Fox of France

After spending several months and finally reaching an agreement on various procedural issues, the negotiations can be considered to enter the substantive stage. Then, well, the negotiations were interrupted for a few days because of the weather. Then it took another month, and the two sides finally reached a breakthrough again. The British sent out all the Dutch people in the city, and made an assurance to the French and the Dutch that after coming to Cape Town, these people , All kinds of movable and immovable properties they leave in the city will be respected.

It is of course in the interests of the French and the Netherlands to let the peaceful residents of the city move out, and this will also reduce some collateral damage when they attack the city in the future.

For the British, this is actually not bad. First of all, they don't have to worry about the backstabs from the Dutchmen in the city when the fight is tense. And driving these guys out, ah, no, it should be sent out as a gift, and it can also reduce the logistical pressure in the city-you can't really starve these guys to death.

Of course, the most important reason is that since the British agreed to let the civilians of the Netherlands leave Cape Town, according to the principle of reciprocity, the French and the Netherlands should also let the British civilians leave.

The French and the Dutch agreed in principle to this request of the British, but on the details, everyone was arguing endlessly. The so-called details, of course, refer to various technical issues of how to send British civilians away.

The British proposed that ships could be sent from India to send the British to India.

The French and the Netherlands firmly opposed this plan. They believed that the purpose of the British was to bring them new troops through ships from India. For this reason, they cursed the British for their lack of sincerity in negotiating, and threatened to attack immediately. However, out of their love for peace, they just let it go.

The French, however, came up with a very creative counter-proposal.

Philip Treville said slowly: "We can't trust your ship, but your request to transfer the peaceful residents is in line with the spirit of the "Paris Declaration". Therefore, in principle, we are willing to provide convenience for this. I know, at the beginning The port of Cape Town has steam-powered port facilities, so there is also coal to support the operation of these things. And we, I believe you know, we have two mixed passenger and cargo steamers on hand. Now these two ships It’s already empty, and it happens to be idle, so you need to pay a little coal and freight..."

"Then you will use your ship to send us people to India?" Bona seemed very interested in this proposal.

"How is this possible?" said Philip Treville, spreading his hands. "It's too far from Cape Town to India, and it's too slow. We'll pick up your people and send you to the east coast of Africa." Well, look, what about Maputo? Where is the port of the Portuguese. And currently, the Portuguese are neutral in our war. Maputo is also a relatively prosperous port, It won't take long there for them to get on a ship to India. Then your men can go to India, although I think this is purely redundant, you can't keep India after losing the war, when the time comes , we have to go to the trouble of sending you back to Europe from India - it's such a hassle."

Philippe Treville's defiant attitude is really disgusting. Bona wants to directly reject his proposal, but considering the direct rejection of the French proposal, it is really a waste of time to delay the opportunity. So he stood up and said:

"As for your counter-proposal, I cannot give you an answer right now. I suggest that you adjourn the meeting for two days before discussing this new proposal."

Philippe Treville discussed with Babel for a while, and then agreed. Although Babel was a little anxious, since the French were not in a hurry, it was useless for him to be anxious. Besides, after the last unsuccessful attack on the fortress, in fact, no one wanted to take such a risk again. And Treville also assured them that it was impossible for the British navy to break through the blockade of the French navy and appear on this battlefield again.

Once again the peace talks were suspended, and everyone went to rest, and Philip Treville even went fishing by the sea. In short, there was a dull peace on the battlefield.

While Philippe Treville was itching with boredom, Léon Berthier was in a danger he had never imagined before.

The expedition stipulated that every once in a while, everyone should apply mosquito repellent ointment on the exposed parts of the body. According to the research of the Academy of Sciences, the most dangerous infectious disease in Africa, malaria, which has sent countless colonists to heaven or hell, is caused by a small bug hidden in the blood, and this small bug, Spread by the damn mosquitoes.

So before entering the mountain, all the team members were tightly wrapped up. In Leon Berthier's later words: "Everyone wrapped themselves like a mummy one by one."

I have to trek non-stop every day, and often use machetes to open the way in dense forests and mountains. The consumption of physical strength is very large. Packing it tightly, like a mummy, will naturally greatly reduce the heat dissipation capacity of the human body, and quickly consume human physical strength, thereby greatly reducing human mobility.

Therefore, even François Guerrero, the trainee academician who presided over the investigation, had to make a compromise and agreed to expose more skin, but he repeatedly emphasized that the exposed parts must be covered with mosquito repellent lotion .

These mosquito repellents are said to have been improved by the Academy of Sciences based on the secret recipes of some natives. Like those natives, they have a pungent smell. But the effect is actually quite limited. Probably the local mosquitoes have long been accustomed to this thing of the natives, so they have also developed resistance.

