The invention of the telegraph accelerated the spread of news, and the news that the Prussian government was going to sell the Rhineland soon spread across the continent.

In the Berlin Palace, Wilhelm I wiped his sweat: "Send someone to ask the prime minister, didn't he send someone to explain, why hasn't the crowd outside dispersed?" ”

This was characteristic of the era of nationalism, when the population began to value territory. Monarchs were free to make their own land transactions, but now they must also consider the reaction of the people.

Regardless of the fact that the Rhineland region is rich in resources, it is not actually the core territory of the Kingdom of Prussia, and it is threatened by the French, so its status in the eyes of the government is even lower.

Bismarck dared to promise the Rhineland to the French, and in fact prepared for the worst. For example, in the Austro-Prussian War, the French took advantage of the fire to loot, and Prussia had no choice but to give up.

Fortunately, they won the bet, and the French chose to wait and see, not to take advantage of the fire. Otherwise, the rest of European history will be rewritten.

Having received the desired benefits, Napoleon III had no incentive to launch. As its strength increased and decreased, the odds of the Kingdom of Prussia were even lower.

Moreover, with an extra piece of land as a buffer, even if the Kingdom of Prussia dared to take risks, the French also increased the buffer time and could mobilize more troops to come out, and Prussia could only hope for God to bless if it wanted to win the war.

Bismarck in the Rhineland dared to take out the risk, and if he changed the area where the Junker aristocracy was concentrated, he would not dare to take out the courage to make a promise.

Dishonored checks also need to be highly confidential, and the top government can know about it, but the people below can't know about it. As soon as the news spread, a military coup d'état would take place in the state of the Kingdom of Prussia in a matter of minutes.

In a country where the military is in charge, any attempt to harm the interests of the Junker aristocracy must be thought twice.

The farce outside William I was just upset and not worried about making a big mess. It is not about oneself to hang high, but it also applies in the Kingdom of Prussia.

The Rhineland is an enclave, less closely linked to the country, and most of the people have no direct loss of profit, except for the capitalists.

It doesn't involve self-interest, just vent the dissatisfaction in your heart with the trouble, and the matter will pass.

The Kingdom of Prussia was not yet in charge of the capitalists, and when Silesia was abandoned, there were also people who made trouble, and in the end it was not an obedient compromise.

Even without the Rhineland, the kingdom of Prussia's steel production fell by 60% and its total industry by nearly 40%, but Wilhelm I was still unfazed.

The Kingdom of Prussia had a limited internal market, and its industrial and commercial products were not competitive in the international market.

This is the characteristic of the times, and due to the influence of many factors, the capitalist world in this era will have an economic crisis every ten or eight years.

From 1847 to the present, there have been three economic crises, and the fourth is not far off. If the agricultural crisis is counted, it is about to break out for the fifth time.

More industry is not always better, and overcapacity is a disaster. If you open the history books, you will find that after every crisis, war breaks out, and everyone seems to be accustomed to using war to survive crises.

the economic crisis of 1847, which led to the Revolution of 1848; the economic crisis of 1857, which triggered the American Civil War; The economic crisis of 1867 led to the outbreak of the Russo-Prussian War; The agricultural crisis that broke out two years ago triggered the Near East War and the Russo-Polish War.

The abandonment of the Rhineland now, which seems to have suffered a lot of losses, is actually buying time for the Kingdom of Prussia to integrate the Kingdom of Poland.

Otherwise, a new round of crisis will break out, and they will not want to start the Russo-Prussian war, and someone will send them to the battlefield.

Any decision will inevitably hurt someone's interests, and Wilhelm I did not mind sacrificing some of the capitalists' interests first. Anyway, the bourgeoisie is a complex group, and as long as the rulers are not stupid, they cannot unite.

Without the Rhineland, there are also many people who would have profited. With one less competitor, everyone can carve up the market they left behind, and these beneficiaries will not give up their interests for the sake of "class interests".

……

In the Ruhr area, news of the sale of the Rhineland by the Berlin government has arrived, and the local government is already preparing to evacuate.

People spontaneously took to the streets and started a huge demonstration. This time, there is really no one to organize, and if they are suddenly abandoned, everyone will have resentment in their hearts.

As a manager of the Ruhr area, Andrea was also very unhappy, and the documents issued by his superiors were torn to shreds.

Under normal circumstances, he would never dare to do this, deliberately damaging the official document would be a loss of his job, and now he can't care so much when he is angry.

After the office was vandalized, Andrea calmed her anger. As an aristocrat loyal to his country, Andrea understands what it means to put the big picture into account.

