The attendants and guards in the Sankou Commercial Yamen have been extremely cautious in the past two days, even walking lightly, for fear of making a big noise and provoking the superior's anger.
Therefore, the idle men at the Yamen Gate had a hard time, and the guards took it out on them whenever they had trouble. It was really bad luck.
As the core of the serious atmosphere in the three-port trade yamen, Li Zhongtang has been upset recently. The reason is very simple. France is restless in Vietnam. The new French Minister Butner even said in public several times that since the Qing Dynasty cannot give France what it wants, then
France will take it herself.
His naked threats of war made everyone in the court worried.
Another issue is the return of the Tranquility II ship built in Germany. Liu Buchan and Wei Han, who were responsible for receiving the warship, jointly sent a telegram informing Volkeng Shipyard that it was conducting sea trials on the Tranquility II ship. Before the sea trials were completed, the shipyard
Refusing to release the ship. The shipyard claimed that if a ship that has not completed sea trials is allowed to go to sea and any accident occurs, it will be a huge loss to the reputation of the shipyard.
However, secret messages sent by Liu Buchan and Wei Han informed that the French were behind all this. The French bribed people in the shipyard and towed the second ship Jingping in the shipyard.
As for the two men's move to accept the battleship in advance, they were blocked by German soldiers guarding the shipyard.
The second ship Jingping cannot return home early, which makes Li Zhongtang very worried.
Seeing that Li Zhongtang was worried about this, Zhou Fu, an aide, tried to persuade him. "Zhongtang, don't worry too much. I believe that the second ship Jingping will return home safely."
"Yushan, I'm not worried about calming the second ship."
At this point, Li Zhongtang took out a piece of information and said, "This is what Zeng Laojiu reported. The Fa and the barbarians are stirring up trouble everywhere in Vietnam, and there is fear of war. Therefore, I sincerely ask for permission to strike first."
"Zhongtang, I'm afraid this is not Mr. Zeng's intention to retreat in order to advance."
Zhou Fu revealed the intentions of Zeng Guoquan, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi.
"Everyone knows Lao Jiu's intentions, but I won't fight this battle if I can. I didn't see how much money Zuo Jigao spent recovering Xinjiang. If we start a fight with the French, how will we deal with it?"
The conflict between Li Zhongtang and Zuo Jigao is well known to the world. They both came from Wen Zhenggong's family, but they have never dealt with it.
Especially after the death of Wen Zhenggong and the decline in the strength of the Hunan Army, the two sides even disliked each other. Whether the imperial court was behind it is a matter of benevolence and wisdom. Anyway, after Zuo Jigao regained Xinjiang, Li
Zhongtang was promoted to Governor of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang, and in order to reward Zuo Jigao for his contribution, he was appointed Governor of Liangjiang and Minister of Nanyang.
And unlike Li Zhongtang, who cautions against haste and forbearance, Zuo Jigao has always declared in a high-profile manner that he does not need to be patient with the French in Vietnam and will take action when it is necessary. He even said in a book that he was going to lead the Chu army to Guangdong and Guangxi to fight with the French.
Have a pass.
Fortunately, the Dukes of the imperial court and the Queen Mother were sensible people and did not agree to Zuo Jigao, so the situation was still able to be maintained.
But just when Li Zhongtang was sighing, a servant hurried in.
Without waiting for him to ask, the servant immediately reported. "Sir, there is the Chinese Minister Jia Liwen outside the door asking to see you."
"Minister of Italy?"
Although Li Zhongtang didn't know what this visitor meant, he was bound to receive an envoy from a country when he came to visit.
"Arrange for the Italian minister to wait in the lobby. I will be here soon."
Then Li Zhongtang tidied up his clothes and rushed to the lobby.
When Li Zhongtang arrived at the lobby, he discovered that there was not only the Italian minister, but also a kind-faced man. Wasn't it Howard, the Italian businessman who had visited him some time ago? Although he was a little curious as to why the businessman followed the minister to visit him.
, but his good cultivation prevented him from asking.
"Hello, Minister Jia Liwen, Mr. Howard."
"Hello, Your Majesty the Governor."
After a brief greeting and waiting for the servants to bring tea and snacks, Li Zhongtang said, "I don't know what your Excellency, the Minister, would like to say when you visit me."
Faced with Li Zhongtang's inquiry, Minister Jia Liwen, who had a Chinese name, replied with a smile. "I have nothing to do, but I received a telegram from China related to your country. I think the Governor will be interested, so
Just dare to come here."
It turned out to be a message.
Li Zhongtang, whose curiosity was aroused by this news, also asked in response to the situation. "I don't know what news can make the minister make a trip?"
Faced with Li Zhongtang's inquiry, Minister Jia Liwen's face tightened and he said seriously, "Our country has received news that France has just decided to go to war with your country."
"Snapped!"
A teacup was accidentally smashed by Li Zhongtang. He suddenly stood up and stared at Minister Jia Liwen. "Your Excellency, Minister, are you serious about this?"
"I think our government will not joke about this kind of thing."
