On 22 June, it took three days for the Second and Fifth Armies to completely break the Republic's defenses.

This outcome was predicted by all, so immediately after the defeat at the front, the war entered the siege of Camagüey.

The government of the Republic, which had been prepared for a long time, had stored a lot of food and weapons in the city, and the casualties of the assault would be very large, so Rajoy and Asania decided to besiege it after consultation.

No matter how well prepared Desaith was, they were just a lonely city, with no food source, and it was only a matter of time before they collapsed.

The other side apparently understood this, and sent people to negotiate at the beginning of the siege.

However, Desais demanded that Spain spare him and allow the three eastern provinces of Cuba to become independent.

Such excessive conditions, as you can imagine, collapsed almost in the blink of an eye.

"Actually, there is no need to be independent, as long as we are given a certain degree of autonomy, we can put down the rebellion now."

Seeing off the emissary, Rahoi speculated that there was obviously a lot of room for counter-offer when the emissary had just made the offer.

In addition to him, there were also representatives of Asania and the colonial government at the scene, and when they heard this, several people were a little helpless.

They had come to quell the rebellion, and they had no right to negotiate or make concessions of any kind, and Desaith had only one way to go, "unconditional surrender".

In fact, Alfonso and Campos are already privately negotiating a future to allow Cuba some degree of autonomy in order to save Cuba's precarious finances.

Even before the Desaith uprising, the cost of Cuban rule was becoming more and more expensive, and brutal exploitation could only barely keep Cuba from a negative asset.

Not to mention after the uprising, which could wipe out the sum of Cuba's gains in the previous 10 years.

Of course, autonomy is also based on the pro-Spanish foundation of the autonomous government, and the leader of the uprising, such as Desais, must not be tolerated, which is why Alfonso ordered Rajoy to quell the rebellion but did not give him the right to negotiate.

After completing the siege of Camagüey, Rajoy and Asania left only 15,000 men of the Fifth Army and a small number of colonial troops in their place, with more troops moving eastward to destroy the last foundations of the Republic.

They can't stay here all the time, the food stored in Camagüey is enough to feed the whole city for at least 4 months, and when the food is not enough later, they will throw the civilians out and reduce food and clothing, at least for more than a year.

This is the confidence of Desais's sky-high price, and he has plenty of time to wait for the rescue from the East.

In Rajoy and Asania, the casualties of a direct attack on the three eastern provinces were probably smaller than a siege.

As long as there is no hope, being trapped in an isolated city is tantamount to chronic suicide, and Camagüey will naturally have civil strife at that time, so there will be no need to wait that long.

……

At the same time that the Cuban War was entering its second phase, the first phase of the Madrid slum was nearing completion.

Since there were no toxic substances, the new houses were built and they could be moved in, and after a small number of the dormitories were completed, the poor people moved in.

Unfortunately, the migration of these people has not made the slums smaller, but has expanded more and more.

Many people have contacted their villages through various means, saying that now the government is dividing the houses, and they are coming quickly, with the result that the flow of people from nearby rural areas to the cities has accelerated at least three times.

On the one hand, there is the temptation to divide the house, and on the other hand, many of them have the idea of going to the city to work, but they are afraid that they will not find a place to stay after entering the city.

After all, it was still an era when there were no agricultural machinery, and in the face of the dire situation of his own labor force becoming less and less, some nearby estate owners had already protested to Alfonso.

Under Spanish law, the lords of the manors could not restrict the freedom of the peasants under their control, so the present protests were merely lip service, but if the situation continued, the loss of the interests of the lords of the manor would be dishonored.

Moreover, the cost of transporting food from other places is quite high, and Madrid really needs these estates.

In desperation, Alfonso had to introduce iron farming tools in the Madrid area ahead of schedule and take measures to restrict the movement of peasants into the city.

In fact, since the advent of this example, all parts of Spain have been preparing their own farm tools, and several private rental companies have been opened.

They are more likely to want policies, and in areas where policies are implemented, there are subsidies for the rental and purchase of farm tools by the owners of the estates.

The price of iron ploughs and seed drills is not cheap, so it is natural to save a little.

This subsidy is not yet in Alfonso's eyes, mainly because the more regions where the policy is implemented, the more dissatisfied the areas without the policy are.

There are already marches about this in the western interior.

However, Spain's industrial strength is completely unable to handle this extra labor.

Madrid is an example of this, which will be more and more common across the country.

But Alfonso will not be able to do much for a while, and the improvement of industry will take time, and it will have to match the development of society.

Not to mention that apart from following France to beat Prussia, or following Prussia to beat France, Alfonso could not think of a way to quickly get a large amount of machinery and equipment.

Even if there is, there is a lack of literate labor.

At present, these peasants who have moved to the cities are basically illiterate, and it is true that industry needs basic labor, but it is not possible without high-end labor.

To put it simply, the number of engineers, operators, and general workers is not proportional.

And even if all this is solved, Spain lacks an adequate market.

The domestic market needs to be cultivated, and it must be slowly expanded through infrastructure construction, mining, trade, and other means.

In later generations, some countries may be able to increase consumption by sending money, but this is not the case in Spain today.

One is that the people have just experienced war and are unstable, and the money will only be saved by them.

Second, the government has no money to issue, and now is not the era of making money out of thin air, each banknote has a corresponding weight of precious metals, so if you want to print money, you have to wait for gold and silver.

Fortunately, you can't just print money, otherwise Spain would definitely be considering a new currency now, given the lack of money it was during the free government.

So the only solution Alfonso can think of at the moment is to throw them all to build railways and expand agricultural production.

To this end, he was going to cut down a part of Spain's dense forests and leave open land for the peasants to engage in self-farming, although jumping from one land to another, but the new land would not have to be subjected to the labor of the lord of the estate, and the peasant workers would be willing.

By the way, this method gradually eroded the agricultural market share and labor of the manor owners, completed the smooth transition from manor agriculture to modern agriculture, and allowed Spain to achieve food self-sufficiency and no longer rely on the French big brother.