The governor's office, the wing room in the backyard. [New]
Wu Chenglu slept very late last night and got up very early this morning, thinking about Yuan Su's bandit suppression operation.
It was only noon, and his energy was really low, and the seductive craving for cigarettes broke out early. At this moment, he was lying on the couch in the side room, holding a gold-encrusted pipe, and smoking the elixir. The craving for cigarettes had just passed.
Halfway through, a servant hurriedly opened the door and came to the front to salute.
"Sir, Commander Yuan has returned to the city." The servant said, bowing and restraining his excitement.
"Really? How is the situation?" Wu Chenglu sat up a little and asked with squinted eyes.
"The foreign priest and other foreigners have been brought back. Except for a few injuries, everything is fine." The servant first reported the good news.
"Well, well, very good. It would be best if this matter is solved. I can finally sleep peacefully tonight." Wu Chenglu nodded with satisfaction, then lay down again and took a deep breath.
After taking a long breath of smoke and puffing away the smoke, I felt indescribably happy.
The servant was stunned for a while, looking at Wu Chenglu's contented expression, and really didn't know how to report the bad news that was coming next. He was afraid that Wu Chenglu would get angry due to the sudden contrast, and he would be in trouble as a result.
After waiting for a while, Wu Chenglu noticed that his servant was still standing in front of him, and couldn't help but ask: "Why, do you have anything else to say? It's okay to just say it."
The servant swallowed a sip of saliva and said bravely: "Go back to the master, Mr. Zhou, Mr. Li and Mr. Hu who you sent to follow Mr. Yuan to suppress the bandits last night..."
Wu Chenglu scolded impatiently: "What's wrong with them?"
The servant did not dare to hesitate any longer and said quickly: "Unfortunately, Mr. Zhou and Mr. Li were shot and died in the line of duty. Mr. Hu was seriously injured and is unconscious. He is still being rescued."
Wu Chenglu sat up straight all of a sudden, with a look of astonishment on his face. After a while, he turned around and asked in shock: "What? What did you say? You're so good, why, how could this happen!"
The servant explained the matter. Last night, the three adults heard that the kidnappers had less than fifty people, so they all rushed to express their intention to lead the team to carry out the encirclement and suppression operation. [] How did they know that the kidnappers were condescending and had explosives, officers and soldiers?
The attack suffered a heavy setback at the beginning, and Mr. Zhou was killed by a stray bullet at that time.
Later, Mr. Li organized a second round of attack, but the team was cut off by the kidnappers' bombs, and then was sniped by the kidnappers. As for Mr. Hu, after the first attack was frustrated, he stayed below until the encirclement and suppression operation was over.
Went up the mountain to check. Unexpectedly, a kidnapper who was not dead suddenly opened fire and hit Mr. Hu from behind, causing him to be seriously injured.
Of course, these contents were naturally fabricated by Yuan Su and reported to Wu Chenglu, and the servants did not dare to add any extravagance and jealousy, so they could only tell the truth "according to the facts."
Wu Chenglu dropped the gold-encrusted pipe and jumped up. His emotions seemed very excited, but he couldn't find a place to burst out. He wanted to scold Zhou, Li, and Hu for being stupid and impulsive, but now
Two people died and one was seriously injured, so what's the use of yelling at him? He also wanted to blame Yuan Su, but when he looked back, he thought, Yuan Su was not on his side in the first place, and of course he would not care about the death or injury of the generals of the patrol camp.
"What the fuck, what the fuck, I sent three people out, but something happened to all three of them. What the hell is going on?" He walked back and forth in the small hall of the wing and yelled angrily.
All in one.
The servant stood aside tremblingly, not daring to say a word.
After a while, the more Wu Chenglu thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. He suddenly stopped and waited for his subordinates to shout and asked: "What are the casualties of Yuan Su's people? How many people were killed and how many were injured?"
The servant looked embarrassed and said hesitantly: "This... this, sir, I really don't know. However, when I saw them returning to the city, there were indeed many wounded people and some were being carried on stretchers.
Lift it. It seems to be very serious."
Hearing this, Wu Chenglu calmed down a little. However, he couldn't believe it just because of this one-sided statement. He immediately ordered: "Go, notify the military doctors of our patrol camp to go to them and help them take care of the wounded. By the way,
Let me find out what happened to the casualties during the bandit suppression last night!"
"Yes, yes.[]"
In the afternoon of the same day, after receiving the notice, Captain Rogen of the French Security Force and Wanfutang personnel rushed to the county government. The previous liaison work was originally at the disaster relief commander's camp, but now it was suddenly changed to the county government, which made these foreigners feel a little strange.
.When they arrived at the gate of the county government, they found that the entire perimeter of the compound had already been cordoned off by Chinese soldiers armed with live ammunition. They became more and more frightened and suspicious.
Yuan Su and County Magistrate Wu Like met with Captain Logan and Wanfutang representatives in the county magistrate's office. They were accompanied by Wu Like's personal translator and two reporters from "Tianjin Concession News" and "Shuntian Daily"
The latter was originally a travel reporter stationed in Linyu County, while the former was specially invited to Tianjin by telegram the day before yesterday.
As early as he realized that there was a problem with Wanfu Hall, Yuan Su had already begun to plan countermeasures to deal with the matter.
