The full moon hangs high, spreading a cold and soft glow throughout every inch of Berlin. The tinkling of trams, the flashing of neon, and the bustling crowds of people weaving through the shop-lined streets give it a unique Western European feel.

Inside the palace, a middle-aged man dressed in a single shirt stood on the broad dome at the top of the main hall with his hands in his hands, staring at the prosperous night scene looming in the distance, stunned. After a while, a handsome young man with a long figure walked slowly beside him; At first glance, there is hardly any correlation between their faces.

He ...... Have you returned to the arms of God? After a while, the middle-aged man suddenly spoke quietly.

The young man hummed softly and said, "Three hours ago, the palace received news from Hamburg that he had passed away at the age of 83 in his estate. The four founding fathers who followed the Holy Emperor are now dead. William's body moved slightly, and he turned his head slowly, and the expression on his ordinary face was flat, without sorrow or joy, and he seemed to be completely indifferent to the matter; However, the deep sadness in the depths of his eyes revealed his true feelings in front of Qingying. William exhaled a turbid breath and said, "When he left, did he have any last words?" ”

"His last wish was that he be buried in the estate of Friedrichslu, and that no state funeral of any kind be held for him." Qingying looked at the cheap dad in front of him who single-handedly caused that person to resign, and said softly, "That's fine." Compared with holding a large-scale state funeral for him, letting him leave quietly and quietly not only met his last wishes, but also fulfilled his father's wishes. ”

William glanced at Qingying, but did not refute it, and acquiesced in Qingying's words. He sighed softly and said, "Ettel, my father is sad, can you understand my current feelings?" Qingying nodded slightly and did not speak, although he could not peek into William's scheming, but as a time-traveler who had received a lot of knowledge from later generations, he could also understand a little bit of William's complicated feelings for Bismarck.

For nearly 30 years, since Bismarck became Prussian Chancellor in 1862, he was the true navigator of the Prussian and German ship. Before he came to power, Prussia had developed, but the international situation was always extremely unfavorable for Prussia: the scattered German states either turned to France and Austria, or stubbornly maintained neutrality, and fought against Prussia led by Wilhelm I; As a second-rate country in Europe, Prussia has always struggled to support it in the gap between France, Russia and Austria.

After Bismarck became Prime Minister of Prussia, the form changed dramatically. In domestic affairs, he implemented a series of regulations and decrees to eliminate the scabies, so that the relations of production were more adapted to the productive forces, so that the whole country could advance rapidly on the road of benign development; Diplomatically, with his scheming, wise and cunning diplomatic skills, he was able to maneuver between Britain, France, Austria and Russia, and was always able to secure the best external situation when Prussia was about to take action. At the same time, Long's reform of the army, Moltke's command of the Chinese army, and the command of the blood prince Frederick Carr to fight the front line made Bismarck's domestic and foreign achievements unprecedented. After three wars against Denmark, Austria and France, Germany finally ushered in the reunification after hundreds of years of partition; When Wilhelm I was crowned emperor in the Hall of Mirrors of Versailles, Bismarck, as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, was like the rising sun in the sky, shining in the world!

If only this was the case, because Bismarck was not the only founding father of Wilhelm I, Long, who sharpened the sword, and Moltke, who used the sword correctly, were the core souls of Bismarck in Germany that could be compared to Bismarck in terms of politics and prestige. However, after the reunification of Germany, the focus of work shifted from foreign wars to domestic affairs and foreign games, and both Moltke and Long lost most of their usefulness, and these two were Bismarck's unique expertise. In the nearly 20 years that followed, Bismarck used his superb diplomatic art to complete the isolation and encirclement of his long-cherished enemy France, and the economy, industry, and technology also advanced by leaps and bounds during this period; Under the advantages of the other, his reputation has reached an unprecedented peak. Previously, when Wilhelm I was alive, the Qin Shi Huang of the German Empire could still guarantee the absolute authority of the emperor; However, in 1888, at the age of 29, Wilhelm II succeeded to the throne after the death of his grandfather, and the relationship between the monarch and the courtiers in Germany changed dramatically.

