After the Franco-Prussian War, the German Empire was established, a newly formed empire that occupied half of northern France. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The northern territory of France, which is not only fertile but also rich plains, will be able to be self-sufficient in agriculture and exported in large quantities.

But the problem is that the north of France is separated from England by a strait, and the closest place on the European continent to Britain is the northern French port of Calais. The geographical position was so important that Britain certainly could not allow Germany to occupy the northern territories of France for long.

Although the German Imperial Government repeatedly stated that they occupied French territory only to ensure that France could repay the reparations, Napoleon also treated Prussia in the same way, which was a common practice, and treaties were signed, and treaties between countries were part of international law, so Germany's reasons were very reliable.

But Britain could not accept such a situation, they did not have many options.

The first is to support the French government to fight another war with Germany and recover French territory, but the current situation of the French government is simply impossible to choose war, this time the Franco-Prussian War several of their governments have stood up to resist, but the result is defeat, the government of the Third Republic has easily stabilized the country, they are not willing to take risks at this time. Taking a step back, even if France, with the support of Britain at all costs, succeeded in defeating Germany, the British would have to consider whether France would become too powerful. Wasn't the France of the Napoleonic era stronger and stronger after smashing the anti-French alliance? Germany is too strong for Britain to see, France is too strong, and Britain is even more reluctant to see it for France. So they couldn't afford to take a risk for such an uncertain balance.

The second option for Britain was to adopt a political approach that would force Germany to return French territory. But the precondition was that they had to meet the demands of the Germans, which was to repay 5 billion francs in reparations. This is a huge amount of money, according to the exchange rate of this era, some people in later generations estimated that it was equivalent to about 1.4 billion taels of silver, which is more than all the indemnities of the Qing government combined. The Germans were very considerate and gave the French a 39-year repayment period, but the British really didn't dare to let Germany occupy French territory for 39 years, and the devil knows what would happen after such a long period of occupation. Even this 39 years is considered a conspiracy, which can allow Germany to occupy half of France in a whole generation, then in this generation, France will inevitably be suppressed by Germany, even if the Germans are really willing to withdraw their troops in the future, then France will no longer be able to compete with Germany. At that time, the British Empire would have to face a German Empire that dominated Europe.

Therefore, the British can only choose to let France pay reparations as soon as possible, and at this point, the French can also be regarded as competitive. To say that the French are not patriotic is a lie, but it is really controversial to say what benefits this patriotism has brought to France. Patriotism in France is often the first to suffer from the French people, because the French people who are too patriotic are always revolutionizing again and again. Not to mention that France missed the opportunity to compete with Britain for hegemony, and in the end it ended up being bullied by Germany, the three deflated Europeans.

But in this reparation, this patriotism can be regarded as a favor for France. The French government wanted to raise 5 billion francs so that Germany could withdraw its troops, and they didn't even need to go to England to borrow money, although the British would be happy to borrow it, and Britain wouldn't mind if they asked the British government to guarantee France. But the French solved the problem on their own, and the government raised 5 billion through the issuance of three bonds, but the French enthusiastically bought it, and they bought a total of 45 billion francs, enough for the French government to compensate twice. And such a huge amount of money, it took them less than three years to complete the fundraising.

If normal procedure were followed, France would have completed the reparations by the end of last year, and then the German withdrawal would have begun this year, and the next year, in 1875. But France was caught in a dispute with the Ming Dynasty, and they had to consider the outbreak of war with the Ming Dynasty for a while, so they did not rush to pay the reparations to Germany in full, but used the money to form a new army. The rearmament of France, even in the name of dealing with disputes in the Far East, was not reassuring to Germany, which was so concerned that it began military exercises in France without showing any sign of withdrawing its troops. Obviously, the Germans are worried that the fundamental purpose of France's arms expansion and war is still on Germany.

