Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 5 Character is the most important
Now that you have the newspaper as a weapon of public opinion, the next most important step is to create a popular persona for yourself.

If a character is well created, the public can assume that Carlo is on the majority side without him taking any action.

As a member of the royal family, his friendly and people-loving character is bound to be popular.

The people certainly do not want the royal family above them to act superior, which is why later monarchs, headed by the British king, always appear friendly and loving.

Whether presented to the Italian people or the European people, rigid and conservative ideas are bound to be unpopular.

Although there are a large number of conservatives in monarchical countries, for Italy and Spain where Carlo wanted to go, the reformers are what the people really want to see.

However, although Carlo wanted to establish the impression of a reformist, he would never make any comments on Italy's reforms.

Reform is reform, but who will lead this reform is the real important issue. Supporting and looking forward to reform is a weapon in Carlo's hand, but if he really interferes with the reform, it will be more harm than good.

No government would like a king who dictates everything about the country. If Carlo wants to become the King of Spain, he must first understand how to be a mascot and not dictate everything.

On February 1866, 2, the Italian newspaper Sole 21 Ore published an article written by Carlo entitled "We Want Bread, Macaroni and Milk", which successfully fired the first shot in establishing the impression of caring for the people.

In this completely inspirational article, Carlo repeatedly mentioned the importance of the Italian grassroots people, especially the farmers in southern Italy.

The article also concluded: Whether in Italy or Europe, people's demands are actually not complicated, they just want to have enough food and clothing.

If the government could pay more attention to the grassroots people, perhaps people's lives would be happier.

The whole article does not have any profound truth, and even portrays Carlo as a prince who has nothing to do and is overflowing with love.

Although many grassroots people developed a favorable impression of Carlo because of this report, government officials were dismissive of it.

Taking care of the lives of the lower classes? That sounds nice, but isn't it still the government that pays for it?
Putting aside how much fiscal budget is needed to improve the lives of all the lower-class people in Italy, wouldn't it be better to invest this money in areas where Italy needs it more, such as military construction and industrial development?
As for the common people at the bottom of society, it is already good enough to ensure that they do not starve to death. Who of the nobles has the mind to care whether the common people have enough to eat or whether they are warmly clothed?

Because Carlo had no one available, this report only had a certain influence around Milan and did not even spread to Florence.

But for Carlo's plan, the first step has been successfully taken. Regardless of the government and the nobles' ideas, the first thing to do now is to make the people believe that Carlo is a prince who cares about the lower classes and even has an overflowing love.

Such a character will definitely not be hated by the people. After all, the vast majority of groups in a country are lower-class people, which is something that cannot be changed by any political system or ideology.

Unfortunately, Carlo is too young now, and many of his plans cannot be carried out smoothly. He still needs to spend a lot of time and energy to complete Italy's traditional aristocratic elite education.

Although he was only a prince, he was ranked third in the line of succession to the throne, which was basically impossible.

However, Vittorio Emanuele II was still very concerned about Carlo's education and training. As the youngest son of Vittorio Emanuele II, Carlo undoubtedly received the most love and attention from his father.

This year, Carlo is almost 15 years old and has basically completed the early stages of his elite aristocratic education.

According to Vittorio Emanuele II's plan for Carlo's training, Carlo had two choices. One was to choose to study management and economics in depth so that he could properly handle his land and property in the future. The other choice was to go to the military academy and become a glorious Italian officer to serve the royal family and the country.

For Carlo, who already had a plan in mind, the most suitable choice was of course to go to a military academy and develop his military capabilities.

More importantly, in the military academy, you may be able to meet some officers who are not famous but have good military abilities and build your own network.

It's a pity that Carlo is not the first heir to the throne, that is, the crown prince. Otherwise, he could have formed a palace guard with the status of crown prince and cultivated his own armed forces from scratch.

Although unified Italy was qualified to compete with the great powers, its foundation was still too weak at that time, even in military academies.

Among the world's top ten famous military academies in later generations, Italy did not exist at all. Even now, there are not many military academies worth choosing in Italy.

Currently the most reliable military academy choice is the Turin Military Academy, located in the former capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

This military academy is located in Turin, the base of the House of Savoy, and is an important institution for training military backbones for the Kingdom of Sardinia.

King Vittorio Emanuele II supported Carlo's desire to go to the Military Academy.

This is very common in Western monarchies. For the kings of these monarchies, the people they can trust most are the royal family members and nobles.

The Royal Military Academy of Turin was mainly responsible for the training of infantry and artillery officers, while the Royal Military Academy of Milan was responsible for the training of cavalry officers.

This is also the reason why Carlo directly chose the Royal Military Academy of Turin. After all, first of all, Carlo did not need to charge into battle personally. Secondly, cavalry would be eliminated in the next few decades, and the terrain of Spain and Italy was not suitable for large-scale cavalry charges.

In fact, compared to those instructors of the Royal Military Academy of Turin, Carlo admired a legendary Italian name more, one of the three great contributors to the unification of Italy, a hero of two worlds - Giuseppe Garibaldi.

If we simply discuss military capabilities, Garibaldi is definitely the best military commander in the whole of Italy in modern times.

Even later historians only mentioned three heroes who made outstanding contributions in their description of the entire Italian unification event, the so-called three heroes of the founding of Italy.

"Italy owes its unity to the ideas of Mazzini, the sword of Garibaldi, and the diplomacy of Cavour."

The description in this passage is enough to show how excellent Garibaldi's military talent is.

But unfortunately, among the three great men who founded Italy, only Prime Minister Cavour was from the faction of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Mazzini, who created the idea of ​​Italian unification, was a thorough republican and an enemy of the monarchy.

Although Garibaldi, whom Carlo admired extremely, did not explicitly oppose the monarchy, he had repeatedly defected to the republican system and was not trusted by the monarchy.

Although Garibaldi was extremely selfless in the process of Italian unification, even after gaining the entire territory of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, he resolutely handed it over to the rule of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

However, Garibaldi's high prestige in the army and his history of serving the Republic still prevented him from entering the upper echelons of the new Italy.

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(End of this chapter)