Chapter 120: Agriculture has no financial appeal

Since March 1872, a vigorous military reform has officially begun in Spain. In order to prevent a greater impact on the army, the military reform will be implemented in batches throughout the Spanish army.

The first to be put into the reform are naturally the garrison troops around Madrid. The good news is that the army defending the capital is the elite of all the Spanish armies. Most of the soldiers and officers in this army have certain abilities. There are actually not many officers and soldiers in the scope of layoffs, and the impact on the army itself will not be too great.

The reason why this army is the primary target of reform is naturally because it is less affected by the military reform.

After the reform of this army is completed, when promoting military reforms in other armies across Spain, it can be carried out with confidence and boldness.

With this army protecting the capital of Madrid, coupled with the guards stationed near the royal palace, it can ensure that the Spanish government will not face any danger, and military reforms can be carried out stably.

When Spain officially launched a large-scale military reform, Carlo learned in detail about the various establishments and military stationings of the current Spanish army.

At present, all the troops in Spain add up to 28 line infantry regiments, 11 light infantry battalions, 12 cavalry regiments, 1 engineering regiment and 14 colonial garrison regiments.

The total number of soldiers exceeds 100,000, of which about 70,000 are stationed in Spain and more than 30,000 are stationed in various colonies of Spain.

It is worth mentioning that there is no separate artillery regiment in all the military organizations of Spain.

Spain certainly has artillery, but it exists in the form of artillery companies in infantry and cavalry regiments.

Moreover, all the artillery in Spain only has a little over 200 pieces, which is a big gap from the great powers during the Austro-Prussian War and the Franco-Prussian War.

However, this point is understandable. In terms of artillery technology and the scale of artillery equipment, there have actually been major changes in the past decade.

Especially after Prussia used a new steelmaking method to smelt steel and then used steel cannons to deal a fatal blow to the French army, countries gradually paid more attention to artillery.

This is not the First World War a few decades later. Countries have already equipped themselves with numerous machine guns and artillery. In this era, infantry and cavalry are still the mainstream of various countries, and machine guns have not yet been born.

In order to improve the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army, in addition to military reforms and improving the military quality of officers and soldiers, it is also necessary to equip artillery on a large scale, and in the future, it is necessary to equip machine guns on a large scale.

On the premise of improving the military quality of officers and soldiers, the advancement of weapons and equipment can also be improved. This is the only way to effectively improve the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army.

However, these are obviously not what Carlo can promote now. Although Prime Minister Primo does not oppose some of Carlo's opinions, he will certainly not allow Carlo to constantly point fingers at the government and the army.

Fortunately, after this military reform, the combat effectiveness of the Spanish army can be effectively improved, and it is not too late to talk about other things later.

As time entered April 1872, the Spanish government became busy. Prime Minister Primo not only had to pay attention to the reform of the army, but also had to devote a lot of energy to the reform of the Spanish government and the development of the economy.

At the same time, after the marriage with the royal family of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Spain also had to take action at the diplomatic level. At present, the alliance between Spain and Austria-Hungary is under negotiation, which also takes away some of Prime Minister Primo's energy.

For Primo, who is about to turn 60, such a busy political affairs has indeed brought a lot of pressure. At present, all developments in Spain have ushered in a critical period, which makes it almost difficult for Prime Minister Primo to sleep well.

Unlike the busy and stressed Prime Minister Primo, as the King of Spain, Carlo is leisurely and contented during this period, living his own free and easy life as a king.

After the wedding, Carlo and Queen Sophie began a honeymoon life.

Carlo took Queen Sophie to live in the Royal Palace of Madrid for a while, and then went to cities such as Toledo, Valladolid, Seville and Valencia, enjoying the beautiful scenery of Spain while playing.

However, the areas that Carlo passed through were all in the central and southern regions of Spain, which were under the control of the government and their safety could be guaranteed.

Of course, during Carlo's play, the Guards sent cavalry battalions and infantry battalions to follow and protect him. Under the protection of these soldiers, Carlo's safety can be basically guaranteed.

Even in the face of thousands of rebels, the Guards Cavalry Battalion and the Guards Infantry Battalion can hold out until the arrival of the Spanish government forces. Unless facing tens of thousands of rebels, there is no situation that can threaten Carlo's safety.

Carlo still attaches great importance to his own safety. In addition to using these guards to follow and protect himself, the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau, which has already been established, will also accompany him for protection.

The Royal Security Intelligence Bureau was established on May 17, 1870. After a year-long probation period, Carlo affirmed the ability of the Director of the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau, Cardil Bruno, and officially appointed him as the Director of the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau, becoming his confidant.

After nearly two years of development, the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau has long become a huge organization hidden in the dark.

So far, Carlo has invested more than 2.4 million pesetas in the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau.

Director Kadir did not waste Carlo's investment. The 2.4 million pesetas brought Carlo more than 400 intelligence personnel and hundreds of secret agents who cooperated with the intelligence bureau.

These secret agents did not even know the existence of the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau. The Royal Security Intelligence Bureau is called the Royal Military Liaison Group, which is nominally responsible for the communication and cooperation between the various Spanish armies during the war.

But in fact, the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau has evolved into Carlo's eyes, helping Carlo to find out all kinds of major and minor events happening at home and abroad, and investigate any candidates Carlo wants to investigate.

It is worth mentioning that the reason why Carlo is sure of Kadir's ability is that the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau investigated the murderer who assassinated Prime Minister Primo less than a year after its establishment.

When Carlo learned that the real murderer behind the assassination of Prime Minister Primo was the Duke of Osuna, who was prominent in the Spanish aristocracy, he was reluctant to believe it at first.

