Nanyang Storm 1864

Emperor Emeritus Zheng Guohui moved to the Cloud Palace in Cebu, partly because of its stunning scenery and partly to escape the noise and tranquility.

Living in the Manila Royal Palace, he was constantly bothered by the fact that the newly enthroned emperor would come to pay his respects every morning, as would the other princes who remained in the capital.

But this is the child's filial piety, so we shouldn't wrong him.

Later, after moving to the lakeside summer palace for leisure, the princes would still come to pay their respects to the emperor every three days. As a result, many of the princes moved to the summer palace to make it easier for them to pay their respects to the emperor morning and evening.

The retired Emperor Zheng Guohui never liked fussy matters, so he simply kept his distance and forbade all the princes from coming to serve him, thus finding some peace and quiet.

Even after retiring from the limelight, the supreme authority he had established and ruled for over fifty years did not diminish. The retired emperor Zheng Guohui remained the most powerful and supreme ruler of the Great Chu Empire.

For this reason, the retired emperor could easily have decided to hand over the Guangnan Kingdom to the eleventh prince.

1919 January 12

The dark fleet from the Great Chu Empire arrived at Haiphong Port. After only a few rounds of intimidating bombardment, the port surrendered and dared not put up any further resistance.

The rebels who had originally occupied the port scattered and fled. Faced with heavy firepower from the sea and the Chu army flag flying high, these rebels were terrified and knew the danger.

If they resist, they will only become cannon fodder.

Under the threat of the fleet's cannons, the troop transport ships of the landing fleet docked at the Shanghai port in sequence. Fully armed soldiers filed onto the dock, and then armored trucks and artillery were hoisted ashore, quickly taking control of the surrounding area.

Major General Wu Changgui, commander of the 11th Royal Division of the Great Chu Empire and commander-in-chief of the Guangnan Intervention Army, led a group of officers from his command post onto the dock with grim expressions. He now had a very, very bad impression of the Guangnan Kingdom and would not mind carrying out a major purge there.

Anyone who dares to commit regicide and defy their superiors is guilty of a crime deserving of death.

If this unhealthy trend spreads, what will become of us? Won't the world descend into chaos?
Before coming here
The Imperial Army Ministry issued a strict order to spare no effort in carrying out mass killings to thoroughly eliminate the rebels and their associates, to rectify the situation, and to severely punish those who dared to defy authority.

The arrival of the suzerain state's army drew cheers and jubilation from hundreds of thousands of ethnic Chinese in Haiphong, who took to the streets to welcome them and actively acted as guides for the imperial army.

Guided by armored vehicles, the fully armed army quickly infiltrated the city's streets and launched a siege against the rebel forces, and gunfire erupted throughout the city.

From noon to evening
Within six or seven hours, the Guangnan Expeditionary Force had largely taken control of Haiphong City, and many bandits were shot dead in the streets. Some hidden armed groups were also uncovered and subsequently suppressed and arrested.

In the evening
The expeditionary force has restored social order to the coastal defense, and the reason why it has been so successful is also related to the cowardice of the rebels.

Upon learning of the imperial army's military intervention, the rebels were thrown into chaos, with internal strife breaking out and several rebel groups withdrawing from the coastal defenses.

Military and political officials from more than ten provinces in the central and southern parts of the Guangnan Kingdom that were not affected by the rebellion sent telegrams to both the north and south, eagerly awaiting the royal army's northward march, resolutely opposing the rebels, and absolutely supporting the Heavenly Dynasty's army from the Great Chu Empire.

Amid this atmosphere of widespread anxiety

Like stray dogs, the brothers Liu Chengye and Liu Chengwen abandoned Haifang City in a sorry state and led their remaining troops westward.

Everyone knows
The West was a French colony, with Hanoi as its main territory. The French stationed over 10,000 white troops and more than 30 local militias in the region, which were essentially the colony's auxiliary forces.

After occupying the coastal defense

The Great Chu Empire's expeditionary force did not rush to pursue. After stabilizing the local situation, it mobilized the local people to report illegal activities and purged the evil forces and opportunists who had committed crimes during the rebellion.
The oncoming trucks captured a large number of traitors and bandits, and many local powerful families were wiped out.

The expeditionary force dispatched a detachment of over 4000 men northward, and after recapturing Beijiang and Haiyang provinces, it halted its advance and set its sights on Quang Ninh province, the stronghold of the fourth prince, Liu Chengwen.

After waiting in place for a week, he took over as commander of the expeditionary force after the arrival of the second batch of more than 8000 reinforcements led by the eleventh prince, Prince Chu-Zhenghu, and issued an edict to suppress the rebellion.

The main force of the expeditionary force quickly advanced westward, while several thousand others reinforced the northern flank, launching a full-scale offensive against the remaining rebel forces in Quang Ninh province.

