On December 8, 1919, the German Emperor fled Berlin in a panic and ran to the Netherlands. At 5 am on December 9, at the Rethondes Station in the Compiegne Forest northeast of Paris, the German delegation headed by the Foreign Minister boarded the train of the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces, French Marshal Foch, and signed the armistice treaty of World War I. The terms of the armistice were extremely harsh, including:

Within 14 days, the German army must withdraw from the territories of France, Belgium, and Luxembourg occupied in this war, as well as the Alsace-Lorraine region occupied in the Franco-Prussian War;

Within one month, hand over German territory west of the Rhine and German territory 30 kilometers east of the Rhine to the Allied Forces;

Hand over cruisers, battleships, destroyers, 234 submarines, all aircraft of the air force, 500 cannons, and a large amount of guns and ammunition;

Germany must hand over 31.68 billion US dollars in war reparations (Germany could not produce this much, and it was repeatedly reduced to 714 million US dollars later);

Germany must hand over 5,000 perfectly functional locomotives, 150,000 carriages, and 5,000 trucks.

Germany must hand over all colonies... This tragic war finally came to an end.

Someone said that when everything comes to an end, a new beginning will appear. On the day the old war ended, the spoils sharing conference started immediately. There are many smart people in this world. Even in mid-November 1918, before the war officially ended, the Republic received an invitation from the United States, inviting the People's Party to discuss post-war issues together.

The Republic was very sensible, as a member country that made a big profit and as a partner country of the United States. Chen Ke did not attend the peace conference himself, but sent a diplomatic team composed of Premier Shang Yuan, Minister of Propaganda Zhang Yu, new employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs like Gu Weijun and Tang Shaoyi, and urgently drafted Li Runshi, Wu Xiangyu, and others.

After spending more than half a month on the road, the diplomatic team arrived in Washington on January 10, 1919, and went to visit US President Wilson and Washington's post-war peace decision-making team. The US side revealed a piece of news to China. On January 7, representatives of the five countries of Britain, France, the United States, Japan, and Italy had held a preparatory meeting for the Paris Peace Conference. At the preparatory meeting, Britain, France, Italy, and Japan tried to reach a secret agreement, stipulating that the five major powers of Britain, France, the United States, Japan, and Italy were "belligerents with general interests" and could participate in all meetings of the peace conference. Belgium, China, Serbia, and other countries were "belligerents with specific interests" and could only attend meetings related to their own countries. Bolivia and other countries that severed diplomatic relations with Germany could only express their opinions orally or in writing when the five major powers deemed it necessary. The rules of procedure also limited the number of plenipotentiary representatives of each country attending the meeting: 5 for each of the five major powers, 3 for Belgium, Serbia, and Brazil, and 2 for China, Poland, and other countries, totaling 70.

One of the common sayings of the People's Party is "relying on mountains, mountains fall; relying on rivers, rivers dry up." Regarding the attitude of Britain, France, and other countries, the representatives of the Republic felt it was perfectly normal. If they didn't do this, it would surprise the representatives of the Republic greatly.

The US representative thought that the indifferent look of the People's Party was a manifestation of discouragement. He proudly stated that under the strong insistence of the United States, China also became a "belligerent with general interests" and had the right to participate in the discussion of all issues.

Reciprocating kindness, since the US side was so considerate, the People's Party naturally sensibly expressed that it would do its best to support the US stance.

Only after confirming that the People's Party had no "unreasonable ambitions" did the US representative arrange for the People's Party delegation to meet US President Wilson. Wilson hoped that the People's Party could firmly support his "Fourteen Points." Since the People's Party firmly believed that everything could only rely on oneself, supporting Wilson was naturally not a problem. Chen Ke had previously quoted lines from "The Peach Blossom Fan," "See him build a tall building, see him banquet guests, see his building collapse." Since the powers were willing to jump desperately, what harm was there for the People's Party to jump with them.

At this time, the US side was in a time of smug satisfaction. In World War I, they obtained unprecedented benefits and also shifted a lot of British and French war bonds to the People's Party. In such a smooth sailing good time, the United States finally proposed its own route for world hegemony. What Wilson couldn't understand was why Chen Ke didn't attend such an important meeting. The People's Party told Wilson, "Chen Ke is in poor health and really can't stand the fatigue of travel." This reason was also quite reliable, so the US side accepted the explanation of the Republic.

After the Chinese and American delegations joined, the large-scale delegation took a ship to Paris together. On February 7, 1919, two months after the end of World War I, missions from most sovereign countries in the world arrived in Paris. The impatient spoils sharing conference officially began.

