French Annan is a collective name given by the French to their colonies in Vietnam, and the French colonial rule of Vietnam begins with the ban on religion.
When Emperor Minh Ming of the Nguyen Dynasty was in power, he witnessed the huge damage caused by the two Opium Wars to the Qing Empire. In fear, Emperor Minh Ming intensified his policy of seclusion and began a nationwide ban on Western missionary activities.
In ancient times, Vietnam was also called Annam. Like North Korea, it has been ruled by Confucianism since ancient times, and mainland policies have always affected them.
Seclusion is a policy that has been continued since the Ming Dynasty, and Vietnam and North Korea naturally followed suit and began the policy of seclusion.
But the geographical location of Vietnam is so unique. The southeastern side of the long and narrow land is covered with coastline. It is impossible to feed the people of the country with limited land, so we have no choice but to turn to the sea for survival.
Therefore, during the Age of Discovery, Westerners were often seen in Vietnam's ports, and trade was essential.
Therefore, before the Ming Dynasty banned Christianity, the Western powers and Vietnam were in a brief period of peace where there was no conflict between the two sides. Trade between the two sides was very frequent, and Vietnam even became an important transportation route for the import of French opium to the Qing Dynasty to a certain extent.
But the short-lived cooperation ended after the ban on missionary orders was issued. Since France has positioned itself as the biggest protector of Catholicism in the secular world since ancient times, the spread of Catholicism can be said to be France's national policy.
The refusal to allow missionaries moved the French. In 1852, French warships bombarded Da Nang. After the negotiation failed in 1858, France and Spain began to use the army to invade Da Nang. In 1859, they even briefly occupied Saigon.
To say that the Mingming Emperor was also stubborn, he still persisted in refusing to surrender even after being beaten like this. Not long after the French occupied Saigon, the French army in Vietnam received an order to all move towards the Qing Dynasty.
Then came 1860, when the British and French forces invaded Beijing and burned down the Old Summer Palace and other major historical events!
At this time, the Vietnamese were completely frightened. They never expected that the powerful Qing Empire would even capture the capital in the end. So what about this small country of their own?
Sure enough, the French did not let Vietnam go. After the treaty was signed, part of the French army that conquered the Qing Dynasty immediately went south and headed straight for Vietnam.
In 1861, the French army once again captured Saigon, and then conquered four provinces in South Vietnam again. At this point, the Nguyen family surrendered to France, compensated four million francs for the war cost, and signed the "First Treaty of Saigon"
The treaty clarified that Vietnam would cede land in four provinces and Con Dao Island to France, and open all coastal ports. Catholicism could be freely preached, and the Nguyen court could only engage in diplomatic negotiations with other countries with the consent of the French emperor.
Deprived of a country's diplomatic rights, Vietnam can be regarded as a complete colony!
However, France's rule over Vietnam was bounded by Hue and Da Nang. The south was where the French focused their operations. The north was deeply influenced by the Qing Dynasty, so the penetration of the French was still gradual.
Xiao Letian has been coveting this big piece of French Annam for a long time, especially Cam Ranh Bay, which is a rare deep-water port in Vietnam and is even called the first natural military port in Asia.
The terrain here is very unique. Two stumbles surround a gourd-shaped sea area, which can provide very good protection for warships.
There is no need to be afraid of storms, let alone the attack of the enemy navy. The gourd-shaped peninsula can form a defense network composed of three forts. It is extremely difficult for the enemy navy to attack.
What's more important is that there are very few natural deep-water ports here that can berth all large surface warships in the 21st century. Regardless of whether you are 40,000 tons or 100,000 tons, the water depth here can carry it.
When the United States and the Soviet Union were competing for hegemony, the Soviet Union gave Vietnam an average of one billion U.S. dollars in military expenditures every year in order to station troops in Cam Ranh Bay. In the end, Cam Ranh Bay was built into the Soviet Union's largest overseas military base.
How could Xiao Letian let go of such an important place? Later history has proven that if you want to develop a large navy, you must occupy the best military ports in the world.
Every time you control a military port with a good geographical location, it is equivalent to controlling the economic zone with a radius of thousands of kilometers around it. As long as the warships can cover the area with their mobile power, as long as the naval guns can shoot, it will become their own sphere of influence. .
Once Cam Ranh Bay is controlled by the Chinese, the warships here can immediately block the entire territorial waters of Vietnam, and all cities will be covered by the Zhiyuan's naval guns.
Not only that, the fleet can also control the Gulf of Thailand and directly militarily occupy the Kra Isthmus!
Xiao Letian has now completely controlled the first island chain in the Pacific. His expedition team is searching for all undiscovered islands in the Pacific. In the future, the Chinese Eastern Sea Route should be safe unless they turn against the United States.
The west side of the Chinese influence is too important. At present, all waterways are concentrated in the Strait of Malacca, and this has always been an important bridgehead for Britain to operate in Asia.
It is unrealistic to go to war with the British directly. The Chinese currently do not have the strength to compete with the British, so they can only settle for the next best thing and find a breakthrough from the Kra Isthmus.
The narrowest point of the Isthmus of Kra is only fifty kilometers, and the coasts at both ends are also very flat. It is not difficult to dig a canal here, and it is much simpler than the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal.
The most difficult thing about digging the Kra Isthmus is the political aspect. The main reason is that Britain does not allow anyone to destroy its advantageous geographical location. Once the Chinese dare to dig, they will definitely cause trouble.
But don't worry, Xiao Letian will wait patiently and slowly immigrate to the Kra Isthmus before letting the Chinese become the main ethnic group there.
When World War I breaks out and Britain is dragged along in Europe, no one can stop the Chinese no matter what they want to do!
Once the Kra Isthmus is successfully excavated, the Chinese will have one more channel to freely enter and exit the Indian Ocean, and oil from the Gulf will be able to be more safely transferred to the Chinese in the future.
Don't forget that in the Arabian region, Xiao Letian still has an idler who is fighting in the east and west to unify small tribes. If nothing happens, that idler will definitely be able to occupy several large oil fields in the future.
This plan is very huge. If it is to be completely completed, I am afraid that a lot of work will have to be done by Xiao Letian's son, but I have to lay the foundation now.
Among other things, Cam Ranh Bay must be controlled, and the land surrounding Cam Ranh Bay as the core cannot be spared.
Xiao Letian said with a playful smile, "Give me the south of Hue...all the north of Hue belongs to you, what do you think?"
