Rebirth of the Northern Giants

Although Yuan Shikai and Ye Zhikui suppressed the matter on purpose, due to the seriousness of the matter, some rumors leaked out. The other army commanders who learned about the matter hastily ordered that they should not easily provoke Wu Yi's soldiers from now on.After this incident, the soldiers of the Dingwu Army would always feel sad when they thought of the situation that day and remembered those cavalry soldiers who had to be punished with bruises and swollen faces. They were somewhat afraid of the Wuyi Army. It's a detour.

Ye Zhikui wrote a letter the next day, and sent it to Yuan Shikai with a gift, saying that he led Wu Dashan stupidly, not doing anything, and offended him, and asked Mr. Yuan to forgive him a lot.Yuan Shikai also replied a letter, saying that his soldiers made mistakes first, and hoped that Young Marshal Ye would not hold grudges against him, old Yuan. We are all good comrades in the Qing Dynasty, and we should support each other in the future, and work together to contribute to the good life of the Qing Dynasty.People who don't understand the inside story can't help being surprised to see the two people are friendly and friendly, and think that the friendship is really a result of fighting, do I want to order the soldiers to fight Wu Yi's army!

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Please recommend, ask for a reward, that brother has a lot of money, so I will give you some encouragement, hungry, why do I feel like I have become a beggar on the street, huh, huh, but I have put my heart and soul into it, it is better than those beggars, little The worm also had the cheek to beg for a reward.

Chapter 54, The Second Volume of Jingshi Fengyun, Sprays All Over Your Body

The "Confucius Temple case" that the French did in Tianjin caused a huge repercussion among the scholars, and the crowd was really excited. This is because the foreigners want to destroy our Confucianism, and they want to enslave us spiritually. The public opinion forces the imperial court to An investigation team was sent to Tianjin for investigation together with the French ambassador to China.

The head of the investigation team gave Cixi a headache again. Those diehards disdain dealing with foreigners, and the disciples of the saints cannot be sent. Some of them have proposed that if you want to destroy my holy religion, I will destroy you foreigners.So that Kang Youwei, who was full of trains, continued his letter writing career, and Cixi had to call out Li Hongzhang, the number one westernization expert in Wanqing, and Li Zhongtang was also very helpless. He really didn't want to take such a case. If you want to say that foreigners are deliberately insulting us Chinese, that’s not the case, but if you look at the problem from the perspective of Chinese people, things will get worse.

It was still the court's will, no matter how unwilling Li Hongzhang was, he had no choice but to find several good diplomats such as Wu Tingfang and Xu Jingcheng, and together with the French Minister Grelis, they went to Tianjin.

After Ye Zhikui, the admiral of Zhili, greeted Li Hongzhang together with Zhili governor Wang Wenshao, he was asked by Li Hongzhang to assist in handling the case and resolving the diplomatic dispute.

In Tianjin, in the French Concession, the French envoy Glélis had been in China for a long time, and he obviously understood the culture on the Chinese wine table very well. The investigators were also invited, and they sat at the head of Li Hongzhang.

Gralis obviously had the pride of being a Gallic rooster. Before the banquet started, he strutted up to Ye Zhikui, squinted his eyes directly above, stretched out his hands like a gift, and said in his blunt Chinese : "Ye, I have heard of your name, and I appreciate your straightforward personality, but in this case, I hope you can control your temper and not affect the relationship between China and France because of your personality."

Ye Zhikui is inexplicable, do you need your appreciation?However, out of politeness, he stretched out his hand, shook hands with the Frenchman lightly, then picked up the napkin on the table and carefully wiped the fingers that had just touched Grelis, and said with a smile: "My little cabbage , I will not let you down." Cabbage is the French term for mistress.

Gralis' face turned from white to blue, and he glared at Ye Zhikui bitterly. To Ye Zhikui's astonishment, before he left, he replied charmingly: "Ye, so you are too, so I'll see you tonight!"

