After listening to Refuli's words, Lin Yizhe immediately understood. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Refuli is talking about the Black Flag Army!

Among the civilian armed forces that have appeared in China's modern history, Liu Yongfu and his Black Flag Army have long had the highest "score" in the impression of the Chinese people. The brilliant record of "killing the French generals An Ye and Li Weiye" has made them praise for a long time, and it has reached the point of deification. In many film and television literary works in later generations, the appearance rate of the Black Flag Army is extremely high.

But Lin Yizhe knows that the true face and historical role of Liu Yongfu and his Black Flag Army are not as positive as the "mainstream view of history" propagandizes.

Liu Yongfu is a native of Shangsi Village, Bobai County, Guangxi, and is called "Liu Er" by the people around him because of his brother Zhongxing Er. In 1854, when Liu Yongfu was 17 years old, his parents and uncle all died in famine, and in 1857, Liu Yongfu, who was really hungry and couldn't survive, decided to "rise up" with a group of poor villagers for the sake of food, participated in the local Tiandihui uprising, and joined Zheng Sanmen, a subordinate of Wu Lingyun, the leader of the Tiandihui in Guangxi; When Zheng San couldn't feed him, he switched to Wu San in 1860, but Wu San's grain and grass soon had problems, and Liu Yongfu did not hesitate to change his court and vote for another peasant army, Wang Shilin; However, soon Wang Shilin's supply also had difficulties, and it was obvious that Liu Yongfu could not be fed; Liu Yongfu then switched to Huang Sihong, who was the enemy of Wang Shilin in 1865, and fought against Wang Shilin, and became a battalion officer with more than 200 people, and finally had his own team; In 1866, when Huang Sihong's grain and grass could not be maintained, Liu Yongfu, who was already 29 years old, took more than 200 people in Huang Sihong's team to switch to Wu Yazhong, who "gave 30,000 in money, and rice was arbitrary, and limited to enough food". In the battle to eliminate Huang Sihong, Liu Yongfu's courage and ruthlessness were deeply appreciated by Wu Yazhong, and he was awarded the "vanguard of the former enemy of the left wing".

But the good times didn't last long, when the Qing army encircled and suppressed Wu Yazhong's department in 1867, Wu Yazhong was injured, Liu Yongfu saw that the situation was not good, and the 200 or so people who took his team ran away, and Wu Yazhong had considerable trust and appreciation for Liu Yongfu at that time, and even decided to marry his sister to Liu Yongfu, but Liu Yongfu was reluctant: if he married Wu Yazhong's sister, it would be equivalent to becoming Wu Yazhong's "immediate family", and he would definitely be affected by the Qing army in the future, and if he didn't marry, he would offend Wu Yazhong. And when he was in a dilemma, it happened that the Qing army's encirclement and suppression "helped" Liu Yongfu solve this problem--once he left, he was gone. Liu Yongfu ran into Vietnam.

After escaping into Vietnam, because the Vietnamese government was unable to exterminate the rebel forces in exile, including the Black Flag Army, it could only adopt the method of division and disintegration of these remnants of the rebels from China, recruiting a group of people and attacking a group -- for the large and small rogues and rebels entrenched in northern Vietnam, the Vietnamese government believed that it did not have the ability to clean up, and must rely on the "heavenly soldiers" of the Qing Dynasty to help suppress them. Crack down on a group and use the method of peasant armies to fight peasant armies to keep the threat of these roving armed forces within an acceptable range. In 1869, Liu Yongfu led the Black Flag Army to cooperate with the Vietnamese government army and Huang Chongying, a comrade-in-arms of Wu Yazhong's peasant army, to attack the "Yellow Flag Army". After hearing this news, Liu Yongfu, who was extremely panicked, immediately cried to the Vietnamese government and begged for sincerity, saying that he was willing to wholeheartedly help the Vietnamese government completely kill Huang Chongying, a comrade-in-arms who had been in Wu Yazhong's department, and only begged him not to expel him. In addition to the annual "basic salary" paid by the Vietnamese government, 80,000 taels of silver can be collected every year to buy roads.