The patriotic enthusiasm of the common people is indeed admirable, but under this enthusiasm, how can the Germans rest assured, they know very well that this enthusiasm is brought about by their invasion, and the ability of the French to raise 45 billion francs is really terrifying to them, if France uses this money to fight with Germany, Germany really can't afford to spend it with France. To put it bluntly, Germany's current economic strength is still much worse than that of the French.

The Germans carried out military exercises, and France did not dare to use the money for reparations, but had to be more vigilant, and the patriotic enthusiasm of the common people became higher and higher, and they became more and more intolerant of the weakness of the French government towards Germany. There was even a public opinion among the people that refused to recognize the treaty and re-entered the war, which gave the French government a headache and Germany feared.

In this case, the British Empire could not sit still, and if it continued to fight, they estimated that France would have to be beaten, unless Britain was involved in the war. If we don't fight, it will be difficult to suppress the current public opinion. The cause of all this was the French conflict in the Far East, which aroused the patriotic sentiments of the French.

In the past two years, Germany and France have given Britain a certain commitment on this issue, one side is willing to pay reparations, the other side is willing to withdraw troops, and the sudden interruption by the Eastern dispute is the root cause of the change.

Therefore, the British believe that the key to solving this problem is still in the East. They hoped that the Ming would make concessions and reach a peace agreement with France on the Vietnam issue as soon as possible, so that France would have no incentive to continue the conflict in the East, and then quickly give the money to the Germans, and then focus on the German withdrawal.

But the imposition of an eastern power, or at least a country that has the appearance of a great power, makes Britain's diplomatic work very difficult.

The British communicated with the Ming government and expressed their willingness to mediate on the Vietnam issue.

The two sides had constructive exchanges on the Vietnam issue, and the Ming said that the reason why the troops were sent to Vietnam was mainly to maintain law and order, because a large number of Ming rebels, many of whom had fled to Vietnam as early as the Qing Dynasty, and they were extremely hostile to the Ming Dynasty, so they attacked the Ming merchant ships more than once, coupled with the actions of France in Vietnam, which almost led to the situation in northern Vietnam getting out of control, and the Ming Dynasty was forced to intervene in this area.

Britain expressed its understanding of the Ming Dynasty's actions, but also hoped that the Ming Dynasty would give priority to regional peace and balance, exercise restraint, and not complicate the issue.

Britain recognized the rationality of the Ming action, which was not enough, the Ming diplomats told the British minister that the Ming had special interests in Vietnam, the two countries as neighbors, the Ming never had any unfriendly actions towards Vietnam, and Vietnam was limited to normal commercial trade, but due to the intervention of France, the national security of the Ming Dynasty was seriously affected.

Britain understands this and has made a commitment not to support any country to take action in northern Vietnam, especially north of the Red River, near the border with the Da Ming, otherwise it will fully support the Ming operation in this area.

The British minister's statement is equivalent to recognizing the special interests of the Ming Dynasty in northern Vietnam, which has achieved Zhu Jinglun's goal, and the British still have to give face.

Through this action, in fact, Daming has already received enough benefits, and originally planned to take two steps forward and one step back, but at this time, the British government mediated and took advantage of the slope to get off the donkey.

As a result, the Ming Foreign Affairs Department told the British minister that the Ming was willing to make concessions and no longer insisted on the requirement of maintaining law and order in northern Vietnam, but in the case of national security, the Ming reserved the right to take practical action.

After receiving secret information from the British side, the French government became more assertive, one might even say hyperactive. The government openly stated that "France's interests in Vietnam are inviolable." France has no intention of harming Vietnam, nor will it allow any country to harm Vietnam, and in any case France is the staunchest friend and protector of the Vietnamese people".

By adopting this declaration, the French government placed Vietnam under French protection. Their tough speeches satisfied the growing patriotic sentiment. But if the Ming government reacts-for-tat to France's statement, a war is inevitable.

However, the Ming government not only did not do this, but quickly signed a treaty with the Vietnamese government in a low-key manner, the treaty stipulated, in addition to the requirements for trade, the additional only won the conditions for the Ming warships to cruise the Red River, but this power was already won by the French, it can be said that in the Red River Basin, the Ming Dynasty won the same power as the French.

