Although Thiers's voice was not loud, it was tantamount to a thunderclap at this time, and when he heard him say such a sentence, the faces of many members of the Prussian delegation had changed. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

They were not ignorant of the French occupation of Schleswig-Holstein.

As he spoke, Thiers got up from his chair, took the papers in front of Bismarck, handed them to his secretary, and then turned and left the room with a cold expression. Fa Wu got up, sneered, and followed him out. Seeing the departure of the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary, the members of the French delegation also got up and left.

When Alfonso left, he pretended to look at Bismarck sitting there casually, Bismarck's face was blue at this time, although his body was straight, but his eyes were no longer as aggressive as just now, Alfonso saw a trace of panic in it.

Alfonso was the first to learn what Bismarck really thought. That night, Bismarck sent Colonel Bronsart von Schellendorf to Alfonso for information. Legend has it that King William himself was on the front line. When Bronsatt met with Alfonso, Bismarck was thinking about what to do. At less than half past six o'clock in the evening, the colonel returned, and a French officer who had followed him brought a letter from Alfonso to him expressing his willingness to "bring about peace between the two countries, but on the basis of Prussia's withdrawal from French territory." Bismarck dictated the reply in the name of the king, accepting it, but demanding the same assurances from the French side that the French army would also withdraw from Prussian territory.

Alfonso showed Bismarck's letter to Thiers and Fawu, who agreed, and the two sides resumed formal contact. This time Bismarck became much more sincere and pragmatic.

Bismarck renounced his territorial claims to France, but he insisted on not budging on the issue of reparations, saying that the Prussian army could withdraw from France, but that France would have to pay "retreat costs", and Bismarck stressed that he would never again suffer from the deep-seated suspicion and jealousy of the French in the future. Alfonso replied that only a magnanimous peace could last, but that the request of the Prussian Prime Minister did not give him any illusions. "One can count on the gratitude of a prince, but one cannot expect the gratitude of a people, and especially not from the French," he said bluntly. "We need land, fortresses and borders to defend ourselves from such encroachment."

The two sides talked until midnight when Bismarck and Long returned to their lodgings and slept for a few hours. By this time, King Wilhelm had received the news of the fall of Hamburg and was approaching from his base camp, about 25 kilometers from Cameron Manor.

The news of the fall of Hamburg sent a great shock to the whole of Prussia. When the Prussian officers and soldiers on the French front heard the news, their morale suddenly became low. They were so not because the war had left them without hope, but because they feared that their homeland and loved ones would be ravaged by the French.

From the beginning of the war to the present, the armies of both sides have set foot on each other's soil, and atrocities against the civilian population of the enemy country have also emerged. Paris and other French cities have stirred up a high sense of national pride, as it did in the Danton era. The war took another form. What had previously taken the form of individual attacks on the invaders was no longer a battle between two regular armies, which had become fierce by the measures of French resistance. The Prussians responded with severe punishment. Bismarck personally ordered the authorities to take drastic measures in the areas under their control: burn down the villages where the resistance fighters were hosted; Anyone suspected of shooting at the German army or carrying out sabotage was to be killed, young and old. Bismarck even wanted to send all the inhabitants of the areas where the resistance was carried out to Germany, where they were put in special barracks. In response to the atrocities of the Prussians, the French also used no inferior methods against the Prussians after setting foot on Prussian soil, but what was difficult for the conservative Prussians by nature to accept was what the "infidels" in the French army did to their children.

After the capture of Hamburg, the French Zuaf Corps maintained their usual style and did not commit any offence against women, but all the boys in Hamburg suffered from it. Hamburg Mayor Fresenger "in order to protect our boys", recruited hundreds of ** in Hamburg City and sent them to the French barracks, begging the Zuaf soldiers to spare the Prussian boys, but the Zuaf soldiers unceremoniously returned all the women who had been sent to comfort them. In view of the special hobby of the Zuaf soldiers, in order to maintain the discipline of the army, Guba ordered the Zuaf regiment to be stationed separately to reduce their aggression against the boys of Hamburg, which only caused further panic.

