As he was talking, Liu Shengbang came to report that Zuo Zongtang, chief of the General Staff of the General Staff, Fan Ruzeng, director of the Special Service Department, and Zeng Yuheng, deputy director of the Ministry of Public Works, asked to meet the saint, and Feng Yunshan asked him to meet him.

Feng Yunshan saw that Zuo Zongtang and Fan Ruzeng and the others were not in a hurry, and hurriedly asked, "What is the urgency of Zhong Aiqing to come to see me in a hurry?" ”

I saw Zuo Zongtang and Fan Ruzeng say in unison: "Your Majesty, something happened." ”

Zuo Zongtang waved his hand and motioned for Fan Ruzeng to report.

Fan Ruzeng was not humble either, and said directly: "Your Majesty, according to the intelligence officer of the Secret Service Department, the French emperor is extremely angry about our country's occupation of Vietnam and making it a province, because their original army has gone to fight in Crimea, so they have forbearance. But now that the war was over, and the French troops on the Crimean peninsula were able to return home and have plenty of troops, they became arrogant. Seven days ago, the French minister to our country, Bourbulon, set sail from Hong Kong Island on a medium-sized warship and came to Shengjing, and Wei Chen guessed that he must have come to show off his might on behalf of the French emperor, and it was very likely that he would salute first and then soldier, and of course, the worst would be to declare war directly. ”

Zuo Zongtang snorted coldly and said: "Hmph, although the French barbarians have many soldiers and ships, they dare to come to our Chinese Empire to declare war, and I will fight against the soldiers of the army with one heart." ”

Feng Yunshan paused, and then said: "Now it's just a guess to find out the movement of Naburblon, and it is still unknown what it is. However, what Zuo Aiqing said was that if the French really dared to declare war, I would lead my soldiers to fight against them until I subdued him and defeated him. Therefore, whether he is here to demonstrate or to declare war, I ask you to be ready for war! Zuo Aiqing quickly mobilized and assembled the Dongyang Fleet and the Nanyang Fleet in the coastal areas of Ninan Province and Guangdong, while the coastal areas of Ninan, Jiaozhi, Guangxi, Guangdong, and Fujian should also take strict precautions and do a good job in war mobilization. ”

Zuo Zongtang bowed down to receive the order.

In fact, Feng Yunshan said that he was ready for war, but he was not panicked at all.

He knew that France had always been less interested in overseas colonies than Britain, and that it had always seen them as a means of overseas trade, and even if it wanted to occupy them, it was for military purposes and trade supplies, and was not keen on direct rule. However, Feng Yunshan knew that the current French Emperor Napoleon III was extremely aggressive, and was forced by the domestic crisis to constantly try to use foreign wars to divert the attention of the French people in France to ease and maintain his rule. Feng Yunshan remembered that Napoleon III in history was bent on rebuilding France's national glory in Europe and even overseas, seeking to expand the interests of the Catholic Church and expand the territory overseas, and then declared war on Austria and Prussia, all for the purpose of expanding territory and dominating Europe.

As a result, France's focus was on Europe itself, and it was after the end of the Crimean War that he declared war on Austria after a two-year recuperation. Therefore, Feng Yunshan was not afraid that France would really send troops on a large scale, because it was so far away, according to Napoleon III's urine nature, it was not directly related to his interests, and he could not send many troops. In the Second Opium War in later generations, the British sent nearly 20,000 troops at most, but the French only sent 7,000 troops at most.

Of course, this is not to say that France does not want to establish a colony, in fact, the colony that France wants most is Mexico. Otherwise, he would not have launched a large number of expeditions to Mexico in history, and even the French might have had ideas for the whole of South America. Of course, North Africa, as well as Egypt, especially the Suez Canal, are the focus of the French.

Therefore, it is certain that Asia, especially East Asia, is definitely not the focus of France. Even if he had ideas about Indochina, but in the face of the great power of the East that was now much more powerful than the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and it was also his trading partner, Feng Yunshan believed that Napoleon III would choose.

Feng Yunshan made up his mind that if the French minister declared war, he would take this opportunity to hurt the French and make them dare not involve China's territory from now on. If the other party is just to scare him, then he doesn't have to care about him, and buy more time for Huaxia to develop well, after all, his navy is still too weak and there are too few warships, which is also the reason why Feng Yunshan vigorously encourages the development of the shipbuilding industry and the introduction of the steel industry.

