Tang Jingsong was born in 1841, the name is Weiqing, and he is a native of Guanyang, Guangxi. In the fourth year of Tongzhi (1865), he was elected as a scholar and awarded the title of alternate director of the department.

After serving as a Xiaojing official for 16 years, he was depressed, and when he heard that the war broke out in the northern region of Annam, his ambition was rekindled, so he was reprimanded by the Qing court and sent to Annam, and was completely disappointed in the Manchu government, and decided to join the Nanyang Army and establish a meritorious career in the Annam region.

"The Manchu government is cowardly and afraid of the enemy, and it can't fight against the western Baiyi externally, and it can't protect the territory and the people internally.

As soon as the two met, Tang Jingsong put his position very low, and humbly expressed his intention to defect to the Han Kingdom.

"The Manchu government is corrupt and incompetent, knowing that the Tang people have a strategic mind, but they do not appoint them, and the loss of the Tang people is a heavy loss for the Manchu government.

Mei Dongxing smiled and helped Tang Jingsong up, and said, "The French are pressing step by step, I don't know what the local garrison in the southwest region is doing?" ”

Before Tang left Beijing, the Qing court ordered the fourth battalion of the training army to be transferred to the border area of the Red River in Yunnan, and ordered the alternate Dao Shen Shourong to go to Lin'an and recruit the eighth battalion of the training army on the spot for mobilization.

At the same time, it also ordered Sichuan to transfer 200,000 taels of military salaries every year to the Yunnan border army, and in Guangzhou, Xu Yanxu was appointed as the prime minister to resist the enemy, commanding more than 20,000 people in Guangxi's green battalions and militia groups, and deploying defenses along the line of Guangxi and Annan. ……”

"The Qing army deployed a large army in the border area, but it was not moved, and I am afraid that it was not only the French who defended it."

In 1872, after Feng Zicai, the governor of Guangxi, returned to his hometown, he also reported to the imperial court, saying that the armed forces of the Chinese in Annan were strong, and it was recommended that the Qing court send troops to exterminate them as soon as possible, but because Feng Zicai was humble at that time, and Huang Guilan, the governor of Guangxi, did not deal with it, Feng Zicai's suggestion was not adopted by the Qing court.

However, since His Majesty proclaimed himself the emperor in South America for two years, the Qing court has become increasingly suspicious of the Chinese armed forces at home and abroad, and many noble ministers of the Eight Banners have written to the Qing court, strongly demanding that the local Han people be deprived of the right to supervise and support, and the Empress Dowager Cixi has not been released, and later, several Han generals in the southern coastal areas have encouraged their soldiers to make a disturbance, and took advantage of the chaos to loot the mansions of several banner people in the city, and the matter has become a big one, and it has spread to Beijing. This matter was temporarily suppressed. ”

"The greater the contradiction between the Manchu court and the local Han people, the more beneficial it will be to the development of the Han state."

Mei Dongxing nodded.

"It is true that as the lord said, the Han superintendent in the southern coastal area and the officials and generals below have mastered the local training army, militia and other weapons, over the years, they have used their armed forces to privately engage in the smuggling of goods and weapons, but they have made a lot of money, and the nobles of the Eight Banners have watched the local Han officials make a lot of money at home, can they not be hot?"

After the Second Opium War, the door of the mainland was wide open.

The southern and northern coastal areas suffered from the impact of Western industrial commodities, and the local economy suffered a heavy blow, but the local officials and compradors who cooperated with the foreigners made a lot of money.

They either extracted taxes from commercial transactions between China and the West, or took advantage of the monopoly of the government to obtain cheap goods from Europe, the United States or the Han Kingdom, and then redistributed them to the forces that depended on them, indirectly carrying out smuggling activities.

Arms, commodities, and the covert delivery of refugees to the Han side fattened the Han officials in the southern and northern coastal areas, and when they had money, the officials or generals who had people in their hands would take out a part of the profits and then buy weapons in varying quantities from the trading companies controlled by the Han government at prices below the market to strengthen the combat effectiveness of the armed forces under their command.

In areas dominated by Han officials, activities such as smuggling commodities and arms, transporting refugees, etc., have formed a complete industrial chain, from the governor of a province at the highest level to the patrol soldiers at the lowest level, all in this industrial chain, there are large or small benefits, the eight banner aristocratic officials, only see a small number of local Han people have a lot of benefits, but they do not know that hidden under them, implicated in a wide range of beneficiary classes.

There are deep-seated reasons for cutting off people's financial resources, such as killing people, the rejection of the proposal of the noble ministers of the Eight Banners, and even the failure of the Manchu government's vigorous and resolute ban on overseas immigration two years ago, because the entire chain of interests has formed a huge community of interests, and even if the Han officials above are forced by the pressure of the Qing court to carry out the order, they will be opposed by the middle and lower strata of interests, and eventually fail.

Tang Jingsong and some compradors who themselves were lying on the Manchu government and sucking the blood of the Manchu government, saw the hopeless nature of the Manchu government, and only then did they choose other forces as the idea of realizing their ambitions or simply promoting themselves to become rich.

The two chatted in the room for more than half an hour, and from the mutual temptation, Mei Dongxing judged that the other party was not like the secret spies and traitors sent by the Qing court, so he temporarily lowered his guard and introduced him to the main generals of the Nanyang Legion.

"Tang Jingsong, the former alternate director of the Qing court's official department, and now the temporary staff officer of the Nanyang Army of the Han Kingdom, will give Brother Tang an official job arrangement after I explain the situation to the mainland."

Mei Dongxing beckoned Tang Jingsong to sit down, and said with a smile, "Brother Tang's family is on their way to the Annam area, and they will arrive soon, considering that our army will launch an attack on the French army in the Beiban area in the near future, it is not safe for Brother Tang's family to stay in Quang Ninh Province, why don't you transfer to Songkhla with the families of the brothers in the army, and wait until the war in Annam is over, and then take a boat to South America?" ”

"But it's up to Governor May."

Tang Jingsong arched his hand, with a hint of hesitation on his face.

"Brother Tang is worried about the threat of the French's warships?"

"The Fayi ship is strong, and Tang is indeed a little worried."

"It doesn't have to be."

Mei Dongxing waved his hand, and said with a relaxed expression, "The South Pacific Fleet has been ordered by the mainland to set off a month ago, and it will arrive at Halong Port in three or five days. ”

In order to relieve Tang Jingsong's concerns, Mei Dongxing gave him a rough introduction to the strength of the South Pacific Fleet and the number of regular troops of the Nanyang Legion, but he did not let him know about the vital military weapons and equipment and strategic and tactical arrangements for the time being.