Chapter 87 Section 87 Extortion

In February of the 11th year of Guangxu (AD 1885), after full preparations, the North Vietnamese French army began a massive attack on the Qing army stationed in Vietnam. The Qing army suffered successive defeats from the very beginning, and the French army occupied the important town on the Sino-Vietnamese border—Zhennan Pass in China—in just ten days. In desperation, Zhang Zhidong, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, had no choice but to reappoint Feng Zicai, the former admiral of Guangxi who had been inactive for many years, and continuously sent additional troops to North Vietnam, hoping to reverse the situation as soon as possible.

At this time, the Prime Minister’s Yamen of the Qing Dynasty had borrowed seven times from HSBC Bank in the name of “Guangdong Haiphong, Fujian Haiphong, Aiding Taiwan to Regulate Vietnam, and Using Troops in Yunnan and Guangxi”, with a total of 12.6 million taels of Kuping silver. Silver, and continue to negotiate with banks in other countries. At this time, the North Vietnamese French army had advanced from Zhennan Pass to the interior of Guangxi, China.On March 16, the commander-in-chief of the French North Vietnamese Army, Pauli, also ordered the Lang Son front-line troops to capture the grain storage base of the Chinese troops stationed in Vietnam-Longzhou, an important town in Guangxi.He wrote in the order: "The minister informed me that he is negotiating with China (referring to Hurd and Jin Denggan). This negotiation seems to be serious and sincere. He believes that if he can take action against Longzhou, Sending cavalry will be of great benefit...I hope your actions tomorrow will teach the Chinese army a new lesson."

At this time, Ru Feili was extremely arrogant and extremely proud.But Feng Zicai, whom Zhang Zhidong used this time, was the nemesis of the French army.Feng Zicai, styled Nangan and nicknamed Cuiting, was born in Qinzhou, Guangdong. He was born in the army and experienced many battles. He is a man with both courage and strategy.Feng Zicai served as Admiral of Guangxi in the first year of Tongzhi (AD 1862), transferred to Admiral of Guizhou in the first year of Guangxu (AD 1875), returned to Guangxi in the seventh year of Guangxu (AD 1881), and retired due to exclusion the following year.Feng Zicai has guarded the border for many years, and he is best at using terrain to fight. He is known as the "terrain military gate".During Feng Zicai's tenure, he led troops into Vietnam many times to counter the rebellion, and he had a high prestige in Vietnam.

Feng Zicai came out of the mountain this time with an illness. In name, he is the deputy military affairs officer outside the Guangxi Customs, but in fact he is the former enemy president who fought against France.On the first day he took office, he first surveyed the terrain around Zhennan Pass on horseback, and then sent orders to the battalions to build long walls, rearrange their troops, and set up a flag on a high mountain, saying: French Army When you come, you are not allowed to shoot if the flag is not raised; if you raise the flag, you are not allowed to retreat.Feng Zicai commanded the battle under his flag.The trenches and long walls were properly arranged, and Feng Zicai secretly ordered the two battalions under his command to go to the frontier of the cross-border to lure the enemy.

On March 23, Nigri, the front-line commander of the French army, led his troops to attack in three groups. There was no obstacle along the way, as if the Qing army had all run away overnight. Seeing this situation, Nigri laughed loudly and said, "The Qing Dynasty is so unbeaten, which shows how clever Prime Minister Rufei Li is!" After speaking, he suddenly pulled out his command knife and shouted: "The Qing Dynasty, the French warriors who conquered you come! Already!" As soon as Nigri finished speaking, a big flag was suddenly erected on the high mountain, with a large "Feng" character embroidered on it brightly; as the flag was erected, gunshots suddenly rang out all around.

