Chapter 30 Section 30

The next day was the first day of July, a typhoon blew up, heavy rain poured down the river, the turbid waves on the river emptied, and the water level was five or six feet higher. All the warships took measures to prevent the typhoon.Usually there are warships from all over the world gathered around, and the small boats selling food and supplies have disappeared, and they have all gone to the small harbor to take shelter from the wind. At noon, the governor's yamen received a letter from the British consul, saying that Gu Ba had notified the British and American warships that war was about to start, and a letter of war would be delivered at the same time.When He Jing saw this letter, he was at a loss for what to do with the letter. He called his friends to discuss it. Everyone had the same opinion. How can we start a war in such a storm?The news from the British consul was, if true, a threat from the French.

What's more, since there is a letter of war, we might as well wait to talk about it. If there is any action at this time, it will affect people's hearts and even arouse xenophobia. He Jing felt that these words were reasonable, and decided to keep the British consul's letter secret and wait for the war letter. The book of war was sent to the flagship Yangwu wheel of the battalion office and handed over to Zhang Cheng.He didn't dare to delay, he went ashore to the shipyard in the rain, but he didn't dare to meet Zhang Peilun, so he sent the letter of war to He Ruzhang. "In this weather, do you want to start a war?"

Zhang Cheng thought for a while and replied: "According to the rules, it is not possible." "Look, does Gu Ba have the qualifications to fight?" It is useful to ask this question. The responsibility for this matter is very heavy, so you can't answer it casually. Zhang Cheng replied, "I dare not say." "It's okay to talk about it." "I don't understand the public law of all nations." "It's difficult for me!" He Ruzhang shook his head and sighed, "Oh! It's really difficult for me." "My lord," Zhang Chengguan asked himself, "Do you want to prepare for the battle?"

"Preparation is back to preparation!" He Ruzhang said, "Don't panic. I'll talk about it after I go to see Mr. Zhang." When he arrived at Zhang Peilun's place, he was translating the secret telegram by himself. It was the copy sent by Li Hongzhang to the Prime Minister's Office. When he saw He Ruzhang, he handed it over.When I received it in my hand, I saw that it was written: "Li Danya called at the twenty-ninth day of the 29th, and said: "I will pay 500,000 taels first, and when I arrive in Tianjin, I will settle the business calmly. Allow compensation. Please report to the General Administration. 'Should I reply? Beg for advice."

"Look!" Zhang Peilun said, "Twenty-nine is the day before yesterday. Xie Manlu made the second Medtronic letter of mourning. In Paris's Flono, his tone is so loose. As long as the business agreement can be cheap, compensation is fine. Exempt. What the imperial court insists on is that no compensation is allowed. France is willing to make concessions on this point, and everything else is easy to say. It seems that the draw can still be preserved after all.” He Ruzhang was silent.Thinking back to Zhang Peilun's discussion last night, if you come up with a lonely gauntlet, you don't have to be ridiculed with cynicism, or you have to listen to him to teach you a lesson.

Why bother? Thinking about it this way, I decided not to raise the gauntlet.Anyway, in such weather, it is impossible to start a war. When the weather clears up, it will be reasonable to see the movements of the French warships. If there is nothing to do at night, it becomes more and more obvious that there is no evidence for the war letter.At night, the wind and rain are even worse, trees are pulled down and houses are pulled down, and the noise is astonishing. Inquiring about the situation on the river, it is said that no matter the size of the warship, all warships are tossed and shaken, and the deck is empty, and there is no one in sight.This made He Ruzhang feel more at ease.

The night passed, the wind eased slightly and the heavy rain remained as before.At around eight o'clock, Zhang Peilun received a telegram from Li Hongzhang, saying that Fujian was in urgent need of foreign guns, and he was ordered to buy ten German cannons and twenty "secondary guns" and send them to Fujian for use.Li Hongzhang asked for opinions on this matter: "Krupp took off his cannons in 21 years, and there are only two in Dagu, which can destroy iron ships. Each of them has more than 20,000 gold bullets; More than a thousand gold can also be used to wear iron ships. It takes one year to order in Minkou, and it is advisable to take 15 lives. However, the decree does not say what to do with the money? Min can pay the price in installments and order it. What kind of guns should be ordered? , please advise."

The telegrams were sent to the general, the governor, and the imperial envoy, but Zhang Peilun felt that he should make the decision, but he should discuss it with Mu Tushan.Because, firstly, Mutushan is in charge of all the forts now; secondly, the money for ordering cannons, if ordered according to the amount stipulated in the telegram, will total 500,000 to 600,000 silver, can it be paid by Fujian Customs? Income to amortize?You also have to ask Mu Tushan, who is also in charge of customs. Mu Tushan was stationed at the Changmen Fortress, so he had no choice but to write a letter. After finishing his letter, the situation outside changed.

Consuls from various countries, foreign businessmen, and locals who often do business with foreign soldiers on the river, all know that the war is imminent.Most of the foreign merchants boarded their own warships, while British and American warships sent marines ashore to protect their consular offices.Of course, the foreign instructors in the two schools attached to the shipping bureau also knew that fighting was inevitable. There are two schools attached to the Ship Administration Bureau, which are called "front hall" and "back hall" according to their locations. The front hall learns manufacturing and the back hall learns driving.Most of the foreign teachers in the manufacturing school are French, and they are more well-informed. One of them, Mai Da, told his favorite student Wei Han: "The war will start tomorrow! You have to make preparations yourself."

