The end of this war came sooner than Weiss had imagined. Just over three months after his return to Lorraine from the Norman Empire, news of a Norman demand for an armistice came from the front. In the previous phase, the Union army was in danger of devastation on the Norman front, but as they advanced into the central and northern parts of the Norman Empire, resistance increased dramatically. Although many of the industrial facilities of the Normans have been bombed, the production capacity of the capital area and the west still retains a certain degree of integrity, and the Norman army has not yet suffered a catastrophic blow in any war, their vitality is still there, and the spiritual pillar has not completely collapsed, coupled with the "guerrilla warfare" of the Norman army and civilians, the Union army still has a long way to go to end the war by force.

Against this background, the Normans took the initiative to call for an armistice, and it was natural to think that this was probably another Norman conspiracy. However, it didn't take long for the two sides to sit down and negotiate in the small town of Poli in the Norman Empire, and the one who came to negotiate the armistice with the Confederation on behalf of the Norman Empire was the "One-Eyed Louis" who withdrew from the active service of the Norman army before the outbreak of the war - this person was the younger brother of Emperor Hohenstaufen IV, who served as the chief of the general staff of the Imperial Armed Forces, and was a very prestigious figure in the upper echelons of the Empire and the army.

During the negotiations, news spread back to the federal territory. As an important support base on the Western Front, the news that came to Lorraine was usually timely and accurate. Through military sources, Weiss learned that the reason why the Normans abandoned their long-planned counterattack strategy and sued for peace with the Confederation in advance was because of another upheaval at the top of the Empire. However, most people, including Weiss, guessed the wrong direction - Prince Baras, who held military power, did not take advantage of the war to become the ruler of the empire, but Prince Albert, who had always appeared to be frail and sickly, "went to war" against his close allies in the position of regent. Overnight, the general staff of the Norman army was turned upside down, and many of the army's high-ranking generals, led by Barras, were secretly imprisoned on charges of waging war against the will of the empire and the people!

As the negotiator of the Norman Empire, "One-Eyed Louis" showed convincing sincerity in the face of the deep doubts of the federal side, and even accepted the harsh demand of the federal side to extradite war criminals and try them through an international joint tribunal. Of course, someone came out to carry the pot of war, and what was left to Crown Prince Albert was naturally a hat that loved peace in his heart and reluctantly agreed to the war plan under the coercion of the military. The message from the "One-Eyed Louis" was that the young crown prince had to deal with the belligerent military in the years when the old Emperor Hoffen-Staufen IV was unable to perform his duties – and this explanation seemed plausible – how could they not be satisfied that the Normans had agreed to change the centuries-old military system more thoroughly than any form of occupation and punishment of war, which had not intended to be permanently occupied by the Norman Empire.

As a result, after agreeing on a series of armistice terms, the two sides quickly signed an armistice agreement in the small town of Poli. Just one day later, millions of Norman troops ceased hostilities with Union forces on a thousand-mile front.

Because of the profound lessons learned, the Union army set strict conditions for the armistice this time, and strictly enforced them after the armistice took effect. The Norman army retreated to the designated standby area as promised, and the large combat forces of the Union army stopped advancing, and only a few supervision groups and supervisors were stationed in the command structure of the Norman army, and each of their units and even large and medium-sized combat ships were closely monitored.

Next, there is the transfer of war criminals, which has attracted great attention from the outside world. The Normans escorted more than 200 high-ranking generals and staff officers led by Barras to the small city of Poli, where the Union army received these special suspects of war criminals, and then escorted them to Fries, which is located between the Norman Empire, the Kingdom of Wessex and the Confederation, in this nominally neutral zone, selected the ancient fortress of Mira as a place of detention for war criminals, and jointly formed a war tribunal to investigate and try these Norman soldiers for war crimes - this is bound to be an extremely long process. In the process, the Norman army disbanded the huge army in batches in accordance with the armistice agreement, and the weapons were transported to the designated location for mothballing.