But when Director Kadir provided more complete evidence, Carlo had to believe that Duke Osuna was the real murderer behind the assassination.

Now that the real murderer behind the assassination case was found, the next thing would be much easier.

Considering the stability of Spain and the possible impact on the aristocracy, it is better to handle this matter in a low-key manner.

After all, it did not have much impact on Prime Minister Primo. The assassination ended in complete failure, and even Primo's pistol was not damaged.

When the intelligence agency personnel delivered the complete chain of evidence to Duke Osuna, the Duke, who was still confident when launching the assassination, finally panicked.

However, he also knew that Carlo was able to have the chain of evidence delivered to him instead of handing it over to Prime Minister Primo to arrest him, which proved that there was still room for detours in this matter.

Carlo had no good feelings for people like Duke Osuna. However, considering that Duke Osuna was a person with a relatively high status and influence in the Spanish aristocracy, if he was treated too cruelly, it might make some of the nobles who were originally shaken even more disunited.

After the final consideration, Carlo offered the Duke of Osuna two options.

Either, the evidence chain will be kept by the Duke of Osuna himself, at the cost of selling at least 60% of the Duke of Osuna's land property to the royal family at market price, and the funds from the sale will be donated to the government.

Or, the evidence will be submitted to Prime Minister Primo, and the government will arrest and try the Duke of Osuna, and finally decide whether the Duke of Osuna's property will stay or go.

The first option at least left the Duke of Osuna with less than 40% of his property, and it would not be a problem to be a wealthy noble from now on.

If the second option is chosen, even if the title of the Duke of Osuna can be retained, it may not be on the head of the current Duke of Osuna.

More importantly, the government will not be too polite to the nobles. Especially for a traitor like the Duke of Osuna who planned to assassinate the prime minister, most of his property is estimated to be confiscated by the government.

Without much thought, the Duke of Osuna chose the first way and willingly sold more than 60% of his property to the royal family.

There was no way. Facing the Spanish government and royal family at that time, he did not have many means to resist.

Moreover, the royal family had enough evidence in their hands. Resistance at this time would not have any effect, but would put the Duke of Osuna and his family in greater crisis.

This matter was more like an exchange of interests. Duke Osuna used more than 60% of his land to exchange for a chance to survive, and the funds from the sale of these lands were handed over to the government in exchange for Prime Minister Primo's forgiveness.

And Carlo could also make the royal family's land the largest among European nobles by purchasing land. In the future, the Spanish royal family would no longer represent more money and less land.

Although the land in Spain is not as fertile as in other countries, and the income from farming is not as high as imagined.

But for those more traditional nobles, the amount of land owned by the nobles can also determine the influence of the nobles to a certain extent.

For example, the nobles and grand dukes with greater influence in Spain must have the most land and property in their hands.

Those marquises and earls with less influence must not have as much property and land in their hands as the duke.

This matter was also discussed with Prime Minister Primo. Compared to the Duke of Osuna, Prime Minister Primo is definitely more important to Carlo.

Prime Minister Primo also agreed with Carlo's idea of ​​​​a cold treatment. After all, the government can also gain a certain amount of funds in this incident. The only one who loses is the Duke of Osuna.

In addition to losing more than 60% of his property, all the armed forces he trained must be abolished, and they will need to be under the supervision of the government for a long time.

If it were not for the stability of the country, Prime Minister Primo would even plan to execute the Duke of Osuna directly.

However, this treatment is a good thing. First of all, it can stabilize the aristocracy, which is helpful for the stability of Spain.

Secondly, it can also make some people from the major forces in Spain think carefully about the consequences of standing up against the government. The Duke of Osuna has a lot of property to compensate, but other nobles may not have it.

The Duke of Osuna is one of the most influential nobles in Spain. After losing more than 60% of his property, the blow to the entire Duke's family is huge.

After all, the biggest income for this kind of more traditional nobles is from agriculture. They will rent their land to farmers, who will not only pay them rent, but also taxes.

Of course, this may also be the reason why the Duke of Osuna assassinated Prime Minister Primo. Although the land of these dukes is not a relatively autonomous territory, nobles like this have the right to collect taxes on their own land.

The government's reduction of agricultural taxes will actually affect their income. Especially for these nobles with a lot of land, the actual reduction in agricultural taxes is an extremely large number for them.

This also has to be admired by the church's understanding. If the reduction of agricultural taxes affects some of the nobles, then the abolition of tithes is a major blow to the church.

One of the major sources of income for the Spanish church is the tithes paid by farmers, and the other major source is the agricultural taxes brought by church land.

One of these two major sources of income was directly abolished by the government, and the other was also reduced by a large part under the government's tax reduction policy.

In other words, Archbishop Pedro is sensible, otherwise it is really a matter of whether the Spanish church will rebel.

In fact, from this point, we can also see how many forces were affected by Prime Minister Primo's reform. Even the nobles who openly supported the royal family were affected, but many people could still see the situation clearly.

The reason why Carlo established the Royal United Bank was naturally to pull the nobles to make money together and let them find new income in other industries besides land.

If you only focus on land taxes and other income, then the nobles will never forget the impact of government tax cuts on them.

But if you focus on the financial industry and industry, the nobles will also find that in Spain, finance and industry are the real money-making.

The land in Spain is originally very barren, and the local landlords can't make much money. A very simple example can show that. When the German nobles and the Spanish nobles own the same scale of land, the income of the German nobles is often several times that of the Spanish nobles.

The difference in land fertility has already doomed Spain to be unable to become a strong country in agriculture. It is good news to be able to meet the needs of the domestic population. It is simply a foolish dream to expect to make a lot of money from agriculture.

Today I will update only once. CK3 has been updated. I am itching to update it. There is also a new season for King of Glory. I will play some games today.