Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 192: One Day As Prime Minister

The news that Prime Minister Primó had been assassinated, severely wounded, and fallen into a coma quickly spread through various means to much of Madrid city and even the entire Spain.

Whether it was the ministers of the Spanish Cabinet Government or the members of parliament in the House of Representatives, all were greatly shocked.

Since Prime Minister Primó was elected as Prime Minister of Spain after the revolution, Prime Minister Primó had always dominated Spanish politics and was absolutely the government’s anchor.

If Prime Minister Primó was there, even in the greatest chaos, the officials had confidence in quelling it under Prime Minister Primó’s leadership.

But now that Prime Minister Primó was severely wounded and in a coma, there was an urgent need for another person with influence who could step forward to stabilize the situation. Who would that person be?

At this time, the Spanish Government swiftly split into two factions. One faction, led by Minister of Transport Ruiz, consisted mostly of members of the Progressive Party. They believed that at this moment, parliamentary elections should be promoted to elect an acting prime minister to stabilize Spain’s situation until Prime Minister Primó awoke and the acting prime minister’s position was abolished.

The Conservative Party, led by Minister of Industry Cánovas, believed that the most important thing right now was to bring back Carlo from South Morocco and have His Majesty the King issue orders to stabilize the situation.

The Progressive Party was originally the largest party in the Spanish Parliament, but without Prime Minister Primó’s leadership, it ended up in a deadlock with the second largest party, the Conservative Party.

While the parliament was arguing fiercely internally, the rebel nobles had already begun their actions.

Under the malicious incitement of some people, workers’ parades in some regions joined in chaotic and violent elements, turning the original parades into conflicts with local police. When the conflict began, even workers who originally did not oppose the government could not intervene in the conflict’s progression.

The final result was that several streets in Madrid erupted into quite serious conflict incidents, with casualties on both sides among the parading workers and the police maintaining public order.

The conflict incidents changed the pattern of the Spanish Parliament’s quarrels. Minister of Transport Ruiz suddenly gained the support of the Liberal Party and was elected as Acting Prime Minister of Spain with over half the parliamentary seats’ support, to fulfill the duties of Prime Minister of Spain during Prime Minister Primó’s wounded coma, with the term automatically ending when Prime Minister Primó ended his coma.

Ruiz, who had overcome great difficulties to become Acting Prime Minister of Spain, was in high spirits. He of course knew that Prime Minister Primó’s injuries were serious and that even if Prime Minister Primó could be saved, his physical condition would deteriorate sharply.

Although his acting prime minister term was nominally only during Prime Minister Primó’s injury period, in reality it was an experience that no one else could obtain.

If Prime Minister Primó retired in the future, who else could take over the prime minister’s authority from Primó? Of course, it would be him, the one who had once become acting prime minister, which would be very helpful for him to become the new Prime Minister of Spain and the new leader of the Progressive Party.

And such a small workers’ parade was something Ruiz did not take seriously at all.

On the afternoon of November 5, 1875, Ruiz, who had just been elected as Acting Prime Minister of Spain not long ago, immediately announced an order for the army garrisoned in Toledo to march north to Madrid and declare martial law in Madrid, demanding that the parading workers dissolve their parade and promising to seek justice for the workers.

Although there were also garrisons in Madrid, Ruiz cleverly did not mobilize Madrid’s main army. Why? Because Grand Duke Serrano had also moved his Ministry of Defense office to the Madrid barracks, and Madrid’s army was completely controlled by Grand Duke Serrano—Ruiz was not foolish.

Madrid’s army was of course closer, but it could also more directly threaten his status as acting prime minister. Originally, as a radical reformer, he had ideological differences with the conservative-leaning noble Grand Duke Serrano, and if Grand Duke Serrano staged a military coup, that would be a big problem.

Therefore, even though troops were being mobilized from Toledo dozens of kilometers away, Ruiz was unwilling to mobilize soldiers from the closer Madrid Outskirts barracks.

What Ruiz did not expect was that before the Toledo army arrived, he encountered a new accident.

If these rebel nobles were quite dissatisfied with Prime Minister Primó, then they harbored naked hatred and disgust toward the even more radical reformer Ruiz.

