After listening to Rydel's explanation, Wittoma understood that although the British Far East Fleet had an advantage in strength compared with the Chinese Navy, its advantage was not obvious, and it was difficult to guarantee victory in the face of the 8 main cruisers and 1 ironclad ship of the Chinese Ship Master and Naval Division. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 He thought for a moment and said, "Assemble the fleet!" Your Excellency, General! I need your fleet to help me achieve my goals! ”

"Okay." "Still, I think we need support from the UK. ”

"I'll send a telegram to the Admiralty requesting a fleet of support." Wittoma agreed, and just now, he had come up with a better way.

"I have a suggestion that you might want to consider." Wittoma said to Rydel.

"What's the suggestion?" Rydell asked curiously.

"I suggest that you send a telegram to His Excellency Admiral Gillet, Commander of the East India Fleet, asking him to send some warships to China to participate in a military exercise." Wittoma said with a smile.

"Okay." Rydel immediately understood what Wittoma meant, and nodded with a smile.

On June 12, 1875, Vice Admiral Gillett, commander of the British East India Fleet, who received the telegram, ordered the ironclad ship "Bipedal Wyvern" (displacement 2,794 tons), the cruiser "Comos" (displacement 2,418 tons), the gunboats "Swift" (displacement 1,010 tons) and "Lily" (displacement 830 tons) to China to participate in the naval military exercises of the "Chinese fleet".

During the build-up of the British fleet, Wittoma deliberately traveled between Yantai and Shanghai, and repeatedly consulted with Ryder about the details of the threat of force. With the support of the East India Fleet, Ryder suggested that the Far East Fleet's flagship Awakening Ironclad not be dispatched for the time being, as it might alarm the French and other powers if the capital ship were to be dispatched, and Wittoma agreed. After the capital ships of the Far East Fleet were assembled in Shanghai, Wei Tuma and Ryder returned to Tianjin on a warship, and then went to Beijing, and before the departure he said to Li Hongzhang: "After I enter Beijing, there will be envoys from other countries to mediate, and I will not allow it; I will do what I want", showing his determination to be prepared to go his own way. In the face of the arrogant Wei Tuoma, Li Hongzhang did not ridicule him, but quietly submitted his opinions on the handling of the Dian case (in fact, Lin Yizhe's strategy) to the Prime Minister Yamen. At this time, the Qing government still wanted to ease the pressure on Britain by cleaning up the Dian case itself, and on 7 June, it sent Xue Huan, the former prime minister of the Yamen, to Yunnan to help investigate the Dian case.

After returning to Beijing, Wei Tuma's negotiations focused on the three demands of preferential treatment of the minister, the expansion of trade privileges at various ports, and the border trade in Yunnan, but he was first critical of the responsibility of the governor of Yunnan, Cen Yuying, and the omission of the word "British" in the edict on the dispatch of the envoy. Regarding the section on preferential treatment of ministers, Wei Tuma requested: 1. The minister in Beijing should meet the emperor at any time; 2. Correspondence between princes of close clans and foreign envoys; 3. Forbidden places and permitted foreign envoys to travel; 4. Exchanges between ministers of various ministries and foreign envoys. In the section on trade issues between the various ports, Wei Tuma also demanded: 1. The tax bill should be valid for Chinese and foreign businessmen; 2. Rectify the taxation, and prohibit the taxation in the concession; 3. Ports along the coast, along the rivers and along the lakes will be added; 4. The opium tax shall be collected by the customs by the customs. With regard to the section on border trade in Yunnan, Wei Tuma asked the Qing government to order the Yunnan authorities to negotiate a charter with officials sent by the Indian or British envoys. In addition, Wei Tuoma also made a special request, asking the Qing government to issue an edict to strictly order the provinces to properly protect foreigners who travel with licenses.

In the face of Wei Tuma's blackmail, Wen Xiang, who was already well aware of it, launched a counterattack, he first expressed extreme indignation at Wei Tuma's "lion's mouth" asking for the murder of Ma Jiali to China, Wen Xiang said: "Ma Jia is just an embassy interpreter, Ma's death is his own fault, but your minister is so persecuted in China, first ask for the price of silver, and then open more ports, forced taxes, you must know that Ma is in the name of travel, the fact of exploration, has violated public law, and your minister forcibly blackmail, Now that my deputy envoy has been killed in England, and China has also blackmailed Britain in this way, what does your minister think is okay? ”

In the face of Wen Xiang's cross-examination, Wei Tuma Wu was insistent on his own strength, he first declared that "the truth about the murder of your deputy envoy has not yet been ascertained, and it has nothing to do with the death of Margaret", insisting on the previous blackmail conditions, while Wen Xiang followed the method proposed by Li Hongzhang and set the conditions for "anti-extortion" to the British side for the murder of Liu Xihong: 1. According to the precedent of Lin Yizhe's assassination, Britain will compensate China with 500,000 taels of silver; 2. China raises import tariffs; 3. The UK ceases to support the Aguba regime in Xinjiang and publicly announces it to other countries; Fourth, Britain withdrew from Burma and was not allowed to send people to explore the route from India and Burma into Yunnan.

Wen Xiang's counter-request surprised Wittoma, and in a fit of rage, he resolutely refused, and Wen Xiang also rejected all of Wittoma's requests. Wittoma left the table in anger, and the first round of negotiations between the two sides broke down.

