Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 42: Carlos the Iron-Boned

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

What he was struggling with was whether to continue leading the army in a meaningless resistance, or to find a chance to escape and continue hiding in the dark looking for new opportunities?

Although it is obviously a better choice to get out as soon as possible, for Carlos VII who has been waiting for the 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 Carlists has been less than 40 years since Queen Isabel ascended the throne.

But in less than 40 years, the Carlists have experienced four "monarchs": Carlos V, Carlos VI, Juan III and Carlos VII.

Carlos VII also understood that the reason why the Carlists had continued to exist and had launched three Carlist Wars in less than 40 years was because of Queen Isabella's incompetent rule and the corrupt Spanish royal government.

The people were increasingly dissatisfied with the queen's rule, which was the reason why the Carlists remained popular.

If she had been replaced by a normal queen, after a long rule of thirty or forty years, the people would have long recognized the queen above their heads.

Putting aside the ability of the current King Carlo of Spain, he is indeed a master at winning the hearts of the people.

In addition, Prime Minister Primo is determined to carry out reforms. If such a pair of monarch and minister succeed in carrying out reforms, will there still be room for the Carlos faction in the future Spain?
After all, the reason why the Carlists came into being was because the conservatives did not want to see the queen take the throne, so they supported Prince Carlos, the male heir.

The King of Spain has been replaced a long time ago. Doesn’t this mean that the reasons for the establishment of the Carlos Party are no longer valid?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 no matter whether the current situation progressed or retreated, it seemed that both the Carlos faction and himself would have only one outcome, and that was failure.

So, should they give the government forces a fight or flee abroad to enjoy their luxurious life?

Carlos VII, who considered himself smart, made his choice quickly and quietly left the Carlist rebels that night.

By the time the Catalans discovered something was wrong, it was already noon the next day.

The Catalans never imagined until their death that before their army was defeated, the King Carlos VII, whom they supported, had already fled.

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

It is worth mentioning that the former Queen Isabella II of Spain also took refuge in France. After all, the Bourbon family came from France.
The Bourbon family has ruled Spain for nearly 170 years. If Queen Isabel had not committed suicide, and the Carlos faction was a bunch of useless people, Carlo's rule in Spain would not have been so smooth.

Halfway through the war, the king they 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 its final stage, with both sides attacking and defending in different shapes.

By the time Primo's army hurried to Aragon from the Basque region, the Catalan army had almost collapsed.

After suffering heavy casualties, the remaining soldiers in the large force chose to surrender.

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

This also changed Primo's plan from outflanking and annihilating the Catalan army to clearing the remnants of the Aragon region. Although these rebels have successfully fled, the scale of small rebel groups can still have a great impact on the security of the Aragon region.

If we don't try our best to clean up these rebels, anything they do will cause the people of Aragon to lose their morale.

Fortunately, most of the Catalan rebels had been captured, so the cleanup work, although more troublesome, was not that difficult.

In just a few days, Primo led the Spanish army to capture nearly a thousand escaped Catalan rebels. 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 rest of the large force to Catalonia to carry out the final finishing work.

There are still many remnant rebel forces in Catalonia, including some Carlists 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 involved in the rebellion in Catalonia this time, and Primo can carry out a major cleanup.

Just like in the Basque Country, most civilians don’t actually have much idea about their identity.

Whether they are Basques, Catalans or Spanish, they can accept it.

As long as farmers can have enough food to eat and workers can get enough income to support their families, they will not become a destabilizing factor.

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 want to gain higher power for themselves through Catalonia's autonomy or independence, while others simply oppose the government's reform policies and want to achieve their own goals through Catalan separatists.

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

The final phase of the operation lasted more than a week, during which Primo carefully screened and executed hundreds of Catalan rebels.

The largest number of people were Carlists and independents, while there were not many factory owners and church members.

As for the vast majority of the remaining rebel members, 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 rebel leaders accountable, it is also necessary to maintain local stability by forgiving ordinary rebel members.

In order to reassure the people in the Basque and Catalonia regions, Primo also posted a special notice about the exemption of ordinary people from punishment.

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

First update, please read on!

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(End of this chapter)