1932: Playing with the Japanese Communist Party with a doll

Spain is a very traditional, even stubborn Catholic country, a theocratic country that has never been shaken by successive religious reforms. More than 95% of the people in the country are devout Catholics.

Especially the lower class people, represented by ordinary farmers.

After hundreds of years of operation by the Holy See, the church has formed an impenetrable network in Spain, and everyone has a very close relationship with Catholicism.

Therefore, the peasants were very dissatisfied with the Second Spanish Republic's direct, brutal, and radical destruction of the church, and with a little incitement, they would join some interested parties in opposing the government (of course, this was not the only reason);

These rebellions brought great trouble to the Second Republic and even threatened the survival of the government. If it had not successfully suppressed the rebellion of General José Sanjujo last year and enhanced its prestige, it is hard to say whether the Azaña cabinet would have survived to this day.

Even so, the cabinet was still shaky - due to strong obstruction from right-wing forces such as the Vatican and fierce protests from the people, they were even unable to sentence the captured General Sanjujo to death!

Naturally, Asania has a great favor towards Springfield, who has been fighting against Catholicism since he came to power and directly defeated the Holy See during his trip to the Vatican this time.

Therefore, when they learned that Springfield was going to visit Spain, Diaz and his friends were ecstatic and squeezed out a large sum of money from the government funds that were so stretched that they could hardly pay the employees' salaries to welcome this "ally."

Although the United States and Spain had a minor conflict in history, which directly led to the complete decline of Spain, that was a problem of the Spanish Restoration Empire. What did it have to do with the Second Spanish Republic?

To be honest, many of the Republic's current systems were learned from the United States. Springfield is undoubtedly the strongest ally of the Spanish Republic!

Azaña hopes that Springfield's visit to Spain will provide more political support to his Republican Action Party and government, helping them win the upcoming Spanish general election in November.

At least, we can't let those dangerous elements get to power!

Asanya glanced at a group of people not far away who came to participate in the welcoming ceremony under the banner of "civilians" and sneered in his heart:

Humph, once we gain Ms. Field's unconditional support, all of you "remnants of the old times" will be nailed to history's pillar of shame!

Who are these people?

Answer: The "retired military officers' corps" headed by José de Rivera, Emilio Mura, Francisco Franco and others, which to a certain extent represented the Spanish landlord class and traditional church forces.

These people were all frustrated people during the "Second Spanish Republic". Because their political positions were suspected, at least 8000 old officers like them were ordered to retire or enter the "reserve".

The problem is, if you force people to retire and take away their jobs without even a penny of compensation, it will naturally cause extreme dissatisfaction among the soldiers. Coupled with other reasons, these people will naturally be hostile to the Azania Republican government.

General Sanjujo's rebellion was a small outburst of this sentiment.

You know, just sixteen months before launching the rebellion, this general warmly welcomed the Republican government and demanded that his troops not open fire on Azaña and others!

A large part of the reason for this is that the government's reforms are too radical and lack political means.

So, do these people also hate Springfield?

No.

On the contrary, they also have a very good impression of Springfield.

Apart from factors such as good looks and high status, the important thing is that senior leaders like Chuntian, who are willing to fight on the front lines for the rights of veterans and are not afraid of life and death, will naturally win the respect and love of the soldiers.

Soldiers are not afraid of bloodshed and sacrifice, but they are afraid that their bloodshed and sacrifice will be meaningless and that they will be abandoned without reason. If someone is willing to stand up for them, they are willing to follow suit even if they have no money.

Moreover, most of these soldiers were admirers or supporters of Mussolini, and were extremely sympathetic to the Fascist system. Many of them also had close contacts with the Italian army.

However, the way the American army salutes the lady they respect is similar to how the Italian army salutes their leader.

Hey!

Ms. Field is one of us!

We are just a bunch of "simple" men—since the "leader" has reached such close cooperation with Ms. Field, what else is there to say?

Yes, Ms. Field did cause considerable damage to the Vatican, but everyone's first identity is a soldier, and only then is she "XX landlord" or "relative of XX bishop" or something like that!

Besides, based on the information that has been released, what the Holy See did was indeed a bit too much and too contrary to God's will, and it deserves to be "punished by God."

Therefore, they were also full of expectations for Springfield's visit, believing that he would be able to guide Azaña onto the right path and save Spain from the "Communist extremists."

That’s right, what these “right-wingers” hate most is not the Azaña government, but another powerful force in Spanish politics:

Communism.

Although the policies of the Azaña government generally leaned to the "left", they were fundamentally a bourgeois coalition government. They did not believe in communism themselves and could not even be considered "socialists". Instead, they were quite wary of communism.

There are other people who truly represent the so-called "pure communist forces" and advocate "establishing a socialist country":

The Spanish Communist Party and the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification.