November 12st

The imperial forces marching north defeated more than 7,000 of Liu Chengwen's remaining troops, killing and wounding more than 1360 enemy soldiers. Most of the rest were captured, and a small number escaped.

The fourth prince, Liu Chengwen, fled to the sea by boat, but was sunk by a destroyer patrolling nearby. All four perished at sea.

On December 15, the main force of the expeditionary force pursued the rebels all the way into Hanoi Province and clashed with a small number of French troops there. Most of the more than 400 French troops were annihilated, with only a few managing to escape in disarray.

November 16st

The expeditionary force and the French army engaged in a battle on the outskirts of Hanoi. The Chu army repeatedly bombarded the French-held town of Zuoyuan with fierce field artillery fire, and used armored trucks as the vanguard to continuously attack the French positions. The two sides engaged in a bloody battle.

After a day and a night of bloody fighting, the French army was defeated and fled.

The Great Chu expeditionary force stormed into Hanoi and engaged in a bloody battle with the retreating French army, fighting street by street and alley by alley, which intensified the fighting.

The French army continuously urged local militia soldiers to fight back under heavy artillery fire and dense bullets, demonstrating a remarkably strong fighting spirit.

Unfortunately, against overwhelming strength, all of this only increased casualties and could not reverse the defeat.

On December 20, the French government issued an emergency note to its ambassador to France, He Guangyi, expressing concern over the war that had broken out in the Indochina Peninsula and strongly protesting the invasion of French colonies by the Chu army.

The Chu army was ordered to immediately stop their illegal incursion and retreat to the original boundary line, or face severe consequences.

Protests are one thing, but we'll continue with what we've been doing.

After several days of bloody fighting

The Great Chu Empire occupied Hanoi and, while completely defeating the French army, launched a rapid multi-pronged attack, conquering more than ten provinces in northern China within a week and completely expelling the French colonial forces.

At this point, the State of Chu officially responded to the French government.

The Guangnan Kingdom Incident has been confirmed with solid evidence, and the mastermind behind it points directly to the French Saigon Governor's Office, the implications of which are self-evident.

That was the work of Pierre-Marie Antoine Paquier, the French Governor of Saigon, who was stirring up trouble behind the scenes. He not only provided the rebels with a large amount of funds and weapons and ammunition, but also sent more than seventy French officers to participate.

Faced with irrefutable evidence, even the French softened their tone.

The French did want to act arrogantly, test the bottom line of the Chu Kingdom, and unify the colonies in the Indochina Peninsula, but they ended up kicking a hornet's nest.

Not only did their attempt to usurp the throne fail, but they also lost more than a dozen provinces in the northern region centered on Hanoi, suffering heavy losses. This transformed the previous situation of two powerful forces in the north, France and the Kingdom of Quang Nam, into one where the Kingdom of Quang Nam became the sole dominant power, and French colonial forces were expelled.

The Chu state has already made it clear
We will never tolerate any armed intervention that violates the territory of a tributary state. This is the price the Governor-General of French Saigon must pay. Imperial dignity cannot be challenged.

In other words, the dozen or so northern provinces that were swallowed up will not be returned.

While war clouds loom over the Indochina Peninsula, the real decision-makers are actually negotiating in Paris, France, where the final outcome will be determined.

After more than two months of secret negotiations, the states of Chu and Fa engaged in a back-and-forth struggle, exchanging harsh words, which restarted the negotiations that had once been on the verge of collapse.

After repeated attempts, the French government had to admit that this risky venture had failed.

The Chu state took a very tough stance.
If France escalates the situation, the Great Chu Empire will fight to the bitter end, no matter if the war spreads to the entire Indochina Peninsula or to other parts of the world.

It was this resolute and tough stance that forced the French to back down.

With the European war that nearly destroyed an entire generation of French people just ended, the previously belligerent French public opinion could hardly stir up any waves, let alone gain support from the general public.

This unprecedentedly brutal European war left a deep shadow in the hearts of the French people.

To provoke the world-class power of Chu once again was undoubtedly foolish in the eyes of many French people, and public opinion in Europe also became more rational and sober.

In world opinion
The recently concluded European war has been referred to as World War I, a term that quickly gained traction with more countries and appeared in numerous government documents, thus receiving official recognition.

The First World War was unprecedented in the number of countries involved, the scope of the war, and the brutality of the conflict. It taught the people of Europe a real lesson about the risks of war, which led to a surge in calls for peace.

It is an indisputable fact that as the New Year of 1920 approached, relations between Chu and France were severely affected by the events in the Indochina Peninsula.

What angered the French the most was
The new Russian government refused to acknowledge the huge franc debt it owed to France, calling it a "loan trap imposed by imperialism," and now it was not repaying the principal, let alone the interest.

