When Qin Kai had just arrived in Tianjin to bid farewell to Zhou Fu, he was caught up by Pan Bosheng's urgent telegram sent from Beijing, seeing his inexplicable and surprised expression, Zhou Fu was naturally very surprised, and he was also very nervous after seeing the news, both of which are bad things.

He immediately invited Qin Kai to the Governor of Zhili, Yamén, to discuss the matter with Zhang Shusheng, now the little family in Beiyang is staying in Mawei, if the French hit Keelung, this Mawei is undoubtedly the most dangerous place

In this regard, Zhang Shusheng is a veteran of the war, he knew these two things a day earlier, and after meeting, he agreed with Qin Kai on two things, one is about the war in North Vietnam, and now Qin Kai is the commander of the imperial court and the minister of the military affairs in North Vietnam, the strongest in North Vietnam has been armed, isn't it the Qingzi Army, Lao Zhang Rang brought a warrant and asked Wu Changqing to fully cooperate.

But this is actually a helpless move, what can you do if you don't cooperate, you don't even have to worry about it if you don't cooperate, then you don't have to think about it, this thing is to sit beautifully Qin Kai listened to Zhang Shusheng and cooperated with himself like a nest, he secretly despised this old thing in his heart, but this thing is only good for himself, eating ròu by himself, giving Lao Zhang points is always needed, eating alone is going to be burst

The second thing, of course, is the Beiyang Naval Division, Lao Zhang asked Qin Kai to protect the Naval Division no matter what, the implication is that there is no absolute certainty, it is best to hide in the harbor in An Ansheng This makes him look black, how can there be such a good thing, the credit should be shared, the front line is not on the front, Qin Kai hummed and dealt with it, but he didn't plan to use the Beiyang Naval Ship less, this old cargo .......

Zhang Shusheng found a way to support Zhou Fu, and saw Zhou Fu's distant back disappear, so he pretended to tell Qin Kai mysteriously, "Governor Qin, there is one more thing, I got news from the palace, the war in northern Vietnam is urgent, Lord Zhongtang is going to come back, I must be thinking about Lord Zhongtang and the French negotiating, the Queen Mother is still interesting, let Zuo Dashuai sit in Guangzhou, responsible for the defense of the southern treaty port"

Qin Kai really has nowhere to understand this news, he secretly marvels at the vastness of the Huai military system, which cannot be underestimated, and it is estimated that there is no lack of Zhang Shusheng's eyeliner around the old NV Cixi...... By the way, Sun Yuwen, a big stolen official, is not just the news tube of the Huaijun Department, and he accepted our money, but he didn't do anything at all

But this news is not a good sign, Li Zhongtang is back, this guy is determined to be in the palm of his hand, Zeng Hou is not the opponent of this old man Li, but this Li Hongzhang's outer jiāo wrist he thinks he can get, but it is indeed weak and boneless, and the European shameless Gallic jī can be soft, the British, the French are famous for bullying the soft and afraid of the hard.

And the left handsome...... What is this Niu X character doing in Guangzhou, grabbing our territory? Liu Kunyi is already an old slippery head, and he will never do anything that is not beneficial, this Zuo Dashuai, that is a character who is even convinced by the old slippery head, how should he deal with it?

Qin Kai's head is a mess, Li Hongzhang himself can be regarded as having fought Jiāo Dao, he was low-key before, hiding behind Lao Ding, Li Zhongtang is still face-saving, but this war in the north of Vietnam, if this old man gives himself an eye, this front line is already quite difficult, but he still has some bottom in his heart.

It's just that these days when this big guy Ding is worried, he has not given a lot of money, won several battles, and quietly lifted Zhang Shusheng up, this time Li Zhongtang will inevitably seize an opportunity to show his talent and regain his right to speak in the court.

Moreover, a more important thing is a stricter thing, don't look at the Qing army stationed in northern Vietnam has nothing to do, and they bully and bully Vietnam all day long, but the silver of this court is flowing out in an uproar, although a small part of it is the silver donated by the governors and governors of various places, and the rest is to make up a large amount of silver in the city of Beijing.

