On December 28, 1897, just as the American warships were sailing through the Florida Strait and the Spaniards were wary of this American naval power, a huge anti-French march suddenly broke out in the Colombian province of Panama.

However, today's French Canal Company has long been in a debt crisis, and the funds advanced by the European bond market and Colombia for the development of the canal are far from enough to complete the huge Panama Canal, and the deeper reason is that the Canal Company has used a large amount of money for bribes from the top of Paris to obtain the support of the French government, without the support of the French government, it is obvious that no consortium can get involved in such a sensitive industry.

The Canal Company almost immediately informed the Governor of Panama, Guerrero, that the indigenous and Chinese workers be dispersed immediately, but to the surprise of the French, a large number of police officers appeared around the protesting crowd at noon that day, but ...... The expulsion they had hoped for by force never showed up.

"Damn South American monkey, who took a bribe from our company, dares to ignore our request at this critical moment......" The angry senior director of the canal company, Lycell, stood on the roof of the company, looking at the crowd of thousands of protesters outside the company in the distance, he waved his hands angrily, "Contact the Bogotá consulate immediately, let that bastard Guerrero know how powerful we are!" ”

Faced with an increasingly deteriorating situation and angry company executives, in addition to a dozen core members of the Canal Company. Less than half a day. The entire Canal Company has lost popularity. The low-level indigenous staff had already slipped away, and then, the French and foreign staff also left, and after night fell, a few Molotov cocktails flew out of nowhere, which suddenly detonated the situation at the scene.

On a small building less than a few hundred meters away from the scene, under the flickering and dim oil lamp, Wei Heng, the chief officer of the Panamanian Intelligence Department, was holding a telescope and looking intently at the canal company that had been burning in the distance...... In the firelight. The native workers excitedly slammed open the locked doors and quickly removed anything they could see.

In the crowd of people scurrying around, he saw at a glance the men he had sent out, these young men with military training, skillfully disguised themselves, and constantly led the flow of people into the huge canal company......

"Lieutenant Colonel, the assets of the French here must be millions of pounds, and after this fire, I am afraid that the Canal Company will go out of business. There is no other way to go! On the side, Cai Sheng, the vice president of the Mutual Masonic Association, who was wearing a dress, shook his head and sighed.

The corners of Wei Heng's mouth twitched. The impetus for the situation in Panama is impossible for anyone other than the Intelligence Division, and he looked at the corner of the courtyard downstairs that was accompanied by two high-ranking Panama City police officers, and at this moment, several thick paper bags were being stuffed into the cloth bags brought by the two policemen, and the horse-drawn carriage parked in the courtyard, filled with most of the carriages of fine porcelain and Chinese goods, was an important means for him to control the situation today.

Colombia's politics were already rife with corruption, and more importantly, the poverty here made this a straightforward and efficient approach, and at a cost of less than £4,000, the French Canal Company was dealt a devastating blow, and unless Colombia took the initiative to pay compensation, the Canal Company's huge losses would not be able to make up for it...... And to get money out of Colombia's mouth, France across the Atlantic also has to consider the cost.

And if the French really take this step, it will not be a failure for themselves, but a greater success...... Only in the case of an external threat will Colombia understand the importance of relying on a strong China!

Of course, Wei Heng understood that everything he did had to be hidden in the dark, and this was the path he had chosen, so he turned around and stuffed the telescope into Cai Sheng's hand, pointing into the distance, "President Cai, after this place becomes a ruin tomorrow...... When the time comes, it will be your time to come forward, and we will fully support you to fight for the interests of the Chinese in Panama! ”

Cai Sheng naturally understood what Wei Heng was referring to, although he did not fully understand Wei Heng's identity and his ability, however, Wei Heng represented obviously huge support from the country, and the purpose was to open up a territory in Panama that truly belonged to the Chinese, but the only thing that he did not understand was that China has always opposed the open secession of Panama...... Although from his point of view, there are nearly 200,000 Chinese and ethnic Chinese in Panama today, and it is entirely possible that they will become the largest ethnic group in the entire region in the next few years.

"Prime Minister, the French have relented again today on the issue of North Vietnam, they are no longer asking to retain full control over the Khmer, and agree to share with us the rights and interests of the Khmer suzerainty, however, the French military shrinkage from the Khmer, the Ministry of Military Affairs believes that it will increase the difficulty of our offensive after the outbreak of war!" Chen Ji hurried to Qin Kai early in the morning to inform Qin Kai of the mediation of the Sino-French conflict between the five countries.

The French are really willing to spend money this time, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can also be said to be going all out to squeeze the opponent, and the cost of a destroyer has exploded, at least 10 or 100 ships must be returned at the negotiation table, Qin Kai was secretly amused in his stomach, but he didn't care about the progress of the negotiations at all, the more anxious the French were, the more troublesome the situation in Paris was.

"Jingru, hard work, since the French have lost their armor, they might as well chase and fight...... This is an important opportunity to show our influence in the Far East, and we will benefit even more from our control of overseas territories in the future! Qin Kai greeted Chen Jitong with a smile, the little territory in South Vietnam is a trivial thing for himself, and what he wants to lay out is the huge Pacific Rim!

