Not long ago, the Entente countries were full of confidence in Germany's armistice surrender and war reparations, especially France, which once arrogantly rejected the German representative's choice between "peace talks" and "surrender". The Allies and the Allies reached a preliminary understanding at the Hanseasa Palace on the truce, and set the official date for the armistice at 24 o'clock on Christmas Eve in 1918, not to be announced to the world, and the details of the discussion were set for January 18, 1918, at the Bellevue Palace in Berlin, Germany. The date of the ceasefire between the two sides coincided with the predictions of many soldiers who wanted to return home and reunite with their families on Christmas Eve, but this Christmas did not seem to be the same Christmas as it had been.

On January 2, 1919, the representatives of the Entente countries rushed to Germany again from various countries to meet at Bellevue Palace in Dublin to discuss the details of the armistice. This is the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Erik? Adrian agreed with other countries a few years ago on the place of peace talks, although Bellevue Palace is the official residence of the President of Germany, but the German President does not actually live here, for the sake of safety, a separate suite is arranged in the Hanseasa Palace.

Just after Christmas, the representatives of the Austro-Hungarian Empire hurried to Berlin and repeatedly demanded an audience with German President Erik? Adrian, but Adrian understood their greedy intentions and kept avoidance, and was told by the Cabinet that Mr. President was very busy at this time. However, these representatives of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were obviously some difficult masters, and by various means, they were always entangled, and in every possible way, they had no choice but to find time to meet with them.

In the proposal issued by the representative of Austria-Hungary, Max? Likhnowski saw only a greedy and arrogant swan, who seemed to be basking in the joy of victory, without considering what the German Confederation had paid for it. Max would love to give these guys a resounding slap in the face and tell them to stop dreaming, that no one is a winner in the war so far, and it's time to wake up. However, Max's kind words and persuasions did not work well, and the Austro-Hungarian delegates finally tore off their faces, threatened the Organizing Committee of the peace talks, and claimed that they would not participate in the peace talks if the territories of Italy and Serbia were not annexed to Austria-Hungary.

Max was very calm: "Wait, distinguished delegates, Germany has always regarded Austria-Hungary as a friend and brother, and there are a wide range of similar opinions and common interests in many international fields, if Austria-Hungary is willing to voluntarily give up this peace dividend, Germany will have no choice but to express deep regret." ”

The representative of Austria-Hungary knew that the prince of the former empire was speaking very seriously, but he was really reluctant to give up the immediate benefits: "No, no, no, Your Excellency Chief of Staff, you know, we have paid for the precious lives of the crown prince and the crown prince's wife, and there has been an agreement between Germany and Austria-Hungary, and this war, we have won, and this agreement should come into force." ”

Maxton couldn't help but laugh: "Honorable delegates, I think you should understand that the United States, Britain, France and other countries, and of course the Italians and Serbs you mentioned, they are not big fools, and the end of the war is just a fluke, do you understand?" The United States and Great Britain were not wounded by fate, and as long as they were willing to go to another world war, the place of negotiations could not have been decided by the Germans and the Austro-Hungarians, perhaps to London, or even Washington, or somewhere else in the world, certainly not Berlin. ”

The Austro-Hungarian representative still refused to back down: "Your Excellency, Honorable Chief of Staff, you should understand that the outcome of the war was not envisaged, but the reality is that we won, so we should be respected by the vanquished, and of course, as a partner, it is time for Germany to fulfill the agreement." ”

Hearing this, Max was very angry in his heart, but under the premise of international exchanges, he could only endure it: "I hope that Mr. Representative will not mention the matter of the agreement between the two countries again, this is the time of the German Confederation, and it is no longer the original imperial era." Eric? President Adrian has great respect for your country's claims of cooperation, but will not recognize any contracts with other countries signed during the Imperial period, including the agreement you mentioned. In view of the current situation, Germany, and of course your Austro-Hungarian Empire, did not pay war reparations, which is a blessing in misfortune, so why not take advantage of the situation and add to the blockage of this hard-won peace talks? ”

Max was reluctant to pay attention to the crazy words of these Austro-Hungarian representatives, and he was forced to deal with them patiently by courtesy.

