On the third day after Thiers surrendered, the new French president secretly took a train to Germany to meet with Napoleon III, the old leader he had opposed.
Thiers was just a small councilor in the empire back then, and he was so understated that the emperor could not remember him at all. But now the situation has changed, and Thiers has become the president of France, while the emperor has become a prisoner!
Ordinarily, this kind of meeting should be full of dramatic slaps in the face, and the great reversal of identity will definitely bring about very exciting conflicts. However, I never expected that Thiers would act respectfully in front of the emperor!
This was a top-secret visit. Germany's security work was very thorough. In just two hours of meeting, tens of thousands of troops were mobilized and countless intelligence personnel were involved.
Before the final agreement is signed, there must be no leaks. Thiers is a cash machine for Chinese and German people. Before the money is received, there can be no problems with this cash machine.
No one knows what Thiers said to the French Emperor. Even the Germans did not dare to pry on the sidelines. However, judging from various subsequent events, this transaction is not difficult to guess!
A week after Thiers left the French Emperor, German Emperor William I officially announced that due to Napoleon III's physical condition, the German Empire would renounce all accusations against the French Emperor, protect all the French Emperor's properties in Germany, and release him!
Immediately afterwards, the British royal family issued a statement that it was willing to accept Napoleon III's exile and hoped that he could reunite with his family in Germany!
After Napoleon III failed in the Battle of Sedan, he did not suffer any grievances but got a rare vacation, and was finally sent to England leisurely as a gift.
Judging from the relaxed expression on the emperor's face when he left, Thiers must have made some kind of promise for the restoration of the Bonaparte dynasty in the future!
The French Emperor himself was completely discouraged, he was getting older and his reputation in France had been completely damaged beyond repair, but he also had hope and that was his son, Crown Prince Eugene!
What a brave, kind and handsome crown prince that is! Every time he appears in public, he is surrounded by countless European princesses and noble ladies, and the people love him even more!
In addition, the emperor and the empress consciously asked their son to formulate some good governance, so the people could not hate the prince. This is the basis of public support for the future restoration!
If Thiers wants to drive away those 300,000 prisoners, it will be impossible if the French Emperor cannot pass the test. Those legions loyal to the Emperor, from ordinary soldiers to officers, who knows who you are, Thiers?
You, the president, can't give orders at all. If you want them to cooperate, you have to ask the French Emperor to speak. Even though the Emperor is already a prisoner, a strip of paper two fingers wide is easier to use than Thiers' effort to speak!
Thiers gave the French Emperor some kind of invisible promise of future restoration, and the French Emperor secretly gave secret orders to the generals loyal to him. This transaction is necessary and very important!
The president's emissary soon arrived at the French prison camp in Alsace, where General McMahon, who was wounded by shelling in Sedan, temporarily lived here.
When the secret envoy saw the old general, he almost shed tears. What a harsh environment it was. The Germans never raised prisoners for free. These prisoners of war had to earn their own food and lodging every day.
The prisoner-of-war camp stretched for more than ten kilometers, and the troops were separated and resettled. During the day, they dug iron ore and coal mines in nearby mines, and at night they suffered in tents.
The working hours exceeded twelve hours every day, and no one dared to complain. All resistance was brutally suppressed!
Summer is a little better now. Apart from the annoying mosquitoes, we can still survive. However, last year's winter was miserable. The canvas tent could not block the biting cold wind. Countless soldiers froze to death that winter. number!
The money earned from working twelve hours a day could only sustain basic food and drink. The Germans did not provide them with any fuel. If they wanted extra wood and coal, they would have to work another four hours to replace it!
The army is a wonderful place. Soldiers are not incapable of enduring hardship. They can fight bravely on the most brutal battlefields. But these people are not hard workers. If you ask them to do high-intensity repetitive work day after day, they really can't adapt. !
There is an essential difference between soldiers and blue-collar workers, and even more different from those humble miners!
Digging mountains, mining, logging and construction, this kind of tedious hard work can only be adapted to those slaves at the bottom who have been completely tamed by life. It makes people work like mules every day. It can be tolerated for a period of time, but those who cannot adapt for more than a month will madly!
Resistance broke out in almost every military camp. The French army began to secretly manufacture weapons, sharpen wooden sticks, store stones, use wire to make boxing finger gloves, and even began to steal iron tools from the mines!
On the coldest winter night, the riot began! But it is a pity that the rigorous Germans have always been good at formulating various rules and regulations, and no one will be lazy to implement those regulations.
The Frenchmen dodged the patrolling sentries in the open, but they did not dodge the secret sentries!
The gunshots suddenly rang out like fried beans, and the German troops guarding them immediately began to suppress them without mercy. Blood spread all over the snowfield, and the next day these frozen corpses covered the ground.
No one knows how many people died in that riot, but the number of French prisoners of war in the Alsace iron mining area was close to 100,000. One can imagine how big the scale of the riot would be. According to the memories of those involved, at least six to seven thousand French soldiers died. On that night!
The brutal killings suppressed the resistance of the French army. The desperate soldiers could only humiliatingly accept the conditions of working sixteen hours a day, twelve of which were in exchange for their food and accommodation, and the remaining four hours of output were in exchange for their fuel for the winter. !
Despair permeated the prisoner-of-war camps, and some wounded soldiers even committed suicide!
The Germans wanted to exchange these prisoners for money, and it was okay if they all died. In the end, they had no choice but to imprison the senior French generals here together, hoping that the superiors of these soldiers could calm the despair in the prisoner of war camp.
It was against this background that McMahon came to the Alsace mining area. He was a marshal of the French Empire and a high-ranking noble. Even if he was captured, he would still have privileges!
The Germans have provided them with very good living conditions. All they do every day is wait, a long wait!
When McMahon heard that he would be transferred to a prisoner of war camp with harsh living conditions, instead of complaining, he immediately packed his bags and headed to the prisoner of war camp!
What the French Emperor's special envoy saw now was such an old marshal of the empire!
This famous French general who became famous in the Crimean War was pushing an ore cart to transport iron ore on the rails with the prisoners of war when he met the emperor's emissary.
The dirty towel was draped around his neck, and his work clothes were covered in black mud and dust!
"Marshal!" The emissary almost burst into tears. He pointed at the German officers guarding the prisoners of war and cursed angrily, "You bastards! How dare you humiliate the marshal of the French Empire!"
"You wait, I want to complain to the emperor... I want to go to His Majesty William I in Berlin to accuse you!"
McMahon stopped him and said, "Stop making a fuss. I came here willingly... They can't stop me!"
"My soldiers, my children are suffering so much... I have to stay with them to give them some hope!"
"I have to atone for my sins!"
