Seven days after the ship collision, the sky was gloomy and drizzling on the sky. It was winter and the temperature was a little low. Wang Yi stood on the steps of the dock and looked at the sea. Chu Yuan was holding an umbrella behind him. Both of them were silent and silent. The other guards were responsible for the surrounding guards, but there were not many people on the dock at this time.

After a long time, Wang Yi said, "I remember that after the Spring Festival this year, I sent Xu Xiao onto the boat here... I didn't expect it to be a farewell forever!"

"Captain, please feel sorry for me."

"Are you sad?...If I don't feel sad for him anymore, how many people in this world will be sad for his departure?... The sea water is very cold, so it can no longer make him feel cold!"

Xu Xiao's body has been found, and the suitcase he carried with him is still held in his arms! It contains all the experimental data obtained this year... Although the Hainan Seed Institute is no longer Xu Xiao's own operations, and has many helpers. Although it will have a great impact on losing him and the progress of the plan will slow down, it will not paralyze the entire hybrid rice project. But Wang Yi still cannot accept it! Xu Xiao is the first student in the literary class to die under Wang Yi, and he died so unjustly. The French did not take any rescue measures after the collision, and left directly, and did not make any notification afterwards, which led to the death of a large number of passengers. If there were no fishing boats passing by nearby, they would have ended up in an unproof way.

"Damn, Frenchman, I won't let you have a good life!"

At the French Embassy in Dongjiaomin Lane, Beijing, Bao Hai, the French ambassador to China, had a bad face. He had just had a big fight with Tang Shaoyi, the special representative of Da Shang, during the day, and was later condemned by Beiyang Minister Zhang Shusheng. Tang Shaoyi spoke very badly, and he called out a butcher at a time. Moreover, Bao Hai had a faint feeling that according to Da Shang's previous nature, this matter could not be forgotten like this!

"Those bastards in the Navy, why are you provoking Da Shang to do if you have nothing to do?"

Just as Baohai was in a state of silence, an embassy military officer suddenly walked in and said, "Mr. Ambassador, we have just received an invitation from Da Shang... In fact, the main ambassadors of various countries to China have received this invitation..."

"What are they going to do?" As soon as this was said, Baohai immediately understood - declared war!

Tang Shaoyi was a little nervous today at the Da Shang office in Beijing. He had just met Wu Tingfang and informed the Da Shang position. Beiyang expressed moral support. Of course, they would not send troops to provide any help. Wang Yi did not expect any of the slightest hope of this outside the palace, so he is not surprised now.

The new US ambassador to China, John Yang, is talking to Tang Shaoyi. Tang Shaoyi's study abroad experience at Columbia University in the United States has made John Yang very fond of this young man.

"Mr. Ambassador, your country is like my second hometown. When I was boarding in your country, Mr. Goldon's family was very nice to me."

John Young laughed and said, "This is the tradition of us Americans. We treat our friends well, make room for them to live, and deliver food at the same time. This is God's teaching."

The two were joking. At this time, the British Counselor to China, Minister Li, and Gevina came over. The original British Ambassador to China, Vitoma, had already stepped down. Sir Bashali, who succeeded him, would not submit his letter of state until mid-1883.

"Tang, what are the plans of the chairman of your Dashang?"

Tang Shaoyi smiled and said, "You will know in a while."

After a while, the French Minister Baohai finally arrived late. Tang Shaoyi just glanced at him and then began his own announcement.

"Thank you for your visit to you, Mr. Wang Yi, today I would like to share with you a new decision on our Da Shang business! We will declare war on France after 24 o'clock tonight! The safety of all French people in Fengtian, Jilin and Heilongjiang will no longer be guaranteed."

"You are not the same country, and you have no right to declare war on us!" French Minister Bao Hai shouted.

"When your warships sank our civilian ships and leave, maybe it seems to you that this is just an accident, so you arrogant French people are reluctant to express a wish for us backward and barbaric Chinese! You can use facts to delay this kind of shit reason to not investigate clearly, or use your usual tricks to say that someone on our civilian ship had a small eye on your warship with a gun to frame him!" Tang Shaoyi stared at Baohai, and the two looked at each other with a glaring eyes, not giving in to each other.

"But in our opinion, let's not talk about whether the collision was an accident. But when you abandon countless passengers who fell into the water and left without any apology, you are the murderers, and this is murder! From that moment on, our Da Shang and all the Qing people had the power to revenge. No matter whether you, the arrogant Frenchman, call this war or not, we will make you pay for your blood debt without reservation!"

