancellation of the tithe, and he stared at the newspaper with hatred, gritting his teeth as he spoke.

"Archbishop, what should we do?" Archbishop Pedro's subordinate approached and asked.

"What to do? What else can we do?" Archbishop Pedro shot his subordinate a look of annoyance and said with slight dissatisfaction: "Do we have an army in our hands? Can we resist the rule of Carlos and Primo over Spain?"

"What we must do now is wait and see, and wait for the Carlists and Primo to decide on a victor before we think about our plans."

Although Archbishop Pedro felt the pain of those lost tax revenues, it did not mean he would lose his mind over that money.

The tithe exploited mostly Spanish farmers, and these farmers were currently wholeheartedly supporting the government of Carlos and Primo.

These farmers were already dissatisfied with the church's long-term collection of the tithe; if the church were to jump out and oppose it, wouldn't that fall right into Primo's trap?

Without the tithe, the church could still ensure its income through other means. But if they were to enter the fray to oppose the Spanish government for the sake of the tithe, wouldn't the church be the one liquidated once the war was won?

As the Chief Archbishop of Spain, Archbishop Pedro's words still carried significant influence.

Precisely because of this, the Spanish church did not make any moves after the government announced the abolition of the tithe, acting as if it had nothing to do with them.

Upon learning the news, both Carlos and Primo were somewhat surprised. Originally, Primo had prepared to deal with the church; who would have thought these greedy bishops would be willing to give up the bulk of their income?

The most excited people in all of Spain were, of course, the farmers who lost at least one-tenth of their income every year to the tithe.

Abolishing the tithe was beneficial to all of Spain, except for the church that directly collected it.

Without this harsh and heavy tax, the income of Spanish farmers would see significant growth, and government tax revenue would increase accordingly.

With a little extra money in their hands, farmers would naturally stimulate Spain's economic growth. This was also beneficial for the future development of Spanish industry, as people would only purchase industrial products once they had money in their hands.

After the abolition of the tithe, the level of satisfaction among Spaniards toward the government and Carlos also rose significantly.

Especially after experiencing the assassination attempt, the Spanish people truly began to recognize Carlos and believe in the grand dream he spoke of: making Spain great.

If the previous Carlos was seen by the Spanish people more as a foreign monarch, then the current Carlos had become one of their own in their hearts.

Since everyone was one of their own, it was clear who the outsiders were.

Yes, I am talking about you, that guy who blocks government reforms and affects the income of farmers and workers, the fake King Carlos VII!

Although the lower classes were easily influenced by public opinion, this did not mean they could not distinguish between good and bad.

During the reign of Carlos, the Spanish government was carrying out reforms and tax cuts, and the lives of farmers were getting better and better.

Although the Carlists kept saying that reforms would affect factory profits, thereby causing factories to go bankrupt and workers to lose their jobs.

But weren't the reforms in Madrid going just fine? Not only were there no factories seen going bankrupt, but workers had also received their full salaries for the first time.

Although Spaniards did not know the situation in the Catalonia region, considering that the King Carlos VII supported by the Carlists also came from the Bourbon family.

There was no need to mention the reputation of the Bourbon family; this was the demonic family that every Spaniard turned pale at the mention of.

And what kind of people were the supporters of the Carlists? Catalans? Basques?

Look again at the orthodox Spaniards living around Madrid; was it not clear who the scourge of Spain was?

For the Spaniards who made up the majority of the population, would they really go and support those ethnic minorities who were splitting the country?

Precisely because of this, the situation in chaotic Spain was actually already clear, and Carlos and Primo were eager for more forces to stand out and support the Carlists, so that they could be dealt with once and for all in the end.

The only pity was that the church did not stand out to oppose the government; otherwise, the vast lands owned by the church, whether rented to farmers at low prices or awarded to soldiers as rewards for military merit, could have further increased the government's prestige.

After waiting a few more days and confirming that the church really did not intend to support the Carlists, Primo organized the army to head north to suppress the rebellion with some regret.

However, in order to protect the safety of Carlos and Madrid, Primo still left behind an army of less than ten thousand, which was more than enough to defend Madrid.

Moreover, the people around Madrid were currently extremely supportive of the government. It was no exaggeration to say that if the Carlists really reached the outskirts of Madrid, Carlos could organize tens of thousands of militiamen to join the battle with a single call.

Furthermore, Madrid was located in the center of the Spanish-populated areas, and for the Carlists to reach Madrid before the main Spanish army could react, the difficulty would be no less than defeating the Spanish army head-on.

While Primo headed north to suppress the rebellion, Carlos was not idle in Madrid.

After liquidating the factory owners around Madrid, the funds in Carlos's hands actually increased by several million pesetas.

Facts proved that these factory owners were not unable to pay their workers' wages. The funds in their hands were completely sufficient to pay all workers their full wages, but they were unwilling to do so.

This also benefited Carlos. With this unexpected wealth, Carlos could expand his palace guard and form a Royal Guard in the true sense.

However, considering the state of his funds and the combat effectiveness after the formation of the Guard, Carlos only planned to expand the original 500-man palace guard into a guard regiment of about 2, 00 men.

The guard regiment would consist of two guard infantry battalions and one guard cavalry battalion, with each infantry battalion having about 1, 00 soldiers and the cavalry battalion having about 500 soldiers.

Although there was no separate artillery battalion establishment, Carlos planned to equip each guard infantry battalion with 2 to 3 cannons to increase the firepower of the entire guard regiment.

After the expansion was completed, the guard regiment would undertake the task of protecting the palace and Carlos, and serve as the core troops under Carlos's full command.

Second update, asking for support!





(End of chapter)