Since we have a newspaper as a weapon of public opinion, the next most important step is to create a popular personality for ourselves.
If a personality is well created, the public can assume that he is on the majority side without Carlo taking any action.
As a member of the royal family, a friendly and people-loving character is also destined to be popular.
The public certainly does not want the royal family above them to be high and mighty, which is why the monarchs headed by the British king in later generations always look friendly and loving.
Whether it is shown to the Italian people or the European people, stereotyped conservative ideas are destined to be unpopular.
Although there are a large number of conservatives in monarchical countries, for Italy and Spain, where Carlo wants to go, the reformists are what the public really wants to see.
However, although Carlo wants to establish the impression of a reformist, he will never make any comments on Italy's reforms.
Reform is reform, who will lead this reform is the real important issue. Supporting and optimistic about reform is the weapon in Carlo's hand, but if he really points fingers at the reform, it will not be worth the loss.
No government will like a king who points fingers at the country everywhere. If Carlo wants to become the king of Spain, he must first understand how to be a mascot and not point fingers everywhere.
On February 21, 1866, the Italian 24 Hours Sun published an article written by Carlo, "We want bread, macaroni and milk", which successfully fired the first shot to establish the impression of caring for the people.
In this completely chicken soup article, Carlo mentioned the importance of the Italian grassroots people, especially the farmers in southern Italy many times.
And he also concluded in the article: Whether in Italy or Europe, the people's demands are not complicated, it's nothing more than having enough food and clothing.
If the government can focus more on the grassroots people, perhaps the people's lives will be happier.
The whole article does not make any great sense, and even portrays Carlo as a prince who has nothing to do and is full of love.
Although many people at the bottom of society have a good impression of Carlo because of this report, government officials are dismissive of it.
Take care of the lives of the people at the bottom? It sounds so good, but the government still pays for it?
Let's not talk about how much fiscal budget is needed to improve the lives of all the people at the bottom of Italy. Wouldn't it be better to invest this money in places where Italy needs it more, such as military construction and industrial development?
As for those civilians at the bottom of society, it is already very good to ensure that they do not starve to death. Who among the nobles has the heart to care whether the civilians are full and warm?
Because Carlo really has no one to use, this report only has a certain influence near Milan, and it has not even spread to Florence.
But for Carlo's plan, the first step has been successfully taken. Regardless of the ideas of the government and the nobles, the first thing to do now is to make the people believe that Carlo is a prince who cares about the people at the bottom and even has a lot of love.
Such a role will never be hated by the people. After all, the vast majority of a country's population are lower-class people, which cannot be changed by any political system or ideology.
It's a pity that Carlo is too young now, and many arrangements cannot be carried out smoothly. It will take a lot of time and energy to complete Italy's traditional aristocratic elite education.
Although he is only a prince, the succession to the throne ranks third, which is basically impossible.
But Vittorio Emanuele II is still very concerned about Carlo's education and training. As the youngest son of Vittorio Emanuele II, Carlo undoubtedly receives the most love and attention from his father.
This year, Carlo is close to 15 years old and has basically completed the early elite aristocratic education.
According to Vittorio Emanuele II's plan for Carlo's training, Carlo has two choices. One is to choose management and economic majors for in-depth study, so as to properly handle his land and property in the future.
The other choice is to go to the military academy to become a glorious Italian officer and dedicate himself to the royal family and the country.
For Carlo, who had a plan in mind, the most suitable choice is of course to go to the military academy to study and cultivate his military ability.
More importantly, he may be able to meet some officers who are not famous but have good military ability in the military academy and accumulate his own network of contacts.
It is a pity that Carlo is not the first heir to the throne, that is, the crown prince. Otherwise, he can completely rely on the identity of the crown prince to form a palace guard and cultivate his own armed forces from scratch.
Although the unified Italy has the qualifications to compete with the great powers, Italy's foundation is still too weak at this time, even in terms of military academies.
There is no Italian presence in the world's top ten famous military academies in later generations. Even now, there are actually not many military academies worth choosing in Italy.
The most reliable military academy choice at present is the Turin Military Academy, located in the former capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia.
This military academy is located in Turin, the base camp of the Savoy family, and is an important academy for the Kingdom of Sardinia to train military backbones.
Vittorio Emanuele II was supportive of Carlo's idea of going to the military academy.
This is very common in Western monarchies. For the kings of these monarchies, the people they can trust most are the royal family members and nobles.
The Royal Military Academy of Turin is mainly responsible for the training of infantry and artillery officers, and the Royal Military Academy of Milan is responsible for the training of cavalry officers.
This is also the reason why Carlo directly chose the Royal Military Academy of Turin. After all, first of all, Carlo does not need to charge into battle himself, and secondly, the cavalry will be eliminated in the next few decades. The terrain of Spain and Italy is not suitable for large-scale cavalry charges.
In fact, compared with the instructors of the Royal Military Academy of Turin, Carlo admires a legendary Italian name more, one of the three great contributors to the unification of Italy, and the hero of two worlds—Giuseppe Garibaldi.
If we simply discuss military capabilities, Garibaldi is definitely the best military commander in the entire Italy in modern times.
Even later historians only mentioned three outstanding contributors in their description of the entire Italian unification event, the so-called three heroes of Italy's founding.
"Italy's unification is attributed to Mazzini's ideas, Garibaldi's sword and Cavour's diplomacy."
From this passage, it is enough to see how excellent Garibaldi's military talent is.
But unfortunately, among the three heroes of Italy's founding, only Prime Minister Cavour was from the faction of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Mazzini, who created the idea of Italian unification, was a thorough republican and an enemy of the monarchy.
Although Garibaldi, whom Carlo admired very much, did not clearly oppose the monarchy, he had repeatedly surrendered to the republican system and was not trusted by the monarchy.
Although Garibaldi was extremely selfless in the process of Italian unification, even if he obtained the entire territory of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, he resolutely handed it over to the rule of the Kingdom of Sardinia.
However, Garibaldi's high prestige in the army and his history of serving the Republic still prevented him from entering the upper echelons of the new Italy.