The French army was caught off guard and hurriedly resisted.After a fierce battle all day and night, the French army suffered heavy casualties. Although the Qing army also suffered a lot of casualties, under Feng Zicai's steady command, they fought more and more bravely, and finally the French army was defeated and fled.On the way to flee, the commander-in-chief of the French army, Nigri, was shot and killed, and the French army fled even more. Feng Zicai took advantage of the victory to pursue and regained Lang Son and other places in one fell swoop.Guangxi Juren Zhang Bingquan specially wrote a poem for this battle, describing the situation at that time: "We fought hard all night without hearing gold, and the pillows filled Jugangping with corpses. The survivors of the chiefs walked away with their heads on. People are encouraged and sighed, there has been no such battle for decades. Presenting fruits and burning incense to welcome, drinking yellow dragons is nothing."

At the same time, on March 24, the Dian army on the western front of the North Vietnam also attacked the French army in Lintao Prefecture, and successively recovered many defense areas occupied by the French army.At this time, the French Far East Fleet, which was rampant in the South China Sea, also encountered obstacles when attacking Zhenhai. Zhenhai is under the jurisdiction of Xue Fucheng, Ningshaotai Road.When Xue Fucheng saw the French ships approaching, he immediately ordered all the soldiers on the fort to aim their guns at the flagship of the fleet and bombard them.Xue Fucheng called this as attacking the enemy first and attacking the commander, which can get twice the result with half the effort.

This remark was picked up by Xue Fucheng, Gu Ba was really injured, and the French fleet had to turn to Penghu; Gu Ba died soon after arriving in Penghu, and Gu Ba became a lonely ghost.Lisby, the deputy commander, temporarily took over the post of commander of the Far East Fleet.On the day of the great victory in Lang Son, the people of Paris, France, who had long been dissatisfied with the war, held a large-scale demonstration.They rushed to the gate of the Bourbon Palace, shouting again and again: "Down with Jou Ferry! Kill Jou Ferry! Destroy Jou Ferry!" That night, amidst the opposition and condemnation of the parliament, Ru Feili was forced to step down.But at this moment, Jin Denggan, entrusted by the Prime Minister's Yamen, had almost reached a complete agreement in negotiations with Bi Le, Director of Political Affairs of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris, leaving only the signature and seal.

In order not to waste all previous efforts, Hurd was afraid that the Prime Minister's Office would re-contract with France because of the Lang Son victory, so he quickly sent a telegram to Jin Denggan, ordering him to quickly negotiate with France. Hurd said in the telegram: "The Prime Minister's Office is afraid that the victory of Lang Son will make the court listen to those irresponsible main battle speeches, and rush to solve it quickly. A delay of one week may detract from our continuous efforts and patience for three months. What has been achieved is completely stranded. You can act with the camera as mentioned above."

The prime minister's office mentioned in Hurd's telegram is actually Yikuang, and the instigator is Yixuan. "Those irresponsible main battle speeches" and so on, mainly refer to Zhang Zhidong, Weng Tonghe, Li Hongzao and others.Hurd hopes that Jin Denggan will make an agreement with France immediately. Li Hongzhang also received a telegram from Shanghai from Lin Chun, the French consul in Tianjin, on the second day after the news of the Lang Son victory. The telegram stated that he had received domestic instructions and hoped to resume negotiations with China. Li Hongzhang knew that it was more likely to succeed in negotiating peace with Fa at this time, so he called the Prime Minister's Office: "Lang Son has been restored. If there is peace of mind and peace at this time, the peace will not be greatly damaged, otherwise the army will be united again."

