Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 190 Chaos arises
At noon on November 1875, 11, in a secret manor on the outskirts of Madrid.

This was originally a suburban estate where a Spanish count kept his mistress, but since late October, it had become a venue for secret meetings of some aristocrats.

The nobles' private meeting had only one purpose, which was to discuss how to overthrow the existing Spanish government and establish Alfonso XII of the Bourbon family as the new king of Spain.

Only a few dukes participated in the meeting some time ago, but since Carlo publicly inspected the colony of southern Morocco, the number of dukes traveling to the suburban estates has increased.

The nobles attending the meeting were all delighted and enthusiastic about the discussion, with the Duke of Osuna being the most excited.

The last time it was discovered that the real culprit behind the assassination of Prime Minister Primo was the Duke of Osuna, for the sake of stability in Spain, Carlo and Prime Minister Primo chose to focus on this matter, which also allowed the Duke of Osuna to save his life.

But mistakes are not without cost. The Duke of Osuna sold most of his land to the government and the royal family at low prices, which made the Duke of Osuna, a country with a very long history, suffer the embarrassing situation that his property is not even as good as that of an ordinary earl.

The most radical of these nobles, and the one most opposed to Prime Minister Primo and Carlo, is probably the Duke of Osuna.

Only by overthrowing the rule of Carlo and Prime Minister Primo can the land that once belonged to the Duke of Osuna be recovered. This concerns the interests of himself and his family. For the Duke of Osuna, he has put all the weight on the side of Queen Isabel.

There was no way around it. The crime of assassinating Prime Minister Primo alone was enough to exclude him from the core interest circle of Spanish politics.

In addition, he had lost most of his land and property. If he didn't take a gamble at this moment, the title of Duke of Osuna and his family would never be able to rise to prominence, and they would even be worse than an ordinary duke's family.

"Our King actually chose to go south to southern Morocco at this time. Didn't anyone tell him that he was going to be in great trouble?" The Duke of Osuna took a sip of red wine produced by his own winery, and said with a sarcastic smile on his face, quite relaxed.

He was originally worried that Carlo and Prime Minister Primo's presence in Madrid would make their coup more difficult. But now that Carlo has gone to southern Morocco, isn't this actively creating opportunities for them to stage a coup?
All we can say is that Carlo is still a young man after all. He has a vague grasp of the changes in the political situation and does things without considering the consequences.

"It is best not to be complacent before we complete our plan." Another duke next to Duke Osuna stood up and expressed his opinion:

We still have to be cautious and investigate the matter thoroughly before formulating an action plan. It is a bit unbelievable that our King is going to South Morocco at this time.

Even if our young king has no such considerations, will old Primo not be on guard? Our King is concerned about his reform plan, and he will not watch Carlo get into trouble. "

The attitudes of the two dukes were similar to those of all the nobles who attended the meeting. There were two types of people. One was more radical and believed that it was the best time to overthrow Primo's government. The other was more cautious and believed that they needed to wait for the right time and determine whether it was unusual for Carlo to go to southern Morocco at this time.

When the talks reached a deadlock, the Bourbon representative's speech finally changed the balance between the two factions.

The so-called representative of the Bourbon family was actually the guard of the former Queen Isabella II. As Queen Isabella's absolute confidant, what the guard said actually represented Queen Isabella's own views.

"Everyone, it's not that troublesome. Although Queen Isabel was forced to go to France because of the evil revolution launched by Primo, it does not mean that Her Majesty will surrender.

In France, the Bourbon family is extremely powerful. We have trained a small elite force with the purpose of re-establishing the great rule of the Bourbon family.

No matter what Carlo's purpose is in going to southern Morocco, this is indeed our best opportunity. We will deal with Prime Minister Primo and Archduke Serrano. You must be prepared to reorganize the Spanish government in chaos after losing the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense.

The moment we take control of the Spanish government, it will be the moment when Queen Isabel and King Alfonso return to Spain. When Bourbon rule returns to Spain, its loyal subjects will also receive the glory that is theirs.

Hearing the words of the Queen's guard, the nobles present all breathed a sigh of relief. If they were to rely on their own strength to push for a coup, it would be impossible to succeed even with their toes.

Prime Minister Primo controls the government, and he and Archduke Serrano have high prestige in the Spanish army. This alone makes the current Spanish government invulnerable.

A coup would be absolutely impossible unless Prime Minister Primo and Archduke Serrano were dealt with, or a stronger and larger army was available to fight the Spanish Royal Army.

Although Queen Isabel does not have an army strong enough to fight against the Royal Army, if she can solve the two troublesome issues of Prime Minister Primo and Archduke Serrano, the hope of a successful coup will be greatly increased.

