Chapter 451

When the various European countries started a new round of arms race for their armies, Spain was calm and peaceful.

Except for the battleship construction currently underway, Spain had no intention of expanding its army, nor did it have any intention of continuing to expand its navy.

Even the tens of millions of pounds in war reparations obtained after the end of this war would basically not be used for military expenditure.

As the helmsman of the Spanish government, Gao Da also did not pay too much attention to the military expansion behavior of the various European countries. Don't look at how vigorously the European countries were expanding their militaries; in reality, this war would not be able to start for a while.

The two major military groups in Europe had confronted each other until now, and whether it was Germany or France, they both understood what the outbreak of war meant.

The two major military groups either did not have major conflicts, or once they clashed, it might be a super war affecting the entire Europe.

To obtain final victory in such a large-scale super war, one had to defeat the enemy at all costs. Such a war meant hundreds of thousands or even millions of casualties, which was also the reason why the two major military groups were still relatively restrained at present.

It was necessary to wait until the major countries of the two major military groups had made war preparations, or until there was a reason that one had to join the war, to push for the outbreak of the entire war.

Gao Da understood that the time had not yet come; since the European war could not start, there was naturally no need to focus too much on the arms race of the various European countries.

Taking advantage of the last Spanish grand military parade, all members of the Spanish royal family were able to reunite.

Princess Sophia, who had already married, returned to Spain; along with her, besides her husband Count Albert, were his two children, Leopold and Charles.

These two little guys were born in September 1901 and August 1903 respectively; the oldest was only a little over three years old, and the younger one was less than two, still in the cutest stage.

Currently, according to the situation of the Belgian royal family, Gao Da's son-in-law, Count Albert, had hope of inheriting his uncle's throne and becoming the King of Belgium in the future.

This actually also meant that Gao Da's eldest grandson, Leopold, also had the possibility of becoming the next King of Belgium. Although little Charles had no chance with the Belgian throne with high probability, being a duke who was content with pleasure was completely fine.

Gao Da's two sons, Juan Fernando and Martin, could be said to have both sons and daughters.

Wang Chu Juan Fernando and his wife Princess Louise gave birth to Princess Anna in April 1901, and subsequently gave birth to Wang Chu Christian in February 1903.

As the eldest son and eldest grandson of the Spanish royal family, Wang Chu Christian was still very much loved by Gao Da. However, the little guy was only two years old now, so naturally he could not feel the exclusive training course for the heir to the throne specially customized for him by Gao Da.

On Wang Chu Martin's side, Wang Chu William and Princess Maria were born successively in July 1903 and December 1904.

Counting the two sons born to Gao Da's daughter Princess Sophia, Gao Da already had 6 grandsons and granddaughters, and the happiest time with Queen Sophia was playing with the little guys.

Currently, among Gao Da's children, the only ones who had not yet married were his youngest son Alexander and his youngest daughter Christina.

These two were born on January 2, 1884, and July 6, 1885, respectively, and were the youngest among Gao Da's children.

Because they were not heirs to the throne, Gao Da was not so urgent about the marriages of Alexander and Christina, only instructing them to find royal marriages that were well-matched in social status as much as possible.

If they really liked any commoner children, it was not that Gao Da could not accept it. After all, according to the current order of succession to the Spanish throne, although Wang Chu Alexander was Gao Da's third son, the order of succession to the throne was still behind Gao Da's two grandsons, Wang Chu Christian and Wang Chu William, making him the fifth in line to the Spanish throne.

This situation was basically already out of touch with the throne; since it was destined that he could not inherit the Spanish throne, there was naturally no need to be too harsh on the choice of love.

As for Princess Christina, there was even less need to mention it. As Gao Da's youngest daughter, Gao Da would not force Princess Christina in terms of marriage at all.

The current Spanish royal family did not need marriage to help itself stabilize the throne at all; for Gao Da, he wanted to see his two daughters find their favorite partners to marry, rather than choosing political marriage because of the interests of the royal family.

