The second shift, make up for last night's second shift

Bismarck sat anxiously in his office, waiting for a reply from the front.

He hadn't slept soundly for several nights, and when he closed his eyes, Napoleon's sinister smile lingered in his mind.

His desk was littered with telegrams from the front, and he tried to find clues to turn the tide of the war from the war reports, but there was nothing.

The cold German casualty figures only told Bismarck the fact that the French army was not as fragile and vulnerable as he had imagined.

"Impossible, I've been planning for so long, why is this the case? Could it be that the French really designed a game waiting for me to jump? ”

Bismarck angrily swept all the documents to the ground and kicked them on the ground in anger. Then he sat down in a chair in annoyance, covering his eyes with his hands and a depressed expression.

"What's wrong? Prime Minister Bismarck, this is not like you. ”

A voice sounded behind Bismarck, and he turned his head just in time to see King Wilhelm standing behind him, who had just crouched down and picked up the information at his feet.

After reading the information, King William said to his old friend who was anxious in front of him, "It seems that the battle at the front is not as easy as you think, the resistance of the French army is very fierce, they even use a third of the country's army, plus some secret armies and advanced weapons that Napoleon did not make public, which makes me feel that the backward peasants are fighting with fully armed knights with sticks." ”

There was a pause, then he said meaningfully. "It's as if our position in the Franco-Prussian War has been completely reversed."

Bismarck said, "No, no, His Majesty King Wilhelm. Something must be wrong with all this, why did the French government, which was suppressed by the dead a while ago, complete the process of transformation from lamb to tiger in the blink of an eye. I even suspect that our army is not fighting well, or that Chief of Staff Moltke has misjudged. We should continue to increase the number of 100,000 troops, just as we did in the Franco-Prussian War. Taking advantage of the advantage of the sea of people to completely overwhelm the other party, even if the French standing army has increased by more than 100,000 over the years? Our German army numbered in the millions, and the numerical superiority was enough to completely turn the other side into ruins. ”

Bismarck was still trying to find comfort, and although he listed all the facts, France had always crushed the German offensive because of its superiority in weapons and advanced tactics.

Bismarck's change of attitude before and after the war also caught Bismarck by surprise, so he was born with the illusion that he must have been wrong.

"How would you feel if I told you that Paris had not yet unleashed his true strength?"

Bismarck said seriously, "France is now only conducting a simple strategic defense, and has not carried out a substantive strategic counterattack, and Paris has handled it with ease from the beginning to the present." Don't you see that public opinion throughout Europe is now biased in favor of each other? ”

Bismarck said word for word, "Great Britain, the countries of southern Europe, and even the United States as far away as North America believed that Germany had waged an unjust war." All we do is challenge the current European order. The British ambassador has spoken to me privately......"

"What?"

Bismarck turned his head suddenly, he looked at King William, suddenly understood something, and said with a sneer, "Actually, I should have thought that they would do this, after all, I can't stop the British from provoking the seams." But I just didn't expect him to go straight to King William. It shows that the British are now very concerned about winning or losing, after all, if Germany loses again, it will not be able to stop Prussia from dominating Europe. And Berlin will also become the biggest rival of the British. ”

There was still a hint of remorse in Bismarck's tone, he knew that he should be cautious about any invitation from the British, anyway, their troops had already entered the French border, and sooner or later they would run into the British expeditionary force.

He was blinded by illusions of the great revival of Greater Germany.

"Enough, Prime Minister Bismarck. Stop comforting yourself, everyone can see that France will not win this war too easily. ”

King Wilhelm did not hesitate to unveil Bismarck's last illusion, and said directly, "The French army is now stronger than Berlin expected, and we are not saying that we cannot win this war." It's just that the cost of winning the war is too high, and you can desperately want to get back Alsace from Paris, but we are different, the whole of France has just been hijacked by you and the Young Officers Conservatives! ”

Bismarck's eloquent speech stunned him and left him speechless.