Don't look at the financial situation of the Qing Dynasty seems to be good, since the first year of Guangxu, the annual income of silver has exceeded 80 million taels, but the family is big, these hundreds of years, how much silver does it cost to feed the banner people of this big ticket hardcore crops, so many princes, Baylor, yellow belts, red belts, plus official salaries, pensions, administrative expenses in various places, administrative expenses in the capital, and a large piece is the palace expenditure of Beijing City, and these fixed regular expenditures alone exceed 48 million taels.

In addition, the military expenditure of nearly one million of the Eight Banners Army and the Yongying Army is 30 million taels per year, not counting the military expenses of Lord Li's Beiyang Naval Division and the arrears of Qin Kai's Nanyang Naval Division, in addition, the customs in charge of Hurd needs 3 million taels of funds every year, and there are millions of envoy funds, and the basic projects of river dredging are millions of taels. ,

When the time comes, this Lord Li Zhongtang will talk about silver in the court, and it is estimated that he will not need to propose to build yì, and the old NV people in the palace will immediately propose to solve the war in northern Vietnam...... It's nothing more than giving the French sweetness, cutting some land, anyway, it's an eyeless vassal state

Qin Kai is very clear that this Lord Li Zhongtang is quite soft-footed shrimp on the outside, and he is a surprisingly hardliner on the inside, and when the time comes, whether Zhang Shusheng can still straighten his waist in the Huai Army, this is all unknown, he has to keep a low profile, and stabilize his own territory first, and the first thing now is naturally to let Gaul get out of here

He immediately sent a telegram to Lu Han, and the French sent Mén, so there was no need to be polite, and immediately carried out the "undercurrent" plan, but the first priority was to guard Mawei Harbor

The original appearance of this history has become a little confused for him, but he can clearly remember that the one who led the troops to fight Taiwan is the lone lieutenant general who is now tossing in the north of Vietnam, how did he become this kid named Miller...... In the past two years, the shadow of yīn that has been hanging in his heart has never dissipated.

In his own time and space, the French swaggered into Mawei Harbor, and then officially declared war with Gallic pride in jī, and then bombarded Mawei Ship Administration into a big mess This situation, he naturally never allowed it to appear, all the time, he was secretly strengthening the vigilance of Mawei Harbor, it seems that the war is imminent, but this confidence is getting more and more, see if the French still dare to break in

And Zhang Shusheng has already reaped enough benefits in a series of jiāo exchanges with Qin Kai, he naturally understands that this cutting-edge young governor must not be funny, and the other party is willing to give him a big advantage, so he naturally wants to rely on the strength of the Huai army, which is completely certain, he has already repaid the favor and opened up his best in the matter of entering Beijing this time, and it can be regarded as taking what he needs.

And this time the Beiyang Sailors went south, naturally to get credit for themselves, at this juncture, the French suddenly came to pound Luàn, and directly hit Fuzhou, this is not a good sign, at least it shows that the situation is not as he imagined, it is under control, so after sending Qin Kai away, he immediately sent a telegram to Ding Ruchang, and repeatedly told him.

In a few days, Li Zhongtang is about to leave the mountain, and he naturally understands very well that his position as the first governor of Zhili in the world must be given up, and the word "temporary signature" has been hanging in front of him, the governor of Zhili. However, his good achievements in these days made him soon able to become the governor of Liangjiang on the wealthy side.

The positions of the Governor of Zhili and the Governor of Liangjiang have all been seated, and the following plan is to enter the center...... Thinking of this, Zhang Shusheng couldn't help but feel secretly proud in his heart.

Outside Keelung Harbor, the gunfire has not stopped in the past few days, which greatly annoyed Major General Miller stationed here, and the local Chinese organized the first counterattack on the third day after the fall of Keelung, attacking about 1,500 Qing troops, of which less than 30% were equipped with firearms.

In charge of the defense of the harbor were the 7th, 9th, and 11th Marine Companies of the French Far East Fleet, which built fortifications on the avenue, occupied several commanding heights in the port, and were supported by the detachable 37mm Habkes guns on the battleships, which could easily be turned into army field guns with a gun mount on wheels.

