The affairs of the Han Kingdom in the Far East gradually entered the stage of income,

At the end of July, the Nanyang Corps first returned the occupied port area of Halong Bay to the French colonial forces in Annam, and later the two sides exchanged prisoners and supplies in accordance with the peace agreement.

The Sino-French War of Annam ended in a compromise way, and the French colonial army in Annam gained the initiative in Annam and Cochinchina at the cost of thousands of casualties and the surrender of sovereignty over French Polynesia.

After the lessons of the Annam War, the French government realized that the strength of the French colonial army in the Cochinchina region was not enough to deal with the consequences of the annexation of Annam, Cambodia, and Laos.

The Nanyang Army was the first threat to prevent France from establishing an Eastern colonial empire, and with the gradual withdrawal of the Nanyang Army from northern Annam, the Manchu court, as the suzerainty of the Kingdom of Annam, became the main enemy of the French colonial army in Annam.

After the loss of Burma and a number of vassal states in the great northwestern frontier, the Kingdom of Annam and the Kingdom of Korea, the two countries that received the most profound influence of Chinese culture, became the bottom line that the Manchu court could not give up lightly.

The Kingdom of Korea was located on the flank of the Northeast region, and it was a matter of security to the Northeast region and the Forbidden City, and it was impossible for Russia and Japan to occupy Korea unless the Manchu government lost the war with the enemy.

The Kingdom of Annam bordered the Yunnan-Guizhou and Bagui regions, and through the coastal waters of Annam and the Red River route, the entire southwest region could be brought into the threat range, so in order to maintain the stability of the southeastern wealth and the southwestern hinterland, the northern part of Annam could never be occupied by enemy countries.

In addition to the need to loot the resources of the Cochinchina region and lay out a global colonial strategy, the French government's encroachment on Annam was also one of the main purposes of taking the Kingdom of Annam as a foothold to include Yunnan, Guizhou and Liangguang under its direct colonial rule or indirect economic colonial rule.

In order to achieve this goal, the French government approached Japan through various diplomatic channels such as Beijing, Paris, Berlin, and Tokyo, and attempted to conclude a military alliance with Japan against the government of the Manchu Qing government, hoping that when the French government annexed northern Annam, Japan would be able to launch a military attack from the other direction and share the military pressure of the Cochinchina garrison.

On July 18, 1881, when the French Foreign Minister met with the new Japanese minister to France, Shigedai Wassu, in Paris, he said: "We have common interests in dealing with the Qing Dynasty."

We hope to form an alliance with Japan at an early date and take joint military action against China when necessary. To this end, the French Foreign Minister also linked this issue to the issue of the revision of the treaty by the Government of Toei, and expressed his willingness to provide assistance to the question of the amendment of the article of the Toei Government.

On July 20, Shigeru Beesuka reported in detail in a secret report to Toei's foreign secretary Inoue Shin. On July 23, 1881, when Vial Cantel, the acting French minister to Japan, met with Inoue Shin, the foreign secretary of Toei, in Tokyo, he once again linked the issue of the "Franco-Japanese alliance" with the issue of the revision of the treaty of the Toei government, and tested the intention of the Toei government.

He also said: "The neighboring Qing country is really a stubborn country, and it is not enough to conspire, but your country is familiar with our national conditions and can work with it, and considering your country's future policy strategy toward China, the open people believe that if we can unite with our country and consult together, it will be beneficial and harmless." As the saying goes, France and Japan have the same interests and equal priorities, and this will certainly contribute to the enlightenment of the East. ”

Since July, the French government has approached Dongying many times, and is eager to conclude a military alliance with Dongying.

The French government moved out of Toei's greatest long-cherished wish since the early Meiji era, which was to revise the issue of inequality, and lured Toei into forming an alliance with Toei in the Far East in an attitude that seemed to promise the "main points" that the Toei government particularly wanted.

There is no doubt that this is a diplomatic strategy of the French government. However, this well-planned diplomatic strategy of the French government was quickly recognized by the Dongying government.

On July 28, 1881, the Dongying government held a special cabinet meeting to discuss the dispute between China and France over Vietnam and Japan's foreign policy.

Although some people in the Japanese Government did advocate accepting the French Government's proposal on the issue of concluding a "Japan-France alliance" and concluding an alliance with France as soon as possible to take joint military action against China, this proposal was opposed by the majority of the participants.

After the meeting, Japanese Foreign Minister Shin Inoue pointed out in an order to Minister to France, Shigedai Wasuka: "The French Government believes that Japan and France have common interests on the issue of the so-called vassalism advocated by the Qing government.

On the one hand, the French Government wants to help China realize its long-cherished aspirations, but on the other hand, it hopes that China will use the Tokyo incident as an opportunity to conclude an alliance with France in order to deny the theory that the Qing State is a vassal state. Presumably, this is nothing more than a French strategy. “

Therefore, and Shang Xin further pointed out. In recent years, following the Ryukyu Incident, the two countries have quarreled over the Korean issue, and the Qing government's resentment towards Japan has deepened.

Our Government should have tried to preserve peace in the East, but the current incident has nothing to do with Japan. For example, because of the distant "Tokyo Incident", an open alliance with a Western country will surely make the Qing state even more angry. Thinking about it, we cannot easily agree to the French proposal at present, nor can we publicly expose the intention of confrontation with the Qing State in relation to the "Tokyo Incident."

Please note that although the Japanese Government cannot openly agree with it, it can privately support the French proposal and criticize the vassal doctrine of the Qing State until the Qing is willing to give it up. ”

Of course, the Toei government did not reject the French's request for an alliance because it was worried about undermining the good situation of peace in East Asia, and the reason why Inoue Shin and other important officials quickly reached an agreement on the Annam issue was that the balance of naval forces between China and Japan had changed significantly.

