Chapter 86 The eighty-sixth section France fired!

Zhang Peilun was originally a person unwilling to be lonely, but when he arrived in Fuzhou, he became even more defiant.Originally, he was very famous, but in front of He Jing, Zhang Zhaodong, He Ruzhang and others, he must pretend to be 12 points.No matter what the topic is, as long as he opens his mouth, he will talk endlessly, and he will not stop until he faints. During Li Hongzhang's inspection of coastal defense, he accompanied Li Hongzhang to watch it for a few days; as soon as the Beili incident happened, he hurried to Fuzhou to arrange military affairs. On the day Zhang Peilun arrived in Fuzhou, he took a group of entourage with him, carrying a goose-feather fan, and hugged each other to have a look. He also went to the military ship, imitating Li Hongzhang, and met one or two commanders; After Ba led the Far East Fleet into Majiang, Fuzhou, he just stood at the bow of the ship and took a general look through the binoculars, but he didn't pay much attention to it.

After getting off the ship, he still drank and recited poems with a group of subordinates every day, talked about the past and the present, and regarded the Dharma ship as nothing. Within a few days after Zhang Peilun arrived in Fuzhou, he ruined the coastal defense that He Jing and Zhang Zhaodong painstakingly managed. He Jing dared not speak, Zhang Zhaodong remained silent, and He Ruzhang had nothing to say. On August 5th of this year, Lisby, the deputy commander of the French Far East Fleet, led a squadron of three warships, left the Fuzhou River, quietly approached the Keelung Fort in Taiwan, and suddenly opened fire, completely destroying the unsuspecting Keelung Fort. , the French Marine Corps immediately landed.

The defenders of the fort did not dare to delay and urgently reported to Liu Mingchuan.Liu Mingchuan didn't dare to be negligent, and while flying to report to Fuzhou Governor's Yamen, he mobilized troops to resist. The French ships sailed unimpeded all the way, but when they encountered resistance suddenly, they panicked; after the battle was not long, the local people also joined in to cooperate with the officers and troops.The French army was out of support, so they had to retreat to the sea. On the morning of August 23, Guba Deru Feili ordered that he formally submit a letter of war to the Yamen of the Governor of Fujian and Zhejiang.As soon as He Jing saw the letter of war, he knew that China and France were officially at odds, so he hurriedly sent the letter of war to Zhang Peilun, Deputy Minister of Maritime Affairs, and hurriedly sent Zhang Zhaodong and He Ruzhang, ordering them to meet with Zhang Peilun to discuss a big plan.

The two rushed to Zhang Peilun's office without stopping, and saw an officer walking back and forth anxiously outside the door with a letter of war in his hand.Zhang Zhaodong snatched the gauntlet and looked at it, and couldn't help saying angrily: "Bold dog, what time is this, you still haven't handed in the gauntlet! You don't want to live!" The officer knelt down on his knees and cried, "Master Zhang just had a drink and is lying down inside to rest for a while. Even if this slave has two heads, he doesn't dare to disturb his old dream!" Zhang Zhaodong kicked the officer over with his kick, dragged He Ruzhang up and rushed in.

Zhang Peilun yelled in the warm room: "Who is so bold, dare to disturb the tranquility of this department? Don't you want to live?" Zhang Zhaodong shouted: "Master Zhang, please wake up quickly. At three quarters in the afternoon, the French warship is about to fire!" As soon as Zhang Peilun heard the word "pao", he hurried out from inside, waved a goose feather fan and said, "Which bastard spread this rumor?" Zhang Zhaodong hurriedly stuffed the letter of war into his hand and said, "This is the letter of war issued by the French. He Zhijun sent two of us to discuss this matter with your lord quickly. My lord, please make up your mind!"

Zhang Peilun took the gauntlet and looked at it, and suddenly said something drunk: "Doesn't the legal person know that I, Zhang Peilun, are here?" He Ruzhang said at this time: "Master Zhang, are you drunk or awake at this time? The legal person's cannon is about to fire, aren't you in a hurry?" Zhang Zhaodong pulled He Ruzhang's lapel, and said: "Master Zhang is a famous person above him, and he is also recognized as a capable minister by the whole court. The current situation is entirely at the helm of the master!" Zhang Peilun's madness subsided a lot immediately, he pondered for a while, and then shouted: "Come here!" A guard walked in in response.

Zhang Peilun waved his goose-feather fan and said, "This department doesn't believe that little France, a mere thief, has the guts to start a quarrel! The news from our department that the French come to fight is just a threat. Don't panic. Send the order Go down and strictly order all the warships not to issue ammunition before the battle is over, and are not allowed to anchor without life; after the shells are released, they are not allowed to fire first, and violators will be killed even if they win!" The guard repeated what Zhang Peilun said, and after confirming that it was correct, he went out to convey it.Zhang Peilun ordered someone to change clothes again.

After changing clothes, he picked up the goose feather fan and said: "The three of us will each lead a boat, let's see how France can wait for me?" After speaking, he said in celebration: "God bless my Qing Dynasty, let these French beasts hit me. In the hands of Gao Zhai! The director of the department asked them all to go to see the King of Hades!" At 3:00 p.m., Gu Ba ordered the firing regardless of Zhang Peilun's will. Facing the fierce attack, none of the ships of the Fujian Navy returned fire, nor did they receive the order to start the war, and fell into a state of chaos; not only were the seven warships sunk in the blink of an eye, but there were no more than 700 crew members on board. Survived, all buried in the bottom of the sea.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Zhang Peilun hurriedly helped him to the land bank, and then climbed up the mountain. Taking advantage of the smoke, he escaped from the range of the French ship's cannon and flew away like a rabbit. Zhang Zhaodong and He Ruzhang also quickly disappeared without a trace.Guba didn't give up, and then ordered the bombardment of the Mawei shipyard, and bombarded the forts on both sides of the river one by one from the upper reaches of the Ma River.When the news spread to the capital, the Empress Dowager Cixi flew to Tianjin, ordering Li Hongzhang to send troops to help Fujian without delay.