After receiving the confirmed news from Minister Jia Liwen, Li Zhongtang was stunned. Jia Liwen and Howard looked at him with some worry.
"Your Majesty the Governor?"
Li Zhongtang, who was woken up, first expressed his apology. "Sorry, Your Excellency, Minister, I am a little shocked by this news."
"We can understand that, after all, war is a major event for every country."
But for some reason, Li Zhongtang felt that he was more relaxed now. At this time, he looked at the two visitors and said, "I don't think the minister came here to tell me the news?"
"Your Majesty the Governor, you guessed wrong. I am bringing this news this time. But Mr. Howard is different. Maybe he has something to discuss with the Governor."
After speaking, Minister Jia Liwen left.
Although Li Zhongtang didn't know why Minister Jia Liwen left, he had a vague guess, but he didn't intend to tell the truth. Instead, he asked about Howard who was still staying.
"This Mr. Huo can let the minister bring you here specially. I believe that your business will be very big."
"Sir, you're welcome. I'm just doing a small business. However, the company just purchased two armored cruisers recently, but they haven't been sold yet, so my company is very worried about this."
Two armored cruisers?
No sales?
Li Zhongtang understood. Before that, 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 he combines the previously obtained information with Howard's words, then he can figure out the Italian's plan.
Of course, Mr. Nakado doesn’t really think that this ship cannot be sold, but we still have to ask what kind of ship it is.
"I wonder how the performance of these two ships is?"
As soon as Li Zhongtang in front of him asked about the performance of his boat, Howard immediately became confident.
"Both of these two ships are new ships launched this year. Their standard tonnage is 6,850 tons and their full load tonnage is 7,460 tons. In terms of performance..."
The performance that Howard said shocked Li Zhongtang. It has a maximum speed of 18.6 knots, a tonnage of more than 7,000, and is equipped with four 254mm and six 152mm naval guns. It is really a good ship.
Since the tonnage of this ship is comparable to that of the second ship Jingping, and its speed is much faster, the price will definitely not be cheap. However, when Li Zhongtang asked about the price, he was still shocked.
One ship costs 2.2 million taels of silver, which is much more expensive than the second ship of Jingping.
Of course, the performance is much better than that of the Tranquility II ship. Although Li Zhongtang doesn't know much about naval warfare, he still knows that ships are fast and ships are slow. The faster this warship is, the more firepower it has, and the higher the price.
Moreover, the last words of this Howard businessman moved his heart.
"Your Excellency Zhongtang, if your country does not have anyone to operate these two armored cruisers, our company can recruit retired naval officers and soldiers to operate these two warships. Of course, if there is a war, your country will need to provide additional subsidies."
What this means is that the Italians are willing to send ships and people to help the court fight the war. Although it is said to be recruiting retired naval officers and soldiers, but who is it? These retired naval officers and soldiers may not just take off their military uniforms and change on the warships.
Now that the Italians have talked about this, Li Zhongtang certainly will not refuse. No matter what happens in this war, his effectiveness in using barbarians to control barbarians has come out. I have never seen that the imperial court can use Italian ships and people to fight against the French.
This is not considered effective, so what does it count?
Of course, he did not immediately agree to Howard, a businessman under the cover of the Italian government, to send them back to Tianjin first on the grounds that the matter was of great importance and needed to be discussed with the imperial court.
After the two left, Li Zhongtang immediately summoned his confidants to discuss the matter.
As a result of discussions among many staff, this matter was only good for Li Zhongtang and had no harm.
After getting the result from his staff as he expected, Li Zhongtang waited with peace of mind.
Sure enough, two days later, the French Minister Patna submitted a declaration of war with great authority.
This declaration of engagement caused a stir in the imperial court.
These were the French, who of course forced the late emperor to hunt for Chengde, and were one of the main culprits in causing the late emperor's untimely death.
At this time, Li Zhongtang handed over the paper he had prepared, claiming that he had found an Italian who was at odds with France and could buy two 7,000-ton giant ships from them to consolidate coastal defense and prevent a recurrence of the Gengshen Year incident (second time).
Opium War).
Then he went through a secret process. In the secret process, Li Zhongtang said that he could borrow Italian foreign soldiers and use them to deal with foreign soldiers.
Faced with Li Zhongtang's concessions, the imperial court agreed with incredible speed. In response to Li Zhongtang's proposal to purchase the ship, the Ministry of Revenue was asked to allocate 800,000 taels and ordered each province to raise funds. Among them, Zhili had the largest share.
It reaches 1.1 million taels. As for other provinces, it is between 100,000 and 150,000 taels respectively. Of course, there will be more for wealthy people and less for poorer people. Moreover, the fundraising time is tight this time and must be raised within half a month.
. This was another flurry of things, but after half a month, the funds from all provinces were collected, totaling 5.5 million taels.
Don't get me wrong, Li Zhongtang asked for more, not with the intention of enriching himself, but with the intention of taking this opportunity to purchase a batch of guns and ammunition from Italy and send them to Zeng Laojiu.
Facing the war in France, it was rare for the Qing Dynasty to unite on one thing.
