General Miller did not know that his telegram caused an uproar in France.
Regarding the defeat of the French army in the Far East, the first thing in the country was that they couldn't believe it. You must know that this was not a battle involving hundreds of people. It is understandable that a small-scale battle was defeated, because small scale means weak strength.
If there is an unexpected situation or a large-scale enemy attack, failure is inevitable.
And Nigri commanded a fully equipped regiment. Its equipment and number of soldiers were almost the same as a regiment. Moreover, the size of the opponent did not reach a crushing scale, only more than 6,000 people (General Miller).
Reporting a little bit of artistic processing in China, Nigri’s opponent).
Moreover, the equipment of these Qing people was far inferior to that of the French, and they actually lost a disastrous defeat. I heard that even the cannons were taken away by the Qing people.
Moreover, this defeat was the most disastrous defeat that France suffered after the Franco-Prussian War. Someone must be responsible for it. Needless to say, Lieutenant Colonel Nigri, he should bear his own responsibility. As for whether he will go to a military court
, then it depends on what the military thinks, but no matter what the result is, this man's result will definitely not be much better, and being ordered to retire is the best result. After all, he caused the most serious losses to France since the Franco-Prussian War, and this was also his
Deserve the results.
Of course, just dealing with Lieutenant Colonel Nigri is not the end. No other responsible person can escape. However, as Prime Minister Ruferi who initiated the war, he has a great responsibility. For this reason, there are already congressmen working together.
Prepare to remove the French Prime Minister.
For Juffelli, who was serving his second term, this news was simply a devastating blow. Of course, this was also due to his bad luck. His exploration of the Congo River and Niger River basins did not bring much benefit to France, but
The cost is not small at all. In addition, France has spent 471 million francs on this Sino-French war. After suffering the disastrous defeat at Zhennanguan, it saw no benefits at all. (Affected by the two Venice-class patrol ships, Gupa
The French fleet was not able to block the shipping of the southeastern provinces, so the economic losses were not large. Since the Qing court's economic losses were not large, it had no intention of agreeing to France's excessive demands.)
Since the goal has not been achieved and there is still no hope, then as the person responsible for launching the war, Rufeli must pay the price.
Facing the angry parliament, the famous French Prime Minister could only retain his last dignity and chose to resign. So on October 19, 1884, Jouferry, who could not withstand the pressure, announced his resignation, and his cabinet government also
Fell for it.
After Juffelli resigned, the Parliament quickly elected Henri Brisson as the new French Prime Minister. The first thing the new Prime Minister did after taking office was to stop the Sino-French war that wasted money and people.
Of course, France's pride and status still need to be maintained, so the French government does not intend to make many concessions to the Qing Dynasty. In order to prevent the Chinese from misunderstanding the situation, the Parliament has also allocated 80 million francs to strengthen its troops in North Vietnam.
.
Of course, the French have not forgotten that another figure appeared in this war.
For this reason, His Excellency Goodwin, the French ambassador to Italy, once again visited Carlo at the palace. However, compared with the harsh words last time, His Excellency Goodwin's attitude was much better this time.
"His Majesty King Carlo, our country hopes that your country can observe neutrality and suspend arms transactions with the Qing Dynasty."
It is obvious that the French are well aware of Italy's export of weapons. Especially after the fiasco at Zhennanguan, the French decided to regard Italy as the mastermind behind the scenes. To be able to speak so politely is because France is eager to get out of this quagmire.
war, otherwise the ambassador's words would be even more unpleasant.
"Your Excellency Ambassador, our country has always respected the law of neutrality, and our country has no arms trade with the Qing Dynasty."
Although he said such shameless words, Carlo was not ashamed at all, and was even secretly happy, telling you French people to ignore Italy.
Now he can be said to be very proud of himself, because France's defeat in the Sino-French War has further proved that he, the young king, has farsightedness. Although it is still too early to draw a conclusion, many ministers have already secretly conveyed messages to him.
bona fide.
It can be said that with the good performance of the Qing Dynasty in the war, Carlo's power became more and more powerful. Although he was not yet able to compete with the Prime Minister, the gap between the two was closing at the speed of the naked eye.
