Lu Han stood behind Qin Kai, the battleships that were galloping back and forth in Saigon Harbor just now had all finished their work and gathered at this time, and the most powerful of them was Xu Shoushan's 701 heavy cruiser, this guy was simply playing with his life, and the three mén 254mm heavy guns bombarded in turn, as if the shells didn't cost money.

In fact, Xu Shoushan's completely irresponsible action greatly stabbed Qin Kai, and Lu Han clearly saw behind him that every time Xu Shoushan played Qi shè, Governor Qin's originally very relaxed facial muscles were obviously about to twitch slightly, and he was secretly amused in his heart......

Qin Kai obviously broke through the limit of Xu Shoushan's patience, and finally stopped looking at the aimless shelling of the port by the 701 ship over there, and secretly ridiculed in his heart, this Xu Shoushan looked at him tǐngjīng Ming, why don't you know that it is difficult to make a living, uncle, I have worked so hard to cross over, and it is easy to make money in such industries, your cannon is more than forty taels of silver, that is still ...... The internal price of our horsetail

Suddenly remembered, isn't there a commander of the naval division here, turned his head and asked: "Gengtang, a few days ago, I heard Wu Yun of the Artillery Bureau say that the gun barrel of the 701 ship has been changed for the fourth time, and I thought it was strange at that time, Xu Yù Shan has been active in Nanyang, how can he have the opportunity to use artillery, now I understand...... This guy's training is burning money."

Lu Han smiled and took over the topic, "Gale Wind, but the improvement of the officers and artillery on this ship is very fast, and he has not transported a large number of officers on other new ships, I feel that this artillery is worth it."

…… Qin Kai's face was black, and the two guys were wearing a kù slat, phew, it seems that the navy's arms input should be appropriately restricted in the future...... But in this case, I guess I will drown the spittle stars of these two guys, or think of another trick, this throttling seems to be difficult to achieve for a while, so it can only be open source.

This naval battle in northern Vietnam, he can be said to have won a big victory, and now little Japan has also beaten himself down, and then the naval war in China's waters, it is estimated that the probability of occurrence is very small, then this open source thing, but it can be done by these two guys, Lu Han and Xu Shoushan, for these two guys, it is really expensive, after all, they still have a big industry that they are ready to invest in, and they need the intervention of the army very much.

After making up his mind, Qin Kai no longer spasmed his muscles for Xu Shoushan's evil deeds, and gave the next order with a smile, "Gengtang, go to Jianggang...... Or Cam Ranh Harbor? ”

Lu Han patted the chart and smiled, "Gale Wind, Qiujianggang is a place where the French hoard military funds, I think it will deal with that side first, and also relieve some pressure on Zhou Ruidong's side."

"Well, let them hurry up, today is February 21st, I am thinking that I will rush to Guangxi Taiping Mansion in early March, don't miss the itinerary" For this unsuspenseful war, Qin Kai naturally let Lu Han go to Cào to do it, in fact, he is now more and more marginalized in the position of the water division, which is also what he wants, only a truly professional army can carry his future expectations-

Tianjin, the governor of Zhili, Yamén can be described as very lively today, the neighboring Shuntian Mansion, Hejian Mansion large and small officials have arrived, and even the prefect of Baoding Mansion a little farther away has also come, because today is the day when Li Zhongtang, who is in power in the Qing Dynasty, returns to serve as governor.

Li Heféi returned to the helm of the Huai Army, in fact, the holy decree had already been issued, but this big man stayed at home and refused to take office, and when the war in northern Vietnam was becoming more and more erosive, the newly appointed Minister of Military Discipline Prince Li Shiduo naturally pinned his hopes on this Huai army boss who was worried about Ding, and who else in the Qing Dynasty could match the combat power of hundreds of thousands of Huai troops.

This big guy refused to go to his post, and these old foxes naturally understood what he meant, so they issued several wills in a row, asking this big man to get out of the mén quickly, and after a long call, Li Zhongtang just arrived in Tianjin Wei yesterday, although Zhang Shusheng, another big man of the Huai Military Department, was very reluctant to give up this position, but even if his reputation is rising, it is still too early to compare with Li Zhongtang.

