The Sun Never Sets In Spain - Chapter 144

At this point in the war, Eugenie and the others already wanted to make peace. After all, a South Germany was no better than France in terms of security.

But the negotiation depends on whether the opposite party agrees, because the Bonaparte royal family can only accept unconditional peace-at most secretly giving up the influence on South Germany.

The rest is not that they don’t want to agree, but that they can’t agree.

Now relying on the oppression of the foreign enemy, Prussia, the domestic power is fairly stable, but as long as France dares to pay a dollar in compensation, the royal family will fall after the war.

Seeing that France had no intention of surrendering and was still mobilizing the army quickly, Bismarck, who knew the potential of France’s warfare, did not dare to neglect, and strictly ordered the army to act as soon as possible. In addition to leaving 200,000 people guarding the Metz Fortress, the rest of the army went straight to Paris.

Prussian military discipline is quite strict. Although the soldiers are very greedy for the rich north, under the constraints of the officers, they chased from the border to Paris in just one week.

This speed is quite fast, because there are many towns and fortresses in northern France, which can control Reims, Soissons and other places one after another within a week. Prussia is worthy of being the pinnacle of the contemporary army.

On October 26, the Prussian army was less than 50 kilometers away from Paris.

At this time, the French Senate was still arguing endlessly about the next war.

The Senate is one of the French parliaments. Its task is to approve the decree passed by the legislative group. It seems to have nothing to do with war. However, the members of the Senate are the marshals, bishops and princes of France. They have extremely high powers. Naturally they will have their own opinions.

“We must take the initiative and fight a battle outside the city!” In the Chamber of Parliament, the leader of the Republican Opposition, Jul Favre, uttered a loud slogan, even shouting: “Never give up an inch of land or a stone on the fortress. !”

This man is a false republican. Although he had been active as a staunch republican and anti-war for decades, in fact he was an absolute egoist, and he did not care about the life and death of civilians and the interests of the country. .

Historically, he, as a French negotiator, signed the “Frankfurt Contract” which was very harsh on France. He was a speculator who properly sold out his compatriots in exchange for benefits.

His idea of ​​letting the army go out for a decisive battle is not difficult to understand. If the French army wins, he will be more or less a proponent. If he loses, it will be even better. This will further weaken the power and prestige of the royal family.

Everyone at the scene basically knew that he was an opposition. The Minister of War and Chief of Staff Lebeuf immediately retorted: “The number of people on the other side is more than twice ours. It is impossible to fight in the field. Why should we go out for a decisive battle if we can defend the city? ?”

“More than twice?” Falf exaggerated exaggeratedly: “We have more people! There are 200,000 National Self-Defense Forces in Paris! My dear Marshal, you don’t think the same number of French can beat Germany. People?”

Hearing his words, everyone present showed angry expressions. Before Lebeuf could speak, Prince Napoleon Paul Bonaparte drank: “The 200,000 people will not fire many guns, or even none. Gun! Some people just had time to fill in their names on the registration form, you are sending them to death!”

Prince Paul was the youngest son of Jerome Bonaparte, the youngest brother of Napoleon I, and the cousin of Napoleon.

As a member of Bonaparte, he was a leftist who strongly opposed taking three as emperor and was known as the Red Prince.

Because of the similar political positions, his relationship with Favre is good on weekdays. He didn’t expect that the other party could say such rash words on this occasion, so he was the first one to oppose it, regardless of his past feelings.

Seeing that Paul was also opposed to him, and looking at the horrible eyes of everyone, Favre realized that he had done a little too much and too obvious, and immediately apologized:

“…I am too anxious, after all, Prussia will not attack at the first time. If they are allowed to calmly complete the encirclement, Paris will become an isolated city!”

I have to admit that Favre still has some truth in what he said. Metz has been besieged by 200,000 people. If Paris is besieged again, the French army will be divided into three parts. This is definitely not good for the war.

But knowing is one thing, and doing it is another. Just relying on the military power of Paris, going out of the city is definitely another big defeat.

After Favre regressed, the discussion in the Senate quickly ended, initially setting the tone for keeping Paris firmly.

Paris as the capital’s city defenses is still quite good, much better than Rome’s paper that breaks with a single poke.

The big guys are full of confidence in holding Paris.

At this time, the more important thing is not to train the army, but to find ways to increase the material reserves in the city and build an effective management system to avoid the lack of command in the rest of France after Paris is siege.

The former is certainly not enough to transport from outside the country in such a short period of time, and we can only find a way from within.

Fortunately, there are enough businesses and factories in Paris. As long as they are properly deployed, it should be no problem to last for two or three months. There should be allies and newly mobilized troops to relieve the siege… Yes.

On weekdays, Parisians love freedom, and they would definitely not infringe on their personal property. However, as the national crisis was at stake, the Emergency Supplies Management Act received active cooperation as soon as it was introduced.

They didn’t levy them in vain. The French government was not short of money. All the materials were bought at market prices and stored in various warehouses in the city.

In addition to materials, the second point is also easier to solve. The degree of autonomy in France has always been high. The citizens of Paris often riots, and there is dissatisfaction with unfair treatment in them. Who makes them the only city in the country that is directly controlled by the central government?

Across the country, all provinces are in charge of themselves, and local government is in the hands of high-ranking officials, who lead the province’s police and control public opinion.

In addition to being responsible to the Senate and having no military power, each province is a small country.

This kind of autonomy system is also a European characteristic, but the degree of importance is different. France is considered to be very light in it, but the locality still retains the ability to operate independently.

In this case, Paris only needs to send some military officers to cooperate with the local government and quickly mobilize a large number of militias.

Almost as soon as the French general sent an officer out of the city, Prussia completed the encirclement of Paris.

On the 28th, Prussia quickly launched the first wave of offensive. There was no infantry charge in this offensive, but the saturation bombing was carried out solely by Krupp steel guns with a very long range.

The Prussian army hopes to use continuous bombing and harassment to force the French government to surrender.

They obviously made the wrong calculation.

In history, after the fiasco of Sedan and the siege of Metz, France had no regular army to deploy. In this way, it also improvised an army and fought nearly a million German coalition forces for 6 months without allies.

The improvised French Army and National Guard, in the absence of food, clothing, training, and freezing to death in winter, can maintain morale and fight against the well-trained Germans with huge firepower.

The tenacity and patriotic enthusiasm are amazing.

The situation today is far better than in history. Even if Prussia blows Paris into a pit, the French with plenty of military virtue will not surrender.

The only possibility to make peace with them is the republican government that is in power by the bourgeoisie, but they are still speechless.