A full year had passed since I entered the military academy.
Throughout that time, I divided my days among training, exercise, weapons development, and managing my businesses.
My body was barely keeping up.
‘Now that the businesses have stabilized, it’s time to focus on the conservatives.’
For the past year, I had been thinking about how to weaken conservative power.
Using military force or other extreme measures wasn’t something I could decide on my own.
Even if I somehow persuaded Agustín I to agree, it would be the worst possible option.
‘The republicans still have influence.
‘If the conservatives turn against us too, we’ll be finished.
‘So I need to weaken their power indirectly.’
The method I came up with was “agricultural efficiency.”
At first glance, agricultural efficiency might seem completely unrelated to weakening the conservatives.
But it made sense when considering the fundamental reason I wanted to reduce their influence.
At present, the conservatives were allies of both Agustín I and me.
The main reason I nevertheless wanted to reduce their power was because they opposed secularism and industrialization—two things essential to modernizing the country.
They justified exploitation through ideology and hated the idea of their peasants receiving education, questioning their social position, or leaving the countryside to work in factories.
Whenever anyone attempted to change the social structure, landowners could turn their peasants into soldiers and unite against the reformers.
‘If the number of peasants they can turn into soldiers decreases, the landowners will lose power.’
Of course, if we simply tried to take the peasants away from them, the conservatives would never allow it.
But what if improved agricultural efficiency reduced the amount of labor required in the countryside?
If work that once required five peasants could be performed by one, landowners would throw the surplus laborers off their estates without hesitation, regardless of whether those people starved afterward.
‘Then those displaced peasants will either colonize new land or move into the cities to work in factories.
‘And the landowners won’t be able to complain.
‘They’ll be the ones who expelled them.’
The key machine for accomplishing this was the mechanical reaper.
When people imagined modern agriculture, they often pictured enormous harvesting machines crossing fields and gathering huge quantities of crops in moments.
The details varied depending on the crop, but if agriculture were simplified into three stages—planting, tending, and harvesting—harvesting was usually the most labor-intensive.
‘Modern harvesters won’t appear until much later, but horse- or ox-drawn mechanical reapers are already beginning to be developed around this period.’
Of course, such machines required horses or oxen.
Mexico had possessed both animals for around three hundred years.
They were so widespread that even bandits used them, which was a problem in itself.
But at least the basic conditions necessary for mechanized agriculture already existed.
***
BOOM!
CRASH!
Eduardo and I had spent an entire year failing to build the rifling machine.
“Haa…”
The seventh prototype had broken too.
It couldn’t withstand the enormous pressure required to cut rifling into a gun barrel.
“Well…”
“This time, the pressure was too high.”
‘Maybe we underestimated the power of the steam engine.’
“Still, it’s better to fail because we have too much pressure than because we don’t have enough.
“At least now we know the steam engine can produce sufficient power.”
“Yes, we’re making progress, but…
“I’m spending a lot of your money.
“I never expected this project to require this much capital.”
“…Once we finish it, we’ll recover the investment many times over.
Don’t worry.”
Eduardo looked apologetic.
And honestly, he had reason to.
I had expected the project to require a considerable amount of money, but the expenses had far exceeded my original estimates.
The project became even more expensive after we used “improving military technology” as justification to obtain permission from the academy director and instructors to bring professional technicians into the school.
Originally, Eduardo and I had intended to develop the machine ourselves.
We quickly realized that was impossible without a specialist in metalworking.
Eduardo had some experience developing firearms from a young age, but he didn’t possess the skills required to construct a complicated machine.
And the workload was far too great for two people.
“Your Highness, I don’t think the machine can withstand the pressure unless we use British steel.”
The technician spoke cautiously.
“You’re right.
“We aren’t going to manufacture huge numbers of these machines anyway, so there’s no reason to cut corners on the material.”
“Yes.
If everything works as expected, only a few machines should be enough to manufacture one hundred rifles per day.”
Unless there was a war, the factory wouldn’t need to operate twenty-four hours a day. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Assuming two shifts and sixteen hours of daily production, we could manufacture approximately sixty-seven rifles per day.
That meant a single machine could produce around 2,010 rifles per month.
Five machines could produce roughly ten thousand rifles a month.
Even if we eventually built ten machines, that would be more than enough.
‘It hurts to admit it, but Mexico still doesn’t have sufficient steel-production capability.
‘We don’t have a choice.’
Emilio and I were already trying to improve the situation by hiring specialists, but catching up with British technology after Britain had accumulated decades of advantage was extremely difficult.
“If we solve the pressure problem, we’ll basically be finished, right?”
“…Don’t people say that saying things like that brings bad luck?”
“Oh!
Sorry!”
Even so, our goal was to complete the machine before graduation.
I was confident we could manage that much.
‘A rifle using the Eduardo bullet—or rather, something equivalent to the Lorenz bullet.’
Once the rifle was complete, it should outperform practically every infantry firearm until breech-loading rifles began appearing several years later.
With that expectation in mind, I enthusiastically began cleaning the wreckage scattered around the laboratory.
“Ugh!
This is ridiculously heavy!”
“Hehehe.”
As I picked up pieces of metal and rubbed my aching back, Eduardo started laughing.
“What are you laughing at, idiot?”
