Field Marshal Walther von Reichenau stared at the retired Major General, Professor Karl Haushofer. If Professor Karl were not a former Major General, Marshal Reichenau would have concluded that everything Professor Karl said was the wishful, foolish talk of a literati.

Since Professor Karl, sitting opposite him, had also once risked his life in the fires of war, Reichenau did not employ any diplomatic rhetoric and asked straightforwardly, "Professor, what is He Rui's reasoning?"

"Some might think that He Rui is doing this to preserve France and ensure China's interests in Europe. I believe this is the position and interest of the Chinese government, but not the position of Mr. He Rui. A supranational political system has never appeared until now. The supranational political system proposed by Mr. He Rui is intended to resolve conflicts between nations. Take the Asian Coal and Steel Community of China, Japan, and Korea as an example. Since the Coal and Steel Community is not in the hands of any single country—China, Japan, or Korea—the data on steel, which serves as the industrial foundation, allows all three countries to understand each other's industrial capabilities. Military power relies on industry; the transparency of steel flows resolves the issue of security trust first. There is no suspicion regarding the objectives of each other's military investments."

Reichenau understood what Professor Karl was explaining, so he expressed his objection, "China's power holds an overwhelming advantage among the three nations, which is why this kind of security trust can be achieved."

Professor Karl waved his hand. "Marshal, your intuition is the exact opposite of the facts. Precisely because Japan and Korea are powerless to confront China, and these two countries have little influence on China's economy, politics, and military, the security trust between Japan and Korea is actually more fragile. Once the European Coal and Steel Community is established, since the power gap between nations is limited and no single country with absolute dominance can emerge, participating nations can bring their internal domestic conflicts into this supranational consultative system to play out their strategic games. Only then do nations have a mechanism to resolve problems through negotiation.

"If Germany seeks absolute leadership within the European Coal and Steel Community, this organization will have little practical significance. Contradictions between nations would be unsolvable, eventually leading to the outcome of exporting domestic issues through war."

Marshal Reichenau did not retort directly this time, but he clearly felt the immense gap between the solution proposed by He Rui—which belonged entirely to the political realm—and German militarism. If Reichenau discussed this from a soldier's standpoint, the conversation was destined to fail. However, Reichenau could not change his military mindset in such a short time to understand this arrangement through a political lens.

Professor Karl, on the contrary, hoped to make Reichenau understand the role of politics in international relations. He continued to explain, "The people of France and Germany have now accepted a fate: every few decades, the youth of both countries must march onto the battlefield. Those lucky enough to survive will reproduce, waiting for the next Franco-German war to let their descendants continue the slaughter. Marshal, do you not find this destiny sorrowful?"

Reichenau felt nothing about this, so he did not answer. For hundreds of years, when France was strong, they marched in and out of Berlin. When Germany was strong, they marched in and out of Paris. For Prussian military aristocrats, the meaning of their existence was to win wars against France. As for whether they themselves would die in war, Prussian military aristocratic families and military academy education were designed to eliminate their fear of their own deaths. As for how many people would die for the war, that was even less within Reichenau's consideration.

Of course, this did not mean Reichenau himself was a cold-blooded and heartless person. As an elite who had received complete military education, the academy required officers like Reichenau to be very concerned about army losses and to make rational judgments based on national power and army casualties. This was also why, at the end of the First World War, although the German army still occupied a large territory in northern France, they decided to surrender.

The German General Staff, through their judgment of Germany's military and economy, determined that the German army no longer had any possibility of victory. Continuing to fight would inevitably lead to tragic losses. Calling a truce at that moment could preserve Germany to the greatest extent.

Reichenau understood Professor Karl's explanation. If European nations formed a supranational organization economically, they could conduct more effective economic coordination. As long as the economy was passable, European countries would naturally be unwilling to flip the table and fight. However, Reichenau intuitively felt that such a whimsical model could not stop war at all. If economic conflicts between nations were limited to within their borders, there would still be various anti-war forces domestically. When conflicts were placed on the platform constructed by a supranational system, all conflicts would have no room for mitigation and would collide nakedly. This was more likely to intensify conflicts and trigger war.

Thinking this in his heart, Reichenau spoke his views. After listening, Professor Karl felt Reichenau's reaction was quite on point and explained with some anticipation, "The purpose of the Coal and Steel Community is to ensure that participating nations no longer break out in war. Taking the Asian Coal and Steel Community led by China as an example, because China's power is too strong, even with such a supranational organization, if China really prepares to wage war, other member states would be powerless to stop it. Whether China wages war depends on the domestic attitude towards peace in China.

