Empire Rising: Spain

From the perspective of domestic status, Giotto’s upcoming position as Commander of the Congo Territory Garrison might not be higher than his previous role as Commander of the Imperial Guard.

However, the opportunity for the position of Commander of the Congo Territory Garrison is clearly greater than that of Commander of the Imperial Guard. The main task of the Guard Army is to protect the capital, the Royal Palace, and the King’s safety, and generally does not take initiative in participating in wars.

This also makes it difficult for the Commander of the Imperial Guard to be promoted through military achievements, leaving them only to slowly accumulate experience in this position.

But being Commander of the Congo Garrison is different. Spain is about to launch a war against the African natives, and as the highest leader of the Spanish combat forces in Africa, the Commander of the Congo Garrison has many opportunities to earn military achievements.

As long as Giotto performs excellently in the battles against the African natives, he has a great hope to advance further and enter Spain’s Defense Department after the war concludes.

Giotto’s further advancement in military rank basically lies in positions like the Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Navy and Army or Chief of Staff, Minister of Defense, and Chief of Staff in the Ministry of Defense.

Upon receiving Carlo’s deployment order, Giotto and Andrew quickly took action.

Giotto needs to travel from Madrid to the distant Congo Territory and prepare for the formation of another Colonial Division. Currently, the Congo Territory has only one Colonial Division, which hasn’t met Spain’s requirements for launching a war.

Of course, accompanying Giotto to Africa are a number of mid- to high-level officers prepared by the Defense Department for the newly established colony.

Giotto will work with these mid- to high-level officers to train the newly formed Colonial Division, giving it a certain scale of combat capability.

Meanwhile, Andrew needs to come from the far Lanfang Republic to Madrid to take over the patrol work of the Guard Army.

As a unit that Carlo can directly command, the Guard Army has many tasks. The location of the Guard Army is only a few kilometers away from the Royal Palace and can reach the palace in as fast as half an hour.

The Guard Army also needs to send patrol teams to be responsible for the patrol work around the Royal Palace, while there are elite soldiers selected from the Guard Army to form the Guard Team, with both the patrol team and the guard team forming the security force of the Spanish Royal Palace.

There’s no exaggeration to say that with the current defense capabilities of the Madrid Royal Palace, the palace can be ensured to be impregnable.

Even if another great revolution like that during Queen Isabella’s time occurs, the Guard Army would be enough to ensure the safety of the Royal Palace and the members of the Royal Family.

The elite force of 15,000 soldiers in the Guard Army is temporarily set aside, this force alone is capable of dealing with the attack of tens of thousands of troops.

The Guard Team stationed within the Royal Palace also has a scale of nearly 500 people, and these individuals are true elites within the Spanish Army.

It is well known that the soldiers of the Spanish Guard Army are carefully selected from the Royal Army. The Guard Team is even selected from the soldiers of the Guard Army, exemplifying their elite level.

Every guardian in the Guard Team is chosen after multiple assessments, and their loyalty exceeds that of the soldiers in the Guard Army, reaching the extent of being willing to die for Carlo.

The identity of Brad Herrera, Captain of the Guard, is even more special.

Back when Carlo just became the King of Spain, he intentionally gathered a group of orphans who had lost their parents and families due to various reasons.

This group of orphans was raised by Carlo’s funding, and during their education, Carlo instilled a significant amount of loyalty and patriotism.

Officer Brad Herrera not only belongs to this group of orphans but is also one of the outstanding ones.

After Carlo expressed his intention for him to apply to military school, Brad Herrera unwaveringly worked hard for it and successfully gained admission to the Madrid Royal Military Academy.

After his successful graduation, Carlo let him train in the Guard Army for two years, and then appointed him as Captain of the Guard Team, commanding a Royal Guard Team of 500 people.

The task of the Royal Guard Team is simple: protect the safety of the Royal Family members at all costs.

Any member of the Spanish Royal Family traveling needs to be accompanied by guards, with at least a minimum of a few ten guards to ensure security.

Carlo’s travel entourage is larger, typically starting with over a hundred guards, and even accompanied by the protection of hundreds of Guard Army soldiers.

While it may appear cautious, to ensure his and his family’s life safety, the necessary protection must be in place.

Carlo does not trust the medical level of this era. Even if an assassination doesn’t succeed, injury alone carries a risk of fatal infection.

Not to mention if the enemy had better luck and directly hits a vital spot, it could result in immediate death.

Spain’s current development relies entirely on Carlo’s leading direction, with several minors not yet grown into adulthood. In such circumstances, Carlo absolutely cannot allow any accidents to occur.

This would not only ruin Carlo’s decade-long efforts in Spain but also extinguish the hard-earned brightness Spain has achieved, plunging the country back into turmoil.

In September 1884, before Giotto and numerous officers were about to head to the Congo Territory, Carlo summoned them to the Madrid Royal Palace and encouraged everyone.

In conversations with these officers, Carlo reiterated the importance of the colony merger plan to Spain and expressed that the operation against the African natives could only succeed, not fail.

In the absence of warfare in Europe, Spain can only showcase its combat strength through operations against the natives.

One must not underestimate these local African natives. Although they fall behind Spain in terms of weaponry and equipment, natives united can form a strong resistance force.

Carlo does not wish for his meticulously formed army to fail unexpectedly, causing other countries to mock.

While facing ridicule would be tolerable, if other countries were to mistakenly perceive the combat power of the Spanish Army as weak, Spain’s influence on the international stage would decline dramatically.

Just like Italy, successfully displaying its poor military power through successful operations against African natives, leading to its army being disregarded by European countries, becoming a laughable topic among soldiers.

Initially, these officers didn’t pay much heed to the actions of gilding the colonial military troop in Africa, but upon Carlo’s personal indication of the importance of operations against the African natives, they began to take it seriously.

As the saying goes, a soldier who never aspires to be a general isn’t a good soldier. These young officers who just graduated from the Royal Military Academy naturally want to showcase their capabilities to their King.

Upon hearing that major powers like France and Germany might intervene in Spain’s operations against the natives, the officers’ faces no longer bore relaxed smiles, with each seriously listening to Carlo’s instructions.

After all conversations concluded, the officers solemnly and fervently saluted Carlo under Giotto’s leadership, after which they departed in large numbers and headed to the train station.

They would take the train to the port, then transfer to ships via the port to travel to the African colony.

As the colonial military troop is composed entirely of local natives, Spain can only provide these officers.

Fortunately, Spain has immigrated a large number of Filipinos, Lanfang people, and Moroccans to the Congo Territory, and these people can also register to join the colonial military troop, providing a balance to the local natives.

This aligns with Spain’s colonial policy as well. By excluding the group of Africans who are not acknowledged, the colonial population in Spain consists of two major types: whites from Europe and Morocco and yellow people from Asia.

Since these white people are not Spaniards, Spain essentially treats both whites and yellow people equally.

Carlo prefers balancing the two groups, allowing them to check each other and ensuring the stability of the Spanish colony.

This is similar to the regional balancing policy established by the United Kingdom in various regions. Should one group’s power become stronger, Spain chooses to assist the weaker side.

Conflicts between the two groups do not impact Spain as they harbor hatred towards the opposing side they are adversaries with.

To ensure their living position is not oppressed by the opposing party, both sides can only strive to align with Spain, thus obtaining colonial support and securing their living space.

Spain first implemented such policies in the Philippines and the Lanfang Republic, and it has proven very successful so far.

The colonial government only needs to manage conflicts between the two groups well to effectively utilize their power for its use.