At the beginning of February 1881, the newspapers in Paris were discussing the ongoing extraordinary session of the French Parliament, the subject of which was to increase the war budget and allocate another 470 million francs.

All public opinion felt vaguely the plight of France, a war that was supposed to be as easy as a walk in the back garden, but now turned into a mud war in the mud, requiring constant increases in appropriations, which exacerbated the already strapped financial situation.

The French Ministry of Finance had a rough calculation and sent the French army to fight in Vietnam, fuel, ammunition, food, medicine, clothing, shoes and socks, tents, guns and other various materials, including an unusually large freight cost, which was evenly distributed to each soldier, and the cost was 34 times that of the Franco-Prussian War!

In other words, if the French government sends an entire army group to fight in eastern Asia, the war here has not yet begun, and the government on that side will go bankrupt and collapse.

On February 7, the well-known Le Figaro newspaper published a commentator's article saying that "our politicians should pay more attention to the present." It must be borne in mind that the territories we have lost are not in distant Asia, but in Alsace and Lorraine. ＂

At this time, even the media in neighboring Germany began to gloat and joke: "The commander-in-chief of the French army, who was preparing to attack Alsace and Lorraine, forgot to bring his reading glasses, and as a result, pointed in the wrong direction on the map, causing the French troops to take a steamer for several months and run away to Asia." ＂

In the face of the pressure of public opinion, the Gambida cabinet has no way out, China has made it clear that it will not make any concessions, and the French government must grit its teeth and continue the war, otherwise the Gambida cabinet will end up worse than his predecessor.

After four days of heated debate, on 13 February, the French parliament finally approved a new budget allocation that would not only continue to support the French navy and army's military operations in Asia, but also enable France to send an additional division of reinforcements.

At the same time, Foreign Minister Falesina also sent a telegram instructing the envoy to Japan to try to contact the Japanese government.

At the same time, thousands of miles away in Beijing, China is also holding a military conference to discuss the current situation.

Peng Yulin reported: "The Guards have been newly organized into a brigade, which can be immediately put into battle. The Third Division, which had retreated from the defeat in Bac Ninh, had only more than 5,000 troops and was temporarily reduced to a brigade, which was commanded by Wang Debang, while the former division commander Zhang Shusheng attempted suicide and had been sent back to Guangxi for treatment of his injuries and awaiting punishment. ＂

Ding Yuntong said after a while: "Okay, this brigade will be transferred to Guangxi immediately, and the commander will be Nie Shicheng of Langshan, and the independent regiment of the Guards Army under Nie Shicheng's original command will be commanded by Zhang Gaoyuan. That tree sound, just wait for him to heal from his injuries. ＂

Zuo Zongtang said: "Now that the decisive battle is getting closer and closer, our army also needs to make Zuihou deployment." ＂

Ding Yuntong nodded: "That's true, judging from the information obtained by France, France has passed a new huge allocation, and a large number of reinforcements are coming." As long as Zuihou delivers a decisive blow to the French army, our distinguished French friends will have to bow their proud heads. ＂

After a pause, he said to Peng Yulin: "You repeat our strategy again. ＂

Peng Yulin bowed down and replied, moistened his throat and said: "According to our scheduled Jihua, when the French army attacks the Taiyuan area, the garrison of the Fourth Division will retreat to the north. When the French army attacked Langshan, Feng Zicai's first division and Wang Debang's brigade, as well as Zhang Gaoyuan's guard regiment, as long as they killed and wounded the French army, retreated to Zhennan Pass. As long as the French army continues to attack Zhennan Pass, then the moment of decisive battle will come. While dragging the main force of the French army in front of Zhennan Pass, we gathered strong forces on the western front, consisting of the fourth division, the sixth division, the Nie Shicheng Guards Brigade, and the reinforced Zuo Guigui Second Division, forming a heavy army group, with a total strength of more than 40,000 people, Nie Shicheng's guards brigade opened the way, inserted into the left rear of the French army in one fell swoop, cut off the opponent's supply line, and then severely damaged or even annihilated the main force of the French army. Except for a few people from the military aircraft department here, only Feng Zicai is clear about this plan on the front line. ＂

