On June 29, 1910, the French Cochinchina, Saigon, bad news from the country, has already caused a lot of turmoil in the so-called French colony of Far East Paris, the former governor of Cochinchina, Lu Mei, because of his advanced age, has already returned to China, two years ago after the new governor Simon took office, he was busy opening trade and mining to collect money.

Today, however, he unexpectedly summoned almost all the important officials of the Doge's Palace, and convened a meeting that had not been held for two years, and the main issue discussed was the proposal of the French Expeditionary Force Command to return to China to participate in the war in response to the call of the French government that had been relocated to Orleans.

At present, there are eight infantry brigades of the French Expeditionary Force stationed in Cochinchina, with a total of nearly 100,000 regular troops, including African soldiers, but these troops are obviously unable to allow the French to ensure the security of the colony, and there are nearly 100,000 recruited South Vietnamese servants, in addition to more than 20,000 indigenous police officers under the jurisdiction of the police station.

After nearly 20 years of reconstruction, the Far East Fleet has more than 30 large and small warships with the battleship Martel as the flagship, and after the Qin Kai night attack on Saigon Port, the entire Saigon Port has also set up a tight defense force, including four large batteries on the high ground on both sides of the strait and the torpedo boat defense force in the port.

The commander of the expeditionary force command was Major General Olava, who had participated in the defense of Hanoi and was captured, but escaped from the chaos and ran back to South Vietnam. This later became an important qualification for establishing a foothold in the Far East. And he was responsible for the Gai Ning line of defense that was built. At least in the past 30 years, the Chinese army in northern Vietnam has successfully stopped the attack...... The deeper reason is that the Chinese army did not attack at all, and at most it was attacked by Vietnamese indigenous guerrillas.

Major General Olava first introduced the expeditionary force's plan to return home, planning to mobilize about 65,000 people from six overseas mercenary brigades to return home to resist the German attack, and this huge plan to return home will be gradually implemented in the form of hiring British and French merchant ships over two months. The reason why this plan is so urgently put forward now is that Major General Olava also considers to a large extent the situation in the Far East, which is now relatively safe.

At the very least, from North Vietnam to the Indian Ocean, the Chinese have announced to the world that they will be safe here, and that after crossing the Strait of Malacca, the French Far East Fleet and the British Indian Ocean Detachment will escort the fleet, so that in 40 days at the earliest, the first expeditionary force will enter the Mediterranean Sea and land through the port of Marseille.

Looking at Major General Orava's high-spirited deduction, Governor Simon really didn't feel any excitement. However, the orders issued by the Brian Cabinet to the various French colonies. Obviously, there is no prevarication, but the existence of the expeditionary force has a great deal to do with ensuring the political stability of South Vietnam, and although the resistance of the Vietnamese on the South Vietnamese plain is not fierce, the activities of the Vietnamese guerrillas near the Chinese border are very frequent, and this threatens the interests of a large number of French mines in the mountains.

"General Orava, are you sure of the security of our border with Chinese, in case ...... I said that in case, the Chinese announced their entry into the war, and they joined the Allied Powers, then Jiaozhina is probably their first target! So, you have to make sure that the border is safe before you can deploy troops into the country! "Governor Simon immediately made his request.

Major General Olava, who also had some gray hair, obviously did not buy the new governor, "Your Excellency the governor, if it is a South Vietnamese guerrilla, only 1,000 expeditionary forces are needed to settle them, but if Chinese really declares war on us, it is completely pointless to continue to resist, in that case, Cochinchina is completely a dead land, and we don't even have any chance to escape to the Indian Ocean...... However, China and France have signed a peace memorandum, and this is our greatest guarantee! ”

"General, the German fleet on the other side of the South China Sea, have you thought about it carefully!" Sir Philip, the Colonial Administrator, also realized that the military's opinion was difficult to refute, and immediately diverted the topic to resolve the embarrassment of Governor Simon.

Rear Admiral Raymond, commander of the French Far East Fleet, who was sitting next to Olava, immediately took out the escort plan of the fleet, "Sir, the German Far East Fleet is indeed a big threat, but they only have cruisers, and the number of warships is far less than ours, I will personally lead the fleet to escort the expeditionary force, and after reaching the Indian Ocean, the British Royal Navy Indian Ocean Detachment will also send an escort fleet composed of the battleships Dreadnought and the Refusal to ensure the safety of the fleet." ”

In order to prevent his explanation from being understood by the two senior officials, Rear Admiral Raymond added, "Our flagship battleship Martel has absolute firepower and armor superiority over the German Scharnhorst-class cruisers, and their armor is vulnerable in front of our 12-inch guns, while the Germans' 8-inch guns cannot penetrate any of the Martel's heavy armor at all." ”

Governor Simon eventually changed his mind after the strong opinion of the military, but he came up with a new idea, and the big man, who was preoccupied with his own business in Cochinchina, asked Major General Olava to send a part of the South Vietnamese servant army to replace the black army, so that at least in his opinion, the security of South Vietnam could be improved.

