Expedition to Europe

After giving up the Republic of China nationality, the Paris Peace Conference actually had nothing to do with Qin Zhiyuan.

Lan Fang was not a belligerent country, so the division of spoils after the war naturally had nothing to do with Lan Fang, but at the same time, the Foreign Legion made a significant contribution in World War I, so how to compensate the Foreign Legion became an unavoidable problem for the Allies.

Economic compensation is impossible. Britain and France owe the Americans a lot of bad debts and really can't pay.

Then they can only compensate in other ways.

The machines in the German factory are a good choice.

In fact, during this period, there were constant disputes within the Allies. The British first proposed that the Germans take out 2 billion pounds as war reparations, which was exactly ten times the amount that the Germans extorted from the French.

But just one day later, this number became 10 billion pounds.

This is far beyond the Germans' ability to pay. Let alone 10 billion pounds, even if it is 2 billion pounds, the Germans can't get half of it even if they sell everything.

So the wealthy Americans appeared again, and they were willing to lend money to the Germans to let the Germans pay the reparations.

The money-spinners in the United States were very shrewd. Even if they gave the money to the Germans, the Germans had to pay the reparations, and then the money would be used by Britain and France to repay the foreign debt owed to the Americans during the war.

Look, the United States just moved its mouth, the money went around, and finally returned to the pockets of the Americans, but with the interest that the Germans had to pay, and the benefits that the Germans promised to pay when they borrowed the money.

If this continues, the debts of Britain and France will definitely be transferred to the Germans, and in order to ensure that Germany has the ability to repay the loan, the United States will inevitably support Germany and enhance the economic strength of the Germans.

This seems to be a dead end.

In this cycle, Britain and France got nothing. They did get the reparations from the Germans, but they turned it over to the Americans. Although Germany owed a lot of debt, it got the opportunity to rise again.

The only ones who benefited were the Americans. They made a lot of money during the century's war, joined in at the end of the war and got another benefit, and there were still benefits to be gained after the war.

The British and French understood this, especially the French, who suffered the most in the war, so the French did not want to give the Germans any chance.

Clemenceau proposed to dismember Germany at the first meeting of Britain, France and the United States. Then, after being strongly opposed by Britain and the United States, Clemenceau proposed a package plan, which included Germany returning Alsace and Lorraine to France, France occupying Germany's coal-producing Saarland for 15 years, and the ownership issue after the expiration of the period would be determined by a citizen vote. Germany must cede part of its territory to Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Poland and other countries, and the Allies occupied the west bank of the Rhine for 15 years, etc.

As for the reparations, Clemenceau did not specify how much the Germans should pay, nor did he specify the payment method.

Clemenceau firmly opposed the Germans borrowing money from the Americans. Clemenceau hoped that the Germans would never be able to pay the reparations, so that France could occupy the Rhine forever.

At present, Lloyd George and Wilson did not propose a more feasible plan, so Clemenceau's conditions were discussed as basic conditions. The only thing worth discussing was the time, whether it was 15 years, 10 years, or 20 years, all of which needed to be discussed.

No matter how you look at it, these conditions have nothing to do with Lan Fang. Lan Fang will not get even a mark from Germany, and Lan Fang will not get even an inch of German territory.

As for the Papua Island and the Solomon Islands colonies that once belonged to Germany, although they now belong to Lan Fang, they were bought by Lan Fang with money, and bought from Australians, and have nothing to do with the division of spoils.

So the Allies acquiesced to Lan Fang's large-scale "demolition" in Germany. Anyway, the money paid by Lan Fang will eventually belong to the Allies. No matter how much money Lan Fang will pay, it is much better than selling it to the Japanese as scrap iron and steel.

Just when the Lan Fang delegation was "plundering" Germany, the Allies launched a wave of calls for the hanging of the German emperor.

This is not the first time.

As early as the end of the war, the sailors in Kiel Port launched an uprising. The direct reason at that time was that the soldiers in Kiel Port learned that they would be sent to the battlefield to die. The sailors first raised the slogan "Whoever starts the war will die."

Then there was the workers' uprising in Berlin.

Just after the signing of the "Armistice Agreement", the workers in Berlin also held an uprising. This was a hasty move. The workers were just marching to celebrate the end of the war, and then they didn't know how it turned into an uprising.

At that time, the workers demanded that Germany be transformed into a Soviet country like Russia, and directly put forward the slogan of "Hang the Kaiser".

This not only crossed the bottom line of the Junker nobles who controlled the German regime, but also crossed the bottom line of the Allies.

The Allies hated Germany, but it did not mean that they wanted Germany to become a Soviet country. That was another extreme of hate. So the German troops on the front line were allowed to return to Berlin to suppress the workers' uprising that was intensifying. Later, France released 400,000 German prisoners of war and asked them to suppress the workers.

After the collapse of the Russian Empire, France lost a traditional ally, so the French hated the Soviets extremely, even more than the fallen Germany.