"The situation in European countries is different. If only one or two countries prepare to wage war, because information within the Coal and Steel Community is transparent, as soon as war preparations begin, they will be discovered. Other countries opposed to war can form an alliance to confront the countries preparing for war. And during the war preparation period, the Coal and Steel Community can also seek methods to resolve conflicts through collective meetings and individual meetings. It can oppose war to the greatest extent."

"...I oppose this means of opposing war," Reichenau stated his view. Professor Karl had indeed clearly explained the fundamental concept of establishing the Coal and Steel Community, as well as the method of operating it. So Reichenau now had his own clear view. That was to oppose this anti-war supranational organization.

All the education Reichenau had received was on how to conduct war effectively. Whether it was a war of aggression or a war of national defense, it emphasized gaining dominance over one's own national regime and economy. In political terms, this meant the most complete national sovereignty possible. The supranational model of the Coal and Steel Community would genuinely cause Germany to hand over a portion of its national sovereignty, causing Germany's initiative in waging war to be hugely weakened. For this point alone, Reichenau had to oppose the Coal and Steel Community model.

Professor Karl was not surprised. After he had researched and understood the European Coal and Steel Community model proposed by He Rui, he had communicated with people in Germany's political, military, and academic circles. Only those who understood economics very well, such as experts like Schacht, and a portion of the academic community expressed support. According to Professor Karl's private assessment, no more than 30% of the German academic community genuinely supported the Coal and Steel Community.

As for the German political and military circles, they either decisively rejected it like Reichenau, or they thought of using the Coal and Steel Community, turning it into an institution where Germany used other countries to serve itself.

For those who firmly opposed it, Professor Karl believed it was just a divergence of ideas. Professor Karl was quite disgusted with those who held a speculative mentality. European countries were all industrialized, after all; everyone was a seasoned old fox, so how could they really be deceived by mere ghost stories?

Moreover, He Rui's suggestion to establish a European Coal and Steel Community was based on the sincerity of pacifism and did not carry any utilitarianism. In Professor Karl's view, if such a plan were exploited by a group of speculators, it would simply be blasphemy.

Since Marshal Reichenau was not a blasphemer, Professor Karl attempted to continue communicating, "Marshal, are you opposed to peace?"

Reichenau had not considered the issue of peace much. Being asked this by Professor Karl, he pondered for quite a while before answering, "I do not oppose peace. But I oppose a peace that makes our side lose dominance. If peace is merely the objective, peace will inevitably obstruct struggle and progress, and what it brings will inevitably be decay."

Professor Karl was speechless for a moment. In the fundamental concepts of geopolitics he advocated, he believed that the state is an organism that can grow and die; the strong can acquire the land and resources for their own growth just like in nature, and some countries with small populations but vast lands do not have the right to survive alone, such as some small countries in Eastern Europe and the Baltic Sea.

Therefore, although Professor Karl and He Rui were both world-renowned scholars of geopolitics, the differences between them were very obvious. He Rui's geopolitical theory also recognized that many small countries could not possibly possess the ability to survive alone, so He Rui's view was to establish a New World Order to ensure that all countries in the world, regardless of size or strength, should have the right to be free from aggression and the right to continue developing.

If what He Rui advocated was a New World Order led by China, to build a Chinese hegemonic system, Professor Karl would feel that He Rui, as a national leader and a top politician with decisive influence in the world, was perfect. Even now, Professor Karl consistently believed that He Rui was a very formidable military strategist and strategist, with breathtaking achievements in politics, but Professor Karl believed that the political ideals in the Chinese culture that He Rui followed were perhaps too idealistic.

A major reason Professor Karl wanted to see He Rui this time was to discuss a question with him. If the New World Order advocated by He Rui were established, this order would inevitably be built on the foundation of restricting powerful nations from fully obtaining benefits. This formed a paradox: the countries capable of supporting He Rui's philosophy were those powerful nations. Once the powerful nations were restricted, why would they support He Rui's political philosophy?

After Professor Karl identified his own doubt, his expectation to communicate with He Rui became stronger and stronger. With He Rui's level of cognition, the political system he designed absolutely could not have such a paradox. But He Rui had proposed it nonetheless!

So, how exactly did He Rui plan to resolve this almost unsolvable paradox? Professor Karl was truly very interested.

At this moment, Marshal Reichenau was sorting through his own views on peace and the Coal and Steel Community. The more he thought, the more Reichenau felt there were no issues with his line of thinking. As an excellent soldier, the Marshal also admitted that the vision of peace proposed by Professor Karl made a lot of sense. However, this was just a vision and had not been proven at all. Even if this vision eventually became reality, the conflicts between nations were so fierce that the deliberately constructed peace system would eventually be destroyed.

In European history, there had been many outstanding politicians who, with a vision exceeding that of narrow nations, had made very many efforts to establish overall European peace, and there had been quite a few results that made Europe very expectant at the time. But no matter what kind of peace efforts they were, they all failed in the end!