Although the generals of the military were not very satisfied with this, as the top administrative officer of Cochinchina in the Far East, and considering that there was no shortage of merchant ships in Saigon at present, it was finally decided to send three brigades of expeditionary force and eight battalions of South Vietnamese servant troops to the country...... At the same time, Governor Simon asked to escort a number of French merchant ships to carry important supplies back home.

When Rear Admiral Raymond of the French Navy walked out of the governor's palace with a frown, his adjutant appeared in front of him on horseback in a frenzy, and when he saw the officials chattering next to him, the adjutant leaned over and whispered: "General, a Chinese battleship has just entered the port, and they have proposed to us to enter the port and anchor, because of a mechanical failure on board!" ”

"Battleship? Was there any notification of what class of battleship it was? Rear Admiral Raymond was surprised and immediately asked, the Chinese battleship that suddenly appeared at this time, and it was also a battleship, which was somewhat worrying.

"The battleship Chang'an of the China South China Detachment!" The adjutant glanced at the document in his hand and immediately whispered.

Chang'an-class battleship...... Raymond immediately felt the huge pressure, over the years, the Chinese have been leading the trend of the navies of various countries on the battleship, a big guy with condensed industrial capabilities, Chang'an-class battleships 8 13.5-inch main guns, looking at the era when countries have launched dreadnoughts, it is still five times more powerful than people to underestimate, after all, the standard configuration of dreadnoughts, but 10 305 main guns, the ability to project firepower, is not as good as 8 343mm Chang'an-class.

This immediately made Major General Raymond's brows furrow even higher, although according to the memorandum signed earlier between China and France in 1893, the Chinese promised France the long-awaited peace, but at the same time, the French Cochina must also open its ports to Chinese trade, but the development of the situation did not make the French worry too much, China's economy is developing rapidly, and the vast Nanyang free port has become the focus of trade between countries, as for several ports in South Vietnam, due to tariffs, the attraction has been greatly reduced, even Chinese merchants are not happy to come.

However, Chinese warships often enter and leave the important ports of South Vietnam such as Saigon Port, Cam Ranh Bay, and Lacha Port, and most of them only stop at anchor, of course, for the Chinese Navy, which has absolute power in the Far East, the French side has always been wary, and has formulated a notification system for entering the port, although this is completely a routine procedure, and the Chinese side also has a lot of complaints, but the powers of all countries basically have such a thing, and China has implemented the same system without exception, but it has always been peaceful.

Just now, the French Far East Fleet was just preparing to start the task of escorting a large number of returning army and military supplies, and Chinese warships appeared at this point in time...... Is this really suspicious? However, Major General Raymond quickly dismissed the idea...... Unless someone leaked the secret from a few French officials in the room just now, even if there were, it wouldn't be so fast!

"According to the convention, send two torpedo boats to pilot China and pay close attention to the movements of the Chinese!" Rear Admiral Raymond immediately decided, the old saying of the Chinese, to adapt to all changes, is indeed a brilliant summary, he should focus his attention on the Germans on the other side of the sea, not the Chinese, who are said to have attacked British merchant ships on the high seas, God knows how the British became so weak that they even allowed the Germans to stand there in the fortress of Subic Bay.

Major General Raymond's speculation seemed to be very moral, but in fact, shortly after he hurriedly left, in a British shop on the west side of the French Concession in Saigon, a French official hurried in, handed a sealed letter along with a 100-franc note to the clerk opposite, and then took a small paper bag and hurried away.

Half an hour later, in a small French-style villa two blocks away from the shop, a Chinese businessman-like man hurriedly opened the letter, and then immediately burned it.

On the same day, Rear Admiral Ma Zhen, who commanded the battleship Chang'an and entered Saigon Harbor, set up a tea set on the platform above the command tower very comfortably, and several officers and sergeants on the ship happily gathered together to enjoy the captain's personal service...... In front of the powerful Chang'an, these things of the French are all scum with a combat effectiveness of 1. (To be continued......)