Chapter 81: Military Expenses

“One hundred Black Flag Notes?”
Luo Yanqiu looked at Su Sui with curiosity. She was quite familiar with this nun—a young nun of considerable status within the Catholic community, second only to the Western missionaries. During her time preaching in Hanoi, she hadn’t set any price at all but had tried every means to win her over, aiming to bring this shepherd to her side.
But she quickly responded, “No problem. I can give a thousand Black Flag Notes, as long as you agree to join us.”
“A thousand Black Flag Notes!” Su Sui stretched out her hand. “I agree, but that’s not enough.”
After Luo Yanqiu’s offer, she suddenly changed her mind. Although she had defected from the church, she still knew a great deal about its internal affairs, which could be sold for a hefty sum.
Luo Yanqiu had the money. The 27,000 believers under her control were like golden chickens that laid eggs, and their numbers kept growing each month. Moreover, the Huajian Church had kept up with the times and was now a top-tier borrower at the Black Flag Bank.
The Black Flag Bank even allowed her to use her believers as collateral to borrow money from them to expand new parishes, with the believers repaying the loans through donations later—essentially a partnership between the two parties.
Now, Luo Yanqiu came with a check to help expand the number of believers. She had plenty of money and, to show off her strength, led Su Sui backward. “How much do you need? I just applied for a loan from the Black Flag Bank—five thousand in total. I originally planned to build more branches in Bắc Kỳ. If you need it, it’s all yours.”
Su Sui knew that obtaining those five thousand Black Flag Notes wasn’t easy—it would completely offend the Catholic Church. But making a decision took only a minute. “Then what position will you give me?”
The Huajian Church had a strategy of poaching believers directly from the Catholic Church, but Luo Yanqiu preferred to recruit shepherds. Su Sui was a highly influential nun, so she said, “You can choose whatever position you want in the Huajian Church.”
Su Sui knew many secrets, including those of the secret family churches in various Catholic parishes in Bắc Kỳ, especially several small churches still operating in Shanxi Province—information the Huajian Church needed most. “Good! Enough of this. I think you’d better deal with Sister Teresa first.”
“Sister Teresa?” Luo Yanqiu recognized the name. “The nun your church is grooming?”
Sister Teresa was one of Bingmei’s aliases. To advance in the church, even without foreign blood, one needed a foreign name. Luo Yanqiu knew she was a pawn cultivated by Vietnamese Catholics over many years. The original plan was to present her to Emperor Tự Đức, following the traditional royal path of the Catholic Church, in hopes of producing a prince and turning Vietnam into a fully Catholic country.
But that plan failed. With Emperor Tự Đức’s health deteriorating, the Catholic Church reclassified her as a Catholic agent to gather intelligence everywhere. “Right now, Sister Teresa is in Bảo Thắng with thirteen believers and many gold francs.”
“They also have four revolvers and two Remington rifles for self-defense.”

This time, when Luo Yanqiu came to Baosheng to oversee educational affairs, she didn’t bring many guards. Her main force consisted of over twenty men armed with Snider rifles. Since Baosheng was the headquarters of the Black Flag Army, she only brought one-third of her troops, leaving her somewhat undermanned. Yet, with her sharp insight, she said, “This is a good thing.”

Sister Teresa came to Baosheng specifically to undermine the credibility of the Black Flag currency. This had touched the bottom line of both the Black Flag Army and the Xiliu Camp. Therefore, Luo Yanqiu said, “Send someone to inform Commander Liu that I need to borrow his guards.”

“Also, inform Liu Yongfu that the Flower Between Sect has already found the culprit who disrupted the market and attacked his warehouse. We need to borrow his forces to capture them. Once they’re caught, half of the loot will go to him, and he can keep the pistols he carried.”

These terms for dividing the loot were quite fair. Capturing Catholics posed a huge problem for Liu Yongfu. He wasn’t short of money, but he was in dire need of firearms. Hearing that he could keep four revolvers and two Remington pistols for himself, he agreed immediately.

Bingmei, also known as Sister Teresa, and her group now numbered only twelve, completely trapped inside Baosheng City. Although a curfew hadn’t been imposed, patrols were everywhere in the city.

