Master Yuan, start!

"Cambridge is indeed a world-renowned university, but our German philosophy is not bad either. There is no need to go to Britain." William II took the letter from Crown Prince William with a smile and said:

"Besides, you are the crown prince of Germany. Neither Cambridge philosophy nor German philosophy is what you should study."

"I know, Father." Crown Prince William nodded. "As the heir to the German Empire, I should receive military education instead of studying philosophy."

"That's good to know. Go down." William II put the letter on the table, and suddenly remembered something and asked:

"By the way, little William, did you see that little Beatrice at the London celebration?"

Princess Beatrice is the youngest daughter of Prince Alfred.

Prince Alfred was the second son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and the Duke of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in Germany.

Although Germany has been unified into an empire, the various kingdoms and principalities within it still have a great deal of independence. Some states even have independent armies that are not controlled by the German General Staff.

In addition, the relationship between European royal families has always been chaotic, which has led to the phenomenon that a British prince can come to a principality in Germany to serve as a duke.

However, William II welcomed Prince Alfred's arrival and even participated in his Dukedom granting ceremony in person.

Because his mother was British and Queen Victoria was famous throughout Europe, William II had a mixed feeling of love and hate towards Britain.

He told his ministers more than once that armed conflict with Britain was "the most unimaginable thing."

At this time, William II did not want to have a military conflict with Britain, so he regarded marriage as an option to deepen relations with Britain.

It happened that Queen Victoria's second son gave up his title in the UK and chose to come to Germany to serve as the Duke of Saxony. He intended to let his son Crown Prince William contact the Duke of Saxony's fourth daughter, Princess Beatrice.

William II wanted to take this opportunity to cultivate the relationship between the two and to have a marriage that would strengthen the relationship between the two families.

Group 97587

Crown Prince William didn't know that his father had already found a future wife for him. After hearing the question, he waved his fist and said unwillingly:

"That damned little girl actually took advantage of her familiarity with London to tease me about being from the country. When I get a chance to go to Saxony, I'm going to teach her a lesson!"

"Teach her a lesson? Hahahaha." William II laughed happily when he saw that his son and Princess Beatrice got along well.

Chapter 409 Guerrilla on the Shiwan Mountains

"Assholes! You're a bunch of rubbish!"

Several roars rang out from the camp of the French Armaments Regiment in Hue, causing Major General Nissen to look angrily at the Lieutenant Colonel in front of him:

“Did you use all your strength on the belly of Vietnamese women?

The navy has blocked the nearby seas and no ship can leave. It is now almost certain that Emperor Thanh Thai is near Hue!

Is this how you tarnish the glory of the French Army founded by Napoleon?!"

"Please rest assured, Major General. I will immediately send more soldiers to search. However..." The reprimanded lieutenant colonel did not dare to look up at Nissen's angry eyes and could only say cautiously:

"But what if Emperor Chengtai is hiding among the people and secretly heading north?

After all, before he escaped, he deliberately distributed a lot of leaflets near the Hue Palace, claiming that he was going north to China to seek a way to restore his country.

"Then search!" Major Jeanniessen said fiercely, "Search every house, scrape the ground three feet deep!

If we can't find Emperor Thanh Thai, we'll bury all the people of Hue with him!"

All...all the people in the city will be buried with him?

The lieutenant colonel swallowed, somewhat unable to believe the order he had just heard.

"Major General, are you saying you want to attack the people of Hue? This is not the behavior of a civilized country!"

"Civilized countries, what are civilized countries?" Major General Jean Nissen said disdainfully after hearing the question: "European countries that bathe in the glory of the Lord and possess splendid culture are civilized countries.

As for these unbelieving yellow monkeys, they are nothing but savages, no different from African gorillas.

There's no need to show any civilization to them!"

"Yes!"

Looking at the hurriedly departing lieutenant colonel's back, Nissen, a veteran of the Franco-Prussian War, felt very disappointed.

