Episode 134 Desperate Spain

Spain.

For five years, the land has experienced so much blood, chaos and tears. The whole country was in disarray, with the right and the left wing coming to power in turn, but not at any time brought peace to the people, only more and more frequent conflicts, riots, assassinations, and bombs. By 1936, the whole of Spain was completely out of control, completely deprived of law and order. Spain has become the darkest land on the European continent outside of Russia.

In the midst of this darkness there was a faint, beating light.

It was a chapel. The church was erected in the countryside, small and broken. The small cross on the spire stands in the night sky, faintly visible in the silhouette of the moonlight. The glass on the window had been smashed and tattered, but in this broken glass window, there was a little bright light. In the darkness of the four fields, this light can really make people feel safe and warm.

There are a few candles lit inside the chapel. On the broken rows of chairs, more than a dozen old people, women and children from the surrounding mountain villages gathered here. They didn't say anything, but sat quietly, their expressions distracted or indifferent, like wooden people, motionless. It seemed that in this long dark night, they were already satisfied to have such a space with a candle flame for them to sit.

On the altar, the Virgin Mary looked at them lovingly. Underneath the altar, several elderly nuns wiped the altar with buckets and rags with a reverent expression. Two other nuns with glasses sat at a table, carefully repairing torn religious books with paste.

……

Suddenly, there was a commotion outside, and before the people in the chapel could react, the door of the church was kicked open. Several faces appeared in the doorway.

The faces were young, angry, and flushed. One of them shouted:

"Alfonso! You jackal! You're here! ”

Everyone in the chapel turned around in horror and looked at the men at the door. Outside, a dozen people swarmed in, armed with torches, machetes, sickles, and rifles, each with a red cloth tied to their foreheads and red armbands on their arms.

They rushed forward and grabbed a young man in the chapel.

"Alfonso, that's him!" One of them, armed with a bayonet, grabbed him by the hair and shouted, "He killed Secretary Gonzalez!" ”

These people all blushed with excitement and shouted loudly:

"Hang him! Hang him! ”

"Murderer! Murderer! ”

The young man named Alfonso was not afraid at all, but laughed and said:

"You are a bunch of murderers, murderers! Your secretary González has arrested Priest Dias, Mr. Gayek, Mr. Almende, and Sister Berez and Sister Rames! And then they were all shot without even trial on charges of being "enemies of the republic"! And that's not all, you set fire to their homes, killing their wives and daughters, and their families! God can see who is the murderer! ”

"your God!" Another young man put a knife to his neck and shouted feverishly, "Sir, your God, like your master, is a bunch of filthy vampires and parasites!" You fascists, always thinking of subverting our republic, so that you can welcome your masters Hitler and Mussolini to Spain, so that it will be easier to lick their ass! You fascist, do you think we don't know what you think? Bah! You fellow with the blood of the Spanish people on your hands! ”

"Phew! What about you? Are you just trying to bring your master, Stalin, to Spain so that he can continue the purge? He's already killed half of his own people, and you're thinking he's going to kill half of our Spaniards too! You ...... Hands covered with ......"

Before he could finish speaking, several young people were already making fanatical noises. They stamped their feet, shouted "hang him," then took out a rope to tie Alfonso up, then stepped on a table and threw a rope over a church chandelier with a looper bolted at the lower end.

Seeing that they were about to execute people inside the church, several old nuns rushed over in desperation, trying to stop them. But the captain at the head waved his hand and ordered:

"These religious maniacs, you are all parasites of the Spanish people, and on behalf of the republican government, I declare that this church will be closed and you will also be transformed into self-reliant! Take them away! ”

Amid the cries and shouts, several old nuns were dragged out. The elderly, women, and children in the church also fled. But two young villagers drew their daggers and pounced.

As soon as the captain waved his hand, more than a dozen of his people instantly dispersed into a large circle, and the captain also proudly pulled out his dagger, and one person duel with the two villagers. In a circle of players, they shouted feverishly, stomping their feet and whistling.

It was a duel without suspense. Within two minutes, two young villagers were killed by the captain. Two bodies into a pool of blood in the center of the church. The members of the team cheered, dragged the two corpses up, threw them on the altar one after another, and laughed and said:

"Blessed Virgin Mary, take these two poor souls!"

"You have made them masters no matter what!"

