Facing the suddenly brighter sky, Liu Shao subconsciously shrank into the darkness between the two merchant ships, and his face couldn't help but be filled with a smile...... After waiting for half a minute, there was no movement, and the smiles of several people were a little stiff.

Could it be that the bombs in the back are all dumb? It's impossible!! At that moment, there was a guy who wanted to sneak out to see the situation, but he was immediately stopped by Liu Shao, took off his mask and asked in a low voice: "Xiao Wu, what are you in a hurry!" Stay with me, and I'll have a chance to play with my life for a while! ”

At this time, the port of Saigon, which was awakened by the sound of a huge explosion, was already in chaos, and the soldier he called Xiao Wu immediately obediently went to the back again, and waited for at least two minutes, and finally the long-lost explosion sounded again!

From their position, they could not see the entire pier, but judging by the sound of the explosion, in just ten minutes, at least 23 underwater bombs were installed at the north pier of Saigon Port! After waiting quietly for ten minutes, the five people dropped their breathing masks and dived into the water, thinking about swimming to the scene after the explosion.

But the scene outside scared Liu Shao, who had just emerged, in the blazing firelight, many lifeboats and rescue ships crowded the dock to this side, in this case, if it was dark, it was feasible for them to dive quietly, but now there are several battleship-type candles burning, and the ships are lit with oil lamps, it is obviously not a good idea to run to the scene.

Liu Shao immediately made a decision, turned around and swam into the distance, and used the shadow probe of the moored ship to come out to inspect the results of the battle, and carefully remembered in his mind, the first military rule of the current frogman squad combat is not to expose themselves, at least in the current situation, concealing their whereabouts and detecting the results of the battle at the same time, that is already the completion of the affairs within the duty.

Half an hour later, when the port was still in chaos, Liu Shao had already returned with the results of the battle, and the merchant ship "Tianfang" immediately hurriedly pulled anchor and set sail, disappearing into the night.

At this time, the port of Saigon, there is absolutely chaos, after hearing the explosion, many merchant ships are urgently on fire, this is not an ordinary movement, only the port is invaded by the enemy, this kind of serial explosion in the port will be led, however, soon a large number of French warships began to patrol the port, after all, this situation is too weird.

Rear Admiral Miller was awakened by the rumbling explosion from his bed, and he jumped up at once, hurried to the balcony and listened intently, and it was clear that the explosion was coming from a distant port, and soon the officers brought the first wave of news, and the former flagship of the Indian Ocean Fleet, the Deauville, was silent.

This news made Miller almost stupid, although the cruiser Deauville is not the latest type of warship, it is an early armored warship, and even the battery is still the side guns of the ship, but the huge body with a total tonnage of 6,000 tons is definitely a big man in naval warfare, that is, in the Far East Navy of Cochinchina, France, the Deauville is definitely the first largest ship.

Unexpectedly, this time-tested battleship exploded inexplicably in his own port, which made him really scratch his head...... The next news made him even more panicked.

The bilge of the 4,700-ton ironclad ship Victory was permeable, and the two boilers were completely destroyed!

The front rudder of the ironclad ship of the same class, the Laissania, was damaged, and the bilge arsenal was flooded, but fortunately it did not cause a bomb explosion.

The 2,500-ton armored cruiser Fort Renault caught fire in the bilge and capsized on the sea.

……

The Far Eastern Fleet lost three large ironclads overnight, and now except for the Triumph ironclad that went to Singapore to investigate the pirates, Saigon seems to be unable to come up with any ironclad ships to fight the enemy, and the armored cruiser is also sunk and wounded, and all of them are not lightly injured.

Overnight, Miller, who originally had his hands left, was already like a gambler who had gambled all his money, and there seemed to be only one way out in front of him, to return to China to be investigated for malfeasance, but he quickly thought that there should be another choice.

On the same day, Miller sent an urgent telegram to the fleet that was investigating the piracy case in the waters off Puro, asking them to return to Saigon immediately, and after the inspection of the damaged warship by French engineers, the hulls of the Deauville and Fort Renault had been severely damaged, and there was almost no possibility of repair, and the only thing that could be done was to dismantle them into scrap metal.

The other two ironclad ships, the Victory and the Lalinenia, need to be towed to the shipyard in Saigon for repair for at least half a year, and the other four cruisers are still in the range of repair, but the Saigon shipyard has no dock at all. ,

And what made the French even more unbearable happened again, after getting accurate results, Lu Han took the 501 and 601 battleships to kill the door, and actually blocked the channel outside the port of Saigon in broad daylight, of course, he would not take the initiative to run into the channel to exchange fire with the shore artillery......

As a result, for two whole days, in the entire Saigon port, all the ships in and out were controlled by the Nanyang Naval Division, Miller looked at the only intact armored cruiser "Charlie" under his command, and he also knew in his heart that there was absolutely no way to go back if he went out and fought hard, and relying on shore defense was the best way.

