Master Yuan, start!

Arriving at a small building in the east of the city, Ma Fuyi walked straight in, went up to the second floor, walked to a small room with closed doors and windows, and knocked on the door.

"come in!"

There was a kerosene lamp lit in the room, and someone was already sitting there.

Seeing Ma Fuyi walk into the house, the man asked, "How is it? Have you arranged the staff?"

Ma Fuyi replied: "I found a guy from the northwest who has no connections in the local area. He graduated from the Lanzhou Military Academy and is good at shooting.

As long as we can get within a hundred steps of Liu Bingzhang, we can use our gun to take his life!"

After listening to Ma Fuyi, the man nodded and said, "The gun is not a problem. I will send it to you tomorrow. This matter must succeed, not fail! Otherwise, I am afraid that the people of my hometown in Hunan will be implicated!"

Ma Fuyi nodded upon hearing this and continued to ask, "Master Zuo, when do you think it would be safest to take action?"

The man called Zuo Da Ren said, "I heard that Liu Bingzhang will go to Wanxian in the 10th to watch another groundbreaking ceremony. Let's start then."

Seeing this, Ma Fuyi asked again, "If this is successful, Lord Zuo, are you willing to return to Xiang to revive your cause?"

Upon hearing this, Lord Zuo sighed and said, "I can't go back to Hunan. Both Li Hongzhang and Yuan Shikai are good people to get along with.

Since the Chu clan is now in the northwest, I also plan to take root here.

If you want to be an official, come to Lanzhou and I will teach you how to lead troops in battle."

This Lord Zuo was none other than Zuo Zongtang’s fourth son, Zuo Xiaotong.

After Zuo Zongtang's death, he was awarded the title of prefect by imperial grace. Due to his special status, he was kept by Yang Changjun and was always under his command.

After Yang Changjun received the news that Yuan Shikai was going to meet with Li Hongzhang, he knew that this should not happen.

In his opinion, if Yuan Shikai made peace with the south, he would turn around and take the northwest into his pocket first.

The Chu faction had finally established a foothold in the northwest. They could cooperate with Yuan Shikai, but they would never allow anyone to take this foothold away from them.

Therefore, Yang Changjun sent Zuo Xiaotong to sneak back to Hunan to contact the local Gelaohui leader Ma Fuyi, intending to disrupt the talks between Yuan and Li.

At first, he wanted to assassinate Yuan and Li directly, but Wuchang was heavily guarded and the assassins could not get in.

So, as a last resort, he had to settle for the next best thing and planned to assassinate Liu Bingzhang and frame Yuan Shikai.

In Yang Changjun's view, once Liu Bingzhang was assassinated, Yuan Shikai would be in a state of confusion and would inevitably go to war with the Huai faction.

By then, the Chu faction would be able to "step forward" and take the opportunity to "share the worries" of the President and enter Sichuan from the northwest to attack the Huai Army.

Of course, taking the opportunity to expand territory was just a side job, so there is no need to say more.

Hearing this, Ma Fuyi pondered for a moment, then clasped his fists and said, "In that case, thank you very much, Master Zuo!"

After saying this, he stopped talking, changed his clothes again, and quietly left through the back door of the building.

Chapter 377 French Xiamen

Whether in the past or present life, there are a total of four French concessions in China.

However, unlike the original time and space, Wuhan, which was originally opened as a concession after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, was spared the fate of being trampled by foreigners in this time and space.

What replaced it was half of Xiamen that was occupied by the French in this time and space.

Therefore, the French concessions in China in this time and space are Tianjin, Shanghai, Xiamen, and Guangzhou from south to north.

If we include the colonial-occupied Taiwan, then it would be 4+1, a total of five places occupied by France.

Although due to the outbreak of the Taiping Rebellion, a large number of Chinese people in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas fled to the French Concession in Shanghai to escape the war.

But unlike in history, the French Concession in Shanghai today is not the place with the largest number of French people.

When Liu Kunyi's Huai Army occupied Jiangnan, the population of the French Concession had not yet seen a large-scale reduction.

However, as soon as the Hunan Campaign began, the French in the French Concession panicked when they heard that the Hunan Army was losing ground on the Jiangbei front.

原因9无他，只因袁项城一贯捌以来对2法国人4表现3出的态度，实三在算不上友好0。

Whether it was the battle to stop the French near the capital in 1885 or the incident of breaking into the French Concession in Shanghai in 1894 to commemorate the civilians who were beaten to death, these are all ready-made examples.

This group of French colonists who came from afar were afraid that the National Revolutionary Army would arrest and hang them all after reaching Shanghai, so they hurriedly sold their properties and planned to flee to another place.

Xiamen has become the place to receive the overflow of this population.

Xiamen is located in the middle of the line connecting Guangzhou, Taiwan and Shanghai.

In addition, there was no strong armed group in Fujian, which led to Xiamen replacing Shanghai in this time and space and becoming the concession that the French focused on building.

Although it is not as prosperous as Shanghai in the original time and space, it is still among the top three among the concessions of various countries today.

The vast majority of people living in the Xiamen Concession were not serious businessmen, but various trade brokers.

Xiamen is located on the edge of Fujian, which has a rugged terrain of eight mountains, one river and one piece of farmland. It cannot provide a vast economic hinterland like Shanghai.

In fact, if given a choice, the French would prefer to expand their concession in Shanghai.

After all, Shanghai is backed by the Jiangnan Economic Zone and can easily and quickly purchase China's only currently advantageous raw material, raw silk.