This time it was Ye Zhikui's turn to turn his face from yellow to blue. Li Hongzhang who was beside him didn't pay attention to the conversation between the two just now. Seeing Ye Zhikui's change of face, he was a little confused, so he asked: "Congyun, your face is not very good. I just talked to that Frenchman. What?"

Ye Zhikui rubbed his hands and replied, "Zhongtang, he said he admired you very much!"

Li Hongzhang said seriously: "Really? The old man wants to communicate with him more. By the way, how is your new army training from Congyun?"

Ye Zhikui suppressed his smile, and replied with all his mouth: "With the old Zhongtang taking care of you, you can't embarrass you. It's just that there are too few people who understand the Western style of warfare. Zhongtang still needs to borrow a few more boys, etc... , Zhongtang, I haven't finished talking, kid."

Li Hongzhang had already turned his head to the side to talk to other people. Li Hongzhang, who knew very well that Ye Zhikui had a hobby of "digging people's corners", was afraid that he would lose a few of his subordinates if he said a few more words to this kid.

Ye Zhikui opened his eyes innocently, and asked the only Jianren Shiwu he was carrying next to him, "Did I say something wrong?" After asking, Ye Zhikui regretted it again, what's the use of asking this bitch!

Sure enough, when I saw benevolence, I praised twice: "The adults are always right in the eyes of the little ones, but the villains still have to say that they admire you. You are the only one in the Qing Dynasty who made Zhongtang want to turn around and leave after seeing you." people.” Is this a compliment or a derogation?That's what a bitch sees.

Not long after, the banquet began, and the French served a dish of roast chicken. Gleilis introduced: "France is known as the country of roosters, and chickens are very noble animals. This dish is most suitable for entertaining nobles like Zhongtang. It's just right."

After hearing this, Li Hongzhang was taken aback when he saw Bai Jiexue sliding the dinner plate and the oily roast chicken on it. After thinking for a while, he grabbed the whole chicken with one hand, tore a piece of chicken with the other, and put it into his mouth. After stuffing it, tasted it, spit out two words: "It's not bad!"

The French guy on the opposite side was stunned, and the French minister Grelis was taken aback. Seeing this, Ye Zhikui chuckled secretly, picked up the roast chicken with his hand, tore it up and ate it, and said, "Zhongtang, what's the matter, you're lying to the boy! The chicken taste is very ordinary."

Most of the officials of the Qing Dynasty who didn't know how to proceed saw the two eating with great relish, and suddenly realized in their hearts: It turns out that the French eat chicken with their hands, alas!It's really a barbarian country, but let's do as the Romans do.So one by one grabbed the chicken and stuffed it into their mouths.All of a sudden, on the French dining table, a pair of hands and claws were flying up and down.

Seeing this, Grelis was helpless, so he had to abandon the knife and fork, gritted his teeth, and picked up the whole chicken with his hands. Other French people saw that Grelis had done this, what else could they do? !After eating it like this, Garylis really felt like eating it. This method seems to be good and delicious!A few years later, Gralis returned to France and introduced this way of eating to Europe. Since then, Europeans eat chicken with their hands.

After drinking and eating, Gralis summoned the French soldiers who had insulted the statue of Confucius to inquire about the situation.In fact, there is no need to ask at all, everyone knows what is going on.

Sure enough, after a while, Gleilis came back and said to Li Hongzhang: "Li, our soldiers said that they were just curious about the sculpture, so they went up to touch it with their hands, but who knew that sculpture was made of mud, and they accidentally touched it." , broke his arm, it was just a small accident, and our Gallic warriors did not mean any offense, so we hope you can let it go."

Li Hongzhang's entourage, Xu Jingcheng, heard this, and stepped forward and said: "Mr. Gralis, Confucius in China is equivalent to Napoleon in your French hearts, so disrespecting his statue is disrespecting us Chinese. We hope that you will issue a formal apology to us and take responsibility for repairing the statue of the saint."

Gralis quickly waved his hand and replied: "No! No! Mr. Xu, my soldiers didn't understand this matter. They didn't do anything wrong. We will not apologize to the Qing Dynasty. Helping to repair the statue is negotiable Yes, after all my soldiers damaged the statue."

