My Italian: Chapter 89 Sino-French peace talks

Unbeknownst to General Miller, his telegram caused an uproar in France.

For the French army's defeat in the Far East, the domestic first felt unbelievable. You must know that this is not a battle of hundreds of people. It is understandable to lose a small-scale battle. Because the small scale means weak strength, then in an emergency or a large-scale attack by the enemy, failure is inevitable. .

And the commander of Nigri is fully equipped with the strength of a regiment. Its equipment and the number of soldiers are almost the same as that of a regiment, and the scale of the opponent has not reached the scale of the crushing level, but only more than 6,000 people (General Miller). Report a little art processing in China, Nigri's opponent).

Moreover, the equipment of these people from the Qing country is far inferior to that of France, and they lost a fiasco. I heard that even the cannons were taken away by the Qing people.

Moreover, this defeat was the worst defeat suffered by France after the Franco-Prussian War, and someone must be held responsible for it. Lieutenant Colonel Nigri needless to say, he should take his own responsibility. As for whether he will go to a military court, it depends on the military's opinion, but no matter what the result is, this one's result will definitely not be much better, and the order to retire is the best result. After all, he gave France the worst loss since the Franco-Prussian War, which is what he deserved.

Of course, just dealing with Lieutenant Colonel Nigri is not the end, and other responsible people can't run away. However, as the Prime Minister Ruferi who initiated the war, he has a great responsibility. For this reason, there are already congressmen who are ready to remove the French Prime Minister.

For Ruferi, who was in his second term, this news was a devastating blow. Of course, this is also to blame for his bad luck. The exploration of the Congo River and the Niger River did not bring much benefit to France, but the cost was not small. In addition, in this Sino-French war, France has spent 471 million francs, but after suffering the fiasco at Zhennanguan, it did not see any benefits at all. (Affected by the two Venice-class patrols, the solitary French fleet was not able to block the shipping of the southeastern provinces, so the economic loss was not large. Since the economic loss of the Qing court was not large, then the French demanded that it did not intend to. promise.)

Since the goal has not been achieved and there is no hope in sight, as the person responsible for launching the war, Ruferi must pay the price.

In the face of the indignant parliament, the famous French prime minister could only retain his last dignity and chose to resign himself. So on October 19, 1884, Ruferi, who could not stand the pressure, announced his resignation, and his cabinet government also fell.

After Joufféri resigned, the parliament quickly elected Henri Brisson as the new French Prime Minister, and the first thing the new Prime Minister did when he came to power was to stop the Sino-French war, which was laborious and costly.

Of course, the pride and status of France still need to be maintained, so the French government does not intend to make many concessions to the Qing Kingdom. In order to prevent the Chinese from clearly understanding the situation, the parliament also allocated 80 million francs to strengthen the 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 came to the palace to visit Carlo. However, compared with the last time he said harsh words, this time Lord Goodwin's attitude was much better.

"His Majesty King Carlo, our country hopes that your country can observe neutrality and suspend arms transactions with Qing."

Obviously, 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 that France is eager to get out of this quagmire. the war, otherwise the ambassador's words would be even worse.

"Your Excellency Ambassador, our country has always respected the law of neutrality, and our country has not traded arms with the Qing state."

Although he said such shameless words, Carlo was not ashamed at all, even a little dark, telling you French to ignore Italy.

Now he can be said to be proud of his horseshoe disease, because the defeat of France in the Sino-French war is more and more proof that he, the young king, has foresight. Although it is still too early to draw conclusions, many ministers have already secretly sent messages to express their goodwill to him.

It can be said that with the good performance of the Qing Dynasty in the war, the power in the hands of Carlo is also getting heavier and heavier. Although he cannot compete with the Prime Minister, the gap between the two is narrowing at the speed of the naked eye.

In the face of Carlo's denials, Ambassador Goodwin dared not speak out. Everyone knows what happened to the two patrol ships of the Qing and the Italian weapons that appeared on the battlefield, but in order to complete the task assigned by Paris, Ambassador Goodwin had to change his words.

