France?

Looking at the map, Emperor Yang realized that he seemed to be attacking Vietnam at this time.

In fact, there are quite a few Vietnamese exiles in China who want to seek the help of His Majesty the Emperor to save their country from the clutches of the French, such as Nguyen Thien Suh, who fled to China in 1888, and who has been lobbying the cabinet and Congress in Beijing for the past two years, hoping to obtain military support, because there are so many things to do for the new construction of the country, so neither Li Hongzhang nor Liu Kun Yi gave him any specific promises. There is even a Vietnamese government-in-exile in China, headed by the self-proclaimed King of Vietnam, who is currently housed in Lianzhou, and the Guangdong provincial government gives him 2,000 yuan a month to support him, but only in a civilian capacity, and the cabinet and the parliament do not ask.

However, in the army and universities, those young Zhuang factions who grew up under the education of the history of the invasion of China by the great powers compiled by Emperor Yang himself have begun to clamor for the recapture of suzerainty over Vietnam, and even after the annexation of Korea to China, some people began to preach that Vietnam should also be annexed according to the Korean model.

It should be said that at present, China is fully capable of retaking Vietnam, whether it is a navy or an army, China has the strongest force in Asia, as far as France's strength in Vietnam, to be honest, a division is enough to push, as for the navy, the French Navy still surpasses China in total tonnage, but the vast majority of them are old-fashioned warships, especially the coastal defense ships that are not suitable for ocean-going operations, and the combat effectiveness and the Chinese Navy with perfect battleships are not at all the same level.

The only thing to be commended for is that France has what is currently the world's largest diesel-engine destroyer fleet, in order to counter the huge British fleet across the Channel, and the rising German and Italian navies beside it. The French built and purchased more than seventy diesel-engine destroyers in one go during these years, and completely armed their coastline with torpedoes.

These things are indeed quite scary in Europe, but against the Chinese Navy, which also has almost 50 diesel destroyers, there is nothing to show off, and even if the Chinese Navy now has a large number of warships deployed in Hawaii and the Americas, it is not the French Navy that is capable of provoking.

In addition, French rule in Vietnam itself was also very unstable, and Hoang Hua Tan still occupies An Shi, after many French attacks were fought back by him with guerrilla warfare, and now he has to stop fighting. Acquiescing to his control of An Shi, the Vietnamese Emperor Nguyen Phuc Zhao is not a fuel-efficient lamp, and he has been trying to get rid of the control of the French in private, and his court is also full of reformers who hate the French, such as Qiang Zheng.

In such a situation, it can be said that the recapture of Vietnam can be said to be easy, and there is no military pressure, but the political situation needs to be carefully studied, and this is the first time that China has shown its fangs against a real power. It is also the first public provocation against the old order, and it is not at all the same nature as beating up the United States.

"Ma's, if you provoke, you will provoke. Lao Tzu just did it, who can help me? Emperor Yang quickly made up his mind and muttered to himself viciously.

"Go and find Ruan Shanshu, that's right. Don't take him to the palace, take him directly to the Fengtai camp, and order the Guards Division. Get ready for a firepower demonstration and show the good stuff for these guys to see. Then he said to Yuan Shikai.

The chief attendant naturally understood his intentions, and quickly smiled and went to Ruan Shanshu.

Ruan Shanshu, who had been in exile in China for more than ten years, was so excited that he couldn't speak anymore when he heard that the emperor had summoned him, so he hurriedly dressed up and followed the elder attendant to board the royal car that came to pick him up, and came to the Fengtai camp outside Beijing with a pilgrimage-like mood, which has now been converted into the barracks of the First Guards Division, and a large airport was built next to it according to the emperor's requirements, and the aviation school under the Royal Army and more than 20 training planes were stationed here.

The firepower demonstration requested by Emperor Yang was carried out here, and when Ruan Shanshu arrived, the Guards Division had already prepared a qiē, this division was the garrison division of Beijing, and the division commander was Han Ye, the elder brother of Caiyi, and the same as the reorganized army field troops, two infantry brigades and a field artillery brigade were subordinated, of which the artillery brigade was subordinate to a 155 mm heavy artillery regiment, sixteen howitzers, eight cannons, two 105 mm artillery regiments, and the same mixed cannons and howitzers, because it was to scare people, So now all the seventy-two cannons belonging to the artillery brigade are set together.

Looking at the cannon muzzle in front of him, Ruan Shanshu, who came out of the car, trembled, and slowly walked to Emperor Yang behind Yuan Shikai, and before he could speak, he subconsciously knelt down.