After all, foreigners are hugely powerful, and religious issues are often the ones that cause the most uproar. When the Beiyang government was established, it already recognized the rights enjoyed by all countries in the former Qing Dynasty. Rushing to punish crimes with heavy penalties will not bring any temporary happiness at all.
Punitive effect on foreigners.
The way Yuan Su thought of was to tell the world about this incident, and from the perspective of public opinion, the bigger the fuss, the better.
He knew that Father Dou would eventually be handed over to the French Legation to exercise consular jurisdiction, and the result was not difficult to guess. The French Legation would casually charge Father Dou with a crime, then extradite Father Dou back to the country, and nothing would happen again.
Perhaps within a few years, Father Dou will appear again in China or other places in India and continue to preside over a church.
The only way to make this matter bigger is to let more and more people know about Father Dou and his deeds, completely subverting the image of foreign religious personnel in China, especially French religious personnel. Once this incident spreads, even if China
The government has no way to punish Father Dou, but it can also put heavy pressure on the French authorities from international public opinion.
The two reporters invited by Yuan Su also had ulterior motives. "Tianjin Concession News" is a concession newspaper sponsored by Belgian businessmen. It is divided into four languages and is the first choice newspaper for news about concessions in various countries in Tianjin. In addition, Tianjin
The Nine-Nation Concession is inherently complex, and the impact of the international political situation can be directly reflected here, thus largely avoiding the possibility that the French authorities will intercept the report.
As for the "Sunchon Ilbo", it is a newspaper controlled by the Japanese. The greatest significance of this newspaper is not to report news, but to indirectly provide influence on Japan's foreign policy. Doesn't it mean that the Japanese have no friendship with the French?
Japan's foreign policy has always been to monopolize its interests in China. For this reason, it even dares to offend Britain, the United States and Russia. It is obviously a good step to use the attack on France to imply rejection of Western powers, and then to promote Greater East Asiaism.
chess.
When Captain Logan and the church representatives saw this scene, they felt more and more that something was wrong with today's situation.
Yuan Su did not invite the other party to sit down, but with a gloomy expression he directly asked about the crimes of Wanfu Hall. He listed Father Dou's crimes of annexing Chinese farmers' land and abducting people one by one. At the same time, he also added some other crimes, such as bribery.
Foreign garrison officers, driving up food prices, etc.
Captain Logan had heard about the inside story of Wanfu Church earlier, but Father Dou had deep connections with local elites from various countries, so he could only turn a blind eye. As for the church representative, who was an insider, he naturally
I don't know much about this.
At this moment, they were stopped by Yuan Su with a blow to the head. Their expressions dropped, and they seemed at a loss for a moment.
It wasn't until Yuan Su emphasized aggressively that this case must be dealt with seriously, and he would truthfully report it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing and the French Embassy. At this time, Captain Logan gradually came to his senses, and immediately assumed a tough attitude
They argued vigorously, asking for a thorough re-investigation of the matter, asking for personal and material evidence, and also proposed the immediate release of Father Dou and his party. Church representatives also echoed, saying that the kidnapping case should be solved first this time, and that Father Dou and his party were the victims.
Otherwise, everything else should be dealt with later.
"Human and physical evidence? If I didn't have evidence, would I come to question you now?" Yuan Su said with a sneer.
Captain Logan suddenly lost some confidence. If the Chinese side did have evidence, there would be no room for turning around. Although he wholeheartedly considered the issue from the French point of view, what Father Dou did was really
It's too much, even I don't want to deal with such people.
"The kidnapping case has ended long ago. The bandit leader was killed and the rest fled. Let me tell you, there is no concession in Beidaihe. This is our Chinese land. You don't need to tell us how to handle the case. Any foreigner who commits a crime here will be punished by me.
Punished in accordance with the law. Don't think that I will compromise with you on this case." Yuan Su said with a stern voice.
"Even so, Father Dou should receive a fair trial."
"In a fair trial, what you say does not count, and what I say does not count. I will report this matter to Beijing in detail later, but I want to see how your French minister makes an explanation." Yuan Su
His tone did not change at all, and he spoke decisively.
Captain Logan and the church representatives naturally had no choice. Beidaihe was not a concession and there was no consulate. Even if they wanted to seek diplomatic channels to deal with this matter, it would be difficult. However, they also knew that once the matter was reported to the embassy, the embassy would
In the end, they will still find ways to make big problems smaller.
"I'm calling you today to inform you that from now on, it will be your Father Dou and Wanfu Hall's crimes. I will submit a detailed report on the kidnapping case. Don't expect to use tricks to divert attention. I can tell you responsibly.
You, I will keep an eye on this case." Yuan Su added again.
The words he spoke in succession were so powerful that they completely overwhelmed Captain Logan and the church representative. The two reporters kept recording the scene with pens, even though Wu Like had already told them about the case this morning.
Some reports, but the actual situation of the confrontation between the two sides can also reflect the problem from the side. Since the foreigners have no confidence, this case is probably true.
Wu Like on the side was sweating profusely. Yuan Su, a big shot, dared to compete with foreigners, but he, a mere county magistrate, would not dare to be so reckless even if he had ten more courages. You must know that when Yuan Su leaves, he will have to see him every day.
In front of foreigners, he was afraid that Yuan Su could not handle the case well and would leave a mess for him to clean up. How should he clean it up?