"Difficult ...... of national affairs"

The clock rang eleven times, and the Marquis of Sandiana rubbed his sour eyes and sighed.

The Marquis was not a pessimist, nor was he a whiner. He inherited the lineage of the Duke of Infandante, the noblest of the Castilian nobility, and was in the golden age of the political family at the age of 50, and held the prominent position of Prime Minister of the Cabinet. It stands to reason that he shouldn't be so depressed and anxious.

There is only one reason for such pessimism, the great Kingdom of Colora, known as the "third power in the world", with colonies all over the world, and the country where "the sun always shines on our territory", has reached the point of difficulty, internal and external difficulties.

It may be a little exaggerated, but the situation is not optimistic.

The Seven-Day War swept away nearly one-third of the kingdom's wealth, one-seventh of its population, and nearly half of its naval warships and merchant fleet. Charlemagne's army retreated and carried out a very thorough scorched earth policy, and along the railway line to the border, there were ruins, houses, farmland, wells...... All traces of human existence have been meticulously destroyed. Not far from the ruined villages and towns are hastily buried mass graves, full of the corpses of women, children and the elderly, whose whereabouts are unknown, as if the world has evaporated......

The numbers pale in comparison, and in more intuitive terms, "it will take at least 20 years or more for the country to recover to its pre-war level."

Domestic affairs are already in shambles, and diplomacy is even more precarious.

Castile's traditional foreign strategy was to consolidate the alliance with Albion while drawing on the power of Emir. Implement a containment strategy against Charlemagne. But this strategy was shaken by the sudden death of Queen Mary, who was supposed to marry Philip II. Her Majesty Elisabeth, the new queen, is a national supremacist and a staunch believer in the state church, which leads to two problems: first, the state church is becoming the official state religion of Albion, and the friendship between Albion and Castile has been rifted because of differences of faith. Secondly, Albion's state policy revealed more and more clearly the Puritan mentality - "desperate to make money, desperate to save money, desperate to donate money". The people of Albion turned this idea into a source of motivation for the expansion of overseas interests and the expansion of the missionary work of the Church abroad. This leads to the spiritual level. The contradictions and conflicts between the two allies in their practical interests are also becoming more and more intense.

This conflict reached its climax at the end of the offensive and defensive battles of Riga, when the glorious knights of Castile broke through the secret negotiations between Albion and the principality, and the last bit of spiritual ties between the same faction no longer existed. Philip II openly denounced Albion as a "land of heresy" in need of "purification by a raging fire". Elizabeth replied unceremoniously, "Ask Castile to learn to speak in a civilized way." The diplomatic war of words is getting more and more intense. Seeing that it is about to slide all the way to the severance of diplomatic relations and start a war.

This is already the case with one of the two pillars of diplomacy. Another pillar is also disheartening. During Charlemagne's campaign to suppress the Crown of San István. Imir's expression really chilled all nations that believe in the Holy Church. That terrible battle was certainly unanimously supported by the kings and the pope, after all, no one liked the revolutionary plague to spread to their homes, and one morning the country under their rule became the "XX Republic". A group of Hilpits and the Untouchables sent their entire family to the guillotine.

But in any case, the crown is also the purest place of the Holy Church faith, and it is all Holy Church believers from top to bottom. The Pope, as he did on the "Night of St. Bartholomew", watched Charlemagne's army slaughter the faithful without stopping it, and only symbolically sent priests and nuns to shelter and rescue the refugees and the wounded. In the eyes of other countries, this gesture is not a positive image......

The allies fell out, the religious leaders didn't seem very reliable, and worse still, heaven was too far away and Charlemagne was too close. It was Titans who was stationed at the border, and the Marquis of Sandiana shuddered when he thought of the group of madmen who were proud of their disobedience and were known for their "solitude" and "rampage" since their formation, staring at Castile every day and drooling. Only the Mother Goddess and the two-legged beasts themselves know that one day they will blow up their railroad again, and then have an undeclared war.

Reform is necessary. This is the voice of every Castilian person, whether nobles or commoners, has deeply understood that only by carrying out reforms, enriching the country and strengthening the army, can they fight against their greedy and cruel neighbor.

