Chapter 7o Fatal Weakness

Saigon, a South Vietnamese land built by Chinese immigrants in the late Ming Dynasty, has long been a French paradise in the Far East, with its flat terrain and rivers leading to the sea, which is undoubtedly the best harbor of the colonial era.

A large area near the center of the city is home to more than seventy percent of Saigon's French-style luxury buildings, and all the streets near it are maintained by a large number of French soldiers and Vietnamese servant police, and only Westerners and Westerners are allowed to enter that area, while yellow-skinned people are forbidden to approach the area at will.

On the west side of this luxurious residential complex, in the lobby of a three-storey mansion next to the bay, a sixty-year-old man dressed in a sophisticated silk suit toasts the guests of the dinner with a glass of wine: "Glory of France, dear General Guba, toast to your great success in Africa"

The many European gentlemen and beauties seated at the long banquet table all stood up and raised their glasses to the old man beside the old man. Gu Ba, a French vice admiral, is also one of the few commanders in the French army who is good at naval warfare and 6 wars, just after completing France's 6 strategy in the Congo and Djibouti, he was immediately ordered by the new French Prime Minister Jouferi to be transferred to Vietnam as the commander of the Jiao Toe China Navy.

Of course, Guba is not a proud soldier, otherwise he would not enjoy the current glory and status in France, he stood up very enthusiastically and toasted, and said loudly: "Thank you, Your Excellency Governor Lu Mei, let us toast to the glory of France"

The naval officers sitting beside him immediately howled loudly, "Cheers to France"

As a veteran colonist who served as governor of the Far East for nearly 3o years, he was well aware of the sudden strengthening of the Far East's military power by the Empire, and after annexing the six southern provinces of Jiaozhichina and the 13 independent regions of Cambodia and Laos seven years ago, the wealth of these lands was quickly plundered.

Now, in addition to the fact that these lands can continue to provide income for the French Republic in terms of food production, the concentration of wealth has slowed rapidly. It was clear that the interests of the great republic would require the development of new sources of wealth, and that barren Africa, the only thing that brought the French Republic was the trade of black slaves.

And for democracies, this bloody wealth can obviously only be carried out in secret, which African blacks, forever like Stone Age creatures, have no historical accumulation at all, and the slightly richer coastal areas, the French Republic can only get some soup and water remnants of the land because it is not as good as the huge John Bull, which obviously cannot meet the needs of the nobility of the republic, and the French colonization in Africa6 is also forced by this helpless move.

"General Guba, you've been in Saigon for almost half a month, what do you see here?" After the aperitif, the dinner party entered the formal stage, and a noble person beside Lu Mei asked softly to Gu Ba.

Obviously, this question is exactly what Governor Lu Mei wants to understand, and he also stopped his knife and fork and looked at the hawkish general in the French army with a smile.

"Dear Madam, I have heard that this Saigon has only been built for two hundred years, but I am fascinated by the richness and beauty of this place, and the yellow-skinned people I see on the street are far smarter than the African slaves," Guba remembered something, and a smile appeared on the face of the soldier who had been coming to Yan.

"When I led the Navy 6 to occupy New Caledonia, the blacks there lived in mud-walled villages, and in the face of our guns, they were completely as ignorant and fearless as primitive people, and their clothes came from the wild hemp in the woods, so they were very rare, and the black slaves of the male and female were all naked and topless, and of course the hot climate of the place may also have a certain reason."

The solitary and witty conversation caused everyone to laugh, especially the argument that the black slave was too high to be too high......

"However, in Saigon, I saw a completely different country, which could accumulate huge wealth in just two hundred years, there were a huge number of Chinese, Yue people, and the Oriental people did not lack wisdom, but their country was very backward militarily, so I completely agreed with the construction of the Minister of the Navy, to quickly and completely occupy all the lands in South Asia that were not under the French flag, and then completely dismember the Great Qing Kingdom in the East."

