On the coast of Le Havre, on a high ground facing the entrance of the Seine River, there is a small manor. This manor is said to have been the private property of a great nobleman. When he was bored, he often watched various sailboats entering and leaving the Seine River, so he named the manor "Wangfan Manor".

During the Great Revolution, the great nobles naturally fled abroad, and his manor was naturally confiscated by the revolutionary government. This manor actually had no production, it was just a place for the nobles to relax, but it was a good location. As an observation post, it could monitor the Seine estuary, so it became a post of the French army. Later, the situation stabilized, and it became a country villa of the new noble of the Republic, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Talleyrand.

Early this morning, several four-wheeled carriages arrived at the manor and stopped at the door of the main building. An old man in his sixties and a group of young people got off the carriage and saw that the owner of the manor, Minister Talleyran, had already greeted him from the door.

"Simone, welcome to my villa." Talleyran, who was also gray-haired, limped over and stretched out a hand to the old man very friendly.

The two hands were held together, and the two of them had smiles on their faces, as if they were really good friends.

The two of them held hands and walked in with a smile, just like a young couple.

Talleyran personally took them into the small living room, and everyone sat down on the sofa, and a waiter brought in tea.

Generally speaking, the French in this era used more coffee when entertaining guests, but this time the waiter brought black tea.

Tea was once popular in France, but since the Seven Years War, France lost a series of colonies in the Far East, the tea trade was basically monopolized by the British, while France's colonies in Africa and Haiti were rich in coffee, so France's consumption habits turned to coffee. Before that, Talleyrand also entertained them, but they were also invited to drink coffee. This time, black tea was suddenly put on. Of course, it can be said that the French were showing the attentiveness of their owners, but are there other things in it, and more meanings?

British representative Simeone picked up the teacup and took a sip. This is a black tea from Darjeeling, India, with a unique grape fragrance. Since Britain fell into a blockade, even British nobles have found such authentic Darjeeling black tea.

"Oh, the war has been so long that I haven't had such a good Darjeeling black tea in a while," Simeone sighed. "My friend, I think it's time to end this meaningless war."

"I agree with this point. War is not a happy thing for both of us. It has affected a lot of business. And war is too expensive. You see, we have commissioned the Roman Bank to issue war bonds for the third time. If this continues, our government spending will sooner or later deficit. Maybe we have to suspend the annual increase in allowances to veterans. Also, plans such as the Palace of Culture and Art Gallery have also been affected, which directly affects the people's satisfaction with life and will reduce their smiles. This is really bad." Talleyran said with a frown.

In Simeone's opinion, Talleyran is showing off his nakedness. The UK has issued the third war bonds many times. There is also the saying "At the end of the day, our government spending will have a deficit sooner or later", which is even more showing off. It means that the French government has not yet experienced a financial deficit! Such a financial advantage is equivalent to demonstrating to the British in Hongguoguo.

There are also "annual growth of veterans' allowances", and there are also "Palace of Culture" and "Art Gallery", which are not all showing off. For the British, the war that exhausted national strength has limited impact on the French, and even on their lives.

However, no matter how the French show off, this is also the right of the winner. At least, they also agreed to this crucial point - everyone needs peace.

"I don't know what your country thinks about peace." Simeone asked.

"Last time we met, I provided you with a memorandum on behalf of our country, but you had some opinions or misunderstandings about our memorandum at that time," Talleyran said with a sincere smile, "so much so that it caused some conflicts that we didn't want to see later. So, we carefully studied the memorandum we gave you last time, and we found that there were indeed many inappropriate things, and no wonder it led to your misunderstandings. So, we revised the memorandum last time. You can first check it out, and then see if we can bring peace to our era based on this new memorandum."

A young assistant of Talleyrand handed a document to Simeone.

Simeone's face was not very good. In his opinion, the "modification" mentioned by Talleyran must have added more and more harsh content. Although before coming, both the prince and the prime minister who acted on the royal power asked him to hold back, to reach peace as much as possible, and to "measure the British's material resources and win the favor of France." Moreover, the prime minister also expressed that the French have always been greedy, and now the conditions they put forward may be more unacceptable, but no matter what the other party makes, do not refuse immediately, and tolerate it. You must know that the kingdom is close to collapse and cannot continue the war.

So, he still reached out to take the memorandum.

"The content is a bit too much, a little complicated," Talleyran smiled. "You can read it slowly, discuss it with others, or even send someone back to discuss it with the country. However, the First Lord hopes that we will be better off completing the negotiations within a week."

"So anxious?" Simeone's face became increasingly unpleasant. "We both have the sincerity of peace, and peace is inevitable. Why are we so anxious?"

"Because peace has not come yet, the dividends of peace have not come - how can we not be in a hurry?" Talleyrand said. "And, with some of the information we have learned, if we cannot reach a peace agreement as soon as possible, there may be some turmoil in your country. And we are worried that such turmoil will cause trouble for peace."

Simeone opened the thick memo and looked at it, and said, "We need to take a closer look at this document. Can you give us a separate room?"

"It's easy, ah, Bao Saiang, take my friends to my little study." Talleyran turned his head and said to his assistant.