After Li Hongzhang received the order, considering that the defense of Beiyang was weak, and the Chinese sailors were not able to operate iron-clad ships proficiently, he had to hire Shi Bailing, the commander-in-chief of the German navy, to dispatch four warships from each port, plus one in Nanyang. Five ships were dispatched, and Nie Shicheng, a general of the Huaihe Army with the rank of admiral, led a thousand troops to go with the ship. On the day when the warship was dispatched, Li Hongzhang wrote: "There were no less than 30 French ships that came to the ocean of Taiwan one after another. You also have to try to contain it."

At the same time as Li Hongzhang paid homage, he flew to all the ports, strictly ordered all the forts to stand in battle, and dispatched commissioners to guard and patrol the water surface, so as to prevent the French ships from rushing into the same boat. At this time, Li Hongzhang only knew that the French ship was under heavy artillery fire, but he didn't know that Ma Jiang's disastrous defeat was all caused by Zhang Peilun's nonsense. At this time, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Russia and other countries, fearing that the French ships would attack Yantai and Songhu ports of the Qing Dynasty and harm their own interests, stood up together and issued a joint statement expressing "concern." Fearing that all countries would unite to launch an attack, Ru Fali ordered Guba to attack only Taiwan and not the northern ports of China. Ru Fei Li also ordered the North Vietnamese Army to step up its offensive, hoping to attack from North Vietnam to China's land border as soon as possible. When all countries in the world were paying attention to the progress of the Sino-French war, Japan took advantage of the premise to encourage the Kaihua Party members in North Korea to stage a mutiny; fortunately, the mutiny was detected by the Chinese army stationed in North Korea, and the Kaihua Party members were disarmed early, so that no damage was caused. Unrest in North Korea. For the Sino-French war that had to be fought, the Empress Dowager Cixi sent the Zongli Yamen and the North and South Eryang to urgently borrow money from various countries.The opportunity for banks in various countries to make a fortune came again. However, Li Hongzhang was very worried about this. He went up twice to dissuade the matter, but he could not hold on.The Empress Dowager Cixi had to ask the Military Aircraft Department to re-draft the order and consult the governor. Zhang Zhidong, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, was very dissatisfied with Li Hongzhang. He said: "For the war between China and France, if there is foreign money to borrow, foreign arms can be bought. Even if we hold each other for a year, there is no worry." The Empress Dowager Cixi adopted Zhang Zhidong's opinion, and ordered the Prime Minister's Office and the North and South Oceans to negotiate extensively with various countries and borrow foreign funds. At the same time, she asked Yikuang to generate electricity for Chinese ministers stationed abroad so that they could seek a way to negotiate.At this time, Yizhen suggested that Hurd should come forward again and negotiate with France to discuss the truce. The Zongli Yamen then invited Hurd out for the second time, saying: "Our country can no longer fight for Vietnam's tribute, but only hopes to draw a line outside the border of Yunnan and Guangxi that prohibits France from entering." Hurd immediately slapped his chest loudly, and on the same day, he sent a telegram to King Denggan, the Chinese Taxation Secretary in the UK, urging him to go to Paris as soon as possible to discuss the matter directly with the French Prime Minister Jou Ferry. Soon, Xu Jingcheng, the Chinese Minister to Germany, followed domestic instructions, and expressed to the French Ambassador to Germany that the Qing Dynasty wanted to resolve the Vietnam dispute through further negotiations; Officials of the Chinese embassy in the UK had frequent contacts and conveyed the same wishes. At the same time, the Chinese embassies in the United States and Russia also acted on the order of the Prime Minister’s Office, using various opportunities to contact the French and expressing their willingness to resume negotiations. However, France did not want to stop the war because the war in North Vietnam went smoothly and the sea was also very successful.Efforts by Chinese envoys have failed. Empress Dowager Cixi had no choice but to ask Li Hongzhang again to find a way to communicate with Lin Chun, the French consul in Tianjin who had not yet evacuated, to inquire about the possibility of negotiations between China and France. Li Hongzhang then appointed Ma Jianzhong, who had studied in France for many years, to handle the matter.Ma Jianzhong began to have secret contact with Lin Chun. During the contact process, Lin Chun followed Ru Feili's instructions and made many unreasonable demands to Ma Jianzhong, showing no sincerity to negotiate.Li Hongzhang once again wrote to John Yang, the US Minister to China, hoping that the Americans could stand up and mediate. After asking for instructions from China, John Yang agreed to Li Hongzhang's request and decided to mediate the Vietnam dispute between China and France. Li Hongzhang was overjoyed when he saw the letter.But after Ru Feili received the note from the American embassy, ​​he hoped that the United States and Britain would jointly mediate the matter. The United Kingdom made it clear that it did not want the United States to participate in this matter because of Hurd and Kingdon's deeds.The United States had no choice but to stop its mediation, and the situation forced the Qing Dynasty to bite the bullet and continue to fight with France.