The stars twinkle and the moonlight is hazy. It's late at night, and the negotiation hall in the center of Amsterdam is still brightly lit and full of people. At this critical moment, when the vital interests of their countries are at stake in the coming decades, the representatives of all sides are fully engaged in this fierce struggle without gunpowder with their arms and sleeves armed.

"In order to enable Germany and France to truly resolve their former enmity and jointly create a peaceful Europe in which there will never be another war, the German government decided to revise the previous memorandum of treaty on the colonial question. The Allied bloc will no longer maintain French claims to Futuna, Wallis, the Clipperton Islands, and French Polynesia in the Pacific. Madagascar is under French sovereignty, and its periphery and the French islands in the Indian Ocean adjacent to Antarctica continue to be dominated by the French government. The situation in French India remained the same, and the German government had no intention of destroying the story of the division of the Netherlands and France, which had taken place on the island of Sint Maarten more than 200 years earlier. ”

Qingying's magnetic and clear voice echoed in the room, and there was a feeling of clarity. After an urgent telecommunication with the Berlin government, Kaiser Wilhelm and Chancellor Holwig both endorsed their strategy and drew up a bottom line on a list of French overseas territories. At present, the overseas colonies proposed by Qing Ying to be returned to France are either barbaric and remote, or lack sufficient strategic significance to Germany, and the loss of control will not affect the overall situation in the future at all.

Outside, French Foreign Minister Briand's expression was still solemn, and he was not moved at all by the other party's seemingly tolerant concession. The Germans returned to themselves islands and reefs isolated from the ocean, which made almost no sense at a time when the French navy was shrinking and no longer able to cross the seas as it had in the 19th century. Madagascar is a good country. But it's sparsely populated. The economic benefits that can be provided to France each year are quite limited. French India, on the other hand, expanded to most of India during the Napoleonic period. However, after the destruction of the First French Empire, it was violently squeezed out by the resurgent British power, and finally completely lost its glory under the authority of the empire on which the sun never sets. At present, France owns only a few coastal towns in India, with a total area of just over 526 square kilometers; Although the population is still close to 300,000, this is still far from enough for France's overseas needs!

After a year of fierce war, what France needs most at this moment is to absorb the flesh and blood of the colonies to restore itself; As a result, colonies such as French Indochina, Equatorial Africa, and West Africa were vast and populous. is the area they crave the most. However, among the French colonies that Germany now spits out, there is no mention of these key areas! Briand, anxious, was also a mirror to the Germans' approach: how could the Germans fail to see such an obvious truth? The reason why they demanded all the French colonies from the beginning was that they were going to these anointed places!

"French Indochina should be ceded to the German Empire. French Guiana, Somaliland, and French Equatorial Africa should also be placed under the control of the German Empire, so as to demonstrate your country's sincere remorse for the evil that led the war in the first place. Your country will need to relinquish sovereignty over the islands of Saint Barthélemy, Guadeloupe, and Martinique in the middle of the Atlantic, and hand over the island's facilities intact to the German Empire to take over. Looking at Brian's increasingly solemn face, Qingying continued to say unhurriedly: "As for French West Africa and Algeria, in principle, they should also be jointly taken over by the Central Powers; However, out of a deep understanding of the feelings of the French people, His Majesty Caesar decided to return a part of the land to your country as well. ”

I can hear the last words of Qingying. Brian's heart finally overflowed with a sense of relief. In the past few days, he has not only shown a gesture of appeal in front of the representatives of the Allied Powers. Try to suppress the other party's gluttonous mouth; and can't let the other party be annoyed and angry, and choose to tear up the ticket and use force. This tightrope dance on the edge of the blade made him physically and mentally exhausted, and he really felt like he was living like a year. Now that the other party has finally loosened his tone in French West Africa, which is crucial, he can continue to talk to them.

"The Niger, Burkina Faso, and Benin of French West Africa shall be assigned to the German Empire. Mali and Mauritania came under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while Ivory Coast and Guinea went to the Kingdom of Italy. Algeria, on the other hand, is reserved to your country in its entirety, provided that you guarantee free trade in the region and that you grant most-favoured-nation status to capital from Germany, Austria and Italy. Qing English said quickly and gently. The reason why he will return this colony, which is nearly five times the size of mainland France, to the other side is because of a deeper consideration for balancing all parties.