If the raw silk could be transported back to Taiwan's industrial zone for processing and then sold to the Chinese, it would be easy to make a profit of more than ten times the price difference.

But unfortunately, it cannot be expanded.

Unlike the prosperous raw silk trade in the French Concession in Shanghai, the hottest industries in Xiamen were tea and human trade.

Needless to say, tea has been a dominant industry in Fujian since ancient times. Although it has encountered the impact of Indian tea, it still has some market in the world.

163*10109

As for the human trade, it was thanks to the French's continuous development of colonies in Africa.

France continued to expand its colonies, but the profits were decreasing, and it urgently needed to find pillar industries to make up for the increasing consumption.

Alas, plantation agriculture was seen by the French as the savior of their colonies in Madagascar, South Africa.

Unlike the stupid and lazy African slaves, the yellow people can quickly and independently perform agricultural work after a little training.

Therefore, the French opened two routes to Africa in Saigon and Xiamen to transport the so-called "laboring population".

0 In addition, the people of southern Fujian have had a tradition of going to sea since ancient times, and the human head trade has become a major characteristic industry here.

In addition, the political significance of the Xiamen Concession is far higher than its original time and space.

In modern China, how can a place become a gathering place for politicians?

First of all, two conditions must be met.

The second is that the area cannot be easily controlled by the central government.

Shanghai and Tianjin in the original time and space are such places, so they have become places where politicians who have resigned from office gather.

Xiamen in this time and space also has some of this flavor to a certain extent.

Whether it was the former Lingnan officials who were suppressed by Li Hongzhang's Huai faction; or the former Jiangnan officials who were squeezed out by Liu Kunyi's Huai faction; or the northern officials who were dissatisfied with Yuan Shikai's actions, refused to cooperate, and resigned.

A considerable number of them settled in Xiamen one after another.

The French will naturally take all the money they can from these frustrated politicians.

On the one hand, they promoted the prosperity of the concession, and on the other hand, it was also a political investment to a certain extent.

The situation in China is changing so drastically. How can we know that among these people, there will not be a figure like Yuan Shikai in the future?

As a diplomat who is determined to expand France's interests in the Far East, French Consul in Xiamen, Aurivi, is full of confidence in this.

Of course, he not only pays attention to frustrated politicians, but also pays close attention to the domestic situation in China.

In Aoliwei's view, there is an old Chinese saying: "You can't catch a wolf without sacrificing the child."

Li Hongzhang is weak now. If he can be supported to compete with Yuan Shikai, France will still have a place in China in the future, and it will not be completely taken away by the British.

The move of offering Taiwan's autonomy as bait to Li Hongzhang was finally decided after he had discussed it with the Governor-General of Taiwan several times.

Today, Consul Ao Liwei is at the French Concession Theater in Xiamen, enjoying traditional Chinese acrobatics with several local Fujian officials.

The former Governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, Bian Baodi, was seriously ill and had been unable to get out of bed for a long time.

The power in the central Fujian region was controlled by local Fujian families such as Chen, Huang, and Lin.

These people came to visit the French Consul Aoliwei simply to seek the support of the French so that they could have an advantage in the competition with the others.

But in fact, Ao Liwei did not want to get involved in the struggles among these local forces in Fujian.

What he was more concerned about at this time was undoubtedly the situation in Wuchang.

After seeing off this group of local nobles with ulterior motives, Ao Liwei was about to return to the consulate when he saw a rickshaw approaching from a distance at the door.

"Mr. Consul, long time no see. Are you free now?" asked the liaison officer who took orders from the Governor-General of Taiwan, lifting the awning of the car.

"Time? Of course I have plenty." Ao Liwei pointed inside the theater and said with a smile, "Why don't you come in with me to watch a Chinese acrobatics show and talk while we watch?"

After the two entered the theater, Ao Liwei chose a private box. The liaison officer didn't waste any time and went straight to the point.

"Mr. Consul, the ruler of Lingnan, Li Hongzhang, has sent a telegram to Taiwan, hoping to establish a federal autonomous congress in Formosa.

The Governor is worried that the situation with the decoy plan will get out of control, so he sent me to ask for your opinion.

After all, you were the one who first proposed this plan."

The liaison officer looked up cautiously at Consul Ao Liwei.

As expected, Aoliwei, who had been calm at first, turned red in the face after hearing this, and roared in a low voice:

"What? Formosa will be the first to establish a federal autonomous province?

Didn't Li Hongzhang know that it was a great blessing for us to let him promote the idea that Formosa would have the opportunity to have federal autonomy in the future?

He should take this opportunity to sell his political ideas to the Chinese and gain power over the whole of China, instead of asking France to meet this unrealistic demand!

"I think so too." The contact nodded and agreed:

"Li Hongzhang should have known that even if the Chinese were the majority in Formosa, the sovereignty would still be French, and this could not be changed.

The so-called federal autonomy was just a bargaining chip for him to deceive others.

However, he doesn’t seem to realize this.”

"Let's do this, don't refuse easily." Ao Liwei thought about it and finally decided to maintain superficial cooperation with Li Hongzhang.

Since France lost its colonial dominance in Shanghai, the French diplomatic department has attached the most importance to the colonies in the Lingnan region.

Aoliwei knew that this not only concerned the support rate of the current French government, but also his own future career.

By making friends with Li Hongzhang, the French government could continue to penetrate into Yunnan and Guangxi in northern Vietnam, preserving hope for its East Asian colonial expansion plan.