Lu Han's estimate of the French Far East Fleet is obviously reasonable, the French in the colony of Cochinchina, now for a little dependence is not at all the Far East Fleet with only 4 capital ships, the British have driven far stronger than their Sovereign-class battleships have been deflated, 2 of them were still in Saigon Harbor by the nominally neutral country France at that time, the power of the British Sovereign-class battleships, even the French just entered service "Bremen" battleship, in fact, is in the middle of the middle.

Fighting against the Chinese fleet at sea, in the case of the Straits of Malacca being cut off, is completely an act of foolish dreams, fortunately, the French garrison in Cochinchina has never stopped after the defeat in North Vietnam, and there are currently more than 100,000 French regular troops, which is what the French really rely on...... However, after the defeat of the Russians, how much protection can the French army, which has been reduced to the last rank, provide?

Therefore, when Lu Han put forward his point of view, Qin Kai was also a little depressed and had to consider the possibility, he had to temporarily suspend the discussion with Xu Guofang on domestic industrial investment, and a little later, Chen Jitong brought the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote the new dynamics of the negotiations on the Saigon incident, which made Qin Kai make the final decision.

"Inform the Intelligence Department and activate the canal plan immediately!" Qin Kai turned around and walked to the huge Pacific map behind him, and his sharp gaze went straight to the narrow connecting area between North America, which would be a crucial point for his future layout.

The ticking of telegrams, which in a few minutes immediately transmitted orders from the center of the republic in all directions, was the first to use telegraph cryptography in this era, although only a relatively primitive codebook. But this is enough to ensure the security of current communications. The next generation of more sophisticated follow-up ciphers is on the agenda of the Intelligence Division and the Ministry of Industry.

15th. Just when the French were frustrated with how to solve the diplomatic dilemma in front of them...... Just as a pie-in-the-sky good thing suddenly happened, the Italian minister to China, Locrent, suddenly approached the British minister Bauer, and he said that Italy was willing to participate in diplomatic mediation between China and France in order to ensure the security of trade in the Far East.

Under the lead of Minister Lokrent. The new German Minister to China, Brück, expressed the same concern, and although the French never saw Germany as a friend of the same trenches, the fool knew the great influence that the German government wielded in China...... On the 16th, a preliminary consensus was reached at the six-nation mediation conference led by British Minister Bauer.

On the night of the 16th, the German minister to China, Brück, secretly paid a visit to Zeng Jize, and then the Germans brought back news that made the French ecstatic...... After the joint mediation of Germany, Britain, and Italy, the Chinese government agreed to temporarily withdraw its request for a direct trial of the French soldiers! Of course, this is only a good start to start negotiations......

On the 17th, Zeng Jize, general minister of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, sent a note to the envoys of five countries, including those of other countries. The ministers of various countries were asked to urge the French side to make a positive statement on the "Saigon incident" without delay, if a consensus can be reached. The Chinese side can consider unilaterally reducing the blockade of Cochinchina!

Although this is not good news for the post, compared to the shadow of war that hung over the head before, this is already a great achievement...... On the same day, Raynal could not wait for an urgent telegram sent by Paris, in which he put forward a proposal for a package settlement of the Saigon incident according to the Chinese side's intentions, and in his opinion, this was already the best terms that the French side could get!

According to the agreement between the two sides, the Chinese Government will no longer emphasize the special investigation of the French navy, but will instead agree that a joint commission of inquiry between China, Germany, Britain, France, Austria-Hungary and Italy will carry out an investigation into the Saigon incident as much as possible.

Of course, Wu Tingfang, counselor of the Chinese Foreign Ministry who participated in the negotiations, told the French that the Beijing government was already very angry about the Saigon incident, and that this would be the minimum demand that the Chinese government could accept, and that any extraneous situation would lead the Chinese government to abolish all previous negotiations......

Raynal's acceptance of this proposal was naturally not because of how beneficial it was to France, in fact, the British also secretly expressed their concern to the French afterwards that according to the improvised investigation plan, the Chinese side would have the decisive right, after all, in the whole matter, it seems that the Chinese Navy is the most injured, and it is difficult for people to raise objections to this request.

What's more, the British obviously didn't have any more creative construction, and in the face of the dense cannon pipes outside Saigon Harbor, it was also a little more difficult to constructively raise yì! As for Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, there is no doubt that they all take a biased position towards China, but because Germany, Britain, etc. have also exerted great pressure on France, the Chinese have blocked all the roads they can take, and the French have no way to go, only this one way.

