Unbeknownst to General Miller, his telegram caused an uproar in France.

For the defeat of the French army in the Far East, the country first of all felt disbelief. You must know that this is not a battle of a few hundred people, and it is understandable that a small-scale battle will be lost, because a small scale means that the strength is weak, so it is inevitable to lose in the event of a sudden situation or a large-scale attack by the enemy.

Nigri, on the other hand, commanded a fully equipped regiment, with equipment and the number of soldiers almost the same as a regiment, and the size of the opponent did not reach the scale of the crushing level, but only more than 6,000 people (General Miller reported a little artistic processing in the country, Nigri's opponent).

Moreover, the equipment of these Qing people was far inferior to that of France, and they lost a fiasco, and I heard that even the artillery was taken away by the Qing people.

Moreover, this defeat was the worst defeat suffered by France after the Franco-Prussian War, and someone must be held accountable for it. Needless to say, Lieutenant Colonel Nigri should take his own responsibility. As for whether it will go to court-martial, it depends on what the military thinks, but no matter what the result is, the result of this one is definitely not much better, and ordering retirement is the best result. After all, he gave France the heaviest losses since the Franco-Prussian War, and this is what he deserves.

Of course, dealing with this Lieutenant Colonel Nigri alone is not the end, and the other responsible people will not be able to escape. However, as Prime Minister Joufferie, who started the war, he has a great responsibility, and for this reason, there are already parliamentarians who are ready to remove the French prime minister.

For Jouferi, who was serving a second term, the news was nothing short of devastating. Of course, this is also to blame for his bad luck, and the exploration of the Congo River and the Niger River basin did not bring much benefit to France, but the cost was not small at all. In addition, in this Sino-French war, France has spent 471 million francs, but after suffering the defeat at Zhennanguan, it has not seen any benefits at all. (Affected by the two Venetian-class cruises, the lone French fleet was unable to block the shipping of the southeastern provinces, so the economic loss was not large, and since the economic loss of the Qing court was not large, then the French did not intend to agree to the excessive demand.) ）

Since he has not been able to achieve his goal, and there is no hope in sight, Jofeli, as the person responsible for starting the war, must pay the price.

In the face of an angry parliament, the famous French prime minister could only retain the last dignity and chose to resign himself. On October 19, 1884, Jouferi resigned, unable to resist the pressure, and his cabinet government collapsed.

After Jouferry's resignation, Parliament quickly elected Henri Brisson as France's new prime minister, and the first thing the new prime minister did when he came to power was to put an end to the Sino-French war.

Of course, France's pride and status still need to be maintained, so the French government does not plan to make many concessions to the Qing state, and in order to avoid the Chinese not recognizing the situation, the parliament also allocated 80 million francs for this purpose to strengthen the military forces in North Vietnam.

Of course, the French have not forgotten that in this war, there is another figure.

For this reason, the French ambassador to Italy, His Excellency Goodwin, once again visited Carlo at the royal palace. However, compared to the last time he spoke harshly, this time His Excellency Goodwin's attitude was much better.

"Your Majesty King Carlo, we hope that your country will abide by neutrality and suspend the arms trade with the Qing State."

It is obvious that the French are well aware of Italy's arms exports, especially after the fiasco at Zhennanguan, the French decided to regard Italy as the mastermind behind the scenes, and to be able to speak so politely is also France's eagerness to get out of this quagmire-like war, otherwise the ambassador's words would be even more difficult to hear.

"Your Excellency, China has always respected the rules of neutrality, and China has not traded arms with the Qing Dynasty."

Although such outrageous words came out of his mouth, Carlo was not ashamed at all, and even a little secretly, telling you French to ignore Italy.

Now he can be said to be proud, because the defeat of France in the Sino-French war also proves more and more that he has the foresight of the young king. Although it is still a little early to draw conclusions, many ministers have already secretly sent messages to express their goodwill.

It can be said that with the good performance of the Qing State in the war, the power in Carlo's hands is getting heavier and heavier, although it is not yet able to compete with the prime minister, but the gap between the two is narrowing at the speed of the naked eye.

