When Qin Zhiyuan led the Foreign Legion to dig trenches in the Xupu River, the leaders of the Entente were meeting in Paris.

The first meeting lasted four days, and the focus of the contradiction was on the front for which Britain and France were responsible, and Petain demanded that the British not concentrate their forces in Flanders, which was now a swamp and from which it was impossible for the Germans to attack. Pétain thought that the British line should be extended south, at least as far as Noyon, so that the French might have 10 more divisions in reserve.

The British were dissatisfied with Petain's proposal, and they objected to the arrangement of the Foreign Legion led by Qin Zhiyuan in Reims, because it had now become a sad place for the Germans, and it was unlikely that the Germans would attack in Reims.

The British believed that the French should place the Foreign Legion at the junction of the British and French armies.

Both the British and the French have a point, but they are both from their own point of view and do not have the slightest sense of the big picture.

Foch tried to reconcile with this, but to no avail, as Foch had no jurisdiction over the British army.

The course of the meeting was spent every day in a wrangling, and the four days not only did not produce any resolutions, but instead stimulated more questions.

The trouble comes from the Americans.

During the meeting, US President Wilson put forward the "14 basic principles" for getting along in international relations.

In some texts, Wilson called for the restoration of Belgian independence, the return of Alsace and Lorraine occupied by the Germans to France, and the return of the territories occupied by Austria-Hungary in Italy.

These provisions sound good, at least Belgium, France, and Italy agree.

At the same time, however, Wilson's "Fourteen Fundamental Principles" also contained views on national autonomy.

Wilson proposed: self-determination of all peoples, an open covenant, and an open signature.

As we all know, before the world war, almost all the allies and agreements in the world were born in secret, and no one except the countries concerned knew whether one or two countries had signed secret treaties and what the specific provisions were.

To a certain extent, this will cause some countries to miscalculate, such as Italy, if they knew the relationship between the British and Belgium, and also the relationship between France and Belgium, Italy would not necessarily choose Germany at the beginning of the war.

In that case, the Germans, who felt that they were alone, would not necessarily start a world war, and perhaps the start of the world war would be greatly delayed.

"Open covenant and open signature" has also been recognized by many countries, and only some countries have made a salty and nonchapersonal comment, such as Japan.

During the world war, with the help of the fact that the European powers were too busy with the world war to look eastward, Japan had already seized as many interests as possible from China through a series of secret treaties, and if these secret treaties were made public, there would be a question mark over whether the interests of the Japanese could be guaranteed.

After all, compared to the whole world, the 400 million people in the Republic of China are too many, and no one wants to be squeezed out of the Republic of China market.

Finally, there is the "self-determination of peoples", which has aroused strong opposition from almost all countries in the world.

The so-called "national self-determination" is an amplified version of the "open door policy" advocated by the Americans.

The situation in the United States is similar to that of the Germans, who are obsessed with developing the economy and increasing productivity, but when they produce enough products for their own consumption and need to find an external market, they find that the world has been carved up and their products are not marketable.

You know, at this time, the colonial system of the whole world was determined by Britain and France, in order to better control the colonies, Britain and France implemented a single colonial economy, so all the materials needed by the colonies needed to be allocated by the suzerain, which gave the suzerains the opportunity to dump their own industrial products.

Wilson's proposal for national self-determination was tantamount to letting the colonial people decide their own destiny, which was absolutely unacceptable to the British and French, and they even openly expressed their dissatisfaction with the United States, because although the American troops arrived in Paris, they had not entered the war until now, and the Americans did not have enough say.

At least, the United States does not have as much say as Wilson thinks.

As a member of a vested interest group, Qin Zhiyuan also expressed a clear opposition to "national self-determination".

The layout of Chinese immigration has not yet been completed, and Qin Zhiyuan does not want to support "national self-determination" yet.

What's more, from the position of France, Qin Zhiyuan should also be consistent with the French government.

More importantly, Qin Zhiyuan could not make the French wary of Corsica because of Wilson's boldness.

Wilson was indeed bold, and he had barely communicated with anyone, not even Raymond Poengaré and Lloyd George, before he published this "Fourteen Fundamental Principles," and this behavior was no different from the act of Karl I who had made peace with France last year, leaving Wilhelm II alone.

Well, these two people are indeed enough for two.

While Paris was arguing, Berlin was also quarrelling.

The negotiations between the Germans and the Russians had reached the stage of execution, the Russians' withdrawal from the world war was irreversible, and the only thing to bargain about was on what terms the Germans would allow the Russians to withdraw from the war.

In mid-February, Ludendorff proposed at the second meeting of the Kaiser's House of Secrets that not only should Estonia, Finland, and Ukraine be separated from Russia, but that Germany should continue its eastward advance and directly overthrow the Bolshevik regime.