That being said. But there is no consensus on how to change it, what needs to be changed, what needs to be retained, and what kind of reform is most suitable.

There are many opinions on reform, but in general, they can be broadly divided into three groups.

One faction, led by the Marquis de Santa Cruz and the king's younger brother, His Royal Highness Don Juan, advocated that without changing the state system and most of the old system, Guò borrowed money from abroad and plundered overseas colonies to expand armaments and wars, wash away the shame with "iron and blood", and regain the lost glory. This faction is dominated by old-fashioned aristocrats and military personnel, and is called "conservative" because of its conservative views. Because of their conservative thinking, they were close to the Church, and the Church even provided churches and monasteries as secret bases and arsenals for conservatives.

The backbone of the other faction was dominated by young aristocrats who had studied and studied with Charlemagne, led by Juan Carlos, José Antonio, and Santiago Calvo Sodro, who advocated the reform of Castile by imitating Charlemagne to achieve "civilization", ending the subordination between Castile and Emile, and establishing a rich, powerful, and independent Castile, so they were called "Enlightenment". A significant number of radicals in this group are brutal and have an unclear relationship with Charlemagne's embassy in Castile, and several recently uncovered coup plots are related to the Civilists, some of whom are themselves the backbone of the Civilizers.

The last faction was the "moderate" faction with the Marquis de Santiana, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and General Primo de Rivera, Minister of War, as their initiators. This group is mostly experienced ministers and bureaucrats, who tend to reform the system, but have no idea about Castile's international status and the surrounding situation. It is aimed at promoting steady reform.

In addition to the above three factions, there is also an obscure right-wing organization called the "Falangists", whose leader is the well-known president of the Zaragoza Military Academy, General Francisco Franco, who is more conservative in ideology and maintains certain ties with the Civilizers, but because of their small numbers, people do not pay much attention to them, and they are considered a small group in a marginal area.

It can be said that there is no overlap between the ideologies and interests of the three major factions, and they do not have a common language except for building a strong country. The three factions were attacking each other all day long. Engage in personal attacks with the most nasty and vicious words to each other. Then, like all mouth cannon fights that lose their brakes, the mouth cannon escalates to a real one.

The Castilian people have always been famous for their pure and fanatical beliefs, and the "Seven Day War" brought great material losses to the country, but also greatly shocked the spiritual world of the Castilian people. The ideological divisions that accompany the transformation of society. The proudest and most blind people in the world became hysterical. Becomes violent and extremely aggressive. When the debate was inconclusive, the extremists began a series of jaw-dropping methods of fighting, such as shootouts, assassinations, and kidnappings.

A month ago, the Civilizer José de Castillo was chopped into meat sauce with an axe by four conservative extremists in front of his home. As revenge. Civilist militants broke into the home of Count Casaneda, a conservative dignitary and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, killed 54 people, including the earl's three-month-old grandson, and kidnapped Count Castaneda himself, and the next day the former Chancellor of the Exchequer was found on a stake in a public cemetery on the outskirts of Ursalia. When the conservatives held a huge funeral and demonstration for the family of the "martyred" Count of Casaneda, the civilist extremists opened fire on the crowd and threw bombs and Molotov cocktails, killing and injuring dozens of people. Three days later, Dolores Ibaruli was killed by a parcel bomb in his home......

In less than four months, more than 370 murders broke out in Castile, 70 public places and private salons where political gatherings took place were blasted, more than 10 printing facilities were burned, and the whole country was almost on the verge of civil war! If this continues, the kingdom will be crushed by all kinds of extremists, and Castile will be torn apart by the most unfortunate civil war in its history, and then it will become the object of partition by the great powers.

At the thought of that tragic future, the Marquis felt a cramping in his heart and almost fainted.

At this point, the Marquis, who has always opposed the violent settlement of internal affairs and the rule of the military, has to admit that his own path of internal reform, which unites the forces of various factions and advances steadily, is no longer possible, and the only way to unite conservatives and military hardliners is to get rid of the liberal faction that has gone too far on the road of radicalism and foreign communication. Then he asked His Majesty Philip II to come out and form a cabinet that was "unanimous in the whole country" and start the reform of enriching the country and strengthening the army.

