The bribe worked, and the next day, Ito Hirobumi and Shigeru Moriyama received an answer from the palace official, although they still had to wait a long time."
Your Majesty approves, after three days, arrange an hour for Sir."
The Kaiser's attendant officials addressed Ito Hirobumi."
Okay, thank you."
Hirobumi Ito and Shigeru Moriyama hurriedly got up and bowed, although they felt uncomfortable waiting for another three days, but it was good to have the opportunity to meet the Kaiser in the end.Without national strength, there can be no international status, and this is a truth that everyone knows."
It's so difficult to see the Kaiser, and will you have to wait so long to see Bismarck?"
asked Hirobumi Ito on the way back."
Probably not, if I am not wrong, Bismarck knows that we have met the emperor and will arrange for us to meet soon, but Bismarck will not talk to us about anything specific, and will definitely not give us a clear answer."
Hirobumi Ito's eyes lit up.Shigeru Moriyama worried: "Do you mean that the Kaiser will be the only German diplomatic attitude we can win over on the Japanese and Chinese issues?"
"Yes, if I'm not mistaken. ”Hirobumi Ito sighed softly.William I joined the army in the anti-Napoleonic war as a teenager, brutally suppressed the constitutional movement in middle age, and was known as the butcher of the Prince of Shotgun.After inheriting the Prussian throne, he reformed the military system, unified Germany after three dynastic wars, and established the German Empire.Wilhelm I was the second son of King Frederick William III of Prussia and his mother was Queen Louis.Not expecting to ascend to the throne, Prince William did not receive much royal education.This is very similar to Zhu Youzhen, the Chongzhen Emperor in the history of Huaguo, except that his luck is better and the era of his birth is good, but what Zhu Youzhen inherited is a rag.Trained in the Prussian tradition as a teenager, Wilhelm I joined the army at the age of 10 and joined the army in February 1814 with the rank of captain in the anti-Napoleonic war, where the Prussian army fought a fierce battle with the French Napoleonic army at Balsur Obe, near Frankfurt.William excelled in battle, and his superiors reported that he was a brave soldier in his service.After 1815, he also became a charismatic diplomat.In 1825 he received the rank of lieutenant general and served as commander of the Prussian Guards.In 1840, Wilhelm's father died, and his brother Friedrich Wilhelm IV succeeded him as King of Prussia.Due to his serious illness, Wilhelm IV let Wilhelm handle government affairs and was named Prince of Prussia.In 1848, the European Revolution of 1848 broke out.Under the influence of the February Revolution in France.On March 13, when the revolution in Vienna took place, the people ousted the Austrian Prime Minister Metternich, and on March 9, Wilhelm was appointed military governor of Rhine Westphalia and special military plenipotentiary at a time when the revolutionary mood of the people was at an all-time high.He made an incendiary speech in the Berlin Guards barracks, inciting the army to commit a series of killings on 14, 15 and 16 March.On 18 March, the Berlin Revolution took place, and demonstrators rallied in front of the Imperial Palace to demand that the government withdraw its troops from the city.The king and his ministers panicked.Prince William ordered the army to shoot the rebellious masses.Berlin workers, citizens and students set up barricades and fought for 14 hours.14,000 soldiers were defeated overnight, forcing their commander to withdraw his troops from Berlin early the next morning.The king had to surrender to the people.Fearing the angry crowd, William was forced to flee in disguise and take refuge in London.But the proletariat was not yet mature, and the leadership of the revolution fell into the hands of the bourgeoisie.The bourgeois leaders of the Rhine region, Comphausen, Hansemann, and several bourgeoisified aristocrats formed a new cabinet.On June 8, 1848, Prince Wilhelm, who had been ousted by the people from the Comphausen cabinet, was recalled to Berlin and fabricated that he had completed a "diplomatic mission" in England.The bourgeoisie, represented by Comphausen, believed that it could protect its interests by leaving the heir to the throne to organize a constitutional monarchy, and they were willing to act as "a shield to cover the dynasty."