This exacerbated France's economic woes after the war, causing the wealth of millions of rentiers to shrink dramatically, and countless bankrupt capitalists to take to the rooftops and then fall from the sky.

At this time

The Polish-Soviet war is entering a phase of full-scale outbreak. The Poles, having occupied the three Baltic states, Belarus, and most of Ukraine last year, are still not satisfied.

At this time, they hit it off with the French who were filled with hatred, and together with the White Army, they launched a frenzied attack on the new Tsarist Russian government.

This caused the Russian Civil War to overlap with the Soviet-Polish War, escalating the intensity of the conflict to a new level.

At this stage
The Polish army held a clear advantage on the battlefield. They were more well-trained and had stronger combat capabilities, and were often able to win when facing a larger number of Russian troops.

The problem with the Russian army is that the quality of its junior officers is too poor, and many have not even received basic military education.

Most Russian military officers, who came from worker and peasant backgrounds, were enthusiastic but lacked command ability, resulting in a generally low combat effectiveness for the Russian army, which could only use more troops to wear down the enemy.

In just two months, in order to counter the Polish offensive, the Russian Southwestern Front swelled from a mere tens of thousands of men to over 300,000, using its numerical superiority to offset the Polish onslaught.

1920 January 1

The Emperor of the Great Chu Empire issued an imperial edict, bestowing upon Prince Chu-Zheng Hu the title of Prince of Guangnan, granting him the fiefdom of Yuebei, encompassing a total of twenty-seven provinces in Yuebei.

Thus, the Kingdom of Guangnan underwent a dynastic change, the original Liu dynasty became history, and the royal family of the Great Chu took over the reins of power, making the relationship with the suzerain state even closer.

The Chu expeditionary force was stationed directly in the Kingdom of Guangnan, undertaking military defense functions and firmly guarding the northern region, preventing the French from causing any further trouble.

Through the Guangnan Incident, the French also learned a lesson.

In the entire western Pacific region, there is only one hegemonic power, the Great Chu Empire. Britain, France, and the United States all have to cooperate with it, as it is impossible to compete with it.

His grand ambition to dominate the Indochina Peninsula could only be abandoned halfway through.

Maintaining the status quo is the wise choice.

The reason why Emperor Emeritus Zheng Guohui did not divide the Kingdom of Guangnan into many small countries was that only a unified and powerful nation could survive well under the nose of the French colonies.

If they were divided into small kingdoms, they would be easier for the French to defeat one by one.

The unique power distribution in the Indochina Peninsula meant that only under the direct military protection of the empire could the Kingdom of Guangnan be free from invasion by foreign colonial powers and develop its economy peacefully and stably.

In this Guangnan Incident, the Empire responded effectively and made decisive decisions, ultimately winning the dispute and greatly expanding the territory of the Guangnan Kingdom, thus earning widespread praise from the domestic public.

This earned the newly enthroned emperor of the Great Chu widespread reputation, laid the foundation for general recognition from both the court and the public, and effectively refuted the doubts of many of the older generation.

The outside world does not know
It was Emperor Trinh Quoc Huy's decision to deliver a heavy blow to the French, expand westward, and seize the area surrounding Hanoi in one fell swoop, and this decision was carried out without fail.

This was because the emperor hesitated and wavered on this matter, finding it difficult to make a decision for a long time, fearing that he could not withstand the French's fierce counterattack.

Not every ruler of the Great Chu is wise and insightful. The current emperor is good at maintaining the status quo but lacks the ability to expand. Whenever faced with such important matters, he appears to lack the courage and decisiveness to act.

These royal children, who grew up under the wing of the retired emperor, inevitably hesitated in their decisions and lacked the ruthless determination to take a desperate gamble.

After the victory in World War I
France's aura did not diminish but rather increased. As one of the major victorious nations, it enjoyed unparalleled prominence throughout Europe, and no one could deny France's influence.

The French army was one of the major victorious powers in the military occupation of Germany, and also the victorious power with the largest and most extensive war zone.

After defeating Germany, Germany not only reclaimed Alsace and Lorraine, which had been lost in the Franco-Prussian War, but also occupied the Saar mining region and the Ruhr region, the center of Germany's heavy industry, and imposed military control on them for five years.

France, along with Britain, the State of Chu, and Italy, established the post-war Versailles Peace Treaty system, which had a significant global impact.

Taking these factors into account, the pressure on the emperor of the Great Chu Empire was considerable, hence his hesitation and indecisiveness.

It was a single sentence from the retired emperor that determined the final outcome of the event;
Whether it's Britain or France, if they cause trouble in the Indochina Peninsula, we'll deal with them without hesitation and show them who the hegemon of the Western Pacific is! (End of Chapter)