As France's most important colony in Africa, Algeria is undoubtedly a very popular place for all forces. Otherwise, neither Italy nor Austria-Hungary would have made successive territorial claims against it. Once any of the forces monopolized it, it would inevitably arouse the jealousy and resentment of several other parties, even Germany, which led the war. And even if it is divided and occupied, how to deal with the needs of all parties is an extremely cumbersome matter. Knowing that the north of Algeria is an ideal region with a pleasant climate and a considerable economy, but there are large areas in the central and southern parts of the Sahara Desert.

Therefore, instead of racking their brains to divide this area, it is better to throw it back into the hands of the French who belong to it, so that they can break down the trade barriers that the colonies are accustomed to, and allow the trade of Germany, Austria and Italy to enter the country normally. In this way, the greed of Austria and Italy for the region could be curbed, and the wounded pride of the French could be appeased, so that they could sign a peace treaty with their own side. As for the fact that Algeria will become a rear base for France's recovery, Germany has nothing to worry about: under the premise of free trade, German goods, which are extremely competitive, have every confidence to divide the cake of France, the suzerain, in this colony, and even occupy a dominant position in it in the future. Under the onslaught of German goods, only a small part of the exploitation of France was left for the French to exploit, and there was no need to worry that they would be able to become a threat to Germany again!

"Monsieur Briand, the German government has made heavy concessions for Franco-German peace. If your country still can't accept it, then the only way to go is war. Qingying said lightly, and swallowed Briand's words of wanting to bargain again, "As long as your country accepts the above conditions and pays 20 billion francs in compensation according to the previous agreement, then the German army will immediately withdraw from your territory, and your government will no longer have to suffer from partiality." In the next 24 hours, please ask your country to make a decision. ”

Compared with the previous tug-of-war with Brian, and the last sudden opening of the table, the negotiation between Qingying and Gray was much smoother. After all, Britain, whose main fleet had lost most of its capital and whose shipping lanes were burning almost everywhere around the world, felt the pain of the war on its own maritime country more than France, which had been fighting on land for a long time and had suffered many defeats. Although they could not part with the gold and diamonds of the Boers, and the loss of several colonies such as Egypt was even more painful, ending the war without reparations also gave the British, who were already in the waning mountains but stubbornly holding on to the face and glory of the empire on which the sun never set, the last fig leaf that could deceive themselves.

After two days of negotiations, the two sides reached a consensus on the colonial issue. Britain accepted Germany's terms almost entirely, except for the demand that Alexandria be retained for the fleet and that Egypt continue to receive capital imports from Britain after independence. For this unrelated request, Qingying did not argue too much with the other party, and readily agreed after communicating with the country. With control of the Suez Canal in their own hands, and Britain's complete withdrawal from Egypt in the fields of politics and diplomacy, the role they can make is extremely limited.

However, in terms of the size of the navy, the two sides have engaged in many fierce competitions. Although the British, having lost a mess in all previous naval battles, had given up the unrealistic illusion of gaining a navy superior to Germany, and even felt quite unconfident to be on par with the other side; However, they have always had difficulty accepting the Berlin government's offer that the British Navy's total tonnage of capital ships could only reach 60 percent of Germany's. Gray first proposed that the tonnage ratio of British and German capital ships should be maintained at 9 to 10, and then gritted his teeth and dropped to 8 to 10, but Qing Ying, who still had a bottom line in his heart, sternly refused. Qing Britain did not lose time in threatening to continue the war, and threatened the Indian question and the continuation of the Atlantic blockade: the naval war in the North Atlantic, which had just ended, undoubtedly proved that the current British Navy no longer had any strength to compete with the High Seas Fleet.

In the end, the British government, realizing that the shape was stronger than the people, could only choose to submit at Qingying's insistence. However, Gray's efforts also paid off: when Britain deemed the situation "absolutely necessary" and with German approval, the tonnage of its navy's capital ships was allowed to be expanded to 70 percent of Germany's, while the share of submarines remained unchanged at 35 percent. Both sides have struggled to accept this outcome after much deliberation. The Great War in Europe, which lasted for a whole year, finally shot a real dawn of peace from the dark clouds. (To be continued......)

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