IBTCPOTME Novel - Chapter 166
## Chapter 166
< Secularization (3) >
“···If you really are going to do this, the most important thing to be wary of is not the army, but the Military Intelligence Agency.”
It was Antonio, the landowner, who spoke.
Persuading him wasn’t difficult.
Just as Archbishop Bayesteros felt unease, so did the landowners.
They weren’t fools either. They had been watching the Crown Prince’s actions for a long time and had a rough idea of his character and behavior patterns.
The landowners were gripped by the anxiety that after the church’s limbs were severed, they would be next.
‘The Imperial Family’s power is already too strong, and if the church is gone too···.’
They would lose all means of resistance. That fear made them join a plan that seemed reckless.
Bishop Bayesteros was surprised by Antonio’s response.
“What do you mean?”
“Yes. I will join. However, it would be better to be more careful in the future when we try to win people over. The moment it gets to the ears of the Intelligence Agency, it’s all over.”
“Thank you. The Lord’s grace will be with us.”
In the central government, the landowner faction supported by the landowners had no power at all, but in the real world, the landowners’ influence was not just that.
At least in central Mexico, it wasn’t difficult for the church and the landowners to join forces and take over the whole region.
“First, I’ll gather the landowners who might be willing to join, so you can leave this area to me. The more regions participate, the higher the probability of success, so I hope you can win over as many as possible.”
“Yes, I will try my best. It will be easier to persuade them if they know that other landowners in other regions have joined.”
The Imperial Family had been nothing short of an enemy to him for a long time.
Antonio was one of the more conservative landowners. He had once been grouped with the landowner faction and the Imperial faction as conservatives, but in reality, the Imperial faction wasn’t conservative at all. In some ways, the Imperial faction, or rather the Crown Prince, was more progressive than the republicans.
He had always dreamed of opposing the Imperial Family, and based on those dreams, he advised Archbishop Bayesteros.
“Don’t even try to contact the landowners in the northern territories, and in the central region, don’t even try in the capital, Morelia, or the Las Truchas region. The information will leak out immediately.”
The northern territories were developed by the current emperor since he was a teenager. The landowners’ influence is very limited, and self-employed farmers are the majority, so they shouldn’t even try there.
The most important thing he thought they should be wary of was information leaks.
The central army, which the Imperial Family tightly controlled, was certainly a formidable opponent, but if the central regions of Mexico rose up together and even received support from the British Empire and the Austrian Empire, he thought they had a good chance of winning.
The problem was that getting there was so difficult.
Not all landowners had the courage to participate in such a dangerous rebellion. Most of them were sympathetic to the rebels, but they wouldn’t actually join. That’s fine.
The bigger problem was that as soon as they were asked to join the cause, there would inevitably be people who would sell information to the Imperial Family for profit.
‘That tendency is even stronger in areas where the Imperial Family’s influence is strong.’
If information leaks, they could be finished before they even start the rebellion. Even if they cut off the tail, neighboring landowners would be scared and wouldn’t move.
Antonio’s family, one of the most prominent landowners in Mexico, joined, and the plan began to gain momentum.
***
Alejandro, a priest in the Guanajuato diocese, was overcome with a strange feeling. He kept feeling like someone was following him.
At first, he thought it was just paranoia, but his intuition turned out to be right.
He had deliberately taken several detours, but the presence he felt behind him didn’t disappear.
At that moment, a dark figure coming towards him suddenly spoke to Alejandro.
“Father, I’m Ignacio.”
Alejandro, who had been walking with his attention focused only on the back, was startled, but his face brightened when he saw a familiar face.
Ignacio was a priest he had been connected with for a long time.
“Hmm? Father Ignacio, what brings you here?”
It was strange that he had come all the way here, leaving his own diocese. Since they had known each other for a long time, it wasn’t difficult to persuade him.
‘Could he have changed his mind?’
Father Ignacio, who had come closer, whispered softly.
“It seems like you have a tail, Father.”
“A tail?”
“Recently, attempts to extract information from key parishioners have been detected. It’s exactly since the day you visited our church.”
“···Is that true?”
Military Intelligence agents were really watching his every move.
‘Could they have already assigned an agent to me?’
According to Father Ignacio, who followed him, the agents investigated the people he met and tried to extract information about their conversations. They seemed determined to find out Alejandro’s real purpose for traveling around the region by any means necessary.
They were assigning agents to a priest, not even an archbishop or a bishop. Father Alejandro shuddered. There was only one archbishop, the head of the entire Mexican Catholic Church, and just over 100 bishops who governed each diocese, but what about ordinary priests? There were thousands of priests in the Mexican Empire.
“···It seems like the Military Intelligence Agency I’ve only heard about. If they’re sending people to me, their scale must be bigger than I imagined.”
“That’s···. After all, didn’t everyone gasp at the enormous budget?”
Alejandro was overwhelmed with anxiety. If his plot to incite a rebellion was discovered, not only would the entire plan be in vain, but his life would be in danger.
‘I have to shake them off somehow. If I don’t, I’m in big trouble···.’
