Empire Rise: Spain-Chapter 40: The Human Heart Is Unfathomable

Primó merely nodded slightly upon hearing the from his subordinate, saying nothing.
He looked at the man with a playful gaze until the man felt uneasy under Primó’s stare.
“Prime Minister Primó, Senator Enrique instructed me to important intelligence to you.” Swallowing a mouthful of saliva and calming himself a bit, the man finally spoke slowly.
“Oh? What important intelligence?” How could these guys’ thoughts escape Primó? There must be someone in the Basque rebels with ulterior motives, wanting to clear their relationship before the Basque rebels were suppressed.
“Senator Enrique expresses his apologies for the situation in the Basque Country. But please believe me, Member of Parliament Enrique absolutely has no intention of betraying Spain.
It was the rebel leader, Matías Anhatol, who used force to threaten the member of parliament to support him, which led to the rebellion in the Basque Country.
But Member of Parliament Enrique has always been loyal to Your Majesty and Spain. He is willing to provide Prime Minister you with all the intelligence on the Basque army and awaits the arrival of the government’s army for the suppression of rebellion.
This is a letter personally written by the member of parliament. Please take a look.”
Primó looked at the man with a smile on his face, then took the letter and glanced over it roughly.
“Heh, Member of Parliament Enrique is truly loyal to the kingdom!” Prime Minister Primó chuckled lightly, as if he had already forgiven the traitor who betrayed the country: “
Go back and tell Senator Enrique that Your Majesty had already instructed before I came that commoners involved in the Basque Country and Catalonia rebellions would be pardoned.
Since Senator Enrique has proactively ed the enemy’s situation, Your Majesty certainly won’t pursue it.”
Carlo had indeed mentioned pardoning the Basque Country and Catalonia commoners involved in the rebellion, as most commoners had been brainwashed and forced into the rebels.
Moreover, Primó wasn’t wrong; Carlo’s pardon had nothing to do with him.
Although Primó was also a Catalan, what Primó wanted was a powerful Spain as a whole.
For rebels like Enrique who harmed Spain’s unification, the best way was to send them to meet God.
Primó, with a military background, would have no mercy at all. Traitors who dared to launch a rebellion must prepare for the reckoning after the suppression of rebellion.
“Thank God, Prime Minister, I will convey your words to the member of parliament. I wish you success in soon quelling the Catalonia rebellion.” After receiving Primó’s reply of willingness to pardon, Senator Enrique’s subordinate visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
The look he gave Primó carried fear and gratitude, as if celebrating that he could continue to strut around with the esteemed member of parliament.
After sending away the troublesome guy, Primó’s face once again showed a smile. He called over several generals and said in a good mood: “We’re setting off, generals.
The Basque people have already split internally. It’s time to send all these rebels to meet God.”
Enrique’s letter to Primó not only included the specific positions and scale of the Vitoria-Gasteiz rebels, but even a seemingly detailed list of rebel leaders.
To clear his own suspicions, Enrique had gone to great lengths.
Of course, this list wasn’t entirely pure.
It did contain many real rebel leaders, but also Enrique’s opponents in the competition for Basque region senator and some guys he didn’t like.
Enrique’s plan was simple: provide this list to shed his guilt and take the opportunity to eliminate rivals.
A list that was eighty percent true and twenty percent false was impossible to discern, unless Primó interrogated everyone on the list and compiled all intelligence.
But as Spain’s prime minister, did Primó really have time to screen the list?
Even if Primó eventually discovered something off about the list, Enrique had sufficient reasons to exonerate himself.
After all, he had been forced to join the Basque rebels, and the rebels had some defense against him, so it was reasonable for them to deliberately make him think more people were involved.
Unfortunately, Enrique would never imagine that Primó had never chosen to forgive him from the start. For a politician from an officer background, he had long learned to remain cold-blooded toward anyone.
Primó breathed a sigh of relief.
Although the Basque Country’s population wasn’t large, the importance of its northern and southern cities was still very high.
Southern Vitoria was the core of the Basque Country region. Causing large casualties among Basque people during the attack would undoubtedly accelerate the estrangement between Basque people and Spain.
Northern Bilbao was one of Spain’s few industrial cities, and a very important one in the steel industry.
Destroying Bilbao’s factories would be catastrophic damage to Spain’s already fragile industry.
Now, with the deployment and scale information on the Basque rebels proactively provided by Enrique, Primó could calmly deal with the remaining Basque rebels and protect the commoners in Vitoria and Bilbao cities from the impact of this war as much as possible.
As for whether the Basque rebel situation provided by Enrique was true, Primó was still willing to believe it.
After all, Enrique indeed needed a certificate of surrender to redeem himself at this point. If even the Basque rebel situation was false, wouldn’t that put Enrique in a position where he pleased no one?
Basque rebel leader Matías Anhatol still didn’t know that after experiencing betrayal by Catalans, he would also face betrayal by Enrique.
After all, the two had planned this rebellion together. Matías Anhatol felt that he and Member of Parliament Enrique were in a state of shared glory and shared loss.
If the rebellion failed, neither would have a good outcome, so Enrique shouldn’t have any reason to betray him.
One could only say Matías Anhatol underestimated human nature, and even more so the bottom line of a member of parliament like Enrique when facing his personal safety and interests.
A few days later, the Spanish Army arrived in force at the small mountains south of Vitoria.
This was not far from Vitoria, perfect for a brief rest and preparation for setting up artillery positions.
Primó’s plan was to create chaos in Vitoria before the Basque people could react, then have the army force its way into Vitoria to control the situation.
Because the rebels’ exact positions were already known, once the Spanish Army successfully entered Vitoria city, these rebels would have nowhere to escape.
What followed would be simple. Implement military control over Vitoria city, launch a large-scale arrest of rebel leaders, and announce pardon for all Basque commoners.
As long as Basque commoners were ensured not to stir up more riots, those rebel leaders on the big list wouldn’t cause much trouble.
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