Time swiftly arrived at 1869.
Although no news had yet come from Spain, Carlo had already made thorough preparations for the possibility of taking the throne of Spain.
First came the propaganda power Carlo had vigorously developed, which had already achieved certain results.
The 24 Hours Sun Newspaper of Italy, the largest newspaper company in Carlo's hands, had become the largest newspaper in Northern Italy, with an average daily circulation exceeding 24,000 copies throughout 1868.
Besides the Sun Newspaper, under Carlo's instructions, Loren had also established numerous newspapers across northern and southern Italy. Together, these small and medium-sized newspapers had a daily circulation of more than 10,000 copies.
Carlo could be said to have completed the initial deployment of his propaganda power. All manner of newspapers combined had tens of thousands of loyal readers and could influence at least several hundred thousand people.
So long as Carlo wished it, he could ensure that hundreds of thousands, or even more than a million Italians, learned of a piece of news within a short period of time.
In an era when transportation was extraordinarily inconvenient and most common people relied on animals such as horses and ox carts to travel, that was truly astonishing.
Over two and a half years, these newspapers of every size had also brought Carlo nearly 250,000 Lira in income.
It was also thanks to Garibaldi's reputation that the Sun Newspaper had been able to swiftly break into the market. Otherwise, earning more than 200,000 Lira would not have been so easy.
As time entered February 1869, Spain's Parliamentary elections officially arrived as well.
Just as in history, Primo, as the most powerful individual in the Provisional Government and a man of enormous prestige within the revolutionary army, smoothly gained control of the majority of seats in Parliament.
This news made Carlo breathe a sigh of relief. It meant that Spain would move toward a constitutional monarchy rather than a republic, and Carlo still had a strong chance of becoming King of Spain.
No sooner had the new Spanish Parliament been established than it announced that it would not abolish the monarchy. Instead, it would establish a state government under a constitutional monarchy to manage Spain's affairs.
Since the Spanish throne remained vacant, Parliament appointed Francisco Serrano Dominguez, Prime Minister of the Provisional Government, as Regent of the Kingdom of Spain, while Secretary of State for War Primo became the new Prime Minister.
Not only were these two the most prestigious figures in the Provisional Government, they were also two generals widely supported within the revolutionary army.
This was, in fact, the true reason Spain continued to maintain its monarchy. After all, the two men with the power to decide both supported it.
Thanks to that report promoting the superiority of the monarchical system, the news that Spain would continue maintaining its monarchy did not cause much of a stir.
So long as Spain was no longer ruled by a foolish monarch like Queen Isabella, the objections of the Spaniards would at least not be so fierce.
With Parliamentary affairs temporarily settled, the most troublesome matter for Regent Serrano and Prime Minister Primo had become choosing a suitable King for Spain.
Although they could choose freely among Europe's royal families, their chosen candidate also had to win the recognition of the people.
Someone with a terrible reputation would not do. The Spaniards could not possibly believe that such a King could do better than Isabella. If Spain were merely to be ruled by a new Queen Isabella, then what had the Spaniards revolted for?
Someone of controversial birth would not do either. For Spain, only a King of noble birth and backed by a great family could stabilize the country's order.
If the new King's origins were deeply disputed, it would deal another blow to Spain's hard-won constitutional monarchy.
With all the other assorted requirements added in, there were actually only a few European Princes left who were suitable to become King of Spain.
After more than a month of screening, Serrano and Primo finally settled on a list of five candidates.
The first choice was Prince Leopold of the royal family of Germany. Prince Leopold had been born into the House of Hohenzollern, backed by the Kingdom of Prussia, which had just won the Austro-Prussian War. Both his background and reputation met Spain's requirements.
The second choice was Ferdinand, who had served as Portugal's Regent. Ferdinand's wife and son were both monarchs of Portugal. During his time as King of Portugal—the Queen's husband—and as Regent, his performance had been above the passing line, and his reputation was fairly good as well.
The third choice was Prince Amadeo of Italy's House of Savoy. Unified Italy still had some weight along the Mediterranean Sea coast, while the House of Savoy's prestige among Europe's royal families had also risen slightly. To Spain, Amadeo might not have been as reliable as the first two, but he was still a qualified candidate.
The fourth choice also came from Italy's House of Savoy: Amadeo's younger brother, Carlo. Carlo's drawback was that he was somewhat young, still a few months short of eighteen. But Carlo's reputation in Italy was no weaker than Amadeo's, and the Sun Newspaper's promotion of Carlo had been quite effective.
Quite a few Italians even greatly liked this youngest Prince, because the young Prince did not put on airs when he traveled and would kindly greet Italian commoners.
Under the influence of propaganda, some Spaniards had also heard of this friendly Prince of Italy. This was why Carlo could enter the candidate list. After all, both Primo and Serrano believed that the Spaniards would not reject a friendly King.
The final candidate was Queen Isabella's brother-in-law, the Duke of Ponte Caldelas of Spain. However, considering the Spaniards' disgust with Queen Isabella and the possibility that they might extend their hatred to the entire royal house, Primo placed the Duke of Ponte Caldelas at the bottom of the candidate list and considered removing him from it.
After all, selecting a King of Spain was an extremely rigorous matter. Any flaw in a candidate would be magnified countless times, and every possible consequence was something Serrano and Primo had to take into account.
To Primo's disappointment, the Spanish government had only just sent out a hint to Ferdinand when Ferdinand directly rejected the Spanish throne.
In theory, this also cut off the possibility of Spain and Portugal uniting once again, since Ferdinand's son was the current King of Portugal.
If Ferdinand could obtain the Spanish throne, the future King of Portugal might have been able to inherit the Spanish throne as well, achieving the merger of the two countries of Iberia.
Ferdinand's voluntary withdrawal reduced the list of five to four. After lengthy discussions with Serrano, Primo ultimately decided to remove the Duke of Ponte Caldelas from the list as well, leaving only three candidates.
Although Spain's Election of the King was still kept fairly secret, there was no wall in the world that could remain airtight.
At this time, Primo and Serrano still did not know what a profound impact their Election of the King would have on Europe's situation, or that it would even directly cause the hegemon of Europe to be trampled beneath another country's feet.
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