Many in later generations have been accusing the Qing government of "cannon fodder" in its treatment of the Black Flag Army. It's not without reason, though. Looking at Liu Yongfu's "wall grass" general personal resume, everyone will put a question mark on his "loyalty": it is said that "three family slaves" are absolutely hateful, there were Lu Bu in the Three Kingdoms in ancient times, Hou Jing in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and Wu Sangui, Geng Jingzhong, Shang Kexi and his son, Li Chengdong, etc. at the beginning of the founding of the Qing Dynasty, but when it comes to the frequency of changing masters, I am afraid that these people are just "small witches" in front of Liu Yongfu. Liu Yongfu is not only a "third surname", but the peasant army that can be counted has voted for five, not counting the Vietnamese government and the Qing Dynasty. Even if it is forced by life, if you just play "marquee" casually for the sake of your personal net worth and life, this kind of behavior may not be welcomed in Vietnam, let alone in the Great Qing Dynasty, where etiquette and religion are the first and morality is paramount. In this era when loyalty is worshiped as a god, the grass on the wall is the most despised, both officials and thieves, and Liu Yongfu is precisely loyal in the eyes of officials and even ordinary people in the Qing Dynasty.

After successively sheltering the refugees, bandits, wanted criminals, deserters from the Qing Dynasty, as well as the remnants of the Tiandihui and the Taiping Army that were scattered by the regular army of the Qing Dynasty, Liu Yongfu organized these stragglers and mobilized them in combination with the local peasants (this is an authentic "mobilization of the masses"), and trained an army that was well-organized, combined with agriculture and warfare, and trained (according to the standards of bandits), and followed the black seven-star battle flag he formulated when he was in Wu Yazhong's department, which was called the "Black Flag Army" by the people of the time.

The Black Flag Army's standing strength was usually around 2,000 men, with a maximum strength of no more than 3,000, but it quickly became an important separatist force in northern Vietnam.

The reason why this can be so is that compared with the Vietnamese government army and other local Chinese armed forces, the overall quality of the Black Flag Army is relatively high (but it will never be above the elite regiment of the Qing army training the Hunan army, the Huai army or even the green battalion training army, otherwise, if the elite of the well-trained Black Flag Army echoes the anti-Qing forces lurking in Guangxi inside and outside, and makes a comeback), and although it is equipped with the "Remington" single-shot rifle and the "Grass" single-shot rifle of some Vietnamese servant troops captured from the French, There were even a small number of Mauser 71 rifles smuggled from Hong Kong. The salvo firepower of the rifle equivalent units of the Black Flag Army even exceeded that of the French regular army, which was uniformly armed with single-shot "Grasse" rifles, but it was difficult to guarantee ammunition in wartime. In addition, because the Black Flag Army is armed in the nature of regimental training that combines agriculture and warfare, and is half peasant and half soldier, its quality is among the best among the same armed forces, but compared with the first-class professional army, the gap is still huge. Moreover, the education level of the troops, from officers to soldiers, is low, and they basically do not have the ability to conduct positional warfare, stormy battles, and field battles with regular troops.

Unable to resist the French invasion and having lost a third of the country's territory (the entire seven provinces of Nam Ki fell into the pockets of the French), the Vietnamese Nguyen ****** saw Liu Vinh Phuc's Black Flag Army as a lifesaver. Emperor Nguyen Phuc Phuc personally issued an edict to canonize Liu Vinh Phuc, and awarded him the title of Seven Rank Thousand Households and the official position of Baosheng Defense Envoy (in fact, it is to officially confirm Liu Yongfu's identity as the local master from the legal point of view), Liu Yongfu can be regarded as having obtained the official establishment of the Vietnamese government, and the "temporary workers" have been converted into "regular workers", and the Black Flag Army has become the legal armed forces of Vietnam.

