Fox of France

Napoleon's army has entered Berlin. And Napoleon personally led the army into Berlin from the Brandenburg Gate, satisfying his desire to pretend.

According to the rules of this era, after an army enters an enemy city, it is always inevitable to do things such as robbery, murder, and turning girls into young women, but the French army under Napoleon behaved Very civilized, yes very civilized, neither mass robbery and murder, nor evidence that when the French left Berlin, the chastity of Berlin women became worse than before the French came.

Strictly speaking, the French army is not a force armed with advanced ideas. The reason why such discipline can be maintained is not because of class feelings or military honor. There is only one real reason, that is, the French army, especially the French army under Napoleon's command, has a particularly high combat allowance. Napoleon's troops may have received more combat allowances after victory than regular military pay for a full year. This naturally makes soldiers willing to observe various disciplines, especially after winning battles.

The most fundamental reason why Napoleon's army can have such a high allowance is that Napoleon can get money efficiently every time he wins a battle. And Napoleon wanted to get money, the most common way was to hit local tyrants and suppress counter-revolutionaries.

In fact, if His Majesty King Frederick William III of Prussia understands this characteristic of the French army, and notices that Napoleon neither plunders nor divides the fields with local tyrants, he should know that Napoleon does not want to destroy Prussia at this time. .

Of course Napoleon would not do a loss-making business, and these allowances must still be paid by the Prussians. But the French robbed directly, and the Prussian king first robbed his own people, and then handed them over to the French, which is still different. If the first method is used, the hatred of those Fritzes will be concentrated on the French, then the Prussian nobles just have the opportunity to brainwash the common people with nationalism and encourage them to work for themselves; With the latter approach, although there are middlemen to make the difference, the hatred will be divided by the middlemen, and in order to maintain their rule, they want to suppress nationalism instead.

This is especially true in Prussia today. Even Berlin has been lost, and most of the territory still in the hands of the Prussians is the territory of Poland in the past. The people who are still under the rule of Frederick William III are already dominated by Poles-Prussia is about to change from a country of the German nation to a Polish country. Under such circumstances, the Prussian rulers, dominated by German nobles, naturally dared not engage in any nationalism.

It is also for this reason that after Napoleon took Berlin, he did not continue to pursue Frederick William III, but stopped in Berlin, waiting for Frederick William III's next envoy for peace talks.

On the other hand, when Archduke Karl returned to Austria with the agreement, His Majesty the Emperor initially felt that he had suffered from the agreement requiring his troops to withdraw completely from Italy. You know, after the Italians' logistical supplies couldn't keep up, his army had captured several Italian cities, and even began to approach Milan.

What's more, in the agreement of Archduke Karl, the security issues of the relevant areas adjacent to Italy have not been truly and effectively resolved. How long is the "a period of time" in the French's "preparation to gradually reduce arms sales to these areas, and lead to a final settlement after a period of time", really only God knows.

So His Majesty the Emperor was very unhappy at first, and even a little doubted whether Grand Duke Karl had a problem with his ability. Not even willing to sign the agreement right away and make it effective. However, when Napoleon swept across Prussia like a fallen leaf in autumn, His Majesty the Emperor immediately changed his attitude. He apologized to Archduke Karl, and publicly praised Metternich, who had done a lot in signing this agreement, as a man who could be made, and planned to let him serve as ambassador to France.

And Metternich proposed to the emperor that he hoped that the emperor would first send him as a special envoy to mediate the war between France and Prussia.

"Your Majesty, if Prussia is overly weakened, it will be detrimental to our country." Metternich said.

So this time, what Napoleon waited for in Berlin was not only the Prussian envoy, but also Metternich who arrived with the Prussian envoy.

Napoleon received the two envoys. At the beginning of the negotiation, he still insisted that the compensation of 150 million francs should not be less than a sou. But in the end, under Metternich's persuasion, Napoleon finally expressed some goodwill and made some concessions. So the two sides signed the "Berlin Treaty" in Berlin.

The "Berlin Treaty" stipulated that Prussia should pay France 100 million francs in compensation, and the money must be paid in one lump sum. For this reason, if the Prussians need loans, they can only borrow from banks within the scope designated by the French government. As collateral for the loan, the Prussian tariff was used as collateral.