The household where they were hiding had also become a key target for the Black Flag Army’s surveillance. People came to question them from time to time, leaving the residents extremely nervous. Especially after Su Sui and Qiao Erchi fled, even Bingmei began to waver.

But trying to escape from the Black Flag Army’s tight grip now was tantamount to seeking death. They could only wait until nightfall to leave and sent two loyal believers out to gather information.

The French Catholic Church’s plans in Baosheng over the past decade had now been exposed, making future activities extremely difficult. People like the owner of this household, who had hidden his Catholic identity all along, now volunteered to come forward.

“Knock, knock, knock!” Someone knocked on the door. Two men armed with guns went to the door and asked, “How’s it going?”

“We’re still investigating!” someone replied. “It’s very troublesome. We’d better leave first.”

The door was opened, but soon a group of enemy soldiers, dozens of them, fully armed, rushed in. The two men with guns were subdued, followed by a brief gunfight.

This couldn’t even be called a battle. Faced with an attack by hundreds of men, the Catholics fired only three shots, injuring one member of the Black Flag Army. In contrast, the Black Flag Army was merciless, killing one man on the spot and seriously injuring two others. Everyone else, including the sister, was captured.

Although they had discovered such a troublemaker, the Black Flag Army kept their promise and handed over all the captives, including the wounded, to the Flower Between Sect.

They were satisfied that the Catholics had been punished and that they had gained tangible benefits—six long and short firearms, a large amount of gold francs. Additionally, the owner of this house had to face a huge fine from the Black Flag Army. Now, the Black Flag Army had shifted toward the Xiliu Camp approach: even if they couldn’t kill someone, they would make sure they paid a heavy price.

Liu Yu was unaware of this situation. He was still busy dealing with the aftermath of the financial crisis. By tightening monetary policy and with a large number of loans due on the fifth day, the Black Flag Bank delayed issuing new loans by three days. As a result, the value of the Black Flag currency soared.

Taking advantage of this speculation, Black Flag Bank reaped huge profits. Liu Family’s warehouse became its loyal subordinate, while opium dealers from all sides closely surrounded Black Flag Bank. However, Liu Yongfu failed to see the connection between these events. He only knew that Liu Family’s warehouse not only suffered no losses but also made a lot of money. The gold and silver exchanged during those events had now returned, and Liu Family’s banknotes had even been upgraded in value. “Baosheng United Bank!” It was a well-known name, almost on par with “Baosheng United Credit Society.” The banking operations were separated from the warehouse, and the entire unofficial foreign exchange business in Baosheng was under their control. Now, they had joined forces to establish a joint bank, claiming to be the largest bank in Northern Annam, offering a wide range of financial services. With a capital of over 50,000 Black Flag yuan, it was considered one of the top banks in the country. Their main business was providing exchanges between Black Flag banknotes and other currencies, essentially taking advantage of the scraps left over by Black Flag Bank. Now, Liu Yu and Liu Qing had resolved to take advantage of this opportunity to issue 800,000 Black Flag banknotes this year to raise funds for the Xiliu Camp. As a precaution, they would also stop their most profitable franc-printing business and produce an additional 1.2 million Black Flag banknotes. Going forward, Liu Yu planned to establish the Xuan Guang Security Command, headed by Ye Chenglin, as the second base for the Xiliu Camp. In addition, he intended to undermine Huang Zuoyan’s position completely. After being driven out of Shanxi, Huang Zuoyan had lived in Xinghua for a long time. Now, half of the Xiniu Camp was stationed in Xinghua, ready to take his place at any time. He had no idea what Luo Yanqiu and Su Sui were planning. That spring passed quickly. France. Zeng Jize was drenched in sweat; he had never felt this exhausted before. But he knew it was his responsibility. As the Qing Dynasty’s envoy to France, he had to protect the interests of the dynasty. Yet, just thinking about the Annam issue made his scalp tingle. The French Parliament was already discussing increasing military funding for the French forces in Annam, which was undoubtedly a signal of war. Over the years, he had struggled alone in a foreign land, striving to protect the interests of his country, often making concessions, only to reach this point. He felt distressed, exhausted, and even weary. His father was the famous Zeng Guofan, the greatest minister of the Qing Dynasty. Zeng Jize inherited his father’s title, so both locals and foreigners addressed him as “Marquis Zeng.” There was a story behind this title. During the Taiping Rebellion, Emperor Xianfeng once allowed Zeng Guofan to become king in order to suppress the rebellion. But after Zeng Guofan captured Nanjing, Empress Dowager Cixi regretted it and divided the king’s title among the generals of the Hunan Army. As a result, Zeng Guofan only received the title of marquis. Zeng Jize failed several times to obtain a higher title but eventually received the rank of First-Class Brave Marquis thanks to his father’s influence. Despite his great knowledge, he always tried to turn the situation around. Last year, as an envoy to Russia, he managed to secure some dignity for the Qing Dynasty for the first time in modern history by renegotiating a treaty with the Russians and reclaiming the regions of Ili and the Tekes River.

