January 12, 1912.
In Seville, Andalusia, formerly Spain, Locos, a government employee dispatched by Portugal, walked on Philip Street.
Seville, now the capital of the provinces of Andalusia and Seville, is about 120 kilometers south of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Cadiz, with a mild climate and superior natural geographical conditions.
Seville was previously the ancient capital of the Moors and the center of industry, commerce, and culture in the southwest of the Imbilia Peninsula. After regaining its lost territory, although its status was reduced a lot, it was still a central city in the south.
Seville is a small city with a population of about 200,000, but at this scale, it was originally the fourth largest city in Spain and the largest city in the southern region. What is even more special is that Seville also has the largest city in Spain. The largest inland port.
In such an important place, the Castilians will certainly manage their business carefully, so they naturally occupy an advantageous position here, with a large proportion of the population.
Philip Street was the most prosperous area in Seville before. In the past, there were a large number of Spanish export merchants who wholesaled goods from all over the street. Trade merchants who needed Spanish goods could often buy their own goods here. Favorite goods.
Philip Street, which was once prosperous, is now deserted, and there are fewer people on the street.
The reason for this is actually very simple. In fact, after the Spanish-Portuguese War began, many sensitive businessmen left here.
After the signing of the Lisbon Peace Treaty, most of the shops here were marked for sale.
Now most of the Castilian merchants will not come back. Some of them have moved to the province of Madrid, and some to the other two coastal provinces of Spain, Cantabria and Murcia.
These three places are undoubtedly the most promising for businessmen.
Lokos was walking on the street when he saw a familiar face and came up to say hello. "Hey Conrod, how many residents have you recruited who are willing to return to Castile?"
This young man named Conrod has a delicate appearance, white clothes, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, and a Castilian armband on his arm.
Conrod was a local government employee in Castile and was responsible for encouraging local residents to move to Castilian territory.
The population of Castile was not large to begin with, but with the number of casualties from the defeat in the Spanish-Portuguese War, plus the losses from the ceded territory, their personnel losses have now been huge. If they can mobilize just one person to go back, they will make a profit.
It was a coincidence that Conrod met Lokos, a staff member of the Portuguese government. The reason had to be mentioned in the previous situation in Seville.
When Seville was under Portuguese military control, the local security conditions were pretty good, because people knew that the Portuguese army would not argue with you, and if you were found to be committing a crime, you would be dealt with severely.
In the early days of military occupation, some oppressed Lusitalians took the opportunity to take revenge. Naturally, they were directly and decisively suppressed by the Portuguese army.
During the period of military control, order in Seville was stable, but later after Portugal deployed government officials to manage it, the army also withdrew.
Faced with these new officials who were unfamiliar with their place of origin and the relaxation of conditions, some phenomena that had previously been suppressed by the military tended to emerge again, and Conrod was one such victim.
He was robbed when he returned to his place, but luckily he met Lokos.
Lokos found the nearby Portuguese police, rescued Conrod, who was stripped and tied up in his underwear, and got his clothes and finances back for him.
Because of the life-saving grace, the two started chatting, and the more they chatted, the more they became more and more congenial, and then they gradually became a pair of good friends.
After Conrod saw Lokos greeting him, he said in a sad tone: "We have almost mobilized all the residents we can mobilize, and you have contributed to this."
Lokos certainly knew what Conrod was feeling sad about.
The Portuguese policy is obviously to expel all Castilians, and now they have even gone a step further and begun to target Andalusians who have some relationship with Castilian.
"Does this mean you are going to move to the next place to mobilize?"
Conrod continued to answer. “Some people will move to the next place, but some people will remain to continue mobilizing, and the target of mobilization will also be moved. We plan to try it in rural areas.
But I was left to see if there were any residents in Seville who could be mobilized. "
"This is great news and I wish you success."
Facing Lokos's blessing, Conrod sighed.
"Thank you. If it weren't for this damn war, we wouldn't know each other. But we Castilians suffered heavy losses this time, and other peoples also completely broke up with us.
I don't know now whether I should be grateful for this war or curse it. "
"Then let's not talk about this war, let's talk about other things."
Lokos continued to ask about the rumors he had heard. "I heard that you expelled the Basques and Aragonese from your jurisdiction in the north. Do you know that?"
Faced with Lokos' inquiry, Conrod whispered to him. "From what our team leader said, it seems like this. The royal government was afraid that Navarre and Aragon would cause trouble in the future, so it began to expel the Basques and Aragonese in Castile.
The Basques and Aragonese have always been dissatisfied with us Castile. Now that they have turned over, they will definitely find trouble with us in the future. "
After hearing Conrod's words, Lokos couldn't tell him the accurate information he had received.
In fact, Castile has expelled more than 300,000 Aragonese and Basques from its territory, and the space freed up will be used to accommodate these returning people, if nothing else.
Of course, Rocks would not tell these specific details. Rocks knew that his friend was quite patriotic.
If he hadn't saved him, he probably wouldn't have a good look on himself, a Portuguese.
"Then you are busy first. My boss has something to do with me right now. We will talk some other time."
Conrod saw that he had something to do and it was hard to stop him. "Okay goodbye, Lokos, we'll talk next time when we have time."
Lokos moved on. He was actually the secretary of Anchorage, the mayor of the Seville area, and came here with the arrangements of the government.
When Anchorage was the mayor of Faro in the Algarve, Rocks was his secretary. After Anchorage was transferred to the Seville area, he was also transferred and continued to serve as secretary.
Therefore, compared to the information that Conrod has no access to, Rocks is close to the water and naturally knows more than him.
