Wang Shi has been besieging Hue for a month, which is the official Vietnamese statement, but in fact it is not a siege. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Because nominally 100,000 Vietnamese royal divisions and 300,000 local rebels surrounded the French army in Hue, but in fact the French army controlled the railway line, and Hue's traffic was unimpeded, so the French army's statement was a confrontation.

The French army was right.

The reason why France was able to accept this confrontation and dared to declare war on the Ming Dynasty as soon as the follow-up reinforcements and navy arrived was because they did not feel that they were surrounded and did not consider themselves to be in a disadvantageous state. The reason they accept the confrontation is simply because they need a break.

According to the intelligence sent back home by France, although they suffered a lot of losses in the battle with the Vietnamese, they have lost the lives of 20,000 soldiers so far, and the same number of French soldiers are missing and probably taken prisoners, but the deaths are mainly caused by disease, and those missing (captured) soldiers are mainly incapacitated due to illness and are separated from the large army when retreating.

The French did not believe that it was the military power of the Eastern countries that caused the French to suffer, and even the Ming army did not put military pressure on them.

To a certain extent, what the French say is not unreasonable, because so far there have been few real hard battles between the two sides.

The two sides also somewhat misunderstood each other's combat effectiveness.

Because the French army did not engage head-on and was naturally arrogant, it was taken for granted that the combat effectiveness of the Ming army was nothing more than that, and the people retreated at the slightest setback because of the French army fighting with them, and even collapsed.

The Battle of Hue was the real first tough battle, and the royal division had already carried out continuous artillery bombardment of the area, and under the cover of artillery fire, it attacked the French defensive positions several times, and all of them were defeated. Here, whether it is artillery or land warfare, the French have fought remarkably, reflecting the combat effectiveness of well-trained modern regular troops.

Wang Shi also showed the combat quality of the well-trained regular army of the Ming Dynasty, even if he had to retreat when he suffered many casualties, he could retreat in an orderly manner, leaving no chance for the French army to fight a war of annihilation. The French also counterattacked several times, and the two sides lined up in strong formations, shooting each other several times with rifled rifles in the front, and both of them left dead bodies on the ground and retreated.

As the Battle of Hue progressed, both sides constantly had to get to know each other anew.

This was the case in the Hue campaign before the declaration of war by Ming and France, both attacking and defending each other, but they did not achieve any decent results, and they were in a confrontation.

After the Ming-French War, the Hue campaign entered the second phase, as the regular army of the Ming Dynasty entered Vietnam.

The army smoothly entered Hanoi across the Red River by rail.

The city is now the temporary capital of Vietnam, and it is still called Xingzai, but this Xingzai is obviously much more reliable than the Bau Thanh Xingzai.

Here, Nguyen Phuc Minh's ministers assisted him, reorganized the Vietnamese court, formed six departments, and single-handedly pulled up the current Wang Shi's respected teacher to become the most important military secretary. Nguyen Thien Shu was the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Song Weixin was in charge of the Household Department, and Pham Peng was in charge of the Punishment Department, these were the leaders of the anti-French movement, the leaders of the local rebel army, and the Ministry of Works, which was not important, was handed over to Hoang Gao Qi, the minister who followed from Hue to Bao Sheng.

But at present, the places that the Vietnamese imperial court can control are only parts of Beiqi and Zhongqi, south of Hue are occupied by France, and Haiphong in the north is also occupied by France, but the Red River Delta is the land of fish and rice, and there is no problem of survival when it is rich in materials, and it has not even interrupted the export of grain to the Ming Dynasty.

According to the secret agreement between the Ming Army and the small imperial court, the current main force of Vietnam, the Ming officers and soldiers in the "Wang Division" will be gradually withdrawn, and half of the Vietnamese officers and soldiers in the Wang Division will be reorganized by the Black Flag Army of Liu Yongfu's department, and half of them will be recruited by the Beiqi squires for regimental training.

Regarding the attitude of the Ming Dynasty, the Zun Room said that he was extremely satisfied, and he was also worried that the Vietnamese royal division was full of Ming officers and soldiers, which would make the Vietnamese military power fall aside. Now the Ming Army plans to withdraw, return to the Ming Army, and completely hand over military power to the Vietnamese court, but let the royal family say that he is a little worried about the combat effectiveness of the royal division.

The Ming suggested that the Ming continue to help the Wang Division train new recruits and fill the vacancies vacated by the Ming Army, and that the officers be the Vietnamese officers and soldiers of the Wang Division who had been fighting with the Ming Army. Da Ming will only send liaison officers to Wang Shizhong to facilitate mutual cooperation. The weapons and equipment of the Wang Division were all provided by the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty provided weapons and equipment, and Vietnam needed to meet the food supply of the Ming Dynasty during the war in Vietnam, which the Vietnamese court promised to do, how to say that it was also to defend the Vietnamese community, and it was natural for Vietnam to raise grain and grass nearby.

Because of the need to transfer troops, change guards, and reorganize training, the fighting on the battlefield in Vietnam fell silent for a period of time after the two countries declared war on each other.

After reaching an agreement with the Vietnamese court on military issues, the Ming Dynasty sent Jaishankar as a representative to discuss political cooperation with the Vietnamese government.