Looking at the guy in front of him, Emperor Yang almost couldn't hold back his laughter, although he knew that the Vietnamese official uniform was very traditional at this time, but he didn't expect it to be so traditional, this is completely a singing costume! However, it seems to be a little shorter than the official uniform on the stage, and it is worn on the black and thin Ruan Shanshu, which is quite a bit of a monkey.

"Mr. Ruan, there is no need to be like this, now that the Celestial Empire has stopped this set of etiquette, someone will move a seat for Mr. Ruan, and today we will just take a look at their training together." Emperor Yang said amiably, next to Yuan Shikai quickly helped Ruan Shanshu up, and then an attendant moved a chair, of course, like a general who came to watch the fire demonstration, they were all a lot shorter than Emperor Yang, and it was funny to sit next to this guy.

However, Ruan Shanshu didn't have this feeling, what an honor the emperor gave him to sit, so that he didn't dare to sit down, only dared to sit on half an ass, and as a result, this kind of humble behavior made him a big ugly, when the seventy-two heavy cannons roared at the same time, the loud sound of the earth cracking that day scared him to sit directly on the ground, fortunately, the emperor patronized and held the telescope to see the landing point of the cannonball, and he laughed and quietly got up.

Seventy-two heavy artillery shells poured shells at the fastest rate of fire on a mound in the distance, and hundreds of rounds per minute ravaged wildly, so that this small mound within a radius of one mile was completely submerged in the flames of the explosion, the terrifying sound of cannon ejection, the breathtaking sharp whistling, and the huge explosion sound that resounded, tortured his ears all the time, and in the end, he even involuntarily covered his ears and screamed hysterically, making Yuan Shikai next to him roll his eyes.

Fortunately, after ten minutes, this terrible fire demonstration finally ended, and then the smoke of gunfire slowly cleared in the distance, and the original wooded mound had been completely wiped out by artillery fire, and only a charred black earth and still burning remnants could be seen.

"Not bad, the training level is okay!" Looking at this scene, Emperor Yang nodded with satisfaction, and then discussed military issues with Han Ye and a group of generals from the War Department, and then a brigade of infantry carrying rifles with bayonets walked in front of them, Rulin's bayonets reflected a dazzling white light, and the deafening slogans and uniform footsteps resounded in the sky, and the majestic and mighty air came to the face.

This was followed by a shooting show, including light and heavy machine guns, submachine guns, and even a standing salvo of rifles, which had actually long been obsolete, which was still very good for bluffing, and finally showed hand-to-hand combat, stabbing confrontation, and grenadier and mortar precision fire and the like, which lasted three hours before it ended.

After the end is not finished, then Emperor Yang took a group of people to inspect the barracks, and also ran to the soldiers' restaurant to eat with the soldiers, of course, Emperor Yang will not eat alone, he will eat what the soldiers eat, although Ruan Shanshu is not too bad, but in his opinion, these soldiers can still be regarded as luxury, fish, meat, vegetables are not lacking, but the staple food is not steamed buns, but a relatively hard flatbread, and another person adds an egg soup, on this standard in Vietnam, even officials can not eat every day, And as can be seen from the soldiers' expressions when they eat, it is obvious that they have not eaten such meals very much.

In this short period of half a day, Ruan Shanshu thoroughly appreciated the heavenly power of the Heavenly Empire, so that he began to return to Beijing City, and he was still a little distracted, of course he was not qualified to sit in the same car as the emperor, so he followed all the way back to the palace, and waited for almost half an hour in anxiety before finally getting a separate summons from His Majesty.

"Mr. Nguyen, I'm not a person who likes to talk nonsense, I must take back Vietnam, not only Vietnam, but also Cochin, but what to do with it after taking it back, I am still thinking about it for the time being, Vietnam is different from North Korea, the North Korean royal family is unconditionally loyal to China no matter what the circumstances, and their current preferential treatment is in exchange for loyalty. But the Nguyen family is different, first the throne was obtained by the rebellion of Tong Guò, and then obtained by coercing the Qing emperor at that time, and after that, he has never been able to talk about true loyalty, and now he is willing to be a puppet of the French, for such a vassal king, I can hardly have any good feelings, so in my opinion, turning Vietnam into a province may be the best choice. Emperor Yang said solemnly.

"Your Majesty, the king of our country is completely involuntary, forced by the French yin power, has to be with the snake with the snake, but in private still has his heart to the Celestial Empire." Nguyen Thien Shu quickly knelt down, lay on the ground and said, in fact, he had already made contact with Nguyen Phuc Zhao and could be regarded as a secret envoy of the Vietnamese royal family.

"Then show your loyalty!" Emperor Yang said very majestically. (To be continued......)