My Italy

General Miller did not know that his telegram caused an uproar in France.

Regarding the defeat of the French army in the Far East, the country first felt unbelievable. You must know that this is not a battle of hundreds of people. It is understandable to lose in a small-scale battle, because small scale means weak strength. If there is an unexpected situation or a large-scale enemy attack, failure is inevitable. .

What Nigri commanded was the strength of a fully equipped regiment. Its equipment and number of soldiers were almost the same as that of a regiment. Moreover, the size of the opponent did not reach a crushing scale, only more than 6,000 people (General Miller). Report that the domestic art has been slightly processed, Nigri’s opponent).

Moreover, the equipment of these Qing people was far inferior to that of France, and they actually lost a disastrous defeat. I heard that even the cannons were taken away by the Qing people.

Moreover, this defeat was the most disastrous defeat that France suffered after the Franco-Prussian War, and someone must be responsible for it. Needless to say, Lieutenant Colonel Nigri should bear his own responsibility. As for whether he will go to a military court, it depends on what the military thinks. However, no matter what the outcome is, this person's outcome will definitely not be much better. Being ordered to retire is the best outcome. After all, he inflicted France with the worst losses since the Franco-Prussian War, and he deserved this result.

Of course, just dealing with Lieutenant Colonel Nigri is not the end. No other responsible person can escape. However, as Prime Minister Jouferry who initiated the war, he has a great responsibility. For this reason, some members of parliament have joined forces to prepare to remove the French Prime Minister.

For Ruferli, who is in his second term, this news is simply a devastating blow. Of course, this was also due to his bad luck. The exploration of the Congo River and Niger River basins did not bring much benefit to France, but the cost was not small at all. In addition, in this Sino-French war, France has spent 471 million francs, but after suffering a disastrous defeat at Zhennanguan, it saw no benefits at all. (Affected by the patrol of two Venice-class ships, the lone French fleet was not able to block shipping from the southeastern provinces, so the economic losses were not large. Since the Qing court’s economic losses were not large, France had no intention of making excessive demands. promise.)

Since the goal has not been achieved and there is still no hope, then as the person responsible for launching the war, Rufeli must pay the price.

Facing the angry parliament, the famous French Prime Minister could only retain his last dignity and chose to resign. So on October 19, 1884, Ruferi, unable to withstand the pressure, announced his resignation, and his cabinet government collapsed.

After Juffelli resigned, Parliament quickly elected Henri Brisson as France's new prime minister. The first thing the new prime minister did after taking office was to stop the Sino-French war that wasted money and people.

Of course, France's pride and status still need to be maintained, so the French government does not intend to make many concessions to the Qing Dynasty. In order to prevent the Chinese from misunderstanding the situation, the Parliament has also allocated 80 million francs to strengthen its 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 visited Carlo at the palace. However, compared to the harsh words last time, Lord Goodwin’s attitude was much better this time.

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

It is obvious that 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 because France is eager to get out of this quagmire. war, otherwise the ambassador’s words would be even more unpleasant.

"Your Excellency Ambassador, our country has always respected the law of neutrality. Our country does not have arms trade with the Qing Dynasty."

Although he said such shameless words, Carlo was not ashamed at all, and even felt a little secretly happy, telling you French people to ignore Italy.

Now he can be said to be very proud of himself, because France's defeat in the Sino-French War has further proved that he, the young king, has far-sightedness. 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, Carlo's power became more and more important. Although he was not yet able to compete with the Prime Minister, the gap between the two was closing at the speed of the naked eye.

Faced with Carlo's denial, Ambassador Goodwin dared not speak out. Everyone knows what happened to the two Qing patrol ships and the Italian weapons that appeared on the battlefield, but in order to complete the mission assigned by Paris, Ambassador Goodwin had to change his story.

"Your Majesty, I misremembered this, but our country hopes that your country can abide by the law of neutrality."

"It seems that Ambassador Goodwin's memory is not very good. You should be more serious next time."

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

This is an excellent envoy to a foreign country, Carlo secretly praised him. Of course, praise deserves praise, and Carlo did not forget the purpose of the French ambassador's visit.

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

This is not because Carlo has given up, but that he has achieved his goal. Therefore, he did not continue to fight with the French, which would not be worth it if he offended his irritable neighbors. Although the relationship between Italy and France is not good now, there is no need to be mortal enemies. Besides, Italy is not equipped to play this role now.

Moreover, Italy has shown enough sincerity in front of the Qing people. Carlo also knew this idiom, too much, and it would not be good if the Qing people thought too much.

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

In fact, only the majority of people in the Qing Dynasty were also interested in peace talks, so the two parties finally sat down together for peace talks with the help of the Customs and Excise Department.

Before that, in order to show its sincerity in the armistice, the Qing Dynasty ordered the North Vietnamese garrison to withdraw back to the country in stages. Among them, General Feng, who had made great achievements in battle, wrote several times to ask for war, striving to capture Hanoi. At this time, Feng Zicai's army had grown from more than 3,000 people after the victory of Zhennanguan Pass to nearly 20,000 words, the largest part of which was written by him. During the war in Vietnam, local people came to vote. They hoped that this old general who had achieved great victories would be able to drive the French invaders from their homeland.

But their hopes were doomed, because the Qing government only wanted to ensure the security of the southwest frontier and had no intention of retaining Vietnam as a vassal state.

In the final analysis, the Qing Dynasty still lacked confidence and strength. Especially after the victory at Zhennanguan, the attitudes of the great powers towards this war were rapidly changing.

In the past, they were happy to see a war between China and France, and their attitude can be seen from the fact that the Zhi and Jing ships used the British colonial dock for maintenance on their way back to China. However, after two consecutive major victories at sea and land, his attitude changed fundamentally. He no longer secretly supported the Qing Dynasty. Instead, he not only stopped all kinds of secret help, but even publicly stated that the Qing Dynasty should withdraw from Vietnam.

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

Both sides want to stop the war, so it's easy to negotiate. Especially after France no longer insisted on asking the Qing to pay compensation and extended its tentacles of power to the southwest, the speed of negotiations became even faster.

On December 24, 1884, Li Hongzhang and Minister Badeneau in China began negotiations on a formal treaty between China and France in Tianjin.

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

Different from history, although the Qing Dynasty recognized France's annexation of Vietnam, it did not open the ports, France's goods tariffs remained unchanged, and it did not open up the right to build roads. After all, it was not defeated without defeat.

Now that the war is over, it is necessary to reward according to merit. Among them, General Feng, who has made great achievements in battle, was awarded the title of Prince Shaobao, and his rank was changed to second-class light vehicle captain, and he will also handle Guangxi military affairs.

Next is Liu Buchan. This young man who nominally commanded the naval battle in the South China Sea was awarded the second rank, and his acting rank was also corrected. Other meritorious soldiers and officials were rewarded.

As for the navy and army officers and soldiers sent by Italy, the Qing government did not dare to publicize them, so they only gave them some medals and silver rewards. However, Italy was not at a loss. In addition to the money for the purchase of ordnance and other weapons, the Qing court also had a generous gift.

The Sino-French war has basically come to an end. Today, the steamed buns are not in good condition. There is only one chapter. Don't be surprised.