At this time, Bismarck had been in charge of the dynasty for 26 years. Out of loyalty to Wilhelm I and the importance he attached to the cause of the empire, he eagerly hoped that the new young monarch would be able to carry the burden of the empire with the wisdom and prowess of Frederick the Great; As a talented and meritorious minister, out of absolute confidence in his own ability and his veteran qualifications to hold power for decades, he has always maintained an elder-style education and control over young William, which is exactly William's taboo. After ascending to the throne, Wilhelm was the supreme emperor and monarch of the whole of Germany; Neither Bismarck's prestige and power over the king, nor his firm stubbornness and admonishment when he and William disagreed on various matters, were unbearable for the young and arrogant William. In order to gain supreme power and prove his talent and worth to the world, it was almost inevitable that William would break with the old prime minister. Therefore, after putting up with this old guy for nearly 2 years, Wilhelm finally couldn't bear it anymore, and after putting a series of high hats on Bismarck, he "requested" him to submit his resignation on the grounds that he was too old to let him continue to work hard, and threw the old prime minister out of the center of power.

This time, Bismarck, who had fought all his life for the empire, died suddenly, and when he saw the sadness in William's eyes, Qingying also guessed a little about William's thoughts. The fundamental reason for the rupture between Wilhelm and Bismarck was the struggle for power and the political differences between the two; From a personal point of view, the two do not have a deep hatred to speak of. Because Wilhelm was determined to be the emperor candidate after Frederick III early, in order to let the empire last for a long time and let the great cause of the Hohenzollern family flourish, the young imperial grandson Wilhelm must have had a lot of intersection and friendship with the old prime minister Bismarck. When one of them is gone, and the threat to the other's political power has been cleared, the remaining one will have the energy to reminisce about the past they have walked; And this is the only time when those truly qualified politicians who have been through the storm for a long time can show their true feelings.

William said softly: "Twenty years ago, I had a very good relationship with him. At that time, the Holy Emperor was in the court, his father was healthy, and the development speed of the whole of Germany was not much lower than today; As the first heir to the throne after my father and studying at the University of Bonn, the whole empire has high expectations of me, and he is no exception. No matter how heavy the work was, he would always spare 1 to 2 hours a day to appear in my room after I returned to the palace after completing my schoolwork, and educate and guide me in various fields in a half-professor-half-discussion manner, enriching my insights and broadening my thinking. At that time, I also admired and admired him very much, and when I saw him come to give me some guidance in person, I was even more overjoyed and studied with all my might. When we talk about communication in the depths, we often lose track of time, and only when the bell rings in the early hours of the morning in the Berlin Palace, we suddenly wake up and say goodbye with a smile. This wonderful period lasted through all my years in college, and it was precisely because of his dedication to teaching me that my thinking and opinions improved by leaps and bounds in these years. It can be said that without his dedication like a teacher, there would be no achievements for me William today. ”

Hearing William's words, a scene gradually emerged in Qingying's mind: under the boundless starlight, in the dim hall, an old man and a young man sat opposite each other, getting along like fish and water. The old man's actions, words and words can make the young man either marvel at his usefulness, leisurely fascinated, or wake up from a dream and be enlightened. Gradually, the young man's lips grew a gray mustache, and he had changed from only nodding his head to being able to ask questions and discuss; The old man's sideburns were already overgrown, and his straight spine began to bend gradually. At last one evening, the old man did not enter the boy's room as usual; And the original teenager has already started a family and shouldered a piece of the sky of the German Empire alone!

William closed his eyes, his voice was slightly hoarse, but his words contained an incomparable firmness, and said, "However, life cannot stay in that period forever. With the passage of time, not only things change, but people also change. Although I am the sovereign of the German Empire, I am far inferior to him in prestige, strategy, talent, and skill; For the sake of my rightful power, for the sake of realizing my values, for the sake of establishing my prestige, and for the sake of me not living forever under his shadow, I must dismiss him as Prime Minister and let him return to his homeland with honor. His departure is not the end, but the beginning of another era; As it turned out, I was not inferior to him, and the pace of development in Germany was now much faster than in the time of Bismarck! I want the 55 million German people to take a good look, and without Bismarck, I, Friedrich Wilhelm Victor Albert von Hohenzollern, would be able to lead them to the world and to the pinnacle of the planet! ”

Qingying's heart trembled, and her gaze at William became thick and solemn. After a moment, he bowed slightly to William and said, "I believe that this day will definitely not wait too long!" ”