The beneficiaries of the colonial empire present gave warm applause to the admiral's encouraging words, and the more enthusiastic French ladies threw a fly to the naval officers at the opposite table, and the band also played light music very cooperatively, pushing the atmosphere of the dinner to a high level again; Qin Kai was also inviting people to dinner at this time, but the guests were his top boss Ding Richang, and Sun Fu and Zhang Jian were accompanying him, but he was not interested in going to the restaurant in Fuzhou Mansion, but the dishes on the table were also very rich. ,

Ding Richang came to the Artillery Bureau today and was also uninvited, this Nanyang Navy Division is a sailor under his jurisdiction, although for the inspection of the Nanyang, he also raised his hands in agreement, but the strength of his own sailor is there, although he also thought about asking Qin Kai to make some improvements to these wooden hull ships, but Qin Kai completely rejected his request, the reason is also very clear, to transform these ships, with that strength, would rather build a new type of iron-hulled ship, it is easier than to renovate.

However, he is still very satisfied with the progress of the training camp, after all, the Nanyang Naval Division already has an ironclad ship, and the second sister ship that imitates the 5O1 ship he often runs to see, although the progress is not fast, but it can be seen that which workers have made perfect progress in technology, and there is no need for which German ship engineers to conduct on-site guidance, Qin Kai also reported to him, at the latest next year, the second ironclad ship of Mawei Shipmaster can be launched for sea trials.

However, Qin Kai also asked Lao Ding Jianyi, for the time being, there is no need to announce the matter of this trial production of ironclad ships, and the reasons he found are also very simple, first, after all, if this thing is not developed, it will be a matter of losing face at that time, and second, this ironclad ship is expensive, and now these are all the silver invested by our Mawei Shipmaster, and he strongly asked to leave the ship in the Nanyang Naval Division.

Lao Ding thought about it for a while, this did not violate the agreement in the early days of the establishment of the Nanyang Beiyang Naval Division, and the ships built with the silver sown by the imperial court were given priority to supply Beiyang, after all, now from the test to the materials, it is all the silver from Qin Kai's side, for his ability to collect money as a proud general.

He was also very curious, he only saw Qin Kai in Hua Yinzi, and he didn't specifically look at what he did to make more money, but seeing the increasingly large factory area and machine area of Mawei Shipbuilding, he didn't plan to go to the leisure of CAO, there were more than 60 people, and now this official is doing it very easily, and he is thinking about how to benefit one party and expand his library all day long.

He came today because of two things, one was to inspect the Nanyang, and the other was to remember that Qin Kai had promised to make clothes for a long time, and it had been almost a few months, and he didn't see the shadow of the machine, so after inspecting the Qiushi Academy, he went to the Artillery Bureau by the way, and saw Qin Kai pouring a square box with a group of young workers.

As a result, Qin Kai told him that he was studying electromagnetic machines, and when he saw that it was noon, Lao Ding also unceremoniously ate hún dinner here, in fact, he can't be regarded as hún, this is the big boss named here. Seeing these novel dishes on the table, Lao Ding rejuvenated his enthusiasm for helping the people.

"Gale, how did you pour these dishes?"

"Lord of the glass greenhouse, there is that thing, even if it is winter, it is normal to eat watermelon," Qin Kai waved his hand, and after a while, the guard really came up with a watermelon.

"Glass greenhouse......" Old man Ding frowned, glass is not a rare thing in this era, but it is still an extremely luxurious thing to make a greenhouse for growing vegetables, it seems that this is not suitable for his plan to benefit the party, "Gale, I came to ask you, what about the clothes machine that I promised the old man last time?" ”

Qin Kai then remembered that there was indeed such a thing, but after this design was thrown to Xu Guofang, he hadn't asked for a long time, "My lord, I forgot about this matter, you see I've been busy all this time......"

The old man blew his beard, "I saw that you were busy, and a group of students were engaged in those two wooden boxes"

"My lord, it's not a wooden box, so the electric fire hua electromagnetic machine has a lot of use...... It's just that I haven't studied it thoroughly yet" Regarding Old Man Ding's ignorance, Qin Kai protested, "My lord, you didn't just come here today for this tailor machine, what else is there, you just say it directly"

Lao Ding must be polite, "This clothes machine qì you do your best to help me nong, I also refer to a few more good things for the fathers and villagers in Fuzhou, there is another thing, that is, this sailor who patrols the South China Sea, Gale Wind, do you think this French will fight with our warships, this Yunnan and Guangxi border troops have all entered Vietnam, although war has not yet been declared"

To be honest, Qin Kai can't judge this problem, now this history is a little distorted by him, the war on the ground in Vietnam has obviously been born in advance, but there is no news of the French attacking Shanxi, if Shanxi, an important town in northern Vietnam, is attacked, it will mark the start of a full-scale war in Vietnam.