Princess Sophia could be considered relatively lucky. Her husband, Count Albert, was someone she liked relatively well, and he was also a member of the European royal family, and would even inherit the Belgian throne in the future, which could be considered an example of having both fish and bear's paw.

Because the nobles enfeoffed by Spain currently were all new-style nobles, Gao Da was also quite generous to his several grandsons.

Whether it was a grandson or a granddaughter, they were all uniformly enfeoffed with the title of Duke, and gifted a large batch of land and property to ensure that whether they had anything to do with the throne or not, they could become nobles with considerable family wealth.

Even the two grandsons, Leopold and Charles, also obtained the title of Spanish Count. Although they did not have the reward of land, the property they obtained was not small.

The property Gao Da prepared for these little guys were various enterprises and companies, and the value of any enterprise or company was as high as millions of pesetas or more, which was already not a small asset.

There was so much prepared for the grandsons, let alone the several sons and daughters who had already reached adulthood.

Facts proved that Gao Da's education for these sons and daughters was still quite good. In order to exercise their abilities, the property Gao Da gave them was only millions of pesetas; if they wanted to obtain more, they had to rely on their own efforts to accumulate wealth.

Currently, the property of the three sons and two daughters had increased to a great extent, and even the youngest Wang Chu Alexander and Princess Christina had their property increased by more than half.

The most exaggerated were Wang Chu Juan Fernando and Wang Chu Martin; the property of both had already exceeded ten million pesetas, and this was achieved without the two paying too much attention to business.

As the Crown Wang Chu of Spain, Wang Chu Juan Fernando spent most of his day helping Gao Da handle Spanish government affairs, as well as personally going to various parts of Spain to inspect the work of various state governments, etc.

While Martin and Alexander served in the military, they could also be considered the left and right arms left by Gao Da for Wang Chu Juan Fernando.

If there were no accidents in the future, Martin and Alexander would always help Wang Chu Juan Fernando and the subsequent Spanish kings handle domestic government affairs in the capacity of Spanish Dukes, stabilizing the status of the Spanish royal family in the country.

But if some situations similar to the previous Spanish selection of kings appeared, as long as they were willing, Gao Da did not mind helping them, letting them become kings of some country in Europe.

How to do it still depended on their choice; what Gao Da could do was provide help for them, letting them continue to dig deep in the direction they were willing to go.

Speaking of Gao Da's three sons, whether it was Wang Chu Juan Fernando working in the government or Wang Chu Martin and Wang Chu Alexander serving in the military, they had all made some achievements.

As the eldest son, Wang Chu Juan Fernando naturally did not need to be mentioned; in his capacity as Crown Wang Chu and Royal Senator, he helped Gao Da handle various government affairs in an orderly manner, his performance received praise from many cabinet members, and he was even hailed by the public as the most perfect heir to the Spanish throne.

The performance of Wang Chu Martin and Wang Chu Alexander serving in the military was also quite excellent. As mentioned before, they participated in the Battle of Landing in Lisbon, and their performance in the battle was quite excellent.

The two princes personally participating in the war also made the very few people who were still dissatisfied with the royal family shut their mouths completely, and at the same time increased the enthusiasm of most of the public to sign up for the army.

Even the noble members of the royal family could fight for the country, and even participated in the extremely dangerous Battle of Landing in Lisbon. Then what qualifications did the ordinary public have to refuse to fight for the country? Wasn't this the most glorious thing for a Spaniard?

As the commander of the Third Artillery Division, Martin was successfully promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General of the Royal Army, and his position was also promoted to Deputy Commander of the Spanish Royal Army, which was already a very high official position in the military.

As for Alexander, the deputy captain of the battleship Dreadnought, he was not only promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral of the Royal Navy, but also successfully became the captain of Spain's second Dreadnought-class battleship, the battleship Courage.

If they did not have enough ability, Gao Da would absolutely not allow them to climb to their current high positions. Because of the reason that they would face a world war next, Gao Da attached great importance to the military.