The sad years of the Jiangnan Trade Zone lasted until the fourth year of Zhongzheng, and then things took a turn for the better. First of all, the government of North Manchukuo issued various preferential policies for the Jiangnan Trade Zone, and at the same time increased the negotiation authority of the Shanghai consul, and Luan Yu led the establishment of the Jiangnan Trade Zone Organizing Committee directly with the Qing Premier Yamen. The government's vigorous intervention immediately alleviated the embarrassment of the merchants, and the Chinese Empire was much more horizontal than the foreigners. The second was that the merchants also learned badly, and after paying the tuition fees, they quickly learned how to deal with the landlord bureaucracy of the Qing Dynasty, and successfully passed on their own losses.

After a hard game, the Jiangnan Trade Zone finally improved, and the merchants of the Chinese Empire and the Qing bureaucrats who were eager to bite and deal with them were also as close as brothers. Xu Youfu won his own entertainment street in Shanghai, and Wang Zifu also built his own industrial park under Nanjing, but what they brought to the people of Jiangnan was no longer industrial welfare, but more suffering and oppression. The poor people, in addition to the improvement of their lives because of technological progress, are even worse than before, and they have become victims of the compromise between the old and the new forces.

From the fourth year of Zhongzheng to the seventh year of Zhongzheng, the Jiangnan Trade Zone has developed tremendously, and the trade volume has increased by more than 100 times. From Shanghai to Nanjing, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions have the title of Little Manchuria. When Hurd inspected Jiangnan Customs, he once lamented that the area around Jiangsu and Zhejiang has become the light industry base of the Qing Dynasty, and the trade volume and industrial equivalent here have even surpassed the Ruhr industrial zone in Germany. Of course, the Ruhr Industrial Zone is a heavy industrial zone that can be transformed into national combat power, while the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Industrial Zone is a raw material processing base controlled by the merchants of the Chinese Empire.

With the development of the Jiangnan Trade Zone, the relationship between the Chinese Empire and the Qing Empire also quickly eased, and the two countries became one family again. Guo Xing'a visited Beijing again in the sixth year of Zhongzheng, in the name of commemorating the sudden death of the Empress Dowager Ci'an, but in fact it was to show goodwill to the Qing court. After meeting with the Empress Dowager Cixi, Prince Gong Yixin, and Minister of Military Aircraft Li Hongzhang, Guo Xing'a reached a brotherly covenant, and although the name of the Great Qing Dynasty was not restored, it also reaffirmed that the Chinese Empire was part of the Qing Empire. Amid the lamentations of the consuls of Western countries, the Qing Empire and the Chinese Empire once again became two branches of one country, and the hostilities between the two sides came to an end. The days of Haiqing Heyan have passed until the seventh year of Zhongzheng, that is, the Christmas birthday in 1882. The land of China is still a sea without waves, but Vietnam, one of China's pro-vassals and one of the small Chinas, has a problem.

As early as the time when the Goxinga Formation conquered Montauban, the French had already invaded six provinces in southern Vietnam. The French originally wanted to open the way from here to invade southwest China, but they did not think that the Lancang River in the upper reaches of the Mekong River was not navigable, so they could only turn to the north of Vietnam, hoping that the Red River would enter Yunnan. The French have been working hard to move forward, but the Vietnamese who have received military aid from North Manchuria are no longer easy to bully, and Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army, which entered Vietnam from China, is also quite impressive. Over the years, the French have repeatedly hit a wall and suffered a lot of losses. In the end, it was the Vietnamese who died by themselves that they forced the Vietnamese to sign the "Vietnamese-French Alliance Treaty" and obtained the right to trade in northern Vietnam and the navigation rights of the Red River.

The fact that the French were able to sign the "Vietnamese-French Alliance Treaty" around the first year of Chiang Kai-shek was also the result of the Vietnamese themselves. After the first invasion of the Great Qing vassal alliance, the vassal states of the Great Qing Dynasty in Southeast Asia formed a political and military alliance, relying on the Great Qing Dynasty and Northern Manchuria, to jointly resist the invasion of Westerners. The momentum of aggression between Britain and France slowed down greatly, even to the point where it was difficult, and even if the countries could not recover the lost territory, they could at least maintain the status quo, but at this time the Vietnamese jumped out and died.