In addition, Prussia provided France with unilateral most-favored-nation treatment, as well as unilateral market access and national treatment. French people do not need any visas for activities anywhere in Prussia; French people can buy property and engage in any occupation anywhere in Prussia, and the Prussian government must not interfere. After the French goods enter Prussia, they only need to pay customs duties (the tax rate of the tariffs is set by the loan bank union designated by the French government). After that, the Prussian government will not be able to levy any other taxes on these goods from France in any other way.

Give up all territory west of the Elbe. Of course, these territories would not be annexed to France, but to the forthcoming Free State of the Rhine - a confederative union under French protection. (With the loss of the territory west of the Elbe, Prussia really became a country with a slightly larger population of Poles.)

This is almost an unequal treaty that destroyed Prussia. But this was not all the troubles that Frederick William III had to face. Encouraged by the fiasco of the Prussians, the Polish aristocracy once again supported the uprising of those "independents". At this time, Prussia simply had no power to suppress them. Seeing that Prussia is about to lose more than half of its land and population.

At this time, Prussia's friendly neighbors Russia and Austria both stood up and extended a helping hand to Prussia. They all expressed to Prussia that they were willing to send troops to help Prussia settle the rebellion.

The attitudes of the Russians and Austrians are also well understood. They have all participated in the partition of Poland. If the Poles create a new Poland in the Prussian territory, it will also have a bad impact on their controlled area. So from this point of view, their help is indeed sincere.

But Prussia absolutely did not dare to accept their goodwill just like this. Who knows if they will end up suppressing the Polish uprising, but their land will also become the land of the Russians and Austrians?

So Frederick William III simply came here and didn't bother the two masters. Anyway, if you want to sell the country, just sell enough. King Frederick William III and Queen Louise returned to Berlin, where they also hosted General Napoleon Bonaparte at the palace in Berlin. During the banquet, the two sides had a very cordial and friendly talk. His Majesty the King, as well as the beautiful Queen Louise, impressed Napoleon deeply. Especially after His Majesty the King left early due to physical discomfort during the banquet, as the hostess, Queen Louise's gentleness, generosity, meticulousness and consideration made Napoleon intoxicated.

It is also based on the description of the famous writer Alexandre Dumas in a novel that was banned because of its immorality. When Lucien proudly showed him the various mermaids he had hunted, Napoleon dismissed them. He said: "Those prey of yours are not very good, there is no one comparable to Queen Louise, that queen, that is the real natural beauty."

So after this banquet, Napoleon went to the Prussian royal palace under the protection of the French army several times, and soon reached an agreement with Prussia that Prussia would borrow 30 million francs from France with its domestic mineral resources as collateral for military expenses. loan agreement. This agreement was named the "Lending Agreement on Rehabilitation Matters Concerning the Realization of Peaceful Reconstruction of the Country", or the "Aftermath Loan Agreement" for short. Of course, the 30 million francs in the agreement did not require the French to provide real money, but directly converted the captured Prussian soldiers, officers, and some captured weapons into money and handed them over to the Prussians.

after the agreement was reached. The French army began to gradually withdraw from Prussia, and the captured Prussian soldiers and officers also began to gradually return to the command of King Frederick William III. And began to prepare to quell the domestic rebellion.

As for Napoleon, after leaving Berthier to deal with the withdrawal process, he hurriedly took a team to Luxembourg. Now he was going to Paris to reap his most important spoils.

Relying on sleeping in the carriage along the way, and constantly changing horses and galloping along the way, Napoleon drove back to Luxembourg from Berlin in just one week. Then he took a detachment of cavalry in Luxembourg, dragged the various banners captured by his army in this series of battles, and spent another five days returning to Paris.

This morning, amidst the cheers of the citizens of Paris, Napoleon rode a white horse, surrounded by those soldiers who had returned from many battles, to the Congress to report his achievements to the Congress.

The soldiers threw all kinds of military flags they had captured on the steps leading to the main entrance of the Congress Building. The satisfied Napoleon got off his horse, stepped on these military flags, and walked in under the guard of an elite guard. parliament building.