In a noble manor in Spain, many Spanish nobles gathered to discuss the overthrow of Charles V.
"He is simply the most greedy person in history. He wants to confiscate the territory that we have inherited from generation to generation. I will never agree!"
Duke Alfonso said angrily.
"I will never allow such a thing to happen. Now he is forcing us to do this."
Duke Santos also said firmly.
Originally, everyone was actually very supportive of Charles V, because Charles V's policies had always been in the interests of the great nobles.
Charles V supported Spain's import of goods and export of raw materials, which was naturally the best for the nobility, because the nobility often had huge territories and could live a comfortable life relying on the output of the territory without any hard work. It's hard to develop some kind of handicraft industry.
Charles V's policies were beneficial to them, so they also supported Charles V. When Charles V just came to the throne, everyone contributed a lot.
However, now, Charles V has proposed a new reform plan, imitating the Ming Empire to carry out many reforms, including implementing a provincial system, abolishing the existing state system, dividing all states into provinces, and directly managing the king. Appoint officials to manage.
Abolish the nobility's taxing power and conscription power, transfer these two powers to the king, and the king directly appoints tax officials to collect taxes in various places.
This is undoubtedly the heaviest blow to them, the great nobles, and it seriously offends their interests. Naturally, they will not agree or agree to it.
"I think it's time for us to elect a new king, one who respects all our nobles."
Duke Felipe also said firmly.
In Europe, the power of lords and nobles is very strong, while the power of the king is very weak. This has always been a tradition and is also one of the cultural characteristics of Europe.
Princes and young masters travel almost everywhere here, mainly because the city-states in Europe have fallen into obscurity, and even a bigger place can become a country.
Now Charles V actually wants to imitate the Ming Empire and establish a unified and centralized empire. This is seriously not in the interest of these great nobles.
"Brand, this fool, what benefits can he gain by following Charles V?"
“Don’t you know that if Charles V succeeds, all his family’s ancestral land will be confiscated?”
Alfonso looked at the nobles around him. Some nobles did not come to the party, apparently because they had taken refuge with Charles V.
"He is the scum of the nobility."
Santos directly identified Duke Brand.
"Well, it doesn't make any sense to say this. What we have to do now is to gather forces to attack Charles V and overthrow his brutal rule."
Duke Felipe thought for a while and said.
"Hmm~"
"We return to our respective territories, gather the knights, and recruit soldiers. It won't take long, and we will soon be able to completely defeat Charles V."
"The main reason why Charles V dared to rob our land was because he had 50,000 Royal Guards in his hands. I heard that he also secretly organized a Royal Army of 50,000 people."
"If we want to defeat Charles V, we must at least arm an army of more than 100,000 people."
"I have a good relationship with the Governor of Hong Kong. As long as I have money, I can buy enough arms and weapons from the Governor of Hong Kong."
"The quality of Ming Dynasty's arms and weapons is very good, but the price is really very expensive. Where did Charles V get the money to train the new royal army?"
"I don't know where his money came from. Maybe he borrowed money from people in the Ming Dynasty."
"..."
Many great nobles were constantly discussing and discussing the matter of gathering troops to overthrow the rule of Charles V.
However, Charles V had already been prepared.
Charles V had been preparing for this matter since the end of last year. He first assigned his confidants to important positions in the Spanish army, and instantly took charge of Spain's navy and army.
Then, with the money earned from reselling penicillin during the epidemic, he secretly formed the Royal Army and purchased a large number of arms and weapons from the Ming Empire.
With the army in hand, Charles V was very confident, and he had made careful deployment and planning for this.
When Charles V officially announced the abolition of the state system and the implementation of the provincial system, he abolished many states and changed them into provinces. At the same time, he appointed provincial governors and rotated the great nobles and lords from various places.
Charles V's army had already been deployed, waiting for the nobles everywhere to rebel, taking this opportunity to completely weaken and attack the power of these nobles.
At the same time, he can also take advantage of this opportunity to reduce the number of these big nobles on a large scale and confiscate the territory, property, etc. of the big nobles into his own pocket.