But this time, Russia faced internal and external pressures, which troubled this ambitious man deeply, and his mission could now be considered a failure. The French were pressing hard on Annam, and just now the French Parliament had passed a resolution to allocate 2.4 million francs to fund the construction of new ships for China’s small fleet to enhance patrols. “It is said in the French Parliament that only 1,500 soldiers and a few warships are needed to subdue Tonkin—this might be an overstatement…” Zeng Jize, among the Qing officials, was quite knowledgeable; he knew that during the former emperor’s hunting trips to Chengde, Britain and France had not used many troops, yet those 1,500 soldiers could rival thousands of troops from the interior. Moreover, there were experienced figures in Paris who suggested sending 3,000 French troops, 3,000 Annamese troops, and several warships—a force that made Zeng Jize quite concerned. “The war will last at least a year, possibly two or three years; we must plan ahead…” Leaning back in his chair, thinking of the French’s arrogance at the negotiation table, he said, “Our country is still capable of fighting a war.” The high-ranking officials of the Qing dynasty at that time, including Zeng Jize, had great confidence in the Tongguang Restoration. Compared to the two Opium Wars, the Qing army was now incomparably stronger. He had even greater confidence in Li Hongzhang’s Huai Army; in his view, tens of thousands of Huai Army soldiers could rival Western armies. Yet before the war, he had to take on all the responsibilities. He uttered these words: “I shall bear all the criticism from within and abroad!” Prime Minister Ferry was delighted that the Parliament passed such a resolution without any obstacles. He was a typical Republican, willing to devote all his strength to France, and also a typical opportunist. Whenever there was controversy, he would never get involved; he insisted on handling things smoothly. And Vietnam was now ripe for harvest. He shook hands with each member of Parliament one by one: “Thank you for your support of the Republic, thank you for your support.” 2.4 million francs was a drop in the bucket of France’s budget. The government was currently focusing all its efforts on completing the Panama Canal, which was the real major project. This was just the beginning; additional military funds would follow soon, and Annam would become France’s most beautiful garden. But his expression quickly froze when he heard that annoying person criticizing him: “I disapprove of your recklessness, especially your spending too much energy outside France.” The man before him had an Eastern-looking face; at first glance, one might think he was a typical Mongol, but in reality, he was a typical Frenchman. His name was Clemenceau, and his nickname was well-known throughout France: “The Tiger.” A typical tiger, a professional expert in toppling governments. Some even suspected that if this “tiger” formed a government, he would know exactly how to prevent its collapse. But any minister or prime minister would rather not deal with such an expert. This radical always opposed devoting too much energy to matters outside the homeland; he was more focused on revenge—revenge against Germany.

In fact, he and Prime Minister Ferry had no fundamental conflict; both were loyal Republicans, both loved France, and both advocated revenge against Germany. Clemenceau was also not opposed to colonial expansion. The issue was what came first. Prime Minister Ferry shook Clemenceau’s hand and said, “No! Didn’t you praise me just a month ago, calling me one of France’s greatest prime ministers ever?” The Second French Republic was a product of compromise, even its prime ministers were the result of compromise, which meant the cabinet would be unstable. But Ferry wanted to complete his conquest of Vietnam before stepping down. “Has that evaluation changed?” Clemenceau’s expression was very serious. “Yes! This is French politics, Mr. Ferry!” “You’ve forgotten Sedan.”