The attachés and guards in the Sankou Trade Yamen have been extremely cautious in the past two days, and they even walk lightly, for fear of making a big move and provoking the anger of the officials.

Therefore, the idlers at the yamen have a hard time, and the guards have nothing to do to take them out, which is really a blood mold.

As the core of the atmosphere of the Sankou Trade Yamen becoming serious, Li Zhongtang has been upset recently, the reason is very simple, France is restless in Vietnam, and the new French Minister Patner has even said in public several times that since the Qing State cannot give France what it wants, then France will take it itself.

His naked war threat remarks worried the entire court.

In addition, on the issue of the return of the Zhending 2nd ship, which was built far away in Germany, Liu Buyun and Wei Han, who were responsible for receiving the battleship, jointly sent a telegram to inform Volkeng Shipyard that the Zhending 2nd ship was conducting sea trials, and the shipyard refused to release it before the sea trials were completed. The shipyard claimed that if a ship that had not completed the sea trial was allowed to go to sea, any accident would be a huge loss to the shipyard's reputation.

However, the secret telegram sent by Liu Buyun and Wei Han informed them that all this was done by the French behind their backs, and the French bribed the people in the shipyard to drag the second ship of Zhending in the shipyard.

As for the two people's desire to accept the battleship in advance, they were even more prevented by the German soldiers guarding the shipyard.

The second ship could not return to China ahead of schedule, which made Li Zhongtang very worried.

Seeing that Li Zhongtang was worried about this, Zhou Fu, who was a staff member, opened his mouth to persuade. "Zhongtang doesn't have to worry too much, I believe that the second ship will return home safely."

"Yushan, I'm not worried about calming the second ship."

Speaking of this, Li Zhongtang took out an excerpt and said. "This is Zeng Lao Jiu's Fayi who is stirring up incidents everywhere in Vietnam, and I am afraid that there will be a tendency to exchange troops, so I beg for permission to strike first."

"Zhongtang, I'm afraid this is not Lord Zeng's intention to retreat."

Zhou Fu said the intention of Zeng Guoquan, the governor of Liangguang.

"Everyone knows Lao Jiu's intentions, but if this battle can be fought, it won't be fought, I didn't see Zuo Jigao recovering the sea of silver spent in Xinjiang, if this is a fight with the French, how should I deal with it."

The contradictions between Li Zhongtang and Zuo Jigao are known to the world, and they are both under the public door of Wen Zheng, but the two have never dealt with each other.

Especially after the death of Wen Zhenggong, after the strength of the Hunan army plummeted, the two sides looked at each other even more unpleasantly. And whether the imperial court is behind the scenes, this is a matter of the benevolent and the wise. Anyway, after Zuo Jigao recovered Xinjiang, Li Zhongtang was promoted to the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang, and in order to reward Zuo Jigao's merits, he was appointed as the governor of Liangjiang and the minister of Nanyang.

And unlike Li Zhongtang, who is not in a hurry and is patient, this Zuo Jigao has always declared in a high-profile manner that he does not have to tolerate the French in Vietnam, and he will take action when he should act. He even said that he was going to take the Chu army to Liangguang to do a battle with the French.

Fortunately, the princes of the imperial court and the queen mother were all sensible people and did not agree to Zuo Jigao, so the situation was able to be maintained.

But just when Li Zhongtang sighed, a subordinate hurriedly ran in.

Without waiting for him to ask, the subordinate immediately reported. "My lord, Jia Liwen, the minister of the intended country outside the door, asks to see you."

"Minister of Italy?"

Although Li Zhongtang didn't know what this visitor meant, he was bound to meet with a minister of a country when he visited.

"Arrange for the Italian minister to wait in the lobby, and the official will come immediately."

Then Li Zhongtang sorted out his clothes and walked to the lobby.

Li Zhongtang, who arrived in the lobby, found that there was not only the Italian minister, but also a good-faced man, wasn't Howard, an Italian businessman who had visited him some time ago? Although he was a little curious as to why the merchant would follow the envoy to meet him, his good cultivation made him not ask.

"Hello, Minister Jia Liwen, Mr. Howard."

"Hello, Your Excellency the Governor."

Greeted briefly, and waited until the next person brought tea and snacks before Li Zhongtang spoke. "I don't know what advice you have for visiting the old man, Your Excellency."

In the face of Li Zhongtang's inquiry, Minister Jia Liwen, who took a Chinese name, replied with a smile. "I don't have much to do, but I received a telegram from home that is relevant to your country, and I think Your Excellency the Governor will be interested, so I dare to come."

It turned out to be a message.

Li Zhongtang, who was aroused by this news in his heart, asked very appropriately. "I don't know what news, so I can let His Excellency the Minister go on a trip?"

In the face of Li Zhongtang's inquiry, Minister Jia Liwen's face tightened, and he said with a serious expression. "Our country has received news that France has just decided to go to war with yours."

"Smack!"

A teacup was broken meaninglessly by Li Zhongtang, and he stood up suddenly, staring at Minister Jia Liwen with his eyes. "Your Excellency, is this true?"

"I don't think my government would joke about that."

