Iron and Blood: A Triumph of the Will

"It's either coexistence or mutual destruction—this young German has quite the nerve!"

The person speaking was not tall, but he was strong and a bit overweight.

But his eyes are sharp and extremely intimidating.

He straightened his dark suit and stiff-collared shirt.

The cigar he held between his fingers was sizzling: "Looks like the Germans want to fight us again!"

"They just want to fight us again. The Germans will never learn how to live peacefully with others."

The speaker was Demowski, who represented Poland at the Paris Peace Conference and made the demands.

As the saying goes, when in Rome, do as the Romans do; at this moment, he was also smoking a thick cigar and drinking black coffee.

The cigar sizzled on his fingers: "So we should completely dismantle this European powder keg."

At this point, the Pole's gaze fell upon a map of Germany displayed in the center of the reception room.

That was a map of the Second German Reich.

Many areas have already been ceded, such as Alsace-Lorraine, which was ceded to France, and a small area ceded to Belgium.

A large portion of the land west of the Rhine was marked with a slanted line, labeled the Republic of New Westphalia.

Looking further north, Holstein and Schleswig were also marked with diagonal lines.

Looking eastward, a vast region of Prussia is marked with a diagonal line, including the so-called Greater Poland and Upper Silesia.

The Poles had grand ambitions; they planned to swallow up all of Prussia in one fell swoop and drive the Germans back to the Oder River.

Meanwhile, Germany's arch-enemy, France, made no secret of its desire to dismember Germany.

"This is a shared aspiration of our two countries."

The guy who "said the Germans would continue to fight us" spoke up, his signature thick gray mustache unable to conceal his belligerent temper.

George Clemenceau followed Demowsky's gaze.

They stared intently at the map of Germany.

The humiliation that the Prussians brought to France in 1871 also came to mind.

The Prussians in Paris at that time were so arrogant and domineering.

The results of it?

What now?

How is it?

They're still crawling at the feet of the French like a dead dog!

The French will deal with him however they want!

They actually want to make a last-ditch effort now?

That's absolutely ridiculous!

"Only a fragmented Germany is the best Germany. Germans love division. They have not been a unified country since the Holy Roman Empire."

"Germany is just a geographical term," Demofsky continued, picking up where the French Prime Minister left off. "So what we need to do now is to return it to its fragmented state before unification."

"But the British and Americans will not agree to this."

Clemenceau looked at him meaningfully: "They disagree with making too many concessions to Poland on the eastern border; the German-Polish border is just too chaotic."

"You should seize the opportunity to drive the Germans out of there completely."

In fact, as of now, the Treaty of Versailles has already settled the border between Germany and France, in particular.

France could no longer expand further into Germany.

They've already got the prizes they wanted: Alsace and Lorraine. So what the French have to do next is further weaken Germany and extract more land from it. See that New Westphalia on the map?

That was the other prize the French wanted.

They had planned to establish a Westphalian republic on land west of the Rhine to serve as a buffer zone between France and Germany. In addition, they hoped to control the Saar coal mines north of Alsace to completely contain Germany's war potential.

Since Germany controlled the land to the east, the French were naturally willing to let Poland take as much as it wanted.

Therefore, in his words, Clemenceau had already referred to Prussia and Silesia as Polish territory.

This pleased Demovsky, who was standing next to him.

But while it may be useful, the reality remains the same.

The Germans held considerable power in the east; even a weakened camel is bigger than a horse.

In addition, Poland is surrounded by enemies on all sides, and has territorial disputes with almost all of its neighbors.

With Russia to the east and Germany to the west, Joachim is now even proclaiming a partnership with Red Russia.

This greatly worried Demovsky.

If Red Russia were to actually win, that would be disastrous.

So despite his frequent nods in agreement with Clemenceau's remarks, he couldn't help but pour cold water on his enthusiasm: "The Germans have now firmly pinned us down in Pots. If we can't gain control of Pots, then we'll truly lose our outlet to the sea in the west..."

"Oh dear, don't be so greedy." Hearing this, Clemenceau closed his eyes slightly and shook his head a few times: "You can give up some of the eastern territory, why don't you abandon the dispute with Russia and focus all your efforts on fighting Germany for the western territory?"

"I can call the Czechs and ask them to confirm our territorial border."

You make it sound so nice, but if you're so capable, why don't you just abandon Arthas and Lorraine?

Did we really need to endure hardship and bide our time for so many years?

Why not just reconcile with the Germans sooner?

Demovsky rolled his eyes inwardly upon hearing this. If only I could persuade that guy Piłsudsky to give up the eastern territories.

Do I need to be exiled to Paris to talk to you?

Are you an idiot?

Of course, I can only vent my frustrations internally.

Although Demowski knew that Clemenceau was using the Poles as pawns, the Poles now did want to be pawns for the French because they wanted to use France to take more land from the Germans.

Thinking it over, Demovsky used Pilsudski as a shield: "Actually, I want to too, but that guy Pilsudski won't listen to advice."

"So you all need to work hard."

"If you don't make a name for yourselves in eastern Germany, I can't afford to be overly biased towards you."

Clemenceau twitched his mustache and said with a sneer, "Recently, the British have said they don't advocate weakening Germany because they still need Germany to pay war reparations. In other words, if you don't take action soon, I can't guarantee you'll get a sea outlet on German territory."

"The British really said that!" Demowski jumped three feet high.

"That's not what I said, is it something I said?"

Clemenceau looked at him coldly. The first half of the statement was indeed spoken by the Englishman, but the second half was said by himself.

To date, neither the British nor the Americans have agreed to this condition.

Especially the question of the ownership of Danzig.

Because once the Poles gained access to the sea, it would mean opening a corridor through German territory.

This action undoubtedly violates the principle of national self-awareness.

Moreover, such a distorted map could sow the seeds of future wars.

But Clemenceau didn't care; he only wanted to use the Poles as pawns against the Germans.

As for how much blood the Poles will shed and how much benefit they will gain, that depends entirely on their own efforts.

Clemenceau only cared about how much that powerful Germany could be weakened.

The famous tiger in Parliament