"These young men should go to the Algerian desert and eat sand for a few years instead of coming to Indochina to enjoy themselves as soon as they join the army!"

Hue was originally the "best capital" of Vietnam. However, with the escape of Emperor Thanh Thai, it came under the wrath of the French.

After calming down, Major General Nissen looked towards the northeast again and became concerned about the situation in China.

8 The war that broke out in the heart of China was so unexpected that Li Hongzhang, who was highly expected by the French, suffered repeated defeats and collapsed at a speed far beyond previous imagination.

Wu let Nissen hear that the Governor of Cochinchina had sent a shipload of weapons to Guangzhou. However, Nissen was skeptical about this. Would it really be useful to just give weapons?

What would be the fate of French Indochina if a unified China emerged that was hostile to France?

"Forget it, let's just focus on the present."

Major General Jeanniesen shook his head and focused his energy on searching for Emperor Cheng Tai.

...

Just as a French lieutenant colonel led a large number of troops to search the entire city, in several villages in northern Vietnam, near the Guangxi border, the sound of vernacular voices echoed through the dense forest.

4. "What is this, a cannon?" What is this, a cannon?

"Damn it, Li Hongzhang is so high up, he fired us!"

"It must be the President who gave us weapons." It must be the President who gave us weapons.

Some soldiers who were obviously older were wearing straw sandals and straw hats. They were cursing and stroking the guns and ammunition in their hands.

At their feet were dozens of portable 60mm mountain cannons disassembled into parts.

Contrary to later impressions, the vast coastal area in southern Guangxi at that time was actually administratively part of Guangdong.

Cantonese is not only the official language of Guangdong people, but also the official language of Qin, Lian and Yong in southern Guangxi.

The main force of the Black Flag Army is actually the Cantonese-speaking people in Guangxi.

The Black Flag Army was ordered to be disbanded by Li Hongzhang, and some of its members were absorbed into the Lingnan New Army and stationed in Guangxi as garrison troops.

As for the other part of the die-hard anti-French faction, Li Hongzhang did not kill them, but forced them to retire and not to serve in the military again.

After obtaining weapons and equipment supported by Yuan Shikai, Liu Yongfu sneaked back to the Guangxi border and regrouped his old subordinates.

Originally, this was not an easy task, because after making peace with the French, Li Hongzhang listed Liu Yongfu as a key target for surveillance, fearing that he would affect the overall peace of the border.

In addition, Li Hongzhang stationed dozens to hundreds of guard troops in each county to prevent the Black Flag Army from rising again.

However, as the National Revolutionary Army was making rapid progress on the front lines, Li Hongzhang had to withdraw his troops and recall part of the garrison troops stationed in Guangxi.

This gave Liu Yongfu room to maneuver.

After sneaking back to Guangxi, Liu Yongfu experienced the feeling of a dragon returning to the sea for the first time. Even though some of the remaining Lingnan New Army defenders found that the situation was unstable recently, who would be willing to interfere after hearing the news that the National Revolutionary Army in the north was attacking cities and strongholds and the Lingnan Huai Army was retreating all the way?

Li Hongzhang did not place his main force in Guangxi, which means that most of the Jiulingnan New Army stationed in these six places were local Guangxi people.

There are Hakkas, locals, people who speak Cantonese, and people who speak local dialects, but no matter what their identity, they do not have a high degree of recognition of the Lingnan New Army, which is mainly composed of people from Anhui and Hefei.

Therefore, after returning to his hometown, Liu Yongfu not only summoned his old subordinates in the country, but also gathered a large number of Vietnamese who had escaped across the border because of the evil deeds of the French.

This includes Vietnamese Han people and Vietnamese natives.

Based on the original Black Flag Army, the troops expanded to 10 battalions with a total number of more than 5000 people.

The Black Flag Army still adopted the original militia structure. Although the Central Military Commission of the Socialist Revolutionary Party did not formally issue an order to incorporate it due to the different organization, Yuan Xiangcheng still sent a number to Liu Yongfu after learning the news.