Prince William, who was recalled, acted as the head of the anti-revolutionary forces.When he met the officer corps in Koblenz, he said: "I trust only these officers. ”One of Posen's constituencies elected William to Parliament.William paid lip service to the new policy, but in reality, he wanted to overturn the new system as soon as possible.On 28 March 1849, the Frankfurt Parliament adopted the Imperial Constitution, electing King Frederick Wilhelm IV of Prussia as Emperor of Germany.The King refused to accept the crown from Parliament and refused to accept the draft Imperial Constitution.In May 1849, uprisings broke out in Baden, Palatinate, Dresden and other regions of South Germany, known as the "Movement for the Defense of the Imperial Constitution".William commanded an army to suppress it.The military tribunal sentenced 28 revolutionaries to death, including Trützschleer and Hofer, a primary school teacher, and others who had not fought at all, and Wilhelm's atrocities provoked the outrage of the masses, giving him the nickname "Prince of Shotgun", which spread among the inhabitants of South Germany.In October 1858, Prince William became regent after suffering a stroke that paralyzed him and then became insane and unable to manage state affairs.On 7 October of the following year, William took power.In order to strengthen the military power of Prussia, the financial support of the bourgeoisie was needed.To this end, Wilhelm assumed a liberal posture and dissolved Mantoifer's cabinet and appointed a cabinet headed by the bourgeoisified aristocrat Oswald Schwering.The bourgeoisie saw this period as a "new era" for the liberal bourgeoisie.In the parliamentary elections held in 1858, after William became regent, liberals formed the majority in the House of Deputies.In 1860, William embarked on military reforms.The Prussian government asked the state parliament to agree to allocate 10 million talers, increase the peacetime strength from 140,000 to 217,000, extend the active service, and abolish the National Reserve.Wilhelm appointed General Albrecht von Rohn, Minister of War, to carry out the work.On 10 February, Ron proposed to parliament a reform plan that would change the length of service in the standing army from two years to three years and increase the number of conscripts per year from 40,000 to 63,000.William also strengthened military training, equipped the army with advanced weapons, and appointed officers in the prime of life.It was at this time that William's aide-de-camp, Moltke the Elder, was appointed Chief of the General Staff.The bourgeoisie feared that this reform would weaken the influence of the bourgeoisie in the army, and that an army heavily influenced by Juncker could turn into an instrument against the bourgeoisie and against the State Assembly.So they opposed William's reform and refused to pay huge sums of money every year for it.On January 2, 1861, William IV died of illness, and Prince Regent William succeeded him as king, known as William I.When he ascended the throne, he made a declaration to uphold the eternal rights of the king.In the 1861 parliamentary elections, the Progressive Party, representing the interests of the liberal bourgeoisie, won a majority of seats and proposed that the parliament should oversee the government's recurrent expenditures, which must be strictly controlled within the limits approved by the parliament.The struggle over military reform involves the issue of constitutional rights.The essence of this Prussian "constitutional dispute" was whether to rule by the king or by parliament.Wilhelm I, despite the opposition of the liberal bourgeoisie, insisted on military reform.He paid for the army without the approval of Parliament.On March 11, 1861, he ordered the dissolution of the House of Representatives and the formation of a new cabinet of feudal bureaucrats.And the fierce attacks of the parliament plunged the court into chaos.William I was helpless and even declared at a cabinet meeting that he would rather abdicate the throne and still insist on military reform.He summoned the crown prince back to Berlin.The crown prince and cabinet ministers did not agree to the king's abdication, fearing that it would lead to a revolution.At this time, the Minister of War Ron, made a plan to recall the ambassador to Paris, Otto von Bismarck, back home.On 22 September, Wilhelm I and Bismarck met for more than two hours at the Palazzo Peebersberg.Wilhelm asked, "Would you like to be a minister and carry out military reforms?"
Bismarck replied: "Yes".Wilhelm asked, "Are you prepared to push ahead with a plan to enlarge the army against the parliamentary majority and its decisions?"
