Of course, the French are not frightened, they still have nearly 100,000 troops in Nanqi, and such a force is enough to sweep away Asia, and it is almost enough to sweep Europe in the Napoleonic era, and this little threat will definitely not make the arrogant French succumb. Besides, in the final analysis, negotiations must be backed by force, otherwise it will become a farce, and those so-called diplomats who are not backed by force are just clowns who provide entertainment on the international stage, just like the former Prime Minister Li who has just stepped down, Duke Li's original role in history.

Therefore, just after Delcasse rejected Zhang Quan's draft contract, Emperor Yang immediately showed his minions, and the three army divisions that had been assembled on the north bank of the Ba River officially began to attack the French, one by one, one by one, 155 mm heavy artillery, with an earth-shattering roar, the Vietnamese sky that had gradually fallen silent, shattered the naïve illusion of the French, 50,000 Chinese soldiers wearing green camouflage under the cover of artillery fire that covered the sky and the sun, carrying rubber boats rushing forward to the turbulent river.

The French built a complete defense system on the south bank, from trenches and barbed wire fences to reinforced concrete bunkers, and a full 30,000 French troops with countless machine guns and cannons blocked this line of defense, waiting for the arrival of the enemy, and the soldiers who had just come out of the café in Paris were in high spirits, vowing to defend the dignity of the French Republic with their steel guns.

In France, the new Viceroy of Indochina, Jean. Baptiste. Paul. Bo seems that not to mention the more this line of defense, it is still very promising to block the Chinese for half a year, as long as the war drags on, casualties and material consumption will naturally make the always shrewd emperor sober up. Unfortunately, he forgot that it was too close to the sea, and while the French soldiers were hiding in the trenches and bunkers, waiting to be slaughtered with machine guns, a seaplane flew over them, and then four terrifying ships appeared on the surface.

The four ships of the Kunlun came to provide fire support for the army. With their 280 and 240 cannons, they shattered the dreams of His Excellency the Governor in an instant, and in the panicked screams of the French soldiers, shells weighing hundreds of kilograms pierced the sky and then smashed above their heads like falling meteors.

In the sound of explosions, every single one of the French positions was shattered, and the trenches in the soft soil of Vietnam and the reinforced concrete fortresses they thought were strong were all a pitiful joke in front of the guns of the battleships at sea, in the face of this tyrannical destructive force. was shattered in an instant, and of course the soldiers inside were also shattered.

Those poor French soldiers, even in a nightmare, have never experienced such a terrible scene, watching the position that once gave them confidence be leveled in an instant, familiar comrades instantly turned into pieces of flying flesh and blood, and even those who were not killed were all bleeding and dying strangely one by one, these soldiers who ran from the distant peaceful and quiet Europe to this foreign land thousands of miles away, collapsed without hesitation. No one wants to defend any position anymore, and no one thinks about any honor.

"Bastards, come back, you cowards. Stick to your post and stick to your honor! Outside a reinforced concrete command post, the French brigade commander, General Xia Fei, brandished his saber and shouted at the defeated soldiers.

It's a pity that no one cares about him at this time. These poor lads put them in front of the battleship's main guns for the first time, and they wanted to keep them courageous, which was too strong. Many soldiers were even scared to pee their pants when they saw the tragic situation of those comrades-in-arms, and they still stuck to their posts, this is not to defend the country, the hateful eyes of the Vietnamese behind the strong enemy in front, the glory and dreams of France are so illusory here.

As more and more soldiers fled their positions, even the officers began to join the ranks of the escape, and when the first Chinese soldiers in rubber boats crossed the Ba River, even the French troops outside the coverage of the naval guns upstream began to rout.

"Soldiers who have not been on the battlefield are not good, the best way to train this is war, of course, it can't be too large, every year or two to fight a small-scale fight, not only to train the army and promote the economy, but also to improve military technology, by the way, plunder something to subsidize the people, it can be said that a profitable business, so don't listen to those rotten Confucians every day to talk about what poor soldiers and military forces, what is the purpose of raising an army? Isn't it just for war? On a hillside on the north bank of the Ba River, Nie Shicheng, the commander of the Second Army, held a telescope to watch the rout of the French army on the south bank, and lectured earnestly to the young officers beside him.