So the two sides engaged in a fierce artillery battle outside the port, and the French dispatched three iron-clad wooden-hulled cruisers to try to rely on the artillery of the shore defense to counterattack, but in the face of the heavy guns of the 501 ship and the rapid-fire guns of the 601 ship's projectile strengthened, a little careless, a battleship that ran too fast was damaged, and the other battleships naturally knew that it was powerful, and they all chose to preserve their strength, after all, their wooden shell cruisers were not the main combat force in the first place.

It was the day of the night raid, the intelligence group sent accurate news of the battle damage by telegram, when the news of the completion of the translation was placed on the table of the governor Yamen Qin Kai, he smiled very happily, he is not easy to destroy a battleship in this harbor frogman battle, but to damage the enemy ship, so that he can not move for several months, this is definitely a good way.

The results of this battle can undoubtedly be described as brilliant, but for a long time this result will not be publicized in any way, and it will remain as a secret.

The war in North Vietnam has consumed too much time and too many resources, and he used to be stubborn and not fighting, because he wanted to make more merits and benefits in the war in North Vietnam, after more than a year of operation, a large area of land in the west of the entire North Vietnam region has fallen into his control, and more importantly, the resources of North Vietnam have been firmly grasped by him.

But...... Now thinking of the battle situation in northern Vietnam, Qin Kai is also confused, according to the process of the original history books, the French should be able to easily break through Hanoi and advance into Bac Ninh, and the Qing army is like a blind stream!

However, the small tricks he did to seize the command of northern Vietnam evolved into a big butterfly effect, after that Pan ran and walked, in exchange for Wu Changqing, he commanded the Qing army in northern Vietnam, although he could not complete the counteroffensive and recover the lost territory, but at present, he was very happy with the French in the positional battle north of Hanoi, and it could be regarded as a victory or defeat.

And the latest news received, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, Cen Yuying, has broken through the Lujiang River and is preparing to attack Sanxuan, and the Guba, who is known as the famous French general in later generations, does not know what he is doing now, which makes Qin Kai a little worried, the current news from the front line in Hanoi, the French ** team on the front is Major General Bo Hua and his fourth brigade, and the French army that conquered Shanxi last time did not know this brigade!!

However, in this era, for Qin Kai, a guy who is speculating thousands of miles away, it is necessary to block the news, the news he heard was at least two to three days ago, and he has no idea what the situation is now!

However, the results of Saigon's battle undoubtedly needed to be put to good use, and he immediately sent a telegram to Zeng Jize, who was struggling with negotiations in Beijing City, only to reveal a little that the French navy had once again suffered at least 30% of the losses in combat strength, and the French did not take advantage of the war in North Vietnam.

However, what Qin Kai didn't expect was that the news he revealed a little bit had already spread in Beijing, and during the night attack that night, there were still a large number of foreign merchant ships in the port, and even British warships, but although they didn't understand the whole story of this magical attack, they had already reported it to the British minister.

Zeng Jize also heard some rumors, but before the exact confirmation, he naturally wouldn't take it seriously, and now that he got the news of Qin Kai, the credibility of this result naturally increased greatly, and he personally went to meet Prince Gong, and the court must come forward to note the French, and then he will negotiate, so that the more Kennish will be able to achieve results.

However, Prince Gong's thoughts were completely different from his, and after sending Zeng Jize away, he immediately convened his bigwigs to discuss the matter, but the topic was not to negotiate with the French, but about the issue of the Qing Dynasty's silver.

Weng Tongyi, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, was the first to express his doubts, "Sixth Prince, where did you say that the news of Zeng Hou came from, I also heard this news in the teahouse two days ago, and it sounds mysterious!" ”,

"Lord Weng, you don't have to worry about this, I thought that since Zeng Jize believed in this, ** will not leave ten, so I summoned you today, strike while the iron is hot, our customs tariff affairs, I think now, we can officially have a showdown with the United States!"

The following four officers of the military aircraft department can be said to be thoughtful, and there is good news from the front, so naturally they should make good use of the bargaining with the French, but now they are inexplicably talking about tariffs, which can have the meaning of Yi, so several people are staring at each other, neither opposing nor agreeing.

Li Hongzao naturally cares about the interests of their Qingliu lineage, this naval battle is won, it is naturally the merit of the Nanyang Naval Division, but the Nanyang Naval Division is a Qingliu strong sailor, he immediately changed his words and asked: "Lord, if this naval battle is really won, I think it should be commended with great fanfare, so that the people of the country can be excited!" ”

"That's not going to work!" Prince Gong vetoed it in one bite, "These news have not been announced, how can they be praised with great fanfare!" Naturally, he didn't say it directly for another reason, and for Qin Kai, a special case in the Qing Dynasty officialdom, it obviously also aroused suspicion in the court.

This envy, jealousy and hatred are obviously the primitive feelings of human beings, what Qin Kai doesn't know is that there are no longer a few people who participate in him, the rookie governor, and this reason is even more strange...... Therefore, Prince Gong still has to press the affairs of the Nanyang Naval Division.

"Sixth Prince, what do you think about the tariffs on the United States?"

"This is not difficult, I also asked Hurd, the United States has imposed a tariff of 3 percent on our silk, and I think that we will levy a tax of 1 percent on the export of raw silk, and we will also levy a tax of 1 percent on the import of American silk." Prince Gong triumphantly stated his plan.

