Rise of Empires: Spain

Chapter 42: The Iron-willed Carlos

At this time, the chances of the Carlist rebels winning had been greatly reduced, and Carlos VII himself actually understood this.

He was struggling in his heart, whether to continue to lead the army in a meaningless resistance, or to find an opportunity to escape and continue to hide in the dark to look for new opportunities?

Although escaping as soon as possible is obviously a better choice, for Carlos VII, who has been waiting for an opportunity for a long time, giving up this time may mean that he will never be able to ascend the throne of Spain in his lifetime.

The birth of the Carlist Party began with Queen Isabel's accession to the throne, and it has been less than 40 years to now.

But in less than 40 years, the Carlist Party has experienced four "monarchs" successively, Carlos V, Carlos VI, Juan III and Carlos VII.

Carlos VII also understood that the reason why the Carlist Party has been able to exist and launched three consecutive Carlist wars in less than 40 years is because of Queen Isabel's incompetent rule and the corrupt Spanish royal government.

The people are increasingly dissatisfied with the queen's rule, which is the reason why the Carlos Party has lasted for a long time.

If a normal queen is replaced, after a long rule of thirty or forty years, the people will have recognized the queen above their heads.

Let's not talk about the ability of the current Spanish King Carlo, he is indeed a good hand at winning the hearts of the people.

In addition, Prime Minister Primo is determined to carry out reforms. If such a pair of monarchs and ministers successfully carry out reforms, will there be a place for the Carlos Party in the future Spain?

After all, the reason why the Carlos Party was born is because the conservatives do not want to see the queen take the throne, so they support Prince Carlos, the male heir.

At present, the king of Spain has long been replaced. Doesn't this mean that the reasons for the establishment of the Carlos Party are no longer valid?

Thinking of this, Carlos VII suddenly realized that whether the current situation is advancing or retreating, it seems that the Carlos Party and himself have only one ending, that is, failure.

So, should he fight the government army or flee abroad to enjoy his luxurious life?

Carlos VII, who thought he was smart, made a choice quickly and quietly left the Carlist rebels that night.

When the Catalans found something wrong, it was already noon the next day.

The Catalans never thought until their death that their army had not been defeated, and the king they supported, Carlos VII, had already fled.

Carlos VII's escape route went all the way east. After re-entering Catalonia, he fled along the coastline to France.

It is worth mentioning that the former Queen Isabel II of Spain also took refuge in France. Who let the Bourbon family come from France?

Speaking of which, the Bourbon family has ruled Spain for nearly 170 years. If it weren't for Queen Isabel's own death, and the fact that the Carlos faction was indeed a bunch of mud that couldn't be helped, I'm afraid Carlo's rule in Spain would not be so smooth.

Halfway through the war, the king he supported ran away.

This was a heavy blow to the morale of the Catalan rebels, and it also directly announced that the offensive and defensive battle of Zaragoza had entered the final stage, and the offensive and defensive sides were different.

When Primo's army hurriedly rushed to Aragon from the Basque region, the Catalan army had almost collapsed.

After the large forces suffered a lot of casualties, the remaining soldiers chose to surrender.

The flanks and the relatively backward Catalan troops fled in all directions, and the chaotic scene was like a market.

This also changed Primo's plan from the original encirclement and annihilation of the Catalan army to clearing the remnants of the Aragon region.

Although these rebels have successfully fled, the scale of small rebels can still have a great impact on the security of the Aragon region.

If they are not cleaned up as much as possible, these rebels will reduce the public sentiment in the Aragon region if they do something.

Fortunately, most of the Catalan rebels have been captured. Although the cleaning work is more troublesome, it is not so difficult.

In just a few days, Primo led the Spanish army to capture nearly a thousand Catalan rebels who had escaped. Most of the remaining few rebels fled into the mountains, and there was no need to pursue them for the time being.

Leaving a part of the army to guard the prisoners, Primo took the remaining large forces to Catalonia to carry out the final finishing work.

There are still many remnant rebel forces in Catalonia, including some Carlos factions who did not have time to escape.

Primo's plan is to completely eliminate these unstable elements and restore peace to Catalonia.

The good news is that there are still many forces participating in the rebellion in Catalonia this time, and Primo can completely carry out a major cleanup.

Just like the Basque region, in fact, most civilians do not have too many ideas about their identities.

Whether it is Basques, Catalans, or Spaniards, they can accept it.

As long as the farmers can have enough food and the workers can get enough income to support their families, they will not become unstable factors.

The real destabilizing factors are the upper echelons of the Basque and Catalan communities, such as the nobility and factory owners, including parliamentarians like Enrique and church figures.

Some of them wanted to gain higher power through Catalonia's autonomy or independence, while others simply opposed the government's reform policies and wanted to achieve their goals through Catalan independence activists.

Of course, there were also some, such as the Carlos faction, who wanted to obtain the Spanish throne, but unfortunately they failed in three consecutive wars.

The finishing work lasted for more than a week. During this week, Primo carefully screened and executed hundreds of Catalan rebels.

The number of Carlos factions and independence activists was the largest, while there were not many factory owners and church personnel.

As for the remaining vast majority of the rebels, they were ordinary farmers and workers before, so they were naturally let go by Primo.

After all, too many people have died in this rebellion. On the premise of holding all the high-ranking rebels accountable, it is also necessary to maintain local stability by forgiving ordinary rebel members.

In order to reassure the people of the Basque and Catalonia regions, Primo also posted a special notice on the exoneration of ordinary people.

But at the same time, Primo also publicly executed the top leaders of the rebels, which also made ordinary people understand that rebellion also has a price to pay, and when launching a rebellion, they need to carefully consider whether they can afford the price of failure.

First update, please read it!