Xu Jingcheng had no choice but to explain to him again, saying that the court must ask the French soldiers to apologize.

The two quarreled with red faces but did not come to a result.Ye Zhikui really has no love for this kind of spat, you say you are a Frenchman, you damage the cultural relics, we just need you to apologize, there are so many chirping, isn't it just because of your self-righteous and arrogant status , you refuse to bow your head and admit your mistakes to us "despicable inferior peoples" in your eyes, are you afraid that you will lose face and be ridiculed by other countries?

Ye Zhikui became more and more annoyed the more he heard it, and saw that Xu Jingcheng was almost begging others to apologize to him, he was upset, he was really good at being bullied by dogs, shameless, so he said to Jianren Shiwu with a calm face: "Go, get a basin water."

I was stunned when I saw the benevolence. Of course, with his IQ, I didn't understand why Ye Zhikui needed water at this juncture, but it didn't prevent him from quickly finding a basin of water.

Ye Zhikui said again: "Spit a mouthful of phlegm into it." When I saw Ren, I scratched my throat and spit out a big mouthful in disgust. He always exceeded Ye Zhikui's orders.

Ye Zhikui took the water and stepped forward in two or three steps. Under the astonished gazes of the Chinese and French negotiators, he suddenly splashed the water on Gralis.

The Chinese and French personnel were caught off guard, and they all looked at Ye Zhikui with wide eyes in amazement, forgot to speak, and forgot to think, and Grelis was drenched to the drenched body, and immediately became angry and asked loudly : "Ye, what are you doing! I want you to apologize to me, immediately! Immediately!"

Ye Zhikui pouted, and asked back, "Apologize? Why? Minister, I don't think I did anything wrong!"

Grelis wiped the water from his face, and said angrily: "Ye, you made me like this, have you done nothing wrong?"

Ye Zhikui said slowly: "Mr. Grailis, in some places in Yunnan, China, water is poured on guests out of respect, so I am not insulting you, but respecting you."

Li Hongzhang's old face twitched, and he smiled wryly, this Congyun started coming again.

Grailis stomped his feet, squeezed the orchid fingers with both hands, and said to Ye Zhikui: "No, you must apologize to me! You are insulting me!"

Ye Zhikui's face changed, and he said coldly: "Mr. Minister, is this your bandit logic? You French soldiers damaged our saint statue. We felt insulted and asked you to apologize, but you pushed back and forth, and I just gave it to you." You pour water, and you feel insulted and ask me to apologize. Is your axiom that what you think is right is right? Minister, I am very disappointed in you. I have heard a famous saying in the West that axioms only exist in cannons. But fortunately, your French Concession is also within the range of my cannon, Ye, I hope you can understand that on our Chinese land, we must respect our Chinese customs."

Gralis jumped and said, "Ye, you are provoking, you are provoking a war between China and France!"

Ye Zhikui snorted coldly, and replied: "So what if it's just provocation. Your country's President Kano has just been stabbed to death, and the parties in your country are fighting for power and profit. I'm afraid those big men are not in the mood to care about such small things that happen in East Asia. Your Excellency, after On our Chinese land, watch your back!"

Grailis had never met such a Qing official who directly threatened him, like a wet rooster, trembling with anger, unable to speak, Li Hongzhang watched coldly for a while, and then Shi Shiran He walked over and said, "Okay, Mr. Minister, we have something to discuss, why don't you go back and change your clothes first, and we can talk about it later."

Then he smiled and said to Ye Zhikui: "Congyun, you are tired too, go back and rest first, and leave the rest to me, an old man."

Ye Zhikui showed a triumphant smile, stretched out two fingers to Li Hongzhang, made a gesture of victory, and left with Jianren Shiwu.

Li Hongzhang didn't understand the meaning of the gesture. After thinking for a long time, he suddenly realized and muttered to himself: "This Congyun, he never forgets to poach people from me, Li Hongzhang. He must be asking me for two talents again."

