Fox of France

Early the next morning, before dawn, Metternich arrived at the French army's garrison early, and then he came to Napoleon's headquarters again under the escort of a group of French cavalry, and saw Mr. Napoleon.

"How quickly you came," said Napoleon, smiling.

"That's because I'm using your time, General, so I have to save a little bit." Metternich replied as he took off his hat to greet Napoleon.

"It's so early, you probably haven't eaten yet, so come and have breakfast with me, and we'll talk while we eat," Napoleon said.

"Then thank you." Metternich was not polite, and sat down at Napoleon's dining table. An orderly brought him a breakfast too.

"Mr. Metternich, you must have brought me some good news for coming so early?" Napoleon said.

"About your peace terms," ​​Metternich quickly sat up straight and replied, "The Grand Duke and I have neither objection in principle. However, we have some other requests, and I hope to discuss them with you, General."

Napoleon frowned slightly and said: "I hope you don't delay time on purpose, a suggestion, a counter-suggestion, another suggestion, another counter-suggestion, and then time—my time was wasted like this. "

"Your Excellency, don't worry, I believe our proposal is in the same direction as your request," Metternich said.

"Let's hear it." Napoleon looked not very interested, and deliberately took out his pocket watch to take a look.

"Your Excellency, your country has the highest level of science and technology in the world. We very much hope that we can purchase related technologies from your country. We hope that in this category of rights, we can also obtain the same rights as citizens of your country." Metternich Say.

"Our country has a "Patent Law" on this matter. If you want to buy technology patents, you can talk to the patent holders." Napoleon said indifferently.

"But the patented technologies we want to buy are basically in your hands, General," Metternich said.

"This question, um, is not a problem in principle. As for specific questions, you can talk to my brother, Joseph Bonaparte." Napoleon threw the matter to Joseph. Anyway, if Joseph is unwilling to sell, he will naturally reject them.

"In addition, we also hope that your country can impose certain restrictions on the export of weapons." Metternich said.

"That is impossible," said Napoleon at once. "It would harm our commercial interests. It is impossible!"

"We can guarantee that the orders from the Chinese government can fully make up for this loss, and can also allow related companies in your country to obtain greater benefits."

"It's not about money, it's about our business reputation and our political reputation. Our business reputation and political reputation are worth more than this little money." Napoleon said firmly.

"However, this will constitute interference in our country's internal affairs, and it also violates the principle of 'mutual respect for territory and sovereignty, and mutual non-interference in internal affairs' in the peace treaty signed between your country and the Kingdom of Spain. In my opinion, these two principles, Should be more important political credibility."

"You are right. We do have to abide by these two principles. However, these two principles are far inferior in legal status to the Declaration of Human Rights, and the 'Human Rights Priority to Sovereignty' derived from the Declaration of Human Rights." ’ principle. We are concerned that if we ban civilian arms trade, it will bring humanitarian catastrophe in some areas. I hope your government can understand this perfectly legitimate concern of our country.”

So the two started a heated argument around this issue. Finally, Napoleon said:

"How about this, we put aside the dispute for the time being based on the principle of seeking common ground while reserving differences. Regarding this issue, we will deal with it first. We can issue a joint statement in which we separately commit that France does not seek to implement a long-standing The policy of selling weapons to certain areas of your country, the quality and quantity of weapons we sell to these areas will not exceed the level of supply in recent years after the peace was reached between the two sides, and we are going to gradually reduce arms sales to these areas, and after a period of time Time leads to a final solution. And you are committed to resolve those outstanding issues between you and the local people in a peaceful manner as much as possible, avoiding humanitarian crises caused by non-peaceful means. What do you think? That's the biggest concession I can make."

"General Bonaparte, we have one last request," said Metternich.

"any request?"

"Some influential figures in our country hope to obtain the opportunity to become a shareholder of the 'military-industrial complex'." Metternich replied without changing his expression.

Napoleon thought for a while and replied: "The military-industrial complex is a business alliance, but there is no such thing as a 'military-industrial complex' company or stock. You can buy shares in some of these companies, as long as you can get the shares of other shareholders. Agreed, it's not a problem."