After getting the news confirmed by Minister Jia Liwen, Li Zhongtang was stunned, and Jia Liwen and Howard looked at him with some concern.

"Your Excellency the Governor?"

Li Zhongtang, who was woken up, first expressed his apologies. "I'm sorry, Your Excellency, but this official is a little shocked by this news."

"We can understand that, after all, war is a big deal for every country."

But I don't know why, Li Zhongtang feels that he is now relaxed. Only then did he look at the two visitors and said. "I don't think Your Excellency the Minister has come to tell me the news, has you?"

"Your Excellency the Governor, you guessed wrong. That's what I'm bringing this news this time around. But Mr. Howard is different, and perhaps he has something to talk to His Excellency the Governor. ”

After saying that, Minister Jia Liwen left like this.

Although Li Zhongtang didn't know why Minister Jia Liwen left, he vaguely guessed a little, but he didn't intend to say anything, but asked about Howard who was still staying.

"This Mr. Huo, I can let the minister bring you here, I believe that your business must be very big."

"Lord Zhongtang is polite, what I am doing is just a small business. However, the company has just purchased two armored cruisers, and they have not been sold until now, so our company is very worried. ”

Two armored cruisers?

Didn't sell out?

Li Zhongtang understood that before this, he had deliberately learned about the situation in Europe, Italy and France did not deal with each other, and the two countries had a dispute in a place called Tunisia.

As long as the news he got before is combined with Howard's words, then he can be regarded as figuring out the plans of the Italians.

Of course, Nakado-sama doesn't really think that this ship can't be sold, but he still has to ask what kind of ship it is.

"I wonder how these two ships are performing?"

As soon as Li Zhongtang in front of him asked about the performance of his ship, Howard immediately became confident.

"Both are new ships launched this year, with a standard tonnage of 6,850 tons and a full tonnage of 7,460 tons. Performance ......"

The performance of Howard's mouth frightened Li Zhongtang, with a maximum speed of 18.6 knots, a tonnage of more than 7,000, and four 254 mm and six 152 mm naval guns, it is really a good ship.

Since the tonnage of this ship is comparable to that of the second ship of Calm, and the speed is much faster, the price must not be cheap, but when Li Zhongtang asked about the price, he was still shocked.

2.2 million taels of silver, which is much more expensive than the second ship of Calm.

Of course, the performance is much stronger than the second ship of Calm, although Li Zhongtang does not know much about naval battles, but the ship is fast and slow. The faster the warship, the more powerful it is, and the higher the price.

And the latter sentence of this Howard businessman made his heart move.

"Your Excellency, if no one in your country operates these two armored cruisers, our company can recruit retired naval officers and sailors to operate these two warships on behalf of you, of course, if there is a war, then your country needs to provide additional subsidies for them."

Isn't the meaning of this a fact that the Italians are willing to send ships and people to help the court fight? Although it is said to recruit retired naval officers and soldiers, who is Zhongtang, these retired naval officers and soldiers are afraid that they will take off their military uniforms on the warship and change their clothes.

Since the Italian people have said this, of course Li Zhongtang will not refuse, no matter what the war is, the effect of his own razing is out. I didn't see that the imperial court could use Italian ships and people to beat the French, this is not effective, what can be counted.

Of course, he did not immediately agree to Howard, a businessman under the guise of the Italian government, to send them back to Tianjin on the grounds that the matter was very important and needed to be negotiated with the imperial court.

After the two left, Li Zhongtang immediately summoned his henchmen to discuss the matter.

As a result of the deliberations of many staff, this matter is only good for Li Zhongtang, not harmful.

After getting the same result from the staff as he thought, Li Zhongtang waited with peace of mind.

Sure enough, two days later, the French minister Batner handed in a declaration of war.

This war book caused a sensation in the imperial court.

This is a Frenchman, of course, forcing the former emperor to hunt Chengde in the north, and it is one of the culprits who caused the untimely death of the former emperor.

At this time, Li Zhongtang handed over the fold that had been prepared, declaring that he had found the Italians who were at odds with France and could buy two 7,000-ton huge ships from them to consolidate coastal defense and prevent the recurrence of the Gengshen Nian incident (the Second Opium War).

Then he went on another secret fold, in which Li Zhongtang said that he could borrow Italian foreign soldiers and use foreign soldiers to deal with foreign soldiers.

In the face of Li Zhongtang's excerpt, the imperial court agreed with incredible speed. In response to Li Zhongtang's proposal for the purchase of ships, the household department was asked to allocate 800,000 taels and ordered all provinces to raise funds. Among them, the most is apportioned by the direct subordinates, reaching 1.1 million taels, and the other provinces are between 10-150,000 taels. Moreover, this fundraising time is tight, and it must be raised within half a month. This was another incident of chickens and dogs jumping over the stove, but after half a month, the funds from all provinces were all gathered, a total of 5.5 million taels.

Don't get me wrong, Li Zhongtang asked for more, but he didn't plan to fill his own pockets, but planned to take this opportunity to purchase a batch of guns and ammunition from Italy and send them to Zeng Laojiu.

In the face of the war in France, it was rare for the Great Qing Kingdom to be united in one thing.