On January 11, 1872, Ma Xiangyang finally arrived in Suez, he was so excited when he first saw the sea, but the nearly one-and-a-half-month voyage had long since lost the excitement at the beginning, only endless loneliness. Fortunately, the "eldest princess" of the Royal Shipping did not sail for a long time, and it also allowed Ma Xiangyang to see the customs of India and East Africa. The most important thing is to give him the opportunity to look at the markets in both places.

New Year's Day is spent in Singapore, and the Chinese New Year is definitely going to be spent in Egypt. It was the first time he felt so melancholy when he left his homeland. From the moment he set foot on Egyptian soil, he cried. The sailors did not laugh at him, such tears they knew better than anyone.

The place where Ma Xiangyang landed was Suez, and the first thing he had to do was to go to the local imperial consulate for commercial and political consultations, and from the respect in the eyes of the Egyptian officials at the port, he knew very well that he was a "superior person" as a Chinese in this land.

When he came out of the consulate, Ma Xiangyang got two pieces of good news. First, the board of directors of the concession and the Egyptian company are preparing to build the "Sefaj-Kina" railway and the "Sefaj-Suez" railway, which have tremendous military and economic effects, and if they can become shareholders, they will be sure to make a profit and not lose money, and they may become shareholders of the Egyptian company and gain a huge political position. The second piece of good news was that the commercial counselor of the consulate told Ma Xiangyang that when he was engaged in business activities as an orphan of his military family, the commercial fund of the Royal Bank could give him a low-interest loan of 100,000 yuan to start a business.

After thinking about it for a while, he decided to go to Cairo first to see what opportunities and business potential there were, but the next day he saw on the street that the imperial army in Egypt was assembling, and he realized that his opportunity had come, and from the consulate in Suez, he found out that it was the ruler of Egypt who was dissatisfied with the division of Egypt between the empire and Britain and France at the Cairo Conference, and sent troops to surround the embassies of China, France and Britain.

Ma Xiangyang, who came out of the consulate, kept thinking: "I'm going to get rich!" I'm going to get rich! ”――

In 1871, after China, France and Britain reached an agreement on the Egyptian sphere of influence, all walks of life in Egypt at that time could be said to be excited, whether it was the military or the political circles, and even the ordinary people at the bottom who were struggling to live were enraged.

On November 25, 1871, the Egyptian Pasha Ismail began to contact the lower commanders of the Egyptian army at this time through his attendants, to know which generals at the top and even to the regimental commander level were bought by the three countries, and only the lower Shaozhuang faction really hoped that their country would be good. Moreover, these young Zhuang (let's call them Shaozhuang) were directly in control of the army, so Ismail was very successful at first, and all the Egyptian troops in Cairo were basically willing to obey his orders.

Ismail's plan was very simple, most of the people attending the Cairo Conference in Egypt this time were important government officials of the major powers, as long as they surrounded the venue and cut off their external contact with the embassies of the three countries, Ismail just wanted the powers to make a compromise, let him really attack the embassies and venues of various countries, it would be called death, and as a result, the British Prime Minister, including the Chinese ambassador Zeng Guofan, and the French MacMahon returned home one after another after settling the main affairs, which made Ismail cry out for pity.

On the evening of January 9, 1872, Ismail's Egyptian army began to enter the city as planned to besiege the embassies of China, France and Britain. Attending a ball in the German embassy, the Germans celebrated the recent victory of their army over the indigenous Emirate of Hodamey east of Togo, gaining large tracts of land north and east of Togo, and because the three countries were discussing the possibility of connecting the "Sefaj-Suez" railway to the Suez Canal Railway, which was planned by the Chinese Egyptian company. The Suez Canal Railway, which connects Suez to Port Said, is as important as the canal, allowing large-tonnage merchant ships to transport goods by rail to the Mediterranean Sea if they are unable to pass through the canal, and merchant ships do not have to take the Cape of Good Hope route.

The Empire proposed to connect its forthcoming "Sefaj-Suez" railway to the canal railway, which the British and French saw as a way for the Chinese army to move troops from their sphere of influence into the canal zone and take control of the canal in a short time. Subsequently, Britain and France also put forward their own plans to build railways, one from Cairo to Ismailia, and the other from Alexandria to Port Said. In order to solve the problem of these three railways, the three countries got together to discuss, and the result was that poor Ismail pounced.

By the time Ismail re-encircled the German embassy and cut the telegraph line, Chen Zhen had already finished sending telegrams to Suez and Port Said, and Britain and France had completed their respective actions. So when Ismail asked the representatives of the three countries to revise the terms of the treaty on Egypt, the three of them just smoked cigars and gossiped about it. Ismail, as a ruler with modern ideas, he studied in England and maintained a perennial correspondence with Queen Victoria, he knew that his plan had failed, if the plan succeeded in besieging the embassies of the three countries, he was ready to cut off water and electricity in a short period of time, forcing the three countries to make compromises, and when the time came, he would put the blame on those soldiers, and he would regain power in Egypt. Now that it's all over, of course he is not stupid, after discharging the sergeants on guard, Ismael told Chen Zhen and the French and British representatives Grevy and Sir Wittoma that he was held hostage by his officers, which was not his intention.

The three of them glanced at each other, and they saw that everyone understood, and the three of them were now thinking about whether to support Ismail as the Egyptian Pasha, and finally it was Wittoma who said: "Then please ask Mr. Ismail to withdraw the troops outside first!" ”

Now it was Ismail's turn to be silent, these officers just believed him to do this, and now if they were removed, God knows what those young Zhuang factions would do. "Gentlemen, the officers outside will not listen to me, but I can guarantee the safety of your gentlemen." Ismail thought for a moment and said, "Then I'll go and stabilize the situation outside, gentlemen, I wish you a good dream." ”

"Gentlemen, it seems, he has not yet understood the gap between Egypt and us. I don't know what you've decided? I've already sent a report to the Suez garrison that they should attack as soon as tomorrow afternoon, what about you? Gentlemen. Chen Zhen didn't seem to care about Ismail's ignorance.

"The same sir, the great French army is marching on Cairo, and they will regain the glory of Napoleon the Great." Grevi finished looking at Wittoma.

To be honest, Wittoma also asked the British garrison to be mobilized, but there is no news of the garrison outside Cairo, and it seems that it should be surrounded, and the nearest British army is stationed in Faiyum, but the problem is that the British army there is only 500 people, and it is not of much use to transfer it, unlike China and France in Alexandria and Port Said, where they both stationed a division of troops. It is obvious that the troops of the two countries entered the city this time, obviously to grab the cake. Cairo had always been the stronghold of Britain in Egypt, but this incident could not deny the Chinese and French troops to enter the city. When the incident passes, God knows if Cairo will be in ruins.

After thinking about it for a while, Wittoma still smiled and said: "It is time to teach the Egyptians a lesson, so that they know who is the real master of this land, but Egypt is the focus of world trade after all, and I hope the two of you will not be too impulsive to affect trade." ”

"It's just a lesson to teach the Egyptians, don't worry." Chen Zhen said with a smile. Chen Zhen had already sent a telegram to Luo Rongguang, the commander of the Imperial Legion in Egypt, and there was only one message in the telegram, "Tomorrow enter the city to grab money, food, and women!" (Hee-hee, you know!) ）”