In order to exert pressure on the Qing government, Wei Toma angrily left Beijing and went to Tianjin, and threatened to return to China under the flag, he was full of thought that the Qing government might be afraid, and sent someone to retain him and resume negotiations, but then the prime minister Yamen sent him an official letter, saying that "the General Administration will no longer intervene in the case of Margaret", and if he wants to negotiate, he can just talk to Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili, and the case of Liu Xihong's murder will be handled by Guo Songtao, the Chinese minister in London, who is responsible for direct negotiations with the British Foreign Office.

Seeing that the Qing government did not buy it, Wei Tuma was furious, believing that only military means could be used to subdue China, so he went to Tianjin and waited for the fleet to be assembled, so that he could use "military exercises" to demonstrate the British force and force China to submit.

After arriving in Tianjin, Wei Tuoma did not immediately go to see Li Hongzhang, but arranged for Gwene to go to Yunnan, and sent the embassy secretary Eweici to return to China to make a detailed report. Then he went to meet Li Hongzhang to discuss the negotiations, and by this time the contents of the negotiations between China and Britain had been clearly divided into three aspects, namely, the Dian case itself, the murder of the minister, and the commercial tax. In terms of the Dian case itself, Li Hongzhang said that he must wait for the conclusion of his brother Li Hanzhang and Xue Huan's investigation and handling to be reported to Beijing before deciding on how to deal with it; The General Administration has instructed Guo Songtao to make representations to the British Foreign Office about the murder of the minister, and it is inconvenient for him to intervene; On the issue of commercial taxation, Li Hongzhang said that Hurd had already submitted a report, which involved various trade, judicial, and administrative relations between China and foreign countries, and demanded that the imperial court must consider it comprehensively before it can decide on the trade-off between profit and loss, and this is "the state is" and must be decided by the imperial court, and it is inconvenient for him to make the decision. Therefore, any of the above three types of negotiation items are tantamount to a rejection of Wittoma. Seeing Li Hongzhang's reply, Wittomata repeatedly threatened that he had asked his own government for military reinforcements in the Chinese region.

In the face of Wei Tuma's threat, Li Hongzhang was angry but still unmoved. Through the information provided by the French side, he had learned that the Indian fleet had agreed to Wittoma's request, and sent Lambert (Lambert) to lead four warships from India to China, and immediately ordered all ships of the Beiyang Naval Division to prepare for battle, and sent a telegram to Lin Yizhe to remind him of the new development of the situation.

Tianjin, Dagukou.

On the ironclad ship "Long Xiang", several captains of the Beiyang Naval Division each held binoculars and looked at the British warships flying with rice flags fluttering on the opposite side, and their faces were extremely solemn.

"What are the British trying to do?" Deng Shichang put down the telescope in his hand and said in a deep voice.

"The note from the British Admiral said that it was a routine exercise." Lu Lunhua, the commander of the "Kangji" ship, said.

Qiu Baoren, the pipe band of the cruiser "Henghai", put down the monocular in his hand, shrugged his nose, and snorted, "Look at this posture, but it's not that simple!" ”

"If they want to fight, let's accompany them!" Liu Buyun, the new "Long Xiang" ironclad ship pipe belt, said with a sneer.

Seeing Liu Buyun's eagerness to start fighting immediately, the four captains Deng Shichang, Qiu Baoren, Zhang Cheng and Lu Lunhua all smiled slightly.

It has been three years since Liu Buyun was sent to France to study the navy, and he once went to the French Mediterranean Fleet's flagship ironclad ship "Ocean" as an intern first officer. Later, due to illness, he left the ship from Toulon and returned to Paris to recuperate, and the following year he recovered, returned to the French Mediterranean Fleet for an internship, and went to the ironclad ship "Courbo" for an internship. During his internship, he was praised by the commander of the French fleet, Admiral Blonn, for his hard work and diligence. Xuan returned to China, and used the guerrilla rank to stay in Fujian to make up for it first. Soon, he served as a pipe band on two gunboats successively, and performed well. Later, in order to strengthen the coastal defense of Beiyang, Li Hongzhang established the Beiyang Naval Division, due to the lack of talents, borrowed talents from Fujian, Liu Buyun was transferred to Beiyang, and served as the pipe belt of the modified Japanese battleship "Longxiang" ironclad ship.

The current "Longxiang" ironclad ship has been renovated in the Fujian Shipbuilding Bureau, not only has it replaced a new steam turbine made in China, the speed has been increased to 12 knots, and the artillery has also been replaced with four French Schneider 190 mm main guns and eight 140 mm breech guns. Lin Yizhe transferred this China's only ironclad ship to Beiyang to strengthen the defense of Beijing and Tianjin, which greatly increased the strength of Beiyang coastal defense, which shows the depth of his friendship with Li Hongzhang. On the pretext of the transfer of this ironclad ship, many gossip officials accused Beiyang and the shipping master of engaging in the so-called "division of feudal towns" by "privately giving and receiving each other."

Since the "Longxiang" was transferred to Beiyang, it has become the capital ship and flagship of the Beiyang Naval Division, and naturally it also carries too many expectations of the Chinese people, and as the pipe band of China's first ironclad ship, Liu Buyun is not only proud, but also eager to lead this warship to make contributions on the battlefield.

This time, the British Far East Fleet gathered at Dagukou, which was clearly an exercise, but it was actually a military intimidation, and Liu Buyun and several other senior captains of the Beiyang Naval Division all knew that they had made preparations for dealing with it as early as possible. Despite the strength of the British fleet, Liu Buyun at this time did not have the slightest fear in his heart.