At this time, Li Zhongtang was talking to Zhang Shusheng and Zhou Fu in the house, and his half-open and half-closed eyes did not look at any of the people here, but this momentum had already made these subordinates who could be called big men wait for him to speak calmly.

After several bigwigs reported all the important matters one by one, they all sat up straight, and after waiting for half a sound, Li Zhongtang finally spoke, and said lightly: "Zhenxuan, during the time I was in Heféi, you were very hardworking, I heard that this sailor sent you to the South China Sea again?" ”,

When Zhang Shusheng heard this, he couldn't help but chuckle in his heart, the efforts of his "temporary" governor of Zhili seemed to make Lord Zhongtang unhappy, and he hurriedly explained: "My lord, this sailor fights, that Qin Kai is a good hand in this, and the number of warships in our Beiyang is not as good as that in Nanyang, so I ordered Admiral Ding to join them in battle, and strive to fight a decisive battle with the French, so as to save some situation for the war in North Vietnam."

Li Zhongtang was noncommittal, and his voice was lengthened, "Zhenxuan, you are reckless in this matter, this war in the north of Vietnam, now Qin Liefeng is holding it, even if the situation is reversed, it is also the merit of the Nanyang Naval Division, isn't this making a wedding dress for others."

"My lord, I agreed on this matter earlier than Qin Kai, although there are more Nanyang warships, but this merit is naturally half of each, and Qin Kai also promised that if the battleship is damaged, it will be repaired by the Mawei Ship Administration" Zhang Shusheng naturally understood the reason why Lord Li Zhongtang was targeting himself today, this Huai army was the name of Lord Zhongtang, and he mobilized the sailors and Qingzi army without authorization, without sending a telegram to ask for instructions, which obviously made Lord Zhongtang suspicious.

He thought for a while and added: "My lord, the battle situation was urgent, and this Qin Kai personally came to discuss this matter, and the previous exploits of the Nanyang Navy Division in attacking Saigon, he may have killed half of our Huai army, so I made a decision from the right."

Li Zhongtang didn't answer, picked up the teacup and gently bleached off a few green teas on the surface, and took a sip, "This matter is over, I see that Qin Kai's ambition is not small, I heard that he has a lot of characters in the court, this time he is new to the military aircraft Xu Shilang and Sun Shiì Lang He can even accept it, this person's vision is not bad......"

These news, naturally, Zhou Fu on the side told Li Zhongtang, at this time he opened his mouth and said: "Lord Zhongtang, this Qin Liefeng is impressive, but I look at his words and deeds, it seems that he has no intention of walking on the court, besides, he is Ding Richang's henchman, and now he is a feudal official, supervising the army, if he is at ease in Liangguang, Fujian and Zhejiang, he will be safe with me."

"Wu Shan, how do you conclude that he will operate in Liangguang? This person has stretched out his hand to the Wa Kingdom, and even I dare not underestimate this ability...... Dare to be the first of tens of millions of people, this is not something that ordinary people can do" Li Zhongtang has obviously included Qin Kai in the ranks that need to be guarded against, in the short period of more than a year that he is worried, this young man has actually set off such a big wind.

Every one of these things has already been reported to him one by one, even if it is what Zhang Shusheng did, he also knows it clearly, but because of Ding Wei's identity, and even more importantly, he is still under control, so he didn't deliberately arrange anything However, after the war situation in northern Vietnam was eroded, he also knew that he had to go out of the mountain......

As soon as he arrived in Tianjin yesterday, he met with the French consul in Tianjin and proposed to meet with the French minister, and several other things that made him even more headache turned out to be related to this Qin Kai, and Zhang Shusheng's unclear relationship with the new trends and bad situation of the war in northern Vietnam......

Obviously, for a long time in the future, he must make his relationship with this governor clear, if he can't use it, then he must be defeated, he doesn't want a feudal official in charge of the army opposite him, since the tactical genius Zuo Dashuai was born, he has a powerful opponent in the court out of thin air, how can he come out of nòng opponent.