"The Black Flag Mixed Brigade of the Lingnan Military Region of the National Revolutionary Army."

The original Lingnan Military Region was established by Yuan Shikai specifically for Li Hongzhang, and the National Revolutionary Army did not have a single soldier in Lingnan.

After receiving the designation, the Black Flag Mixed Brigade officially became the only armed force of the National Revolutionary Army in the Lingnan Military Region.

In the thatched house on stilts, Liu Yongfu felt extremely excited as he watched the Black Flag Army below becoming increasingly elite.

He turned around and asked the two National Revolutionary Army combat staff officers beside him: "Staff Officer Lu, Staff Officer Chen, the military morale is there, the military morale is there!

In my opinion, we should directly advance into Vietnam and first take down a few of the French strongholds!"

Lu Yongxiang and Chen Guangyuan were originally combat staff officers of the Central Plains Military Region and the Jiangnan Military Region of the National Revolutionary Army. One followed Sheng Fei and the other followed Feng Guozhang.

Later, he was sent by Yuan Shikai to follow Liu Yongfu to the Sino-Vietnamese border to guide the Black Flag Army's combat operations.

After all, the Black Flag Army's organization had dissipated for several years. Even if it was reassembled again, Yuan Xiangcheng was worried that they would not be able to adapt to the current combat methods.

If the Black Flag Army after restoration becomes a feudal army that drags down the army, it would be better to have no army.

Therefore, while providing weapons and artillery to Liu Yongfu, Yuan Shikai also sent him two staff officers.

As for Lu Yongxiang and Chen Guangyuan, they were both famous Beiyang warlords in the original time and space. One had served as the governor of Jiangxi and the other had served as the governor of Zhejiang.

Historically, they were complete villains who suppressed the Luanzhou Uprising during the Xinhai Revolution and the revolutionary party's national protection and law protection movements during the Republic of China period.

However, in this time and space, they were just passionate young people who were admitted to the Military Academy in Tianjin in order to serve their country, and then followed the National Revolutionary Army in its battles.

After hearing Liu Yongfu's proposal, Lu Yongxiang scratched his head and asked, "Brigade Commander Liu, what is our mission this time?"

"Mission?" Liu Yongfu thought for a moment and said, "To contain the French and disrupt Guangxi?"

"Yes, Commander Liu, the Central Military Commission's mission to us is to contain them, not to annihilate them!" Lu Yongxiang nodded and said:

“So, our approach is to raise the profile of the Black Flag Army, and ideally, to shock the Guangxi-Vietnam border.

However, the main force must not engage in direct conflict with the French."

Liu Yongfu frowned and said:

"Even if the French are powerful, we can still go down the river to the east and attack Guangdong directly, so that Li Hongzhang will be attacked from both sides. This will also reduce the pressure on the National Revolutionary Army on the front line.

Furthermore, expelling the Fa is what the people of Guiyue want. We can't just sit there and watch them suffer and do nothing, right?"

Several towns in northern Vietnam were actually controlled by China before the Sino-French War in the late Qing Dynasty.

In fact, north of the "Shanxi" area in northern Vietnam, there were thousands of Black Flag Army and Gui Army stationed, as well as more than 100,000 registered Chinese who spoke Mandarin and used Chinese characters.

If it had been able to reach the modern era smoothly, perhaps this land of tens of thousands of square kilometers could have been incorporated into Guangxi Province.

But unfortunately, after the Sino-French War, the Qing army was forced to retreat from here to near the Sino-Vietnamese border. This place then became a French colony and was handed over to the Vietnamese after World War II.

But in this time and space in 1897, this place was still ruled by the Chinese. Liu Yongfu was familiar with the local customs, so he proposed to take the initiative to attack.

"No!" Chen Guangyuan also stepped forward to explain: "It is true that the people's will is in their favor, but the people's will cannot produce bullets or cannons.

Brigade Commander Liu, our Black Flag Army is isolated in the mountains of Guangxi and has no friendly support.