"'I don't know what the point of such a report, full of false figures and pompous rhetoric, is. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info' Bismarck said, 'it's ridiculous! ’”

"'You think it's ridiculous?' Prime Minister Thiers laughed and said in the same mocking tone, 'I don't think it's ridiculous. What I want to say to you now is that we don't want to talk anymore, and we'd love to keep fighting! ’”

Prime Minister Thiers's voice was not loud, but at this time it was tantamount to a thunderclap, and the faces of many members of the Prussian delegation had changed when he heard him say such a sentence. They were not ignorant of the French occupation of Schleswig-Holstein. ”

Chancellor Thiers said, got up from his chair, took the papers in front of Bismarck, handed them to the secretary to put away, and then turned around and left the meeting 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 I left, I pretended to look at Bismarck sitting there casually, at this time Bismarck's face was pale, although his body was straight, but his eyes were no longer as aggressive as just now, and I saw a hint of panic in it."

"I was the first to know what Bismarck really thought. That night, Bismarck sent Bronsatt to ? Feng? Colonel Schellendorf went to me to find out what was going on. Legend has it that King William himself was on the front line. When Bronsatt met with me, Bismarck was thinking about what to do. At less than half past six o'clock in the evening, I sent a French officer to bring me a letter to him expressing my 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. ”

"I showed Bismarck's letter to Prime Minister Thiers and His Excellency Fawu, and the two gentlemen 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 'the cost of retreating', and Bismarck stressed that he would never again suffer from the deep-seated suspicion and jealousy of the French in the future. I replied that only a magnanimous peace could last, but the request of His Excellency the Prime Minister did not give me any illusions. 'One can count on the thanksgiving of a prince, but not on the gratitude of a people, and especially not on the French,' I said bluntly, 'we need land, forts, 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 capture of Hamburg by the French army 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 are so not because the war has left them with no hope, but because they fear that their homeland and their loved ones will be ravaged by the war. ”

"From the beginning of this war to the present, both armies have set foot on each other's soil, and atrocities against the civilian population of the enemy country have been endless. 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 Prussian 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 Prussia and put them in special barracks. In response to the Atrocities of the Prussians, the French army dealt with the Prussians in the same way as they set foot on Prussian soil, but what was difficult for the conservative Prussians by nature to accept was what the 'infidel' soldiers in the French army did to their children. ”

Hearing Alfonso say this, Lin Yiqing couldn't help laughing, "I've heard about it, I can't believe it's true." ”

He had long heard of the special "hobby" of the Algerian Zuaf Corps in the French army, and even reported on it in the most famous "Dianshizhai Pictorial" in Qianguo.

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. The city of Hamburg was in a panic when the city of Hamburg was in search of a "lover", and the mayor of Hamburg, Fersenger, "in order to protect our boys", recruited hundreds of girls in the city of Hamburg and sent them to the French barracks, begging the soldiers to spare the Prussian boys, but the 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 the ears of Wilhelm I, 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 was "contaminated" soon spread throughout the army. The Prussians were more worried about this than about the French military threat to Berlin, and peace talks were finally reached.

"Well, shortly after that, King Wilhelm I came to the Cameron estate, and Prime Minister Thiers hurriedly dressed and met the Prussian king in a farmhouse by the road. Unlike Bismarck's rudeness, Prime Minister Thiers behaved politely, but he adamantly disagreed with the meeting between the two monarchs. He told King William I 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 pomp chairs,' and Prime Minister Thiers wrote to His Majesty the Emperor the next day, '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 two sides, and King Wilhelm I would leave the front and return to Berlin as 'the first Prussians to withdraw from French territory'. The next morning, when King William I's carriage was still being driven through the estate by uniformed coachmen, Prime Minister Thiers and His Excellency Fawu saluted him. ”

"Prime Minister Thiers sees that his goal is close to being achieved. As King William I's carriage headed into the distance, he said: 'The war is over, and a new era has arrived. 'Treating King William I with a chivalric manner was perfectly in his liking. It would be unwise to humiliate a king who wields power and can call the shots. ”

"Prime Minister Thiers 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 a French river', 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, Prime Minister Thiers' performance was nothing short of 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. Prime Minister Thiers thought he was continuing to put on a show, and His Excellency Francouse said harshly: 'Bismarck wants to influence us with the same way that the lawyers in Paris influence their audience.' '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. ”

Chancellor Thiers also played another trick to increase the pressure on Bismarck. Within forty-eight hours, the Government of Paris published a detailed report on all the conversations between Prime Minister Thiers and 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 caused the Prussians' distrust of Bismarck to rise sharply. People regret that he often stays at Cameron Manor. I remember Colonel Bronsatt saying in a mocking tone, 'It is a shame that such a statesman has more influence than the king.' Bismarck's old adversary, General Mandolfir, even said that Bismarck should go to the insane asylum. Bismarck could not face such pressure, and in the end, peace was reached, which is known as the Treaty of Metz. ”

After listening to Alfonso's story, Lin Yiqing couldn't help but sigh, he couldn't imagine that this small manor was the termination point of the Franco-Prussian War; A testimony of a great history that has been transformed.

"I remember that after the peace agreement was reached, there were many people in France who were reluctant to continue the war, right?" Lin Yiqing asked again.

