July 1881, Shanghai Concession.

"Sell newspapers! Sell newspapers! The Annan Chinese army defeated the French and killed thousands of captured French soldiers! The casualties of the Chinese army were only 700! ”

The eleven or twelve-year-old newsboy shouted loudly with a bulging backpack on his back.

"Give me one, and I'll have one." …………

The lively streets were crowded with people, and the Chinese who were attracted by the shouting constantly took out a few copper coins and bought a newspaper to see.

On June 27, more than 10,000 French troops galloped by land and water to attack the Chinese army. The land route is divided into three teams, the trail wave is on the Qingfang, with a few knot wheel guns, dozens of flowering cannons as the vanguard, and the breech fast gun more than 1,000 strokes are second, encircling the city of Hanoi, the sharp spirit is like a tide, almost want to destroy this and eat in the morning

Then.

When Governor Mei heard the news, he ordered all battalions not to move rashly, and the elite soldiers were stationed in the wall to listen to the orders of the Chinese army, and personally led the elite troops out of the main road to respond to the plan.

Knowing that the French army was still in the distance, the governor was sitting on the ground with the saddle, and the generals Li Wencai and Chen Xingui were armed with gunners and swords to serve on the left and right, and the right of Hanoi City was the right battalion, and the left was the front battalion and the left battalion.

The French army marched in three directions, and when they saw that the battalions were silent and there was no movement, they swarmed forward and fired their guns together.

The sound is like thunder, and the mountains are shaken.

The camp was still silent, and the French turned around the bridge to the right and pounced on the right battalion. will and the barrier, Governor Mei of the Chinese army to cast a cannon,

General Pang Zhenyun and his warriors stood out, intercepted the French army, and fought for a long time. A group of French troops went around the front of the formation, approaching the right battalion, and Pang saw the enemy approaching and raised his arms and shouted,

The camp gate was opened, and the Fu daredevils fought bravely from the guns, all of them were ten with one. …………”

The front page of the latest issue of the declaration is full of reports about the battle of Hanoi, but for reasons of attracting the attention of the people on the mainland, the description of the war in Hanoi in the declaration is inevitably exaggerated and amplified.

After carefully reading the contents of the newspaper, Zhu Baosan, the boss of the Chinese businessman, hurriedly greeted the servants around him and changed his route to visit Wu Tiaoqing, the head of the Meihua Foreign Bank.

Meihua Foreign Bank is a commercial bank opened in the name of foreigners, but the actual principal is Wu Tiaoqing, the highest intelligence and commercial person in charge of the Han State stationed in the mainland.

"Hurry up and visit, there are many interruptions, Boss Wu, please bear with me."

Zhu Baosan entered the headquarters of the United States and China Foreign Bank, and said with a smile on his face.

"Where, Boss Zhu is a distinguished guest of the foreign bank, and when he wants to come over, Wu is welcome."

Wu Tiaoqing welcomed the other party into the living room with his hand, and asked, "Boss Zhu is busy with affairs, what is the so-called matter when he went to Meihua today?" ”

"Haha, this is not to see the Chinese army in Annam, the French and the South American Han and the French to make peace and sign a trade agreement.

Zhu thought that Huamei had a fleet that specialized in South America and the Far East, and now that peace had been restored between France and Han, wouldn't the South American calico that Zhu had seen earlier be able to be shipped to Shanghai, so he couldn't wait and made a special trip to visit Boss Wu, wanting to get some news from Boss Wu. ”

"Brother Zhu has a unique vision, no wonder he can make a good career in Shanghai."

Wu Tiaoqing smiled, and then said, "Brother Wu expected that it was good, on July 3, China and France signed a replacement agreement, and on the 6th, a fleet of ships carrying grey fabrics, calico, and printing machines set off, and it is expected to arrive in the suburbs of Shanghai at the end of August. ”

"Haha, then Zhu first told Boss Wu that there are 8,000 pieces of grey cloth and 5,000 pieces of calico, and the price is calculated according to the old rules.