In the face of Carlo's denials, Ambassador Goodwin dared not speak out. Everyone knew what was going on with the two Qing ships and the Italian weapons that appeared on the battlefield, but in order to complete the task assigned by Paris, Ambassador Goodwin had to change his tune.

"Your Majesty, I am misremembering, but I hope that your country will abide by the Neutrality Act."

"It seems that Ambassador Goodwin doesn't have a good memory, so I'll have to be more serious next time."

Carlo taunted the French ambassador in front of him, and in the face of Carlo's taunt, Ambassador Goodwin's face remained unchanged, still smiling, as if Carlo was talking about someone else.

This is an excellent envoy abroad, Carlo secretly admired. Of course, praise goes to praise, and Carlo has not forgotten the French ambassador's intentions.

"Please rest assured that our country will strictly abide by the rules of the China Act."

It's not that Carlo has confessed, but that he has achieved his goal. He didn't continue to fight the French, in case he provoked his irascible neighbors, which was not worth it at all. Although the relationship between Italy and France is not good now, there is no need to be a mortal enemy, and the current Italian figure cannot afford this role.

And Italy has already shown enough sincerity in front of the Qing people, too much of this idiom, Carlo also knows, in case the Qing people think too much, it is not good.

After receiving Carlo's affirmative reply from Italy, the French now planned to negotiate with the Qing people, who had cut off foreign aid.

In fact, in the Qing Dynasty, only the majority of people who also intended peace talks were in the majority, so the two sides finally sat down together for peace talks under the mediation of the General Department of Customs and Excise Hurd.

Prior to this, in order to show the sincerity of the armistice, the Qing ordered the North Vietnamese garrison to withdraw back to China in stages. At this time, Feng Zicai's army had swelled from more than 3,000 people after the victory at Zhennanguan, and the largest part of them were local people who came to vote when they fought in Vietnam. They hoped that the veteran general, who had won a great victory, would be able to drive the French invaders out of his homeland.

However, their hopes were doomed to be dashed, because the Qing court only wanted to ensure the safety of the southwestern frontier, and did not continue to retain the idea of Vietnam as a vassal state.

In the final analysis, it was still the lack of confidence and strength of the Qing Dynasty, especially after the victory at Zhennanguan, and the attitude of the great powers towards this war was changing rapidly.

In the past, they were happy to see China and France at war, and their attitude can be seen from the fact that the two ships of Zhi and Jing were able to use the dockyards of the British colonies for maintenance on their way back to China. It's just that after two successive victories on land and sea, his attitude has undergone a fundamental change, and instead of secretly supporting the Qing state, he not only stopped all kinds of secret help, but even publicly stated that the Qing state should withdraw from Vietnam.

Therefore, under internal and external pressure, Qing Guo also had an active interest in peace talks.

Both sides want to stop the war, then it's easy to talk about. Especially after France no longer insisted on making reparations for the Qing Dynasty and extending its tentacles to the southwest, the speed of negotiations became even faster.

On December 24, 1884, Li Hongzhang and his envoy to China, Badeno, began negotiations on a formal Sino-French treaty in Tianjin.

On February 1, 1885, the two countries formally signed the Sino-French Treaty of Vietnam in Tianjin.

Unlike history, although the Qing State recognized the annexation of Vietnam by France, it did not open the port, and the tariffs on French goods remained unchanged, nor did it open the right to build roads.

Since the war is over, it is necessary to reward meritorious deeds, among which the old general Feng, who has made great achievements in the war, was awarded the title of prince and young prince, and his rank was changed to a second-class lieutenant of light vehicles, and he will handle military affairs in Guangxi together.

The second is Liu Buchan, the young man who nominally commanded the naval battle in the South China Sea, and his acting Taoist title was also corrected, and other meritorious soldiers and officials were rewarded.

As for the officers and men of the navy and army sent by Italy, the Qing court did not dare to speak out, so they only gave some medals and silver rewards. However, Italy was not a loss, in addition to its purchase of ordnance and other weapons, the Qing court also had a generous gift.