After being captured by the French army led by An Nye in Hanoi, the Vietnamese heir to the Vietnamese Emperor Nguyen Phuc Thi, who had always been resistant to the French and unwilling to be controlled by the French, thought of using the Black Flag Army against the French, and intentionally or unintentionally planned to drag the Qing Empire into the water, hoping to prevent the French from further encroaching on Vietnam. It was only then that the Black Flag Army, which occupied the Red River waterway and wanted to rush to Baosheng, attacked and killed An Ye.

The Black Flag Army's attack on An Ye was a proud thing in the eyes of the Qing Empire, but Lin Yizhe understood that the negative impact of this incident on China was far greater than the so-called "victory" and "great victory" of An Ye and several other Frenchmen who were killed!

At the time of An Ye's killing, Japan was about to make a move against Taiwan, and at this time the relations between China and France were in a honeymoon period, and the cooperation in various fields was intimate, especially the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau, which can be called a "model project of Sino-French cooperation", was in a period of ups and downs, and the French side was unwilling to tear its face for the sake of Vietnam's small cake and the Qing Empire, and cut itself off from this huge market. In order not to hinder the military action against the Japanese invasion, Lin Yizhe asked Hong Jun to mediate in Paris, and at the same time, he also used his personal relationship with the French vice admiral to calm down the situation. In the ensuing war against the Japanese invasion of Taiwan, France remained on the side of China.

Lin Yizhe knew that this time Refuli asked his opinion on Vietnam in a private capacity, most likely because the Black Flag Army's occupation of Baosheng threatened the interests of French merchants, and Reful, as the minister to China, was not willing to cause a rift between Paris and Beijing because of the Black Flag Army's affairs, so he asked for his opinion in this way.

And if the Black Flag Army is allowed to escalate the tension in Vietnam, it is likely to undermine the cooperation between China and France, which it has been trying to promote, and even push China and France to the brink of war!

For the sake of a half-hearted nominal vassal, a fool would be willing to bury all the achievements he had made before!

"Personally, I very much agree with you that the Qing Empire and the French Empire should play an important role in the peace and tranquility of Vietnam." "I will urge my government to pay attention to the situation in Vietnam, and if necessary, the Qing Empire and the French Empire will act together to end the chaos in Vietnam." ”

Hearing Lin Yizhe's words hint that China would recognize France's position in Vietnam, Re Fuli understood it and had a better impression of this young official who he saw as "pro-French."

Refuli had no doubt that Hayashi would exert influence in favor of France on the Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Gong.

"I've heard that Baosheng, the stronghold of the Red River waterway, has become a den of bandits." "This will greatly damage the business interests of foreigners in Vietnam, and I am personally deeply concerned about this, and I have been paying attention to this aspect of the matter." The other day, I heard a suggestion that thought it was good, I don't know if you want to know. ”

"Of course I'm very interested in your suggestion." Refuli said, a look of concern on his face.

"That's right, my suggestion is to change the existing commodity trading location, that is, to hand over goods in Hanoi, and set up a special area for handing over goods in the inner and outer cities of Hanoi, and the rest will be left to us." "In this way, whether it is a Chinese caravan or a French caravan, it will be safer, and the bandits in Baosheng will not be able to do anything about it." ”

Hearing that Lin Yizhe was so familiar with the situation in Vietnam, Re Fuli was surprised for a while.

"Are you sure that our merchant ships will not be attacked by the Baosheng bandits?" Refuli asked.

"Yes." Lin Yizhe nodded, "The gunboats of the Chinese Navy will escort merchant ships. ”

The reason why Lin Yizhe gave such a suggestion was after careful consideration. And to make such a proposal to the French, he also has his own plans!

Now that Hanoi has fallen into the hands of the French, changing the place of Sino-French trade to Hanoi and trying to stay away from the victory controlled by the Black Flag Army can not only avoid a direct conflict between the French and the Black Flag Army, but also avoid a diplomatic dispute between China and France over the Vietnam issue.

