Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 190: Turmoil Erupts

On the afternoon of November 1, 1875, in a secret manor on the Madrid Outskirts.

This place was originally a suburban manor where a certain Spanish Count kept his mistress hidden away. Since late October, it had become a venue for private meetings among certain nobles.

The purpose of the nobles’ private meetings was singular: to discuss how to overthrow the current Spanish Government and install Alfonso XII of the Bourbon family as Spain’s new King.

The meetings in the preceding period had involved only a few Dukes, but after Carlo publicly inspected the South Morocco Colony, the number of Dukes coming and going to the suburban manor had increased.

The nobles attending the meeting now wore joyful expressions, brimming with enthusiasm for discussion, with the Duke of Osuna being the most agitated among them.

The last time the true culprit behind the assassination attempt on Prime Minister Primó was investigated and found to be the Duke of Osuna, both Carlo and Prime Minister Primó chose to handle the matter with emphasis for the sake of stabilizing Spain’s situation, which allowed the Duke of Osuna to preserve his life.

But committing a mistake came at a cost. The Duke of Osuna sold off the vast majority of his lands at low prices to the government and Royal Family, reducing the historically prestigious Duke of Osuna to an embarrassing status where his properties were even inferior to those of an ordinary Count.

Among these nobles, the most radical and the strongest opponent of Prime Minister Primó and Carlo was undoubtedly the Duke of Osuna.

Only by overthrowing the rule of Carlo and Prime Minister Primó could the lands once belonging to the Duke of Osuna be reclaimed. This concerned his own and his family’s interests, so for the Duke of Osuna, he had already placed all his chips on Queen Isabella’s side.

There was no choice; the crime of attempting to assassinate Prime Minister Primó alone was enough to exclude him from the core circle of interests in the Spanish political arena. Coupled with the loss of most of his lands and properties, if he did not seize this opportunity to take a bold gamble, the title of Duke of Osuna and his family would never see the light of day, falling even below ordinary Duke families.

“His Majesty the King actually chose to head south to South Morocco at a time like this—doesn’t anyone tell him that great peril is imminent?” The Duke of Osuna picked up a glass of red wine produced by his own winery, took a sip, a mocking smile on his face, and said quite relaxedly.

He had originally worried that with Carlo and Prime Minister Primó both stationed in Madrid, it would increase the difficulty of their coup d’état. But now that Carlo had gone to South Morocco, wasn’t this actively creating an opportunity for their coup d’état?

One could only say that Carlo was still young after all, unclear on grasping changes in the political arena’s situation, acting without considering the consequences.

“Before completing our plan, it’s best not to let our guard down.” Another Duke beside the Duke of Osuna stood up and expressed his view: “

We still need to be cautious, investigate matters thoroughly before formulating an action plan. For His Majesty the King to head to South Morocco at such a timing is somewhat too inconceivable.

Even if our young King has no such considerations, wouldn’t that old fellow Primó have any defenses? His Majesty the King is crucial to his grand reform plans; he certainly won’t sit by and watch Carlo meet with mishap.”

These two Dukes’ attitudes were roughly representative of all the nobles attending the meeting, divided into two kinds: one more radical, believing it was already the best time to overthrow the Primó Government; the other more cautious, feeling they still needed to wait for the right moment while confirming whether Carlo’s southward journey to South Morocco at this point was somewhat unusual.

As this meeting reached a stalemate, the speech by the representative of the Bourbon family finally altered the balanced situation between the two factions.

The so-called representative of the Bourbon family was actually the guard officer of the former Queen Isabel II. As Queen Isabella’s absolute confidant, the guard officer’s words effectively represented Queen Isabella’s own views.

“Gentlemen, it’s actually not that troublesome. Although the evil revolution launched by Primó forced Queen Isabella to flee to France, this does not mean Her Majesty will sit idly by.

In France, the Bourbon family’s influence is extremely vast. We have trained a small elite troop, precisely for the purpose of restoring the great rule of the Bourbon family.

Regardless of Carlo’s purpose in going to South Morocco, this is indeed our best opportunity. We will deal with Prime Minister Primó and Grand Duke Serrano; you must prepare to reorganize the Spanish Government amid the chaos after it loses its Prime Minister and Minister of Defense.

The moment we seize control of the Spanish Government will be the moment Queen Isabella and His Majesty King Alfonso return to Spain. When the Bourbon family’s rule is restored to Spain, its loyal vassals will also attain the glory they deserve.”

Hearing the Queen’s Aide’s words, the nobles present all breathed a sigh of relief. Relying solely on their own strength to push forward a coup d’état would be impossible even thinking with their toes.

Prime Minister Primó controlled the government, and he and Grand Duke Serrano held immense prestige in the Spanish Army. This alone made the current Spanish Government impregnable.