Li Hongzhang waited hopefully for the imperial decree of grace.According to his thoughts at the time, even if the negotiations with France were to resume, Li Hongzhang and no one else should be the one who was qualified to sit at the negotiating table. In addition, Jin Dengqian understood Heard's telegram, and he sent a note to Bi Le on the day he received the telegram, and the two hurriedly signed the "Sino-French Armistice Agreement." When the news came, although Li Hongzhang was in favor of reopening negotiations with France, he was still taken aback by the Prime Minister's Yamen authorizing Jin Denggan to handle this matter.In any case, he couldn't figure out why he didn't let the Chinese do things in China, but trusted a foreigner.Before the great victory in Lang Son, France refused to sit down and negotiate with China because the French army was in arrogance. Why did the Prime Minister's Yamen entrust outsiders to resume negotiations? One wave is not flat, and another wave rises again.On the night when Jin Dengqian and Bi Le signed the agreement, Japanese Councilor and Minister of the Imperial Palace Ito Hirobumi, as the special plenipotentiary, led a delegation to Beijing, requesting to negotiate with the Zongli Yamen on the issue of North Korea after the "Jiashen" incident.Obviously, Japan wants to take advantage of the Sino-French war to blackmail China on the North Korean issue. Yikuang presented the note of Japan's request for negotiation to the Empress Dowager Cixi, who immediately said: "Let them go to Tianjin to talk to Li Hongzhang about the matter of Japan. You said that it was true last time, if you calm down the chaos, why not?" Beat the Japanese to death?" Yikuang replied: "What the queen mother said is very true, and this is exactly the purpose of Ito Hirobumi's negotiation this time. He mentioned three points in the note: first, we should withdraw our troops from North Korea, and never send troops to North Korea again. Second, The third is to compensate the refugees. The slaves heard that when Ito Hirobumi passed by Shanghai, he stayed for a few days and talked with the French Minister Bardenot. Many princes and ministers They all suspect that Japan chose this time to sign a contract with me because it colluded with France, and we have to guard against this." The Empress Dowager Cixi thought for a while and said, "Li Hongzhang invited you to donate to the coastal defense. How did you discuss it? Is it feasible or not? You can't delay it?" Yikuang hurriedly said: "Back to the Empress Dowager, the princes and ministers are hurrying to discuss this matter, and they don't have a clue yet." Empress Dowager Cixi waved her hand impatiently and said, "Go down first, and let Shiduo come in." Yikuang answered "Yes" and scrambled back out. On the night when Li Hongzhang received the decree, he said to Ma Jianzhong and Sheng Xuanhuai: "I have been thinking, if France and Japan are united, what will happen to the Qing Dynasty? I am afraid it will become unmanageable!" Ma Jianzhong said: "My lord, do you always think that Japan is willing to unite with France after the battle of Lang Son?" Li Hongzhang caressed his beard and said: "France's land route was frustrated, but his navy was not damaged. The Japanese are used to making waves at sea. How could he be willing to see me Daxing coastal defense?" Wanmo is too embarrassing for Japan. This old man received a telegram from Xu Chengzu, my minister in Japan, saying that the king had mobilized troops from Hiroshima and Kumamoto to prepare for the war in order to suppress the rebellion in Korea. What's more, Ito Hirobumi brought many people with him. Along the way, it is inevitable that they will spy on the truth and observe the location of my fort. And North Korea, after hearing that Japan sent envoys to negotiate with me, the whole country is shocked, as if a catastrophe is imminent. This island country, what does he want to do?" At this time, Sheng Xuanhuai suddenly asked in a low voice: "My lord, I heard people say that Prince Jin cares about you borrowing money all the time. Is Prince Jin still short of money?" Li Hongzhang smiled wryly and said: "You may not know that not only Prince Chun often shorts money envoys, but even Kubele often opens his mouth to the old man! There is also King Li, who just became the foreman of the military aircraft and sent the steward over here in Baoding He didn't see the old man, so he chased him all the way to Tianjin; if the old man wasn't in Tianjin, he would have to chase him all the way. Li Wang's mansion can use a good housekeeper who is one in a hundred. Sometimes the old man wonders himself, and the old man is not the secretary of the household department. Why