While the Norman army was drastically reduced in size, the federal forces that had entered the Norman Empire were gradually withdrawn to the Confederation mainland and demobilized. With the end of the war, it was the task of Weiss and the Lorrainians to rebuild and revitalize the socio-economic order that had been destroyed by the war. Back then, when Lorraine first started his business, Lorraine still had some family background, and in this war, hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides launched multiple rounds of fighting in Lorraine, coupled with the fierce bombing of the Federal Air Force in the later part of the war, Lorraine was almost poor after the war. Fortunately, unlike the previous war, which was completely self-reorganized, this time, the Confederation demanded war reparations from the Norman Empire. Although the final amount of compensation agreed by the two sides was much smaller than the figure proposed by the federal side, it was real money after all. The Lorraine government's fiscal revenue was almost zero, so as soon as the first war reparations were in place, the administrative agency led by Weiss formulated a detailed plan for its use: first, to rebuild medical and educational institutions, restore energy and transportation facilities, and provide the most basic livelihood security for the people returning to their homes; The second is the resumption of industrial production, including mineral extraction, metal smelting, and machinery manufacturing.

The last time Lorraine industry took off, thanks to the Lorraine Industrialists Alliance led by Weiss used various economic means to help industrial construction, financial leverage played a magical role, this time, he did not put the old methods in the most important position, but relied on the appeal of the local chief executive and the enthusiasm of the people to rebuild their homes after the war, and took a planned economic route. This may seem like a step backwards, but in the context of limited start-up capital and no shortage of labor and technical personnel, this planned economy has played a more prominent role at a given time, and has brought more considerable social benefits. According to the plan, in just one year, more than 80% of the transport facilities that had been interrupted by the war could be restored, and the entire industrial system of Lorraine could be rearranged on the basis of existing experience.

In the context of the special era of the entire federation in the post-war reconstruction period, the people of Lorraine will restore transportation as quickly as possible, give priority to the establishment of labor-intensive mines and relatively low-tech basic smelting enterprises, and take advantage of the opportunity of reconstruction to introduce more efficient machinery and equipment, and sell a steady stream of various metal products to other regions. Under the active leadership of the Lorraine canton government and the Lorraine Industrialists Union, the Lorrainians exchanged the metal and chemical materials needed for reconstruction in various parts of the country for ready-made machinery and equipment, concentrated them in the central and eastern regions, where water transport was easily accessible, and established a new Lorraine industrial area north of Mason.

After comprehensive and meticulous consideration, the people of Lorraine once again chose their favorite internal combustion engine power as the core technology of large-scale industry, and then extended the related automobile industry, aviation industry and agriculture, forestry, industrial and mining equipment manufacturing industry, forming a planned and hierarchical layout. In addition to metal smelting and mechanical engineering, they also made efforts to enter the radio communication industry. Although this was a technical gap for them, they were able to take advantage of the post-war reconstruction to introduce production facilities that represented the most advanced technology of the time, and to establish a number of technical research institutes based on the initial results of higher education in Lorraine, which developed rapidly with the support of the cantonal government.

The socio-economic and industrial reconstruction of Lorraine is in full swing, and news from the Fries that the pre-trial investigation and evidence collection have basically ended, and that the war crimes against the Norman officer corps are about to enter the public trial stage. Previously, the Lorraine government had been working with investigators to flesh out evidence against the Normans for various war crimes committed during the occupation of Lorraine, and at this time, Weiss received a letter of invitation from the War Tribunal, a special tribunal composed of many judges, who wanted him to testify against the Norman soldiers for crimes committed during the war.

What reason did he have to refuse such an invitation?

Upon arriving at Fries, Weiss learned that the preparations for the trial had been sufficient, and that no matter how the Normans argued, it would be impossible to clear their name for their war crimes, and the only suspense lay in the final sentencing.

Before the trial began, Weiss was given a chance to visit the Mira Fortress. In general, the life of imprisonment here is not comparable to the graceful and luxurious aristocratic life of the past, but it is still better than that of ordinary civilians who have been poisoned by war. Of course, the commoners are free, but they can only move around in this small fortress, and they only have a few opportunities to see their relatives and friends throughout the year.