"My lord, how can I judge this, I'm not a roundworm in the stomach of a Frenchman," Qin Kai snorted, "But, my lord, this Frenchman is determined to fight with me, we can't take it lightly",

"I naturally know this, Gale, this sailor is out, I'm just a little troubled, if the basket comes out, then it's troublesome, it's best if you let the training camp go out to pick them up." Old man Ding said his true purpose, for this, Qin Kai also understands Lao Ding's situation, if he is defeated before the battle, Lao Ding's black gauze hat will be dangerous, and if he loses his hat like this, it will be 120,000 points depressed, for that wealth mí Liu Shen, Lao Ding understands very well, this product is not reliable at all.

Qin Kai pondered for a moment and calculated the time, "My lord, the day after tomorrow training camp can only travel, and now the artillery system on the ship is being transformed, and it will take a few days to complete."

Hearing that Qin Kai promised to come out immediately, Lao Ding lost his mind, and tasted a sumptuous lunch happily, and when he left, he was still unsatisfied, and muttered two sentences: "The husband only holds the Wu hook with one hand, and his spirit is higher than the hundred-foot building, who has written history for 10,000 years, and he is a marquis three thousand miles away."

Sun Fu's expression was quite complicated when he listened to it, and after sending Ding Richang back to his house, he secretly ran back to find Qin Kai.

"Brother Sun, why are you here again? Could it be that today's meal is particularly delicious, and you still have a dinner," Qin Kai teased with a slight smile.

"Gale Wind, you are still in the mood to ridicule here, the adults have already conceived the intention of retreating"

"No," this news startled Qin Kai, Lao Ding is a good comrade, educated and understands science and technology, and boldly delegates power, it is his own big backer who travels through the elements, we finally made a heart pill to regulate Lao Ding's body, why is this old man really ready to go into hiding as in history

"These days, I see that adults often come to Mawei Shipmaster to look around, and when adults see that the shipyard is prosperous, I think I want to do something practical today to listen to the adults recite that poem, so that I can understand the meaning of adults."

"Three thousand miles away to find the marquis...... "Qin Kai smash it, smash it, this doesn't look like he wants to go into hiding," this Li Zhongtang's poems can be described as very heroic, how can it be that an adult wants to resign?"

"Gale ...... Your knowledge and ability are first-class, but this matter is too insensitive, do you remember the last two sentences of this poem? ”

"The ambition of going out of the mountain is to reach the top of the mountain, and when will I enter the Fengchi ......" This is related to the retreat

"My lord debuted with Li Zhongtang back then, and now he is also the best official residence, so he no longer has the idea of going out of the mountain to pay for his ambitions, which is in line with his idea of retreat, and has repeatedly reminded you that 'three thousand miles away to find a marquis', that is to recommend you to take his place, but your current political performance is too poor, and there is no one in the court, how can you be this feudal official"

This is the key point of Qin Kai, he is now completely a creeper, and he climbed to his current position because of Lao Ding's big tree, all of which are covered by Lao Ding's strength, of course, Ding Richang covers him and he also likes his ability, Lao Ding is also a rare high-ranking official in this era who is interested in technology, according to Qin Kai's statement, the two can be described as having a similar smell

"Brother Sun, this is indeed my weakness, just with the performance of this horsetail shipmaster, it is still a completely insignificant role in the imperial court" Qin Kai is very clear about his weaknesses, don't look at him now desperately to show his power and cultivate business alliances, but he is just duckweed in the officialdom, and he has no foundation at all.

"Master Jungong has already shown you the way," Sun Fu suddenly lowered his voice, "Gale Wind, you have two major shortcomings, do you know?" ”

I x, two major shortcomings, this is a big surprise to Qin Kai, he can feel good about himself, and now he is also vigorous, "Brother Sun, it doesn't hurt to say it"

Sun Fu glanced at him, "First, you are not suitable for sitting in office, you basically don't know what you are doing in officialdom, but fortunately, you are hidden very deep in the Mawei Shipyard."

It's not that we don't understand officialdom, it's just that the darkness and deceit of this officialdom, Lao Tzu, I don't have time to deal with it now, not to mention Lao Ding is still carrying it, Qin Kai was aggrieved for a while, but this is indeed his weakness, so he has always hidden himself in the Mawei Shipyard, constantly building his strength, waiting for the day when he can break out of the cocoon.