Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 446 The Great Military Parade in Cadiz
Most European countries attached great importance to Spain's military parade. Firstly, Spain's international standing and influence have significantly increased since the war.

Secondly, the Spanish official report on the military parade mentioned that it was an unprecedented, large-scale military parade covering the army, navy, and air force.

European countries are still curious whether Spain will showcase its mysterious and powerful battleship design during the military parade, and what its unprecedented air force is all about.

Apart from countries like the UK, which has a less than friendly relationship with Spain, and republican France, most countries sent very impressive diplomatic delegations to participate in the military parade.

Both Austria-Hungary and Italy, countries with relatively good relations with the Spanish royal family, sent delegations consisting entirely of the crown prince and prime minister.

For both Austria-Hungary and Italy, the outcome of this war was an unexpected and delightful surprise. Neither Carlo's father-in-law, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary, nor Carlo's nephew, King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, had anticipated that Spain would win the war so decisively.

Of course, Spain's victory in this war was more beneficial than harmful to them. Both Austria-Hungary and Italy were Mediterranean countries, and they naturally had a need for passage through the Strait of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal.

Compared to the British control of the Strait of Gibraltar, Austria-Hungary and Italy were clearly more accepting of Spain regaining control of the strait.

After all, given the friendly relations between the two countries and Spain, warships and merchant ships can freely enter and exit the Strait of Gibraltar.

Kings and emperors of large countries generally do not personally attend military parades, and kings of small countries are not qualified to be personally received by Carlo. This made Carlo the most leisurely person before the military parade.

Aside from practicing horseback riding to prevent any accidents on the day of the parade, Carlo didn't have much else to do.

For Carlo, this leisurely lifestyle was quite enjoyable. The government and the Crown Prince handled the important receptions for various countries, making this one of the few times Carlo had truly free time since becoming King of Spain.

Time always flies. One day after the gathering of dignitaries from various countries in Spain, on January 31, 1905, the grand military parade in Spain officially took place in the port of Cádiz, Andalusia.

The Spanish public's attention to this military parade was unprecedented, which led to a large number of people traveling from all over Spain the day before the parade, all hoping to clearly witness the grand spectacle on the day of the parade.

Outside the parade grounds designated by the Spanish government, large numbers of Spanish citizens gathered. Some even arrived a day early with tents and food to secure better spots.

As more and more people gathered outside the parade grounds, the government mobilized a large number of police officers from various states to maintain order at the port of Cádiz.

This is no joke. At least tens of thousands of people have gathered around the parade grounds, and that number will only increase over time.

Based on current trends, at least 100,000 people are expected to gather around the port of Cádiz on the day of the parade. The larger the crowd, the greater the potential for unforeseen events.

To prevent such an incident from occurring, it is necessary to increase the number of police officers. The police force around the port of Cádiz has increased from a few hundred to nearly a thousand, and more officers are still arriving.

The government's efforts to mobilize police from various states to maintain order have proven to be very effective.

Although tens of thousands of people gathered around the port of Cádiz, the area remained relatively stable thanks to the presence of over a thousand police officers.

The government also blocked the road from San Fernando to the port of Cádiz, allowing only government and military vehicles, as well as vehicles carrying foreign dignitaries, to travel to the port of Cádiz.

All remaining civilians had to proceed on foot and were subject to checks at checkpoints. These checkpoints were set up to prevent individuals with ulterior motives from bringing weapons to the parade site.

With numerous dignitaries from various countries present at the parade, any unexpected incident would pose a significant challenge to the Spanish government.

For safety reasons, most of the soldiers participating in the parade were not equipped with ammunition. The only soldiers on site who could carry live ammunition, besides Carlo's Royal Guard, were the soldiers of the 1st Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Regiment, 1st Royal Guard Division, who were the first to be inspected.

If the Royal Guard Division was Carlo's inner circle, then the 1st Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Regiment of the Royal Guard Division was the innermost inner circle of the inner circle.

As the first unit to be established within the Royal Guard Division, this entire company of soldiers was handpicked from within the division, and they were highly reliable in terms of both military skills and loyalty to the royal family.

This is also the only unit among all the armies participating in the parade that is equipped with live ammunition. The use of live ammunition is also to prevent any accidents from happening at the parade site.

In addition to political figures from various countries and a large number of Spanish citizens, newspapers and journalists from various European countries and even the world gathered around the parade ground.

Apart from a small number of internationally renowned newspapers and media outlets, most of the remaining newspaper reporters were only allowed to take photos on the periphery, since the venue could not accommodate so many reporters.

Although they could only take photos from the perimeter, the reporters from these relatively unknown newspapers dared not complain in the slightest. After all, Spain's military parade had become a hot topic in Europe and even the world, and if they couldn't take a few valuable photos, their newspapers would miss this opportunity to capitalize on this major media event.

