The Yan regime and the Manchu Qing Dynasty made a temporary truce, but the secret public opinion propaganda war was slowly kicking off, but Shanghi, who was far away from the four sides, had accumulated an unimaginable force at this time, and then it broke out. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Beginning two years ago, Hu Xueyan (Hu Guangyong), backed by the many money houses and ticket numbers under his control, wanted to break the manipulation of foreign businessmen on China's silk export industry, bought a large amount of raw silk, and ordered his subordinate money banks, firms and other branches to issue fixed silver in silkworm villages and towns in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, monopolizing the purchase of silkworm cocoons in these places, thus hoarding a large amount of raw silk, and the price of Shanghi silk was once raised above the London market price, and even the textile factories in Yuanhe City were affected to a certain extent.

The information collected by Yan's firm shows that from the sixth year of Guangxu, that is, in May and June 1881, after the new silk was listed, Hu Xueyan successively purchased a large number of raw silk, and by the end of May this year, Hu Xueyan had hoarded 14,000 bags of raw silk in his hands, for which Hu Xueyan had advanced about 20 million taels of silver, so Zuo Zongtang did not think of asking Hu Xueyan for money when he sent troops to Sichuan, because he knew that Hu Xueyan did not have much money in his hands now.

It just so happens that this year's climate in Zhejiang is not good, affecting the sericulture industry, and it is estimated that the supply of raw silk will be lower than in previous years, so Hu Xueyan and his peers in the silk industry insist on selling at a high price.

Foreign businessmen, who have always manipulated the raw silk trade, have adopted a boycott attitude towards the price marked by Hu Xueyan.

However, what Hu Xueyan and others did not expect happened, the Italian raw silk harvest on the other side of the world, and the well-informed Shanghi foreign businessmen turned to Italy for trafficking, so that the Shanghi raw silk trade was seriously depressed.

In January this year, some well-known silk stacks such as Jin Jia Kee, Zhu Yongsheng and other firms have lost more than 1.5 million taels of silver due to turnover failure, dragging down 20 money banks.

At the time of the escalation of the Sino-French dispute and the entry into a state of war, the turbulent situation exacerbated the volatility of the financial market, and because the Manchu court wanted to confiscate the Yan family, the Yan family was empty overnight, and there was no Yan money to stabilize the financial market, so that the volatility of the financial market continued to increase, and the price of silk in the Shanghi market fell frequently.

At the beginning of September, the price of a pack of high-grade No. 4 Seris was 427.5-428.5 taels of silver; In October, it fell to 382.5-386.3 taels of silver; After that, it fell further to the lowest price of 375-376 taels of silver, at this time, Hu Xueyan could only reluctantly sell a large amount of raw silk to foreign businessmen, and the selling price of each package was as low as 372.5 taels of silver, with a huge loss.

In December, Hu Xueyan opened the Fukang Bank in Shanghi collapsed, and the situation of other money banks in Shanghi became more critical, but in order to protect their own interests, foreign banks refused to lend a helping hand, and the money bank had to be closed in large numbers under the double blow.

At that time, some businessmen were thinking that if Yan's Money Village was still there, it would not be like this, but most of the Yan Money Houses in the country had been emptied, and only Yan's Money Village in Siqi Province was still in business.

In this wave of defaults, 27 of the 34 money banks in Shanghi have been closed, and there are as many as 200 commercial banks that have closed down. At the same time, Hu Xueyan's money banks in various places also collapsed one after another, causing the financial industry in various places to also suffer a violent impact.

This financial panic in the winter of 1883 finally swept the entire Shanghi market on an unprecedented scale, from 34 at the beginning of the year to only 7 at the end of the year, no less than 200 shops in the north and south of the city were dragged down and closed, the stock market of Shanghi slumped, the financial tide began from Shanghi, affected Beijing, Hankou, Tianjin, Ningbo, Hangzhou and other places, and immediately endangered commerce, agriculture and handicrafts in various places, causing great damage to the social economy.

Shanghi started a commercial war because of raw silk, but Vietnam really started a big war of artillery fire.

At the end of September, the Sino-French War, which was supposed to take place in December, came three months early, and the commander of the French army, Mile Jiguba, led 6,000 French troops, divided into two teams by land and water, from Hanoi, Vietnam, to the northern Shanxi region (there is a Shanxi city in Vietnam) to attack, Shanxi's defense army was mainly the Black Flag Army, but also there were seven battalions of regular Gui Army and Dian Army.

Shanxi is located on the south bank of the Red River, is the strategic place to control the middle and upper reaches of the Red River, the circumference of the city is about 20 miles, there are brick and stone inner city and earth outer city, after the Black Flag Army stationed in Shanxi, further strengthened the city fortifications here, and set up a bamboo raft on the Red River to block the river surface, build a fort along the river bank, the north gate to the river embankment is five miles apart, and build five gates.

Before the war, Liu Yongfu, the commander of the Qing army, received an order from Li Hongzhang that if the French made any moves, they should not be concerned with them, let alone go to war with the French.

In fact, not only Liu Yongfu, but also the generals stationed at the various borders at the end of the period received Li Hongzhang's order that they were not allowed to start a war with foreigners, and that they should retreat if they could, and let a few miles of land within the allowable range.

Li Hongzhang issued such an order, not because Li Hongzhang was weak, but because there was still a great enemy of the Yan regime within the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Li Hongzhang mobilized a large number of officers and soldiers from all over the country to besiege Siqi, and there were many empty troops in other places, although the border defenders did not mobilize much, but if there was a war with foreigners, especially the Tsarist Russia and the French, with the current situation, the Manchus would not be victorious.

Even if the Manchu Qing transferred the 200,000 troops that surrounded Siqi, it would not have much effect, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty fought with the "short-haired thieves" before, and their strength was greatly damaged.

Now Li Hongzhang is counting on the British to train 100,000 new troops as soon as possible, so that they will not only be able to exterminate the "short-haired thieves" but also resist the invasion of France and Tsarist Russia.

Therefore, when the training of the 100,000 new troops was not completed, Li Hongzhang could only ask the border defenders to restrain themselves, and could not clash with foreigners.

The French also learned that the British helped the Manchus train the new army, and once the new army was trained, the French did not know whether they could still invade Vietnam, and they were ready to send troops to occupy Vietnam in advance when the Manchus were defeated, and now because they knew about the Manchu training of the new army, they launched a war one step ahead of schedule, wanting to occupy Vietnam as soon as possible, so that it would become an established fact.

At the beginning of the Sino-French War, the Qing army's Shanxi defenders could only retreat step by step in the face of the menacing French army, until they completely retreated to Shanxi City, and the French army forced up again.

As the commander-in-chief, Liu Yongfu couldn't bear it, and blocked the dissuasion of the military advisor Tang Jingsong with "the general's 'king's order' outside", and decided to fight with the French army.

The French army launched a general attack on the city of Shanxi, and in just two days, the Qing army had to retreat from the city in defeat, preserving its vital strength and continuing to resist the French attack.