As a result, Major Léon Berthier was kissed by mosquitoes, and then contracted malaria and developed a fever. Fortunately, the expedition team was also prepared for malaria, a common disease in Africa. In this era, there is already a drug against malaria, cinchona cream, that is, quinine. Although quinine in this era is not chemically synthesized by later generations, the high-purity industrial product extracted and crystallized is still very primitive cinchona bark powder. But because of this, the output of quinine is still very low, and because these drugs are strictly controlled by some large business alliances, the price is also quite high, the price of the life of most malaria patients (mainly African aborigines) , It's not even comparable to the price of medicine.

This is of course a tragedy, if we also acknowledge that black lives matter. However, as the saying goes, "misfortune comes with blessings", because quinine has not been widely used in later generations, so naturally there will be no later generations. The vast majority of common malaria parasites have passed the screening of quinine . In other words, there is no resistance to quinine in this era. So quinine is still a miracle drug for malaria.

After the administration of quinine, Major Leon Berthier's symptoms were somewhat relieved. A few hours later, the high fever subsided, and the pain in the head was not so bad, but he was still weak all over. Fortunately, the exploration team has already arrived at the place they want to go, and they don't need to travel long distances, they just need to conduct exploration nearby.

It took about a week for Major Léon Berthier to recover from his illness. However, this did not affect the exploration process. Even on the second day after he recovered from his illness, François Guerrero, a trainee academician, sent someone to find him and told him that "an amazing discovery has been made."

"Major, let me show you something that I just discovered this morning." Academician François Guerrero stood in the sun outside Major Léon Berthier's hut with a cloth bag in one hand. wave to him.

Major Leon Berthier walked out of the hut. He had just recovered and was still weak. In addition, in order to prevent mosquitoes, François Guerrero apprentice academician made a lot of wet in the camp. The grass is so thick that the whole camp is full of smog. So as soon as he came out, Major Leon Berthier couldn't help coughing violently.

"Academician, your smoke is too choking." Major Leon Berthier.

"Ah, Major, that's the only way to keep those damned mosquitoes away. Well, you look good, and you're recovering really quickly," said Academician François Guerrero.

"Academician, what have you found?" Major Leon Berthier asked. When he saw the uncontrollable joy on the trainee academician's face, he had a guess in his heart, and this guess made his heart pound.

Academician François Guerrero handed the cloth bag to Leon: "Look for yourself."

Leon reached out to take the cloth bag, and as soon as the trainee academician let go, Leon felt his hand suddenly sink.

"What is this?" Leon's heart was beating wildly. He opened the cloth bag with trembling hands, and a large piece of grotesquely shaped and full of holes appeared in front of him, reflecting brilliant golden light in the sun. It made his head dizzy, his hands and feet were weak, and he almost sat down on the ground.

"This is... this is..."

"This is a natural gold nugget." The trainee academician said greatly.

Leon couldn't help but look around, this place is so desolate, if other people are interested in making money, suddenly... Then he took this large piece of gold and ran to the Far East incognito, that would be really...

But when this kind of thing comes again, everyone has already been prepared. The above promises to everyone that the gold they discover during exploration will be shared equally by everyone, and it can be regarded as everyone's legal income. And in fact, the soldiers of this company are also specially selected, and they all have wives and children at home. Under the premise that everyone can legally share the gold equally, the possibility of these guys having black thoughts is greatly reduced.

In fact, when the dog's head gold was put into the prepared large box and locked under the witness of the major, the trainee academicians, and all the soldiers and staff, what kind of robbing gold and killing each other? Neither happened. Just to guard the box doubles the number of people who stay in the camp each day.

Another effect is that everyone's attitude towards this survey and exploration has changed, and they are much more positive than at the beginning. In the first few days, nothing was found, and many soldiers complained, and even hoped that this "exploration and investigation" could end as soon as possible. But now, except for those soldiers who guarded the dog's head gold in the camp, the other soldiers can't wait for a day. Twenty-four hours to find the dog's head gold - you know, everyone who finds a share.

On the contrary, the trainee academicians seem to have changed their focus of work, and they have really paid attention to animals and plants. According to him, that is, he is doing some private work for himself now.

But in the days after that, they never found natural gold as big as this piece of dog's head gold. However, they still found some other veins one after another, and found some small pieces of gold. If it weren't for the fact that they didn't have the tools to mine veins. In addition, a large number of Zulu activities have been found nearby, and it is not safe for people and gold to continue to stay. I am afraid they will suggest to investigate for a few more months.

But now, Zulu spears and shields painted with snakes and lions convinced everyone, and everyone decided to leave in order to return to France to enjoy the gold.