Zhou Fu naturally didn't know Li Zhongtang's thoughts, he and Qin Kai went to Beijing, thinking that he was one of the few people in the Huai Army who could understand Qin Kai, since Zhongtang was worried about this, he also bluntly said that this Zhongtang Lord was never afraid of someone telling the truth, "My lord, this Qin Kai I carefully observed this person when I was in Beijing, I think he is a calculating person, my lord, these two vast places are the territory of the Hunan army, it is better to let him fight there"

Speaking of the Hunan army, Li Zhongtang is unhappy, his grievances with Zuo Dashuai, it is difficult to write, the Hunan army that was driven from Lianghu to Liangguang by himself is now in control of one side over there, if this Qin Kai can settle the affairs of the Hunan army for himself, it is not a bad idea...... However, this premise, it still depends on how much sincerity this Qin Liefeng can show for cooperation.

After discussing for a while, he waved his hand to let a few henchmen retreat, leaving Zhang Shusheng alone, which surprised Lao Zhang very much, but this time, Li Zhongtang's tone of speech was no longer polite, and he directly told him in a low voice, "This transfer of the Hunan army and the Beiyang Naval Division, you have to deal with it carefully in the future, go down",

Zhang Shusheng sweated dripping mén, and after returning home and pondering today's events before and after, he was shocked and frightened, and took leave under the pretext of being unwell.

And two days later, the French minister who came in a hurry, Delisku, came to see Li Zhongtang, he spent several months with Zeng Jize in Beijing, and could not reach any form of treaty, Zeng Hou was tough to death, the indemnity was not given, the land was not ceded, even if he recognized France's status as the suzerainty of Vietnam, it was completely non-negotiable, when he learned the news of the return of this Qing minister, he immediately thought that this could be another breakthrough in peace talks,

After the two sides met, after praising each other, they immediately entered the topic of substance, Li Zhongtang naturally knew the meaning of the powerful person in the Qing court, these news can be inquired about without him, someone will already understand it for him, so for him, the standard for measuring whether the treaty is acceptable is not from the perspective of the country and the nation, but whether the superior is satisfied or not.

Soon, Torigu found a direction in which both sides could enter, Nakado was a trader, and he wanted a shopping jiāo to be easy, rather than a negotiation between the two sides for their own purposes, and he made a series of demands, hoping that after he came forward, he would end the confrontation between the two sides as much as possible, so as to reflect the supremacy of this Qing minister.

In addition, in the treaty, the dignity of the Celestial Empire must be fully respected, of course, only in terms of the use of words and sentences, of course, in order to reflect this, the Qing Empire could not make reparations for the war, not one or two, however, in order to show the friendship between the Celestial Empire and the French State, open some ports, or allow the French to do business in Yunnan, Guangxi, and other places close to Vietnam, that would not be a big problem, anyway, the Huai army over there would not go.

As for the main body and main battlefield of this war, Vietnam, the vassal state that the Queen Mother did not care about at all, Li Zhongtang's meaning made Toligu very incomprehensible, if it is expressed in words, "neither give up, nor fight", these eight words seem to best explain the attitude of this Qing minister, but for the French at the negotiation table, there is a feeling of not being in the north.

However, for Tuoligu, this yīn Shen and cunning foreigner-born official, in the face of this naïve Chinese old man who looks down on the Quartet but has a foreign jiāo, he has no gentleman's consciousness at all, he is here to negotiate, not to jiāo, the two sides do not have any principle of equivalent jiāo exchange, and some are just footnotes of deceit.

Of course, for those meaningless clauses on paper proposed by this Zhongtang lord, Delisu naturally accepted it half-way, and at the same time, the French put forward a series of harsh requirements very unauthentically, and the French died so many soldiers, of course, they needed pensions, which should be paid by the Qing government...... Dead Chinese officers and soldiers? That's not a human being for France

Vietnam's vassal status, of course, must be maintained, but in the future it will be a vassal state of France, the Qing state, you can maintain the status of the nominal suzerainty, but according to the "Vietnamese-French Treaty", Vietnam belongs to the French first, and second...... There is no second belonging, so I will give you a face for Lord Zhongtang, and it is allowed to add such an article, and the Great Qing Kingdom does not have to take it seriously at all

And also...... I've got a bunch of additional terms here......