Under the expectant gaze of nearly 1 people, at 8 a.m. on January 31, Spain's grand military parade officially began.

The motorcade carrying King Juan Carlos of Spain, Prime Minister Olcajo of Spain, members of the Spanish royal family, and a host of political and royal dignitaries from various European countries slowly drove toward the reviewing stand.

After arriving at the reviewing stand, the dignitaries took their seats below the stand, while Carlos, the Spanish Prime Minister, and Prince Juan Fernando walked onto the stand.

The parade was hosted by Prime Minister Orcajo himself, while Defense Minister Jorti served as the parade's commander-in-chief.

Following a speech by Prime Minister Orcajo, the grand military parade officially began.

The first event was the flag-raising ceremony. Defense Minister Jorti had specially assembled a flag guard for this parade. Escorted by the flag guard, a brand-new Spanish flag was raised to the sound of the national anthem, the Royal March, followed by cheers and applause from a large crowd of Spaniards.

As the Spanish flag was slowly raised into the sky, the most important part of the military parade celebrations, the grand military parade, officially began.

After the parade began, the scene fell silent for less than a minute.

On the other side of the road that the people were eagerly anticipating, the sound of neat leather shoes clapping on the ground suddenly came from there.

As the sound came, most people at the scene turned their attention to the other end of the road.

The flag guard, leading the way, carried the Spanish flag and the royal flag high, followed by the first unit to be inspected: the Royal Guard's infantry company.

As they passed the reviewing stand, the leading commander shouted "Salute!" and all the soldiers except for the rightmost column turned their respectful and fervent gazes toward the reviewing stand.

The soldiers' hands were not idle either. They quickly performed a three-stage spear-slashing movement, changing their posture from holding the rifle on their shoulder with their right hand to gripping it tightly with both hands and slashing it diagonally forward.

When this impressive display of skill was performed, the eyes of both the civilians outside the parade ground and the high-ranking officials from various European countries sitting below the reviewing stand were drawn to the soldiers on the scene.

This set of moves is so cool! Even though Carlo had seen these moves many times before, he still couldn't help but think to himself, "Wow, that's really cool!"

Only three companies of the Guards participated in the parade. After the infantry company passed by, it was the turn of the cavalry company and the artillery company to appear.

The cavalry company made a dashing entrance, just like the infantry company. All the soldiers rode chestnut horses, and instead of rifles, they carried sabers over a meter long.

The artillery batteries no longer transported their cannons by horse-drawn carts, but instead used trucks to pull each cannon. This method of transportation caught the attention of high-ranking military officials around the world, since trucks were much faster than horse-drawn carts.

European leaders initially thought the Royal Guard leading the parade was already quite impressive, but the performance of the other Royal Army units that followed was equally impressive. Besides the Royal Guard, all the troops participating in the parade were combat veterans, which gave the soldiers a hint of fierceness in their eyes, making the army appear even more formidable.

Watching the Spanish armies slowly march past, an Italian military commander couldn't help but exclaim, "Oh God, such an army could not only defeat the British, but probably even the German and French armies."

Although the Italian general did not speak loudly, the representatives of several major European powers around him still heard him. The British diplomat's face turned ashen. Being defeated by Spain was not good news for Britain, especially since Spain had defeated Britain on both land and sea, making it even more humiliating.

Although the diplomatic representatives of Germany and France, the latter two parties involved in this conversation, wore nonchalant smiles, their concern and apprehension towards Spain had increased significantly.

It must be admitted that there is some truth to what the Italian general said.

Just by looking at the Spanish troops participating in the parade, one can see that the overall combat capability of the Spanish army is quite strong, and it can even be said to be among the top in Europe.

Perhaps only Germany and France, both powerful land powers, are on par with the Spanish army.

Although Russia can be considered a land power, its army relies on sheer numbers, and its individual combat capabilities are far inferior to those of Germany and France.

As for the remaining Austro-Hungarian and Italian empires, there's not much to say. The Austro-Hungarian army, with its small number of troops composed of Austrians, was reasonably effective, but the majority of its army, composed of mixed ethnic groups, was only mediocre in combat strength.

The Italian army should not be included in the ranking of the great powers' armies, because no matter how you rank them, the Italian army's combat power is at the bottom among the great powers.

Although they were more vigilant and attentive to Spain, Germany and France were not overly concerned.

After all, while the Spanish army is powerful, it has a significant weakness: its standing army size is too small.

While the fighting capacity of the Spanish standing army was indeed comparable to that of the elite armies of Germany and France, the German and French armies had far more personnel than the Spanish army.

Although Spain also has hundreds of thousands of reservists, their combat effectiveness is incomparable to that of the regular army.

