Two and a half days passed, Lin Yuan's troops arrived at the border of Shan State and Siam, and stationed in the mountains of the border, and at this time, Britain, Siam, France and other countries did not know that Lin Yuan's troops had arrived at the border of Shan State and Siam, because this area is on the Shan State Plateau, full of high mountains and tropical forests, the traffic is extremely inconvenient, and it is now the rainy season in Southeast Asia, so the news naturally cannot be transmitted.

At this time, it was October 6th, Prince Thomas had returned to Bangkok, Thailand with Princess Arlinn and more than a dozen students, along the way Princess Arlinn was worried about her father's scolding, so she was always depressed, but after arriving in Bangkok, she was relieved, because her father, the Siamese Emperor Rama V Chulalongkorn, had gone to Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Siam and the important city in the north, to personally direct the attack on Laos.

Inside the Prasin Temple, the oldest temple in Chiang Mai, Chulalongkorn is working with British adviser Charles ? Barclays discuss an attack on Laos, Charles? Barclay, a British expert in Southeast Asia, participated in the Second Anglo-Burmese War and the Third Anglo-Burmese War, which was a war of aggression carried out by the British to open Burma, a total of three times, all of which ended in Burma's defeat, and eventually Burma became a British colony, a province of British India.

Chulalongkorn is forty-six years old, the golden age of the political family, his eyes are full of wisdom, and he is bent on recreating the former glory of the Siamese Empire, he first said: "Mr. Barclay, our Prince Doma has returned from China, and he has also brought back China's attitude towards the situation in Indochina. ”

Barclay asked: "What is China's position on the situation here?" ”

Chulalongkorn said: "Lin Yuan seems to have guessed that we are going to launch an attack on the French army stationed in Laos, so he personally stated: oppose any country on the Indochina Peninsula to unilaterally change the status quo of the Indochina Peninsula!" I am somewhat concerned that our reconquest of Laos will be subject to Chinese interference. ”

Barclay said with a smile: "Your Majesty the Emperor, although rest assured, you sent troops to attack the French army in Laos in order to recover the lost territory and rescue the Lao people who were enslaved by the French. Lin Yuan's 918 speech is remembered by the people of the world, and if he sends troops to intervene in the situation on the Indochina Peninsula at this time, he will slap himself in the face in front of the people of the world! ”

Chulalongkorn nodded lightly and said, "I'm worried that Lin Yuan will use some other methods to intervene. ”

Barclay said with a smile: "There is nothing to worry about, China's troops to deal with the sudden change in the situation in the southwest are the 28th Division stationed in Kunming and the 29th Division stationed in Nanning, they have not yet moved to the border, even if they reach the border, they will be resisted by the mountains and fierce and tenacious natives, it is estimated that we will take Vientiane, where the Lao Governor's Palace is located, and they will not be able to survive when we capture the Lao Governor alive." ”

After Barclay finished speaking, he laughed, Chulalongkorn did not laugh, just nodded lightly, and said: "Then we will prepare to launch an attack on the French army in Laos according to the predetermined plan." ”

Barclay nodded, he raised his head to look north, and said with a secret smile in his heart: "Lin Yuan, China, this time is enough to embarrass you!" ”

At two o'clock in the morning on October 7th, Lin Yuan, who was sleeping, was suddenly woken up by a rapid phone ringing, and he knew very well: there were only two kinds of calls at this time, one was from Chen Fei, who said the last sentence "It's late at night, pay attention to rest, don't play too late" and then hung up; The other is - something big has happened!

Lin Yuan picked up the phone, only to hear the anxious voice of the attendant inside: "Report to Lin Shuai, the 28th Division has sent a message that the Siamese army has suddenly launched an attack on the French outpost on the border between Siam and Laos, and the current battle situation is still unclear." ”

Lin Yuan thought in his heart: "Siam has finally made a move, let's not rush to make a move first, let's observe them for a while!" Lin Yuan then said: "Tell the 28th Division, don't take any action except to reconnoiter the battle situation, and in addition, all calls from the French embassy will be blocked, and anything will be said tomorrow." ”

The attendant agreed, Lin Yuan put down the phone, and thought to himself: "France will definitely ask me for help, I will dry the French ambassador first, make them more anxious, and it will definitely be beneficial to China." Lin Yuan lay down again while thinking, and Shen Wanqing muttered beside him, "Aren't you going to the office to deal with these things?" ”

Lin Yuan said in a daze: "I'll talk about it tomorrow." After saying that, he took her in his arms and fell into a deep sleep. Early the next morning, Lin Yuan received a lot of news as soon as he got up, the most conspicuous of which was the declaration of war issued by the Siamese government: from this moment - October 7, 1898 Bangkok time at two o'clock in the morning, the Siamese Empire officially declared war on the French Indochina Federation, Siam launched the war to save the French enslaved people and restore the sovereignty of Siam over Laos.

The next one is the declaration of war on Siam by the Federation of French Indochina, followed by the editorials published by the world's major news agencies and the evaluation of the world's countries on this matter, the early morning of Bangkok time happened to be the afternoon in Europe, so the European countries expressed their positions very quickly, and the European powers supported Siam and criticized France's colonial and enslavement policies, completely ignoring that they were also colonial powers.

Switzerland, Egypt, Ethiopia, Sweden and Denmark and other countries that have good relations with China have not made public statements, and these countries understand the relationship between China and France and are well aware of China's plight, so they did not issue statements for a while, and they did not want to put pressure on China.

At this time, they didn't know that Lin Yuan already had a comprehensive consideration and plan for this matter. After the public statements of various countries, the 28th Division's battle situation report was followed, but the front-line troops of the 28th Division were far away from the battlefield, and they could only obtain some information about the scale claws, which was not of much value, so Lin Yuan put down the war report and looked at the diplomatic report sent to him by the French Embassy.

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "What is the War Elephant Legion?" In the history of warfare, Siam is indeed famous for the use of elephants, in the war with Siam during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the war elephant army gave the Qing army a lot of casualties, could it be that Siam trained a large number of elephants to be used as the vanguard of the war? How is this possible! Now that the automation of weapons is very high, and even the war horses have withdrawn from the stage of war, how can such a thing as an elephant appear? ”

Lin Yuan thought about it and asked Shen Wanqing, who was combing her hair: "Wanqing, is there a force called the War Elephant Legion in Siam?" ”

Shen Wanqing stopped the comb in her hand, thought for a while and said, "No, right?" I didn't see this unit when I was looking at the Siamese military intelligence. ”