Qin Kai had already entrusted the war in northern Vietnam to Zhou Ruidong and Liu Yongfu, and now the rivers leading to Chi Ling and the Hanoi waterways were controlled by the French, and it was impossible to give other support by sea! It was already midnight, and in the barracks of the Nanyang Naval Division, Qin Kai, Lu Han, Xu Shoushan, and Chen Ying gathered together in the middle of the night to analyze the possible battle situation in Hanoi

The unanimous opinion of the officers is still relatively optimistic about the occupation of Hanoi, and the Qing army and the Vietnamese soldiers formed a line of defense in Shanxi, Hanoi, Bac Ninh, and Chi Linh, while the guard ** occupied the important towns at both ends, among which Hanoi and Bac Ninh guarded both sides of the Red River, and it is said that pontoon bridges and forts have been established, and the number of troops has reached more than 25,000

As for the establishment of the guard, due to the promotion of Qin Kai's current position, he is already a feudal official, although he has not yet taken office, but his battalion generals have also been promoted, after all, to become bigger and stronger, the official position in this era is the first important resource

Lu Han and Xu Shoushan had just secured the rank of general of the third rank of the Nanyang Naval Division because of their military exploits, which was definitely the speed of promotion by plane, while Zhou Ruidong of the first battalion, Zhang Kui of the second battalion, and Xue Chao of the third battalion each guaranteed the title of the Guangdong propaganda envoy of the fourth rank, while Ma Long, the battalion officer of the fourth battalion, kept the post of the garrison of the fifth grade, and Liu Yongfu, the commander of the Black Flag Army of the fifth battalion, did not make adjustments

In the discussion, the generals are naturally very sure of the combat power of Zhou Ruidong's First Association, and the Zhiling Fortress is crazy in the early stage of war preparations, and this battle has started, and he must be fine on his side

On the side of the Black Flag Army, Qin Kai was also very relieved, and their superiority in combat experience ensured their combat effectiveness, and the Black Flag Army, which had been intensively trained and armed, was only worried about their familiarity with the new combat mode

As for the Qingzi Army, he feels that it is still a strong force, after all, this team has good generals, and it has fought hard battles in history, but he doesn't know anything about the Gui Army and the Yue Army stationed in Hanoi

The discussion was in the middle of the night, and there was no result, after leaving Lu Han on duty for the night, everyone went to rest, after all, if the progress of the war did not go smoothly, the sailors still had to go out to attack and wait until dawn, and the first news from Haiphong was that Zhou Ruidong had handed it over, and the Zhiling Fortress had already started fighting, and the counterattack in the direction of Shanxi and Fu'an was unfolding

This news made Qin Kai feel a lot more relieved, but the news that came next surprised everyone, this is the news secretly intercepted by the Danish telegraph office, Li Weiye won a great victory in Hanoi, and destroyed thousands of enemies!

This news definitely made Qin Kai, a person thousands of miles away, scratch his head, and urgently convened the officers to discuss the matter, but they couldn't figure it out one by one, even if they were to defend Hanoi, it was impossible to die so much at once, they were all eagerly waiting for the news from Zhou Ruidong's side, but how could it be so easy to secretly deliver the news from Zhiling to Haiphong......

Tianjin, Zhili Governor Yamen, Li Hongzhang has been in a good mood these days, the Beiyang Naval Division ushered in an important event, the two steel-armored fast ships (light cruisers) of the Beiyang Naval Division ordered from the British Armstrong Company finally arrived in Tianjin, and the two battleships were named Chaoyong and Yangwei respectively

This means that the Beiyang Naval Division officially began the era of ironclad ships as the main force, but after Li Zhongtang took his heavy ministers to visit the ship, he couldn't help but compare with the flagship of the Nanyang Naval Division, No. 501, the two light cruisers with a maximum displacement of 1500 tons are obviously not far apart, but in terms of speed, they have reached the speed of 16 knots that the 501 ship wants to have.35xs.