The act of kicking his nose and face obviously ended up angering Lord Li Zhongtang, who brushed his sleeves away, and before leaving, he was very honorable and stated that what he mentioned earlier must be unconditionally satisfied, otherwise France would not have possessed Vietnam...... This statement once again revealed his hole cards to the other party.

When Toligu returned to the consulate, the consul of the Tianjin consulate, Thomas, sent a telegram with a dead face, causing the foreign officer from the navy to smash two sets of teacups on the spot. How could the world's second-largest navy be completely wiped out in this remote and backward part of the Far East?

"Consul Thomas, you confirmed this news, can't it be a mistake" Deliquegu frowned, staring at the consul with a look of disbelief, although he could hardly believe that someone would falsify such shoddy news.

"Your Excellency Minister Toligu, I have sent a special telegram to Saigon to confirm this news, but there is no definite news of how the fleet was defeated, and not even a single soldier has survived, and what is even more terrifying is that the fleet of the Qing State has raided the port of Saigon, and then there is a destruction of the arsenal of the expeditionary force in Qiu Jiang, which is currently being harassed in various ports in South Vietnam",

The French Navy, which has always taken the British Empire as a competitor, was planted in the hands of this nameless small fleet in the Far East, and this news came at a really bad time, and the terms he had just pondered seemed to be revised and quickly reached at a time when the Chinese did not know

In fact, Li Zhongtang had already received another piece of terrifying news, Ding Ruchang, the commander of the Beiyang Naval Division, reported that he had achieved a proud record in the battle with the French Far East Fleet, had completely defeated the French Far East Naval Fleet, and captured the French battleship Woerda and the Viper gunboat in Keelung Harbor.

Of course, the main force in the life-and-death confrontation between the two navies was naturally the Nanyang Naval Division, and now Ding Ruchang's achievements are all the result of the Nanyang Naval Division's encirclement and suppression of the French fleet, but more often than not, it is indeed caused by the stupid breakthrough behavior of the French fleet.

The night attack of the frogman battalion on that day achieved heavy results, the French flagship Triumph was sunk, and four cruisers, including La Perlouse and Reis, were sunk or seriously damaged, and the fleet commander, Rear Admiral Miller, had to transfer to board the armored cruiser Malody and lead the remaining four French warships to prepare to escape back to Saigon.

However, the hesitation of this Rear Admiral Miller cut off his way of escape, and several other warships were in danger of being destroyed, and a large number of soldiers fell overboard and fled to nearby friendly forces, and when Rear Admiral Miller saw this, although he knew that it was extremely dangerous to stop and rescue, he still left three warships, and he personally led the cruiser Fellers to the harbor to clear the merchant ships that were used as roadblocks and anchor mines under the water.

It seemed to be going very smoothly, and the channel was cleared by 7 a.m., but the fleet did not assemble until 8 a.m. to wait for the ships behind

But accidents happened one after another, and the 10 unanchored mines that had been buried were obviously cleaned up, but at the front of the channel, the cruiser Flyers was the first to be injured by mines.

At this time, the combined fleets of the South and North Seas in the open sea had already taken advantage of the wind to break through the làng, blocking the channel to death, and Rear Admiral Miller saw that this side was impassable, and immediately turned around and tried to escape from the remote abandoned channel on the other side, but after the water receded in the morning, the water depth could not meet the navigation of the battleships.

As a result, the temporary flagship armored cruiser Malody ran aground directly on the river, and the whole fleet was completely mad, and soon the French fleet, which was surrounded by regiments, received an order from Qin Kai, ordering these Gaul jī to surrender immediately in the name of the minister of the South Seas, of course, after Qin Kai promised them a decent surrender ceremony.

Rear Admiral Miller, who had no second choice, finally chose to survive in shame rather than commit suicide for the glory of France, and he boarded the 501 ship to hand over the surrender to Qin Kai and became an honorable prisoner.