With the remaining glory of the Bourbon family and the efforts of many nobles, it may be possible to stabilize the situation in the chaotic Spanish government that has lost Prime Minister Primo and Archduke Serrano.

Even if Carlo noticed and returned to Spain, it would be difficult for him to regain control of the situation. After all, Carlo was an Italian, and some Spanish nobles still rejected him.

In addition, Prime Minister Primo's agricultural reforms threatened the interests of the nobility, making the nobility's exclusion of Carlo even more serious.

There would be no problem when the situation in Spain was stable, but if the situation in Spain entered a state of chaos, it would be uncertain whether the nobles would listen to Carlo.

If Queen Isabelle raised her hand at this time, I am afraid that there would be many nobles who wanted to restore the rule of the Bourbon family, not just the small group of nobles who are participating in the meeting now.

"As long as we can solve the problems of Prime Minister Primo and Archduke Serrano, the next thing will be much easier." The duke who advocated a cautious attitude also nodded, his face became a little more relaxed, and he looked at Duke Osuna and the guard with a smile on his face, and said with a smile: "

Why don't we continue to discuss how to act and how to quickly take control of the Spanish government? By taking control of the situation in the Spanish government, we can welcome the arrival of Queen Isabel and King Alfonso more quickly, right? "

The nobles present were not stupid. If the coup they planned could succeed, then the Bourbon family would be in control of the situation in Spain again.

The Bourbon family and Queen Isabella, who were once like rats crossing the street in Spain, have once again become the rulers of the country.

Wouldn't it mean that whoever can gain the trust of Queen Isabella will be able to gain more important positions in the future Spanish government?

Didn't they go to such great lengths to overthrow the rule of Prime Minister Primo and Carlo just to gain more important positions for themselves and regain their own interests?
Naturally, these nobles would not miss such an opportunity to win the favor of Queen Isabel.

Following the Duke's proposal, the nobles quickly began a detailed discussion on how to act and how to quickly take control of the situation in the Spanish government.

Amid heated discussions among many nobles, a relatively complete and detailed action plan was produced, which also included how to quickly take control of the situation in the Spanish government after the successful assassination of Prime Minister Primo and Archduke Serrano, and how to formulate a series of temporary policies to stabilize the situation.

The nobles burst into unimaginable enthusiasm during the discussion, and the leading dukes simply thought that it was everyone's expectation to end Primo's revolution and restore the privileges of the nobility, and they had no doubts at all.

On November 1875, 11, a steam train rumbled from a southern French city to Spain. After a series of rather troublesome formalities at the Spanish border, the passengers on the train changed to a brand new train and continued to Spain.

Because there is a big difference in the width of the railway tracks in France and Spain, French trains cannot travel directly to Spanish territory.

Although this hindered economic exchanges between Spain and the European continent, it also effectively prevented France from invading Spain during its period of weakness.

France did successfully invade Spain during the Napoleonic Empire, but France was simply unstoppable in Europe at the time, so it was only natural that Spain was invaded.

After the Napoleonic Empire, France was no longer able to maintain its control over Spain, and was unable to invade Spain again.

After successfully transferring to the train to Spain, the several strong men in the last carriage gathered together again. The strong man in the lead was obviously relieved, and his face became relaxed. "Captain, do you think our operation can succeed this time?" After one of the strong men took a look around, he quietly came to the leading man and asked in a low voice.

"Of course, no problem." The man called the captain closed his eyes and pretended to rest, but he whispered to his teammates: "What's the big deal? Just get close to the target and shoot. We have practiced this process hundreds of times in France. We only need to do it once this time."

The team member nodded, no longer having any doubts in his mind.

With a complete action plan in hand, the rebellious nobles and Bourbon remnants did not hesitate at all and prepared to launch a large-scale rebellion that very day.

The most important thing to complete the coup is to assassinate Prime Minister Primo and Archduke Serrano. In order to ensure that everything goes well, the rebellious nobles decided to do something to attract Prime Minister Primo's attention and lower his defenses.

What's the matter?

For example, the old-fashioned conflict of interests between capitalists and workers.

If the main contradiction in a feudal autocratic kingdom is the contradiction between the land nobles and the peasants, then the main contradiction in a constitutional monarchy kingdom is the contradiction between the capitalist class and the factory workers.

Although there are labor laws and other laws in Spain that protect the interests of workers to a certain extent, workers are ultimately unable to escape the exploitation and enslavement of capitalists.

As the saying goes, there are policies from above and countermeasures from below. The enslavement of workers by capitalists will never be eradicated. The Spanish government's labor law stipulates that workers' working hours should not exceed 11 hours a day and 70 hours a week.

However, the capitalists used various methods to force the workers to carry out processing, and in the end the working hours of Spanish workers still exceeded 11 hours.