"Your selfishness will bury the whole of Germany, Chancellor Bismarck, we are not trying to complete revenge at this moment, but if you look at the current situation, the advantage and initiative occupied by the French, the Berlin side has not really started to operate, as long as the owner of the Tuileries Palace is willing, he can push us to the point where the thousand people point out, and who will stand on the side of France to help us speak at that time? Is it King Joseph, who is known as the grass on the wall, or Alexander II, who has a honey-bellied sword? If something happens to Germany, their hearts will be a little more stable, don't think that Alexander II claims to be allied with Germany, he is a reliable ally, betraying his teammates, they do too much of this kind of thing, it's not good, the Tsar is behind the French involvement, otherwise why did Alexander II offend Napoleon three or four times and he was still unharmed? ”

King Wilhelm's words slowly strung together some of Bismarck's previous words that had not given an explanation for his motives, and he realized that something was wrong before, and at first Bismarck was simply classified as French weakness and compromise.

It was precisely because of the attitude of the French that the ambition of Prime Minister Bismarck to conquer Paris was stimulated.

And the other party seems to have taken advantage of his ambitions to achieve the goal of turning the situation around.

But he didn't believe it.

"Bismarck, you and I are old after all. Unlike the little Parisian dwarf who likes to wear red clothes, even if he claims to be resurrected, he is only in his 30s, which is really envious and jealous. ”

King Wilhelm laughed at himself in his own words, but Bismarck smelled a trace of nervousness and unease in King Wilhelm's self-deprecation. He seems to be implying that he is too old to deal with the increasingly complex international political situation in Europe.

"This time we rushed into the Balkan incident, which was not a wise choice in the first place. It's just that we are too greedy, and seeing that Russia is about to acquire Turkey, our ambitions swelled with it. But the army got one thing wrong, Napoleon was not an Ottoman sultan, he also had even more terrible ambitions. It has been able to prepare quietly for seven years, just to teach us a lesson today and dispel the illusion that Germany is trying to dominate the world. ”

Bismarck retorted, "Shouldn't we be more aggressive?" Just for that reason? Shouldn't we be more proactive in attacking? ”

"Will you die if you listen to my advice? Why do you have to be so opinionated? ”

King Wilhelm scolded, interrupting Bismarck, who was already gushing.

"I am now commanding you in my capacity as king, not as your friend, and you had better find out about it, Prime Minister Bismarck."

William, who had lost his patience, could no longer shield and tolerate his old friend as before, and retorted directly, "I want you to shut me up now!" ”

Bismarck was stunned, he looked at King William for a long time, his eyes were full of sadness. After a long silence, he slowly spoke, "King William, do you remember the military reform of 1861?" ”

Bismarck's question was met with Wilhelm's silence.

At that time, Wilhelm insisted that parliament should allocate funds for military reform, and Bismarck, as a good friend, ignored the opinions of the bourgeois majority in parliament to reject government funds, and ignored their accusations of "unconstitutionality".

When Wilhelm feared that the people would rise up for revolution, Bismarck said: "At this point, there is only one way for your Majesty, and that is war!" Your Majesty cannot be surrendered! If you want to die, you will die with the dignity of Charles I, and you must not be like Louis XVI. ”

It is precisely because of this parliamentary reform that the two sides have laid a deep foundation for friendship and cooperation.

This is also the first time in so many years that the two imperial partners have the idea of splitting.

"Of course I remember, if it weren't for your insistence, I'm afraid I wouldn't have lasted long in the position of king?"

The last splinter of pleas welled up in Bismarck's heart.

"Can't you just listen to my advice? It may be a bit costly, but after taking France and their colonies, we will have the real strength to rival the British! ”

"Chancellor Bismarck, you are old. Having been in this position for too long, accustomed to the policy of iron and blood, and the brutal suppression of conspiracies by force, I did not even realize that diplomacy required flexible skill. You have been blinded by the hatred of the Holy Roman Empire for almost half a century for so long that you can no longer see clearly that what Germany needs is revival, not revenge. ”

Ignoring Bismarck's claims, King Wilhelm said firmly, "Now I will gradually withdraw my troops from the French border and conclude an agreement with Napoleon to end this war." ”

Bismarck vetoed his head, looked at King Wilhelm with pleading eyes, and said, "If you admit defeat, Paris will take advantage of the opportunity, and then Germany will fall into an even worse situation." ”

King William simply gave an ambiguous answer.

"In the case of losses, the lesser of the two."

"Big deal, we don't want Arceus and Lorraine."

(The author is even more sorry for the delay in the past few days, I rented a seaside apartment for a vacation before, and when I went out to sea to snorkel, the whole person was swept up by the waves and hit the reef on the shore, and a piece of meat was cut off with my left hand, resulting in the inability to type with both hands.) Now that the injury is a little better, you can start the update. ）

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