Simeone and the others followed Bao Saiang to the small study, and everyone gathered together to study the newly proposed memorandum by the French. In order to save time as much as possible, each of them was responsible for a chapter. Moreover, this memorandum was very similar in structure to the previous memorandum, which was convenient for everyone to compare.

Soon, a few people finished reading the part they assigned to.

"Mr., the part I saw is not much different from the previous memorandum." A young man said first.

This sentence made Simeone feel much more relaxed.

"It's just a difference in some words. Well, the current memorandum emphasizes the equality of responsibilities and obligations of both parties in terms of wording. It seems to be more... more equal than before, but the essence has not changed much." The young man added.

"Take it to me?" Simeone said quickly.

Everyone knows that this time, apart from the negotiations, a traitorous treaty was signed. Anyone who signed this treaty would be nailed to the pillar of shame in history. Therefore, the original Foreign Minister suddenly resigned for physical reasons, and Simeone, a special envoy who was originally just conducting some secret contacts, was suddenly promoted to Foreign Minister over the level, which was actually just a need to let him take the blame.

This is like in later generations, Chang Kaishen sent Foreign Minister Song Ziwen to talk to Mao Xiong about the Red Army's dispatch of troops to the Northeast, and handed over all conditions, including the rights of the Manchurian Railway, including the lease of the Lu Da to Mao Xiong for 50 years, and allowing Outer Mongolia to be independent through "democratic means". When it was time to sign, Song Ziwen became ill. Then Wang Shijie was replaced by Foreign Minister, and immediately went to Moscow to replace Song Ziwen and signed the Sino-Soviet Friendship and Alliance Treaty that betrayed China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Now, Simeone's role is the role of Wang Shijie in later generations.

Although Simeone had to sign a treason treaty, it would be nice if this treaty really looked much better in words.

"Take it over and show it to me?" Simeone said quickly.

So the young man handed over the chapter he read and the corresponding chapters in the last memo.

Simeone hurriedly watched.

Indeed, the provisions today are indeed much more "equal" in writing. For example, this article involves the issue of the British opening up the domestic market to the French. In the previous memorandum, it was described as follows: "Britain must unconditionally open its domestic market to France and its allies, individuals, enterprises and products of France and its allies, and in economic activities in the United Kingdom, which must obtain a completely equal and non-discriminatory status with the British people and British enterprises. France and its allies will form a committee to monitor the implementation of these clauses and submit relevant assessment reports to France and its allies' governments."

You see, this is a clause that requires Britain to unilaterally open its market and thus turn Britain into a French colony and destroy Britain.

But now, this clause has become like this:

"The French Republic and the United Kingdom both realize that equal economic exchanges are the most reliable guarantee of world peace. In order to ensure world peace and promote the welfare of the peoples of both countries, the two governments have made the following commitments on trade issues: the two governments and governments who will join the peace agreement in the future have promised each other to fully open the market to each other, and neither side shall restrict the sales of each other's goods in their own markets by discriminatory means including tariffs and quotas, and they promise to give each other's citizens and enterprises a complete non-discriminatory national treatment.

In order to ensure the implementation of this clause, the two parties will equally form a Joint Free Trade Commission to adjust and arbitrate the contradictions arising from the implementation of this clause. Both governments promise to respect the mediation and arbitration of this committee. In the future, other countries will join the committee and will also fulfill their obligations and enjoy their rights."

Let’s look at the second statement. Is it much more equal than the first one? There is much less smell of losing power and humiliating the country? However, in many cases, equality in articles itself is the greatest inequality.

Just as after the Napoleon Code was published, Joseph said: "The law, with its solemn equality, prohibits the poor and also prohibits the rich from sleeping under the bridge, begging and stealing bread along the street." Without considering the strength and status of the contracting parties, the so-called "equality" provision is nothing more than a fig leaf for the winner to take all.

Just imagine, now that the British economy has collapsed, and a large number of companies have gone bankrupt or are on the verge of bankruptcy due to losses. In this case, how can they engage in the so-called "equal competition" with French companies? Letting them "equal competition" is as ridiculous as letting a male heavyweight champion and a female featherweight boxer "fair competition" on the same stage. "Fair competition" will only bring the result of "everything that has to be doubled, and even what he has to take over."

Therefore, such an equal mutual open market is actually not really different from the unilateral opening of the market in the UK.

In later history, Chang Kaishen once signed a treaty called the "Condor Friendly Trade and Navigation Treaty", which was quite "equal" in terms of articles. However, this treaty was accused by the knowledgeable people at that time as "an unprecedented treason treaty in the history of the flower planting country." This is not without reason. After the contract was signed, a small amount of national industry in the flower planting country was quickly destroyed, so that "decent people" like national capitalists were forced to stand on the other side of Chang Kaishen.

Of course, there is also a problem with this type of treaty, that is, if the balance of power changes, no interest and ineffectiveness will also change. For example, if today, Amei, see which commander dares to sign a "Rabbit Eagle Friendly Trade and Navigation Treaty" with the Red Rabbit Kingdom, the story of "Danji Eagle Friendly Trade and Navigation Treaty" will definitely occur.
Chapter completed!