Unless Prime Minister Primó and Grand Duke Serrano could be dealt with, or there was an even stronger and larger-scale army to confront the Royal Army, a coup d’état was absolutely impossible.

Although Queen Isabella did not have an army capable of confronting the Royal Army, if Prime Minister Primó and Grand Duke Serrano—these two troubles—could be eliminated, it would greatly increase the chances of the coup d’état succeeding.

Relying on the lingering prestige of the Bourbon family, plus the efforts of numerous nobles, they might stabilize the situation in the chaotic Spanish Government after losing Prime Minister Primó and Grand Duke 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 exclusion of Carlo by some Spanish nobles still persisted.

Moreover, Prime Minister Primó’s agricultural reform threatened the nobles’ interests, intensifying their exclusion of Carlo.

When Spain’s situation was stable, there would be no issues, but if Spain’s situation descended into chaos, whether the nobles would obey Carlo’s orders was uncertain.

At such a time, if Queen Isabella raised her arm and called out, there would be plenty of nobles wanting to restore the Bourbon family’s rule—not just this small group currently at the meeting.

“As long as we can resolve the troubles of Prime Minister Primó and Grand Duke Serrano, the rest will be much simpler.” The Duke advocating caution also nodded, his expression relaxing somewhat, looking at the Duke of Osuna and that aide with a full smile, and said laughingly: “

Why don’t we continue discussing how to act, and how to quickly seize control of the Spanish Government? Only by controlling the Spanish Government’s situation can we more swiftly welcome the arrival of Queen Isabella and His Majesty King Alfonso, right?”

The nobles present were no fools. If their plotted coup d’état succeeded, control over Spain’s situation would revert to the Bourbon family.

The Bourbon family and Queen Isabella, once treated like vermin in Spain, would become this country’s rulers once more.

Whoever could gain Queen Isabella’s trust would naturally receive greater preferment in the future Spanish Government.

They had gone to such lengths to topple the rule of Prime Minister Primó and Carlo precisely to gain more preferment for themselves and reclaim their interests.

Such an opportunity to curry favor with Queen Isabella was one these nobles would naturally not miss.

Under this Duke’s proposal, the nobles quickly launched a detailed discussion on how to act and how to swiftly control the Spanish Government’s situation.

Amid the nobles’ fervent deliberations, a relatively complete and detailed action plan was freshly produced, accompanied by methods for swiftly controlling the Spanish Government’s situation and issuing a series of temporary policies to stabilize it after successfully assassinating Prime Minister Primó and Grand Duke Serrano.

The nobles erupted in unimaginable enthusiasm during the discussion, and the leading Dukes merely thought it was everyone’s anticipation of ending Primó’s revolution and restoring noble privileges, harboring no suspicions.

On November 2, 1875, a steam train rumbled from a city in Southern France toward Spain. After going through a series of quite troublesome procedures at the Spain border, the passengers in the train switched to a brand-new train to continue advancing into Spain.

Due to the significant gap in train track widths between France and Spain, French trains could not travel directly onto Spanish territory.

Although this hindered economic exchange between Spain and the European Continent, it also effectively prevented French invasions of Spain during periods of Spanish weakness.

During the Napoleonic Empire period, France did successfully invade Spain, but France was then virtually unstoppable in Europe, making Spain’s invasion inevitable.

After the Napoleonic Empire, France could no longer maintain control over Spain, and subsequently failed to invade Spain again.

After successfully transferring to a Spanish train, several burly men in the last carriage regrouped. The leading burly man clearly breathed a sigh of relief, his expression relaxing.

“Captain, do you think our operation this time will succeed?” One of the burly men scanned the surroundings before quietly approaching the leading man and asked softly.

“Of course, no problem.” The man called Captain had his eyes closed, feigning rest, yet communicated softly with his team member: “What’s to it? Get close to the target and fire a shot. We’ve trained this procedure hundreds of times in France; this time we just need to do it once.”

The team member nodded, his mind free of doubts.

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

The core of completing the coup d’état was assassinating Prime Minister Primó and Grand Duke Serrano. To ensure foolproof success, the rebel nobles decided to stir up some trouble to attract Prime Minister Primó’s attention and lower his defenses.

What trouble?

Something perennial like the conflicts of interest between capitalists and workers.

If the primary conflict in a feudal autocracy kingdom was between landowner nobility and farmers, then in a constitutional monarchy kingdom, the primary conflict was between the capitalist class and factory workers.

Although Spain had labor law and other laws providing some guarantee for workers’ interests, workers ultimately could not escape exploitation and enslavement by capitalists.

As the saying goes, there’s a policy from above and countermeasures from below; capitalists’ enslavement of workers could never be eradicated. Spain’s government labor law stipulated that workers’ working hours must not exceed 11 hours per day or 70 hours per week.