Vietnam was the first of the Southeast Asian countries to undergo military reform, and it also adopted its own secret method of guerrilla warfare, making it the most powerful militarily among Southeast Asian countries. At the same time, Vietnam is also one of China's three major vassals, and has always had the title of Little China, and the degree of sinicization is much higher than that of Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and other countries. With these two advantages, the Vietnamese people's minds became lively, and they wanted to take advantage of the fact that the Qing Dynasty and North Manchuria did not pay much attention to Southeast Asia, and set up a big banner in Southeast Asia. If Vietnam wants to be a big brother, it will inevitably infringe on the interests of other countries, and then the big drama of rebellion will begin. Not only was the alliance of Southeast Asian vassal states broken up by Vietnam, but Vietnam itself became a thorn in the side of the other four countries. When Vietnam was invaded by France again, none of the other four countries reached out to help, but they still had the intention of falling into the ground.

Vietnam not only offended the brothers around them, but also offended the eldest brother and second brother. The Qing Dynasty was the suzerainty of Vietnam, and North Manchuria was the gold lord of Vietnam, both of which were the eldest brothers of Vietnam. It stands to reason that if there is something wrong in Vietnam, they will come to the aid of Vietnam, but the Vietnamese have offended both sides by virtue of their white-eyed wolf nature. The Qing Dynasty and Northern Manchuria did not fight for control of Vietnam, they both just needed to maintain their influence, but the Vietnamese thought too much about themselves, they always wanted to ask the two eldest brothers, and then they came up with a genius idea, and neither side relied on. The Vietnamese wanted to borrow grain from the Qing Dynasty today, so they kicked out of North Manchuria, and only recognized the Qing Dynasty as a big brother. Tomorrow, I will ask for money from North Manchuria, and I will kick out the Qing Dynasty again, and only recognize a big brother in North Manchuria. After such a two-sided toss a few times, the Qing Dynasty and Northern Manchurian did not recognize him.

After the Mukden Incident, when Northern Manchuria and the Qing Dynasty were in conflict, Vietnam felt that its opportunity had come, and frantically asked both sides for a price, wanting to make a lot of money from it. As a result, Vietnam has become completely alone, and no one pays attention to him. When the French army invaded on a large scale, except for Liu Yongfu, a fugitive hero who was suppressed by the motherland, there was not even half a reinforcement. Liu Yongfu can fight again, and the Vietnamese will fight again, after all, the national strength is limited, and they can only be forced by the French to sign an unequal treaty.

The Vietnamese, who had nothing to look for, were pumped by the French, and then both the Qing Dynasty and North Manchuria regretted it. Vietnam was the frontier position in the southwest of the Qing Dynasty, and if the French occupied Vietnam, they could directly threaten China's Yunnan and Guangxi, which was unacceptable to both the Qing Dynasty and Northern Manchuria. Sending troops into Vietnam to fight the French back, the Qing Dynasty was powerless, and North Manchuria was definitely not worth it, so it could only admit it. Diplomatically, however, neither the Qing Dynasty nor North Manchuria recognized the Treaty of the Vietnamese-French Alliance, and repeatedly condemned France's invasion of Chinese vassals.

Originally, the Vietnam incident would end with the French seeing the favor and the Chinese taking a step back and opening up the sky, but the coming to power of French Prime Minister Jouferi changed all this. In the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War, both conservatives, republicans and monarchists advocated revenge against Germany, regaining lost territory and restoring the glory of France. France's main focus is on Europe, and even encroaching on Southeast Asia is only a small fight, but Jouferi is very different.