Baohai stared at the young man in front of him, and was silent for a moment, and finally saw a cold light in his eyes and said, "Since that's the case, we will accompany him to the end!"

After saying that, Baohai turned around and left. Not long after, Japanese Minister Takeo Hiromoto and Russian Minister Fuce chased after him.

The next evening, shocking news began to spread among the embassies.

Most of the passenger ships and cargo ships departing from Tianjin, Shanghai and other places were attacked by the Great Merchant fleet. In just one day, two passenger ships and three French cargo ships were hijacked, and one of the cargo ships was directly sunk because they attempted to collide the Great Merchant Navy. In addition to the French, all the crew members on the ship received timely treatment, and of course all lost their personal freedom. As for the arrogant French captain and his French crew members, they were all shot dead on the spot!

Once this incident spread, it immediately shocked the world.

Baohai came to find Tang Shaoyi, but was turned away! Then he angrily went to the Prime Minister's affairs offices to reason with him. Yi did a very good job. He said directly that this matter had nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty, and the one who dealt with you was Da Shang. You can go to Yingkou to find Da Shang to avenge him. We understand this. However, the process of the matter has not yet been concluded, so it is difficult for us to make a public statement. Please understand the minister.

The Qing court was not helping the big merchants on this issue. In fact, their taboos towards the big merchants were not inferior to France. This was to provoke the relationship between France and the big merchants, and they were doing the strategy of fishermen to gain profits by fighting against cranes and clams.

The news soon came back to France, attracting widespread attention from the public. French President Jules Grevi and Prime Minister Charles Dukleck immediately declared war on the local armed forces in the northeastern region of the Qing Dynasty - Da Shang, and threatened to launch an attack.

Rufeili, the imperialist leader, jumped out and publicly accused the government of just verbal remarks to deceive and appease the public. In desperation, the French government immediately appointed the naval colonel to form the French Tokyo fleet, dispatching one ironclad ship, one second-class cruiser, four gunboats and two second-class torpedo boats, and set off before March next year. Later, the French government and the Navy Department also issued an order to the French fleet in China and Japan, requiring the commander-in-chief Mei Yi to lead the fleet to launch an attack on Yingkou, the location of the Dalian Commercial Bureau.

However, what everyone did not expect was that the Qing Dynasty officials expressed neutrality on the matter and even provided supplies to the French fleet heading north.

When Wu Xiao saw the news, he slapped the table in anger, and his handsome face became distorted. Wang Yi was quite calm and said, "Why are you and me angry? Isn't this kind of thing expected long ago?"

"Captain, even though he said that, I still find it hard to accept it!" Wu Xiao was still a young man after all. Even if he had experienced more, he still had a sense of passion in his heart.

"What's hard to accept?" Wang Yi said it unpretentiously. He knew the history of later generations, so he had never expected any of the Qing court from the very beginning. It was better to be with friendly countries than with family slaves - this is the truth of Lord Lafayette.

"Will you protest to Beijing?"

"What are he doing when protesting? We just want them to go north!" Wang Yi turned his face at this time and said to Shang Yi: "How are you ready?"

"The Yishi destroyer is not a problem. However, the Zhaojun cruiser still has some minor problems and is currently being repaired in the shipyard, which is estimated to take two or three days." Shang Yi replied.

"Don't worry about you!"

While the three were talking, Chu Yuan walked in and said, "Report to the captain, the latest news from the Japanese side, the Japanese fleet has begun to assemble, and the specific combat trends are unknown!"

"It seems that it is really the same as we predicted. The fox, which is fake and powerful, is starting to move again." Wang Yi smiled. "I don't know what our old friend, Russian, will react?"

"There should be no choice at the moment, but I heard that they have started a new large-scale shipbuilding plan in China. In the past two years, there will be no news for the time being. But it is hard to say in the future." Shang Yi said a little worried.

"Don't worry about them, send a telegram to Zheng Haitao, asking them to build a fortress in the Chita area next year. If necessary, they can lead troops to attack Irkutsk and drive the Russians away from the area near Baier Lake (Lake Baikal)!"

Five days later, Wang Yi practiced it for Shang Yi and others at Yingkou Wharf. Although the sea test of the Zhaojun and Yishi have not been completed, he can only make it. The news at present is that the French arrived in Shanghai four days ago and set out again to head north yesterday.