Faced with Carlo's denial, Ambassador Goodwin dared to get angry and dare not speak. Everyone knows what happened to the two Qing patrol ships and the Italian weapons that appeared on the battlefield, but in order to complete the mission assigned by Paris
, Ambassador Goodwin had to change his tune.
"Your Majesty the King, I misremembered this, but our country hopes that your country can abide by the law of neutrality."
"It seems that Ambassador Goodwin's memory is not very good. He should be more careful next time."
Carlo mocked the French ambassador in front of him. Faced with Carlo's sarcasm, Ambassador Goodwin's expression remained unchanged and he still smiled, as if Carlo was talking about someone else.
This is an excellent envoy to a foreign country, Carlo secretly praised him. Of course, praise is praise, Carlo has not forgotten the purpose of this French ambassador's visit.
"Ambassador Goodwin, please rest assured that our country will strictly abide by the law of neutrality."
This is not because Carlo gave in, but that he had achieved his goal. He did not continue to fight with the French. It would not be worthwhile if he angered his irritable neighbors. Although Italy and Italy are now
The relationship between France and France is not good, but there is no need to be a mortal enemy. Besides, Italy is not equipped to play this role now.
Moreover, Italy has shown enough sincerity in front of the Qing people. Carlo also knew this idiom, too much, and it would not be good if the Qing people thought too much.
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, there were only a majority of people in the Qing Dynasty who were also interested in peace talks, so the two parties finally sat down together for peace talks with the help of Hurd, the Customs and Excise Department.
Before that, in order to show the sincerity of the truce, the Qing Dynasty ordered the North Vietnamese garrison to withdraw back to the country in stages. Among them, General Feng, who had made great military exploits, petitioned for war several times, striving to capture Hanoi. At this time, Feng Zicai's army had already won a victory from Zhennanguan Pass.
More than 3,000 people followed, swelling to nearly 20,000 words, the largest part of which were the local people who came to surrender when he fought in Vietnam. They hoped that this old general who had achieved great victory could drive the French invaders from their homeland.
However, their hopes were doomed to be dashed, because the Qing government only wanted to ensure the security of the southwest frontier and had no intention of retaining Vietnam as a vassal state.
In the final analysis, this was due to the lack of confidence and strength of the Qing Dynasty. Especially after the victory at Zhennanguan, the attitudes of the great powers towards this war were rapidly changing.
In the past, they were happy to see a war between China and France, and the fact that the second ship Jing used the British colonial dock for maintenance on its way back to China shows their attitude. However, after winning two consecutive major victories on land and sea, their attitude changed.
A fundamental change occurred. Instead of secretly supporting the Qing Dynasty, they not only stopped providing all kinds of secret help, but even publicly stated that the Qing Dynasty should withdraw from Vietnam.
Therefore, under internal and external pressure, the Qing Dynasty also had an active interest in peace talks.
Both parties wanted to stop the war, so it was easy to negotiate. Especially after France no longer insisted on asking the Qing to pay compensation and extended its tentacles of power to the southwest, the speed of negotiations became even faster.
On December 24, 1884, Li Hongzhang and Minister Badeneau in China began negotiations on a formal treaty between China and France in Tianjin.
On February 1, 1885, the two countries formally signed the "Vietnam Treaty between China and France" in Tianjin.
Different from history, although the Qing Dynasty recognized France's annexation of Vietnam, it did not open the ports, France's goods tariffs remained unchanged, and it did not open up the right to build roads. After all, it was not defeated without defeat.
Now that the war is over, it is necessary to reward according to merit. Among them, General Feng, who has made great achievements in battle, was awarded the title of Prince Shaobao, and his rank was changed to the second-class captain of light vehicles, and he will also handle the military affairs of Guangxi.
Next is Liu Buchan. This young man who nominally commanded the naval battle in the South China Sea was awarded the second rank, and his acting rank was also corrected. Other meritorious soldiers and officials were rewarded.
As for the navy and army officers and soldiers sent by Italy, the Qing government did not dare to publicize it, so they only gave some medals and silver rewards. However, Italy was not at a loss. In addition to the money for the purchase of ordnance and other weapons, the Qing government also had a
