Although Carlo did not have experience dealing with the Carlists, this did not mean that other members of the Spanish government did not.
It is worth mentioning that the current Prime Minister, Prim, was not only born in Catalonia but also participated in the First Carlist War, giving him significant advantages.
Carlo also did everything he could at the moment, which was to fully entrust the command of the army to Prim, allowing Prim to handle all the troubles.
This was the huge difference between having Prim and not having Prim. Amadeo had almost no way to deal with the Carlist rebellion because there were no other officials or military leaders with significant influence in Spain who supported him besides Serrano.
But Carlo was different. With Prim and Serrano, two top military leaders in charge, Carlo never considered defeat in this war.
To ensure nothing went wrong, at Carlo's suggestion, the Spanish army imposed a curfew on Madrid and provided special protection for important institutions such as the government and parliament.
In addition to the Palace Guard, a force of 500 men, Carlo's palace also added a hundred-man force patrolling the surroundings.
Considering that the entire city of Madrid was under curfew, it was basically impossible for the Carlists and other opponents to pose a threat to Carlo and other high-ranking government officials unless they could directly break through Madrid.
Before Carlo VII's army even left Catalonia, the Spanish government received another piece of bad news.
A large-scale demonstration broke out in Vitoria, the Basque Country. The demonstrators stormed the Vitoria city hall and clashed violently with the local police.
It was clear that the Basques, who also fantasized about independence like the Catalans, had some ideas.
Compared to Catalonia, which supported the Carlists and incited workers, the reason for the demonstration in the Basque Country was more radical: demanding independence or autonomy for the entire Basque region.
The Basque region here refers to the Basque Country and Navarre in Spain and the Northern Basque Country in France.
The Basques residing in these areas were a very fierce ethnic group on the Iberian Peninsula and were the last ethnic group to be conquered on the entire peninsula.
Fortunately, the total population of the Basque ethnic group was only about 600,000, and they were scattered across the two regions of the Basque Country and Navarre, so the threat was not as great as in Catalonia.
Regarding the demonstrations that broke out in the Basque region, Prim's suggestion was to prioritize appeasement and supplement it with suppression.
After all, this ethnic group was still very capable of combat. If they could be absorbed into the larger Spanish ethnic group, the fighting power of the Spanish army would also be guaranteed.
Controlling the Basque Country and Navarre regions was also very simple. By migrating a certain number of Spaniards to these two regions, the proportion of Basques could be reduced.
Since the big capitalist class, the Carlists and the separatists in Catalonia and the Basque Country had all jumped out one after another, it was natural that no one else would oppose the Spanish government's reforms next.
While organizing the army to prepare for the war against the Carlists, Prim also seized the opportunity to vigorously push through reforms in and around Madrid, strictly enforcing labor laws.
Factory owners who had actively incited demonstrations and rebellions became prime targets for Prim and Carlo's crackdown.
Within just a few days, the Madrid police arrested dozens of these factory owners and took control of hundreds of factories and businesses of various sizes.
To maintain production in the enterprises around Madrid and protect the jobs of the workers, the government and the royal family took control of most of these industries.
Although the government claimed the lion's share, Carlo's gains were substantial as well.
Because Carlo firmly supported Prim's reforms, he was rewarded with ownership of more than a dozen factories around Madrid at a fraction of their true value.
These factories were high-quality assets, valued anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of pesetas each — including major facilities like the Madrid Steelworks, which alone employed nearly a thousand workers.
With these acquisitions, Carlo quickly expanded the scale of his industrial empire.
At present, the total value of Carlo's industries has reached tens of millions of pesetas, in addition to the over ten million pesetas he holds in liquid capital.
Excluding the palaces, summer residences, and estates taken over from Queen Isabella II, Carlo could already rank among the top ten wealthiest people in Spain.
If all assets were included, the current Carlo could easily become the richest person in Spain.
However, Carlo did not care about these empty titles and even secretly dealt with some royal enterprises to make them appear to have little connection with the royal family.
Currently, among these industries, except for the winery, which uses the word "Royal" because it aims for the high-end market, none of the other industries bear the word "Royal." It is impossible to distinguish whether they are royal properties just from the name.
As the King of Spain, Carlo naturally had to firmly enforce the various provisions of the labor law.
Immediately after taking over these dozen or so factories, Carlo had someone calculate the wages owed to all his workers and basically repaid all the back wages the next day.
Without exception, the current situation of these dozen or so enterprises successfully made it to the Madrid newspapers and became a hot topic of discussion among the people around Madrid.
Carlo's purpose in doing this was very simple: to set a good example for the Spanish capitalists.
As the king, Carlo firmly adhered to Spain's labor law and even paid the wages owed by the previous factory owners.
What reason did those capitalists have to continue withholding wages? Did they really think the working class was easy to bully?
Amidst the public opinion fermentation, Carlo successfully gained some prestige.
Paying back wages was normal behavior, but paying the workers' back wages for the previous factory owners was not so common.
For the workers in Madrid, the biggest difference between Carlo and those capitalists was thus revealed.
Starting from early February, Madrid residents would occasionally mention their King Carlo in their conversations and add a sincere compliment.
Although Carlo's payment of back wages only covered less than 1,000 workers, it affected nearly 1,000 families.
Because they were all around Madrid, after word-of-mouth spread, at least tens of thousands of people had a better impression of Carlo.
And this was Carlo's purpose: to gradually increase the Spanish people's goodwill towards him, to make them support him and love him from the bottom of their hearts.
Once the workers' friends received the wages they were due, they would naturally no longer accept being shortchanged by the factory owners.
And the capitalists of this era were always greedy; they could not focus on the workers' opinions as much as Carlo did.
This would make it difficult for capital and labor to unite again against the monarchy, and the influence of the big capitalist class on Spain would always be limited to a relatively small scope.
As for the future when Spain's economy prospers due to reforms, Carlo's industries will also continue to expand and even become the largest conglomerate in Spain, so there will naturally be no need to worry about the resurgence of the capitalist class.
As long as Carlo can become the largest capital in Spain, which capital can compete with Carlo in Spain?
Even the most powerful capital can never compete with the government, because holding the gun is the hard truth.
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