Jouferi was a leftist republican, but he was a man who was very sober about the overall situation, and he knew that there would be absolutely no good fruit for France to eat in the confrontation with a strong Germany. Therefore, after he came to power, he focused on internal affairs, popularizing free primary education to enhance national cohesion, and promoting the separation of government and religion to improve the government's ability to govern. In terms of foreign policy, he gave up confrontation with Germany and embarked on the path of uniting Bismarck to form a coalition of countries of greater Western Europe. As for restoring the glory of France, Jouferi chose to expand abroad to strengthen France and restore the glory of the country. Moreover, Bismarck in Germany fully supported Jouferi's idea, and very much encouraged France to colonize abroad, and gave up competition with France in colonization.

After studying the map for a few days, Jouferi set his sights on Southeast Asia, where he wanted to establish a federation of Indochina, and the first step was to take Vietnam once and for all. Ruferi also knew that Vietnam had little strength, and if he wanted to take Southeast Asia, the real opponent was the Chinese. Zhuferi, who even Germany can't afford to provoke, is naturally not an opponent of the Chinese Empire, but he also has his own calculations. Since the merger of East Manchuria and South Manchuria into the Chinese Empire, Britain and the Chinese Empire have fallen into a state of global confrontation, looking at each other to death, and no one dares to act rashly, otherwise it will be a global war. If France had made a small fuss in Vietnam and had not actually touched the interests of the Chinese Empire, the Chinese Empire would certainly not dare to act rashly, and the British would have watched them! In this way, France's opponent was left with only the Qing Dynasty. However, the French have never looked down on the Qing Dynasty, and they do not believe that the Qing Dynasty will fight with them for Vietnam, in their eyes, the Qing Dynasty is a very conservative country that just wants to live its own life.

In July of the 7th year of the reign of the Chinese People's Republic of China, the French parliament led by French Prime Minister Jouferry passed a resolution to allocate 2.4 million francs for military spending in Vietnam. In September of the 7th year of Zhongzheng, the French government ordered the commander of the Cochinchina Navy Li Weiye to command the invading army to invade northern Vietnam for the second time, and in November, invaded and occupied the city of Hanoi, and then reconnoitred the Red River with warships until the vicinity of Shanxi in the northwest of Hanoi. In December, it captured the coal-producing base Hongji and the military important Nanding.

The Vietnamese court is panicking now, the French are going to destroy Vietnam! So they began to ask for help from their eldest brother, and repeatedly asked the Qing government to send troops to help. In view of the changing situation, Cixi, Yixin, and Li Hongzhang ordered the authorities of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces to supervise the border defense troops to march in a brief manner, but stressed that "provocations should not be carried out on their own." Daqing now has some family background, but for the sake of the Vietnamese, the big guys are really a little reluctant, just deter, if you can, try not to fight.

As soon as the Qing army imposed martial law, there was really good news. Liu Yongfu led the Black Flag Army to a decisive battle with the French army at the paper bridge in Huaide Province, and more than 30 officers and more than 200 soldiers under Li Weiye and his deputy commander Lu Mei were killed. The French were forced to retreat to Hanoi. Immediately after Li Weiye's death, the French government announced that it would "avenge her glorious child" and once again allocated 3.5 million francs to the Vietnamese garrison, and began to make every effort to plan a full-scale war of aggression against Vietnam. In addition to reinforcing the army, the North Vietnamese Fleet was established, and troops were dispatched and actively deployed. In February of the eighth year of Zhongzheng, the French army stepped up its attack on the Black Flag Army in North Vietnam on the one hand, and attacked central Vietnam with warships on the other, and approached Hue, the capital of Vietnam.

Li Hongzhang is still in charge of peace, but Zuo Zongtang, Zeng Jize, Zhang Zhidong and others are all rampant, and the Qing Dynasty is not unbeatable now, afraid that he is a bird? Cixi hesitated, but Yixin decided not to bear it, Luan Yu had already handed him a message, no matter what the imperial court decided, the Chinese Empire would fully support the direct suzerain. Under the persuasion of Yi Xin, Yi Xun, Yi Cheng, Zuo Zongtang, Zeng Jize, Zhang Zhidong and others, Cixi finally took out the arrogance of a widow, and in March of the eighth year of Zhongzheng, the Qing army was fully stationed in Vietnam, and the French did it when they were in chaos.