do they all come to ask for silver? Later, the old man finally figured it out. The old man has Beiyang in his hand. Beiyang only buys iron-clad ships a year, and the silver used is not only a million taels. Who would believe that Beiyang has no silver? Where? In the first month, I went to Beijing to pay New Year greetings to Prince Chun, and happened to be Weng Tonghe, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs. This Weng Tonghe, you can't guess what kind of pair he gave the old man, called "Prime Minister Hefei Tianxiashou". Listen, In his mouth, what has become of the old man? The world has lost weight! Is the old man so greedy?" Sheng Xuanhuai said: "This Weng Tonghe's mouth is too bad!" Li Hongzhang smiled and said: "Xingsun, you are wrong this time. In fact, Weng Shuping's mouth is damaged, but it has not been damaged to the extreme. I am afraid that he will not be able to take it back. The old man replied his right. It's called "Sinong Changshu World's Desolation". It's nothing to be thin in the world, but this world's shortage is not easy to deal with! Aren't you Weng Shuping the number one scholar? I don't take him as the number one scholar seriously! As long as I stay in Beiyang for a day, He, Weng Shuping, will never see any benefits!" Ma Jianzhong asked at this time: "Master Fu, why is Mr. Weng so angry with you? You have been avoiding living in Tianjin, or you will return to Baoding. There is no conflict with him?" Li Hongzhang put away his smile and said: "Isn't this obvious? Weng Shuping is the emperor's master. He managed to survive as a military minister. He never thought about it, and he was dismissed again. And the old man is a foreign official, but he has always had a cockroach on his head." A bachelor's hat. The old man Ding You had just completed his term last year, and his superiors returned the bachelor of the Wenhua Palace to the old man. If it weren't for this, the old man might be playing chess with his old friend in Hefei right now!" Three days later, Ito Hirobumi and his party arrived in Tianjin and held consultations with Li Hongzhang on the Korean issue.The two parties met for ten days, and Li Hongzhang requested orders three times. Almost every article and item had specific principles for handling, and finally reached the following three articles: (1) It was agreed that China would withdraw its troops stationed in Korea, and Japan would withdraw its soldiers guarding the embassy in Korea. From the date of the painting, pledge and seal, there will be a period of four months, and all the lines will be withdrawn within the time limit, so as to avoid the risk of conflict between the two countries.The Chinese soldiers were withdrawn from Mashanpu, and the Japanese soldiers were withdrawn from Incheon Port. (2) Both countries agreed to persuade the king of Korea to train soldiers, which is enough to protect the public security, and the king of Korea will select and hire one or more foreign soldiers to teach and perform.Afterwards, neither China nor Japan should send personnel to train in North Korea. (3) In the future, if there is a major incident in North Korea, China and Japan or one country should send a document to inform each other before sending troops. It can be seen from the treaty that North Korea, as a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty, has existed in name only. The Sino-Japanese agreement was entirely manipulated by Yizheng, Yikuang, and the Empress Dowager Cixi behind the scenes. Although Li Hongzhang was still a scholar of the Wenhuadian University, the governor of Zhili and the Minister of Beiyang Commerce, compared with the past, Li Hongzhang was not much different from the past. permission. The difference between Yizhen, Yikuang, and Yixin is that Yixin believes in Han officials and reuses Han officials, while Yizhen and Yikuang just don't have Han officials in their eyes, and treat Han ministers as puppets. At the same time that Li Hongzhang signed the contract with Hirobumi Ito, Zuo Zongtang, the military minister of Dongge University, also ended his life as a Beijing official and ordered him to go to Fuzhou as an imperial envoy to supervise military affairs.Zuo Zongtang entered the court twice, and was squeezed out both times, which shows how contemptible Han officials are in the eyes of the Manchus. On the day Zuo Zongtang left Beijing, the imperial court issued an imperial edict to Sihai and named Baylor Yikuang Prince Qing.Since then, Yikuang has become more and more powerful.In the same month, at the initiative of Li Hongzhang, the Empress Dowager Cixi approved the Ministry of Household Affairs, and all provinces of the Qing Dynasty opened up donations for coastal defense.