To escort the officers of the French expeditionary force to see the new Vietnamese lord canonized by China to ascend the throne, the taste of this, I am afraid it is difficult to describe, the Empress Dowager Cixi with a hint of treacherous smile, "In the singing of diplomacy, nothing can compare to an accurate action, bringing a clear political position, these French people standing in front of Thang Long Mansion can be regarded as truly acknowledging the restoration of the Li Dynasty, oh, the word restoration is not good, reconstruction, grace is reconstruction." The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info told Mi Le that he should obediently go to Thang Long Mansion as a guest to watch the ceremony, and I may have time and a little interest to meet him. ”

The tragic fate of these French soldiers had already been decided between the talk and laughter of the Empress Dowager Cixi, and it was estimated that all the soldiers would first build official roads and rebuild the city in Beiqi, and the senior officers would have to cheer up and go to the platform of Thang Long Mansion with a smile on their faces after their unkempt and sad labor.

There is something to be announced now, the Empress Dowager Cixi said, "Thang Long Mansion there, everything has to be handled, I see that Tang Jingsong is not bad, that Chen Wending is also proper, so that the two of them together, rebuild Thang Long Mansion, I will stay here for a few days, and then slowly set off from Taiyuan and Bac Ninh to Thang Long Mansion, next month the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth month of May has passed, choose a good day, hold the enthronement ceremony, and, Qinghai Sea," she instructed Qinghai "After the date is set, the Li Fan Yuan will immediately issue a decree, If there is a delay, then it will no longer be a vassal state of China, and all countries naturally do not need to give China face, so they can do whatever they want. "This is the meaning of abandoning China's suzerainty over it, this is a serious consequence, do not think that it is a good thing not to have Chinese pointing fingers, at this stage, without China's cover, the great powers with colonies in the South Seas, including the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and even France, can tear these small countries to pieces without much effort."

"The new army is in Vietnam, and the sailors are also in Vietnam, whoever is disobedient and who is willing to obey the orders of the Celestial Empire, this time they can all see it clearly, and anyone and anything that is disobedient does not have to be kept," the Empress Dowager Cixi fiddled with the armor in her hand and said leisurely, "Today I am in Vietnam, and I personally watched the enthronement of the Vietnamese lord, if anyone dares to prevaricate me with any excuse of long distances, then let him disappear forever!" ”

"Yes!" Zuo Zongtang and the others stood up and solemnly lowered their hands to obey orders.

"As for Guangzhou, what should be talked about is always to be discussed, now I have shown sincerity, Nanqi has ceased fire, I think the French should also be interesting, listen carefully to our opinions, don't jump up when you hear about the land reparations, in the past, Britain asked us to cede land and pay reparations, that is because we lost the war, and our skills are not as good as people, naturally there is nothing to say, now that France has lost, is it difficult to put on the stinky shelf of some world power? The compensation for land cession is naturally nothing remarkable. ”

Zuo Zongtang is a little puzzled here, after all, France wants to learn from Germany's method to cede land on the European continent, which is the source of thousands of miles, which is obviously impossible, "What does the Queen Mother mean, does she want France's overseas territory?" ”

"Pu Cungong knows my mind," the Empress Dowager Cixi smiled slightly, stood up, walked out of the handsome tent, and finally said, "I told Guo Songtao that I want French India!" ”

Guangzhou, Guo Songtao did not go to participate in any negotiations at all this day, he just Shi Shiran went to a European-style courtyard to participate in the welcome reception prepared for him by foreign businessmen today, the atmosphere of the scene was very warm, foreign businessmen, especially French businessmen, Guo Songtao's attitude can simply be described as groveling and flattering, because they heard a rumor that if the Sino-French negotiations are not successful, all French businessmen will be expelled and will not be allowed to do business directly with China. So it means that the French have to buy Chinese goods from merchants from other countries, and this back and forth, the price will go up, so how to compete with other countries, so to a certain extent, these businessmen wish that France, their motherland will be defeated soon, because now trade has been greatly affected, this impact is not only in China, but also in them, Guo Songtao used to be an ambassador to Britain and an ambassador to France, English and French are very slippery, and they are fluent in dealing with a group of French businessmen, calm manners, very chic, smoking cigars, drinking brandy, everything. The French businessmen first asked why the French Zhangjing Wang Yang Bing did not accompany him, and Guo Songtao smiled and said, "He was discussing specific affairs with the consul of your country, so he did not come." ”

Afraid that Guo Songtao would not talk about the current negotiations, a French businessman who was exporting lacquerware hurriedly answered, "Lord Guo, may I ask if your country and we are going to cut off economic and trade exchanges, is this matter true?" "In the West, this will never happen, because trade is a very important part of the country's economy, but in China, the ancient and mysterious country of the Far East, their rulers think completely differently than the West, and for the sake of political correctness, anything that is reasonable can be forbidden.

Guo Songtao didn't speak, just smiled and drank a sip of amber brandy, this French businessman thought that Guo Songtao was unhappy that he asked something that should not be asked, "I am very much in favor of our government to launch a war against China, we have a very friendly relationship between China and France, economic and trade exchanges, and it is also very smooth, the government has obviously forgotten the importance of commerce and trade to France, just for Vietnam, a country that completely belongs to China, launched an unjust war, yes, Lord Guo," He bowed deeply to Guo Songtao, "I don't think there is any morality at all in this war, we," he looked around, and all the merchants nodded, "The merchants of France all support China's sovereignty over Vietnam." ”

This is a businessman, for the sake of interests do not have to worry about any problems, Guo Songtao is very disdainful in his heart, but his face is very happy, "Mr. Mark, you are so right, this is the envoy of Sino-French relations, we China is a peace-loving country, we have always opposed the use of any form of force and violence to solve the problem, this way can not solve the problem, the previous economic and trade exchanges between the two countries, according to last year's statistics, has fallen to the third place, surpassed by Germany, I have to think, It's a sign of relationship regression. (To be continued.) )