At noon, Wu Ruxiao, Zuo Zongtang, and Wu Chongyao returned to the palace to report to Feng Yunshan about the meeting with Burbulon.

"Your Majesty, this meeting is really a pleasure!" Wu Chongyao, who had just finished the salute, hurriedly shouted, he had always been calm, but because of his excitement, he changed his usual style, which made Feng Yunshan extremely surprised.

And Zuo Zongtang next to him was also abnormal, although he was not as exaggerated as Wu Chongyao, but he was also excited, patting his chest as if the stagnant qi that had been suppressed for many years had volatilized: "Your Majesty, Wei Chen and Lord Wu met with the French Minister this time, and they really have a deep understanding of Your Majesty's words: A small country has no diplomacy, and if it is backward, it will be beaten, Your Majesty's words are really reasonable!" ”

Wu Ruxiao nodded even more, and said with deep feelings: "That's true!" I heard that the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not dare to meet with foreigners at all, and they did not have the right to speak at all, and the foreigners held their own ships and guns, and they always looked down on us Chinese. Today, looking at the appearance of the Fa envoy eating deflated, ha, it's really refreshing, and the whole body is comfortable! ”

Feng Yunshan was curious in his heart, what exactly did he talk about with the envoy, which would make the three of them lose their temper so much, and he still said lightly: "In fact, those countries in the West have long had a saying, 'Justice and justice are only within the range of cannons', but this kind of bandit logic in the eyes of Eastern Confucianism is prevalent in the world. Therefore, it is important not to talk about benevolence and righteousness, or to talk about justice, or to talk about cannons. If you want benevolence and righteousness, you can only talk about benevolence and righteousness if you set up the cannon first, and then talk about benevolence and righteousness within the firing range. Okay, seeing the two Aiqing like this, they must have had a good conversation with that envoy, let's talk about it, let me be happy. ”

Because this meeting was headed by Wu Chongyao, Zuo Zongtang was only in the formation, and although Wu Ruxiao had just returned from the United States, he was the vice minister of foreign affairs, so the negotiations were actually composed of three people.

"Your Majesty, the envoy is composed of three people, and His Majesty the Minister Bourblon has known him for a long time, as well as his assistant Gu Si and Father Ge Bida. After Lord Zuo and Weichen negotiated with them for three hours, they had already figured out the other party's intentions and sent them away. However, Bourblon strongly requested that His Majesty summon him once, saying that he had brought with him a letter from the Emperor of France. The specific situation will be reported to Your Majesty in detail by Lord Wu and Lord Zuo! Wu Chongyao said.

After all, Wu Chongyao is only the governor of Guangdong now, and it is not good to interfere too much in the affairs of the imperial court, and Wu Ruxiao is the vice minister of foreign affairs, and Zuo Zongtang is a powerful figure in the army, so it is their duty to go to negotiate with foreigners, and Wu Chongyao himself, only because he is still the general manager of Nanyang Company and is familiar with this Burbulon, and is proficient in foreign languages, the emperor let him participate.

"Oh," Feng Yunshan was a little strange, how could the French emperor, that Napoleon III, write to himself? It piqued some interest in him, but first, listen to their negotiations.

Wu Ruxiao still had a smile on his face, and said respectfully: "Your Majesty, Lord Zuo, Lord Wu and Wei Chen, as soon as they saw the Frenchman, Bourblon wanted to give the ministers a dismount, saying that they had received a commission from the descendants of the Nguyen clan in Vietnam, thinking that our country had invaded their Nguyen dynasty and wanted to help the Nguyen clan restore the country. Considering that our country is its trading partner, we will be given three months to prepare for the withdrawal of Vietnam and return it to Nguyen Thi.

Weichen immediately replied to him, what Ruan, then Ruan's was originally my Chinese courtier, a vassal state, and now my central court has included it as a province directly under the central government to manage, which should be. It was hoped that France would return the Nguyen traitors to the Empire, otherwise, the Empire would soon open the ports of Cochin and Annam provinces to European and American countries, but it would impose retaliatory tariffs on French merchants and restrict the entry of French missionaries into Cochin and Nichinan provinces. As a result, the priest named Copida directly changed his face, and kept giving him a look, and Bourblon said with some annoyance and anger that they France has the strongest army in the world and the second navy in the world, and if our Chinese Empire insists on annexing Vietnam, it will send troops soon to intervene to help the Nguyen Clan recover Vietnam, by the way, the foreigners call it Indochina.