“……”

Soon a new tax notice was issued by the Shanghai Customs and Excise Department, which immediately caused an uproar, and the American minister Ma Fen immediately asked the Prime Minister's Affairs Yamen to take the matter seriously, but other than that, there was no new move, which made Prince Gong very reassured.

In fact, in the past two months, the number of raw silk leaving the port of Shanghai is pitiful, and it is almost impossible to buy raw silk from the surrounding provinces, only sporadic raw silk can still be seen, and a large number of American merchant ships can not purchase raw silk at all, so they have to stay in Shanghai temporarily.

The raw silk in the hands of the Chinese Merchants Raw Silk Alliance, led by Hu Xueyan, the silver number of Fukang, has increased by 2% in just 20 days, and 20 million taels of silver have been smashed in this raw silk trading.

However, with the increase in the number of raw silk hoards on hand, Hu Xueyan has no more financial resources to buy, 20 million taels is already the limit of this year's raw silk output, at this time, he is in his big mansion with his cronies to discuss the business business.

According to the original plan, they were not allowed to sell the raw silk on hand lightly until they reached an agreement with foreign merchants and foreign companies on the purchase and sale of raw silk, but Hu Xueyan did not notice the fact that although the foreign merchants and foreign companies in Shanghai had the pricing power of raw silk, they could also assess the grade of raw silk at will.

However, the price of raw silk given by foreign banks is not completely out of thin air, but at any time with reference to the raw silk trading information transmitted from the London Exchange, and now the average price of raw silk in Hu Xueyan's hand is 16 taels and 4 yuan of silver, but the price of raw silk in the London market is only 15 taels and 8 yuan.

Li Donglai sat quietly in the lower position, this is the position he chose, it is convenient to observe the straightforwardness of these Shanghai Tang wars, he was ordered by Qin Kai to pay attention to the price war of Shanghai Tang raw silk and the movements of foreign merchants anytime and anywhere, and now it seems that the foreigners have formed a group, led by Citibank, and have also formed an alliance to prepare to negotiate with Fukang.

It's just that in his private conversation with Hu Xueyan, Lord Qin told Hu Xueyan to accept it when he sees it, but this Hu Da shopkeeper has no such thoughts, and he is willing to let go only when he wants to negotiate a package of deals with foreigners in the future, which undoubtedly pushes Fukang completely to the position of the opponent of the foreign bank.

Even Xi Zhengfu, the big comprador of HSBC, said that he wanted to trade with Fukang, and the British offered generous conditions to buy the raw silk in Fukang's hand in a package and agreed to increase the price by 8 million taels.

Li Donglai sat down, very curious about the fact that the matter specially explained by Qin Kairen has not yet appeared, and seeing that Hu Xueyan was discussing with a few shopkeepers to send raw silk to Fukang Silk Factory, he leaned up, came to Hu Xueyan's side, and said in a low voice: "Hu Da shopkeeper, Lord Qin said 10 million taels, you can make a move, you are not in a good situation in the United States!" ”,——

In Berlin, Germany, Wang Li, who was stationed here by Qin Kai, has been working in Germany for 500 days, and today according to the plan, he still has to go to the University of Berlin to meet the experimental maniac Tesla.

Tesla is about to complete a year of working in the real room of the University of Berlin, for a scientific worker, this is undoubtedly his paradise, and Wang Li is his logistics minister, Tesla for the first time feels the pleasure of devoting himself wholeheartedly, he often lingers in the real yàn room all day, and Wang Li to help him deliver food.

In addition to the fanaticism of the real room, Tesla is also very interested in this young man from the East, he also visited Wang Li's company in Berlin, saw those strange products, and with his professional eye, he saw the difference at a glance.

Among these Chinese commodities is a perfume that has been around for a long time, but it is clear that no perfume can compare with the perfume of the Chinese, which is very elegant in appearance...... In fact, Qin Kai copied the outer packaging of a certain brand that was worth having in later generations, and he was familiar with this.

Of course, after a little understanding, Wang Li generously told him, this is from a place called the Mawei real yàn room, where the real yàn room may be slightly lacking compared to the Berlin real yàn room, but it is a brand new real yàn room that is being improved every day.

When Tesla became interested, after a few days, Wang Li quietly stuffed him with a copy of the electromagnetic theory, many of the principles in this information were only a few years later in the history of science, Wang Li even mentioned that the Mawei room is exploring the theory of electromagnetic waves, and their Qin instructor predicted that this electromagnetic wave will change the world, can transmit signals, and even transmit energy.

Tesla, who knew the principle of telegraph very well, immediately attracted his attention to the theory of electromagnetic waves, and he took the electromagnetic wave theory of less than half a sheet of paper, went back to study it for a long time, and immediately fell into it completely.

At this time, Wang Li came to him to talk about the future development, two choices, one is to set up a real yàn room for him in Berlin, to provide technical services for the horsetail industry, each of his research results will be purchased at a high price, and the second is to go to the Mawei real yàn room for research, of course, there will be the best conditions and the best assistant!