If the government and royal enterprises had not implemented a ten-hour work system, the average working hours of Spanish workers would probably exceed 12 hours.

Yes, it is that exaggerated. This is the Dark Ages, and it is also an inevitable topic for European countries to build industries.

It's not just Spain that is like this, the same is true for powerful powers such as Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Austria.

The industrial rise of Western countries not only led to colonial exploitation in various parts of the world, but also to the exploitation of domestic workers and people by the rise of capitalism.

The industrial history of the West is a history of blood and tears. It was the exploitation of tens of millions of people that made Europe the pearl of the world in this era and the most developed, advanced and prosperous region in the world.

Of course, as time goes by, the treatment of workers in various countries has also been guaranteed to a certain extent. At least the working hours of Spanish workers will not exceed 12 hours, which is also the bottom line set by Prime Minister Carlo and Prime Minister Primo.

Capitalists can be allowed to exploit the people within a certain range, but they cannot treat the people as non-human beings. As long as the bottom line is not exceeded, the government will turn a blind eye to the exploitation of capitalists.

After all, doing so can indeed improve factory production efficiency and promote Spain's industrial and economic development.

As the overall environment in Spain improves, the conflict between capital and workers, although intense, is not a powder keg.

However, for these rebellious nobles, nothing is untouchable. If they can ignite the old topic of capital's exploitation of workers, they can make Spain even more chaotic.

It is easier to fish in troubled waters. If a large-scale demonstration breaks out, it will definitely attract the attention of Prime Minister Primo. When Prime Minister Primo pays attention to the large-scale demonstration, he will naturally relax his vigilance against the rebellious nobles.

At that time, an unexpected assassination would directly cause more chaos in Spanish politics. At that time, the nobles would come forward and gain the favor of the people and workers by criticizing the capitalist class, and then take over the Spanish government without Primo. Everything would be so natural.

On the afternoon of November 11, several Spanish newspapers published articles about how capitalist factories over-exploited workers and, despite the government's clear order that workers' working hours should not exceed 2 hours, they still used various means to make workers' working hours close to 11 hours.

It seemed as if someone was pushing them to do so. These newspapers were originally small-scale newspapers and did not have the ability to sell their newspapers throughout Spain.

But once the news of the day was published, the newspaper quickly appeared on the streets of Madrid and several surrounding cities.

Thanks to the Spanish government's literacy education, more than half of the Spanish people are literate, or at least can understand most of the words in Spanish.

It is also because of this that the report caused widespread discussion in Madrid and surrounding cities, further arousing workers' hatred towards capitalists.

The masses are blindly following the crowd. Regardless of whether they have been exploited and oppressed by the factory owners or not, when they see such news reports, they will always involuntarily bring themselves into the story and strengthen their hatred and hostility towards the factory owners.

There were no trade unions in Spain at that time, and workers had no outlet for their power, so it could only ferment in secret.

When such reports appeared in the streets of Madrid, they immediately attracted the attention of Prime Minister Primo. Prime Minister Primo certainly knew who was behind this, after all, the capitalists would not be stupid enough to release such reports to the streets of Madrid.

"What a bunch of damn guys! They disregard national interests for their own benefit." Prime Minister Primo sat in his office, watching the news reports with a grim face.

"Perhaps Your Majesty is right. Only by wiping out such termites can we prevent them from harming Spain in the future. The achievements of Spain's reforms cannot be corroded by these termites." Prime Minister Primo sighed and admired Carlo's decision even more.

It is admirable that a young king has the courage to risk his life to lure the snake out of its hole.

Facing the rebellious nobles, Carlo seemed to be able to handle it with ease, which made Prime Minister Primo sigh that Carlo had matured and had the ability to become an excellent king.

"It seems that it is time to return power to His Majesty the King." Prime Minister Primo looked at the map of Spanish territory hanging on the wall, and couldn't help but touch every inch of Spanish territory. Then he seemed to have made up his mind.

In the city of Madrid, workers' anger had no place to vent, and eventually turned into gatherings of workers and discussions of dissatisfaction with each other.

Driven by a force, a small-scale demonstration soon broke out. The demonstration attracted the attention of some workers and then evolved into a larger-scale strike and demonstration.

In just half a day, workers in more than one-third of the factories around Madrid went on strike, and the number of workers participating in the march exceeded tens of thousands.

The workers gathered spontaneously, holding up homemade, simple slogan signs and banners, and marched in a massive manner on several busy streets in Madrid.

The massive demonstration quickly attracted the attention of the public security department, but the police were helpless. A demonstration of tens of thousands of people was simply not something the police could handle unless they could mobilize a large number of police officers.

However, the current chaotic situation in Madrid does not allow the Ministry of Security enough time to mobilize the police, and it seems that the only force that can suppress such a large-scale demonstration is the army.

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(End of this chapter)