"So, Field Marshal Hindenburg, I think we can make peace with the Russians."

This was what Kuster said before parting, and when he received an affirmative answer, he hurried to his camp, and the day was over.

Hindenburg spoke to the German leadership, and Kaiser Wilhelm and his cabinet were pleasantly surprised by the fact that they made a list of what they had requested, and gave him the right to preside over the signing meeting.

On Kuster's side, he didn't communicate with his superiors. He had the intention of telling the ruling class of the empire before signing the contract, so that the emperor would not interfere with him or take care of it.

The next day, a telegram was sent from Moscow, which was under the control of the Central Powers. A few days later, several Russian officials from Petersburg came to Moscow.

This was once their homeland, but now they need to be censored by outsiders if they want to go in the past, and they are only allowed to enter it after being almost humiliated.

Hindenburg and Kuster stood side by side, smiling as they greeted the Russians.

The two of them led the group into the conference room and asked the servants to bring a few plates of food so that they could relax.

Before the meeting had officially begun, Kuster sneaked out the door, bowed down and said a few words to the person next to him, and then the man ran away without a trace.

Kuster walked into the conference room again, coughing his throat. The people in the synagogue immediately stopped their movements and focused their eyes on him.

"Okay, do you guys have anything else to do? If not, let's get down to business. ”

Kuster walked straight to the largest table in the house, drew a chair and sat down, and several Germans beside him also took out their chairs, their faces full of smugness, and they were clearly ready to wait for the negotiations to begin.

The Russians, on the other hand, were a little apprehensive, refusing to sit down, frowning and red-eyed, as if they might cry at any moment.

It wasn't until Kuster urged them that he sat down slowly and unwillingly, his eyes full of hatred.

"Come on, let's count what we have on hand." Kuster was the first to open the conversation, he took out a folder and flipped through it:

"Austria-Hungary, which controls southern Poland as well as the Ukrainian regions. Turkey, the Caucasus, as well as the perimeter of the Crimea. Germany controlled most of Livonia and Belarus. As for Moscow, it is the result of the joint efforts of our parties.

Russians, what about you? You and Siberia alone will not be able to defeat any country with the broken monarchy. ”

Kuster's words were quite vicious, not only showing their bargaining chips, but also directly poking out the bad situation of Russia, which made the morale of the Russians present even lower.

But there was still a brave man, who stood up and shouted:

"That's better than a country that's about to fall apart! It is hard to imagine how chaotic a country without a Juche nation can be. ”

Kuster's face suddenly became terrifying, and even though there was no obvious change, his body exuded a faint chill.

Hindenburg put one hand on his shoulder, trying to discourage him, and then turned his gaze to the Russian, and said calmly:

"I advise you, as a defeated general, not to make too much trouble - otherwise your country will pay a greater price for it."

This silenced the lively Russians, and the meeting began in earnest.

The first is to start dividing the political field, and to talk about people is to cut the land.

Since Kuster had made the bargaining chips clear enough before, the Russians did not dare to make too many mistakes, but a little ridicule would be possible.

As Kuster said, his appetite was really small, and he only demanded more territory in Poland, and his sphere of influence expanded to the border with Ukraine.

However, he has some provisos, namely that certain areas become their vassals, as well as a small special enclave:

"Western Ukraine and South Belarus will become independent, and their heads of state will be determined by us. Sevastopol, I hope this land will be directly under the control of our imperial center. ”

After saying that, he also looked at everyone's reactions, and sure enough, the Germans were very satisfied, and it seemed that their interests were not touched.

Only a few resentful Russians stared at each other, but Kuster didn't care.

The Germans soon made their own demands, that is, to cede Livonia (the three Baltic states) and Belarus to them.

In order to prevent a resurgence of Russia, they decided to split several countries to balance Russia, but were stopped by Kuster.

Given that the Turks did not send someone to the meeting in time, Kuster, who led them, naturally became a proxy, and if he did not fight for some benefit for Turkey, his reputation in Turkey would decline dramatically until Turkey no longer supported him.

He ceded Transcaucasia to Turkey, and the former Caucasus was divided into vassals subordinate to Turkey, believing that these conditions would be sufficient to satisfy the Turks.

The distribution of land benefits is over, and then it's time for reparations.

With the current situation in Russia, I am afraid that we will not be able to get a penny, and we can only depreciate the ruble, and the huge inflation will also make the ruble more and more worthless, hastening the demise of the currently weak Russia, and thus replacing it with a strong Russia.

So Kuster came up with a suggestion to use hard currency to pay the money. Precious metals such as gold and silver, as well as petroleum. If you really can't get it, you can also use industrial raw materials to compensate, but just don't use industrial finished products to compensate, that will strengthen Russia's industrial strength.

The Germans were quite interested, it was too new for them, and they agreed with the attitude of giving it a try.

The Russians also agreed, after all, Russia has a vast land and resources. Some people are still secretly laughing at Custer's stupidity.

With the consent of many parties, Kuster, who represented both Austria-Hungary and Turkey, ordered the establishment of a post-war reparations commission against Russia, with the members of the Central Powers deciding on the amount of reparations.

As for the amount of reparations, it must be a lot, even astronomical, otherwise how could the Russians be bitter.

Diplomatically, Russia was forced to demand recognition of the independence of Finland and Kazakhstan.

At the national political level, Russia's autocratic regime was dismantled and transferred to a multi-party system; Depose the absolute power of the tsar and change the monarchy to parliamentary system. This is nothing to the Russians, after all, it has long been achieved.

Eventually, Russia handed over all its overseas colonial interests (except Siberia) to Germany for a temporary lease of about 99 years.

It is worth noting that this was signed only against Tsarist Russia, and did not recognize the rest of the countries and forces. In other words, if the Tsarist regime was overthrown within these 99 years, the Lend-Lease decree would lapse and Germany would have permanent sovereignty.

Kuster presented the white paper with handwriting in front of the crowd and was the first to sign a few lines on it:

Austro-Hungarian Lieutenant General and Commander-in-Chief of the Turkish Caucasian Theater of Operations, Kalil Wade Kuster.

Austria-Hungary, Ottoman-Turkish Empire.

Hindenburg and Ludendorff also stepped forward and signed their names next to "Kuster":

German Field Marshal, Hindenburg. German Admiral, Ludendorff.

German Empire.

A Russian walked forward tremblingly, unable to move his pen, and after a few sobs, he wrote a series of words in a trembling voice.

But because Kuster didn't know Russian, he couldn't read what he was writing, only that he couldn't even write steadily.

This contract, which decided the fate of a world power, was solemnly placed in a box, treasured and shipped to Germany.

One last glance before closing the lid, Kuster read the words written at the bottom of the contract:

"It will take effect the next day."

On the evening of July 2, 1915, the Moscow Peace Treaty was signed.

Volume II, end.