The Rhineland region is destined to be abandoned, but with so many people and industries, it cannot be completely abandoned. The government in Berlin has given orders to organize the evacuation of people as much as possible.

That's right, it's a priority to organize the evacuation of personnel. After the battle with the tsarist government, the Berlin government had come to realize the importance of population.

If you don't have enough population, you won't have enough troops, and if you run into a tsarist government that is good at playing crowd tactics, you can't have fewer soldiers.

As long as there are people, there will be land, and there will be factories. The Berlin government had an evacuation experience, but the situation was completely different.

At the time of the abandonment of Silesia, the Kingdom of Prussia had just won the Russo-Prussian War and had acquired a large amount of land, and East Prussia had been beaten into white land again, and the population continued to replenish, and there was no problem at all according to immigration.

The situation is much more complicated now, the Rhineland has a much larger population than Silesia, and it is not easy to accommodate such a large number of people.

It is true that there is still some undeveloped land in the Kingdom of Prussia, but most of these lands are not geographically good, and there is very little undeveloped high-quality land.

It is clearly not enough to resettle the population of the Rhineland. Prussia's domestic industry was also unable to absorb such a large number of people, which doomed the evacuation to be a trade-off.

Andrea's task was to organize the departure of people who had a greater role to play for the state, mainly the rich and middle class, including: capitalists, doctors, teachers, engineers, skilled workers......

After these people were evacuated, it was the ordinary workers and peasants. The final buyers were either Belgium or the Federal Reich of Germany, and the Berlin government, not afraid of offending them, could slowly organize the evacuation of personnel.

Before evacuating, the first thing to do is to disperse the people who are demonstrating outside, otherwise there will be so many people blocking the streets that there will be no way to carry out a lot of work.

After a moment of hesitation, Andrea convinced herself and walked out. There is quite a bit of wind and water, and the strong man is gone forever.

Well, in fact the situation is not so serious, and the angry crowd did not rush up and beat Andrea, but shouted slogans for an explanation.

On the one hand, educational success taught the Prussian people to obey the order; On the other hand, the garrison has already moved, surrounded by heavily armed soldiers, and if you want to make trouble, you have to think about the consequences.

The suppression of the workers' movement in recent years is nothing new. After seeing the posture of the army as if facing a great enemy, everyone couldn't help but become disciplined.

Andrea arrived at the government building, ordered the staff to bring the table, bit it and stood on the table, waving a Prussian flag in his hand, signaling everyone to be quiet.

Advanced equipment can only rely on roaring, and Andrea exerted his best strength: "I know why everyone is here, and now my mood is as sad as yours."

Because we all love this country and the land that nurtures us. But there is no way, and now I have to announce this bad news.

The news you have heard is not rumor, the government is indeed going to give up the Rhineland. ”

After receiving an official reply, the uproar sounded again, and the already angry people began to lose control of their emotions, and if it had not been for the army to stop them, they might have rushed up.

"Quiet", "quiet" ......

Andrea's heart-rending cries were to no avail, and he was forced to let the soldiers fire warning shots into the sky.

"Bang ......"

After the gunshots, order barely returned to normal. It has to be sighed that bullets are more deterrent.

"Calm down, give me two minutes. If there are any problems, I will discuss them after I have finished speaking, and do not forget that discipline is the basic moral cultivation of every citizen. ”

The discussion was heard, and everyone looked at Andrea, waiting for his explanation.

"The Berlin government also did not want to give up the Rhineland, but there was no way, the Kingdom of Prussia was too weak. Faced with the threat of foreign powers, the government had to consider the safety of everyone's lives and property.

Some people may say that they are not afraid of death and are willing to fight for the Kingdom of Prussia, and I am the same. If possible, I would rather fight on the battlefield with a gun than live in humiliation here.

But we must not only think about ourselves, we must be responsible for our parents, our wives and children, and we must be responsible for the Kingdom of Prussia. We are refreshed for a while, what should they do, what should this country do?

Don't tell me anything about the fact that victory belongs to Prussia, first find out who the enemy is now, and think carefully with your own mind whether we have a chance of winning.

The Kingdom of Prussia was not without its defeats, we almost perished during the war against France, and in the end we were not revived again.

As long as there is man or hope, we can get back tomorrow the humiliation of today. The temporary abandonment of the Rhineland is not the same as a permanent abandonment.

Someday, the Kingdom of Prussia will be truly strong and fearless of everything, and we will return to it again. History will remember all this......"