The differences between these two major political parties are difficult to discern in detail, so a simple criterion can be used to measure them:

The former was mainly controlled by Stalin and the Communist International, and followed the Soviet Union's will and took the Soviet Union as a model;

The latter firmly opposed Stalin, believed in some of Trotsky's theories, and were called "revolutionary socialists."

It's easy to figure out that although these two factions both call themselves "communists", they are in fierce conflict with each other and heretics are more hateful than pagans.

However, there is one thing that is the same:

The communist forces in Spain also had considerable expectations and goodwill towards the American president, George H.W. Springfield.

For the former, in the current global anti-communist era, a president of a capitalist country who proactively extended an olive branch to the Soviet Union was undoubtedly worthy of respect. Even if he was not "one of their own," he was at least an "ally" of the Soviet Union.

For the latter, the problem is even simpler.

It is said that our Trotsky seems to have close contacts with the American president... There are also rumors that in order to escape Stalin's persecution, Trotsky ran to the United States and became a big businessman, but not many people believe it.

Even if we put this aside, the many socialist policies promulgated by the new US president, Springfield, after taking office were enough to prevent them from opposing it.

At least Ms. Field has no ill feelings toward socialism, and that's enough.

Today, this group of "communists" hated by right-wing elements also came to the reception site, but they had no time to care about the hatred of right-wing elements. Instead, they were extremely dissatisfied with some left-wing forces around them:

What are you anarchists and separatists doing here?

Do you think that Ms. Field, the head of the US government, would support your foolish ideas?

Anarchists – mainly the Spanish National Confederation of Labor;

National separatists - the United Socialist Party of Catalonia, the Republican Left of Catalonia, the Basque Party, the Galician Independence Party...

Needless to say, they were also part of the welcoming team and expressed their warm welcome to Haruta.

The former was mainly because Springfield had publicly stated many times that workers' rights must be firmly protected, and this time he forced Mussolini to work hard in this regard;

As for the latter reason, it was equally commonplace—the Philippines had already begun its independence campaign under Ms. Field's wise words, so the United States would surely support our independence as well!

Stalinism, revolutionary socialism, anti-Stalinist leftism, Trotskyism, trade unionism, anarcho-syndicalism, anarcho-communism;

Centrist, Republican, Radical Republican, Social Liberal, Democratic Socialism, Separatism, Pan-Socialism, Moderate Nationalism, Left Nationalism, Radical Nationalism...

The above is a basic breakdown of the so-called "left-wing forces" in Spain as a whole.

It is no exaggeration to say that the differences in our political views are not that great, at least they are completely unrelated. They can only reach a partial consensus on opposing imperial power, opposing theocracy and maintaining the republic.

Unity?

Without strong external pressure, it would be a dream to expect this group of people to unite.

In fact, it is not the "right-wing elements" but this group of "left-wing friends" who are most aggressive against "moderate centrists" like Azaña.

So, if the “left wing” is like this, is the “right wing” very united? Yes, compared with the “left wing”, it is indeed “united”.

It is nothing more than conservative populism, Catholic conservatism, right-wing populism, authoritarian conservatism, ultraconservatism, organic nationalism, military dictatorship, theocracy, fascism...

There are only a dozen or so factions.

Ah Xi...It's almost making people forget the word "ism".

The entire Spanish political scene is like this, with internal friction so high that it is impossible for national construction to keep up with the pace of other European veterans.

To be honest, if the Spanish Civil War had not broken out and several main leaders of the right-wing faction had not died inexplicably, allowing the more capable Franco to come to power, the right wing might not have been able to defeat the more chaotic left wing.

However, no matter what, apart from the general concerns of the church organizations, other forces can more or less find similarities in Springfield, and thus at least look forward to his arrival without malice.

The stitched monster is a succubus.

Amid the anticipation of a group of Spanish political forces with ulterior motives, Springfield arrived in Spain.

513 The Wrath of the Saint

As the American fleet slowly approached the port of Barcelona, ​​President Springfield's visit to Spain, which was destined not to last long, began.

However, the first thing that appeared in her high-tech multifunctional artificial eye was an extremely absurd and embarrassing scene:

Left-wing trade unionists and right-wing conservatives hurled leaflets at each other through the gendarmes; anarchists unfurled a massive banner reading "Damn Government Running Dogs"; Stalinists punched the Trotskyist bastards in the face; Catalan separatists used colored smoke bombs to paint the port red and yellow stripes;

Theocratic supporters are being slammed by democratic socialists and social liberals;

Moderate nationalists are painstakingly trying to reconcile the contradictions between left-wing nationalism and radical nationalism;

The centrist government deployed its limited manpower to put out fires...

—A scene of vibrant life and flourishing things, as if... right before our eyes (Fenghua accent).

It was not until the American flag was slowly raised and the gangway was lowered from the warship that these people stopped their actions tacitly and looked at the figure with amazement without exception.

