The arrogance started from Chinatown

Chapter 710 I suddenly remembered that I am not the President of the United States
"If we don't give him money, can he fight his way here?" Nguyen Phuc Hong Ren asked tearfully.

"He can!" Ruan Zhonghe said in a deep voice.

"He has fought the US government, Colombia, Cuba, and recently Japan... If we don't pay, he will definitely not give up!"

If anyone else might be a threat, when Chen Zhengwei said this, it was definitely not a threat.

Chen Zhengwei is now internationally famous.

Ordinary people may not know him, but almost everyone who works in diplomacy in various countries and who is concerned about foreign situations knows him.

After all, he is often involved in some national disputes in his personal capacity.

Even directly attack the country.

And every now and then something happens.

There is only one such in the whole world.

Ruan Zhonghe told everyone about some of the things Chen Zhengwei had done, and everyone knew what kind of person he was.

The enemy's fleet has arrived at the dock, and it is obvious that they are here to rob. We cannot send them away without paying.

"We can't come up with 300 million! If it's 30... I'm afraid it will have to be deducted from other places." Minister of Revenue Ruan Wenxiang reminded.

"The Ministry of Revenue is in a difficult situation, and the inner treasury is now unable to make ends meet... By selling some things, we can still get 20..." After Nguyen Phuc Hong Ren finished speaking, his eyes swept across the faces of other ministers in the hall with anticipation.

"France is eyeing us covetously in the south, and there are wolves knocking on the door of Da Nang. The country is in trouble. You are all the backbone of the country. Can you first raise some money to send that man away? I know that 300 million is definitely not enough. If you can come up with 100 million, then go and negotiate with him, persuade him with reason and emotion, and let him leave Da Nang..."

In response to the king's words, everyone looked at each other in silence.

They naturally knew the current situation in Vietnam. On the one hand, France was invading, and on the other hand, the country was suppressing rebellion. The national treasury and the internal treasury had long been empty, and the country had been in deficit for many years.

Even if we increase taxes, we won’t be able to collect any money.

The national treasury and the inner treasury have no money, but these aristocratic families do have money, but it is impossible to ask them to pay.

"Are you gentlemen unwilling to pay even a penny?" Nguyen Phuc Hong Ren said angrily, looking at everyone one by one, his gaze was as sharp as a knife.

Even though he was crying just now, his eyes were as sharp as knives.

When Nguyen Phuc Hong Ren's eyes fell on the Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thuong, Nguyen Van Thuong stood up and said, "Although my family is very poor, I am willing to give everything I have to help your majesty!"

"I don't know exactly how much money I have at home, but if I sell my property, I can get 20,000 to 30,000 taels of silver! (30,000 to 40,000 US dollars)"

Seeing Ruan Wenxiang speak, others also spoke up, and some of them spit out some money, which added up to more than 100,000 taels of silver, which is equivalent to 200,000 US dollars.

But even so, only $70 was raised.

"This will get rid of the plague god, right?" Nguyen Phuc Hong Ren looked at Nguyen Trung Ha.

"It's difficult..." Ruan Zhonghe sighed.

A person's name, the shadow of a tree.

Chen Zhengwei is now notorious, and his name alone is enough to give some countries a headache, forcing the king and ministers of a country to scrape together some money to send him away.

But in Nguyen Trong Ha's opinion, this is not enough.

"Just give him as much as he wants? Why not just give Vietnam to him!" another minister said angrily.

70 U.S. dollars. The other party just said a few words, and they collected 70 U.S. dollars and sent it to the other party.

Not enough?
But after Hua finished speaking, he felt something was wrong, and turned to Nguyen Phuc Hong Ren and said, "Your Majesty, please forgive me for my mistake!"

"It was also an unintentional mistake on the part of your family!" Nguyen Phuc Hongren waved his hand and looked at Nguyen Trung Ha.

"Your Majesty and all the gentlemen, please wait a moment while I go back to get some things! You will know why I said this after reading it." Ruan Zhonghe said, then got up and left. Half an hour later, he took a stack of newspapers and asked others to read them.

After the subordinates read the newspaper, the officials from the other six ministries and the cabinet's confidential minister all frowned as they listened.

"Some of these newspapers are from England, and some from France. I got them from merchants I deal with."

"Chen Zhengwei is a violent person, but he has powerful ships and cannons, as well as a large number of subordinates. He commits crimes everywhere and then extorts money after causing trouble."

"Although Japan and Vietnam are both vassal states of China, Japan's current strength is far from that of Vietnam. They also beat them to Tokyo Bay and extorted 200 million yuan from them, and also took away the Ryukyu Islands!"