When Weiss saw Prince Barras again, he was not as decadent as he had imagined, nor had he lost his mind, on the contrary, his bright eyes were surprisingly calm and thorough. Weiss did not salute him, but greeted him like an old acquaintance, and teased, "This is not the wonderful world you envisioned. ”

"I've thought about all the possibilities, but it's just the worst, so it's acceptable." Bara replied abruptly.

"Years of calculations have come to naught...... If you knew today, why bother in the first place? ”

"If I had just been myself, I would have been very comfortable now, but that ant-like life is not what I want. I, Balas, am either high above and above or ridiculed as I am today. In any case, I will not regret it, I gave everything for my dream and worked hard enough. I am who I am, the one that no one can copy me, I failed only because someone was more cunning than me, showing all his weaknesses in front of others, and covering up the longest place, so, he won, just like our military strategy, always used to hitting others by surprise, but in the end they were caught off guard by others. He's the winner, and I'm the scapegoat, that's the reality. Ballas was in a good mood.

"From our standpoint, we don't care which of you is the winner and who is the loser, what we care about is that you can never wage war against us again. Judging from the current results, it is clear that your brother's assumption of power is more conducive to world peace than that of you, a dangerous person. Weiss showed no mercy.

Ballas didn't look angry at all, but laughed. After laughing, he said with a gesture of contempt: "Yes, that's right. In order to secure his throne, he actually destroyed the proud wealth of the Norman Empire, which was an unparalleled wealth that had been consolidated and accumulated for generations. It is ridiculous that he tried to eliminate him with a coup d'état! There is something called inertia, but everything has inertia, and countries are no exception, and history is no exception! ”

Weiss was a little surprised to hear the so-called theory of historical inertia coming out of the mouth of Prince Barras. In the 21st century, some scholars attribute a series of historical events to the will of the state and historical inertia, and Weiss feels that this is a very philosophical and realistic theory. It was very convincing for those feudal dynasties, especially in political, financial, and military terms.

"As you wish, the armistice 'castrated' the Norman Empire and dismantled the military system. In this way, within a hundred years, the Norman Empire no longer had the ability to wage war, and even defense was difficult. Have you not seriously considered the feelings of millions of Normans, who would willingly accept the peace you have imposed? Will they willingly accept the rule of a cowardly monarch? Will they be willing to abandon the confidence and glory of the Norman Empire, which has been self-assured, resilient and powerful for centuries? The will of the people is the inertia of history. Barras said proudly.

"No, you're wrong, the people's hearts don't understand it that way!" Weiss corrected justly, "What the real will of the people, what the real needs are, you rulers who are high above may never really understand." The strength of the country and the prosperity of the country can certainly make them feel proud and proud, but if the country is strong, it will not bring about the improvement of life, and even make the people hungry all the time, such a strength is falsely strong. Once the people have insight into the truth, they will not hesitate to spit on this false prosperity. The victory on the battlefield admired by you, the military strongmen, is based on the bloody sacrifice of countless young people and the hardships of life in wartime. If we want to talk about inertia, at best, it is you who have vested interests, and it is you who intend to rely on military exploits to gain status and wealth that are unwilling to see the current change, and the thousands of Normans living at the bottom of society would rather the country no longer conquer foreign countries, but also live a stable and healthy life. ”

After hearing Weiss's words, Barras's expression did not change too significantly, but he calmed down and thought for a while, and sneered: "Okay! The Lorrainians were originally the rats we despised the most, only hiding in the snowy forest, but, summing up the losses of these two wars, we have to admit that the Lorrainians were one of the most inconspicuous but troublesome stumbling blocks on our way to victory. Lorraine has never been the deciding factor, but if I had to do it again, I would give you enough attention. ”

After saying this, which was considered a compliment, he laughed grimly: "Your Excellency the Governor of Lorraine, we may make a bet that I firmly believe that historical inertia will oust that poor creature from the throne, and historical inertia will allow me to return to my country and sit on the throne with the cheers of the multitude, and after that, whether it will take 10 years, 20 years, or 50 years, I will definitely bring it back to the top." ”

Weiss didn't make a bet with him, because it seemed to him to be a pointless gamble, and if that were the case, he would rather risk the world and slay the demons who could provoke war at any time before returning to the Norman Empire.