Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 219: Military Academy Cadets And University Students

Although satisfied with the state of agricultural development in Spain, Carlo still decided to find time in the second half of the year to personally inspect Andalusia and Extremadura.

This was not because Carlo did not trust the data reported by Minister Hovilliar; as the King of Spain, Carlo still needed to personally see the development of Spanish agriculture and animal husbandry, personally understand the problems faced by local farmers and herders, and then deal with them.

If he only looked at the data reported by various departments in the Madrid Royal Palace, Carlo would not be able to understand in detail what the local development situation really was.

Doing so would only make Carlo increasingly unfamiliar with Spain’s development and ultimately lose control of the country.

To formulate Spain’s development plan, the first thing to do was to personally see how the various departments and regions of Spain were developing, and only then could he formulate a plan based on the information he had mastered.

If he blindly formulated a plan without a detailed understanding of Spain’s basic situation, either the subsequent development would not go too smoothly, or he would go completely in the wrong direction, making originally small problems even more serious.

After giving Minister Hovilliar some encouragement, Carlo ended his conversation with Minister Hovilliar and began handling the political affairs that had accumulated during his time in Italy.

There was actually not much political affairs; most could be handled by Grand Duke Serrano and Count Conovas. Carlo mostly reviewed the decrees promulgated by the Spanish Government during this period, as well as the latest situations in various departments.

Because of the arms trade treaties signed with Russia and the Ottoman Empire, Spain’s armories were still working overtime to produce.

Armories were also factories, and the various raw materials needed by armories, such as gunpowder, steel, and other parts, were provided by all kinds of factories. While the armories were working overtime to produce, the factories providing materials were also working overtime to produce. Although it seemed that only the armories had received orders, in reality, it affected dozens of factories behind them, as well as the tens of thousands of workers they employed.

This was actually one of the reasons why the United States made a fortune quietly during the two world wars. It seemed that the United States only earned money from various trades, but in reality, America’s industry and economy developed and expanded continuously through these trades.

Meanwhile, European countries, due to the wars, had their factories destroyed and economies in shambles, making them even more dependent on America as an external large factory.

The ultimate result was that the United States sucked the blood out of European countries, Europe was ultimately devastated by the two world wars, and the potential of European countries was weakened again and again.

After reading the latest reports from various departments, Carlo was still quite satisfied with Spain’s development. According to the current development trend, the second Five-Year Plan would also be successfully completed, which meant that Spain’s industrial scale and economic scale would reach new highs.

Once the second Five-Year Plan was fully completed, Spain’s overall strength would advance a big step, and surpassing Italy, the weakest great power, would not be difficult.

In other words, current Spain had rejoined the ranks of the great powers and had the qualification to stand at the negotiating table with other great powers, rather than being a pawn in the game of the great powers.

After staying in the royal palace for a few days, the idle Carlo decided to inspect the construction of the capital Madrid to see if there were any problems in Madrid’s construction.

Regardless of whether he trusted his subordinates, appropriate inspections were necessary. Besides understanding the actual situation in various regions, it also put enough pressure on officials in various regions, letting them know that Carlo was not easy to fool.

With a small number of guards, he left the royal palace, passed through Byron Street in front of the royal palace, and arrived at the most prosperous city center of Madrid.

With his back to the royal palace, to Carlo’s left was Spain’s newly built Upper House building, and to his right was St. Andrew’s Cathedral. Behind the cathedral was Spain’s House of Representatives building, also the largest parliament building in Spain.

Madrid’s city center was still quite prosperous and clean; after all, this was Spain’s face, and Carlo had specifically required keeping the streets clean and hygienic.

Although Europe in this era was the most developed and advanced region, Europeans performed very poorly in terms of hygiene.

Although not as exaggerated as defecating anywhere in the Middle Ages, there was still a lot of garbage and excrement visible in the street corners.

Due to the lack of large public toilets, many citizens would use the street corners as toilets, making those already dark and damp corners even more stinking.

This was not exaggerated at all, but a phenomenon commonly existing in cities of European countries. Regarding this, even the most developed city London currently had the joke of “fine cars, fine wine, stinking London.”

Of course, London’s stench, besides the garbage and excrement on the streets, also included the stinking pollutants in the smog.

Compared to London, Spain’s environment was not that bad yet. Carlo had emphasized street hygiene, so at least in the streets of Madrid’s city center, there were no phenomena of defecating anywhere or littering.

Madrid was the capital of Spain, and the main streets in the city center were even more the facade of Spain. The Spanish Government had placed a large number of trash cans here, which were cleaned on time every day to ensure no odors existed.

On Madrid’s most prosperous streets, the government had even built a large number of public restrooms to ensure citizens had places to use the toilet, rather than quietly solving it in street corners.

To ensure citizens did not pollute street hygiene, the Madrid municipal government had also issued relevant penalties; once caught, they would be fined, and serious cases could even face imprisonment.

