Rise of Empires: Spain

Bismarck walked slowly to Fabre, without any emotion on his face, and said word by word: "This war was started by France, and the responsibility should be borne by the French government.

Prussia paid too much for this war, and simple funds cannot make up for the pain in the hearts of the Prussian army and the people.

If your government is unwilling to cede land and pay compensation, it doesn't matter, we can go to Paris for further negotiations."

Fabre knew the hidden threat in Bismarck's words. To put it nicely, it is to go to Paris for further negotiations, and to put it bluntly, if the French government does not agree to cede land, the Prussian army will continue to attack Paris.

When the capital of France falls, it will not be so easy for the French government to refuse to cede land and pay compensation.

Seeing that Bismarck is not willing to be forced, Fabre can only change his strategy.

"Prime Minister Bismarck, ceding land will make tens of millions of French people dissatisfied and will cause endless troubles to the French government.

Please do not let us cede land for the sake of tens of millions of French people. We are willing to meet any requirements of your government in terms of compensation and do our best to repay all compensation."

Faced with Fabre's strategy of using soft tactics, Bismarck was not shaken at all and smiled and said: "Mr. Fabre, what do the French have to do with me?

Please don't forget that I am the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Prussia, and I only care about the ideas of the Prussians.

If your country is still unwilling to cede land, I will be happy to go to Paris and negotiate with your government in person."

Seeing that all strategies were ineffective against Bismarck, Fabre could only use the last trick, which was to delay time.

He handed Bismarck a thick French document, and then said very sincerely: "Please take a look at these documents first, and then give us 15 days to consider. We will reply to you in 15 days, please believe our sincerity."

Bismarck shook his head, and also took a document written in German, handed it to Fabre, and said: "Don't bother so much, Mr. Fabre. This is our document and our answer."

The surprise and worry in Fabre's eyes could not be hidden at all.

Submitting German documents is not common in the diplomatic practices of European countries. Because France has long been the hegemon of Europe, diplomatic exchanges between European countries are basically in French.

This is also the reason why French has become the common language among European nobles. As long as they are European nobles, they will learn French, including Carlo who has learned French before, and there is no problem with daily communication.

Bismarck's way of breaking the past conventions is also to remind Fabre that the days of France as the hegemon of the European continent are gone forever.

After Prussia defeated France, it naturally became the new hegemon on the European continent, and it was not surprising that diplomatic documents were written in German.

This stumped Fabre. Although he was a diplomat sent by the French government, he was not so professional in diplomacy.

More importantly, because all previous diplomatic exchanges were in French, Fabre's German was not that good.

Facing such a document written entirely in German, a question came to Fabre's mind: What is this?

Seeing Fabre's confused look, Bismarck completely lost his patience and waved his hand and said, "Okay, Mr. Fabre, go back.

I hope you can take this document back to Paris. Before our army arrives in Paris, I hope your government can give us a satisfactory answer."

The peace talks eventually broke down, and Fabre could only return to Paris in disgrace.

On Bismarck's side, after ending this meaningless peace talks, he ordered the Prussian army to continue to Paris and forced the French government to sign a peace treaty that satisfied Bismarck.

Because the army led by Napoleon III had surrendered, Bismarck's road to Paris was unimpeded.

However, the French government in Paris was still hopeful at this time, because they did not believe that the Prussian army would be so crazy as to directly bombard Paris.

You know, Paris is one of the largest cities in Europe, with a large number of French and other foreign tourists.

As the capital of France, Paris also has diplomatic ambassadors from many European countries. Unless Prussia is willing to risk offending all European countries, they do not have the courage to bombard Paris.

It is precisely with this mentality that after the Prussian army approached Paris, the French government not only did not give in, but also sent a letter to Bismarck.

The letter reads: "When are you going to bombard Paris? If you have a plan, please let us know in advance so that we can notify the diplomatic ambassadors of various countries to evacuate."

This is already a clear reminder to Bismarck to consider the opinions of other European countries. It is true that Prussia can bombard Paris, but is a Prussia that can easily bully France, the former European hegemon, what other countries want to see?

Although this is the case according to common sense, French politicians obviously underestimated Bismarck's courage.

Bismarck also immediately replied to the French government in a letter, which read: "What you asked is the highest military secret of Prussia, and I have no information to share for the time being. If you need to evacuate foreign ambassadors in advance, you can do it now."

If it was just a reply to the French government, then this would be another meaningless threat.

For the experienced Bismarck, he would naturally not let go of the delicate situation in Paris.

This letter was not only sent directly to the French government, but also made public by Bismarck and sent to many newspapers in Paris.

This immediately caused heated discussions among the citizens of Paris.

It seems that the new National Defense Government has been discussing with Prussia for so many days and has only discussed the result of bombarding Paris. Isn't this a betrayal of the former glory of France?

The angry citizens of Paris once again held an uprising, intending to overthrow the National Defense Government controlled by capitalism and establish a French government that has the courage to resist the Germans.

This uprising was a spontaneous resistance to the government by some radical nationalists. Because there were not many supporters, it was quickly put out by the National Defense Government.

But at the same time, the fierce opposition of the people in Paris also caused panic in the French National Defense Government.

The French government knew that the peace talks could not be delayed any longer, and there must be a result as soon as possible, so that it could free up its hands to stabilize the situation in Paris.

On April 5, 1870, the French National Defense Government signed a treaty on surrender. On April 7, the French government and Bismarck jointly signed a treaty on the armistice, and France finally ushered in a brief peace.

Perhaps the people of Paris did not expect that their pressure on the government would make the French government give in to Prussia even more.

The armistice agreement that was originally going to take a long time to negotiate was signed, and the French government also forgot the bottom line of not ceding territory that it had maintained a few days ago.

According to the treaty signed by both parties, the French government had to hand over most of the artillery and ammunition of the Paris Fortress to the Prussian army and pay 200 million francs in compensation.

Bismarck also added an additional clause, that is, the German army could enter Paris in a triumphal manner and pass through the Arc de Triomphe in the center of Paris.

Speaking of the history of the Arc de Triomphe, we have to start from the Napoleonic period in the early 19th century. In order to celebrate the victory over the Russian-Austrian coalition, Napoleon ordered the construction of a building that could allow returning soldiers to pass through, and the Arc de Triomphe was born.

But because the construction plan of the Arc de Triomphe in the middle was overturned by Napoleon, the Arc de Triomphe was not built until 1836.

Why did Bismarck want the Prussian army to pass through the Arc de Triomphe in triumph?

Because decades ago, Napoleon had defeated Prussia many times in his glorious conquest of Europe, which was why France looked down on Prussia before the war.

As the Prime Minister of Prussia, Bismarck naturally wanted to wash away the shame of Prussia in this way, and at the same time return the same shame to France and the French people.

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