This is absolutely reliable news, but Wei Han dare not report it to Zhang Peilun.He also served as a French translator for the Shipping Bureau. He often had the opportunity to get close to Zhang Peilun but did not dare to approach him, because the "imperial envoy"'s domineering and frequent "face-to-face spending" style was daunting.He was thinking, Guba had already declared the challenge, and of course He Ruzhang had been handed over to Zhang Peilun. Since he knew what was going on, there must be a reason for his calm attitude.Either there is a secret message in Beiyang, and the tie is sure to be preserved, or seeing the weather, it is guaranteed that there will be no war, and it will be dealt with when the weather clears up.All in all, don't worry about it.

In the evening, the weather turned bad again.Dark clouds merged, the sky was as dark as ink, and in the drizzle, the searchlights on the French warship swept over the mountain, shining like day.Ma Jiangdao, Fang Yao's Chao Yong, panicked and ran around.Zhang Peilun was alarmed, asked the reason, became furious, called Fang Yao, and reprimanded him severely. This time, no one dared to report the situation and news to him. Another night passed, the wind stopped and the rain stopped, making the sun look bright and lovely.The whole morning was uneventful, but around noon, the Governor’s Office received a note from the French Consular Office. Although it was written in “crab script”, people who knew English could not understand it.He Jing hurriedly summoned a copywriting committee member surnamed Liu. In the entire governor's office, only this committee member Liu could read French. Committee member Liu was not in the yamen.The typhoon damaged his house two days ago, a beam fell from the sky and injured his pregnant wife. He is taking leave of absence to take care of his wife in a Catholic hospital. When someone sent a special person to find him, he saw the note and was shocked. It was a letter of war, and the time to start the war was before two o'clock. "Then, tell Mawei, Nagato, and the governor's office immediately." When Zhang Zhaodong got the news, he rushed here in a panic, and without waiting for the notification from the door, he strode straight to the signing room.The governor's yamen was originally the yamen of the procuratorial envoy in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, there was Tao Houzhong, an envoy who was in charge of punishment, and Xue Dafang, the envoy who was in charge of impeaching the governor, for corruption.Xue Dafang bit back, so they were arrested together. In the end, right from wrong was found out, and Tao Houzhong was reinstated.On the day when he returned to his post, there were tens of thousands of people in Fuzhou waiting along the road. They all said, "Tao envoy will have eyes when he comes again, but Xue Fan will have no skin if he does not go." "Tianyan Hall" is now the governor's signing room. He Jing is spinning and turning in the Tianyan hall, asking his mouth and heart, wondering what is good or bad?When I saw Zhang Zhaodong, I felt relieved, and wanted to discuss with him what to do if the French soldiers attacked. But Zhang Zhaodong didn't allow him to open his mouth, so he said loudly first: "My lord! Zhang Youqiao will take my soldiers. In any case, I will share one of the cannons from the supervisory department." He Jing was stunned.After being stunned for a while, Fang Shi shook his head: "How can I do that?" "My lord, the Superintendent's Office has four cannons, and I only need one." "Alas!" He Jing replied with a frown, "four cannons are used for four cannons, one for the east and west gates, and one for the east and west ends of the back street. I gave you one, leaving a gap, and the other three , to have is to have nothing. Besides, it is useless to you if you are given one branch, do you know which way foreigners come from?" "This is a small cannon, not a cannon on a turret. The base of the cannon is nailed and can only be fired outward. The small cannon can be moved. The foreign soldiers come from that way, and the muzzle is aimed there." "What if we come in different ways?" Zhang Zhaodong was at a loss for words, and just begged: "My lord, my lord, you can't be alone!" "It's not that you are alone, it's that you can't take care of yourself." He Jing said: "The herdsmen are your responsibility. Please go back quickly and issue Anmin's notice!" Zhang Zhaodong saw that it was not the way, turned around and left; when he returned to the governor's office, he didn't say a word, he only asked his aunt to fetch plain clothes in exchange, and asked for a hundred taels of silver, wrapped it in a piece of baggage, and put it aside.Then the copywriting committee was invited to draft Anmin's announcement. The news of the common people in Fuzhou City is better than that of the official circles. Announcing the people is useless. Those who are fleeing are fleeing, and those who are behind closed doors are closed. Whether it is necessary to suppress or not, in fact, there are not many people who are suppressing, and the government servants have to relocate first. The city is chaotic, and so is the horse's tail.The note from the French Consul Bai Zaotai was relayed by the Superintendent's Office by telegram. The power line leading to the Nagato Fort was blown off by the typhoon, and there was no communication. However, the Shipping Bureau received the notice at 1:00 in the afternoon.Zhang Peilun received the telegram and was at a loss. After a while, he suddenly came to his senses, "Then that makes sense? Let's go to war!" He asked, "Where's Wei Han?" Wei Han collapsed in the bureau and arrived as soon as he was called.At this time, He Ruzhang also got the letter and came here. Hearing Zhang Peilun's rebuke of the unreasonable words in the note, he knew in his heart that he dared not say anything. The war letter had been issued a long time ago, and it was not unreasonable to declare that the war would start within three days. "Now we can only negotiate based on reason." Zhang Peilun suddenly became very polite to Wei Han, "Brother Wei, I would like to trouble you to go to Guba's place." "Yes!" Wei Han asked, "Please show me, my lord, what are you going to do?" "Tell him that the scheduled war is written in the public law of all nations, and the other party must be prepared. Now the time they set for the war is too urgent. Please change the date to tomorrow." "Respond to your lord's words," Wei Han murmured, "I'm afraid it won't work." "Why not?" "Everyone knows that France will go to war from the first day of junior high..." "How do you say 'everyone knows'?" Zhang Peilun interrupted him, "I don't know." "There are so many gossips out there, so why haven't they reached your lord's ears?" "There's no need to talk about these gossips now. Things are urgent, so hurry up!"