Chapter 53: Crimes to be Imposed

The assassination of Prime Minister Primo also alerted Kaluo that he must have an intelligence organization loyal to himself to gather information for him.

Whether it is monitoring domestic affairs in Spain, infiltrating the Republicans and opposition parties, or scouting the movements and news of foreign countries, it is all very necessary.

To ensure the loyalty of the intelligence department to him, Kaluo decided to start training intelligence personnel from a young age.

In an era where average life expectancy is not long, the number of orphans is still quite high, and Kaluo's target is precisely these orphans in Spain.

An orphan's childhood life is generally quite miserable; Kaluo only needs to provide them with the living standards of an ordinary person, and that is enough to make them feel grateful.

Once these orphans grow into qualified intelligence agents, their loyalty to Kaluo will also be higher than that of ordinary people.

However, the disadvantage is that it takes a very long time to train them, with the time cost involved being at least ten years or more, and in some cases, even ten to twenty years.

Fortunately, Kaluo is not old at this time, so he has plenty of time to wait for these orphans to grow into excellent intelligence agents.

However, considering that there is also a need for some intelligence personnel at present, while waiting for these orphans to grow up, he can also prioritize training a batch of relatively ordinary intelligence personnel to make do for now.

As for Prime Minister Primo, the large-scale screening regarding the assassination has already begun.

However, it is very difficult to find clues in the vast Ma Deli, and at the very least, it cannot be done in a short period of time.

But, are clues really that important?

This assassination is actually an opportunity, one that can give Kaluo and Primo sufficient reason to settle scores with the government's opposition.

Assassinating the Prime Minister is absolutely a very serious charge. No matter who this charge is pinned on, it can easily lead to a major purge against them.

With the Carlists already defeated, who else can oppose the increasingly stable Spanish government?

On the day after the assassination, Primo requested an audience with Kaluo and proposed a plan to take advantage of this assassination event to liquidate the church in one fell swoop.

Who the mastermind behind the scenes is no longer matters; what is important now is to use this opportunity to liquidate the church and take over the vast lands owned by the church.

One must know that much of the church's land is tax-exempt, and the church collects taxes on these lands, with the collected tax money then entering the church's own pockets.

If these lands can be taken over, it can not only increase agricultural tax revenue for the government but also allow the land to be rented out to civilians at low prices, increasing the average area of cultivated land per capita.

The reason for the low income of Spanish farmers, besides the previously high agricultural taxes and the burden of harsh, heavy taxes like the tithe, is another important reason: the continuous decrease in the average area of cultivated land per capita.

Although Spain's land area is not inferior compared to the great powers, a considerable portion of it is held in the hands of the nobility and the church.

Spain only has a population of over 16 million, so logically, the average area of cultivated land per capita should be ahead of the great powers with less land and more people.

But in reality, Spain's average area of cultivated land per capita only ranks at a medium level compared to the European great powers. Farmers do not have enough cultivated land to plant, so naturally, they will not have very high agricultural income.

Kaluo naturally would not have any objections. Solving the trouble of the church, which opposes reform, is a good thing for both the Spanish government and Kaluo.

The next day, the Spanish government publicly reported on the assassination of Prime Minister Primo and announced that Ma Deli would return to a state of martial law, with no entry or exit allowed until the assassination event was cleared up.

Very quickly, the streets and alleys of Ma Deli were filled with police who had been fully mobilized. The police's initial actions were still to collect clues about the assassination, but after only a few days, it turned into the arrest of church forces.

Although the scope of the arrests was not limited to the church, the church had the most people arrested.

This also caught the attention of the Spanish church, which immediately began negotiations with the Spanish government.

For the Primate of Spain, Pedro, the government's behavior was a bit too disrespectful toward the church.

Although the government also produced some evidence, this evidence was clearly insufficient to send some members of the church to prison.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that the government was using this opportunity to liquidate the church, which also caused dissatisfaction and anger among many bishops within the Spanish church.

"Archbishop Pedro, we cannot sit and wait for death. If we continue to wait, perhaps we will be the ones arrested tomorrow," said one of the church's bishops.

"My God, is Primo crazy? Arresting church members so frantically, is he not afraid of our retaliation?" Archbishop Pedro was also dumbfounded at this moment.

Originally, he thought that by relying on the church's lofty reputation and status in Spain, he could ensure that it would stand firm during the reforms in Spain.

But he did not expect that just one assassination event would cause Primo to swing the butcher's knife at the church, and many members of the unprepared church had already been arrested.

"Bishop, are we just going to let the government arrest us like this? This assassination clearly has nothing to do with us. By what right does the government arrest us without any evidence?"

The bishops within the church were also filled with righteous indignation. It is no exaggeration to say that everyone present was at risk of being arrested at this moment.

Before, they were still respected bishops, but now they had actually become targets wanted for arrest by the government; is this not trampling on the authority of the church?

Archbishop Pedro's face looked calm, but his heart was not peaceful at this moment. To be honest, Archbishop Pedro had no confidence in going against the government relying solely on the power of the church.

The fate of the Carlists was still fresh in his memory, and the current church was clearly unable to contend with the government; after all, this was not the era where everyone was fanatically religious toward the church and God.

The tithe alone had already made the farmers very dissatisfied with the church. Even if the church incited a rebellion at this time, it would likely only attract those fanatical believers in God.

"Do not act rashly for now; I will go to request an audience with Your Majesty to explain the situation." After thinking carefully for a moment, Archbishop Pedro decided not to take the risk.

It would be fine if resisting the government could succeed, but if it failed, the fate of these bishops might not be good.

At worst, they would lose some of the interests in their hands; as long as they could keep their status as archbishops, they could still obtain donations from those fanatical believers through various means.

"You should also thoroughly check whether your subordinates have any connection to this assassination. If they do, resolve it as soon as possible and do not drag the church down," Archbishop Pedro finally instructed after glancing at the bishops with their varied expressions.

Second update, asking for support!

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(End of this chapter)