This treaty was signed in Canton, hence the Treaty of Canton between Ming and Vietnam, and after the treaty was signed, the Ming army began to slowly withdraw from northern Vietnam.

The French government and its hired mouthpieces interpreted this treaty as follows: The withdrawal of the Ming troops stationed in Vietnam was tantamount to giving up the infiltration of Vietnamese territory, which was entirely the result of France's firm attitude of safeguarding Vietnamese interests, and it can be said that it was a major protection of the interests of the Vietnamese people by the great France and the French people.

In short, how can you coax your own people, how to come, France barely succeeded, the vigorous public opinion ended, and did not lead to the direction of hatred of Germany, it is not that the French government is so afraid of Germany, but at this time it is not a time to turn against Germany at all, it is really a face-turn, there is no other result except to be slapped in the face again, what France needs is stability, it needs a long period of stability to restore domestic order, reorganize military forces, and even rebuild the entire France that was shattered in the war.

Compared with France's irrational ** country, the people of the Ming Dynasty are surprisingly calm at this time, they only know that this is a treaty signed between the Ming Dynasty and Vietnam, to say that there is dissatisfaction, but it has been a long, long incident, this dissatisfaction is that the people of the Ming Dynasty feel that Vietnam has never paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty, so they are dissatisfied.

It can be said that the people of the two countries have completely different interpretations of diplomacy at this time, the French have developed a certain understanding of international diplomatic common sense under the influence of newspapers, and the people of the Ming Dynasty are still in the era of face diplomacy of the clan system.

On the other hand, French nationalism and patriotism were formed as early as the Napoleonic era, and completely broke out in this humiliation, and the Western-style national feelings such as nationalism and nationalism of the Ming Dynasty have not yet been formed.

In order to avoid irritating the French too much, the Red River Marine Police was formed with the Marine Police under the jurisdiction of the Chinlian Provincial Coast Guard to regularly patrol the area from the Red River to the coast of Guangdong, and there was no regular navy.

The most urgent issue is to seize the iron ore in Taiyuan Province as soon as possible, and in the process of the army going south, in addition to driving some peasant armies that used to harass the border areas across the river, and also collecting and surrendering a large number of peasant troops who have settled in the local area, these peasant armies in the local area are neither subject to the past Qing government, nor to the current Ming government, let alone the local Vietnamese government, so they are all armed forces that have ceded land and are proud of themselves, and the peasant armed forces who use these patterns as kings, plus the local tyrants, The Ming government soon mastered the local iron ore that had been proven, and allowed these forces to mine, but the Ming businessmen underwrote, and the two sides signed an agreement, and they were soon able to get the start-up capital, and the cooperation was also mutually beneficial, each got its place, and soon won the local mineral resources.

The government can't waste energy on this kind of thing, and in the process of negotiating with France, Daming still has some action on the Taiwan issue, and the matter is almost coming to an end.

Because of the intervention of the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese government was quite nervous, until today, the Ming Dynasty in Japan is still a great power, the Ming Dynasty and Japan signed a treaty, and the United Kingdom, France and the United States signed a treaty with Japan is no different, if there is a difference, that is, the Ming merchants in Japan have a larger business scope, more abundant financial resources, and the Ming warships are easier to reach Japan.

Japanese diplomacy in the Meiji era has always been full of dexterity, and it is good at leveraging power between rooms, but if the Japanese are aware of it, they often have some very unwise manifestations, such as a special petty family, once they grasp the benefits, they often show an amazing greed.

The Japanese army had occupied a large area of land in Taiwan, and almost all the indigenous domains outside the Niulan Line in Tainan were occupied by them, and they did not want to give up here, but the blockade of the Ming Navy made them understand that they had no choice but to give up.

In this case, Japan also wanted to bite into the meat, and they raised the question of compensation for the cost of their military contribution.