Bismarck agreed.On 23 September, Wilhelm I decided to appoint Bismarck as chancellor.Ignoring the rejection of government appropriations by the bourgeois majority in parliament and their accusations of "unconstitutionality", Bismarck simply ignored parliament and paid for military reform without authorization.When Wilhelm feared that the people would rise up for revolution, Bismarck said: "At present, your majesty has only one way, and that is war."
Your Majesty must not be surrendered to die with the dignity of Charles I, and must not be like Louis XVI. ”Wilhelm I obeyed Bismarck.According to the Prussian constitution, the prime minister was only required to obey the king, and was not required to sit in parliament.Although Bismarck said that his working relationship with Wilhelm was that of a courtier loyal to his superiors, in fact Bismarck held real power in the management of domestic and foreign affairs.Several times he disagreed with Wilhelm, Bismarck threatened to resign, and Wilhelm had no choice but to agree to Bismarck's approach.After Bismarck came to power, he achieved the unification of Germany through three dynastic wars.In 1863, Bismarck formulated a program for the unification of Germany, preparing to form an alliance with Russia and France, excluding Austria from the German Confederation and leaving Prussia to unify Germany.In 1864 Prussia launched a war against Denmark and occupied the Duchy of Holstein and Schleswig.On June 16, 1866, another war was launched against Austria.At that time, Prussia was hostile not only to Austria, but also to Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, Baden, Württemberg, Hesse and other states.In Prussia itself, the conflict between the king and the parliament had not yet been resolved.A part of the aristocratic landowners did not understand why Bismarck provoked the war.Wilhelm I was also initially worried about breaking with Austria and was not keen on going to war with Austria.But Bismarck tried to convince the king to push him into the war.On 3 September, Austro-Prussian troops met in Sadova.It was a decisive battle.The Prussian army won the battle.Wilhelm I and his generals around him, intoxicated by the victory, wanted to march on Vienna.Bismarck persuaded Wilhelm that it was now only necessary to get Austria to withdraw from the German Confederation, abandon Holstein, and agree to form a new North German Confederation with Prussia as the leader.If Austria accepted these conditions, the army should immediately be ordered to "turn to the left rear."
Wilhelm I was stubborn and threatened to abdicate if he could not annex the lands and populations commensurate with its present strength, as was customary in Prussia.Bismarck warned the Prussian king that if the Prussian army penetrated into Austria, it would be in the hands of Napoleon III.Bismarck's greatest fear in the Austro-Prussian War was French intervention.He also used his resignation to threaten William and ask the king to find another prime minister.The king finally accommodated Bismarck.On July 26, 1866, Austro-Prussia signed the Nicholsburg Armistice, and on August 23, the Treaty of Prague was formally signed.In August 1866, the 24 states and 3 free cities of North Germany concluded a treaty of alliance and established the North German League, with Wilhelm I as chairman of the alliance and Bismarck as prime minister, thus establishing Prussia's hegemony in Germany.In 1868 there was a bourgeois revolution in Spain that expelled Queen Isabel II.Bismarck managed to bribe the Spanish Provisional Government, proposing that Prince Leopold Hohenzollern, a cousin of the King of Prussia, inherit the vacant Spanish throne.William I did not know about this at first.He wrote to Bismarck: "The annex was like a bolt from the blue for me.Another man from the House of Hohenzollern to be a candidate for the throne, and a candidate for the Spanish throne."