Prime Minister Primó’s reforms would consider the nobles’ opinions and would not exterminate the nobles. But Ruiz’s reforms were extremely radical, and he had even once supported abolishing Spain’s monarchy and establishing a completely republican democratic Spanish Nation.

For the rebel nobles, Ruiz was also an absolute trouble that needed to be removed. If Ruiz gained great power, this guy would definitely seize the opportunity to promote Spain’s republic.

The rebel nobles were still waiting to welcome back Queen Isabella and regain noble privileges—they did not want Spain to have already become a republic before the queen returned.

If that were the case, what use would the queen’s return be? Would she have to get a resident identity card of the Republic of Spain?

While rapidly preparing for the armed rebellion, the rebel nobles also spread various rumors unfavorable to Ruiz.

For example, that Prime Minister Primó was actually sent by Ruiz to commit suicide, with the purpose of controlling Spain’s regime after Prime Minister Primó fell into a coma.

There were also stories that Ruiz had several large factories under him, making him even more hateful than the exposed factory owners, and so on, attempting to smear Ruiz, who had become acting prime minister.

At this time, Ruiz was also very troubled. He had just become acting prime minister and had not enjoyed the power in his hands for long before his reputation suffered such smearing.

However, the most important thing right now was to end this workers’ parade that had affected much of Madrid; otherwise, the government would not have the capacity to deal with other matters.

To ensure Madrid’s stability, Ruiz issued a new order: police responsible for maintaining public order could use firearms under dangerous conditions to prevent the workers’ parade from turning into armed conflict.

But what he did not expect was that this order instantly ignited the situation of the workers’ parade.

Originally, the police did not intend to proactively fire on the worker groups, but they could not withstand the malicious guidance and fueling from the rebel nobles within the worker groups.

When someone in the chaotic crowd fired at the police, even if the police were reluctant to fire on civilians, they had to use the firearms in their hands for their own personal safety.

The fatal consequence was that in a short time, several parade sites were ignited, and the cumulative casualties of workers and police quickly reached hundreds.

“What?” Ruiz, who had just learned of the casualty news, showed a shocked expression on his face and asked incredulously: “Who told them to fire first? Didn’t I say to wait until the most dangerous moment to use firearms?”

“Prime Minister, it was not our police who fired first, but someone in the crowd fired and attacked them first,” the Minister of Public Security explained with a bitter smile: “After the shooting, the crowd fell into chaos, and our police suffered heavy casualties.

To maintain stability of the situation, they had no choice but to fire warning shots at the crowd to force back the crowd.”

“Damn it.” Ruiz pounded the table hard twice; his mood at this time was far from good.

The current situation had reached an even more critical stage; if the workers’ parade was not handled well, it was very likely to evolve into internal strife against the government.

“What about our army? How much longer until they arrive in Madrid?” Ruiz asked.

Only by having control of the army in his hands could he ensure Madrid’s stability and secure his position as acting prime minister.

As for whether using the army to suppress the parade would provoke fierce resistance from the workers, that was no longer a problem Ruiz wanted to consider.

After all, only by solving the current workers’ parade could the Spanish Government have a chance to consider other issues. If even Madrid’s workers’ parade could not be solved, there was no need to consider other things—the workers would overthrow the government themselves.

“The army from Toledo sent news this morning that they have already set out. Based on the distance between Madrid and Toledo, at most half a day more, and they should arrive in Madrid,” the Minister of Public Security replied.

When mobilizing the army, Ruiz did not dare to trouble Grand Duke Serrano but directly contacted the garrison in Toledo in his capacity as acting prime minister.

Although he was only acting in the prime minister’s duties, he had the powers that the prime minister had, including the power to mobilize the army in emergencies.

Hearing the news that the army was about to arrive, Ruiz nodded reassuringly and then instructed: “Once the army arrives in Madrid, immediately suppress the workers’ parade.

I do not want to see any parade teams on the streets tomorrow; Spain should enter a stable situation tonight.”

“I understand.” The Minister of Public Security nodded.

In the Madrid barracks on the other side, Grand Duke Serrano was communicating with Carlo via telegram.