"The Qing Dynasty is dozens of times larger than Vietnam, yet he still extorted 200 million taels of silver and a shipload of silk!"

"Do you think we can handle it?"

"If he attacks Hue, how do you plan to deal with it?"

Everyone frowned for a long time before someone said, "We can't get the money. 300 million US dollars is more than 200 million taels of silver. We can't afford it! So what do you think we should do?"

"That's what I want to say!" Ruan Zhonghe saw that everyone understood how difficult that guy was, so he spoke:
"Now the French Republic is continuously invading Tonkin, and its intentions towards Tonkin are obvious."

（越南分为南圻6省、中圻13省、和北圻21省3大区域，其中南圻6省已经被法国占据，并且正在向北圻渗透。）
"Now our dynasty is no longer able to resist the French invasion in Tonkin. We can only rely on the Qing Dynasty and local government to resist. If France sends troops, the provinces of Tonkin will probably fall into the hands of France!"

"Why don't we mortgage a part of Tonkin to this Chen Zhengwei? When the French invade, they will most likely clash with him. The crisis facing Tonkin will naturally be resolved!"

"Although we have given up some land, most of Tonkin is still in our hands, which is equivalent to asking him to help us resist the French."

"Otherwise, if the French invade and occupy Tonkin, we will only have Central Vietnam left."

Everyone understood what Ruan Zhonghe meant. They were all silent, with varying expressions on their faces.

Today, the Vietnamese court is severely divided. On the one hand, many ministers are divided into pro-French and anti-French factions. On the other hand, the current King Nguyen Phuc Hong Ren has no descendants, and many ministers have different ideas about the succession to the throne.

Everyone was confused when they heard Ruan Zhonghe's words.

The Minister of War, Zunshi, who was an anti-French faction, looked at Nguyen Phuc Hong Nhan and asked, "What are you going to mortgage to him?"

"Haiphong Port!"

Hearing what Ruan Zhonghe said, several ministers' faces changed slightly and they jumped up directly: "No!"

"Let's not talk about the fact that Haiphong Port is the outlet of the Red River, and the shipping on the Red River is the lifeline of the entire Tonkin! Even if you hand over Haiphong Port to him, how do you know that he will fight with the French? In the end, what will you do if he disagrees?"

"The Red River is not only the lifeline of Tonkin, but also allows us to invade Yunnan and other places in the Qing Dynasty through the Red River! Therefore, this is the primary target of the French!" Ruan Zhonghe said:

"As for how to ensure that he can fight the French, it is indeed impossible! We can only do our best and leave the rest to fate! However, this man is supported by the British, and even the warships were sold to him by the British. And Britain and France are in competition, so there is a great chance that he will clash with France!"

"Also, we can sign an agreement with him not to give the port to the French!"

"You gentlemen are so eager to oppose, are you afraid that it will affect your wealth and status?" Ruan Zhonghe said with a bit of sarcasm.

These people are all pro-French.

"Nonsense!" Several people were immediately angry.

"Keep talking!" Nguyen Phuc Hong Ren directly interrupted everyone's rebuttal.

"If he doesn't agree, then we can change it to Guang'an Port and Hongji Coal Mine! Guang'an Port is a deep-water port, and Hongji Coal Mine has an annual output of tens of thousands of dollars... Americans have advanced machines, and they can produce more in his hands!" There was some sadness in Ruan Zhonghe's eyes.

The French have always been plotting to take over the Hongji Coal Mine.

However, Vietnam's mining technology was extremely simple, and coupled with French interference in trade, the price of these coal mines was very low.

In their hands, the coal mine that the French had been eyeing produced only 10,000 taels of silver, or about 15,000 US dollars, each year.

This is the value of the coal produced. After deducting the labor and local interception, the final amount handed over to the court is less than 2000 US dollars.

In this case, it would be better to hand over the coal mine that the French have been eyeing to Chen Zhengwei.

After discussing for several hours, everyone finally decided to follow Nguyen Trong Ha's approach, and the royal family sent someone to go to Da Nang with Nguyen Trong Ha to negotiate with Chen Zhengwei.

……

In Da Nang, the sky is clear at this time.

Seagulls were flying around the warship.

Two large red parrots flew into the sky from time to time to drive away those who approached their territory.

Chen Zhengwei lay on a recliner, listening to the waves and basking in the sun.

A parasol mostly shielded him from view.

After being at sea for so long, his skin is now almost tanned.