"Your Majesty, I remembered this wrong, but my country hopes that your country can abide by the law of neutrality."

"It seems that Ambassador Goodwin's memory is not very good. Next time, he should be more serious."

Carlo mocked the French ambassador in front of him. Facing Carlo's ridicule, Ambassador Goodwin's expression remained unchanged and he still smiled, as if Carlo was talking about someone else.

This is an excellent ambassador abroad, Carlo secretly praised. Of course, praise is praise, and Carlo has not forgotten the purpose of the French ambassador.

"Ambassador Goodwin please rest assured that our country will strictly abide by the law of neutrality."

It's not that Carlo admits to cowardice, but that he has achieved his goal. They did not continue to fight with the French, and it would not be worth it if they angered their irritable neighbors. Although the relationship between Italy and France is not very good now, there is no need to be a mortal enemy. Besides, Italy, with its current physique, cannot afford to play this role.

Moreover, Italy has already shown enough sincerity in front of the Qing people that it is too much to go too far. Carlo also knows it. It would be bad if the Qing people think too much.

After getting Carlo's affirmative reply from Italy, the French now plan to negotiate with the Qing who had cut off foreign aid.

In fact, in the Qing Dynasty, only the majority of people who also intended to negotiate peace talks, so the two parties finally sat down for peace talks under the coordination of the General Taxation Department of the Customs and Excise Department.

Before that, in order to show the sincerity of the truce, the Qing state ordered the North Vietnamese garrison to withdraw back to the country in stages. Among them, General Feng, who has made great achievements in battle, has submitted letters to fight several times, trying to win Hanoi. At this time, Feng Zicai's Cuijun has more than 3,000 people after the victory from Zhennan Pass, and the expansion of nearly 20,000 words, the largest part of which is his When fighting in Vietnam, the local people who came to vote. They expected the old general, who had a great victory, to drive the French invaders out of their homeland.

It's just that their hopes are doomed, because the Qing court only wanted to protect the safety of the southwest frontier, and did not continue to retain the idea of ​​Vietnam as a vassal.

In the final analysis, it was the Qing Dynasty's lack of confidence and strength. Especially after the victory at Zhennanguan, the attitude of the great powers towards the war was changing rapidly.

Before, they were happy to see Sino-French wars, and the second ships Congzhi and Jing were able to use the British colonial dock for maintenance on their way back to China to know their attitude. It's just that after winning two consecutive victories at sea and land, his attitude has undergone a fundamental change. Instead of secretly supporting Qing, he not only stopped all kinds of secret help, but even publicly stated that Qing should withdraw from Vietnam.

Therefore, under internal and external pressure, the Qing State also had an active interest in peace talks.

Both sides want to stop the war, so this is easy to talk about. In particular, after France no longer held the indemnity of the Qing Dynasty and extended its tentacles to the southwest, the speed of negotiation was even faster.

On December 24, 1884, Li Hongzhang and his ambassador to China, Badeno, began negotiating a formal Sino-French treaty in Tianjin.

On February 1, 1885, the two countries formally signed the Treaty of Vietnam between China and France in Tianjin.

What is different from history is that although the Qing Dynasty recognized France's annexation of Vietnam, it did not open ports. France's tariffs on goods remained unchanged, and the right to build roads was not opened. In the end, it was not undefeated.

Now that the war is over, it is necessary to discuss merits and rewards. Among them, General Feng, who has made great military exploits, was awarded the title of Prince Shaobao, and his position was changed to the second-class captain of light trucks, and he handled military affairs in Guangxi together.

Next is Liu Buchan, the young man who commanded the naval battle in the South China Sea was awarded the second-rank top, and his acting Taoist title was also upright, and other meritorious soldiers and officials were rewarded.

As for the navy and army officers and soldiers sent by Italy, the Qing court only gave some medals and silver rewards because they did not dare to speak out. However, Italy is not a loss, in addition to its purchase of ordnance and other weapons, the Qing court also has a generous gift.

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