The Sun Never Sets In Spain - Chapter 213

This is no longer a family matter, and the three-day manhunt has put the Spaniards at risk.

Except for a few economically backward rural areas, people in other places have chosen to keep themselves safe, not to mention participating in demonstrations against arrest, and they simply do not go out unless it is necessary, and do not communicate with others.

And some of the fish that slipped through the net fell into even greater fear, because the king took all their heads without any hesitation, which was something no one thought of.

In their plan, the proposal should be passed in the parliament first, and then the government and the royal family should be forced to make concessions through public opinion and disturbing the social order.

This plan is almost foolproof, because when the nobles wanted to come, they did not use force, so Alfonso could not use force.

Even if there were royal police like the Progressive Guard, they wouldn’t be able to arrest them all. How big would that be?

Before it happened, they even had some expectations that the king would arrest some more people, so that they could better give him the title of a tyrant.

But I never imagined that the king didn’t arrest a few or a dozen, but he saw one and one!

How can they use them to promote Alfonso as a tyrant? If there is no turning point in this matter, the people themselves will have eyes.

But until now, the nobles and priests found sadly that they had no power to fight back.

Force is definitely impossible, and public opinion… The king can do such a thing to show that he doesn’t care about public opinion.

Regardless of what these hostile or neutral parties think, even those close to Alfonso don’t all agree with him.

These include Alfonso’s mother Isabella and Prime Minister Campos.

One of them is from the perspective of belief and feelings, and the other is from the perspective of social stability.

Others were a little scared, but these two came to Alfonso two or three times a day.

Isabella was fine. Alfonso forged evidence of Clarett’s involvement in the opposition organization, gained her trust, and made her reluctantly accept the fact that Clarette had been conspiring to harm the Bourbon royal family.

And Campos is not easy to solve, the two have many differences on how to deal with nobles and priests.

The Prime Minister came to Alfonso’s office again that day. He didn’t say anything extra, but just piled all the letters in his arms on the small table beside him.

“These signatories are at least counts, and they also cover more than 70% of the grand dukes in the country.” Campos calmly said.

“Oh? Really.” Alfonso said casually: “These people didn’t dare to send it to me, but they all sent it to you. Prime Minister, you are tired.”

Alfonso’s understatement irritated Campos even more.

“Your Majesty, do you really intend to kill them? Don’t forget that you are also a noble!” Campos said solemnly.

“We have discussed this issue many times in the past few days, and it is not a bad idea to kill it.” Alfonso laughed:

“Currently, there are 90,000 people in Spain with titles of viscount and above, and including barons, Spanish nobles account for 5% of the population.

This is still the number that has been severely diluted after the Carlos War and the annexation of Italy.

Don’t you feel that there are too many nobles? What I need are nobles who can help me maintain my rule, not a bunch of useless rice buckets, let alone so many. ”

Campos was at a loss for words, and he was stuck when he talked about it before.

In the 19th century, European countries generally had more nobles, but Spain was obviously one of the most serious.

The main source of these nobility was the great voyage movement and the reconquest movement earlier, when the king at that time wanted to confer titles, but suffered later generations.

European titles are also hereditary, and the nobility will only be more and more sealed.

Fortunately, barons and knights are not considered nobles, otherwise Spanish nobles may account for 20% of the country.

“No matter what, the massacre of nobles is unprecedented. This is not in line with European traditions!”

Hearing this, Alfonso shook his head and asked, “Campos, do you know why I’m so anxious?”

Campos was stunned for a moment. This was also something they couldn’t understand. Spain had just stabilized, but the king’s reforms were one after another.

Alfonso didn’t expect him to answer, and asked himself: “The Spanish aristocracy and the church are too powerful. When we dealt with Catalonia, it was considered a pure land, but all the other places were their people.

As long as we recruit civil servants and soldiers from various autonomous regions, the government and military will inevitably be influenced by them.

Today, the Spanish infantry has a two-year service period, which means that the earliest Catalans are about to retire.

If I don’t reform now, I won’t be able to change later.

I am not the only one who wants to weaken the nobles, I am just completing the unfinished business of Philip V. ”

Alfonso’s remarks were reassuring, Campos obviously softened a lot, but he still hesitated: “But… but killing tens of thousands of people still has too much impact.”

“I didn’t say that I wanted to kill them all, and I must be sentenced first.”

Alfonso pondered for a while: “If they just participated in the parade, their public office status will be cancelled and a certain fine will be imposed according to the title. In addition, they will be forced to serve for two months so that they will have a long memory.”

If it is the organizer of a parade, riot, etc., kill it if it deserves it. ”

“Of course, if you really don’t want to die,” Alfonso said lightly: “Cancel the title and pay a fine in exchange for exile to see if the foreign country recognizes their noble status.”

Campos was heartbroken. According to this gameplay, at least tens of thousands of nobles will disappear this time.

In fact, a lot of European nobles have died recently. In the Franco-Prussian War, the Italian-Austrian War, and the Prussian-Austrian War, at least 50,000 nobles or heirs died.

But that was all on the battlefield. In the past 100 years, the number of nobles who died of political activities in Europe may not have been combined this time.

“Where’s the priest?”

“Same.”

“…”

Campos was finally persuaded by Alfonso to stop obstructing the handling of nobles and priests.

Either don’t do this kind of thing, or don’t do it.

If you arrest so many people, if you kill one or two or a few, those who don’t know will think that Alfonso is afraid of them.

In fact, this matter has basically no consequences. Now the domestic force is all in the hands of the royal family, and France, Austria-Hungary, and Spain have a good relationship, and they have just finished the war, so it is impossible to interfere in Spain’s internal affairs.

The only one who might take this to attack is the United Kingdom, but Alfonso believes that there is a high probability that there will be no reaction.

After all, Spain is now a naval power with 17 ironclad ships, second only to Britain in terms of number and second only to Britain and France in terms of combat power.

It is impossible for the UK to fight with Spain for such a thing, because the interests are not enough, and it cannot pass the parliamentary hurdle.