This time, Chuntian didn't wear her iconic military uniform. Instead, she wore a simple off-shoulder white dress. Her long, soft hair flowed down, gleaming faintly in the sunlight. She was as beautiful as if she had stepped out of a painting.

The sense of sacredness is so strong that it immediately reminds people of that "title":

Saint.

Anyone who dares to say she isn't will have his head smashed!

Asanya was also stunned for a while before he hurriedly led people to greet her: "Ms. Field, welcome to Barcelona, ​​welcome to Spain..."

Because Springfield's image was too embarrassing, Asanya didn't even dare to extend his hand, with an awkward and awed look on his face.

As a staunch anti-clericalist, he never thought that he would feel such a strong sense of "sacredness" on a certain occasion.

He was indeed anti-clerical, but what he was against was only "clerical." Haruta smiled slightly and offered his hand:

"Thank you very much for your welcome, Mr. Prime Minister." "You're welcome..."

Asanya was flattered and gently squeezed Chuntian's fingertips before quickly letting go, as if she was afraid of desecrating such sanctity, and also successfully avoided being pierced by gazes from all directions.

After a few pleasantries, Chuntian scanned everyone present, quickly putting away his smile, and asked softly:

"Mr. Prime Minister, where was the tragedy that happened two days ago?"

Outside an ordinary rural hut, thousands of Spaniards and Americans from different factions slowed their breathing and silently looked at the saint in a white dress standing in the center.

No one expected that the first thing Springfield did after stepping onto Spanish soil was not to communicate with government officials, nor to reorganize the Catholic Church, nor to contact various forces, but to come to the village of Bernardo Edit in Barcelona.

Just a few days ago, a very tragic case occurred here:

A group of anarchists led the impoverished peasants in the village to launch an uprising, killing the local landlord and his family, and announcing the implementation of "peasant grassroots self-government", no longer paying taxes to the government and obeying its management;

Immediately, the armed forces of the landlords and the National Guard from the nearby villages who had rushed to the scene ruthlessly suppressed them, arrested all the leaders, and massacred most of the poor people in the village.

Not only that, because a group of women, children, the elderly and the weak hid in the house and refused to come out to surrender, the suppressors simply set the house on fire, burning and suffocating all the people inside.

The air is now filled with the smell of burning mixed with the stench of rotting corpses. The half-collapsed walls still bear the blood and final fingerprints of the deceased, and one can almost hear the miserable howls.

Chuntian approached the house where the embers were still burning. The charred earth under her feet made a slight cracking sound. The hem of her white skirt swayed gently on the charred earth, forming a sharp contrast with the devastated scene around her.

Prime Minister Asanya and others who followed silently behind hung their heads and said nothing.

This kind of thing isn't particularly common in Spain, but it's certainly not rare either. A few months earlier, a similar uprising took place in the Andalusian village of Casavejas, where the insurgents declared "liberal communism" and were brutally suppressed by the government, prompting socialists to resign from the government in protest.

But Asanya didn't see any problem with it.

They are openly rebelling against the government. If we don't suppress them, are we just waiting for more imitators to appear?

Amidst the complex gazes of the crowd, filled with doubt, heaviness, and surprise, Chuntian's fair fingers gently brushed across the charred ruins. A moment later, she unexpectedly bent her knees and knelt directly on the ground!

This shocking kneeling left everyone stunned.

Putting aside the question of whether the ground is dirty or not, why would you, as the President of the United States, kneel down for a Spanish village?

But Catholic believers understood immediately: the saint was praying for the dead!

No matter how much damage Springfield has caused to the Catholic Church, no matter what they think of Her Highness the Saint, since the Church has recognized her identity, all clergy and believers know what they should do at this time.

Immediately, they also knelt down, some made the sign of the cross, or folded their hands in prayer. Like ripples spreading from the inside out, more people followed suit.

Those anti-Catholics and atheists were suddenly embarrassed, not knowing whether they should kneel or not. They could only keep their heads down and remain silent amid the sound of reporters snapping photos, not knowing what they were thinking.

Perhaps it was a moment of silence, or perhaps it was to ponder the deeper meaning of Springfield's actions.

Fortunately, Chuntian didn't kneel for too long. After just a minute, she stood up again, ignoring the stains on her white dress, and spoke to everyone. Her voice was particularly clear in the silent village:

"Just three days ago, there were 37 families and 189 villagers living here. Most of them probably never left this village in their entire lives. Now, how many are still alive?"

There was silence.

No one knew what Chuntian wanted to say, and no one dared to respond. Only the landlords and military police who directly carried out the massacre quietly hid themselves in the deepest part of the crowd, and some smart people even simply slipped away.

Obviously, Haruta's position is definitely not biased towards them, and she holds a negative attitude towards the massacre. If she insists on forcing the Spanish government to deal with the matter severely, it is estimated that Asanya will find it difficult to refuse.