This is by no means a good solution. No matter how solid the political alliance formed with the purpose of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", and whether the conservatives will turn their guns and get rid of the conservative faction, which is not a problem, just how much Cheng dù can solve the civilized faction is enough to cause headaches. You must know that the general backstage of the Enlightened faction is Charlemagne, no matter how many Enlightened factions are eliminated, Charlemagne can always attract disgruntled people, and then provide all kinds of support to create a stronger and more arrogant Enlightened faction. If this source is not completely cut off, the new enlightened faction will continue to emerge like a gopher, but it is undoubtedly a fool's dream to want to turn against Charlemagne at the moment, and the most extreme conservative soldiers do not have the courage to play this package.

Taking a step back, the Enlightenment faction is crazy, and there are still many people with real insight. The so-called overkill must be overdone, and for this rigid and sluggish kingdom, it does take some passion and blood to push for change. In particular, in the context of the people's large-scale efforts to "support the royal family and eliminate Charlemagne's devils", it is indispensable to reverse the ignorant atmosphere of "those who have anything to do with Charlemagne" such as picking up railroad tracks, demolishing locomotives, and killing Charlemagne's technicians, and promote the modernization of the country. After all, no one expected the folk who held up the holy cross and the portrait of the mother goddess to use their flesh and blood to fight against the "peanuts" of Charlemagne's army, and in the face of the basic laws of physics, the slogan of "miraculous protection of the body, invulnerability" was like air......

That being said, the Enlightened faction still has to clean up, and they can't let this group of thieves who are in touch with foreign countries continue to make trouble. In addition, although it is not possible to completely cut off the black hands behind the Civilizing Sect, it is still no problem to let them restrain for a while.

After careful consideration. The Marquis of Sandiana used the few resources in his hands to play a few good cards.

The first card is the United Principality of Rus'. By bringing forces from outside the human camp into the camp, Tongguò not only helps to counteract Charlemagne's growing national power, but also serves as a bargaining chip with other nations. At the moment when Albion first achieved an armistice with the principality, Castile achieved a certain reconciliation with the principality, and the pressure was much less than in the past, in terms of technology, morality, public opinion, etc. As for religious obligations, although there are some troubles, they are not unsolvable, after all, "pagans still have the opportunity to convert." Heresy must die" is a proposition that the Church has always advocated. With a snack lightly. The king, the nobles, and the people could also accept the principle of "preferring friends to heresy and Charlemagne".

The second card is to make active contact with Charlemagne's domestic rational force, that is, Prime Minister Richelieu. Building a new kind of bilateral relationship. This is the most difficult step. It is also a step that must be taken. In a negative light. Only when relations between the two countries improve, can disasters like the "Seven-Day War" not occur again, and can Charlemagne survive the current period when Charlemagne is in full swing. From a positive point of view. Charlemagne also has a lot of side-eyers for Titans' army, including many important ministers, uniting these people to contain Titans and expansionism, not only to ensure the safety of Castile itself, but also to sow the seeds of discord within Charlemagne, over time, it may not be able to cause internal chaos in Charlemagne.

The last card. Building on the first two cards, quietly navigating the overseas colonies. While trying to keep the existing colonies as much as possible, wait for an opportunity to lure Charlemagne and Albion into war overseas, so as to draw the two greatest threats into the abyss of confrontation, and Castile can maneuver in the middle.

These cards are both brilliant and tough, and legendarily enough, it only took the Marquis a month to progress more than halfway through each mission. Now that the Duchy Minister has arrived in Ursalia, he has rented a house to serve as an embassy, and will relocate when the embassy is completed. The contact with Richelieu was also relatively smooth, the cardinal was no more inclined to peace than the soldiers, but the old man who was rational to the point of coldness believed that the current peace was in Charlemagne's interest. With this in mind, Richelieu expressed considerable enthusiasm for the peace of Castile, and even said that the two countries could hold peace talks and sign a non-aggression pact. The overseas colonies are still intact, and all facilities are being fortified against a possible attack on Albion.

Everything is on track, and it is time to dismantle the arrogant and domineering "training team" of the Civilizers. Although there is a risk of intensifying the contradictions in doing so, the group of mad dogs who rely on the support of Minister Charlemagne and take the initiative to pick quarrels and provoke trouble, and let them continue to make trouble, it will be a matter of time before the civil war continues. What we have to think about now is what reason to prevaricate the Minister Bellamy, so that the other party has no reason to intervene......