However, the Military Intelligence agents were professionals, and they didn’t seem to back down easily. Alejandro became increasingly anxious. As Father Alejandro was racking his brains, Father Ignacio spoke.
“Father, how about we try this?”
“Oh, what method?”
“First, you need to disguise yourself. And instead of the train station, take a stagecoach from a secluded place. I will prepare the stagecoach.”
The age of trains had arrived, and things weren’t the same as before, but the Mexican Empire was vast, and trains didn’t reach every village. Stagecoach companies, including Rios Express, were still actively doing business.
Alejandro’s eyes sparkled when he heard Father Ignacio’s suggestion.
“An excellent suggestion. That way, we can escape their surveillance.”
“Yes, the stagecoach will bypass the main roads and take a detour through the countryside. It will take a little longer to get to Mexico City, but it will be safe.”
Alejandro nodded, letting out a sigh of relief. He immediately began preparing to disguise himself. He took off his priestly robes and changed into the clothes of a commoner. He pulled his hat down low and put on a fake beard to cover his face.
‘This should do it. They won’t recognize me.’
He smiled slightly, satisfied with his appearance. He left through the back door of his lodging and got into the stagecoach that Ignacio had prepared.
“Please take me to Mexico City. You must not take the main road.”
“Understood.”
The stagecoach used the stagecoach service of Rios Express, which had an overwhelming market share of number one.
The whip cracked in the air. The stagecoach turned onto a country road and moved forward. Alejandro began to relax, leaning back in the seat, letting his body be tossed around by the rattling carriage.
‘Whew···. Now I can finally relax.’
He leaned back in his seat and looked out the window. Golden wheat fields and green forests passed by. As he traveled along the quiet country road, he felt his mind becoming peaceful.
‘If I can just reach Mexico City safely without any incidents···.’
Just as he was thinking that, he noticed suspicious figures. Several men on horseback were approaching the stagecoach. Their hats and clothes were ominous.
‘Could it be···. Military Intelligence agents?!’
Cold sweat ran down Alejandro’s spine. He had disguised himself and taken a country road, but they had apparently tracked him down.
“Damn it! How did they find me? Coachman, please speed up!···What? Why are you?”
Alejandro’s head spun for a moment.
The coachman, upon being asked to speed up, slowed down instead. Only then did Father Alejandro realize.
The Military Intelligence Agency’s surveillance was more thorough than he had imagined. There was no way agents from an organization specializing in this kind of information warfare would fall for a simple priest’s trick.
The sound of the Military Intelligence agents’ horses’ hooves was getting closer. There was no way out now. Alejandro gritted his teeth and prayed to God.
“Lord, please protect me. Give me strength in this time of crisis, and deliver me from the clutches of the oppressor···”
***
“I’ve gone to great lengths to preserve the status of the church, but in the end, they’re rebelling.”
I sighed.
The Military Intelligence Agency had detected signs of a rebellion.
In my opinion, it was like trying to crack a rock with an egg, but there are always crazy people in the world who actually do it.
“How foolish. If they had just accepted it, I would have covered up all their past sins···.”
The statement that the legal privileges of clergy were abolished implied that I wouldn’t ask about their past sins.
Clergy had long enjoyed the privilege of clergy (Fuero eclesiástico), which allowed them to be tried by the church, not by secular courts, under canon law, and naturally, that church trial was very favorable to the clergy.
If I wanted to, I could have abolished the privilege altogether. It was just a custom that had been passed down for hundreds of years, like the peon system, not an explicit privilege established by law. I could have brought out all the sins they had committed under that privilege and thoroughly punished the clergy, but I didn’t. I had been very lenient from my point of view.
“They are not worthy of your grace.”
Diego said.
“Yeah. If they insist on drinking the punishment, then they should.”
At my cold words, Ricardo, the head of the Military Intelligence Agency, answered.
“We will thoroughly crush them, Your Highness.”
“I believe you.”
The Intelligence Agency was investigating mainly the clergy who were showing unusual movements and those who met with them. The clergy showed very standardized behavior patterns, so it was not a difficult task.
I didn’t want things to turn out this way, but I need to use this opportunity to eliminate the clergy, landowners, and officers who revealed their intentions to me.
“As you instructed, we are already contacting moderate clergy and starting to warn and persuade them. We will report in detail as soon as we achieve results, Your Highness.”
“Yes.”
Just because Archbishop Bayesteros of the Mexican Archdiocese had decided to oppose the emperor, it didn’t mean that all clergy would follow suit.
Just as not all conservative landowners were participating in the rebellion, clergy could have different opinions depending on their diocese and even their church within the diocese.
It’s true that the Mexican Catholic Church has many corrupt corners, but there are also many priests who live exemplary priestly lives.
In the first place, not all of the thousands of priests in Mexico could own large farms and live in mansions with peons.
‘Maybe if they were bishops.’
Numerically, there are more exemplary priests than corrupt priests. They will continue to protect the faith of our Mexican Empire.
The time has come to move into a new era.