Zuo Zongtang then reported: "Your Majesty, Weichen has something to report, it is news about Qin Rigang who escaped some time ago!" After the empire occupied Korea, Qin Rigang was defeated by our army, and the people who were coerced all the way surrendered one after another, and even 2,000 of the original Taiping army brothers returned to Shun, but unfortunately, when Qin Rigang saw that the situation was not good, he led the remaining more than 7,000 people to flee into the deep mountains and old forests in northern Korea. It happened that the gentry and nobles rebelled in some parts of Korea, and General Lu was anxious to quell the rebellion, so he sent the captive army to suppress various places. Unexpectedly, the Qin Rigang rebels, who had been missing for the past few months, rushed out again, and recently suddenly came out again, wantonly robbing the villagers in northern Korea. General Lu urgently sent 5,000 troops to encircle and suppress, but Qin Rigang did not dare to engage in the battle at all, and fled directly north into the area of Changbai Mountain in Jilin Province and wandered around, and it was difficult to annihilate for a while. ”

"General Lu has sent someone to ask the General Staff to send reinforcements, but Weichen refused." Zuo Zongtang explained: "Weichen thinks that now it is not a matter of military strength at all, but Qin Rigang. Even if another 10,000 troops were sent, it would be difficult to catch them in the area of Changbai Mountain. ”

Feng Yunshan remembered that he was happy to occupy Korea at the beginning, but the battle report only said that he had defeated the Qin Rigang rebels, and he didn't know whether he was alive or dead. He just ordered Lu Shunde to continue to send people to search and find Qin Rigang's whereabouts. There has been no news for several months, and there has been no movement in northern Korea, and it is thought that Qin Rigang died in the chaos. Unexpectedly, now it has jumped out again!

What a headache! This Qin Rigang is like a small strong who can't be killed, if he ignores him, it won't be long before he jumps out to harass the two provinces of Jilin and North Korea, if he ignores it, Changbai Mountain is so big, he wants to escape and can't find it, it's really helpless! He just wanted to ask how to deal with this Qin Rigang, but Fan Ruzeng suddenly said: "Your Majesty, Weichen has an idea!" ”

"Your Majesty, according to the eyeliner set up by the Secret Service Department in the area of the Heilongjiang estuary, there is a team of Russian devil soldiers stationed at the mouth of the Heilongjiang River, about 300 people. Because the eyeliner can understand some foreign dialect, saying that Russia has lost some war in Europe, and their new emperor is ready to send troops to the Far East to recover the losses there. "Your Majesty also knows that Russia and Britain and France were defeated in the war that took place in Crimea, and his emperor Alexander II had indeed only recently ascended the throne. This confirms what the eyeliner said, and it is likely to be true! Therefore, Weichen judged that Russia probably really intended to send troops to the so-called Far East around the mouth of the Heilongjiang River to invade Heilongjiang and northern Jilin. Even, perhaps, will Russia and France collude together after the war, one south and the other north? ”

Feng Yunshan nodded, feeling that what Fan Ruzeng said was reasonable. When the Anglo-French alliance launched the Second Opium War in later history, Russia took the opportunity to loot and carve up a large number of territories from the Manchus under the guise of mediation. Moreover, in fact, they had already sent a small number of troops to the Outer Northeast, and gradually invaded the territory of China.

Fortunately, the British had a rebellion in India to hold back, otherwise, although they had changed this history beyond recognition, it could be seen that history had its repair function, and there were really signs of going towards the original track. In that case, I will give him a complete smash and make the original face unrecognizable!

Thinking of this, Feng Yunshan asked about the situation in India, in fact, he also asked Britain.

"How's the uprising in India?"

"Your Majesty, the rebels on the Indian side are basically fighting on their own. Judging from the current situation, the defeat of the rebels is certain, and it is only a matter of time before they are completely suppressed. ”

"How so?" Feng Yunshan was surprised, looked at Fan Ruzeng and said, "Fan Aiqing should know all about my arrangement. How could this still be the case? I thought I would be able to hold the British back for at least four or five years. ”

"Your Majesty, the British army was just taken by surprise at the beginning, and the impact of the Crimean War caused a shortage of troops in India, and now that the Crimean War is over, a large number of troops have been mobilized from the country and the Crimean Peninsula to India to suppress it, and the British army is indeed very strong, and now, although the rebels in those major places have not been completely eliminated, they are all divided and besieged, relying on familiar turf and fortified cities, plus the local support of the people to support it, if the British at this time a little buy the hearts of the people, Send some more troops to step up the suppression, but I am afraid that these rebels will not last long. It seems that Fan Ruzeng has sent a lot of people to Nanyang and even India, but it is obvious that the information he heard is incomplete and somewhat vague. 1.