For the German Weimar government in the early 20s, the greatest difficulty they faced was undoubtedly the payment of reparations to the Entente camp. Even under the mediation of Britain and the United States based on their own interests, Germany still needs to pay more than 40 times the amount of 132 billion gold marks in compensation than it did before the war, and such a heavy financial burden is simply not something that Germany can bear. After reluctantly paying two years in accordance with the treaty, the last vestige of the German economy was lost under the frenzied squeezing of the Entente powers; Whether it is fiscal transfers or in-kind debt payments, this has caused the German economy to slide all the way to the abyss of a vicious circle of collapse.

In October 1922, Germany, which could not afford to repay the contract, sent a note to the Entente countries requesting an extension of payment of this year's reparations. At this time, Britain's attitude had changed from that of the first meeting six months earlier: with the rapprochement between Germany and the Soviet Union, Britain felt that it was necessary to appropriately loosen the harsh stranglehold on Germany, so as to pull the latter back into the larger camp of the capitalist world. Moreover, the over-weakening of Germany was also inconsistent with Britain's traditional continental policy. As for Germany's request for a postponement of reparations this time, Britain was unexpectedly "reasonable"; They advocated reducing the total amount of reparations to DM 50 billion and delaying the payment for four years.

However, this resolution was strongly opposed by France and Belgium. The two countries most devastated by the German war machine did not want to compromise with each other at all, and still demanded that Germany pay the reparations in full and on time. On January 2, 1923, France pointed out in a memorandum that the Compensation Commission required Germany to deliver 13.86 million tons of coal to France and Belgium between January ~ November 1922, but Germany only delivered 11.7 million tons, thus declaring that Germany had not fully fulfilled its obligation to deliver coal.

On 11 January, France and Belgium each sent a note to the German Government in the same text: "In view of the fact that Germany has not delivered timber and coal on time, it has been decided to send a committee of technical experts into the Ruhr area to supervise the production of the enterprises concerned and to ensure that Germany fulfils its obligation to pay reparations." The so-called "Technical Expert Committee" of France and Belgium was in fact a heavily armed intervention force of 100,000 men, which crossed the undefended east bank of the Rhine and stormed the entire Ruhr region of Germany. The calculations of France and Belgium are very clear, since the Germans pretend to be poor and refuse to dig into their homes, then they will take matters into their own hands and snatch back everything they deserve!

In the face of the fierce Franco-Belgian coalition army, the German government had no room for frontal resistance: their army was only 100,000 under the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles, and there was no core equipment such as heavy artillery and tanks.

After being removed from its claws and teeth, Germany had no choice but to strongly condemn in the newspapers and in public opinion the "unjust use of force by France against an unarmed and undefended country" and on the other hand to pursue a strategy of passive resistance. The Berlin government called on all German citizens in the Ruhr area to refuse any cooperation with the invading Franco-Belgian bandits, and the workers went on a general strike and the enterprises were shut down, and the resulting losses were compensated by the government. In addition, the German government also announced the cessation of all reparations due to the capture of the Ruhr. France and Belgium, which have the advantage of force, are also uncompromising: they impose forced military control in the Ruhr occupation zone, taking over all mines, enterprises, and railways; All Germans who participated in the passive resistance, including their families, were severely punished, imprisoned, fined, deported, and even executed. For a time, the Ruhr crisis escalated rapidly, and the world's attention was focused on this small and unvast industrial area.

Because the movement of this turmoil was so great, even Fang Yan, who was under the protection of the school's greenhouse, deeply felt this imminent heavy depression in the nervous attitude of the teachers and students around him. There were fears that the crisis might trigger a new round of war between Germany and France, fearing that the outbreak of war would plunge Germany into the abyss of hell from which it would never recover. The streets were filled with demonstrators and protesters, and vicious curses against France and Belgium were endless. Soon, however, ordinary Germans were almost no longer concerned about the future of their country, because a devastating inflation had swept away all their wealth as the Ruhr crisis unfolded.

