Palace Guard Expansion

Primo truly meant what he said.

The day after he first mentioned abolishing the tithe to Carlos, he had a fellow party member submit a bill to that effect in the House of Representatives.

The House of Representatives at this point was less a deliberative body and more a stage for Primo alone. With a majority of seats firmly in his grasp, Primo pushed the bill through with ease, and the tithe that had plagued Spanish peasants for centuries was abolished in a single stroke.

Before the peasants could even react, the Spanish Parliament was thrown into utter confusion.

Archbishop Pedro of Toledo, the Chief Archbishop of the Spanish Parliament, stared at the newspaper in his hands with a head full of question marks and an expression of sheer disbelief.

The newspaper headline read plainly: "By today's vote in the House of Representatives, the tithe is abolished throughout Spain, effective immediately!"

"Damn it, the government has no right to cancel our tithe! This is a right granted to us by God!" Archbishop Pedro gritted his teeth, glaring at the newspaper with venomous resentment as he thought of the massive annual income he would lose.

"Your Grace, what should we do?" one of his subordinates leaned in to ask.

"What should we do? What can we do?" Archbishop Pedro shot his subordinate a sour look. "Do we have an army at our command? Can we oppose Carlos and Primo's rule over Spain?

For now, we watch and wait. We'll bide our time until the Carlists and Primo decide who the victor is, and only then will we plan our next move."

As much as Archbishop Pedro mourned the lost revenue, he wasn't about to lose his head over money.

The tithe had primarily exploited Spain's peasants, and those peasants were now staunch supporters of Carlos and Primo's government.

The peasants had long resented the Church's relentless collection of the tithe. If the Church openly opposed its abolition, wouldn't that play right into Primo's hands?

Without the tithe, the Church could still secure its income through other means. But if the Church stepped in to oppose the Spanish government over this, and the Carlists lost the coming war, wouldn't the Church itself face a reckoning?

As Spain's Chief Archbishop, Pedro's words carried significant weight.

That was precisely why the Spanish Church made no move after the government announced the abolition of the tithe, acting as if it had nothing to do with them.

Carlos and Primo were both somewhat surprised when they heard the news. Primo had already prepared countermeasures against the Church, but who would have thought those greedy bishops would willingly give up such a major source of revenue?

The most excited people in all of Spain were, of course, the peasants, who had lost at least a tenth of their annual income to the tithe every year.

Abolishing the tithe benefited all of Spain, except for the Church, which had directly collected it.

Without this harsh heavy tax, Spanish peasants would see a clear increase in their income, and government tax revenue would rise accordingly.

With a little spare cash in their hands, the peasants would also stimulate Spain's economic growth. This would be good for the future development of Spanish industry, since people only buy industrial products when they have money.

After the tithe was abolished, the Spanish people's satisfaction with the government and Carlos rose dramatically.

Especially after the assassination attempt, the Spanish people truly began to accept Carlos and believe in his grand dream of making Spain great.

If before, Carlos was seen by the Spanish people as more of a foreign monarch, now he had become one of their own in their hearts.

Since everyone was now on the same side, it was clear who the outsiders were.

Yes, that means you—the one blocking the government's reforms and hurting the income of peasants and workers: the false king, Carlos VII!

While the common people were easily swayed by public opinion, that didn't mean they couldn't tell which side was better for them.

Under Carlos's rule, the Spanish government was carrying out reforms and tax cuts, and the peasants' lives were steadily improving.

The Carlists kept shouting that the reforms would hurt factory profits, drive factories into bankruptcy, and cost workers their jobs.

But so far, the reforms in Madrid were going smoothly. Not only had no factories gone bankrupt, but workers were receiving their full wages for the first time.

Although the Spanish people didn't know the situation in Catalonia, they knew that the Carlists' candidate, King Carlos VII, was also from the Bourbon family.

The Bourbon family's reputation needed no introduction—it was a family that every Spaniard spoke of with dread.

And what kind of people supported the Carlists? Catalans? Basques?

Look at the true Spaniards living around Madrid—wasn't it obvious who the real scourge of Spain was?

For the majority of Spain's population, the true Spaniards, why would they support those ethnic minorities who wanted to split the country?

That was why, despite the chaos in Spain, the situation was already clear. Carlos and Primo were more than happy for more factions to openly back the Carlists, so they could settle everything in one final blow.

The only pity was that the Church hadn't stepped out to oppose the government. If it had, the Church's vast landholdings—whether leased cheaply to peasants or granted as military rewards to soldiers—could have further boosted the government's prestige.

After waiting a few more days and confirming that the Church truly had no intention of supporting the Carlists, Primo reluctantly began organizing his army to march north and suppress the rebellion.

To protect Carlos and Madrid's safety, however, Primo left behind a force of less than ten thousand men—more than enough to defend the capital.

Moreover, the people around Madrid were exceptionally supportive of the government. It was no exaggeration to say that if the Carlists ever reached the outskirts of Madrid, Carlos could raise a militia of tens of thousands with a single call to arms.

And since Madrid was at the heart of the Spanish-populated region, for the Carlists to reach the capital before the main Spanish army could react would be no less difficult than defeating the Spanish Army in a direct confrontation.

While Primo marched north to quell the rebellion, Carlos was not idle in Madrid.

After liquidating the factory owners around Madrid, Carlos found himself with several million more Pesetas in hand.

It turned out those factory owners hadn't been unable to pay their workers' wages. They had more than enough funds to pay everyone in full—they simply hadn't wanted to.

That worked out well for Carlos. With this unexpected windfall, he could expand his palace guard and form a true Royal Guard.

However, considering his available funds and the combat effectiveness of the newly formed guard, Carlos planned to expand the original 500-man palace guard into a Guard Regiment of about 2,500 men.

The Guard Regiment would consist of two Guard Infantry Battalions and one Guard Cavalry Battalion. Each infantry battalion would have roughly 1,000 soldiers, and the cavalry battalion about 500.

Although there was no separate Artillery Battalion, Carlos planned to equip each Guard Infantry Battalion with two to three cannons to boost the regiment's overall firepower.

Once the expansion was complete, the Guard Regiment would be responsible for protecting the palace and Carlos himself, serving as his personally commanded elite force.

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