Not long after Ye Zhikui returned, the results of the discussion came out, and the French agreed to apologize to China and take charge of repairing the sculptures of the Confucian Temple.Ye Zhikui once again proved to the world that he is out of the ordinary and a fool.Li Hongzhang praised him to the court, "Young man Congyun, he is both reasonable and outstanding, and he has already started to go abroad.

Volume 55 The New Weapons of Chapter [-] Engineering Team of Jingshi Fengyun

The successful settlement of the Confucian Temple incident by special means made some officials of the Qing Dynasty realize that blindly bowing their heads to foreigners may not necessarily solve the problem. Sometimes, it is more effective to be tough when it is time to be tough.The Confucian Temple incident also aroused the awakening of Chinese national consciousness, making the people even more hostile to foreigners. In addition, foreign church forces were operating everywhere in China, and believers who were mixed with fish and dragons oppressed ordinary people everywhere. The spontaneously organized Boxer Movement against foreigners and xenophobia, of course, this is all a later story.

After the French apologized disheartenedly, the scholars in the capital seemed to have won a battle, and they all rushed out to celebrate. Of course, Ye Zhikui's performance this time made some scholars feel that I am proud of my Chinese glory, happy!It's time for a drink.Others felt that it was degrading, and that they deserved to be just a rough man who only knows how to use knives and guns.

The British "Times" published a comment under the headline "Challenge from the East" and said: Qing officials behaved rudely and without gentlemanly manners in the Confucianism case, especially Ye Zhikui's performance at the banquet was simply extremely barbaric It is unbecoming of a diplomatic official to threaten the French government to demand an apology regardless of the actual situation.What is even more ridiculous is that the French envoy to China, Grelis, behaved cowardly and cowardly, and actually succumbed to the arrogance of the East Asians, losing the courage of the Gallic rooster. serious consequence.

"Jiji Shimbun" in Tokyo, Japan, said sourly that the Qing Dynasty thought it could get along with the Western powers on an equal footing. Although it won a short-term victory, it may cause an unprecedented crisis in East Asia. At that time, the Qing government will suffer the consequences.

Shanghai "Shenbao" published an editorial written by a Chinese, saying that this was the most beautiful diplomatic dispute handled by the Qing Dynasty. The article first disclosed the entire negotiation process, saying that Li Hongzhang first abandoned the Western dining habits in a French restaurant and let the French Realizing that there are various customs between China and France, so that Westerners should not look at China from the perspective of the West, but consider issues from the perspective of China's actual national conditions.Later, the Zhili admiral Ye Zhikui's performance at the banquet was like a stroke of genius, using one spear to attack the other shield, using a simple and easy-to-understand way to make Gralis realize that respect is mutual, Chinese people should respect the etiquette of Westerners, Westerners also need to respect the cultural heritage of the Chinese, which finally made the French government speechless and had to apologize sincerely.

When the city was full of storms outside, and a large number of reporters waited for Ye Zhikui to be interviewed, Ye Zhikui, accompanied by Wang Shizhen, the engineering team commander, inspected the construction of each detachment of the Wuyi Army's engineering team.

The engineering team includes: bridge team, ground base team (fortification), lightning team (land mines), machinery repair team, surveying and mapping team, and telegraph team.It can be said that it is a relatively modern and high-tech army, and because there was no such professional army before the Qing Dynasty, Ye Zhikui paid more attention to it, and appointed Wang Shizhen, who he relied on as his right-hand man, as the commander, hoping that he could give Surprise yourself.

Wang Shizhen led Ye Zhikui to the Thunder Team, followed by a large group of generals and technical research and production personnel of the engineering team. Troops with various large-area explosive weapons are very effective in defense."

Ye Zhikui picked up a mine casually, and found that it was quite different from the mines of later generations, so he asked, "This thing looks like a broken clock. I don't know how powerful it is."

Wang Shizhen nodded, knowing that Ye Zhikui didn't know much about these weapons, and explained: "Basically, the broken clock is just a cover on the surface. Underground, the fuse is pulled outside, and if the enemy trips over the fuse, it will explode. The power is not very powerful, and the damage range is small, but it is expensive because it is simple and cheap to make.”