Character Settings Are Most Important

With a newspaper now in hand as a weapon of public opinion, the most crucial next step was to cultivate a popular persona for himself.

A well-crafted persona could lead the public to assume Carlo was on the side of the majority, even without him taking any action.

As a member of the royal family, a friendly and loving disposition would naturally be well-received.

The public certainly wouldn't want their monarchy to appear aloof and distant; this was why monarchs, led by the British King in later eras, always presented themselves as friendly and benevolent.

Whether presented to the Italian or European public, rigid and conservative thinking was destined to be unpopular.

Although monarchies had their share of conservatives, both Italy and Spain, where Carlo aimed to go, truly desired reformers.

However, while Carlo wished to project an image of a reformer, he absolutely would not offer any opinions on Italy's reforms.

Reforms were one thing, but who would lead them was the truly important issue. Supporting and favoring reform was a weapon in Carlo's arsenal, but actively meddling in the reform process would be more trouble than it was worth.

No government would welcome a king who interfered in every aspect of the nation's affairs. If Carlo wanted to become the King of Spain, he first needed to understand how to be a figurehead and avoid meddling everywhere.

On February 21, 1866, the 24 Hours Sun Newspaper of Italy published an article authored by Carlo titled "We Want Bread, Pasta, and Milk," successfully launching the first shot in his campaign to cultivate an image of caring for the people.

In this entirely sentimental piece, Carlo repeatedly emphasized the importance of Italy's lower classes, particularly the farmers of Southern Italy.

He concluded the article by stating that the demands of the people, whether in Italy or Europe, were not complicated: they simply wanted to eat and be clothed warmly.

If the government could shift more of its focus to the common people, perhaps their lives would be happier.

The entire article lacked any profound wisdom; it even portrayed Carlo as a prince with too much free time and an overabundance of compassion.

While many from the lower classes developed a favorable impression of Carlo due to this report, government officials dismissed it with disdain.

Caring for the lives of the lower classes? It sounded nice, but ultimately meant spending government money.

Setting aside the immense budget required to improve the lives of all the lower classes in Italy, wouldn't that money be better invested in areas Italy needed more, such as military construction and industrial development?

As for the commoners at the bottom of society, ensuring they didn't starve was already a great achievement. Which noble lord had the inclination to care whether commoners had enough to eat or were warmly clothed?

Due to Carlo's severe lack of capable personnel, this report only had a limited impact in the vicinity of Milan, not even reaching Florence.

However, for Carlo's plan, it was a successful first step. Regardless of the thoughts of the government and the nobility, the immediate goal was to make the public believe Carlo was a prince who cared for the common people, perhaps even excessively so.

Such a persona would certainly not be disliked by the masses, as the vast majority of any nation's population belonged to the lower classes – a fact unchangeable by any political system or ideology.

Unfortunately, Carlo was still too young for many of his plans to be executed smoothly. He still needed to spend a considerable amount of time and effort completing the traditional elite aristocratic education in Italy.

Although he was only a prince and his position in the line of succession to the throne was a distant third, Vittorio Emanuele II paid great attention to Carlo's education and upbringing. As Vittorio Emanuele II's youngest son, Carlo undoubtedly received the most affection and attention from his father.

Carlo was approaching fifteen years old this year and had largely completed his initial elite aristocratic education.

According to Vittorio Emanuele II's plan for Carlo's development, he had two options. One was to pursue in-depth studies in management and economics, enabling him to properly handle his own lands and assets in the future.

The other option was to attend a military academy and become a distinguished Italian officer, dedicating himself to the royal family and the nation.

For Carlo, who already had his own plans, the most suitable choice was naturally to attend a military academy to hone his military capabilities.

More importantly, a military academy might be a place to meet officers who were not widely renowned but possessed excellent military skills, allowing him to build his network.

It was a pity that Carlo was not the first in line for the throne, the Crown Prince. Otherwise, he could have used his status as Crown Prince to form a royal guard and build his own armed forces from scratch.

Although unified Italy was already qualified to compete with the great powers, its foundation was still too weak at this time, even in military education.

None of the world's top ten famous military academies in later history were from Italy. Even now, there were not many military academies in Italy worth choosing.

The most reliable military academy option currently was the Turin Military Academy, located in the former capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

This military academy, situated in Turin, the stronghold of the House of Savoy, was a crucial institution for training the military backbone of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Vittorio Emanuele II supported Carlo's desire to attend a military academy.

This was quite common in Western monarchies. Kings in these monarchies trusted members of the royal family and the nobility the most.

The Turin Royal Military Academy was primarily responsible for training officers in infantry and artillery, while the Milan Royal Military Academy handled cavalry officer training.

This was also why Carlo directly chose the Turin Royal Military Academy. After all, Carlo did not need to personally charge into battle, and cavalry would be phased out within the next few decades. Furthermore, the terrain in both Spain and Italy was not suitable for large-scale cavalry charges.

In fact, compared to the instructors at the Turin Royal Military Academy, Carlo admired a legendary Italian figure even more: Giuseppe Garibaldi, one of the Three Heroes of Italian Unification and a hero in two worlds.

Purely in terms of military ability, Garibaldi was undoubtedly the most outstanding military commander in modern Italy.

Even later historians, when describing the entire event of Italian unification, mentioned only three figures of outstanding merit – the so-called Three Heroes of Italian Unification.

"The unification of Italy is attributed to Mazzini's ideas, Garibaldi's sword, and Cavour's diplomacy."

This statement alone sufficiently illustrates the brilliance of Garibaldi's military talent.

But unfortunately, among the Three Heroes of Italian Unification, only Prime Minister Cavour belonged to the faction of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Mazzini, who created the idea of Italian unification, was a staunch republican and an enemy of monarchy.

And Garibaldi, whom Carlo greatly admired, while not explicitly opposing the monarchy, had repeatedly sided with republican systems and was not trusted by the monarchy.

Although Garibaldi was extremely selfless during the process of Italian unification, even resolutely handing over the territory of the entire Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to the Kingdom of Sardinia after gaining control of it.

However, Garibaldi's high prestige within the army and his past service to republicanism prevented him from entering the upper echelons of the new Italy.

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