Weichen was on fire at that time, and directly said that my Chinese Empire has 500,000 elite soldiers in the land division and tens of thousands in the navy, if you really dare to invade, my Chinese Empire will accompany you to the end, and close all treaty ports.

When Wei Chen saw it, Nabul Bullon's face immediately changed! Weichen knew that this family was just a fierce guy, and sure enough, after he heard Weichen's words, he stopped making a sound. And his deputy, a guy named Gu Si, talked about when our two provinces of Jiaozhi and Japan would open up trade and mission, and cheekily said that France had suffered huge losses and asked us to give it preferential treatment that was different from other countries in Europe and the United States. Wechen flatly rejected them, saying only that in addition to doing business in the two provinces of Cochin and Nichin, like other countries, the French could also join the army, find jobs, and become officials. The French were ecstatic and seemed to have taken advantage of it. As for the previous words, they seemed to have forgotten, especially the two sentences of Lord Zuo, so that they didn't mention it at all. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty, that Burblon just wanted to make a verbal threat, and then after being pushed back by Lord Wu, it is estimated that it is clear that it is impossible to threaten us, and his attitude eased down at once." Zuo Zongtang may also think of the ridiculous appearance of those foreigners, and said with a smile.

Wu Ruxiao said to Feng Yunshan: "Your Majesty, speaking of which, thanks to Lord Zuo. It's a shame to say that Wechen, as the deputy minister of foreign affairs, is not as clear as Lord Zuo's grasp of the details of the foreigners, but when Wechen was in the United States, he also seemed to hear a saying that France seemed to have always been dissatisfied with the growing strength of the United States, and had colonial claims to Mexico, and originally wanted to report to His Majesty, but I didn't expect that His Majesty and Lord Zuo had already known. ”

"Oh, what's going on?" Feng Yunshan couldn't help but ask.

Zuo Zongtang smiled embarrassedly and said, "Your Majesty, it's Lord Wu who has won the award!" Wei Chen just released some news when the French were silent and wanted to take care of the two provinces of Jiaozhi and Rinan, so that they could understand that we already knew his hole cards and broke the idea of threatening.

Wechen just told the information that Brother Bochen, who went to Europe to set up legations and consulates, found out. His French navy has a strength of more than 300,000 tons, of which the main battleships and cruisers are less than 150,000 tons, and those who can mobilize expeditions to China are one-third, and they are only 50,000 tons at most, but yesterday, he also saw that the main warships brought back by Lord Guangwu have a displacement of nearly 30,000 tons.

In addition, Weichen also revealed that our Chinese Empire has recently been building a shipyard, and intends to purchase and introduce large warships, that is, the manufacture of battleships. ”

Feng Yunshan smiled after hearing this, and said, "Ji Gao, it's really a sharp mouth." The bait was thrown, and it was no wonder that Naburblon asked to see me. The so-called letter from the Emperor of France may have been prepared a long time ago, and if we did not have this qualification, we would naturally not have taken it out, or took another one. Or, Wu Aiqing, you will bring that Bourblon with you, and I will meet him. ”

An hour later, Feng Yunshan received the French minister Bourblon in the imperial study in the palace.

Feng Yunshan did not arrogantly pose like the Manchu Emperor to stand next to many guards armed with knives and guns, looking like he wanted the other party to be scared to pee, he thought he knew more about the ideas of foreigners than most people in the world. Therefore, he just asked Liu Shengbang and Zuo Zongtang, Wu Ruxiao, Wu Chongyao and others to accompany him.

"The French Minister Bourblon sees His Majesty the Emperor of the Chinese Empire, and wishes the Emperor eternal youth and stability." This opening line by Bourblon is a novelty.

Feng Yunshan didn't care, nodded, and said: "France is a big country in Europe, and my Chinese Empire is an emerging big country in the East, although there are disputes between the two countries, but the emphasis is on cooperation between the two sides, giving full play to the use of trade and trade, and both countries benefit, Mr. Minister, right?" ”

Bourblon did not expect that the emperor of a country would speak so directly about his interests, without mentioning the threat he had made in the morning, and was slightly surprised, but then immediately reacted, bowed down and replied: "Your Majesty is simply as knowledgeable as God, what he said is so right! I have come here to congratulate your country on the recovery of Indochina, and to express the greetings and friendship of the Emperor of France. ”

Feng Yunshan smiled.