At this moment, this Master Li remembered Qin Kai's previous promise, and he turned his head and asked Zhou Fu behind him, "Wushan, Qin Kai said some time ago that there is news about the ironclad ship built for Beiyang Supervision, it's been a few months!" ”

Zhou Fu nodded, "My lord, it's no wonder that Qin Kai is doing this, he has already forwarded the shipbuilding excerpt to us here, but the silver allocated to the Mawei Shipmaster by the Military Aircraft Department this year is said to be empty, so there is no news yet!" ”

Li Zhongtang naturally understands the difficulties in this court, this huge world, in addition to the expenses of supporting the millions of Manchu bannermen, there is also the pomp and circumstance in the palace, and the annual tariffs and annual taxes in various places are only tens of millions of taels, but this is everywhere where money is spent, and the six princes are also sitting on the nail board all day long, and life is not easy......

He pondered for a moment, "Wu Shan, you can give Qin Kai a message, I think this Qin Liefeng is an expert at money, let him put on the silver for this shipbuilding first, after the New Year, I will help him ask for it from the Military Aircraft Department!" ”,

Zhou Fu raised his eyes and looked at Li Zhongtang, the adult was smiling at this time, but ...... The lord is giving Qin Kai a problem, this is a warship, and the careful calculation will have to be five or six hundred thousand taels each, but Qin Kai has reached into Lord Li's basket this time, although this is no wonder for him, it is the will of the imperial court, but this does not mean that the Nanyang Navy can compete with Beiyang for overseas rights

He immediately said: "My lord, Xingsun (Sheng Xuanhuaizi) has been talking to me for the past few days, this Qin Kai seems to have set up a shipping company, and this business will sooner or later affect our China Merchants Shipping Bureau. ”

Li Zhongtang just took the opportunity to circle some benefits from Qin Kai's side this time, as for affecting the business of the China Merchants Shipping Bureau, he has a goal of making money from Sheng Xuanhuai's side every month, and the shipping business has been good recently, which is as unbearable as Zhou Fu said, but since Zhou Fu mentioned this matter, let Zhou Fu arrange it

He sighed softly, nodded and smiled: "Wu Shan, you can just look at this matter, Lord Ding's face still has to be saved, this Qin Kai is also a person who understands accidents, talk about it!" ”

When he returned to the governor's yamen, he saw a few carriages parked at the door, and the owner of the car Li Zhongtang naturally recognized it, and the French minister was a little unhappy in his heart

I have already given enough face to the French, and this guy even wants to pay reparations and the jurisdiction of Haiphong and other places, how can such reparations and land cession be allowed, and I don't know what the French want to do! Fortunately, this large army has been stationed in Vietnam, and the Nanyang Naval Division is contained at sea, so the French can't afford to make any waves!

Inside the house, sure enough, Tuoligu had been here for a while, Li Zhongtang glanced over, and saw a smug expression on this slender face, but he was also shocked, the villain has a will, that's not a good thing...... After coming to the desk and sitting down, he took a sip of the teacup, smiled, and asked, "Minister Toligu, are you here today to sign the agreement drawn up by our Great Qing Kingdom?" ”

Toligu smiled, sat up straight, and said: "Lord Zhongtang, early this morning, I received a secret report from the French ** team in Haiphong, the French ** team was attacked and harassed by the Vietnamese army in Hanoi, and had no choice but to counterattack, and now the Hanoi garrison has been defeated, and I heard that the 20,000 troops of your country outside Hanoi have also collapsed on their own!" ”

As soon as this news was said, everyone in the hall was a little discolored, this Hanoi defense, but the Qingzi Army was in charge

When Li Zhongtang heard the news, he immediately judged the authenticity of it, one thing is certain, the French won the battle, but there are 10,000 Qingzi troops stationed outside Hanoi and Bac Ninh Province, and 15,000 people from the Gui army and the Guangdong army, no matter what, they will not collapse so quickly, and he is still sure of Wu Changqing's ability!

He looked at Toligu with a non-shocked expression, "Minister Toligu, I have 100,000 troops stationed in northern Vietnam, and tens of thousands of Vietnamese escorts to assist, even if you lose thousands of people, it will not damage your muscles and bones, but I have heard that your Far East merchant ships have lost everything, and now there is no warship to escort them, they dare not sail to sea, I don't know how much your cabinet can endure the loss of trade with the Far East?" ”

Toligu naturally understood Li Zhongtang's current toughness, the defeat at sea was definitely a heavy defeat that the French Republic could not bear, and the proud navy was unexpectedly disturbed by the third-rate Qing fleet, and was lightly assaulted into the port and suffered the loss of hundreds of ships, this pressure was too heavy to be sustained!

