Chapter 57: Cuban Peace

May of 1870 was very ordinary, but for Yu Kaluo, the mood was quite wonderful.

Following the successful establishment of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, Yu Kaluo welcomed another piece of good news: the Duke of Serrano had resolved the rebellion in Cuba, and the army was already on its way back to Spain.

This allowed Yu Kaluo to breathe a sigh of relief; there was no longer any need to worry about Cuba slipping out of Spain's control due to some accident.

As one of the few colonies with positive returns for Spain, Cuba's importance was still very high. In addition to providing a steady stream of funds and income during the early stages of Spain's reforms, it could also serve as a positive asset in the future to exchange for colonies with more potential.

In Yu Kaluo's future plans for Spain's colonies, the colonies in Africa were the most important, especially Morocco in the Northwest Africa region.

Because it was separated from the Spanish mainland by only a small strait, if Morocco could be controlled, achieving localization would be quite easy.

Only colonies that could be localized were territories that could truly be held; after all, the colonial era would not last much longer.

Yu Kaluo did not have great ambitions for colonies; what Spain truly wanted were colonies that could provide urgently needed resources and could serve as part of the mainland in the future.

Currently, Spain's scale could not control colonies that were too large, otherwise, rebellions in the colonies would be enough to keep Spain exhausted.

This time, when Serrano went to Cuba to suppress the rebellion, Yu Kaluo had also spoken with him, expressing that in necessary situations, some power could be granted to Cuba in exchange for Spain's control over it.

One must know that this Cuban War of Independence lasted for nearly ten years in history, and it caused the Spanish government to pay out nearly 700 million pesos in funds.

Yu Kaluo did not want to see the current Spanish government spend so much money on suppressing the rebellion in Cuba; the best method was to make certain compromises with the Cuban government and drag it out as long as possible.

Yu Kaluo's goal was only to ensure that Cuba would not have problems for the next ten-plus years.

As for whether Cuba would launch another war of independence after more than ten years, that would be something for the country that took over Cuba at that time to consider.

Serrano indeed did exactly that. Having previously served as the Governor of Cuba, the Duke of Serrano could be said to know the situation in Cuba like the back of his hand.

For the Duke of Serrano, there was no need for much investigation into which forces could be won over and which forces needed to be dealt with first, so the efficiency of suppressing the rebellion naturally doubled.

Relying on the strategy of winning over one faction while suppressing another, the Duke of Serrano quickly brought the chaos in Cuba to stability, and this massive Cuban rebellion finally ended.

Of course, the army that followed Serrano to Cuba also played a crucial role. Without this force of over 5, 00 men, certain forces in Cuba might not have cooperated with Serrano's actions so readily.

In short, after promising to carry out political reforms in Cuba and granting more power to certain forces, the Cuban War of Independence officially ended, and Serrano led the army on the journey back to Spain.

For Yu Kaluo, he could finally begin preparing for the grand rewarding of the army and cultivating a new batch of nobles loyal to himself.

Previously, after Pu Limo suppressed the Carlist rebellion, Yu Kaluo had wanted to confer the title of Duke upon Pu Limo, and the corresponding celebration ceremony was already in preparation.

However, due to various events, it was delayed until May, which coincidentally happened to coincide with the end of Serrano's suppression of the rebellion.

Yu Kaluo immediately decided to hold both celebration ceremonies as one, and to confer titles upon both Serrano and Pu Limo at the same time.

Because Serrano was already a Duke, Yu Kaluo decided to enfeoff him as a Grand Duke to gain Serrano's loyalty.

And Pu Limo would be conferred the title of Duke, becoming a pivotal figure among the Spanish nobility.

Conferring the title of Grand Duke upon Serrano was a choice Yu Kaluo had considered for a long time. Compared to Pu Limo, Serrano was more inclined toward the conservative faction, and his stance was that of a Royalist.

To put it more simply, although Serrano and Pu Limo could be called Yu Kaluo's right-hand men, Pu Limo was more loyal to Spain, and only chose to be loyal to Yu Kaluo because Yu Kaluo was the King of Spain.

But Serrano was different. Serrano's political stance was more inclined toward the Royalist faction, and his loyalty to Yu Kaluo was not necessarily less than his loyalty to Spain.

Moreover, Serrano's prestige in the army was no less than Pu Limo's; if he could obtain Serrano's absolute loyalty, Yu Kaluo's status in Spain could be considered completely solidified.

Even if he lost Pu Limo's support later, Yu Kaluo would not have to worry about his throne being unstable; at the very least, he would have the qualifications to engage in political struggle with Pu Limo or the next Prime Minister.

Otherwise, relying only on his status as an outsider and the two-thousand-plus men of the Royal Guard, how could he compete for power with the next Prime Minister?

Yu Kaluo would not be naive enough to think that all Prime Ministers were people like Pu Limo who held great respect for the Wang Quan. Moreover, part of Pu Limo's respect for Yu Kaluo was because he wanted to push for Spain's reforms, and reforms could not do without the King's support.

Therefore, regardless of the current relationship with Pu Limo, it was very necessary to make plans for the future and to make plans for himself to gradually hold more power.

Yu Kaluo did not come to Spain to be a mascot. To realize the ideals and ambitions in Yu Kaluo's heart, he had to form a certain influence in the government, at least to be able to interfere with the government's decisions at certain moments.

The fleet on which Serrano returned set sail on May 22nd, and it would take at least until June to reach Spain.

This was just as well; Yu Kaluo could have more time to prepare for the conferment of titles upon Serrano and Pu Limo, and to reward the many meritorious officials who had established achievements in suppressing the rebellion.

The good news was that although the Spanish noble class still possessed significant privileges, the lowest-ranking Barons and Viscounts actually did not have any special rights.

Apart from the fact that the titles could be inherited, these two titles were more honorary in nature and had no jurisdiction over the land they obtained.

Enfeoffing such new-style nobles did not cause much harm to the country; it was nothing more than paying out some land.

But compared to other European countries, Spain was not short of land, and furthermore, there were large tracts of land in Africa that had not been carved up by the Great Powers; these lands could be used to enfeoff new-style nobles.

In the future, whether these new-style nobles established large farms or invested in other industries, it would be beneficial to Spain's economic development.

Moreover, compared to the traditional Spanish nobility, the loyalty of these nobles personally conferred by Yu Kaluo would obviously be higher, and they would be more appreciative of the method of granting titles based on military merit.

Second update, asking for support!

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(End of this chapter)