With the efforts of all parties, the workers' movement was quickly extinguished, but the calls for the abdication of the German emperor were getting louder and louder.

The call for "hanging the German emperor" at the end of January came from Britain, where the public was excited.

Britain proposed that the Germans pay 10 billion pounds in reparations, and even derived a widely spread slogan "Search their pockets". The "they" here refers to the Germans.

The British also knew that the Germans could not afford so much war reparations, so the German Emperor Wilhelm II became a punching bag.

So far, whether he would be hanged or not, the abdication of Wilhelm II has become a settled matter.

On January 25, the German Emperor Wilhelm II announced his abdication, and Crown Prince Wilhelm ascended the throne on the same day and became "William III".

Crown Prince Wilhelm... No, on the day when William III ascended the throne, a lot of things happened in Berlin.

On this day, someone proposed that Germany should end the imperial system and establish a republic recognized by the Allies in order to participate in the Paris Peace Conference.

This proposal aroused the interest of many people. They were not disgusted with the German royal family or against William III, but wanted to try a different political system.

The military did not express its position in this process. Since the moment the "Armistice Agreement" was signed, the military has been forgotten in the corner. No matter what, no one asked for their opinions.

The prisoners of war released from France played a key role. The 400,000 prisoners of war were the strong backing of William III. They suppressed all the voices of resistance with force.

When the sun rose on the 26th, one of the three most active members of parliament who demanded the establishment of a republic was shot at the door of his house, one of them had a fire in his house and his whole family died in the fire, and the last one was found dead on the street with an axe chopped into the back of his head.

The original text is in the six # 9 @book/bar!

So the proposal for the republic was violently killed in its infancy before it could be voted on.

On the 26th, William III sent a note to Clemenceau, stating that he would send a delegation headed by Prince Marx to France in early February to attend the Paris Peace Conference.

Clemenceau agreed to this proposal.

This also indicated that Clemenceau and the French government recognized the Germany represented by William III.

The next thing was a matter of course, and the most intuitive manifestation was that the work progress of the Lanfang delegation suddenly accelerated.

At the end of January, the first batch of cargo ships loaded with machines left Germany for the Far East. Because of the use of containers, the transportation volume was greatly increased. Four cargo ships were loaded with more than 15,000 machines, which was equivalent to two Krupp factories.

In Corsica, a fleet of six destroyers was waiting. Those warships now belonged to Lanfang, and they would become the backbone of the Lanfang Navy.

At the same time, the withdrawal of the Foreign Legion began, and the first batch of 14,000 soldiers would be withdrawn to Lanfang within ten days. The reason why it took so long was that this was the artillery led by Zheng Dali and Cheng Feiming. They would take their own equipment back to Lan Fang, totaling nearly 500 large-caliber artillery pieces.

Qin Zhiyuan did not need to pay extra for these artillery pieces. This was a small gift from the French government to Lan Fang to express the friendship of the French government to Lan Fang.

The reason why it was called a small gift was that France and Lan Fang had bigger moves.

On February 1, 1919, Lan Fang and France signed the first alliance treaty. Lan Fang and France would support each other's interests in any area of ​​the world, whether military, economic, or territorial. As long as one party's interests were violated, the other party must provide unconditional support.

And this day, if viewed according to the Chinese calendar, was the first day of the new year.

The reason why it was the first covenant was that Lan Fang would definitely sign covenants with other countries in the future, such as Germany. On the second day after the accession of Kaiser Wilhelm III, Wilhelm III proposed to conclude an alliance with Lan Fang.

Considering the reaction of the French side, Qin Zhiyuan did not agree immediately.

From Qin Zhiyuan's own perspective, he is more inclined to conclude an alliance with Germany, although in the original history, Germany launched the Second World War and was defeated again.

But the current Germany is no longer the Germany in history. Whether the mustache will appear again remains to be verified by time. Germany under the leadership of William III will not necessarily repeat the same mistakes.

In fact, if all objective factors are put aside, is it really evil for Germany to launch World War I and World War II? Did the Allies really uphold justice and justice?

In Qin Zhiyuan's view, this is not necessarily true.

History is written by the victors. It is only because the Allies or the Allies won that the Germans became evil Germans. What if the Germans won?

Putting these aside, World War I gave rise to nationalist thoughts, and World War II directly led to the disintegration of the colonial system dominated by Britain and France. From this perspective, the Germans have made contributions.

Of course, this explanation is limited to Germany. Regarding Japan, that is another situation.

Qin Zhiyuan did not pay much attention to the Paris Peace Conference of the Allied Powers, nor the disturbances before and after William III ascended the throne. They had nothing to do with Qin Zhiyuan.

On February 1, after Qin Zhiyuan presided over the signing ceremony with France, he returned to Black Swan Castle and prepared to come to his first Spring Festival in this world.