To make Madrid’s citizens willing to use public toilets, Carlo even required that Madrid’s public toilets prohibit charging. Whether Madrid citizens or incoming tourists, they could all use Madrid’s public toilets for free.

Although this increased the Madrid municipal government’s expenditure, it did make citizens more willing to use public toilets.

If public toilets charged fees, citizens would definitely not be willing to go, and they would naturally violate the decrees issued by the Madrid municipal government, quietly solving it in street corners.

The place Carlo was going to was not Madrid’s most prosperous Gran Via, but the new development area in northern Madrid.

Compared to Madrid’s city center, this was Madrid’s newly expanded new urban area, which was also more prone to many problems.

Going north all the way from St. Bernard Street, passing St. Christopher’s Church, he arrived at Madrid’s new urban area.

Compared to the older city area further south, this place looked obviously a bit more desolate. This was a key place for the Madrid municipal government to resettle immigrants, and also a key development region for Spain.

To the west of the church, there was a road leading straight to the northwest of Madrid city. On this newly developed land, there were not only important research institutions like the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, but also the Royal Academy of Sciences, Madrid Medical College, Madrid Royal Military Academy, and other important universities.

Carlo’s future plan was to build a large-scale university city in this area, and by the way, develop the surrounding land.

The advantage here was that it was close to Madrid’s train station and had some distance from the most prosperous streets in the city center, with convenient transportation.

Of course, it was not too far from the city center, which was also why the Madrid municipal government regarded this as the new urban area.

Carlo’s destination was the university city in northwest Madrid; after all, it was already close to July, and soon it would be time for this year’s university students to graduate.

Every year, Carlo participated in the graduation ceremony of the Royal Military Academy graduates; after all, Carlo was the honorary principal of the military academy, and these graduates would be the pillars of the Spanish Army in the future, so it was necessary to value them.

As long as Carlo could win the favor of these military academy graduates, the title of honorary principal of the military academy could play a huge role, and he could even influence the army through this.

But if he could not win the favor of these military academy graduates, let alone being just the honorary principal, even if he were the principal of the military academy, what could he do?

Therefore, Carlo participated in the graduation ceremony of every class of Royal Military Academy graduates, not only giving speeches to encourage these newly graduated military academy graduates, but also personally bestowing ranks on some of the more outstanding graduates.

This only took Carlo one day, but the actual effect was very obvious. So far, the Royal Military Academy had trained a large number of graduates, and some military academy graduates had already achieved military rank promotions.

And these graduates were still very respectful and fond of Carlo; even many graduates had quite fanatical adoration for Carlo.

The main reason for this was that the ideological education courses Carlo opened at the military academy had very good results, but it was also indeed related to Carlo’s usual actions.

A king who paid attention to the income of grassroots people and sympathized with the sufferings of grassroots people—how could the public not love him?

No matter which country, the demands of grassroots people were actually very simple: just to eat their fill, wear warm clothes, and have a good life.

In current Spain, eating their fill and wearing warm clothes could already be basically achieved. Although problems like food safety still existed, it was still much better than previous Spain.

In such a situation, the public had only love for the current Spanish Government and King Carlo, which was also the reason why these military academy graduates were quite loyal to Carlo.

Since its establishment, the Madrid Royal Military Academy had trained more than 400 excellent military academy graduates for Spain every year.

This year was already the seventh year, but the number of military academy graduates this year was still as high as more than

If including this year’s soon-to-graduate graduates, the Royal Military Academy had already trained more than 3,000 potential officers for Spain.

Currently, most military academy graduates could obtain platoon leader positions after entering the army; only a small number of military academy graduates, due to insufficient positions, could only temporarily serve as deputy platoon leaders.

However, this was also good news; when Spain needed to expand its army in the future, these officers in deputy positions could quickly transition to principal positions, and they would not need too long an adaptation period to get to work.

Under the premise that the Royal Military Academy continuously trained officers, the Spanish Army had already replaced most of its grassroots officers such as company commanders and platoon leaders.

Currently, most officers in the Spanish Army had received military academy education; although it could not guarantee that all these platoon leaders and company commanders were excellent military talents, at least it could ensure that their military qualities were qualified.

The previous Spanish Army had a large number of grassroots officers who had not received qualified military education at all, which also affected the combat effectiveness of the Spanish Army.

There were many factors affecting army combat effectiveness, but one of the important factors that could actually determine army combat effectiveness was the military quality of these grassroots officers.

No matter how excellent the generals leading the army were, if the grassroots officers’ military qualities were not qualified, the generals’ orders would be difficult to fully execute.

If these grassroots officers all had good military qualities, even if the commander as the leader did not have much ability, at least it could ensure that the army was relatively stable.

Although the Spanish Army’s officer establishment was limited, Spain’s defense department also had important departments such as the Staff Department and Logistics Department, so finding positions for these military academy graduates to work was not a problem.

