[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-rise-of-the-empire-spain":3,"chapter-rise-of-the-empire-spain-rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-44":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Rise of the Empire: Spain",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2364972,4632,"Chapter 44: Paris Citizens' Divine Assist (Seeking Follow-up Reads)","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-44",44,"\u003Cp>Bismarck walked slowly to the front of Favre, no emotion appearing on his face, and said word by word: \"This war was started by France first, and the responsibility should also be borne by the French government.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Prussia has paid too much for this war; mere funds cannot compensate for the pain in the hearts of the Prussian army and the people.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If your government is unwilling to cede territory and pay reparations, it does not matter; we can continue our negotiations in Paris.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How could Favre not know the threat hidden in Bismarck's words? To put it nicely, it was continuing negotiations in Paris; to put it bluntly, if the French government did not agree to cede territory, the Prussian army would continue to advance on Paris.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once the capital of France had fallen, it would not be such an easy matter for the French government to refuse to cede territory and pay reparations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing that Bismarck was not at all susceptible to this hardline approach, Favre had no choice but to change his strategy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Prime Minister Bismarck, ceding territory will make tens of millions of French people dissatisfied and will cause endless trouble for the French government.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Please, for the sake of the tens of millions of French people, do not make us cede territory. We are willing to meet any of your government's demands regarding reparations and will do our utmost to pay off all reparations.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Faced with Favre's strategy of switching from hard to soft, Bismarck did not waver in the slightest and smiled as he said: \"Mr. Favre, what does the French people have to do with me?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Please do not forget, I am the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Prussia; I only care about the thoughts of the Prussian people.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If your country is still unwilling to cede territory, I would be very happy to go to Paris and negotiate with your government in person.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing that all his tactics were ineffective against Bismarck, Favre could only bring out his final move, which was to stall for time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He handed Bismarck a thick French document and said quite sincerely: \"Please look at these documents first, and then give us 15 days to consider. We will give you an answer after 15 days; please believe in our sincerity.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bismarck shook his head, also took out a document written in German, handed it to Favre, and said: \"There is no need for such trouble, Mr. Favre. This is our document, and it is also our answer.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The surprise and worry in Favre's eyes could no longer be hidden at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Submitting a German document was not common in the diplomatic conventions of European countries. Because of France's long-standing status as the hegemon of Europe, diplomatic exchanges between European countries basically all used French.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is also the reason why French became the common language among European nobles; as long as they were European nobles, they would learn French, including Yu Kaluo, who had also learned French before, so daily communication was no problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bismarck breaking the established convention in this way was also a reminder to Favre that the days of France being the hegemon of the European continent were gone forever.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Prussia defeated France, it naturally became the new hegemon on the European continent, so it was not strange for diplomatic documents to use German.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This stumped Favre. Although he was a diplomat sent by the French government, he was not that professional in diplomatic matters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>More importantly, because all previous diplomatic exchanges used French, Favre's German was actually not that good.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Faced with such a document written entirely in German, a question surfaced in Favre's mind: What kind of nonsense is this?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking at Favre's bewildered expression, Bismarck completely lost his patience, waved his hand, and said: \"Alright, Mr. Favre, go back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I hope you can bring this document back to Paris. Before our army arrives in Paris, I hope your government can have an answer that satisfies us.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This peace negotiation ultimately broke down, and Favre could only slink back to Paris.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for Bismarck, after ending this meaningless peace negotiation, he ordered the Prussian army to continue toward Paris and force the French government to sign a peace treaty that satisfied him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because the army led by Napoleon III had already surrendered, the road for Bismarck to go to Paris could be described as unimpeded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, the French government in Paris at this time still held onto a glimmer of hope, because they did not believe that the Prussian army would be insane enough to directly bombard Paris.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One must know that Paris was one of the largest cities in Europe, possessing a large number of French people and other foreign tourists.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the capital of France, Paris also hosted the diplomatic ambassadors of many European countries. Unless Prussia was willing to risk offending all European countries, they did not have the guts to bombard Paris.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was precisely with this mentality that after the Prussian army approached Paris, the French government not only did not soften its stance but instead sent a letter to Bismarck.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This letter read: \"When does Your Excellency plan to bombard Paris? If there is a plan, please inform us in advance so that we can notify the diplomatic ambassadors of various countries to evacuate.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was already an open and above-board reminder for Bismarck to consider the opinions of other European countries. It was true that Prussia could bombard Paris, but were other countries willing to see a Prussia that could easily bully the former European hegemon, France?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although this was the case according to common sense, the French politicians clearly underestimated Bismarck's courage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bismarck also immediately replied to the French government with a letter, which read: \"The matter your country asks about is the highest military secret of Prussia and cannot be disclosed for the time being. If you need to evacuate foreign ambassadors in advance, your country can do so now.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If this were just a reply to the French government, then it would be another meaningless threat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the seasoned Bismarck, he naturally would not let go of the delicate situation inside Paris.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This letter was not only sent directly to the French government but was also made public by Bismarck and sent to several newspaper offices in Paris.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This immediately sparked heated discussion among the citizens of Paris.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So the new National Defense government had spent so many days discussing with Prussia only to come up with a result of bombarding Paris? Was this not betraying the former glory of France?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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 with the guts to resist the Germans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This uprising was a spontaneous resistance against the government by some radical nationalists. Because there were not many supporters, it was quickly suppressed by the National Defense government.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But at the same time, the intense opposition from the people inside Paris also caused panic within the French National Defense government.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The French government knew that the peace talks could no longer be dragged out and that there must be a result as soon as possible so that they could free up their hands to stabilize the situation in Paris.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On April 5, 1870, the French National Defense government signed the treaty regarding surrender. On April 7, the French government and Bismarck jointly signed the treaty regarding the armistice, and France finally ushered in a brief peace.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps the people of Paris did not expect that their pressure on the government would instead make the French government concede even more to Prussia.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The armistice agreement, which would have otherwise required long-winded haggling, was signed just like that, and the French government also forgot the bottom line of not ceding territory that it had maintained just a few days ago.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to the treaty signed by both sides, 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 reparations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bismarck also added an extra clause, which was that the German army could enter Paris in a triumphant posture and pass through the Arc de Triomphe in the center of Paris.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Speaking of the history of the Arc de Triomphe, it must start from the Napoleon era at the beginning of the 19th century. Napoleon ordered the construction of a building that would allow returning soldiers to pass through to celebrate the victory over the Russian-Austrian Allied Forces, and the Arc de Triomphe was thus born.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But because the construction plan for the Arc de Triomphe was once overturned by Napoleon in the middle, the Arc de Triomphe was not completed until 1836.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why did Bismarck want the Prussian army to pass through the Arc de Triomphe in a victorious posture?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because in the glorious battle record of Napoleon conquering Europe decades ago, he had defeated Prussia many times, which was also the reason why France looked down on Prussia before the war started.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the Prime Minister of Prussia, Bismarck naturally wanted to use this way to wash away Prussia's shame while returning the same shame to France and the French people.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First update, asking for support!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of this chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1561,"2026-06-25T09:27:12.995Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","019b3c9409264dde2e2a0dcbb3f8259b679a55953e4965f6a438d85c78b0f031","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-45","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-43",493,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Frise-of-the-empire-spain-cover.jpg"]