"Grey cloth is easy to say, but the calico produced in South America is very popular, I'm afraid I can't sell 5,000 pieces to Boss Zhu?"

"Why is that?"

"Recently, the Han country has invented several printing and dyeing technologies, the cost of dyes and printing and dyeing costs have been reduced by two to three percent, and the finished flower cloth produced by the use of new dyes and printing and dyeing technology has bright colors and excellent quality, and the overall price is about two percent lower than before, and the quality of the flower cloth is much better than that of the same kind of cloth. South America, Southeast Asia, Jiangnan, Fujian and Zhejiang regions, many customers lined up to order new flowers, the first batch of flowers shipped to the Far East, most of them have been buyers in advance, so for the sake of the past friendship, at most can only give Brother Zhu 3,000 pieces of flowers, no matter how much but can not be taken out. ”

"Three thousand pieces of floral cloth are fine, and the insufficient part, Zhu will think of a way from elsewhere." …………

Seeing Zhu Baosan away, Wu Tiaoqing summoned a company employee and instructed, "Inform Mr. Kirby and ask him to take out 6,000 pieces of floral cloth from the warehouse and deliver them to the trading house under Hu Xueyan's name first." ”

"Yes, the little ones will do it."

Huamei & Co. was the commercial base of the Han Kingdom in the mainland, not to mention industrial products such as grey cloth and flower cloth, as well as arms materials such as muskets, artillery, machine guns, and ammunition, and also hoarded a considerable share through channels such as smuggling by sea.

Local officials in the mainland region made large profits by running foreign affairs and industries on a large scale, and some advantageous industrial products on the Han side also secretly conveyed benefits to local officials through normal transactions on the surface, thus building the military, intelligence, and economic networks of the Han State on the mainland.

Hu Xueyan was the money bag of Zuo Zongtang, the governor of the two stresses and the minister of trade in Jiangnan, and hitching on his line was conducive to expanding the sales channels of Han goods in the southern region.

Two years later, according to the agreement with the French, the Nanyang Army and the Chinese armed forces all withdrew from Annam, at that time, the Han power in the South Seas, only the Natuna Islands and the Anambas Islands, a total of 2,800 square kilometers of small territory, as for the Songkhla and Lanfang rulers, they could only secretly send personnel to control the local real power, which is difficult to compare with the grand occasion of deploying nearly 10,000 troops during the Annan period.

Compared with the shrinkage of the Han Dynasty's power in the Nanyang region, through the propaganda of the newspapers set up by Westerners in the concession area such as the "Declaration" and the "Universal Gazette", the Battle of Hanoi and the deeds of the Han State in South America gradually became more and more known, especially during the Annam War, the newspapers opened by various foreigners vied with each other to report the progress of the war, and it became a trend to talk about the Annam War in the Ten Mile Ocean.

Of course, the Han forces, led by Huamei & Co., continued to pay advertising and sponsorship fees to publicize the industrial and commercial products of the Han Dynasty and the customs of South America, which was also a major factor in promoting the spread of Han influence in the mainland.

In order to avoid the threat of arrest by the Manchu government, Wu Tiaoqing deployed his main men in various concessions, but in some specific cases, he also had to take great risks and act under the nose of the Manchu government.

"King Wu (Li Xiucheng, posthumously named King Wu) The second son of His Royal Highness Li Rongfa lives in seclusion in Jiangxi, and got in touch with our people four months ago, and now our people have escorted His Royal Highness Zhonger to Fuzhou, and we need to send someone to pick him up."

Wu Tiaoqing sat in a hidden room and instructed a young Chinese, "Captain Wang, take your people, disguise themselves as the Dart Master and the Merchant Gang, and go to Fuzhou to wait to join them." ”

"How do we get in touch with them?"

Wang Shizhen asked.

"There are our people in the Fuzhou Green Camp, and someone will take the initiative to contact you when the time comes."

"Yes, I understand!"