“It’s just… the image I had of the Crown Prince before meeting you is completely different from the one I have now.”
“Ugh… One day…”
I imagined a glorious future in which I would merely provide ideas and technicians would develop everything exactly according to my instructions.
I’d stand there with my arms folded, give them all the time and money they needed, and then complain afterward about why they hadn’t produced results yet.
“That’s the future I dream of.”
“What?”
“Ah, nothing.”
People who had actually done the work themselves understood better how to give orders.
All of this would become useful experience someday…
Right?
***
“Have you heard what everyone’s talking about?”
I was eating when Lorenzo approached me.
“What are you talking about?”
“California.
“Apparently, the stories about the gold were true.
They say a lot of people have returned carrying huge amounts of it.”
“Wow.
I didn’t expect that.”
A year earlier, Eduardo wasn’t the only one who doubted the rumors.
Almost nobody believed them.
“They say one man came back with a gold nugget as big as his fist.
“If I’d known, I would’ve gone too.”
‘What?
As big as his fist?
‘That sounds hard to believe.’
“Come on.
That has to be an exaggeration.”
“It wasn’t just one person.
“More than ten people have returned to Mexico City with gold, and now they’re recruiting others so they can go back better prepared.
“Everyone’s going crazy over California.”
A year earlier, I had deliberately begun spreading rumors of a California Gold Rush through my escort soldiers.
Unfortunately, the rumors hadn’t spread nearly as effectively as I expected.
‘That was a mistake.
‘If I’d paid the soldiers in gold and told them to show it off instead of paying them in pesos, things would’ve gone differently.’
Still, several soldiers who were friends with the men from my expedition became excited and decided to try their luck in California.
Most were young and unmarried.
Around a hundred of them gathered their courage, headed west…
…and found gold.
‘Most of the richest mining areas belong to me, but I allowed them to dig freely in the less profitable places and kept the best deposits for myself.’
Even with many people digging, they couldn’t extract much without proper equipment.
Some eventually returned to Mexico City.
Information this valuable should logically have been kept secret.
They got drunk.
They bragged.
Most listeners initially refused to believe them.
Then the miners pulled out glittering gold right in front of everyone.
At that point, disbelief became impossible.
‘Looks like it’s finally begun for real.’
“Still, do you really think that many people will be willing to travel all the way to California?
“Without horses, they’d have to walk for at least five months.”
I casually tested Lorenzo.
He apparently had heard quite a lot and answered confidently.
“I think more than a thousand people already want to leave immediately.
“My uncle joined one of the first groups heading to California, and there were already more than a hundred people in that group alone.
“There are several parties like that, not even counting the people thinking about going independently.”
“Hmm… Then yes, it’ll probably exceed a thousand.”
“They’re already calling it a ‘Gold Rush.’
“The news must be spreading to other cities too, so the number will only increase.”
Lorenzo was right.
Two months later, I received a five-line letter from Alfonso.
[Your Highness, this is Alfonso Ríos.
I wish to report that demand for freight and passenger transportation between Mexico City and California has increased rapidly.
To respond to this demand, we have opened a new transportation route between central Mexico and California in addition to the routes currently operating between major cities.
This is an extremely long route, and we have invested a large portion of the capital accumulated by the business so far.
However, given the projected demand, we expect to recover the investment within a relatively short period.
Alfonso Ríos.]
‘Still as concise as ever.’
I replied just as briefly, congratulating him on his excellent work.
News of the Gold Rush had reached even the military academy.
That alone showed me how strongly it was beginning to affect society.
‘In the original American Gold Rush, around 300,000 Americans participated over seven years.
‘Mexico probably won’t reach anything close to that number, but I wonder how many people will go.’
After Alfonso’s letter came reports from Emilio, who manufactured agricultural and mining tools, and Ramón, who produced durable work clothes and tents.
In short, their products were selling like crazy.
‘I should hear from Hernando in Sacramento and Isidro in San Francisco eventually.’
The harvest had begun.
***
With the rifling machine nearing completion, I started thinking about how to officially introduce the rifle and Eduardo bullet into the Mexican Army.
‘Should I simply ask Father to adopt them?
‘No.
That won’t be enough.’
If I asked, Father might agree to purchase a small number of weapons for my sake.
But my goal was to distribute them throughout the entire Mexican Army.
Even Father, despite being both Emperor and commander-in-chief, couldn’t reasonably make a decision that large as though indulging one of my whims.
I needed him to see with his own eyes how enormous the difference was between a rifle using Eduardo’s bullet and an ordinary flintlock musket.
‘The best approach would be a public demonstration.
‘Invite Father, senior officers, government officials, and members of Congress.
‘Then I’ll demonstrate the weapon myself.’
If the Crown Prince personally demonstrated a rifle he had helped improve while attending the military academy, it would be far more convincing.
‘Imagine it.
‘The Crown Prince firing a rifle he personally helped develop, hitting targets farther away and more accurately than any instructor, while reloading almost as quickly as a musket.
‘That would make an impression.’
There would still have to be formal testing after the demonstration.
But if the rifle passed, we could receive a massive order to supply weapons to the entire army.
‘And obviously, I’ll register the patents first.’
I intended to use my position as Crown Prince aggressively whenever it benefited the country—and my plans.
I wrote a letter to Father.
@.
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