"Prime Minister, I didn't expect the French to make concessions so quickly! They do seem to have lost their resolve to fight us! Chen Jitong looked respectful and spoke confidently, "However, I think." For small countries such as Khmer and Laos. We don't have to control it all. Cultivating pro-China forces is also an option! ”

Regarding the negotiation with the French, Qin Kai naturally had already made arrangements, but Chen Jitong's sudden mention was also a little unexpected by himself...... But this question is actually quite related to some important national politics that he is considering, so he immediately became interested, "Jingru." How did you think about this? ”

Chen Jitong bowed his hand, straightened out his thoughts, and then spoke: "Prime Minister, the exploits of Great China in expanding its territory in the past 10 years or so have not been seen in thousands of years of global history, but in the past few years, I have found a problem from the mouths of officials in various overseas provinces, including my overseas patrols with the navy -- in addition to a large number of ethnic Chinese. The provinces are somewhat hostile to the indigenous people of our Greater China, and the approach you advocate is advocating, Prime Minister. It's mostly the big overseas migration, but to integrate the natives, it will take a long time! So ......"

Just as Chen Jitong was about to further explain his views on the issue of national integration, the voice of the guard officer suddenly came from outside, "Report! Prime Minister, the Intelligence Department has transferred a Tianzi-level secret message! ”

Tianzi...... This is the highest level in the Prime Minister's Office to receive secret telegrams from all parties, and Qin Kai has obviously been waiting for a long time, he turned his head to Chen Jitong and said: "Jingru, your thoughts on this national integration, go back and write a note to me, this is a big issue related to our great China's national fortunes, you wait a while, I'm afraid you will have to talk to the French again!" ”

After the telegram came in, Qin Kai opened it and looked at it, the corners of his mouth raised slightly, this news came in a timely manner, and the staff of the Intelligence Department are really getting more and more sophisticated in handling things......

He waved the telegram in his hand towards Chen Jitong, "Jingru, there is news from Panama that the French Canal Company has suffered a serious setback in the local industry due to conflicts with local natives...... To this end, the French have officially declared themselves insolvent and will consider restructuring the assets of the Canal Company! ”

Chen Jitong naturally knew the details of the Panamanian labor case, and Qin Kai wanted to bring up the matter of the Chinese workers in Panama at this moment, which would obviously make the French who were preparing to exchange concessions for peace abuse again, "Prime Minister, I will do my best to let the French withdraw from the industry in Colombia...... I think the French will be informed, too! ”

On January 1, 1898, after also obtaining the situation of the canal company in the Panama riots, the Merina cabinet in Paris was also furious, although the canal company was a French private enterprise, but the canal company participated in the construction of the Panama Canal, in which the French government played a very important leading role, which is more important to reflect the French influence in South America.

On the same day, Prime Minister Melina convened a cabinet meeting to immediately exert pressure on the Colombian government through diplomatic channels, at least, the Colombian government must bear the losses of the canal company...... However, the mess in front of the French is indeed disappointing, the riots in the province of Panama have once again delayed the progress of the whole project, and the construction period, which seemed to be far away, is now about to become the project of the century, and the rumor that the Panama Canal is impossible to complete has already appeared in the upper echelons of Paris.

On the 2nd, after yesterday's cabinet consultations, because of the arduous diplomatic negotiations with China in the Far East, and the Merina cabinet also realized that if the problem of the canal company's huge losses was revealed, it would inevitably trigger a series of no-confidence motions against the cabinet, so France made an unexpectedly strong statement -- immediately dispatched a fleet led by the battleships Dreadnought and the Flex to come to the aid of the French in Colombia.

Although this fanfare showed the attitude of the French government in South American policy, the Merina cabinet immediately realized after just a few days that this time it was definitely a big stone to shoot itself in the foot!

"What? The Chinese believe that the interests of Chinese workers must be treated fairly, and demand that we not intervene in the Canal Company's lawsuit in Panama? Merina's Cabinet Secretary of the Navy Raeder angrily repeated Beijing's voice.

On the 5th, the news from Panama and Beijing surprised the Merina cabinet that the Canal Company, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, was involved in the problems of some Chinese workers at the same time, and Beijing very simply and directly included this demand in the Far East package.

Under intense pressure from Beijing and interests in the French Far East, and almost after painstaking cabinet consultations, the Merina cabinet finally came up with a compromise that they found acceptable at least two days later, and met with Chen Shaotang, the Chinese ambassador to France.

After reading the solution proposed by the French cabinet, Ambassador Chen Shaotang rejected the wishful thinking of the French very neatly, and put the French proposal in front of Merina, and then said very politely: "Prime Minister Merina, I can't see the sincerity of France at all now, the so-called compensation plan and the disposal of the canal company above are completely a substitution game led by your country, and our demand is very simple - dissolve the canal company and compensate the losses of the Chinese workers!" If such a consensus is not reached, I think that we will not have common interests in the Far East! ”

The unexpected events in Panama, apparently completely out of the imagination of the French, turned out to be quite surprising to the French government, which forced the Merina cabinet to choose between Paris in the Far East and the interests of Central America! (To be continued......)