Australian Storm 1876

   Chapter 1114 The State of Germany

  The evening breeze was blowing, and it was dusk.

  Li Fushou was strolling in the castle garden. The imperial concubine Nicole beside him was graceful, and he took a half step back and followed him, enjoying the cool evening breeze in the early summer evening.

   The faint, faint sound of Scottish bagpipes came from afar. At dusk and evening, it seemed particularly desolate and euphemistic, conveying a sad mood like weeping.

  Li Fushou stopped in front of a clump of laurel flowers, listening intently with a complicated expression, not knowing what he was thinking.

  Nicole stood quietly by her side and served the emperor for more than 30 years. She was sensitive to the joys, sorrows and sorrows of the saint and would not disturb Li Fushou's thoughts at this time.

   after a long time

Li Fushou sighed lightly with a lonely expression, and said, "Although the unprecedented scale of the world war has ended, the aftermath of this war has not calmed down for a long time, and the wounds left in the hearts of warring countries will probably take dozens or hundreds of years. To be able to heal, the teacher of the past, Yin Jian is not far away!"

   "Your Majesty, the newspaper says we are the final victors!"

"It's the reports of the European media, let's just listen to it, let's just believe it, no one can deny the important role of the empire in the war, but it doesn't need to be exaggerated. After all, it is the French who bear the most pressure in the war, and they bet on it. National fortune, betting on a whole generation of young people."

   "I heard that France suffered a lot." Nicole asked curiously.

  She was originally a French rose with unparalleled style, and her beauty was shocking to the world. She lived in the palace for many years, but as she got older, she added a more noble temperament.

Li Fushou's tall and straight figure stood in the evening wind with his hands behind his back. Hearing Nicole's question, he turned around slightly and lowered his head to look at her azure blue doubtful eyes, like a pool of green water, and couldn't help but feel a trace of love and pity. The smile hung on the corner of his mouth, and he explained patiently;

   "Concubine Ai, the main battlefield of this war is in the northeastern part of France, covering more than ten provinces and reaching 10 kilometers in the suburbs of Paris, affecting a very wide area.

  Millions of armies are fighting for their lives in this land, towns, farms, factories, houses and everything you can see, all destroyed in the war, no rubble left.

   Compared to before the war

   Only 35% of France's industry remains, and agricultural production has suffered serious losses.

   During the war, 3.26 million hectares of farmland in France were abandoned or destroyed by the war, 6.586 million rural laborers were conscripted into the army, a large number of agricultural vehicles and about 5.3 million rural draft animals were requisitioned, the production and operation conditions in rural areas were extremely bad, and agricultural and animal husbandry production also plummeted.

  Take the production of wheat, the most important food crop in France as an example, from 86.9 million quintals before the war to 36.6 million quintals in 2017, about 40% of the pre-war level.

  As a traditional exporter of agricultural and animal husbandry products in Europe, France is now forced to import a large amount of grains from the North American Republic of Virginia, the Southern Federal Republic and the Republic of Texas in order to maintain basic domestic demand in addition to implementing the rationing system.

   in war

  The loan sharks who used to rely on usury to make huge profits lost everything, and the French rentier class of nearly 5 million people lost everything, and now they are still fighting lawsuits!

   To support the war

  France's imports surged from 6.4 billion francs in the year before the war to 26.3 billion francs, while exports fell from 4.8 billion francs to 3.1 billion francs. In order to cope with the huge trade surplus, it was forced to borrow.

   By the end of the war, France only owed the Emperor Wei a debt of 5.991 billion jinyang, and another 1.13 billion jinyang to Britain, carrying a heavy debt.

What does it mean?

   is the original creditor of the French, but now he has become a debtor who owes a lot of money, life is not easy! "

   As a pampered imperial concubine in the deep palace, Nicole has no concept of numbers, and does not know what a huge wealth owed 5.991 billion Jinyang?

   But she still understood the sage's simple explanation. She blinked her eyes as if she was suddenly enlightened, and replied with a little joy, "I know, Your Majesty, France is poor!"

   "Yes, poor, hehehe..." Li Fushou was amused and laughed happily.

Nicole gently supported his arm and said in a low voice; "I understand when you say this, English is also poor, just like the sadness played by the bagpipes just now, the family's money is spent Finished."