Over the years, there have indeed been many people who have criticized the government for being reckless, and there is hardly a year when it is not a war, and the scale is not large, and every war can make a lot of money, but this style of staring out and bullying the weak every day is, after all, despised by the saints, and those old scholars of the Academy of Literature dare not criticize the emperor, but criticize Li Hongzhang and Xue Fucheng, these people are still very courageous.

The Ba Jiang defensive line, which the French had high hopes for, was broken through in less than a morning, and when the news reached Singapore, the smile on Zhang Quan's face was even brighter.

"Your Excellency the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as far as I know, five thousand soldiers of your country have just been laid to rest on the soil of Vietnam, is it possible that the lives of the French people are so worthless that their own government can be wasted needlessly in an unjust war of aggression?" At the dinner of the Governor of Singapore, he raised his glass to Delcasse.

"For the sake of dignity and honor, the French soldiers will not be afraid of sacrifice, they are willing to defend the sanctity of the contract with their lives, as for justice or not, do you think that the Vietnamese royal family's breaking of the contract is justice." Delcasai said with a blank face.

Lost the Ba Jiang defense line, but strictly speaking to the French, this is not a fatal blow, although behind this line of defense is Nha Trang and Cam Ranh Bay, but these two strategic points are surrounded by mountains, the French army has re-established the defense line in the mountains, the loss of the Ba River is mainly due to the Chinese Navy's naval guns are too fierce, but in the mountains these naval guns are useless, the battle has to rely on the soldiers' real swords and guns, the French are still very confident in this point.

"Well, in that case, then I can only pay a moment of silence for those poor lads, ah, and forget to tell you that our navy has decided to send fifty additional torpedo boats and ten minesweepers to Vietnam, and I hope that your navy and army will have the same spirit of sacrifice." Zhang Quan said with a smile, he is not interested in discussing the question of justice or not, it is all to deceive children, how can there be any justice and evil in this world, and interests are real.

Delcasse's initial fears have become a reality, fifty torpedo boats drawn from the major coastal defense fortresses in the south are heading to Kampong Son Bay, these small boats with a displacement of only a few tens of tons have a high speed of nearly 40 knots, and use a fully enclosed design, which looks very sci-fi, like a sea barracuda, equipped with two torpedo tubes, if you kill into Kampong Son Bay in the dark, it will undoubtedly be a nightmare for the remnants of the French expeditionary fleet hiding inside.

As for the minesweepers, they were used against Cam Ranh Bay, and the French laid a large number of mines outside this bay, and whatever they wanted to do to the Far Eastern Fleet in the bay, demining was a must.

Of course, Delcasse understood that Zhang Quan was threatening him, and if he did not compromise, he would have to attack their fleet, but the conditions put forward by the Chinese were indeed too harsh, and the ransom for the warships was actually seriously considered by the French government, after all, these warships were already in the hands of the Chinese, and they could be killed whenever they wanted. After this war, the strength of the French Navy was greatly damaged, and before those perfect battleships were put into service, the French Navy had almost no capital ships, and all of their five new Harvey carburized armored battleships were all dispatched, and the rest of the family were old ironclad ships, wrought iron or wood-clad iron, which were sent to death on the battlefield, although the number was large but meaningless

In this way, there will inevitably be a vacuum in France's maritime strength, and if there is any more competition for interests in the African colonies, it is a joke in front of Britain and Germany, and if these warships can be kept, at least France's overseas interference capability will not be damaged.

Especially those diesel warships, France had only built a total of four Joan of Arc class and three Quedun class diesel cruisers before this, after this war, their old armored cruisers, protective cruisers have lost their meaning, if they lose those five more, it means that the French Navy only has two capital ships that can handle it, and this strength is inferior to Spain.

In addition, as Zhang Quan said, those sailors were also an extremely valuable asset, although they lost the naval battle, but they accumulated enough experience, and these experiences were even more valuable than warships in some way, and 500 million francs was indeed a bit much, but it was not unacceptable.

But these six provinces of Nanqi are really unwilling to hand over, without Saigon and Cam Ranh Bay, France will actually lose the ability to compete for dominance in Asia, and it will fall to the same level as the Dutch and Portugal, which is unacceptable to the arrogant French government in any case, and they can only hope that they can now hope that there will be one victory on the battlefield that will make them eligible for bargaining. (To be continued......)