While the Marquis was pondering what to do, there was a sudden commotion outside the window, followed by a terrible scream.

The Marquis of Sandiana got up in a hurry, and without even bothering that the inkwell had been knocked over, he rushed to the window. Pushing open the glass window, a bright moon hung high in the night sky, and in the cold moonlight, a group of people in various costumes rushed into the main entrance of the Eskoria Palace while firing, and several 3-pounder guns were being pushed up.

Fortunately to witness this scene like "Hundred Ghosts Walking at Night", the Marquis suddenly felt a chill in his heart, and his fist hidden under his sleeve trembled violently.

"These hell-deserving bitch-bitched Charlemagne brutes ......!!"

The well-cultivated foreign minister squeezed out the first expletiveness of his life from between his teeth.

＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃

"Ahh

Minister Bellamy rubbed his nose and howled as he endured the pungent smell of gunsmoke.

"Gentlemen, the kingdom rises and falls in this battle, and you all work hard to kill the enemy!!"

In fact, the minister doesn't have to brave the rain of bullets to jump up and down so much, these people are convinced that their "martial arts are prosperous", and Charlemagne's "strong men" who have the determination to "serve the country and pray for death in battle in seven lives" have already killed red eyes, coupled with the stimulation of gunsmoke and sulfur, adrenaline is secreted in large quantities, and the "Kingdom Warriors" are in a state of semi-madness. Without his instigation, the guards stationed in the Eskoria Palace were beaten by a dense barrage of bullets, and fires began to break out in many parts of the palace, and the resisters fought bravely and tenaciously, but their defense system had long been mastered by the enemy, and they were caught off guard by attack, and despite the large number of people, the resistance was still being quickly suppressed.

Looking at the majestic silhouette of the Escoria Palace in the blazing firelight, Minister Bellamy licked his lips excitedly, and his spirit was overflowing.

By the time Bellamy arrived in Ursalía to take over the post of minister, the situation in Castile was already very unfavorable to Charlemagne, and it took his many turns and instigation to bring the situation back. But this is only a temporary phenomenon, and Bellamy is well aware that sooner or later the moderates will join forces with the conservatives to get rid of the Enlightened faction, and that everything he has worked so hard to do may be ruined, and his act of "going down and going up" without the permission of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will then become his lifeline.

The only way to prevent this and to succeed in triggering the war that Prince Bernard needed was to resort to the most direct and violent extraordinary means - to use the training team to kill Queen Anna, who was connected with the conservatives and conservatives.

It is said that it is using the training team, but the backbone is all elite soldiers of Titans. The reason for this arrangement is that Bellamy believes that the Castilians are unreliable after all, and it is okay to use them to increase their prestige, but it is Charlemagne who does it, and the training team is just a scapegoat to explain in the future.

Things are going smoothly now, the resistance is being quickly suppressed, and the soldiers are going house-to-house searching for targets. As long as the queen can be killed and Philip II captured alive, then the country will also become Charlemagne's new territory.

With such a great contribution, Prince Bernard's position is bound to be more stable, even if Richelieu intends to support Prince Charles on the throne, I am afraid it will not be so easy. As long as Prince Bernard can succeed in ascending to the throne, then he, a man of merit, will climb to the position of prime minister......

"Sue the soldiers. ”

Viscount Bellamy turned his face sideways and said to the officer beside him:

"In order to prevent the she-fox from slipping away among the maids, gather all the women together and kill them. ”

"But ......"

"It's better to kill mistakes than to miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and for the sake of His Highness and the country, we must do so. ”

"Yes. ”

The officers turned and ran away, and in a few moments the cries of women came from all over the Escorian Palace, and some soldiers began to pile up firewood and prepare fire oil in the royal chapel - not knowing whether to cover up the atrocity or to humiliate the Castilians. The officers decided to burn the bodies of all the women.

Weeping women were impaled with bayonets, and their bodies were thrown into dug pits and burned, and the figures that rose and disappeared in the firelight were watched. Minister Bellamy shuddered and smiled hideously. (To be continued......)