   "Well, Concubine Ai's words are reasonable, probably what Qi means, but it also contains a memory of her relatives." Li Fushou explained it in detail;

"In England, the children of nobles are the main source of officers in the army. They take the lead in the war, are not afraid of sacrifice, and pay a great price. Among the more than 700 noble families in the whole country, more than 80% were in the war. The loss of relatives has reduced the size of the entire upper-class aristocracy in London by a third, and many people will never come back."

   "Ah... so many people!"

   "Yes, it is the tradition of the English aristocracy for children to join the army. They are widely distributed in the army and navy to hold important officer positions, as well as the emerging air force. These are all places where children of nobles gather and suffer great losses in the war."

   "May God bless the deceased and may the deceased rest in peace!" After hearing this, Nicole's mood also became depressed, and she drew a cross on her chest.

   Li Fushou's deep eyes looked into the distance, which is the direction of Europe and Germany, and one of the origins of this world war.

  After the war, some armies of the First Army and the Third Army of the Ocean Empire were ordered to perform the task of occupying the German Empire. The occupation area was mainly located in northwestern Germany bordering Belgium.

  France occupied the southeastern part of Germany, including half of the German territory, mainly the Ruhr heavy industrial center and mining areas.

  The British Expeditionary Force occupied the administrative center headed by Berlin and its surrounding areas, occupying the smallest area, but all the essence.

   at this moment

The secret operatives headed by the Foreign Affairs Bureau and the Security Bureau have widely penetrated into Germany. Their primary task is to acquire German top scientific talents and their families, advanced scientific research results, mathematics, physics, chemistry, optics, metallurgy, and complete sets of equipment design. High-level scientists, scholars and other high-end talents in manufacturing and other fields.

   "Take advanced technology as the guide, people-oriented, take away with the whole family" is the purpose of this operation, so it was named the "Big Sophora Tree" operation.

  Foreigners are confused about the "big locust tree", but every Chinese descendant knows it;

  The ancestors of China who once gathered under the big locust tree were the origin of the migration from the north to the south, spreading the spark of Chinese civilization to the whole of China.

   Germany's most precious wealth is its scientific and technological talents. Under the current situation of defeat, the entire country was occupied by the army of the hostile country, and all the troops were disbanded on the spot.

These wounded German soldiers staggered back to their hometown with small burdens on their backs. After years of fighting to the death, all they could get was humiliation and abandonment. When they returned home, they faced unemployment and starvation, as well as the helpless vision of their relatives. .

   This heaviness, this loss, this helplessness and despair, what more than the word "miserable"?

  The value of the German mark has plummeted. Even the once wealthy Junker military aristocratic family did not have enough money to buy bread and had to sell their antique treasures, houses and fields, just to survive in this troubled world.

The eight major banks of the Ocean Empire joined forces to enter the German Empire. They joined forces with local second-hand shops throughout Germany's urban and rural areas to buy expensive antique furniture, castle villas, farmland shops, and city houses at a low price of 1/5 or even 1/10. house, and entered the banking industry in a big way.

some of

   There are world-class institutions such as the Ocean Empire Royal Fund, family funds and development funds, plundering wealth from the financial sector and crowding the German financial market, just as it was once done in the United States.

   For Ocean Empire

Germany's factories, schools, machinery and equipment, coal mines and steel resources are worthless. Instead of spending thousands of miles to transport these things back to China, it is better to collect high-tech talents, educators and scholars. A team led by German scientist Albert Einstein A large number of famous scholars packed their bags one after another and embarked on a luxury cruise to the Ocean Empire.

   So far

  The French were also content to occupy Germany’s heavy industrial areas and sent a large number of people to dismantle German factories and equipment. Britain and France were fighting for the tens of millions of tons of coal quotas provided by Germany for free each year, and the Ocean Empire did not want it at all.

  Why?

   This is because the Ocean Empire produces more than 500 million tons of high-quality coal every year, ranking first in the world, and has created millions of job opportunities, providing ample impetus for the development of heavy industry and the acceleration of industrialization.

   This little resource in Germany is scum in front of the rich, and they don't even bother to ask for it.

Ocean Empire packs more than half of the faculty and their families of Imperial University Berlin, as well as professors and scholars from other world-renowned universities in Germany. They can get free cruise tickets to Ocean Empire, all meals and lodging, and can get A high-paying, stable job.

The    promise is that simple, but the appeal is unparalleled.

   Now in the Ocean Empire, more than 20 institutions of higher learning invested by the empire and the royal family are rising up. Basically, second-tier cities with a population of 500,000 will have more than one institution of higher learning, which requires a large number of high-quality educational scholars.