After Peng Yulin finished speaking, several people were silent for a while, and Li Hongzhang said: "What if the French army doesn't attack Zhennan Pass?" Or the French army attacked Zhennan Pass, but Feng Zicai's army couldn't withstand it, so what should I do? ＂

Ding Yuntong smiled: "Yes, this is the key to the problem. First of all, the French army will inevitably attack Zhennan Pass, because if we do not make any concessions at the negotiating table, the French army can only take action, and they cannot stay in Vietnam for a long time, knowing that every day they stay is a huge attrition. So the French had to fight quickly, and they had no other choice.

As for the second question, Feng Zicai believes that he will hold Zhennan Pass, because the terrain of Zhennan Pass is dangerous, and a large number of mines made by the Tianjin Machinery Bureau will soon be transported to Zhennan Pass. This will greatly improve the defense capability of Feng Zicai's department.

Moreover, as long as we can consume a large number of French troops, even if we lose Zhennan Pass, as long as our western front heavy troops cut off the enemy's supply line, the other side will be a source of water, and Zuihou's victory will still be ours, but then it will not be a big victory, but a tragic victory. ＂

Everyone nodded silently, obviously agreeing in their hearts.

After thinking about it, Ding Yuntong ordered Tianjin Alternate Dao Ma Jianzhong to go to North Korea as China's special minister in North Korea.

This Ma Jianzhong is a rare high degree in the imperial court, a doctor of the private political school in Paris, who just returned to China last year, and this person was an envoy to the court in his previous life.

At this time, the undercurrent of Korea was turbulent, and Japan, seeing that China was fighting with France, had no time to think about anything else, and was already ready to move.

According to a secret report from Xue Fucheng's intelligence team, France has begun to make contact with Japan. The French minister to Japan, Gissenwei, even went directly to Itagaki to help, the leader of the Japanese Liberal Party, claiming that he would sponsor 1 million yen and instigate Japan to make trouble in Korea.

According to historical memory, the next Japanese minister to the DPRK, Yoshihari Hanafu, was to instruct Concubine Min to establish a new army controlled by Japan, the "Bezhi Army", in an attempt to control the political situation in Korea. But as Ding Yuntong is concerned, before he completely subdues France, he can only turn a blind eye to these.

At the same time, the Tianjin Machinery Bureau, Ding Shoucun, whose chin was full of white beards, was presiding over the acceptance ceremony for a batch of anti-infantry mines that were about to leave the factory.

He was born in 1812, at the age of seventy, the so-called life is seventy years old, should be a dying old man, at home with his grandchildren, and take care of his old age. But I never expected that the old tree would bloom and be specially summoned by the emperor to be responsible for the research and development and manufacturing of mines.

Ding Shoucun has been studying mines all his life, which is completely out of a paranoid hobby, and he can't expect to rely on this to soar. And the imperial court has always not paid attention to his jishu, relatives and colleagues do not understand, there are cynical, many people behind his back say that he is not doing his job, playthings are demoralized, and he is obsessed with ghosts, and he has long been accustomed to this. But after all, he is already a person who is about to enter the ground, and the hard work of this life has been buried like this, and he is always unwilling.

Now that the emperor appreciates it and makes him fully responsible for doing a great job, he is naturally overjoyed and ambitious, and he is determined to leave a name in history, live up to what he has learned in his life, and let those who have laughed at him lose their big teeth.

Therefore, although his hair was gray and his face was wrinkled, his face was full of red and radiant.

These mines are mainly pedal loose mines and trip mines.

As early as more than 30 years ago, that is, in 1843, Ding Shoucun explained in detail in the book how to use detonators as initiating devices and silver nitrate as initiating charges to manufacture mines and other weapons based on chemical experiments and calculations. This kind of research is only a dozen years later than in Europe.

Dante also has an even more terrifying large-area anti-infantry mine called the "jumping mine", which is actually the jumping anti-infantry mine of later generations.