Although Wilhelm submitted to Bismarck, he was very uneasy.On 9 July, the French ambassador to Berlin, Benedetti, went to Ames, the retreat of the Prussian king, to meet with the Prussian king and demanded that Leopold be prevented from succeeding to the Spanish throne.William stated that he would try to persuade Leopold to abdicate the Spanish throne.On 13 July, the French ambassador was instructed to ask the king again to give a written assurance, that he would not be allowed to succeed to the Spanish throne at any time in the future.King Pu did not think it was possible to make such a guarantee.On 14 July, when Wilhelm left Ames for Koblenz, he met with Bedetti at the station and said that "he has nothing to say at the moment other than what has already been said to the ambassador, but that negotiations on this matter will continue in Berlin." ”Before Wilhelm I left Ames, he ordered his entourage, Counsellor of the Foreign Office, Abeken, to telegraph Bismarck of the matter.Bismarck was having dinner with War Minister Rohan and Chief of Staff Moltke when he received the telegram.Bismarck censored the message, changing its mild tone to one that was insulting to the French Government.As soon as this cable was published, France declared war on Germany on 19 July.At the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War, Wilhelm I delivered a royal speech in which he called on the German nation to fight the atrocities of France with all its might.He personally commanded the German army.On 2 September, 200,000 German troops launched an offensive against the city of Sedan, with 680 artillery pieces firing fiercely.The French army was defeated, and Napoleon III was taken prisoner.At this point, the forces that hindered the unification of Germany had been eliminated.At the end of 1870, four southern German states issued a statement announcing their membership in the German Confederation.On December 10, 1870, under Bismarck's plan, the North German Union sent a delegation to Versailles to ask Wilhelm I to become Emperor of the German Empire.The Bavarian fairy king Ludwig II was also forced to sign a letter drafted by Bismarck, advising the king to accept the crown.On January 18, 1871, Wilhelm I, surrounded by princes and nobles, was crowned Emperor of the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles, proclaiming the establishment of the German Empire.In his toast at the feast, the king said to the three masters: You, General Ron, have sharpened your sword; You; General Moltke; The sword was used correctly: you, Count Bismarck, have been so remarkably in charge of my policy for many years that whenever I thank the army, I think of the three of you in particular. ”After the ceremony, the North German Confederation was transformed into the German Empire.The German Empire at this time was a feudal state; The emperor was the head of state and president of the feudal monarchs.The new territories included Bavaria, Württemberg and the kings of Saxony; Archduke Baden and Hesse; Senate of Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen.Wilhelm reluctantly accepted the title of "German Emperor".He had proposed the title "German Emperor", but apparently the feudal monarchs would not accept it.Bismarck considered Wilhelm to be a traditional, courteous, and absolutely courteous gentleman, a veritable Prussian officer.Some of his judgments are occasionally influenced by the "kindness of a woman."
On 11 May 1878, when Wilhelm I was on a tour in an open-top street under the linden in Berlin, Herder, a hardware worker, fired a shot at him, but Wilhelm missed and Wilhelm was not injured.On June 2 of the same year, a man named Karnopyrin shot the emperor with a shotgun, wounding William and then committing suicide.This became the reason for the establishment of the Socialist Law on the Elimination of Socialism on October 21, 1878.The legislation was introduced by Bismarck's government and received strong support from the National Assembly.The purpose of the law was to combat the actions of the socialists and the working class, and to deprive the German Social Democratic Party of its legitimacy."
Although Wilhelm I was nominally the monarch who had completed the unification of Germany, he was not in reality a man of great talent, and in many cases he was even too rigid and conservative, lacking flexibility and a sense of the big picture.For example, after the Austro-Prussian War, Bismarck meant that he did not want Austria to cede territory in exchange for Austria to stand on his side in the future changes in Europe.But Wilhelm I was still a soldier, insisting that the purpose of war was to gain territory.For this reason, the two were at a stalemate, and Bismarck even threatened to resign.Eventually, William I made a compromise, and the two continued to work together for many years. ”Hirobumi Ito smiled at Shigeru Moriyama.Shigeru Moriyama nodded: "It is also the mediocrity of Wilhelm I that made Bismarck, after all, although Wilhelm I was sometimes stubborn, he would basically compromise with Bismarck in the end, and it may not be necessary to change to an extremely talented monarch who cares about power."
Sometimes the balance of power between the monarch and the minister is also emphasized, and if you want to cooperate to do great things, there is always one side that is relatively weak.From this point of view, Wilhelm I and Bismarck can be regarded as mutually fulfilling. ”"It will depend on how we meet with the Kaiser in three days."
Hirobumi Ito said with rare concern.t1706231537: