March 30, 1879, 1 p.m., President's Office, 2nd floor, Elysée Palace, Paris

François-Paul Jules Grevy, President of the Third Republic, had just woken up, sitting behind the desk used by Napoleon III, looking blankly at his newly appointed French Prime Minister, William-Henri Waddington.

Ten minutes earlier, Prime Minister Waddington, together with Foreign Minister Fresine, had reported a diplomatic headache to his president. This is a troublesome matter about the diplomatic conflict between France and Vietnam, the cause of which is that Li Yangcai, a subordinate of Feng Zicai, the governor of Guangxi of the Qing Dynasty, rebelled in Vietnam last year.

Originally, according to Article 2 of the Franco-Vietnamese Treaty of Peace and Alliance signed between France and Vietnam in 1874, the Nguyen Dynasty of Vietnam, as a protectorate, should seek protection from the protectorate France. However, the Vietnamese king Nguyen Phuc Thi did not ask the French army in Saigon to counter-insurgency, but asked for help from the Black Flag Army, the "bandits" of Annam, in the eyes of the French.

According to the report of the French army in Saigon just received, a month ago, the Black Flag Army and Feng Zicai, the commander-in-chief of the Qing state in Guangxi, sent troops to quell the rebellion. Four days earlier, the Qing army and the Black Flag Army had a big battle with Li Yangcai at Luo Chi outside the west gate of Hanoi, and finally captured Li Yangcai and cut off his head, completely pacifying the rebels.

The French wanted to invade Indochina since the time of Louis XVI, and after nearly a hundred years of unsparing infiltration and warfare, Vietnam has long been regarded as their own in the hearts of the French. But now Nguyen Phuc Thi asked the Qing for help and introduced the Qing army and the Black Flag Army into Hanoi was undoubtedly a slap in the face to the French, especially Waddington, who was one of the few members of the French parliament who urged the French parliament to ratify the Franco-Vietnamese Treaty of Peace and Alliance.

After listening to the report, Grevi didn't say a word. Looking at Grevey's tense lips as thin as a blade, Waddington sighed to himself and said to himself, "No wonder before I was nominated to be prime minister, they told me that this newly elected president was a Mune peasant in the Alps. Looking at his taciturn appearance, he is indeed a silent boulder, and this nickname is really right. Despite this, Waddington motioned to Fracey, the surprise officer, to continue reporting. Fresine took out another document from the briefcase beside him, handed it to President Grevy, and said:

"Your Excellency the President, Your Excellency the Prime Minister, this is a complaint from the Governor-General's Office of Cochin against the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and the Catholic Church, complaining that the Vietnamese government has violated the Franco-Vietnamese Treaty of Peace and Alliance, and the complaint reads as follows:

1. The Vietnamese government did not keep its promise to open the Red River waterway to French businessmen;

2. The Black Flag Army was secretly instructed by the Vietnamese government to set up a card on the Red River to collect taxes and impose heavy taxes on French and commercial enterprises, which has threatened the rights and interests of French and commercial trade;

3. Liu Yongfu of the Black Flag Army announced to the French merchants of Saigon that he had an exclusive monopoly on the shipping rights of the Red River, and the French could only entrust Qing ships to sail and trade. If French merchant ships enter the Red River, he will sink them. The Cochin Governor's Office considered this to be a naked threat of war.

4. The Catholic Mission in Saigon also complained to the Black Flag Army that it was responsible for the disappearance of French Catholic missionaries on the Red River route, and that they had reason to believe that the missing priests had been killed by the Black Flag Army. ”

Waddington listened to Fresine's report while staring at Grevy, and when Frésine's report was finished, Waddington was disappointed to find that during Frésine's entire debriefing, Grevey still pursed his lips and said nothing, and even his black eyes did not show a trace of sadness for the French to die on the Red River waterway.

Waddington twisted his neck slightly, not intending to give up his efforts, "Your Excellency, before coming, the Admiralty said that they had a plan to solve this problem. At present, the Admiralty can dispatch 14-19 warships at the earliest, which can form a Tokyo fleet for an expedition to Vietnam. When the fleet arrives in Vietnam, the marines of these warships will form a landing company of 450-500 men and go ashore to solve the problems in Hanoi. ”

After observing the president's expression, Waddington continued, "If we can act immediately, the Admiralty expects that it will take the expeditionary fleet at most six months before they can finally solve the Vietnamese problem." The Admiralty's budget estimate for this mission is that at least 2.8 million francs will be required. If Your Excellency the President agrees, I have here a supplementary budget of 2.8 million francs that has been drawn up, which I can submit to Parliament this afternoon for discussion by the Parliamentarians. ”

"Where's the money?" Grevi spat out two words in a low voice. "Whew" Waddington exhaled, adjusting his breathing as much as he could, trying to calm his mood, "Your Excellency, regarding the source of funding for the supplementary budget, I wonder if it is possible to extend the date of repayment of this year's citizen bonds?" ”

"No!"

"Your Excellency, is it possible to delay the rearmament of the Franco-German border army?"

"No!" Grever shook his head firmly!

"Your Excellency, we have already deployed a lot of troops on the Franco-German border, if we can deploy less or delay this year..."

"Never!" Grever continued to shake his head vigorously.

"Your Excellency!" Waddington stood up suddenly, "If France can't send a naval fleet to Vietnam, those Vietnamese monkeys will continue to ignore our treaty, and those Qing people will continue to stay in the land that should belong to us!" You must know that France needs the wealth of these colonies. Without colonies, we simply can't pay off the war reparations to the Germans in 3 years! We need that land, we need that damn Indochina! ”

Facing Waddington, who was full of voice, Grevi sat behind his desk and pursed his lips, continuing to stare at Waddington with indifferent eyes, and once again said nothing. Just when Waddington felt that the anger in his chest could no longer be suppressed, Grever looked away from Waddington, raised his head to stare at the beautiful crystal branch chandelier hanging in the middle of the roof of his office, and said slowly:

"If only I hadn't learned to love under such flattery! Then I wouldn't have endured this bitter memory in the world for so long, only it will never fade away, and no matter how far away it is, it will still be fresh in my memory..."

Waddington turned and slammed the door.

Foreign Minister Fresiné watched Waddington turn away angrily, and glanced at the president, as a long-time political ally of President Grevy, of course he knew the president's thoughts, but this did not prevent him from smiling and stabbing the prime minister, "It seems that he still hasn't figured out why he was nominated as prime minister." As an independent, you want to do whatever you want in Parisian circles, and it is difficult for such a politically naïve person to help you in any way. ”

Grevy looked down for a moment and said, "I've just come to power, and I need such an independent person to put on a façade, at least—" Grevy pointed to the east, "to convince that German guy that there is still a rapprochement between France and Germany." We need the most time now, and the full consolidation of the Franco-German line and the refitting of the army are the first priority, nothing else matters! If you have time to go to Berlin, the German guy who has been agitating us to expand into North Africa is now, and I would like to hear what he thinks about Indochina. If we are still encouraged to act, it means that our troop build-up on the Franco-German border has not yet aroused the suspicion of the Germans. ”

"The matter of Vietnam can be delayed by the Admiralty for a while, I don't want to change this year's military budget, the army of the republic is more important. But, in any case, we are going to finally solve the Indochina problem, and I hope it is you who receive this honor! Grevi promised his political allies.

After Grevi touched his slightly weird hooked nose and pondered for a moment, he said slowly, "Whatever the motives of the Germans to encourage France to expand the colonies, until there are not enough troops on the Franco-German border, this may be a deception, and you can't guarantee that those Germans will not fight at Versailles again, and let us pay another 5 billion francs!" ”

Waddington had no idea what he had said after he slammed the door, after less than a year in office. He had recalled the incident to his lawyer friend, and even the past still made Waddington angry, "I reported to the Alpine stone for an afternoon, and the stone replied no, no, never!" Then he stared at the crystal chandelier made by Michel Victor Cruchet and read me a poem by Lupdom! You fought a lawsuit with him back then, was he also so stupid when he was a lawyer in the court?! ”

"Well, when he was a lawyer, every time he did it in court, I thought he was stupid and crazy like you, but in fact he was always the one who won the lawsuit in the end."