When the news reached King Wilhelm's ears, he also felt unable to sit still, and the panic of the Prussian officers and soldiers at the front who heard the news and feared that his son would be "contaminated" soon spread throughout the army. The fear of this was greater than the fear of Berlin being threatened by the French military.

Soon Wilhelm I arrived at the Cameron estate, and Thiers hurriedly dressed and met the Prussian king in a farmhouse beside the road. Unlike Bismarck's rudeness, the French prime minister behaved politely, but he adamantly disagreed with the meeting between the two monarchs. He told King William that the Emperor, many kilometers away from Chalon, had probably returned to Paris by now. "We sat for an ......hour in a ten-foot square room with a pine table and two chairs," Thiers wrote to his emperor the next day, "and Bismarck's attitude had changed, in stark contrast to the first time I met him." …… The conversation is tough, and it can be said that it is a polite but uncomfortable short conversation. An armistice was agreed between the parties, and King Wilhelm would leave the front and return to Berlin as "the first Prussians to withdraw from French territory." The next morning, when King William's carriage was still being driven through the estate by uniformed coachmen, Thiers and Fawu saluted him.

Thiers saw that his goal was close to being achieved. As King William's carriage headed into the distance, he said, "The war is over, and a new era has arrived." "It was perfectly fitting for King William to be treated with a chivalric manner. It would be unwise to humiliate a king who wields power and can call the shots.

The French Prime Minister believes that the war is almost over. He was now thinking about the most reasonable terms of peace. He was more of a pragmatic politician than an imperialist dreamer, and he did not want to be influenced by the prejudices of nationalists, liberals, chauvinists, socialists, or newspapers. Although they were talking about "destroying Prussia" or "turning the Elbe into France", it was enough for him to meet the minimum requirements that satisfied his monarchs and generals.

But it was he who kept the worst aspects of Bismarck's character exposed. In the negotiations that followed, the performance of the French prime minister was simply intimidating. Bismarck demanded a just peace in which the French and the Prussians lived in friendship and mutual understanding. The meeting dragged on, and after an hour and a half, Bismarck left in a rage. Thiers thought he was continuing to posturing, and Fawu said harshly: "Bismarck wants to influence us with the same way that the lawyers in Paris influence their audiences." "There was no doubt in the French delegation that Bismarck would return after consulting with his colleagues; There would be an armistice and a peace agreement, otherwise the French flag would have flown along the Elbe all the way to Berlin.

The French also played another trick to increase the pressure on Bismarck. Within forty-eight hours, the Government of Paris published a detailed report on all of Thiers' conversations with Bismarck. In this way, Europe understood the terms of peace proposed by Prussia. The tone of voice abroad changed, and the attitude towards Prussia became tougher.

The twin defeats of war and diplomacy led to a sharp rise in Prussian distrust of Bismarck. People regret that he often stays at Cameron Manor. Colonel Bronsatt wrote in his diary in a mocking tone, "It is a shame that such a politician has more influence than the king." Bismarck's old adversary, General Mandolfir, even said that Bismarck should go to an insane asylum.

This may be an exaggeration, but there is a little bit of truth to it. Bismarck had been overworked since the beginning of 1871, and he was disturbed not only by the situation at home, but also by the general situation in Europe. On April 6, Tsar Alexander II of Russia publicly declared that Russia considered the provisions of the 1856 Paris Agreement to maintain neutrality in the Black Sea region invalid. Bismarck's statement was understandable, but it took place at a time when it was not in Prussia's favor. The British reacted hostilely to Russia's contempt for a valid treaty. In addition, Bismarck was very concerned that the Franco-Prussian conflict could develop into a war between the European powers.

Bismarck was even more anxious to end the war with France. Bismarck's subordinates found him to be very irritable. As he did every time his nerves were overstimulated, he felt pain in his left leg and had to stay in the house all day.

After the capture of Hamburg by the French, patriotic sentiment rose throughout Germany, including the southern German states. For example, even in Bavaria, where independence was at its strongest, Ludwig II recognized that his state must participate in the unification of Germany, although he did not like the established North German Confederation.

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