At the beginning, Daming wanted to talk about political issues, which made the Vietnamese monarchs and ministers quite nervous, mainly because the ministers were nervous, and the Vietnamese emperor was still a hairy child at this time, where did he have political talent.

The Vietnamese were worried that the Ming Dynasty was talking about politics in order to annex Vietnam like France, so they were extremely sensitive to this and did not dare to negotiate head-on, but instead sent people to inquire in private and quietly visit the members of the Ming envoys with generous gifts to find out the attitude of the Ming Dynasty.

Even if the Ming wanted Vietnam to pay tribute, or even make Vietnam a protectorate like France, Vietnam would accept it, and all they wanted to maintain was the Vietnamese community, that is, the imperial power and the bureaucracy to run the country.

Jaishankar laughed at the beauties they sent, but returned the money they sent, telling them that Vietnam is in such a difficult situation now, and that they should not be so extravagant and give such generous gifts.

Then he quietly told the Vietnamese that the Ming Dynasty was mainly worried that if the Ming Dynasty was in a fierce war with the French, a traitor like Nguyen Van Xiang would surrender to the French in the Vietnamese court, and the Ming would be in a situation where he would lose his ground.

The Vietnamese envoy said that the Ming Dynasty sent troops to aid Vietnam, how could Vietnam betray the Ming Dynasty.

After that, there were no formal negotiations between the two sides, but S Jaishankar met directly with the Vietnamese emperor and made several suggestions in front of the important ministers.

First, the Ming Dynasty and Vietnam formed a brotherly alliance, making a covenant with each other as a brotherly country, helping each other and never going against each other.

Second, during the war, the Ming Dynasty and Vietnam formed a coalition army, and the Ming Military Department and the Vietnamese Military Department formed a joint command to unify the command of the two armies and facilitate coordinated operations.

Third, the grain and grass supply of the Ming army during its stay in Vietnam was raised by Vietnam, while the weapons and equipment of the coalition forces were supplied by the Ming Dynasty.

After these three articles were proposed, the Vietnamese monarchs and ministers breathed a sigh of relief, and praised the Ming Dynasty on the spot as a country of benevolence and righteousness, a country of etiquette, and everything was the demeanor of a dignified country.

Obviously, Jaishankar's diplomatic attitude has made Vietnamese officials who are civilians and doctors very adaptable, which is the oriental diplomatic etiquette.

However, the discussion in the Vietnamese court was unacceptable, not because of a conflict of interests, but a dispute of etiquette. The Vietnamese minister believes that the rescue of Vietnam by the army of benevolence and righteousness of the Ming Dynasty has caused his country to also fall into the flames of war, which is a great favor to Vietnam. And the Ming Dynasty is a big country, and Vietnam is a small country, how dare you call each other brothers with the Ming Dynasty.

Jaishankar believes that in today's world, equality is important, and Da Ming is willing to form an equal ally with its friends in the East.

The Vietnamese minister said that the Vietnamese monarch was older, the Vietnamese monarch was young, and the Vietnamese monarch did not dare to call each other brothers.

In fact, what was reached in the end was similar to the agreement reached between Zhao Gou and Jin in the Southern Song Dynasty back then, but the Emperor of Jin was the uncle of the Southern Song Dynasty at that time, and later generations talked about it, that is, depending on age and generation.

Jaishankar finally proposed that in order to strengthen the relationship between the two countries, he asked for a Vietnamese princess for the prince of Daming, which was a great blessing for the Vietnamese monarchs and ministers, but unfortunately because the emperor and individual ministers escaped from Hue, most of the Vietnamese clans fell into the hands of the French, and everything could only be decided after Hue was recaptured, but the Vietnamese agreed to this family affair.

After that, the two countries burned the table and sacrificed to the heavens, signed a covenant, and after completing all the procedures, they announced to the nations.

The eastern countries understood for the first time what kind of covenant this was, but it was just a covenant of alliance that prevailed in the pre-Qin period, it was just temporary, once something was over, it was equivalent to invalidation, maybe the two countries would pinch each other in a few years It is not strange, as for marriage, who will take women seriously, the princess of the Manchu Qing Dynasty went to Mongolia in a bunch, but it was just Huairou.

After digesting it, Westerners decided that this was a military alliance treaty, and that the Ming Dynasty had an alliance with Vietnam, in fact, the Ming Dynasty provided a military guarantee to Vietnam, and if they wanted to bully Vietnam in the future, they would probably have to ask the Ming Dynasty if they agreed. Westerners think of it as a permanent treaty because they don't see a time limit between the lines.

It's just that Westerners are very strange that the Ming did not ask for enough benefits in the treaty, why is he willing to make such a military guarantee for Vietnam.

After the treaty was signed, the first major military campaign of the Ming Dynasty soon began, not to launch the Battle of Hue, but to capture the coastal defense of northern Vietnam. It is the largest port in the Gulf of Tonkin built by France for both military and commercial purposes, and it is equipped with all kinds of facilities.

The capture of this place by the Ming Dynasty can not only expel the French maritime power from here and relieve the French army of the threat to the Ming coast of the Beibu Gulf, but also use this place as a base to rush south to aid Hue, which can be said to be a subsidiary battle of the Battle of Hue.