Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 55: Exchange of Interests (Please Read)
Hearing Primo's questioning, Archbishop Pedro couldn't help but swallow.

The sense of oppression brought by Prime Minister Primo is still very strong, especially since he had just put down the Carlist rebellion not long ago.

Archbishop Pedro certainly does not want to be bullied, but is there any good way to resist Primo's government at the moment?
With the precedent of the Carlists in mind, Archbishop Pedro had no confidence in the church's resistance.

"No, that's not the case." Archbishop Pedro said quickly: "Of course I will not resist the government. I just expressed some opinions on the arrest of church members."

"Bishop Pedro, I already know your opinion. But the assassination is a serious matter and needs to be investigated thoroughly to determine whether there is any suspicion." Prime Minister Primo said:

Please wait patiently for a while. If the arrested person does not have any suspicion, he will return safely. "

We need to investigate thoroughly to determine whether there is any suspicion? Hearing Prime Minister Primo say this, Archbishop Pedro almost wanted to laugh.

If the arrests were really so serious and responsible, how could so many church members be arrested?
When they arrested someone, there was not much evidence, but when they released him, they needed complete evidence to prove that he was not a suspect? Isn't this just a lie?
And even if they finally investigate thoroughly and release the person, the police on the other side will continue to arrest other church members.

Release one and catch two, Archbishop Pedro doesn't think Primo can't do it.

"Prime Minister Primo, what can we do to prove the innocence of the church? I swear to God that the Spanish Church has absolutely no involvement in the plan to assassinate you, and those arrested bishops are innocent." Archbishop Pedro said helplessly.

He had no choice in the current situation. The most important thing was to get the government to give up its efforts to arrest church members.

As for whether to fight back against the government's actions, it cannot be done by the power of the church alone, and the help of other forces is needed.

Before this, Archbishop Pedro's only idea was to temporarily compromise with the government in exchange for the church being able to survive the assassination safely.

"You know, Pedro, because of this assassination, many government tasks have been delayed for a long time. I was planning to issue a second batch of industrial bonds. After the assassination, how can you let the people feel at ease to buy government bonds?" Prime Minister Primo suddenly said.

Hearing this, Archbishop Pedro immediately understood what Primo wanted.

In order to ensure the temporary safety of the church, Archbishop Pedro had to reluctantly sacrifice the interests of the church: "Although I am sure that the church has nothing to do with the assassination, as a Spaniard, how can I ignore the development of the country?
I believe that God does not want to see this. On behalf of the Spanish Church, I am willing to purchase industrial bonds issued by the government and donate 200 million pesetas to the government. "

Prime Minister Primo was pleased with Archbishop Pedro's understanding, but Prime Minister Primo's purpose was not to get these millions of pesetas.

The wealth accumulated by the Spanish Church over a long period of time may be even more exaggerated than that of the Bourbon family. A few million pesetas are probably just a drop in the bucket for the church.

And compared to this limited amount of funds, Primo was more interested in the church's land.

To be honest, what is the use of the church holding so much land? They take advantage of the government's low taxes on church land to make a lot of money, and then use the money to buy more land.

Just around Madrid, large tracts of land were occupied by the nobility and the church, and the land in the hands of common people became a minority.

This is extremely detrimental to the development of Spain. If these lands cannot be recovered, it will seriously affect the future development of Spain. "Okay, Bishop Pedro. For God's sake, I am willing to believe in your sincerity. I will instruct the Madrid police station to conduct more detailed screening when arresting people to avoid accidentally hurting innocent people.

Of course, I will also ask them to carefully screen the captured church members and release them if there are no problems.

Someone will contact you when the time comes. I deeply apologize for the trouble caused to the church. I believe that the matter will be resolved satisfactorily in the near future and no church member will be wrongly accused. "Primo said with a smile.

After making sure that Archbishop Pedro was willing to sacrifice the interests of the church for those bishops, Primo achieved his goal.

As for the more detailed negotiations with the church on how to use money and land to bail out those church members, that was not what Primo should do.

As the Prime Minister of Spain, Primo has more important things to do and naturally will not abandon other things for some land of the church.

Anyway, the officials in the finance department are professionals in haggling, and they will never let the government suffer any loss.

After hearing Primo's agreement, Archbishop Pedro finally breathed a sigh of relief.

If Primo insisted on arresting church members, Archbishop Pedro really didn't know what to do.

As for resistance, the current church does not have many good means to deal with the government. It may be able to incite some brainwashed believers to hold a demonstration, but such a demonstration will soon be suppressed by the government.

Rebellion is even less likely. A march might attract people to join through brainwashing and deception, but a rebellion cannot deceive civilians.

With Primo's reforms, the living standards of farmers and workers are slowly improving. Under such circumstances, farmers and workers are naturally not fools and it is impossible for them to stand up against Primo's government.

"Prime Minister Primo, can we also join the investigation into this assassination?" asked Archbishop Pedro.

Archbishop Pedro was well aware that heavy bleeding in the church was inevitable, which made him very angry at the real person behind the assassination.

It would be fine if they just carried out an assassination, but why did they have to bring trouble to the church?
No matter which force is behind the scenes, Archbishop Pedro has only one idea, which is to make the person or force behind the scenes bleed more.

"Of course, Bishop Pedro." Primo nodded with a smile, as if it was a matter of course: "It would be best if the murderer behind the scenes could be caught as soon as possible. This will benefit both the government and the church."

It is undeniable that the church was still a relatively powerful force in Spain at this time.

As for resisting the government, the current church is definitely not able to do it. But if it is to investigate the assassination case, the church can still play a role, at least it can help the government to investigate the murderer behind the assassination case more quickly.

Second update, please support and read on!

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(End of this chapter)