Paris, December 18, 1897 -- French Prime Minister Jules ? A week ago, the conflict with China directly led to a collective counterattack by the Republican Party that ousted due to the bribery case, and now a large number of Republicans in the House of Representatives are watching the cabinet's decision with fierce eye, fearing that once the decision he has made has serious consequences, the Merina cabinet, which has been in power for a year and a half, will collapse with a bang.

However, the problem has now been solved, and although Governor Lu Mei has not achieved results from the Far East, Reynald has reached a preliminary diplomatic mediation framework with the Chinese government on the "Saigon Bay Incident" within a few days, and more importantly, this mediation framework has been obtained with the participation of several European countries, which has released tremendous pressure on the Merina cabinet.

The Merina cabinet is obviously even more surprised, knowing that in view of the practice that China in the Far East has always maintained a tough foreign policy, Prime Minister Merina, who is in charge of the center of France without party affiliation, has even been in the cabinet two days ago in consultation and is ready to prepare for the worst. And the reason why no final decision was made. That's because. Once it is decided to refuse the Chinese side's proposal to enter a state of war, according to the judgment of the Ministry of Defense, it is impossible for the French army in the Far East to defeat the Chinese army, and the best result is to prevent the Chinese army from penetrating deep into Cochinchina on the local battlefield, and even if this is the result, his position as prime minister of the cabinet will basically come to an end!

So. After nearly eight hours of heated debate at the cabinet meeting held on the afternoon of the 18th, Prime Minister Melina finally made up his mind that the first task was to extinguish the flames of war in the Far East first, and as for the follow-up issues, he could only wait for the results of mediation and negotiations in the Far East. But it has to be in a decent way.

The French responded positively, but this was clearly not what Qin Kai needed. After receiving the news from Paris conveyed by Raynal, the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not give a direct response in a tepid manner, but said very resolutely that it would not be able to decide whether or not to accept France's request for further negotiations only after the four-nation investigation team made a final judgment on the "Saigon Bay incident."

In the early morning of the 21st, after being forwarded by more than 10 telegraph relay stations, it was forwarded to Shen Shouchang, the minister of the four South American countries, who was conducting diplomatic consultations in Bogota, the capital of Colombia.

Shen Shouchang squatted in Colombia at this point in time, naturally he had a plan, Colombia has a number of favorable conditions that China must strive for, the most important of which is the hostile position between Colombia and the United States that has lasted for 30 years! The Panama Railway had to be handed over to the Americans to manage that year, and the fuse was only a dispute between American businessmen and Panamanian natives over a few watermelons!

The Americans drove the cruisers "Independence" and "Santa Marie" with 24 side-chord guns, and very decisively landed 160 marines to complete the control of Panama, and in the end, the Colombian government had to sign the trade agreement drafted by the Americans.

On the 22nd, Shen Shouchang, accompanied by the president of the Bogotá Congress, Hurtado, met with President Tania......

"Your Excellency President Tania, I have brought some important news that the Americans may want to intervene in the management of the Panama Canal...... Considering that there are a series of cooperation interests between the Chinese government and your country, Beijing believes that it is necessary to let you know the situation immediately! ”

Since the signing of a series of cooperation treaties between China and Colombia, the two countries have entered a period of mutual benefit in the past four years, Colombia has always been a weak country in South America's military power, Indians and immigrants are the main inhabitants of the region, the army is still stuck in the state of 30 years ago, and Colombia's entire coastline is distributed on both sides of South America, and the sea power is extremely backward.

However, three years ago, the purchase of two 2,000-ton armored ships from China made Colombia finally the third country on the Caribbean coast to have quasi-modern warships, and this has become Colombia's highest achievement in resisting the intervention of American forces in the past 30 years.

Therefore, when Shen Shouchang shook off his burden and still let the Colombians eat it, President Tania immediately worried about the possibility of his re-election considering the general election that would start in the next year!

"Ambassador Shen, is your way of getting the news absolutely reliable? Their interests in Panama, according to the promises of the US government in the early years, were limited to the Panama Railway! President Tania expressed his opinion, but immediately realized that he was naïve...... In the era when there were no canals, railroads were naturally the most important thing for Americans!

"The information is absolutely reliable, but at the moment we are not sure how the United States will intervene in the situation in Panama! It's just that we feel it's important to communicate beforehand...... The assistance we can give to your country seems to be very limited at the moment, and the Chinese South American Fleet has only two ironclad ships to protect the coastline west of Panama...... It may be difficult for Americans to retreat! ”

Shen Shouchang looked at the two Colombians with a slightly panicked look with a smile, for South American countries, the United States will always be the object that needs to be guarded against, and China is obviously more like a savior...... I'm here to save the South American continent, and of course, this thing needs to be rewarded! (To be continued......)