My Italy

The attendants and guards in the Sankou Commercial Yamen have been extremely cautious in the past two days, even walking lightly, for fear of making a big noise and provoking the Shangguan's anger.

Therefore, the idlers at the Yamen Gate had a hard time, and the guardsmen took it out on them whenever they had trouble. It was really bad luck.

As the core of the serious atmosphere in the three-port trade yamen, Li Zhongtang has been upset recently. The reason is very simple. France is restless in Vietnam. The new French Minister Butner even said in public several times that since the Qing Dynasty cannot give France what it wants, then France will take it herself.

His naked threats of war made everyone in the court worried.

Another issue is the return of the second ship Jingping built in Germany. Liu Buchan and Wei Han, who were responsible for receiving the warship, jointly sent a telegram informing Volkeng Shipyard that it was conducting sea trials on the second ship Jingping. Before the sea trials were completed, the shipyard Refuse to release. The shipyard claims that if a ship that has not completed sea trials is allowed to go to sea and any accident occurs, it will be a huge loss to the reputation of the shipyard.

However, secret messages sent by Liu Buchan and Wei Han told them that the French were behind all this. The French bribed people in the shipyard and dragged the second ship Jingping into the shipyard.

As for the two people's move to accept the battleship in advance, they were blocked by German soldiers guarding the shipyard.

The second calm ship cannot return home early, which makes Li Zhongtang very worried.

Seeing that Li Zhongtang was worried about this, Zhou Fu, an aide, opened his mouth to persuade him. "Don't worry too much in Zhongtang. I believe that the second ship Jingping will return home safely."

"Yushan, I'm not worried about calming the second ship."

Having said this, Li Zhongtang took out a copy and said. "This is what Zeng Laojiu reported. The Fa and the barbarians are stirring up trouble everywhere in Vietnam, and there is a possibility of war. Therefore, I sincerely ask for permission to strike first."

"Zhongtang, I'm afraid this is not Master Zeng's intention to retreat in order to advance."

Zhou Fu revealed the intentions of Zeng Guoquan, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi.

"Everyone knows Lao Jiu's intentions, but we won't fight this battle if we can. I didn't see that Zuo Jigao spent a lot of money to recover Xinjiang. How will we deal with it if we fight with the French?"

The conflict between Li Zhongtang and Zuo Jigao is well known to the world. They both came from Wen Zhenggong's sect, but they have never dealt with it.

Especially after the death of Wen Zhenggong and the decline in the strength of the Hunan Army, the two sides disliked each other even more. Whether the imperial court was behind it or not is a matter for the beholder. Anyway, after Zuo Jigao regained Xinjiang, Li Zhongtang was promoted to governor of Zhili and minister of Beiyang. In order to reward Zuo Jigao's contribution, he was appointed governor of Liangjiang and minister of Nanyang.

And unlike Li Zhongtang, who cautions against haste and must be patient, Zuo Jigao has always declared in a high-profile manner that he does not need to be patient with the French in Vietnam and will take action when it is time to take action. He even said in a book that he was going to take the Chu army to Guangdong and Guangxi to have a fight with the French.

Fortunately, the princes and the Queen Mother were sensible people and did not agree to Zuo Jigao, so the situation was able to be maintained.

But just when Li Zhongtang was sighing, a servant hurried in.

Before he could ask, the servant immediately reported it. "Sir, there is the Chinese Minister Jia Liwen outside the door asking for an audience."

"Minister of Italy?"

Although Li Zhongtang didn't know what this visitor meant, he was bound to receive an envoy from a country when he visited.

"Arrange for the Italian minister to wait in the lobby. I will be here soon."

Then Li Zhongtang tidied up his clothes and rushed to the lobby.

When Li Zhongtang arrived at the lobby, he discovered that there was not only the Italian minister, but also a kind-faced man. Wasn't it Howard, the Italian businessman who had visited him some time ago? Although he was a little curious as to why the businessman followed the minister to visit him, his good cultivation prevented him from asking.

"Hello, Minister Jia Liwen, Mr. Howard."

"Hello, Your Majesty the Governor."

After a brief greeting and waiting for the servants to bring tea and snacks, Li Zhongtang spoke. "I don't know what advice your Excellency, Minister, can give me when visiting me."

Faced with Li Zhongtang's inquiry, Minister Jia Liwen, who had a Chinese name, answered with a smile. "I don't have anything to do, but I received a telegram from China related to your country. I thought the Governor would be interested, so I dared to come over."

It turned out to be a message.

Li Zhongtang, whose curiosity was aroused by this news, also asked appropriately. "I don't know what kind of news would make the Minister come here?"

Faced with Li Zhongtang's inquiry, Minister Jia Liwen's face tightened and he spoke seriously. "Our country has received news that France has just decided to go to war with your country."

"Snapped!"

A teacup was accidentally smashed by Li Zhongtang. He suddenly stood up and stared at Minister Jia Liwen. "Your Excellency, Minister, are you serious about this?"

"I think our government will not joke about this kind of thing."

After receiving the confirmed news from Minister Jia Liwen, Li Zhongtang was stunned. Jia Liwen and Howard looked at him with some worry.