However, Delikau is not a good stubble, he immediately counterattacked: "France's territory is all over the world, even if the trade in the Far East is temporarily interrupted, it will not hurt the roots, if the war escalates, the French fleet will go to the north to block your country's sea routes, and at that time, I am afraid that your country's losses will be unbearable!" ”

The two sides started a new round of bargaining, but today the situation seems to be more radical, and Zhou Fu has already seen the signs at this time, and sneaked out of the door to call for people to urgently ask Wu Changqing stationed in Bac Ninh to verify the truth

But now this kind of verification to obtain information is also a distant thing, he immediately thought of Qin Kai, who has the title of "Qin Ming Preparing for the Establishment of Vietnam Protector", this is a well-informed person, since he has soldiers and horses on the front line, there will be the latest news,

At this time, he also put aside the matter of extorting bamboo first, Zhou Fu hurriedly telegraphed Ding Richang, he naturally understood that it was much easier to ask Lao Ding for news than to ask the seemingly amiable Governor of Qin

Lao Ding received the telegram very naturally asked Sun Fu to take the telegram directly to Qin Kai, such a small matter requires him to personally go out, in the library to read rare ancient books, take the time to look around the Fuzhou Mansion is increasingly prosperous new education, that is the governor's happy life

Qin Kai sneered at Old Man Ding, and naturally understood what Li Zhongtang meant, this was an opportunity to alleviate the contradictions of the Nanyang Navy Division in the future, at this time, he couldn't help but miss the infinitely developed communications in the future, it has been two days, and there has been no news in the direction of Hanoi so far, although he is quite annoyed by his own protection

Lu Han and Xu Shoushan, the officers of the sub-naval division, also stayed in the artillery bureau all day, and once something happened, he acted immediately, he read Li Zhongtang's telegram several times, picked up the telegram from Haiphong and handed it to Sufu, "Brother Sun, look at the news from Haiphong!" ”

Sun Fu took the telegram and flipped through it several times, and then asked suspiciously: "Gale Wind, what have you arranged in Vietnam?" How many soldiers and horses did you have in the first and fifth battalions mentioned in this telegram? Can you grasp it? ”

Qin Kai didn't mean to hide it at all, "If you count it all, it's two associations, 10 battalions and 5,000 people!" ”

Sun Fu smiled, "Then what am I worried about, I will naturally reply to Zhongtang, but this time, if the Qingzi army is undefeated and Gale Wind, you have to make good use of this opportunity, that is, to show your strength, but also to satisfy Lord Zhongtang, which is very good for you to go to Guangzhou to take up your post!" ”

"Brother Sun, then there is Lao Youla again!" Anyway, Qin Kai is now on the grandson, and he is mostly responsible for this official matter.35xs.

Sun Fu smiled, "Gale Wind, Yuan Ting just arrived today, and now he is outside, I am thinking about what happened before you took office, and it is most appropriate for him to handle it!" ”

Ding Richang's matter was done, Sun Fu began to talk to Qin Kai about the affairs of the office, Qin Kai gave him a mess, he was busy jumping up and down all day long, the governor was going to take office, the relationship between Guangzhou and Liu Kunyi's usual practice still had to be served according to the rules, but he couldn't find the right person to handle this matter for a while

Fortunately, someone fell from the sky yesterday, but it was Chen Bingkun who took the silver to recruit troops for Qin Kai in Tianjin, three months have passed, and this guy is finally bubbling in the horsetail, and he is waiting outside at this moment!

If it weren't for the Mawei Shipping Bureau in Shanghai a few days ago who transferred a large number of empty ships over, he would have really almost forgotten this Chen Bingkun, relying on the 50 personal soldiers he borrowed from Qin Kai's side, I heard that this guy has trained more than 3,000 young and strong, all honest farmers recruited from Xiangxi, and even recruited more than a dozen talents who are studying, this is indeed a ability!