After the Taiwan Incident in 1874, the Dongying government ordered three new warships in Britain in May of the following year: Fuso. King Kong, Hiei. Among them, Fusang is a central gun outline ironclad ship with a displacement of 3,777 tons, with a speed of 13 knots, equipped with 4 240 mm guns, 2 150 mm guns, and 4 120 mm guns, in 1878, these three warships were put into service one after another, making the Dongying Navy rise in the Far East overnight, forming an absolute advantage over the Qing Navy.

In the same year that Japan ordered the aforementioned three ships, Li Hongzhang also ordered four warships from the British Armstrong Company, which were later named the four mosquito gunboats (also known as Randol-type gunboats) that were later named Longxiang, Huwei, Feiting, and Cedian.

In 1878, when Fusang and other three ships were installed, Li Hongzhang ordered four mosquito cannon ships from the British. This is the north of the town, the south of the town, the west of the town and the east of the town. In addition to the Zhenbian and Zhenzhong purchased by Shandong Province, Fusheng and Jiansheng purchased by Fujian, the Jinou made by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, the Haidongxiong imitated by Liangguang, and the Haijingqing purchased by the Qing court, the Qing court had a total of 15 ant cannon ships.

The so-called mosquito gunboat belongs to the new concept of warships in the 19th century. Its basic feature is a small boat-mounted cannon. The mission was to defend the harbor as a mobile water battery, so the tonnage was small and slow, making it suitable for activities in shallow offshore waters.

As far as the aforementioned 15 mosquito cannon ships are concerned, in terms of tonnage, the smallest such as Jinou is only 195 tons, and the largest such as Zhenzhong, Zhenbian, and Haidongqing are only 440 tons; In terms of speed, the slowest ones such as Haidongqing only have 7.5 knots, and the fastest ones such as Liuzhen and Jinou are only 10 knots.

However, they were all equipped with powerful main guns, the 11-inch guns of Longxiang and Huwei achieved the result of penetrating 326 mm iron armor at a distance of 274 meters during the test firing, and the 12.5-inch guns of Feiting and Cedian achieved the result of penetrating 414 mm iron armor at a distance of 274 meters during the test firing.

It is designed to use this cannon to restrain enemy ironclad ships. This design idea and ramming cruisers in the future. Torpedo boats and missile boats are the same, hoping to give full play to their coastal defense advantages and defeat large ships with small boats.

The mindset of buyers is often the pursuit of quick results. I hope to spend a little money, do big things, and find a shortcut to the south. In essence, it embodies the killer thinking.

But the cruel facts turned out. The modern navy is a systematic project, and if it does not advance, it will retreat. If only offshore defense. In the era of the revival of land power, it is better to build land-based forts and railways to enhance the mobility of the army.

And once the navy is developed, there will never be a navy that can only fight in the mouth. What's more, although the firepower of the mosquito gunboat is strong, it is slow. Poor protection, poor artillery accuracy. Slow rate of fire. The effective firing range is short and the actual combat effectiveness is extremely low.

Especially with the development of machine guns and small-caliber rapid-fire guns, weapons such as mosquito gunboats can only launch suicidal attacks with a low success rate in the face of large warships.

If the enemy launches a landing on the coastline far from the port and makes a long-distance detour attack on the military port by land, the mosquito-filled ships can only look at the ocean and sigh.

Due to the lack of comprehensive strategic, operational, and tactical awareness, Li Hongzhang and others have never had a clear understanding of this fatal flaw of the mosquito cannon boat. The reason why he did not buy new mosquito cannon ships after 1878 was by no means that he had realized the defects of this weapon, but that since the moment Dongying purchased the Fusang, the Manchu court formed a kind of public opinion that "Dongying actually also has an ironclad ship".

Like aircraft carriers in the 21st century, ironclad ships were recognized as the strongest warships in the world at that time and a symbol of the status of a great power.

Under these circumstances, a consensus quickly formed within the Qing court to purchase powerful ironclad ships and re-establish the hegemony of the East Asian navy.

In the face of extremely fierce competition over budgets between regions, no matter what Li Hongzhang himself thought of the ironclad ships, he would never want this large sum of money to fall into the hands of other governors. Therefore, as soon as he found out that the central government was willing to pay for the purchase of ironclad ships, he immediately took preemptive action.

In December 1879, Li Hongzhang ordered two new ramming cruisers, named Chaoyong and Yangwei.

In December 1880 and May 1881, Li Hongzhang successively ordered two large ironclad ships from the German Volkeng shipyard, which were the famous Dingyuan and Zhenyuan. These two ironclad ships with a displacement of more than 7,000 tons had super defensive power, each equipped with four Krupp 305 mm guns, and were the largest ships in the Far East at that time.

With the inclusion of Chaoyong and Yangwei in the service of the Qing Army's naval division and the signing of the contract for the construction of Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, Dongying mobilized the strength of the whole country to develop the navy, and the short-lived naval advantage obtained quickly disappeared.

The advent of the era of ironclad giant ships, so that all countries in the world have to pay attention to the role of the navy, the naval arms race of the European powers is beginning to emerge, in the Far East, the Qing court, the Dongying two countries for the dispute over the dominance of the East Asian region secretly competed, and in the South American continent, with the stability of the homeland and naval situation, and the early capture of the three Brazilian ironclad ships are about to be retired from active service, for the development of the navy, the Han monarchs and ministers also launched a big discussion.