Wilhelm II was even more radical, proposing that the territory that had belonged to the Romanov dynasty should be divided into four parts: Russia proper, which had been partially ceded, Ukraine, Siberia, and the Southeastern Commonwealth.

Perhaps Wilhelm II wanted to divide Russia so that it didn't look that big.

But Wilhelm II probably did not realize that even if Russia were divided into four parts, each Russia would still look much larger than Germany.

In response to the whimsical whims of Wilhelm II and Ludendorff, the newly promoted major generals, perhaps Germany's smartest general, Max Hoffmann, Foreign Minister Kurmann, and Chancellor Hertling, were not only powerless to fight, but even unable to complain.

In March, the Brest-Litovsk Peace Agreement was signed, and Trotsky, then People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, did not attend the signing ceremony, because this so-called Peace Agreement was a humiliation to Russia and there would be no peace at all.

The agreement stipulates that Russia will abandon Courland, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Livonia, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus.

These places were not directly ceded to Germany, but were ruled by a puppet regime installed by Germany.

According to the terms of the Entente, Russia lost 55 million people, which is equivalent to one-third of the population of the original Russian Empire, hundreds of thousands of square miles of land, one-third of the railways and farmland, and half of the industry.

At the same time, Russia also agreed to disband the remaining soldiers immediately.

The Russian delegation rejected the agreement, even if it would have been implemented even if they did not sign it, and they refused to sign it, without even looking at the text of the contract.

They know exactly what it means to them once they sign this agreement. There is no need to talk about the political future, and if they dare to sign, I am afraid that they will face trial when they return.

Wilhelm II and Ludendorff really went too far, they threw away the good traditions that had been handed down since the time of Bismarck, and if the Russians knew that the Germans of today were so greedy, they would fight to the end.

Bismarck had defeated Austria-Hungary in the 19th century, but Bismarck did not plunder any territory of Austria-Hungary in order not to create more resentment against the already humiliated Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This contract, for now, is not in anyone's favor.

Russia has indeed lost a large part of its territory, but at the same time, Russia has finally emerged from the world war, and it can focus all its efforts on eliminating the opposition parties in the country and developing its own strength.

For the Germans, those seemingly vast territories could not generate any benefits, but instead took advantage of Germany's already tight funds and military forces because they wanted to maintain power.

In Ukraine, for example, 400,000 German soldiers and 250,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers are stationed here, and they do nothing but consume 30 trains a day to deliver supplies.

And all the regions combined, a total of 1.5 million German troops were involved.

The Germans finally got the colony of their dreams, but it was no longer of any use, because Germany could not produce anything domestically, and they could not even guarantee the needs of their own people, let alone dump them on the colonies.

It is a fact that cannot be ignored that through this war, the aforementioned regions have finally been separated from Russia, and it seems that the countries of Ukraine should be grateful to the Germans, because it was Germany that forced Russia to give up its direct rule over them.

Because of the losses in last year's battle, the Germans had some difficulties in deploying their forces, and Ludendorff originally planned to attack in mid-March, but it was not until the end of March that the troops were fully deployed.

At the beginning of March, Ludendorff's headquarters was still in Belgium, and in mid-March, Ludendorff's headquarters had moved forward to France, and on March 20, with the artillery units in place, the Germans changed the telegraph code.

It seemed that the Germans were ready for war, but in reality the infantry units were not yet in place at this time, and Ludendorff had to continue to wait.

On 25 March, Haig's intelligence service provided him with the latest information, in which it was written: There are many clear indications that the enemy will attack the front lines of the Third and Fifth Armies, with the aim of cutting the Cambrai salient and drawing out all our reserves.

This information was correct, but because Lloyd George had just replaced Haig's intelligence head, Haig was reluctant to believe it.

So Haig sent a reconnaissance plane and came to the conclusion that the Germans showed no signs of massing forces at Cambrai and Babom.

From the sky, it is true that the German army is not moving, because the Germans chose to march at night in order to expose the combat objectives.

Just as Haig came to his conclusions, 47 German divisions were massing in the direction of Cambrai, and it would only take a few days for them to move into place.

Specific to Reims, there is no sign of large-scale mobilization of the German army opposite Qin Zhiyuan, which may indicate that Reims is not the direction of the German army's attack, but no one can be sure.

After all, there were nearly 400,000 Germans opposite Qin Zhiyuan.

(To be continued.) )

PS: Thanks to the "sekisushi" brothers' two monthly passes for encouragement...... Thanks to the helmsman of the "Chengjiao 110" brothers, try to add more yards and more today......