Qin Kai hurriedly asked Chen Bingkun to come in, this recruitment is not an easy job, it can be seen that this Chen Yuanting has worked very hard for three months, his original ordinary appearance is even darker by three points, and the original square face is obviously narrower, he entered the door, saluted, and said happily: "My lord, I am fortunate to live up to my mission!" ”

Chen Bingkun took a lot of effort to recruit troops this time, they were all recruited from western and northern Hunan provinces, and they were carefully selected in accordance with the requirements of the Hunan army's recruitment

Qin Kai was naturally very satisfied with this recruitment, and said with a smile: "Brother Yuan Ting, it's hard work, I'm going to Guangzhou this time, I want to bother you to arrange it first, how about it?" ”

Sun Fu had already talked to Chen Bingkun about this matter, after all, these two vast places are now the sphere of influence of the Hunan army, and sending him to arrange this matter is obviously to recognize his ability, he has already calculated, and naturally responds

Early the next morning, Chen Bingkun drew up a list and came to Qin Kai, although the governor of Guangdong is also the governor of a province, but because he opened a government office in Guangzhou with the governor of Guangzhou, there are many overlapping powers and responsibilities, and now most of the officials in the state capital of Guangdong are people from the Hunan military department

Originally, he was slowly mixed under Ding Richang, and he was promoted all the way, except for the black hand against Jin Fatzi and Shen Singhe, the others relied on his real skills and Lao Ding's care, and now he has climbed to the high position of governor, and the first task is naturally to cultivate his own power! It's just that for the operation of this officialdom, Qin Kai is almost a layman, and these manpower under him, except for Sun Fu, who is doing odd jobs, really can't find a capable ...... in the officialdom.

In this matter, Qin Kai had no choice but to ask Chen Bingkun, who came up with the idea, Chen Bingkun didn't hide anything at all, and directly gave him an idea, all the officials who can take refuge in the authority of the governor of Guangdong will naturally want to stay, and those who are unwilling to join will be hollowed out! However, in terms of specific affairs, Chen Bingkun did not elaborate, but just said that he would arrange it first!

There is no doubt about employing people, and there is no need for suspicious people, Qin Kai immediately approved the amount of regular money he proposed, and instructed Chen Bingkun to do his best to handle the affairs of Guangdong, he pondered that it was almost December, and he was going to take up his post before the end of the year-

Just after Sun Fu telegraphed his reply to Lord Wei Li Zhongtang in Tianjin, on the afternoon of the third day, the news transmitted by Zhou Ruidong through the secret channel of Guò was finally sent by the Danish Telegraph Office, and the situation of the entire war in Hanoi finally had a relatively clear message

The news confirmed the French record outside Hanoi, but the final victory was not the French who took advantage of the opportunity to occupy the northern gate of Hanoi and conquered the east gate near the riverbank, but the night helped the French at the same time, but also hindered the French from further expanding their gains

At dawn, when the French began to use a small force to clear the remaining Qing army in the city, they unexpectedly found that the resistance in the city was extremely fierce, near the west gate, the French found a remnant of a few hundred people of the Gui army, just when Li Weiye mobilized men and horses to encircle and annihilate, but was attacked by the Black Flag Army that had been ambushed from the side for a long time, and dozens of people were killed on the spot

After the Black Flag Army took the trapped Qing army, it chose to retreat on its own initiative, which made Li Weiye make another error of judgment, he concluded that this army must be a remnant, in order to expand the results of the battle, he immediately led two and a half battalions of troops to launch a pursuit, leaving only a small force of soldiers and horses to carry out the occupation of Hanoi City.35xs.

On the side of the river three miles outside the city, the left battalion of the Black Flag Army, the Yang Zhusi Division, the right battalion Wu Fengdian Division, and the Liu Yongfu Department of the Chinese Army besieged a large number of French people who were crossing the bridge on three sides.

The two sides engaged in a fierce shootout by the river, although the Black Flag Army is now not behind the French in weapons, and is greatly superior to the French in terms of troops, but in the use of weapons in the individual soldiers, there is still a bit of a gap, three sides besieged for more than half an hour, there are many casualties on both sides, and the French use platoon gun shooting to seize a slope to continue to resist, and actually turned the siege and annihilation battle into a stalemate battle!

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