"Isn't your family the biggest shareholder?"

"In some companies yes, but in the entire consortium, our shareholding ratio is not particularly high." Napoleon explained, and then said, "If this is the case, can we think that we have basically reached agreed?"

"Yes, Your Excellency the General," Metternich replied.

Napoleon looked at his pocket watch and said: "Because this negotiation has consumed more time for me, so I still need more compensation now, both for France and for me personally..."

So on the same day, Archduke Karl and General Napoleon Bonaparte initialed an agreement on the peace between the two countries. Under the agreement, the two countries will restore peace and establish closer trade relations. At the same time, the Austrian army will withdraw from all French territory and the territory of France's allies, and express its deep apology to the French people and other peoples of other countries who have been damaged in the war. At the same time, Austria promises that no one or any force will be allowed to use Austrian land to engage in activities that endanger the security and stability of France.

Just letting Austria go, and signing such an agreement with neither cession nor compensation, of course caused some criticism in France, but "Scientific Pravda" had long been prepared for this, and they quickly published The article analyzed the current military situation and pointed out that getting Austria out of the war as soon as possible is of great significance to France's final victory. In addition, France is not nothing, at least, those royalist elements hiding in Austria may have to change places now.

If the person who signed this treaty was someone else, even if "Scientific Pravda" tried his best to clear the ground for him, he would inevitably be labeled as a traitor. But what can one say, considering that the man who initialed this treaty was General Napoleon Bonaparte, God of War of the Republic, who had just won great victories and saved the Republic more than once? Doing more is just someone whispering: General Bonaparte may still be diplomatically... although there is nothing wrong with his general direction.

After initialing the agreement, Grand Duke Karl immediately left Luxembourg with the army and retreated to Kaiserslautern. And Napoleon left all the British cannons and more than 10,000 soldiers of the Northern Army and Soult who were experienced in defensive warfare in Luxembourg to be responsible for the security of Austria. He rushed towards Prussia with other troops.

A week later, Napoleon's army approached Cologne, and the Cologne defenders surrendered without a fight. Napoleon stopped for a day in Cologne, where he met the first peace envoys from the Prussians. But the peaceful sincerity of the Prussians failed to impress Napoleon. So Napoleon continued to march eastward, and the whole way was like a broken bamboo. Half a month later, the army arrived near Hannover. And met the newly formed British and Prussian coalition forces led by Marshal von Mollendorf.

The coalition has about 100,000 troops, but because both Britain and Prussia lost the most elite troops in the previous Battle of Verdun, most of the 100,000 coalition troops are recruits who lack training, and They are also desperately short of weapons. Not to mention the brand-new Minie rifles, even the old-fashioned muskets are quite scarce. The number of cannons is far less than that of Napoleon. The future of this battle is naturally very pessimistic for the British and Prussians.

So that afternoon, the Prussian envoy came to Napoleon's barracks to pray for peace with the authorization of King Frederick William III.

Napoleon's peace terms, however, became harsher than at Cologne. He demanded a payment of 150 million francs from the Prussians, recognition of French control of the Rhine Valley, including Hanover, and immediate declare war.

Today's Prussians can agree to the request of immediately declaring war on Britain without blinking an eyebrow, and it is not a problem to recognize France's control over the Rhine River Basin, including Hanover. But the compensation of 150 million francs cannot be paid by the Prussians even if they sell their iron. If there is such a sum of money, Prussia will not be reduced to this point. It is said that a large reason why Prussia was persuaded by the British at the beginning was because it encountered a financial crisis.

The Prussian envoy begged Napoleon to raise his hand, and told Napoleon that they could not afford so much money anyway. Napoleon said that France can lend money to the Prussians to pay for this huge sum, but the Prussians need to use various taxes across the country as collateral. To put it more clearly, from now on, all financial power in Prussia will be managed by the French.

Finance is the mother of all governments. If this power is lost, it is basically equivalent to the death of the country. Naturally, the Prussians could not agree to such a condition, so Napoleon roared: "Let the cannons and rifled guns debate with you!" Then he drove the Prussian envoy out.