"Yes, you're not bad at all. At the end of the war, His Majesty Napoleon III held a grand triumphal ceremony in Paris, where His Majesty and Empress Eugenie, dressed in splendid military uniforms, rode in golden four-wheeled chariots and led 30,000 soldiers in Janissary uniforms along the Champs-Lysées and through the Arc de Triomphe, welcoming the cheers of their subjects along the way. The whole of Paris was in a festive mood, but there was a discordant episode that night: several socialists broke into the office of Prime Minister Thiers and tried to assassinate him, but were stopped in time by the security guards, who believed that Thiers had been too weak in the negotiation process with the Prussians, resulting in ' France had nothing to gain in this costly imperialist war for hegemony', and both the socialists and nationalists hoped that the war would continue, but Prime Minister Thiers ruthlessly shattered their hopes. ”

"It must be said that in this regard, the Prussians were much more rational than the French, and no one wanted a resumption of war. When Bismarck returned to Berlin with the armistice, the House of Representatives immediately met to approve it. Long and Wadsey - for this purpose - fully abide by the terms of the agreement and do nothing to provoke the emotions of the French people. The ceremony of the triumphal march of the Prussian army was canceled, except that King Wilhelm I received a cannon salute from the army as he passed through the streets of Berlin, which was certainly not a triumph. It is said that after the peace treaty was signed, perhaps in order to understand the attitude of the French towards the Prussians after the peace treaty was concluded, Bismarck made a quiet visit to Paris, walking the streets of the city like a traveler. Several young boys whistled mockingly, and one worker spoke ill of him, but this appeared to be directed at a Prussian, not specifically at the Prussian Prime Minister. Bismarck asked a passer-by to smoke his cigar, and the man took the cigarette from his mouth because he did not want to waste even a match for a Prussian. This was Bismarck's last visit to Paris. The next day, Bismarck crossed the border and returned to Prussia by train, never to set foot on French soil again. ”

"He didn't win this war, which can be said to be the biggest regret of his life." Lin Yiqing thought of Bismarck in his original historical time and space, "He believed in his own ability too much, thinking that he could do everything, but he didn't expect that this time he would make a big mistake and almost lose all his previous victories." ”

"Yes." Alfonso nodded in agreement, "I don't know if he's still like that." ”

"I spoke to him this time, and he is still worried about the possible retaliation of France against Germany after this war, and actively wants to establish an alliance between the three great powers of Germany, Austria and Russia to confront France." Lin Yiqing pretended to inadvertently reveal the news to Alfonso, "I don't know how he went." ”

Listening to Lin Yiqing's words, Alfonso couldn't help but be secretly frightened.

"If he had succeeded, France would have been isolated on the European continent." Alfonso said worriedly, indicating that he was indeed a French citizen and not just a Rothschild, "Alas, in fact, the Imperial Government bears some responsibility for this situation. ”

"That's true." Lin Yiqing nodded, of course he understood Alfonso's euphemistic accusations against Napoleon III before the Franco-Prussian War.

Contrary to the impression of the general population, France and Prussia were not only not feuds, but also world friends. In the first two centuries, in order to deal with the great siege of France by the Austrian Habsburgs on the ********, the French Bourbons consistently supported the middle states of the German Holy Roman Empire represented by Prussia and Bavaria to resist the Habsburgs' attempts to fully control the empire and then control the hegemony of the European continent. Franco-Prussian relations began with the gradual strengthening of Prussia in the last century, and began to actively participate in the competition between European powers. However, during this period, France and Prussia sometimes split and merged, and the contradictions between the two countries were normal wars between European dynasties. The transition between hostility and alliance is very natural and graceful, and both sides are able to reconcile grievances and grievances between the two countries regardless of past suspicions.

The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars unleashed the enormous power of France, Napoleon I became almost the absolute master of all of Europe, and Prussia was so weakened that it was on the verge of extinction. Prussia, ravaged during the Napoleonic Wars, was an unforgettable oppression of Napoleon I. This horrific memory gave birth to German nationalism and made the traditionally conservative Prussia the hope of German nationalists and a chess player in the movement for German unity. German nationalism was both a rebellion against and an imitation of French revolutionary universalism. This imitation reached its zenith when Bismarck, a generation of diplomatic genius, became Prime Minister of Prussia. Under the leadership of the realist statesman Bismarck, this ambitious militarist nation smelted nationalism and nationalism together, faked the skin of freedom and democracy, practiced the reality of centralization, and took advantage of the chaotic policy pursued by Napoleon III, who regarded himself as the protector of European national self-determination, to profit from the chaos, and step by step turned the impossible task of German reunification into reality.

Although the Congress of Vienna treated defeated France leniently, the Vienna system, based on the principles of orthodoxy and equilibrium, bound France's hands and feet, and the glory of Napoleon's First Empire was gone. The French Revolution and the European Revolution shook the Vienna system, but failed to bring it to an end. When Napoleon III came to power in France, his primary diplomatic goal was to weaken the two enemies, Russia and Austria, and to free France from the Vienna system. What he did not anticipate was that while his country was given freedom of action, it was also given freedom of action to his diplomatic opponents. On the basis of superficial threats, people generally only notice the high-flying challengers, but ignore the sinister and cunning snoopers. The same is true of the state, as Napoleon III saw Russia and Austria as the greatest rivals for continental supremacy, but never expected that Prussia would one day pose a mortal threat to France. (To be continued.) )