"It's a pity that you don't have many followers!"

"Spain has woken up, the people have abandoned you!"

"Hahahaha......"

……

Then, amid the frenzied shouts of a dozen team members, Alfonso, who had killed "Secretary Gonzalez," was helped to the table, and one of the team members tied a black cloth around his eyes and put a rope around his neck.

The young man took a deep breath before he died, and shouted loudly:

"Long live Spain!"

The surrounding team members were furious, how could the sacred word "Spain" be tarnished by this fascist! They overshadowed him in a higher-pitched voice:

"Viva Spain——!!!"

Then the captain kicked the table over, and Alfonso hung in the air, struggling twice before moving, spinning underneath the statue of the Virgin.

Afterwards, more than a dozen team members pulled the statue of the Virgin Mary down from the altar and smashed it with their feet. Then he piled up the tables, chairs, benches, and boxes of religious books in the center of the chapel, and poured all the candles burning in the chapel on it.

After a while, the entire chapel was engulfed in flames.

A few old nuns outside looked at the burning chapel with numb expressions, and said silently:

"The ...... of the Virgin Mary"

In my ears, this group of young people sang excitedly and high-pitched:

"There has never been a savior, and it doesn't depend on the Immortal Emperor......"

……

17 July, Spanish Morocco.

General Mora and General Franco issued a joint declaration declaring that the Spanish regime, from this moment on, would be taken over by the military...... The Spanish military will, as has been the case countless times in history, save Spain from chaos and crisis, and bring order back to it.

On 18 July, the "rebellion" began in Spanish Morocco and was led by Generals San Hurjo, Mora and Franco.

……

On the same day, the cabinet of the Ming Empire held an emergency meeting.

Shen Rongxuan, the first minister, is speaking. He first summarized the situation in Spain in the past few years, and the domestic situation in Spain:

“…… After the passage of Spain to the Second Republic and the exile of the king, the chaos in Spain had been going on for several years. The left and right wings have taken turns to come to power, and time and time again they have not called "general elections", and after the general elections, there have been popular conflicts, riots, and strikes again and again. The whole of Spain has been divided into two parts that are hostile to each other, and the whole Spanish people have been divided half-to-half, and have become two factions that are hostile to each other and difficult to reconcile.

"The left, though it calls itself a "republican," and the government of the left calls itself a republican government, is a rather complex faction, the most radical, the most active, and the most influential, the Spanish Communists, controlled by the Soviet Union and the Comintern. On the contrary, the right-wing faction consisted mainly of the military, royalists, the middle class, the intellectuals, and the most radical of them were the Falangists, that is, the Spanish fascists.

"The left wants public ownership, and the right wants private ownership. The left wing has a strong anarchic tendency, allowing for local autonomy, while the right wing demands social order and a united Spain.

"The left-wing government of 1931 embarked on land reform, religious reform. Spain is a Catholic country, and the schools are almost exclusively ecclesiastical, which was forcibly disbanded by the left-wing government. The right-wing masses feel that their basic demands, "property, faith, and the motherland" are all in jeopardy. Various currents of thought in the early 20th century: socialist-ist, communist-proletarian-ist, syndicalism, fascism, nationalism, anarchism...... All of them were in the minds of all classes of Spain.

"Unfortunately, Spain's left and right wings are the most extreme.

"What is even more unfortunate is that the international forces behind the control of Spain's left and right wings are also among the most extreme in the twentieth century. One faction is ultra-left communism-proletarianism, and the other is ultra-right fascism.

"And most unfortunately, Spain at this time lacked the soil to breed moderate factions in the center.

"At this time, Spain had only been a few years old from the end of the totalitarian monarchy, and Spain did not yet have mature citizens accustomed to the democratic-sovereign form of government. They are not yet able to respect the law, respect the vote, listen to different opinions, and respect those who have different views like the people of Britain, France, and the United States. Whichever faction comes to power, the ideas of both sides are completely at odds. And once the ideas are contradictory, they regard the other party as enemies. In addition, the Spaniards are still martial, and the folk customs are relatively strong, and the opposition side often uses riots to speak, while the official suppresses it by force. The hatred between the two sides is getting deeper and deeper, and the cycle repeats.

In a word, although this Spain is a republic, there are no citizens, only mobs.

“…… So the question is, what should we do in this crisis in Spain? ”