As in previous years, after attending the graduation ceremony of these military academy students, Carlo selected a small portion of extremely excellent graduates to enter the Guard.

Although the Guard had only one division of 15,000 people, the Guard’s officer reserves were currently extremely abundant.

It was no exaggeration to say that as long as Carlo was willing, the Spanish Guard could expand by 2 to 3 divisions at any time without worrying about grassroots officer reserves.

It was also because current Spain did not need to worry about war problems, and Spain domestically had already tended toward stability, that Carlo abandoned expanding the Guard.

Although the Guard was only one division in scale, as long as the Guard was garrisoned in Madrid, it could ensure the safety of the capital Madrid.

Given the firepower scale possessed by the Guard, unless facing a large-scale army siege from an enemy country or a large-scale rebellion from domestic troops, Madrid had no danger.

Even the Carlos faction rebellion a few years ago could not threaten Madrid’s safety. This was the sense of security that firepower brought to Carlo, which nothing else could replace.

After attending the Royal Military Academy’s graduation ceremony, Carlo had to prepare to attend the Royal Academy of Sciences graduates’ ceremony.

If the Royal Military Academy was the military academy Carlo valued most, then the Royal Academy of Sciences was the science university Carlo valued most.

The Royal Academy of Sciences was a university built by Carlo according to the needs of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, with the purpose of providing additional job opportunities for the scientists and R&D personnel of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, and also to train mid-level talents in scientific research for Spain.

Of course, if top talents in scientific research could be born on Spanish mainland through cultivation, Carlo would also be quite willing to see it.

Historically, Spain did not have many top talents in physics and chemistry, a large reason for which was Spain’s neglect of scientific research from the 18th to 19th centuries.

Carlo had valued scientific research for many years and believed this could bring some change to Spain. After all, Spain was also a medium-large country with a population of more than 10 million; Carlo did not believe Spain would not produce any top talents in physics and chemistry.

Compared to the Royal Military Academy’s more than 400 graduates per year, the Royal Academy of Sciences had very few graduates per year, averaging only 200 graduates per year.

But do not underestimate these 200 graduates; these graduates were carefully trained by scientists and R&D personnel of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, and their abilities were naturally beyond doubt.

Because they were trained by scientists of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, these graduates were directly partitioned by the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences after graduation, entering the research projects of those scientists and researchers as assistants, and by the way learning more knowledge.

This year’s graduating graduates were the fourth class of the Royal Academy of Sciences; over four classes, the Royal Academy of Sciences had trained no more than 1,000 talents.

But the good news was that these graduates had a very high success rate. Currently, many graduates had already received attention from academicians of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, who even spared no effort to impart knowledge to them and personally took them to do some experiments and research.

Teaching students of the Royal Academy of Sciences was a win-win good thing for these academicians of the academy.

They could earn part-time pay by serving as professors and other positions at the school, and the salaries for these positions were not low.

The students they taught could also serve as assistants in their own scientific research projects, and since they trained them themselves, they knew their abilities well and would be more handy to use.

Precisely because of this, none of the scientists Carlo recruited from abroad rejected part-time teaching at the Royal Academy of Sciences or other universities; when they received their part-time income, they all beamed with joy.

Originally, the income of academicians of the Royal Academy of Sciences was not low, and they could get extra rewards for completing R&D projects. Their part-time work was another large income, making their income higher than before abroad; this was also Spain’s way of attracting foreign talents to join the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences.

When the economic crisis just broke out, the scientific research talents of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences numbered less than 500, and scientists with second-level academic titles and benefits were even fewer than.

Now, the scientific research talents of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences had broken through 1,000, with more than 700 possessing academician titles, including 322 first-level academicians, 362 second-level academicians, and 46 third-level academicians.

If including the graduates of the Royal Academy of Sciences, the R&D personnel of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences were close to 2,It was precisely because R&D personnel kept increasing that the various researches of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences could proceed smoothly and make various progresses.

With the rise in Spain’s per capita income, Carlo also raised the base salary for third-level academicians.

The base annual salary for first-level academicians was raised to 2,800 pesetas, for second-level academicians it was as high as 5,200 pesetas. As the highest level and title among research personnel of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, third-level academicians had a base salary of an exaggerated 8,500 pesetas.

Just paying the base annual salaries to all R&D personnel of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences cost Carlo more than 5 million pesetas every year.

Not to mention the various R&D funds invested in the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences; currently, it had become one of the industries with the largest investment among all of Carlo’s industries, with annual expenditure reaching 35 million pesetas.

Although he had to pay a large amount of funds to the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences every year, Carlo spent this money willingly.

As long as any R&D project of the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences made progress, the benefits obtained would be several times or even dozens of times the 35 million pesetas R&D funds.

If those important R&D projects made progress, the profits obtained would be incalculable; Carlo could still calculate the proportion of investment and return.

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