At this point in the war, Eugénie and the others already wanted to negotiate peace, and a South Germany could not compare to the security of France after all.

But peace talks also depend on whether the other side agrees or not, because the Bonaparte royal family can only accept unconditional peace – at most secretly renounce influence on South Germany.

For the rest, it's not that they don't want to agree, but they can't.

Now, relying on the oppression of Prussia, a foreign enemy, the domestic power is still stable, but as long as France dares to pay a dollar in compensation, the royal family will fall after the war.

Seeing that France had no intention of surrendering at all, and was still rapidly mobilizing the army, Bismarck, who was well aware of France's war potential, did not dare to slack off, and strictly ordered the army to act as soon as possible, except for leaving 200,000 people to guard the Metz fortress, the rest of the army went straight to Paris.

Prussia's military discipline was quite strict, and although the soldiers were very greedy for the rich north, they pursued from the border to Paris in just one week under the constraints of the officers.

This speed is quite fast, because there are many towns and several fortresses in the north of France, and it can control Reims, Soissons and other places in a week, Prussia deserves to be the pinnacle of the modern army.

On 26 October, Prussia's army was less than 50 kilometers from Paris.

At this time, the French Senate was still engaged in endless debate about the ensuing war.

The Senate is one of the French parliaments, tasked with approving decrees passed by the Legislative Council, which seems to have little to do with the war, but the members of the Senate are the marshals, bishops and princes of France, and they have extremely high powers, and these people naturally have their own opinions about the war.

"We must take the initiative and fight a battle outside the city!" In the parliament chamber, the leader of the republican opposition, Jules Favre, was making a lot of nonsense, even shouting the slogan: "Never give up an inch of land and not a single stone on the fortress!" ”

This man was a pseudo-republican, and although he had been operating as a staunch republican and anti-war activist for decades, he was in fact an absolute egoist, with no concern for the lives of civilians or the interests of the country.

Historically, it was he who signed the "Frankfurt Treaty" as a French negotiator, which was very harsh on France, and was a proper opportunist who betrayed his compatriots in exchange for benefits.

It is not difficult to understand his idea of sending the army out for a decisive battle, if the French army wins, then he can be more or less a little bit of a light as the proposer, and if he loses, it will be even better, which will further weaken the power and prestige of the royal family.

The people present basically knew that he was an oppositionist, and the Minister of War and Chief of the General Staff Leboeuf immediately retorted: "The number of people on the opposite side is more than twice as many as ours, and it is impossible to fight a field battle, so why go out to fight a decisive battle if you can defend the city?" ”

"More than twice as much?" Falf exclaimed, exaggeratedly, "There are more of us!" There are 200,000 National Guards in the city of Paris! My dear marshal, you don't think the same number of French can't beat the Germans, do you? ”

Hearing his words, everyone present showed angry expressions, and before Leboeuf could speak, Napoleon's Prince Paul Bonaparte drank: "Those 200,000 people can't fire a lot of guns, not even guns!" Some people just have time to fill in their names on the registration form, and you are sending them to death! ”

Prince Paul was the youngest son of Jérôme Bonaparte, the youngest brother of Napoleon I, and a cousin of Nathana.

As a member of Bonaparte, he was a leftist who had strongly opposed the title of emperor and was known as the Red Prince.

Because of their similar political positions, he has a good relationship with Favre on weekdays, but he didn't expect the other party to say such careless words on this occasion, so he was the first to jump out against it regardless of his past feelings.

Seeing that Paul was also against him, and looking at the horrified eyes of the crowd, Favre realized that what he had done was a little too excessive and obvious, and immediately apologized:

“…… I'm also too anxious, after all, Prussia will not attack at the first time, if they are allowed to calmly complete the siege, Paris will become an isolated city! ”

I have to admit that Favre still has some truth in what he said, Metz has been besieged by 200,000 people, and if Paris is besieged here, then the French army force will be divided into three parts, which will definitely be very unfavorable to the war situation.

But it's one thing to know, it's another to do it, and with the military strength of Paris alone, the field battle out of the city is definitely another big defeat.

After Favre's retreat, the Senate discussion soon ended, and the tone for a rigid defense of Paris was initially set.

The defense of Paris as the capital is still quite good, much better than the paper in Rome that can be torn at the first poke.

The big guys are confident in holding Paris.

At this time, it was more important not to train the army, but to find a way to increase the material reserves in the city, and to build an effective management system, so that the rest of France would not lack command after the siege of Paris and fight on its own.

The former is definitely not enough to transport it from other places in such a short time, so it can only be found from the inside.

Thankfully, there are plenty of merchants and factories in Paris, and with the right deployment, it should be fine for two or three months, when allies and newly mobilized troops will come to relieve the siege...... Should.

Parisians usually love freedom and will not do anything to infringe on their personal property, but in the face of national crisis, the "Emergency Supplies Management Act" has been actively cooperated with as soon as it is introduced.

They were not levied in vain, the French government was not short of money, and all the supplies were bought at market prices and stored in various warehouses in the city.

In addition to materials, the second point is also easier to solve, the degree of autonomy in France has always been quite high, the citizens of Paris often riot, there is dissatisfaction with unfair treatment in it, who makes them the only city in the country that is directly managed by the central government?

Throughout the country, each province is in charge of itself, and local power is in the hands of senior officials, who lead the provincial police and control public opinion.

In addition to being accountable to the Senate and having no military power, the provinces are small countries.

This kind of autonomous system is also a European characteristic, but the degree of severity is different, France is considered to be very light, but the local government still retains the ability to operate independently.

In this case, Paris only needs to send a few officers to work with the local government to quickly mobilize a large number of militias.

Almost as soon as the French sent their officers out of the city, Prussia completed the siege of Paris.

On the 28th, Prussia quickly launched the first wave of the attack, this time without an infantry charge, but simply by saturation bombardment by Krupp steel guns with a very long range.

The Prussian army hoped to force the French government to surrender with constant bombardment and harassment, and it would be better if it could make the people of Paris unbearable and start civil unrest.

They clearly miscalculated.

Historically, after the defeat of Sedan and the siege of Metz, France had no regular army to deploy, so it temporarily cobbled together an army and fought fiercely with nearly a million German allied troops for 6 months without allies.

The makeshift French Army and National Guard were able to maintain their morale and fight hard against the well-trained Germans with great firepower advantage despite lack of food, clothing, training, and freezing to death in winter.

The tenacity and patriotic fervor are truly astonishing.

The situation is even better today than in history, and even if Prussia blew Paris into a pit, the French, who were full of martial virtues, would not surrender.

The only one who could make peace with them was the republican government in power in power by the bourgeoisie, but they were at a loss for now.