"Your Majesty the Governor?"

Li Zhongtang, who was woken up, first expressed his apology. "Sorry, Your Excellency, Minister, I am a little shocked by this news."

"We can understand that, after all, war is a major event for every country."

But for some reason, Li Zhongtang felt that he was more relaxed now. Only then did he look at the two visitors and said. "I don't think your Excellency the Minister came here to tell me the news?"

"Your Majesty the Governor, you guessed wrong. I am bringing this news this time. But Mr. Howard is different. Maybe he has something to discuss with the Governor."

After finishing speaking, Minister Jia Liwen left.

Although Li Zhongtang didn't know why Minister Jia Liwen left, he had a vague guess, but he didn't intend to tell the truth. Instead, he asked about Howard who was still staying.

"This Mr. Huo can let the minister bring you here specially. I believe your business must be very big."

"Sir, you're welcome. I'm just doing a small business. However, the company just purchased two armored cruisers recently, but they haven't been sold yet, so my company is very worried about this."

Two armored cruisers?

No sales?

Li Zhongtang understood. Before that, he had deliberately learned about the situation in Europe. Italy and France were not dealing with each other, and the two countries had a dispute in a place called Tunisia.

As long as he combines the previously obtained information with Howard's words, then he can figure out the Italian's plan.

Of course, Mr. Nakado doesn’t really think that this ship cannot be sold, but he still has to ask what kind of ship it is.

"I wonder how the performance of these two ships is?"

As soon as Li Zhongtang asked about the performance of his boat, Howard immediately became confident.

"Both of these two ships are new ships launched this year. Their standard tonnage is 6,850 tons and their full load tonnage is 7,460 tons. In terms of performance..."

The performance that Howard said shocked Li Zhongtang. It has a maximum speed of 18.6 knots, a tonnage of more than 7,000, and is equipped with four 254mm and six 152mm naval guns. It is really a good ship.

Since the tonnage of this ship is comparable to that of the second ship Jingping, and its speed is much faster, the price will definitely not be cheap. However, when Li Zhongtang asked about the price, he was still shocked.

2.2 million taels of silver per ship, which is much more expensive than the second calming ship.

Of course, the performance is much better than that of the second ship Jingjing. Although Li Zhongtang doesn't know much about naval battles, he still knows that fast ships are slow. The faster the warship is, the more powerful it is, and the higher the price.

And the Howard businessman's last words made his heart move.

"Your Excellency Zhongtang, if your country does not have anyone to operate these two armored cruisers, our company can recruit retired naval officers and soldiers to operate these two warships. Of course, if there is a war, your country will need to provide additional subsidies."

What this means is that the Italians are willing to send ships and people to help the court fight the war. Although it is said that they are recruiting retired naval officers and soldiers, who is Zhongtang? These retired naval officers and soldiers may not just take off their military uniforms and change on the warship.

Since the Italians are talking about this, Li Zhongtang will certainly not refuse. No matter what happens in this war, he has achieved results by using barbarians to control barbarians. I haven’t seen the imperial court use Italian ships and people to fight against the French. This is not considered effective, so what counts.

Of course, he did not immediately agree to Howard, a businessman under the guise of the Italian government, to send them back to Tianjin first on the grounds that the matter was of great importance and needed to be discussed with the imperial court.

After the two left, Li Zhongtang immediately summoned his confidants to discuss the matter.

As a result of discussions among many staff, this matter is only good for Li Zhongtang and has no harm.

After getting the result from his staff as he expected, Li Zhongtang waited with peace of mind.

Sure enough, two days later, French Minister Bartner submitted a declaration of war with great force.

This declaration of engagement caused a stir in the imperial court.

These were the French. Of course they forced the late emperor to hunt for Chengde, and they were one of the main culprits of the late emperor's untimely death.

At this time, Li Zhongtang handed over the paper he had prepared, claiming that he had found an Italian who was at odds with France and could buy two 7,000-ton giant ships from them to consolidate coastal defense and prevent a recurrence of the Gengshen Year incident (second time). Opium War).

Then he went through a secret process. In the secret process, Li Zhongtang said that he could borrow Italian foreign soldiers and use them to deal with foreign soldiers.

Faced with Li Zhongtang's compromise, the court agreed with incredible speed. In response to Li Zhongtang's proposal to purchase ships, the Ministry of Household Affairs was asked to allocate 800,000 taels and ordered all provinces to raise funds. Among them, Zhili has the largest share, reaching 1.1 million taels. As for other provinces, it is between 100,000 and 150,000 taels. Of course, the rich will have more, and the poorer will have less. Moreover, the fundraising time is tight this time and must be raised within half a month. This was another flurry of events, but after half a month, the funds from all provinces were collected, totaling 5.5 million taels.

Don't get me wrong, Li Zhongtang asked for more, not with the intention of enriching himself, but with the intention of taking this opportunity to purchase a batch of guns and ammunition from Italy and send them to Zeng Laojiu.

Facing the war in France, it was rare for the Qing Dynasty to unite on one thing.