From the perspective of Germany and France, the fighting capacity of the Spanish reserve force was at most on par with the ordinary army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or even slightly less, roughly on par with the Italian army.

In this situation, the only real threat was the small Spanish standing army. Such a small force would be quickly depleted in a large-scale battle, which is why Germany and France, while wary of Spain, were not particularly concerned about it.

Germany and France will only be concerned about Spain's growing power when Spain raises its army's standing strength to the same level as Germany and France.

Prior to this, Germany and France were more concerned about the development of the Spanish Navy, after all, the Spanish Navy had actually defeated the world's number one naval power, even if it was only a part of the British fleet.

Compared to the European political figures whose expressions didn't change much, the expressions on the faces of the Spanish people watching from the sidelines were much more interesting.

The smiles never faded from the faces of most Spaniards. Accompanied by excitement, joy, and exhilaration, the Spaniards present were simply the happiest people in the world.

Nothing is more exciting than seeing your country's military strength so powerful, or, if anything, seeing your country's military strength grow even stronger.

The cheers and applause from the Spanish people present never stopped, which shows just how satisfied the Spanish people were with this grand military parade.

In fact, Carlo was quite satisfied with the parade. So far, the parade has been very effective.

This demonstrated the strength of the Spanish army to the outside world, and greatly boosted national confidence and public confidence and support for the government.

Of course, Carlo was the one who benefited the most. After all, the war was launched under Carlo's orders, and Gibraltar was recaptured in this war.

With just the two contributions of rebuilding Spain into a superpower and recapturing Gibraltar, Carlos alone is enough to claim the throne of Spain's greatest monarch and become one of the most influential rulers of this era.

Carlo also believed that the prosperity of his reign would not be inferior to that of the Victorian era in England, and that Spain would be one of the main protagonists of the 20th century.

The more than 100,000 people present included the vast majority of Spaniards, as well as a small number of tourists and immigrants from other European countries.

Among these tourists and immigrants from other countries, a significant portion are from Portugal, Spain's neighbor.

When the Portuguese people learned that the Portuguese army would also participate in the parade, they naturally paid more attention to it.

When the Portuguese people saw the impressive performance of the Spanish army in the parade, they couldn't help but feel a sense of anticipation, hoping that the Portuguese army could also put on a similar impressive show and demonstrate the strength of the Portuguese army.

At the end of the army contingent, a regiment of Portuguese troops was ready to depart.

Similar to the Spanish Royal Guard, Portugal also sent three companies to participate in the parade: an infantry company, a cavalry company, and an artillery company.

Infantry, cavalry, and artillery were also the most important components of the army in this era, and the combat effectiveness of the entire army could be seen from the performance of these three forces.

The small number of Portuguese citizens watching were quite hopeful about the performance of their country's army, but when the Portuguese troops walked over from the other side of the road, many of them were indeed disappointed.

Although Spain provided these Portuguese troops with standard uniforms and boots free of charge, and even provided them with uniform weapons.

But these were just appearances. The soldiers' inner qualities were completely different from those of the Spanish army. The Portuguese army looked like a complete rabble, a world apart from the Spanish army that had been reviewed earlier.

European political leaders are no exception, as they are well aware of Portugal's situation. Portugal is currently controlled by the Iberian Party, which was merely a large party during the Portuguese Republic era and commands only a few thousand troops.

These several thousand men might be considered elite, but this army had already been wiped out during the Portuguese Civil War. The current Portuguese army was hastily assembled during the civil war. Although it was trained by the Spanish, the Portuguese army did not receive effective training because the Spanish army undertook the main offensive tasks during the civil war.

In addition, the army is suffering continuous casualties. Although the Portuguese army still has a size of nearly 10, most of them are hastily trained recruits with little combat capability.

The Portuguese troops sent to participate in the parade were certainly not new recruits, but they were definitely not elite either.

Without the groundwork laid by the Spanish army, the Portuguese army's performance wouldn't have been so bad. However, the presence of a formidable opponent turned their barely passable performance into utter disaster.

Compared to the perfectly orderly Spanish army, which stood in neat rows and columns no matter how you looked at it, the Portuguese army appeared somewhat disorganized.

Even during the salute segment in front of the reviewing stand, the Portuguese army made mistakes. Many soldiers saluted before the order to salute was given, and some soldiers only raised their hands when the salute was almost over.

Perhaps the Portuguese should be thankful that their army did not adopt a bayonet-wielding style like the Spanish, since rifles were fitted with bayonets, and in the slightest chaos, the bayonets could easily be used to stab their own men.

Even the Spanish army has had its share of accidents during training, with several soldiers making mistakes due to excessive tension and accidentally stabbing their comrades.

Fortunately, none of these injuries are serious. With timely treatment, they will not significantly affect the training for the parade or the subsequent participation in the parade.

(End of this chapter)