Grand Duke Serrano detailed the current situation in Madrid and the fact that Minister of Transport Ruiz had become acting prime minister with the support of the Progressive Party and Liberal Party in parliament.

Carlo’s reply was that since the Spanish Government had an acting prime minister, Grand Duke Serrano naturally did not need to rush to step forward.

Originally, Carlo only planned to deal with the rebel nobles and Bourbon remnants in this chaos, but since the Progressive Party and Liberal Party were interfering, it was naturally more important to let them fight each other and watch the spectacle.

As long as Carlo was unwilling, Ruiz could not suppress the workers’ parade. Because Spain’s military power was completely concentrated in Grand Duke Serrano’s hands, and Grand Duke Serrano took orders from Carlo.

Originally, Prime Minister Primó also had great influence over the army, but after he was severely wounded and in a coma, no one could rival Grand Duke Serrano in terms of army influence.

Even though Ruiz had cleverly mobilized the Toledo army, in reality, the commander of the Toledo garrison had already sent a telegram asking for Grand Duke Serrano’s opinion.

If Grand Duke Serrano refused, the Toledo army would not act at all, let alone openly cooperate with Ruiz’s orders.

On the evening of November 5, the rebel nobles, with a small number of troops, attacked Madrid’s police and obtained a batch of weapons and equipment.

With this batch of weapons and equipment, the rebel army’s numbers quickly expanded to hundreds. Hundreds coerced several thousand workers to impact the Spanish government and parliament, and even attacked several armories set up by the Public Security Department in Madrid.

There were also teams that attacked the Royal Palace during this time, but as early as the moment the workers’ parade began, the Guard Division had already garrisoned around the Royal Palace.

Not to mention a few hundred armed forces—even tens of thousands of armed forces could not conquer the Royal Palace in a short time.

The rebel nobles returned without success and could only turn their gaze to other relatively important places, such as Spain’s government building, parliament building, and residences of government officials.

Due to the element of surprise, Spain’s parliament building was quickly occupied, and some police and rebel army engaged in fierce fighting around the government building.

The Spanish Government instead retreated steadily in front of the rebel army; the Toledo army that Ruiz had been yearning for was still advancing slowly south of Madrid.

Carlo’s purpose was to make Madrid’s waters even muddier, so in his reply telegram to the Toledo army, although Grand Duke Serrano did not say it explicitly, he hinted for the Toledo army to delay their advance speed.

The distance between Madrid and Toledo was only 70 kilometers, and the Toledo army’s garrison was even further north of Toledo city, just over 50 kilometers from Madrid.

But even this distance of just over 50 kilometers meant that the Toledo army, from morning to evening, still had a distance of ten or twenty kilometers left.

The Toledo army’s deliberate slowing allowed the Spanish Government to have no means of resistance when facing the rebel army. Although there were many police in Madrid, they were dispersed throughout Madrid to maintain order and prevent the parade teams from causing chaos.

The police protecting the government building and parliament building together numbered only a few dozen, which was rather thin in front of hundreds of armed forces with firearms and a group of over a thousand workers united.

“Damn it!” Ruiz inside the government building was pale-faced at this time; he knew he was finished.

The workers’ parade teams had turned into rebel teams, meaning that under his hands, Spain had erupted into small-scale internal strife. No matter the outcome of this war, with Prime Minister Primó severely wounded and in a coma, he would definitely be the main one to take the blame.

A reputation for causing Spain’s civil war—let alone continuing to run for the next Prime Minister of Spain—being spared from liquidation would already be a good outcome.

Moreover, the rebels had already reached the outside of the government building; now Ruiz wanted to escape but could not.

The pale-faced Ruiz still wanted to make a final resistance; he asked hoarsely: “What about the Toledo army? Have they arrived in Madrid?”

The Minister of Public Security first shook his head, then the government building received a telegram internally.

After reading the full content of the telegram, the Minister of Public Security walked forward with a strange expression and handed the telegram content to Ruiz.

“Acting Prime Minister, you should see it for yourself. The Toledo army has arrived, but they went to the south side of Madrid to report to Grand Duke Serrano.”

Ruiz’s pupils dilated instantly, and then he sat down on the stool with a deathly pale face: “It’s over!”