This spoils sharing conference was very interesting. Except for the People's Party, which had a plan in mind long ago, representatives of every country connected and colluded with each other, trying to gain more in this "world-changing" conference. Apart from having a fairly unified opinion on plotting to eliminate the newborn Russian Bolshevik regime, any other treaty among countries was full of contradictions.

Members of the People's Party had to get to know representatives from various countries every day. In the summary meeting every night, the comrades' understanding of the world became deeper and deeper. At the same time, as a new power in the Western Pacific, the comrades also personally experienced what national strength meant.

Every day, foreign representatives expressed "regret" that Chen Ke could not attend this meeting. The great name of the newly risen Chinese dictator had gradually gained some influence in the world. The Indian Imperial Crown on the head of the British King, the Russian Tsar, the Holy Roman Imperial Crown on the head of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Great Emperor of Ottoman Turkey, the Chinese Emperor, and the Ethiopian Emperor—these crowns were recognized by the world at that time. Being able to stand at the peak of imperial power once recognized at the age of 38 by one's own efforts, such a rare existence indeed had viewing value in the eyes of representatives from various countries.

The People's Party representatives were not so bored; everyone talked more about another issue. Although Engels did not live to see World War I, he made a prediction about such a war.

"The occupation of Belgium... is always a necessary condition for the attacker, whether it is Germany attacking France or France attacking Germany." (Engels, "Po and Rhine")

"The system of standing armies in Europe has been developed to the extreme... As long as standing armies are not reorganized into militias based on the universal arming of the people in time... either this system will bankrupt the people of various countries economically due to the unbearable burden of military expenditure, or it will inevitably lead to a devastating war." (Engels, "Can Europe Disarm?")

"But it can be predicted: if this war breaks out... it will be the complete bankruptcy of class states politically, militarily, economically (including financially), and morally. It may cause such a situation: the military machine rises in rebellion and refuses to continue... slaughtering each other. The cry of class states is: After us, the deluge. But after the deluge, what comes out is us, and only us." (Engels, "Letter to August Bebel")

Engels predicted that the future world war would last for three or four years.

In 1887, Engels wrote in the "Introduction to Borkheim's 'In Memory of the Extreme German Patriots of 1806-1807'": "...For Prussia-Germany, no other war is possible now except a world war."

"This will be a world war of unprecedented scale and unprecedented intensity. At that time, 8 to 10 million soldiers will slaughter each other and eat the whole of Europe clean, more severely than any locust swarm at any time."

Revolutionary mentor Engels predicted this war with profound vision, and the People's Party representatives admired this very much. The only problem was Engels' prediction of the war outcome,

"...The old states and their traditional statecraft collapsed together, so that crowns rolled by the dozens on the street and no one picked them up; it is absolutely impossible to predict how all this will end and who will be the victor in the struggle; only one result is absolutely certain, that is universal exhaustion and creating conditions for the final victory of the working class."

After the war, the crowns of the Russian Tsar, the German Second Reich, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire did fall, and emperors would probably never appear in these three countries again. Even if the crowns of other European kingdoms were still there, they no longer had the power to influence the world. But whether the final victory of the working class broke out after this war or in the distant future... judging from Chen Ke's meaning, the imperialists did not learn any lessons from this war at all; this great war was just the beginning, not the end.

In order to prepare for the new war, some comrades accompanying the team temporarily left the team as soon as they arrived in Paris. After visiting the German representatives, Pu Guanshui went to Berlin with the recommendation and help of the German delegation.

As a student of a German military academy, Pu Guanshui first connected with his few surviving teachers and the survivors of the "Stormtrooper" experts sent back to Germany by the People's Party. Krupp Steel was the largest supplier of weapons and equipment in Germany. With the recommendation of the German army, Pu Guanshui finally met the president of Krupp.

"Does your side think that in the next fifteen years, you need to set up some research centers in Asia?" Pu Guanshui asked.

The president of Krupp was obviously not interested in this suggestion. Krupp was a traditional industrial family business, not a joint-stock company like those in the United States, let alone an organization like the People's Party that used capital operation as a means. Based on the firm attitude of the family business, no matter how much Pu Guanshui wore out his lips, the president of Krupp did not agree to cooperate with the People's Party.

At this time, Germany was in chaos. The old army was in a state of panic, and various ideologies flooded society. Pu Guanshui completely couldn't believe that this was the Germany he saw when he was studying. Although Pu Guanshui also tried to contact German upper-class figures in many ways, in such a critical period, Pu Guanshui's efforts completely missed the point.

PS: Very busy these two days. The update time began to be chaotic, and the update volume can only be guaranteed as much as possible. Probably can start to gradually return to normal in three days.