Chapter 53: False Accusations

Primo's assassination also alerted Carlo that he must have an intelligence organization loyal to him to gather information for him.

Whether it is monitoring Spain, infiltrating the Republicans and the opposition, or gathering information about foreign countries, it is very necessary.

In order to ensure the loyalty of the intelligence department to him, Carlo decided to train intelligence personnel from an early age.

In an era when life expectancy is not long, there are still many orphans, and Carlo's target is these orphans in Spain.

Orphans generally have a miserable childhood, and Carlo only needs to provide them with the living standards of ordinary people, which is enough to make them grateful.

When these orphans grow up to be qualified intelligence agents, their loyalty to Carlo will be higher than that of ordinary people.

However, the disadvantage is that it takes a long time to train, and the time cost is at least more than ten years, and even more than ten or twenty years.

Fortunately, Carlo is not old at this time, and he has enough time to wait for these orphans to grow into excellent intelligence agents.

However, considering that some intelligence personnel are needed at present, while waiting for these orphans to grow up, a group of relatively ordinary intelligence personnel can be trained first.

Prime Minister Primo has begun a large-scale screening of assassinations.

However, it is very difficult to find clues in the huge Madrid, at least it is impossible to do it in a short time.

However, are the clues really that important?

This assassination is actually an opportunity, which can give Carlo and Primo sufficient reasons to liquidate the government's opponents.

Assassinating the prime minister is definitely a very serious crime. No matter who is accused of this crime, it can be easily carried out a large-scale purge.

Under the premise that the Carlos faction has been executed, who else can resist the Spanish government that is tending to stabilize?

The day after the assassination, Primo asked to see Carlo and proposed a plan to take advantage of this assassination to liquidate the church in one fell swoop.

It doesn't matter who the mastermind behind the scenes is. What is important now is to take this opportunity to liquidate the church and take over the large tracts of land owned by the church.

You know, a lot of the church's land is tax-free. The church will collect taxes on these lands, and the collected taxes will go into the church's own pockets.

If these lands can be taken over, it will not only increase agricultural tax revenue for the government, but also rent the land to civilians at a low price, increasing the per capita arable land area.

The reason for the low income of Spanish farmers is not only that the agricultural tax was too high before, and they had to bear the heavy tax burden including the tithe, but also an important reason is the continuous reduction of per capita arable land area.

Although Spain's land area is not inferior to that of the powerful countries, a considerable part of it is in the hands of the nobles and the church.

Spain has a population of only more than 16 million. Logically, the per capita arable land area should be ahead of the powerful countries with less land and more people.

But in fact, Spain's per capita arable land area is only at a medium level compared to the European powers. Farmers do not have enough arable land for planting, so naturally there will not be too high agricultural income.

Carlo naturally will not have any objections. Solving the trouble of the church opposing reform is a good thing for both the Spanish government and Carlo.

On the second day, the Spanish government publicly reported the assassination of Prime Minister Primo and announced that Madrid would be under martial law again, with no one allowed to enter or leave until the assassination was investigated.

Soon, the streets and alleys of Madrid were filled with police officers. The police's initial actions were to collect clues about the assassination, but after a few days, they turned into arrests of church forces.

Although the scope of the arrests was not limited to the church, the church had the most people arrested.

This also attracted the attention of the Spanish church, and it immediately negotiated with the Spanish government.

For Pedro, the chief archbishop of Spain, the government's behavior was a bit too disrespectful of the church.

Although the government also produced some evidence, it was obviously not enough to send some members of the church to prison.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that the government was taking this opportunity to liquidate the church, which also caused dissatisfaction and anger among many bishops in the Spanish church.

"Archbishop Pedro, we can't sit and wait for death. If we continue to wait, perhaps we will be arrested tomorrow." A bishop of the church said.

"Oh my God, is Primo crazy? Isn't he afraid of our retaliation for arresting church members so frantically?" Archbishop Pedro was also dumbfounded at this time.

Originally, he thought that relying on the church's high reputation and status in Spain, it could ensure that it would stand firm in the Spanish reform.

But unexpectedly, just an assassination incident made Primo swing the butcher knife at the church, and many members of the church who were not prepared had been arrested.

"Bishop, are we just going to let the government arrest us? This assassination has nothing to do with us. Why does the government arrest us without any evidence?"

The bishops in the church were also indignant. It is no exaggeration to say that everyone present is at risk of being arrested at this time.

Before, they were still noble bishops, but now they have become the targets of the government's arrest. Isn't this trampling on the authority of the church?

Archbishop Pedro looked normal, but his heart was not at peace at this time. To be honest, Archbishop Pedro had no confidence in relying on the power of the church to fight against the government.

The fate of the Carlists was still vivid in our minds. The current church was obviously unable to compete with the government. After all, this was not the era when everyone was fanatically believing in the church and God.

The tithe alone made the peasants very dissatisfied with the church. Even if the church incited rebellion at this time, it would probably attract only those fanatical believers of God.

"Don't act rashly for the time being. I will go to see His Majesty to explain the situation." After thinking carefully for a moment, Archbishop Pedro decided not to take risks.

If the rebellion against the government can succeed, it will be fine. If it fails, the fate of these bishops may not be good.

At most, they will lose some of their own interests. As long as they can keep their position as archbishops, they can still get donations from those fanatical believers through various means.

"You should also check whether your people have any connection with this assassination. If so, solve it as soon as possible and don't drag down the church." Looking at the bishops with different expressions, Archbishop Pedro finally ordered.

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