Coincidentally, the Soviet Union, which had already made peace with Germany alone, also sent a representative to Germany to express its willingness to participate in the peace talks, but was strongly opposed by Britain, the United States, France, and other countries. The Soviet delegates knew that Stresemann had made due efforts, and although they did not get this ticket, they blamed Britain, France, and the United States for the question of whether or not they could participate in the Berlin peace talks, considering that the interests of the Soviet Union had also been compensated somewhat during the period of separate peace.

The delegates of various countries who came to participate in the peace talks were highly courteous to the German government, and the temporary rest areas for accommodation, catering and meeting time were all arranged in an orderly manner, and Adrian even took into account the different diets and preferences of various nationalities, so that the reception department made a lot of adjustments to make the delegates of various countries feel as comfortable as possible and improve their work efficiency. The Prime Minister took the lead, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs carried out the implementation, and the President's Chief of Staff intervened behind the scenes, making this peace talks more likely.

In order to make the peace talks more productive, Prime Minister Stresemann was busy with every detail, attending almost every meeting.

The peace talks are divided into four stages, the first stage is held at the main venue, clarifying all the agendas and purposes of the peace talks; In the second stage, the Allies and the Entente discussed separately, and each country came up with a reasonable proposal, which was submitted to the United States, Britain, France, Germany and other countries for approval. The third agenda was for the delegates to return to the main hall to declare the rights and obligations of the countries in the aftermath of the war; The fourth agenda is to issue a joint communiqué to the world and meet with journalists from all over the world;

On January 18, 1919, the Berlin Peace Conference was held on time at Bellevue Palace, and representatives of all 27 participating countries were absent. The reason why the peace talks were started by US President Wilson was that Stresemann asked Eric about the reason, and President Eric only smiled and did not answer, seemingly enjoying it, but refused to say why. The political structure of the United States determines that the president will inevitably be a figure who is in the limelight, and the convenience given to the president of the United States will bring convenience to himself in the near future.

At the substantive stage of the peace talks, they were divided into two areas, and the staff of the conference preparatory group brought the representatives of various countries to their respective conference rooms for discussion. The German delegation met with the representatives of Great Britain, the United States and France in a very private and small meeting. The choice of the meeting of the four heads of state to be held in a small and quiet conference room in Bellevue Palace was decided by Prime Minister Stresemann and Adrian after prior consultation. The representative of the United Kingdom is the Prime Minister Lloyd? George, President Wilson of the United States, Chancellor Clemenceau of France, and Chancellor Stresemann of Germany.

At the conference, the 27 countries also expressed their own principled positions and the distribution of interests, and to a certain extent met their respective demands, basically achieving great happiness for all. However, Germany did not return the prisoners of Britain, the United States, France, and other countries, and for this reason, there was another war of words between the representatives of the four countries, but the German side was unmoved and did not back down in the slightest. There is only one reason, that is, the markets of the countries that originally belonged to Germany have basically been lost, there are few colonies left, and the war has paid a great price, and Germany has not received the corresponding dividends.

Britain, the United States, and France were quite unhappy with this, but they did nothing but put the other agreements that had been reached into writing, declared a formal truce, and issued a joint proclamation to the world, while the matter of the prisoner settlement was put on hold for the time being, and the two countries used bilateral relations to further negotiate in the future.

The British and American soldiers were treated differently under the "care" of the German army, and the British soldiers were sent to Bruges to be served with good food and drink, and received sincere gifts from the local Belgians. The captured American troops set up temporary camps near the battlefield on the German-French border, and participated in the labor of restoring the local ecology every day. The French soldiers were in the worst condition, and after being forced to disarm, the French soldiers were scattered and imprisoned, huddled in small tents to escape the cold wind, and most of the time had to work in the mines under the supervision of the German army.

The first war that affected the whole world finally came to an end, and Germany turned the tide of the world with its last strength, changed the fate of the surrender reparations, and won the understanding of all countries in the world. President Eric knew very well that this did not mean that Germany would be able to defeat Britain and the United States, and that Germany's victory would be at best a final dying struggle. In this world war, Germany was not the victor, but it was not a defeated country either, and that was what President Eric wanted most.