The entire expeditionary fleet has a total of thirteen warships, including one ironclad ship and the Triumph. Six cruisers of all levels, including: Suni Cruiser, Dusavo Cruiser, Kaisheng Cruiser, Reconnaissance Cruiser, Chambran Cruiser, Reno Castle Cruiser, and six gunboats and torpedo boats, Yishibi, Viper, Wildcat, Rutin, Dand, and Draco. Following the fleet, there were four transport ships, and the entire fleet carried more than 2,500 soldiers, which was a huge scale.

The information of Triumph has been introduced in the previous article and will not be repeated.

Sunny cruiser: The ship has a displacement of 2017 tons, a length of 79.38 meters, a width of 11.00 meters, and a draft of 5.59-5.87 meters. This class of ships is equipped with 4-seat boilers (seignelay is a 6-seat boiler), single-axis propulsion, output horsepower of 1800-2000 horses, a speed of 14.9-15.0 knots, and a coal load of 330-350 tons. The ship is equipped with 6 m1870 140mm guns (the subsequent ship is 8), and 6-8 37mm rotary machine guns. 203 personnel are established.

The Dushafo Cruiser and the Kaisheng Cruiser are of the same class: displacement is 1,330 tons, length is 63.24 meters, width is 10.41 meters, draft is 4.98 meters. This class of ships is equipped with 2 boilers, single-axis propulsion, output horsepower is 900-1,200 horsepower, speed is 11.3-12.8 knots, and coal load capacity is 175-295 tons. This class of ships is equipped with 1 m1870 163mm gun, 5-6 m1870 140mm gun (dayot is equipped with 190mm gun, 6 140mm gun). 154 personnel are in charge.

Reconnaissance cruiser: The ship is an iron-brown structure. The ship's displacement is 1,722 tons, the ship's length is 73.91 meters, the width is 10.80 meters, and the draft is 5.36-5.49 meters. The ship's class is equipped with 6-seat boilers, single-axis propulsion, outputs 2,400 horsepower, speed is 11.3-12.8 knots, and the coal load capacity is 205 tons. This class is equipped with 8 m1870 140mm guns and 6-8 37mm rotary machine guns. 194 personnel are included.

Chamberland Cruiser: This class ship has a displacement of 2,042 tons, a length of 79.86 meters, a width of 10.89 meters, and a draft of 5.71 meters. The ship is equipped with 4-seat boilers, single-axis propulsion, outputs 1,800-2,000 horsepower, a speed of 13.7-15 knots, and carries 300-330 tons of coal. This class ship is equipped with m1870 or m1870m type 163mm guns, 8-10 doors, 1-pound gun cannons, 4-8 doors of 1 Infernet and Chamberland are also equipped with 2 356mm torpedo tubes. The staff is 205 people.

The Renault Cruiser: The ship has a displacement of 1,820 tons, a length of 78.18 meters, a width of 10.74 meters, and a draft of 5.74 meters. The ship is equipped with 4 boilers, single-axis propulsion, outputs 1,700 horsepower, and a speed of 14.3 knots. The ship is equipped with 4 m1864 or m1866 163mm guns, 6 m1864 or m1867 140mm guns, and 202 personnel are placed.

Yi Shibi, Viper, and Wild Cat all have a displacement of 470 tons, 9 artillery pieces, and 120 crew members.

"It seems that the French still respect us very much!" Wang Yi sneered.

Shang Yi took Yan Fu's naval officers and soldiers to undergo Wang Yi's inspection, and all the fleet members stood together, with nearly 2,000 people. The Great Shang fleet that set out this time will use Lushun Port as a base to patrol the nearby sea area.

Five days later, Wang Yi, Wu Xiao and others were puzzled, why did the French fleet disappear after leaving Shanghai, as if it had disappeared?

Two days later, news came from Japan. The French fleet has now arrived in Nagasaki and has joined the Japanese fleet. Japan sent warships such as Ryukao, Dongshi, Hiei, Fusang, and other warships, and another six warships, carrying 3,000 soldiers.

The number of warships of the two countries combined has reached the scale of eighteen. On the same day that Wang Yi received the news, Tang Shaoyi sent a telegram from Beijing that Japan declared war on the Da Shang Dynasty, and the reason for declaring war was Wang Yi's revenge on the massacre of Japanese civilians.

Compared with the silence of the Da Shang, new voices have begun to appear within the Qing Dynasty. The Qingliu, led by Li Hongzao and Weng Tonghe, began to jump up and down again, constantly admonishing Cixi, hoping to send troops to set off by land while France and Japan attacking the Da Shang, and go out from Shanhaiguan to take the opportunity to nationalize the Da Shang!
Chapter completed!