Duke Alfonso led the 30,000 troops gathered in his territory, and led a mighty attack on the Spanish capital under the leadership of many knights.
Duke Alfonso was ambushed by the new Spanish army led by Alfred. Under the attack of the Ming Empire's arms and weapons, Duke Alfonso's army was routed.
Duke Alfonso was captured alive, and most of the others decisively chose to surrender.
For these soldiers, they actually don't know who they are fighting for. They only care about whether they have enough military pay and food. Only the noble knights know very well why they are fighting.
However, the knights eventually eliminated backward products. Facing powerful firearms and rigorously trained troops, they had no power to fight back.
Duke Alfonso was captured alive, and Charles V publicly tried him. He sentenced Duke Alfonso to death for treason, conspiracy, etc., and officially revoked Duke Alfonso's title and announced that Duke Alfonso would be confiscated.
With all the land and property in his name, the country was set up as provinces, divided into counties, and new officials were appointed to manage and collect taxes.
Charles V quickly and neatly dealt with the most powerful Duke Alfonso, and then attacked Duke Santos and Duke Felipe with lightning speed.
Relying on its own strong military power, it was easy to take down Duke Santos and Duke Felipe with almost no effort.
The two dukes were executed directly, their land and property were confiscated, their states were abolished, provinces and counties were established, and officials were appointed to govern and collect taxes.
The three main dukes were quickly defeated by Charles V one after another. Not only were the dukes themselves killed, their territories and properties were confiscated, but the states were also abolished. This greatly frightened the Spanish nobles, large and small.
Soon, a large number of nobles expressed their loyalty to Charles V and were willing to accept Charles V's reform plan and hand over the country that they had inherited from generation to generation.
There was no way, it was better to live than to lose one's head. What's more, even if they lost their territory, they were still nobles and had huge property. They were also indispensable for Charles V to govern the country.
Charles V easily dealt with these big nobles, but he did not kill all the small nobles.
As long as the nobles are willing to accept its reform plan, they can still retain the income from their land, but they must pay taxes to the king in the future. At the same time, the nobles' conscription rights, jurisdiction, and taxation rights are cancelled.
They are more like the nobles of the Ming Empire. They only have the income rights and ownership of the land. They can obtain the income from the land and can buy and sell the land, but the jurisdiction of the land, taxation rights, etc. will belong to the king.
After such operations, more nobles gave up their resistance, gradually accepted Charles V's reform plan, and were willing to give up their states and territories that had been passed down from generation to generation.
For these nobles, as long as the income from the land is still in their hands, that's fine, as long as it doesn't affect their enjoyment. As for other things, it doesn't seem to be very important to most nobles.
In less than a month, the undercurrents, tensions, and smoke from the beginning were quickly calmed down in the blink of an eye.
The young Charles V showed the courage, skill and wisdom of a great emperor.
In a very short period of time, he managed to keep the nobles and ministers in Spain obedient, which greatly consolidated the royal power and brought a lot of power into his own hands.
In the Royal Palace of Spain.
Alfred, Pelos, Torres and many other young nobles who supported Charles V gathered together and were reporting the recent results to Charles V with smiles on their faces.
"Your Majesty, we have calculated the assets of Duke Alfonso, Duke Santos, and Duke Felipe. The total value of the wealth seized by the three Dukes this time exceeds fifty million taels of silver!"
Alfred took out a detailed inspection list and submitted it to Charles V.
The three Dukes were the richest Dukes in Spain and the Dukes with the largest territory. This time they were all killed and confiscated. To do this, Alfred made full use of what he had learned in the Ming Empire.
They copied the Ming Dynasty's method of confiscating their families and annihilating their families, and confiscated the underpants of the three great dukes.
"Fifty million taels of silver?"
When Charles V heard this, he immediately raised his eyebrows.
With this money, he can continue to form a more powerful army. Many princes and nobles of the Holy Roman Empire have united to announce that they have abolished their position as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and are now conducting elections.
The new emperor.
This was absolutely unacceptable to Charles V. If he wanted to unify Europe, the first thing he had to do was to unify Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Only after integrating the power of these two countries could he unify the entire Europe.