  Not only in Germany, but also in Austria, in Paris, in Milan, and in London, there are different numbers of high-level intellectuals who went to the Ocean Empire to seek a stable and high-paying job in education and research.

  This world war of unprecedented scale gave the Ocean Empire a valuable opportunity to communicate with Europe.

   Hundreds of thousands of imperial soldiers chose to stay in Europe for development, marrying local young and beautiful ladies, especially in France, forming a civil force that cannot be ignored.

In Germany, high-paid imperial officers and soldiers are also the favorites of German girls. Due to the sharp depreciation of the German mark, the income of a third-class sergeant can easily afford a townhouse residence in Berlin and a wealthy life above the middle class. .

  Because these imperial officers and soldiers received the Ocean Empire army salaries, they issued gold coins with strong currency value. Originally, before the war, one gold ocean could be exchanged for 10 marks, and one silver ocean was exchanged for one mark.

   However, due to the large amount of money printing by the German government after the war, the mark depreciated sharply. Now 1 gold ocean can be exchanged for 670 marks, and 1 silver ocean is exchanged for 69 marks.

   This is just the current exchange rate. In the foreign exchange black markets of Berlin and Munich, the exchange rate of the mark is plunging like an avalanche, and hard currencies such as gold and sterling are really hard to find.

   In fact, the soldiers of the imperial garrison did not even pay for it, and there were a lot of German girls willing to follow.

   As a victorious country, France was in short supply of food, and had to implement a strict distribution system, which could only ensure that people would not starve to death.

   What is the situation of Germany as a defeated country?

  According to conservative government figures, the war killed more than 3.6 million young German men, and disabled twice as many, and this is just an incomplete statistic.

  The real situation is always covered up in the vast history, the victorious Allied Powers do not care, and the Germans will never be willing to open this **** scar and look back on the dark history.

   Now in Germany

   An astonishing number of women can be seen in the streets and alleys, taking on the important task of cleaning up the rubble and restoring production after the war, exchanging hard labor for a small portion of bread, and living with difficulty.

  The destructive power of the war is huge, and the darkest hour for Germany has not yet come. They need to bear the responsibility for the huge damage caused to other countries in the world war.

  The Paris Peace Conference, which has been arguing for half a year, has roughly negotiated some frameworks. Finally, the heads of the Entente countries still need to meet to determine the final regulations.

  In the Fourteen-Point Peace Plan proposed by Emperor Li Fushou, the Allied Powers headed by Germany surrendered unconditionally, with national self-determination and national building as the core, which has been agreed in principle by the participating countries.

  The Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire quickly split, and more than 20 small countries appeared in Europe alone, while North Africa and West Asia were divided and occupied by several major countries and became colonies belonging to their respective categories.

  The emergence of this situation is based on the plan of the imperial emperor Li Fushou, and why can't the Asian and African regions produce nation-states?

   in the final analysis

   is also the world pattern maker headed by Britain, France, foreign countries and Italy in today's world, and does not believe that people in Asia and Africa are qualified to be side by side with Europeans and Chinese, and enjoy the right of national self-determination.

  Subconsciously, the indigenous peoples in these areas are born inferior, have no ability to manage the country, and need the help of white colonists... I don’t need to say anything more, probably that’s what Qi means.

   The main purpose of Li Fushou's trip was to participate in the Paris Peace Conference. During the talks with the leaders of Britain and France, the scope of mutual interests was determined and the post-war pattern was established.

  Only the leaders of Britain and France who are qualified to talk to him, Italy, the United States, Japan, and the Republic of China, are all playing soy sauce, while Germany, Russia, Austria, Hungary and other defeated countries are all excluded, and they do not even have the most basic qualifications for a meeting.

   Regarding the decision reached at the Paris Peace Conference summit, these defeated countries have only one path to accept, and there is no room for bargaining. Real politics is so cruel.

During this trip to Europe, Li Fushou will also conduct state visits to the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and other countries, and conduct in-depth exchanges with European royal families. is already in progress.

   This is a part of the close relationship between the royal family of the Ocean Empire and the European royal family. Through this visit, the relationship between them will be greatly promoted. The so-called royal family in the world is one family, this is a big trend.

   During his visit to the Netherlands, Li Fushou had an opinion to meet the German Wilhelm II in exile and listen to his thoughts…

   (end of this chapter)