Empire Rise: Spain-Chapter 37: Expansion Of The Palace Guard

Primó can truly be said to keep his word.
The day before, he had just mentioned to Carlo the matter of abolishing the tithe, and the next day he had members of parliament from his own faction submit a proposal in the House of Representatives to abolish the tithe.
The current House of Representatives is less a house of representatives and more a solo deliberation by Primó alone. Having mastered the majority of seats in the council, Primó easily passed this proposal, and the tithe that had troubled Spanish farmers for hundreds of years was abolished just like that.
Before the farmers could even react, the Spanish Parliament was completely dumbfounded.
The Chief Archbishop of the Spanish Parliament, Archbishop Pedro of Toledo, was at this moment filled with question marks in his head, looking at the newspaper in his hand with an incredulous expression.
The newspaper clearly stated that, according to today’s vote in the House of Representatives, the tithe would be abolished throughout all of 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 extremely pained just thinking about how abolishing the tithe would reduce his annual income by a large amount. He stared hatefully at the newspaper and said through gritted teeth.
“Bishop, what should we do?” A subordinate of Archbishop Pedro came up and asked.
“What should we do? What else can we do?” Archbishop Pedro glared irritably at his subordinate and said with some dissatisfaction: “Do we have an army in our hands? Can we resist Carlo and Primó’s rule over Spain?
What we need to do now is bide our time and wait until the Carlist faction and Primó decide on a victor before considering our plans.”
Although Archbishop Pedro felt heartbroken over those abolished taxes, this did not mean he would lose his reason for the sake of that money.
The tithe basically exploited Spain’s farmers, and these farmers currently supported Carlo and the Primó Government wholeheartedly.
These farmers were already dissatisfied with the Church’s long-term collection of the tithe; if the Church came out in opposition, wouldn’t that play right into Primó’s hands?
Without the tithe, the Church could still guarantee its income through other means. But if it opposed the Spanish Government over the tithe, then in the event of victory in the future war, wouldn’t the Church be the one to face reckoning?
As Spain’s Chief Archbishop, Archbishop Pedro’s words still carried great influence.
Precisely because of this, after the government announced the abolition of the tithe, the Spanish Church took no action at all, acting as if it had nothing to do with them.
Carlo and Primó were both somewhat surprised upon hearing the news. Primó had originally prepared to deal with the Church; who would have thought these greedy bishops would actually be willing to give up the bulk of their income?
The most excited throughout all of Spain were, of course, the farmers who lost at least one-tenth of their income every year because of the tithe.
Abolishing the tithe was beneficial for all of Spain, except for the Church that directly collected it.
Without this harsh heavy tax, Spanish farmers’ income would see clear growth, and the government’s tax revenue would correspondingly increase.
With some spare money in farmers’ hands, it would naturally stimulate Spain’s economic growth. This would also be good for the future development of Spanish industry, after all, only when the public has money in their hands will they purchase industrial products.
After abolishing the tithe, Spaniards’ satisfaction with the government and Carlo was also rising sharply.
Especially after experiencing the assassination incident, Spaniards truly began to recognize Carlo and believe in the grand dream he spoke of to make Spain great again.
If previous Carlo was more of an outsider monarch in Spaniards’ hearts, then current Carlo had become truly one of their own in Spaniards’ hearts.
Since everyone was one of their own, it was crystal clear who the outsiders were.
Yes, that’s you—the guy obstructing the government’s reforms and affecting farmers’ and workers’ income, fake King Carlos VII!
Although grassroots people are easily influenced by public opinion, this does not mean grassroots people cannot distinguish between good and bad.
During Carlo’s rule, the Spanish Government was carrying out reforms and tax reductions, and farmers’ lives were getting better and better.
Although the Carlist faction kept saying that reforms would affect factories’ profits, leading to factory bankruptcy and workers losing their jobs.
But weren’t the reforms in Madrid going well right now? Not only had no factories gone bankrupt, but workers had received their full salaries intact for the first time.
Although Spaniards did not know the situation in the Catalan region, considering that King Carlos VII, supported by the Carlist faction, also came from the Bourbon family.
There was no need to say more about the Bourbon family’s reputation; this was the devilish family that made Spaniards change color at the mention.
And what kind of people were the supporters of the Carlist faction? Catalans? Basque people?
Look again at the orthodox Spaniards living around Madrid—who was Spain’s scourge was surely clear, right?
For Spaniards, who made up the vast majority of Spain’s population, would they really support those minority ethnic groups bent on splitting the country?
Precisely because of this, Spain’s chaotic situation was actually already clear; Carlo and Primó were even eager for more forces to come out in support of the Carlist faction, so they could settle it all at once in the end.
The most regrettable thing currently was that the Church had not come out to oppose the government; otherwise, the Church’s vast lands—whether rented cheaply to farmers or awarded to soldiers as military merit land—could further raise the government’s prestige.
After waiting a few more days and confirming that the Church really had no intention of supporting the Carlist faction, Primó finally organized the army to head north with some regret to quell the rebellion.
However, to protect Carlo and Madrid’s safety, Primó still left behind an army of less than 10,000 in scale, which was more than sufficient to defend Madrid.
Moreover, the public around Madrid currently supported the government exceptionally. It was no exaggeration to say that if the Carlist faction really reached the outskirts of Madrid, Carlo could rally tens of thousands of militia to join the fight with a single call to arms.
Moreover, Madrid was located at the center of Spanish population concentrations; for the Carlist faction to reach Madrid before the main Spanish Army could react would be no less difficult than directly crushing the Spanish Army head-on.
While Primó headed north to quell the rebellion, Carlo was not idle in Madrid either.
After settling accounts with the factory owners around Madrid, the funds in Carlo’s hands had instead increased by several million pesetas.
The facts proved that these factory owners could afford to pay workers’ salaries. The funds in their hands were fully sufficient to pay all workers their full salaries, but they were unwilling to do so.
This benefited Carlo. With this unexpected wealth, Carlo could also expand his court guard and form a Royal Guard in the true sense.
However, considering the funds on hand and the combat effectiveness after forming the guard, Carlo only planned to expand the original 500-man court guard into a guard regiment of about 2,500 men.
The guard regiment consisted of two guard infantry battalions and one guard cavalry battalion, with each infantry battalion having about 1,000 soldiers and the cavalry battalion about 500 soldiers.
Although there was no separate artillery battalion, Carlo planned to equip each guard infantry battalion with 2 to 3 cannons to enhance the entire guard regiment’s firepower.
The expanded guard regiment would take on the task of protecting the royal palace and Carlo, and serve as Carlo’s direct-line troops under his full command.
Second update, seeking support!