The Ruhr region is Germany's most important industrial centre, producing more than 80% of Germany's annual coal and steel. The French occupation of the region was tantamount to severing the arteries of the German economy, depriving the German economy, which was already overwhelmed by huge reparations, of its last pillar. The German government's strategy of passive resistance also cost it a lot of money in supporting Ruhr workers and businesses, and accelerated the collapse of its own economy. After that, the amount of marks that could be exchanged for 1 dollar began to soar at a rocketing speed, and reached an unprecedented and terrifying situation that had never been seen before, and most likely, never before.

On the day of the occupation of the Ruhr in January 1923, the mark fell by 18,000 to 1 against the dollar, a year earlier it was 400:1. Although the German people have been accustomed to the suffering and plunder of inflation since 1914, when the world war broke out, there has never been a time when it has been so violent and ferocious that it has repeatedly crossed the boundaries of what they can accept. Every day, prices in the market are setting new records for jaw-dropping prices, and the shockingly high prices make every consumer grit their teeth but discourage. A veteran employee who has worked in the postal system for more than 30 years handed over to his wife 40,000 marks of his life savings, so that she could buy whatever she could in the market, as long as she spent all the money; However, his simple wife, who was born in agriculture, was reluctant to exchange her husband's decades of hardships for a few shabby coats, and always imagined that prices would drop one day and delayed it. After just over two months, the money could not buy even a piece of chewing gum, and the husband, who learned of the situation, slapped his beloved wife for the first time in despair and grief.

Fang Yan, who was in school, also felt the catastrophic impact of this hyperinflation. A large number of teachers and classmates began to be unable to afford to eat the simple lunch in the cafeteria, which had been severely reduced from last year, and the inferior black bread and hunger as hard as iron became their best friends, and every time Fang Yan used the banknotes of his entire wallet to buy a full meal with meat, he could deeply feel the strong envious eyes of the people around him looking at him.

A touch of bright new green, stubbornly emerging from the steep and cold wind; Flowers bloomed, ice melted, and spring of 1923 soon descended over the ancient land of Central Europe. However, for the German people living on this land, there is no warmth in the slightest that belongs to this season of hope.

In the Ruhr region to the west, as tensions and crises continued, and the whole of Germany was shrouded in the shadow of war, Anglo-American mediation did not make France and Belgium give up their voracious thirst for reparations. The German people living in the Ruhr region had to face the brutal whips and rifle butts of the invaders every day, and within three months hundreds of brave resisters who refused to cooperate had been publicly executed by the Franco-Belgian bandits. Their passive resistance paid off fruit, and apart from the equipment of the Franco-Belgian army, not a single machine was turning in the entire Ruhr; The bandits' original plan to loot large quantities of industrial goods in Germany was declared to have failed, and they had no choice but to load tens of thousands of tons of coal and timber into trucks and pack them, and punish the German people in the occupied areas with more severe punishment.

And outside the Ruhr in Germany, hyperinflation is completely out of control like a wild horse on the loose. On March 1, the mark's value against the dollar fell by 160,000:1, and by April 1 it had fallen by 1 million to 1, and when Fang Yan's 15th birthday was in the middle of summer on June 1, children could already be seen playing with bundles of brand-new banknotes as building blocks. No one is interested in these delicately printed "pieces of paper", thousands of which can't afford to buy a single deseeded corn cob. In fact, the current mark is no different from waste paper, and the Bundesbank has launched a new currency for the seventh time in half a year, the largest of which is impressively followed by a long list of 8 zeros. Even so, at the current rate of inflation at which prices are doubling every two days, these "100 million" banknotes will soon become worthless garbage!

With the Weimar government's printing press running at full speed, the life savings of the middle and working classes, who make up more than 70 percent of the country's population, were wiped out. And what was destroyed was something even more important: the trust of the German people in the economic structure of German society. Is it worth trusting the standards and behaviour of a German society that has historically tried to encourage savings and investment, and has solemnly guaranteed that such savings and investments will be rewarded in a foolproof manner? Isn't this a big hoax laid against the people? The bankrupt and hungry Germans, in their anguish and despair, made the republic, which had surrendered to the Allies, a scapegoat for all their sins; And the so-called "Jewish bankers" who shook the handle of the "meat grinder of wealth" were hated by the Germans in abject poverty, and the triggers for the next world war were now all gathered.