Originally, the design of this kind of mine was to put an iron pumpkin-like mine into a wooden cabinet, the lower part of the wooden cabinet was filled with a large amount of gunpowder, connected to the mine fuse, and the wooden cabinet was equipped with a ignition device made of a motor imported from Germany. When using, bury the wooden cabinet in the ground first, and place a rollover next to the wooden cabinet to connect with the ignition device in the cabinet. Once the enemy mistakenly steps on the overturned car and triggers the ignition device, the gunpowder will explode, and the mines in the cabinet can be thrown seven or eight feet high on the ground and explode in the air.

Such mines will be a hellish nightmare for the charging infantry troops.

However, in order to prevent the mines from being detected and evaded by the enemy, according to the opinions sent back by Yuan Shikai from the front line, Ding Shoucun redesigned the mine burial and detonation devices. Its ignition device is no longer activated by pedals, but another fuse is pulled out and leads to the defensive trench, so that even if the mine is detected by the enemy, the defenders can still pull the fuse to detonate, which is called "pulling the thunder".

The cost of this kind of mine is very large, not only is it much larger than ordinary mines, but it also consumes a lot of explosives and iron balls, and each mine needs an imported motor, the total cost is very high, and it is impossible to bury a large number of mines, so it can only be used in key defense areas.

In the next few months, it is estimated that tens of thousands of mines of various types will be shipped to Vietnam, and Dinh Shoucun is very confident in his mines.

In the early spring of 1881, Vietnam seemed to have fallen into a brief lull, and both China and France were accumulating liliang in preparation for the coming war.

Since the end of February, the weather in Taiwan, across the South China Sea, has been very warm, but at this time, the confrontation between China and France has to face a common enemy, for the French army, this enemy is even more terrible, that is, the sudden spread of the plague.

The plague was mainly composed of several infectious diseases such as red diarrhea, malaria, and cholera, and it spread almost overnight, and it was more rapid and widespread than previous plagues. It cannot be ruled out that many of the corpses of those who died in the war were not dealt with in a timely and effective manner, which contributed to the plague.

The French army, as outsiders, was even more affected. By the end of March, there were already hundreds of French soldiers in the field hospital in Keelung. In addition to the wounded in the previous battle, more than 1,000 people have completely lost their combat effectiveness, and people are dying of diseases every day, from a few to a dozen, and even the supreme commander of the fleet, Lisby, has suffered from severe dysentery and is bedridden.

Due to the large reduction of manpower, the French army had to abandon all defensive positions around Keelung, concentrate the remaining forces, rely on the protection of the fleet artillery, and retreat in Keelung City.

However, the French army did not have to worry about being attacked, because the Chinese army was also suffering from the plague, and nearly 200 people died of illness throughout March, including Yang Hongbiao, the commander of the regiment stationed in Keelungling, who unfortunately died of serious illness.

However, with the help of the local indigenous people, the spread of the disease was controlled, and the French army did not have this luck, and in April, the disease spread further, more than 500 French officers and soldiers died of illness, and more than 1,000 sick numbers, and the healthy French army only had a few hundred people, and they were unable to perform any tasks, and even the Badou Coal Mine, which was about to be renovated, had to give up, and all the French officers and soldiers were panicked and wrote suicide notes to their families.

Lisby, who was seriously ill, had already developed bloody diarrhea at this time, and his stool was full of a large pool of blood. He had lost the will to continue fighting, and wrote in a telegram to China: "There is no end to internal and external troubles, and if this continues, the outcome of this war is really unimaginable." He clearly had a premonition that he would not be able to return to France alive and return to his relatives. Out of dignity as a soldier, he did not plead to retreat, he only hoped that the government would take the initiative to order a retreat, but until he pulled blood and died of anemia, his wish was not fulfilled.

In the face of such a severe plague, the French cabinet completely cut off the idea of continuing to send reinforcements to Taiwan, and all hopes were pinned on the battlefield in Vietnam, and the spring of 1881 passed like this.