Wanyun was applying coconut oil on his body. Her small hand slid from his chest to his lower abdomen. Chen Zhengwei took a breath.

Wanyun smiled secretly and applied coconut oil on Chen Zhengwei's waist.

"Master Wei, why do you want to apply oil?"

"Because it's bright!" Chen Zhengwei said as a matter of course.

After applying coconut oil, his muscles became more prominent.

Of course, the most important thing is brightness!

He picked up a bottle of coconut juice and drank it. Then he picked up his pocket watch and looked at it. Chen Zhengwei shouted, "Xiwen, take people to find those monkeys! Tell them, the time is up!"

"Uncle Wei, will they pay?" Wanyun asked.

"What you should ask is not whether they will pay, but whether they can pay it!" Chen Zhengwei sneered.

"Vietnam is such a big country, they can pay it back, right? They even have a king..." Wanyun thought for a moment and said.

In her opinion, it is impossible for a country to be unable to pay 300 million US dollars.

After all, she had been helping Chen Zhengwei with his accounts for a long time.

The Golden Club in San Francisco alone has a profit of $300 million a year.

"Look at those small broken ships. The Vietnamese Navy combined is not even as big as a torpedo launcher! If they had money, they would have bought ships long ago!" said Chen Zhengwei.

After all, the displacement of a torpedo launcher is at least 500 tons.

Vietnam’s main warships have a displacement of more than 100 tons, and the others are small boats with a displacement of dozens of tons.

"Master Wei, they can't afford it, why are you asking them for so much?"

"If you can't pay it out, use something else as collateral! Then I'll exchange it with the French for the Panama Canal!" Chen Zhengwei grinned.

"If they don't agree, I will attack Hue and sell Vietnam to the French."

He already knew that Vietnam couldn't come up with the money.

But his goal is not just money.

Although he had already arranged people in Panama to split Panama.

However, the French will not just accept the loss.

There will definitely be some conflicts between the two sides.

Vietnam is more important to France and is France's seesaw in East Asia.

Then I can exchange with the French.

Even if it is not used to exchange for the Panama Canal, it can be used to exchange for other things.

All kinds of thoughts flashed through Chen Zhengwei's mind, and then his actions stopped.

"Uncle Wei, what's wrong?" Wan Yun asked with concern.

"I was thinking... why the hell should I exchange my stuff with the French? I'm not the President of the United States!" Chen Zhengwei took a box from the side and pulled out a cigar from it.

After Chen Zhengwei lit the cigar and took two puffs, he felt something was not right the more he thought about it.

Damn it! I am not the President of the United States. This is what the President should do!
"Damn it, I'm worried sick about America! Even the President of the United States has to kowtow to me!" Chen Zhengwei cursed.

He always subconsciously treats America as his own.

America belongs to the American people!

So of course the US government has to find a way to deal with this kind of thing!
Even things like splitting Panama should be done by the US government!

"Forget it. Vietnam can't come up with the money anyway. I'll just shake hands and see if I can exchange something for something!" Chen Zhengwei lay back on the recliner and suddenly felt that everything he had been busy doing for so long had lost its meaning.

This immediately made him feel bad.

"Brother, the negotiators are on their way here and will probably arrive in the evening." Li Xiwen said after returning.

"Damn, it's so slow, are they riding in ox carts?" Chen Zhengwei cursed angrily.

"My time is not money, right? Tell me, is time money?"

Li Xiwen scratched his head and asked the big-headed boy who was sitting on the deck reading a book: "Brother, why are you suddenly in a bad mood?"

"It seems like he has figured out something!" Big Head said in a low voice. He was also guessing what Chen Zhengwei had suddenly figured out just now.

Big Head put his hands on the deck. It felt so good that the ship didn't sail.

He was terrified at the thought of sailing to San Francisco.

He had never known before that he could get seasick, and so severely so.

……

It was not until the evening that two light carriages accompanied by a dozen knights entered Da Nang.

Ruan Zhonghe also tried his best to rush here.

After meeting the governor of Da Nang, he asked, "What do they say over there?"

"Sir, they have urged us several times!" The governor of Da Nang did not sleep well last night. He packed up all his belongings at home and even prepared a carriage in the backyard.

Ruan Zhonghe nodded: "There is no time to lose, let someone notify them! The negotiation location will be... the prefectural government office!"

Then he went to another carriage and said to the young man in it, "Duke Lang, you will have to work hard today!"

The other young man was Nguyen Phuc Hong Yi, Duke of Lang.

Nguyen Phuc Hong Yi said: "State affairs are urgent!"

(End of this chapter)