The Qing army launched a stubborn attack, but with most of his old-fashioned front-loading rifles, it was simply impossible to compete with the French army's rear-loading rifles, not to mention that the French also had bunkers and Haqikes machine guns for fire support, and in the face of dense fire, the Qing army dropped many corpses and retreated to the nearby mountains.

However, in the evening, the Qing army and a group of local indigenous soldiers launched another attack on the port of Keelung, and what is even worse is that these local troops took advantage of their familiarity with the terrain to go from several small river ditches to the rear of the French defenders at night, and then launched a close combat with a front and back.

Miller had to send reinforcements from the battleship, and Jī fought until the early hours of the morning, and this time the French Marines were completely in the mood to win during the day, with at least 60 casualties in three companies, and a high proportion of serious wounded and killed

The fierce resistance on the island of Taiwan made Miller very surprised, the French ** team in Vietnam, Laos and other places can be said to have occupied all the way to the past, and the local natives were naturally unwilling to accept the rule of the French army, but the resistance was very weak, and it was even easy to recruit servants, however, it seems that it is quite difficult to make it bigger in this Qing land. ,

For the interrogation of the Qing prisoners, he learned that it was only the Qing local Yong battalion from Beiguan who attacked them, and there were reinforcements in the follow-up, and he immediately realized that he seemed to be in trouble again, but this attack, he didn't think about leaving some benefits for the army, so although the fleet had 11 warships, there were not enough marines.

Early the next morning, he immediately sent two companies of marines to requisition almost all the laborers in the vicinity of Keelung, forcing them to build a semi-fixed barrier of masonry on the perimeter of the original dock fortifications, and at the same time digging deep trenches on the periphery.

And the news that the soldiers sent out to reconnoiter brought back from Mawei Harbor that there was an entire fleet parked in the opposite port immediately aroused Miller's interest, and his very wise and strategic attack naturally hoped to be a blockbuster

And the horsetail battery is obviously a heavy threat, since there is now a fleet stationed in the port, it is not a wise move to rashly attack the battery, it is easy to be attacked by the opponent's warships, Miller is naturally full of confidence in the fleet led by himself, especially the addition of three new armored cruisers, which greatly increases the strength of the fleet, and makes him anxious to seek fighters.

He immediately ordered the second squadron led by Colonel Du Bōsi to threaten the coast of Guangzhou, and the third squadron led by Colonel Richard to attack Quanzhou

On January 14, 1883, the Huangpu Port in Guangzhou was bustling, and British merchants took advantage of the traditional festival of this large oriental country to import a large number of Western goods, hoping to earn a vote.

However, just after noon, almost everyone in Huangpu Port turned their eyes to the direction of the mouth of the Pearl River in the south, and bursts of "rumbling" sounds kept coming, and everyone was surprised by the abnormal situation outside the largest trading port in the Far East

Soon, the two British cruisers "Ishara" and "Dwarf" at the berth in the harbor slowly raised their fire and prepared to start, sailing outside the Pearl River estuary to observe the situation, the flag of the British Empire is the most secure armor in the Far East, so there is no sign of preparation for war on the two British battleships, more officers are observing the situation in the distance from the lookout position.

The Guangdong Navy Division had already been taken over by Qin Kai, and all of them were transferred to the establishment of the Guangzhou fleet, and the entire fleet did not have any warships in Guangzhou at present, except for the training camp and a few training merchant ships belonging to the Mawei Shipping, and Qin Kai's requirement for them was to train hard, and there was no combat arrangement at all.

Today, four training ships are undergoing routine training, and the commander of the training camp is Lao Müller, a retired officer of the German Navy, who naturally heard that there is a battle in the distance, judging from the rumbling cannons and the intervals, it can even be roughly judged to be large-caliber heavy guns above 240mm.

He immediately ordered the training fleet to follow the British cruisers, although the young Chinese official General Qin did not arrange the training camp combat mission, but, as a qualified naval soldier, it is necessary to have complete consciousness to protect the rights and interests of the country's territorial waters, so the old Muller did not hesitate to give the order to prepare for battle, even if it was to the battlefield to feel it, it was also a very bāng experience.