After all, Vietnam is an unloyal vassal to China, and Vietnam has always been riding a wall between China and France, relying on China when it needs it, and alienating China when it wants support from France. And China's war with France because of Vietnam is, in Hayashi's view, the most unwise thing.

In fact, Lin Yizhe already has the most favorable draft for China on how to deal with Vietnam, but the time has not yet come and he cannot implement it.

"I have always been very concerned about what happened in Vietnam, and I will report the situation there to the Queen Mother in detail, and I believe that the Queen Mother will make the wisest and wisest decision for the sake of the friendship between China and France." "I believe that no matter what happens in Vietnam, the friendship between China and France will not change. ”

Listening to Lin Yizhe's suggestions of a guaranteed nature, Re Fuli was very happy, and in his opinion, the purpose of today's talks can be said to have been achieved.

The two talked for a while, and Refuli seemed to remember something, and said to Lin Yizhe with a smile: "By the way, dear Lin, there is one more thing I want to tell you. I am about to step down as Minister and return to France. ”

"Oh?" Lin Yizhe looked a little surprised, "What is this for?" ”

"It's nothing, it's for my personal reasons." Refuli smiled and said, "Actually, I don't want to leave China, but everything is out of God's will, hehe." ”

Hearing Refuli's answer, Lin Yizhe knew that it was inconvenient for him to ask further, he thought for a while and said, "I feel very sorry for your resignation, Mr. Refuli. We will never forget your contribution to the friendship between China and France. I hope that the new Minister of your Government will be as sincere a friend as you are. ”

"You've won a prize." Refuli smiled and said, "I just did what I was supposed to do. He turned his head to look at the counselor Albert Bourée, who had accompanied him but had not spoken, and said to Lin Yizhe, "During my departure, Mr. Baohai will act as my place." Let me inform you first. ”

"I have heard that Mr. Baohai is an expert in oriental affairs." Lin Yizhe glanced at Baohai, had an idea, and said meaningfully, "I really hope that someone like Mr. Baohai can replace you as minister." ”

Hearing that Lin Yizhe actually publicly recommended himself to Refuli, Baohai couldn't help but be stunned, although the look on his face did not change, his eyes suddenly lit up.

Re Fuli was also stunned for a moment, and then understood.

"I will convey your opinion to my Government." Refuli glanced at Baohai and said to Lin Yizhe with a smile.

Lin Yizhe knew that Refuli understood what he meant, so he smiled and nodded.

The reason why he wanted to use his influence in France to recommend Baohai as the French minister to China was not for no reason!

In the original historical time and space, the "Li Bao Agreement," which was very beneficial to China, was reached by Li Hongzhang and Baohai, whom he called "the noble of France," after repeated consultations. It was only later that all efforts to avoid war were cut off because of the mass opposition of the main battle faction of the Qingliu in China and the sudden killing of Li Weiye by the Black Flag Army.

Lin Yizhe, who is familiar with history, will certainly not let go of the opportunity to let France appoint a "French version of Chonghou" to be the minister to China!

After the two sides talked for a while, Re Fuli got up to say goodbye, and Lin Yizhe personally sent Re Fuli and Baohai and others out, although Baohai didn't speak, but Lin Yizhe was still keenly aware of the excitement in his heart.

When getting into the carriage and heading to the French Legation, Baohai looked at Refuli and finally couldn't help but say, "Your Excellency, you ...... Are you really willing to recommend to Paris the honorable post of Minister to China, as His Excellency Minister Hayashi suggested? ”

Seeing that Baohai was so excited that he even stammered a little when he spoke, Refuli laughed.

"Of course! There is no doubt about it! "I must explain to His Majesty the Emperor in Paris that this means 'savior of France,' and I think our esteemed majesty will fully respect his opinion!" ”

"Oh—I beg your pardon, Your Excellency! I don't know what words to put to express how I'm feeling right now—"