But capitalists coerced workers into overtime through various means, resulting in Spanish workers’ working hours still exceeding 11 hours.

If not for government and Royal Family enterprises implementing a ten-hour workday, Spanish workers’ average working hours would likely exceed 12 hours.

Yes, it was that exaggerated. This was the dark age, an inevitable topic in European countries’ industrial construction.

It wasn’t just Spain; powerful great powers like Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria were the same.

The rise of Western industry, besides colonial exploitation worldwide, involved the emerging capitalism’s exploitation of domestic workers and populace.

Western industrial history was a history of blood and tears; it was by exploiting tens of millions of people that Europe became the world’s pearl of this era, the most developed, advanced, and prosperous region.

Of course, with time’s passage, workers’ treatment in various countries gained certain guarantees. At least Spanish workers’ working hours wouldn’t exceed 12 hours—this was the bottom line set by Carlo and Prime Minister Primó.

Capitalists could be allowed limited exploitation of the populace, but not to treat people as less than human. As long as the bottom line wasn’t crossed, the government turned a blind eye to capitalists’ exploitation.

After all, this did improve factory production efficiency and promote Spain’s industry and economic development.

In Spain’s overall improving environment, conflicts between capital and workers were intense but not a powder keg.

However, for these rebel nobles, nothing was unusable. Igniting this perennial topic of capitalist exploitation of workers could make Spain even more chaotic.

Muddy waters were best for fishing. A large-scale parade would certainly draw Prime Minister Primó’s attention. Once Prime Minister Primó focused on the large-scale parade, he would naturally relax vigilance against the rebel nobles.

At that time, a surprise assassination would directly plunge the Spanish political arena into further chaos. Then the nobles could step forward, gain the favor of the public and workers by criticizing the capitalist class, and take over the Spanish Government without Primó—everything would seem perfectly natural.

In the afternoon of November 2, several newspaper offices in Spain published articles about capitalists in factories excessively exploiting workers, forcing working hours close to 12 hours despite the government’s explicit order limiting them to no more than 11 hours.

As if propelled by some force, these were originally small-scale newspaper offices without the ability to distribute papers across all of Spain.

But once the news was published that day, the newspapers quickly appeared on the major streets of Madrid and in several surrounding cities.

Thanks to the Spanish Government’s literacy education efforts, over half of the Spanish people were literate, able to understand at least most Spanish language words.

Precisely because of this, the report sparked widespread discussion in Madrid and surrounding cities, further fueling workers’ hatred toward capitalists.

The public tends to follow the crowd blindly. Whether or not they had personally suffered exploitation and oppression from factory owners, upon seeing such news reports, they would involuntarily empathize and intensify their hatred and hostility toward factory owners.

At this time, Spain had no trade unions, so workers’ strength had no outlet and could only ferment underground.

When such reports appeared on the streets of Madrid, they immediately caught Prime Minister Primó’s attention. Prime Minister Primó naturally knew who was behind it, as capitalists wouldn’t be foolish enough to distribute such reports across Madrid’s streets.

“What a bunch of damned vermin! For their own interests, they abandon the country’s interests.” Prime Minister Primó sat in his Prime Minister’s office, his face ashen as he looked at the news report.

“Perhaps His Majesty is right; such vermin must be swept clean to prevent them from harming Spain in the future. The results of Spain’s reforms cannot be corroded by these vermin.” Prime Minister Primó sighed, admiring Carlo’s decision even more.

A young King with the courage to risk life-threatening danger to lure the snake out of its hole—this was enough to inspire admiration.

Facing the rebellious nobles, Carlo seemed at ease, which made Prime Minister Primó involuntarily sigh that Carlo had matured and possessed the ability to be an excellent King.

“It seems it’s time to return power to His Majesty the King.” Prime Minister Primó looked at the map of Spanish territory hanging on the wall, involuntarily caressing every inch of Spain’s land, then seemed to steel his resolve.

In Madrid city, workers’ anger had nowhere to vent and evolved into gatherings and dissatisfied discussions among themselves.

Under the push of some force, small-scale parades soon erupted. These drew the attention of more workers, escalating into larger-scale strikes and parades.

In just half a day, over a third of the factories around Madrid had striking workers, with the number participating in parades exceeding ten thousand.

Workers spontaneously gathered, holding up homemade, crude slogan signs and banners, marching grandly along several bustling main streets in Madrid.

The massive parade quickly drew the attention of the public security department, but the police were helpless against it. A parade of tens of thousands couldn’t be handled by police alone unless large numbers were mobilized.

But in the current chaotic situation in Madrid, the public security department lacked time to mobilize police; it seemed only the army could suppress such a large-scale parade.

5000-word two-in-one chapter, seeking support!