The fleet sailed quickly to the mouth of the Pearl River, and had seen the Huangpu Fort Group in the distance, and the thick smoke rising from the Niushan Fort in the forefront, which was the inevitable scene of the cannonball hitting Zhongshan Shi's artillery jī liefa shè, as one of the largest ports in the Far East, it has a history of being broken by the British fleet, so in the 30 years since the Opium War, the construction of the battery at the mouth of the Pearl River is undoubtedly the most diligent in the Qing Dynasty.

In particular, the Huangpu Fort Group, including Niu Mountain, Shishan, Lion Waist, Yuzhu, Crab Mountain, Baitu Gang, Baihe Gang, Butterfly Gang, New West Gang, Old West Gang, Da Podi, Four Seams, etc., Liu Kun got dozens of mén cannons from Qin Kai's hands for free were placed in these forts, and because of Qin Kai's generosity, the number of artillery mounts here rose sharply to nearly 150 mén guns.

If that fleet wants to cross the Pearl River port and attack Guangzhou from the dense batteries on the top of the mountains on both sides, it is completely impossible at present, even if it is to attack these dense battery groups, it is an incredible thing, after all, no matter how strong the ships and guns are, they can't fight hard with the batteries laid in the mountain rocks

However, this strange thing really happened today, when the training fleet rushed to the vicinity of the Niushan Fort, the battle was entering a white-hot state, and the opposite side was attacking two French warships, and suddenly the fighting spirit of the officers and men of the Guangzhou fleet was aroused, and several young officers took the initiative to ask the old Muller to participate in the war, but they were vetoed by Muller. ,

, Muller has very clearly judged the extraordinary combat effectiveness of the two battleships on the opposite side, which is not at all something that this kind of training ship can withstand. However, since he arrived at the battlefield, he naturally could not leave quietly, and as a practice of live ammunition, the elder Muller immediately ordered a training ship to complete the task of 5 shells, and bluffed

Colonel Du Bō actually discovered this fleet that appeared from the port from the first time, and saw the yellow dragon flag and red sè small flag raised by the opponent's battleship, he knew that the task of this trip was basically completed, these few obviously wooden warships, he was not too careful, the other party should be completely impossible to pose a threat by himself, but the battery on this mountain, equipped with a large caliber of artillery, the battleship that was traveling with him before was almost hit because it was closer.

The French quickly completed the attack, and no longer took the initiative to attack the battery, but retreated to the distant sea, which made the old Muller and the officers on the ship feel very strange, damn the French, because there were too many shells, come and knock out some...... Seeing that there was no chance of going to war, the soldiers all began to collectively curse the hysteria of the French.

And at a later moment, the port of Quanzhou was also bombarded by the French ** ship, and after a short period of fire between the two sides, there were no substantial casualties, and they disengaged from contact, and what happened next made Liu Kun, the governor of Liangguang, a headache

The French warships did not leave the open sea, and intercepted Chinese merchant ships everywhere, and for a time the ships outside took refuge in the ports of Huangpu and Quanzhou, and some news began to spread......

Liu Kunyi immediately summoned Sun Fu and asked about the whereabouts of the invincible Qin governor, but what he got was useless content, and Sun Fu also knew that Qin Kai had just left Shanghai a day earlier, and now he didn't know anything about it.

"Sun Daotai, you must do your best to contact Governor Qin, this French is blocked outside the port, there are already many merchants who have come to Yamén to ask for help, and two small merchant ships have been captured by the French, and the bitter master is outside at this time" Liu Kunyi was distracted with the teacup, looking a little nagging......

"Lord Governor, I will definitely do my best to contact Lord Qin" Sun Fu was also thoughtful, Qin Kai had just been promoted to the Qincha of Northern Vietnam, at this time the French suddenly became difficult, this is a ** annoyance, we must do our best to solve this problem, and this matter, obviously what is needed is for the Nanyang Navy Division to come forward, thinking of this, he immediately asked people to send the news to the horsetail.

On the sea surface of Wenzhou Mansion, the ship of the Mawei Sea that Qin Kai was riding had already met Lu Zhiyuan, who came to pick him up