After it took several months and finally reached an agreement on various procedural issues, the negotiations can be considered to enter the substantive stage. Then, well, the negotiation was interrupted for a few days due to the weather. After another month, the two sides finally reached a breakthrough again. The British gave gifts to all the Dutch people in the city and assured the French and the Dutch that these people would come to Cape Town. , Their various movable and immovable properties in the city will be respected.

It is of course in the interests of the French and the Dutch to allow the peaceful residents of the city to move out. This will also reduce some collateral damage during the siege in the future.

For the British, this is actually good. First of all, they don't have to worry about those Dutch people in the city having a backstab when they are tense. And to drive these guys out, ah, no, it should be a gift, and it can also reduce the logistics pressure in the city. You dare not really starve these guys to death.

Of course, the most important reason is that since the British have agreed to let the civilians in the Netherlands leave Cape Town, according to the principle of reciprocity, the French and the Dutch should also let the British civilians leave.

The French and the Dutch agreed in principle to this request of the British, but on the details, everyone was arguing. The so-called details of course refer to various technical issues of how to send British civilians away.

The British proposed that they could send ships from India to send the British to India.

The French and the Dutch strongly opposed this plan. They believed that the purpose of the British was to bring them new troops through ships from India. For this reason, they scolded the British for lack of sincerity in negotiations and threatened to attack immediately. However, out of their love for peace, they have the final say.

But the French did put forward a very creative counter-proposal.

Philip Treville slowly said: "We can't trust your ship, but your request to transfer peaceful residents is in line with the spirit of the Paris Declaration. Therefore, in principle, we are willing to provide convenience for this. I know, in Cape Town. The port has steam-powered port equipment, so there is also coal to support the operation of these things. And we, I believe you also know that we have two steamships with mixed passenger and cargo on hand. Now these two ships are empty. , I am idle and I am idle. This requires you to pay a little coal and freight..."

"Then you use your boat to send us people to India?" Bona was very interested in this proposal.

"How is this possible?" Philip Trevel spread out his hands. "From Cape Town to India, it's too far, and it's too slow. We load your people and send you to the east coast of Africa. A port in a neutral country, uh, look, how about Maputo? Where is the port of the Portuguese. At present, the Portuguese remain neutral in our war. Maputo is also a relatively prosperous port. It won’t take long for them to get on a ship to India. Then your people can go to India. Although I think this is purely redundant, you will not be able to keep India after the war is defeated. At that time, We have to bother to send you back from India to Europe. This is really too much trouble."

Philip Treville's defiant posture is really disgusting. Bonner wanted to reject his proposal directly, but considering that he rejected the French proposal directly, it was a waste of time to delay. So he stood up and said:

"Regarding your counter-proposal, I cannot answer to you right away. I suggest that you adjourn the meeting for two days before discussing this new proposal."

Philip Treville and Babel discussed briefly, and then agreed. Although Babel was a little anxious, since the French were not in a hurry, it was useless for him to be anxious. Besides, after the last unsuccessful attack on the fortress, in fact everyone is reluctant to take such a risk. And Treville also assured them that the British navy could no longer break through the French navy blockade and reappear on this battlefield.

So the peace talks stopped again, everyone would go to rest, and Philip Treville even went to the beach to go fishing. In short, there was boring peace on the battlefield.

Just as Philip Treville was itchy all over from boredom, Leon Berthier was caught in a danger he had never thought of before.

The expedition stipulated that every once in a while, everyone should apply mosquito repellent ointment to the exposed parts of the body. According to research conducted by the Academy of Sciences, Africa’s most dangerous infectious disease, the malaria that sent countless colonists to heaven or hell, was caused by a small bug lurking in the blood. It's spread by **** mosquitoes.

Therefore, before entering the mountains, all the team members were tightly wrapped. To use Leon Berthier's later statement: "Everyone wrapped themselves like a mummy one by one."

I have to trek non-stop every day. In dense forests and mountains, I often use machetes to clear the way. The physical exertion is very large. Such a strict package, like a mummy, will naturally greatly reduce the human body's heat dissipation capacity, and the human body will be consumed quickly, thereby greatly reducing the human activity.

Therefore, even the François Guerrero trainee who presided over the inspection had to make a compromise and agreed to expose more skin, but he repeatedly emphasized that the exposed parts must be covered with mosquito repellent potion.

These mosquito repellent potions are said to have been improved by the Academy of Sciences based on some natives’ secret recipes, and they have a pungent smell like those natives. But the effect is actually quite limited. Probably the local mosquitoes have long been accustomed to the natives, so they have also developed drug resistance.

As a result, Major Leon Berthier was kissed by mosquitoes, and then contracted malaria and started a fever. Fortunately, the expedition was also prepared for malaria, a common disease in Africa. In this era, there is already a drug cinchona cream for malaria, which is quinine. Although the quinine of this era is not a chemical synthesis of later generations, the high-purity industrial product that is extracted and crystallized is still very primitive cinchona bark powder. But because of this, the output of quinine is still very low, and because these drugs are strictly controlled by some large enterprise alliances, the prices are also quite high. Most of the malaria patients are mainly the price of the lives of indigenous Africans, even They are all inferior to the price of medicines. Update the fastest computer terminal::/

This is of course a tragedy, if we still admit that black life is also life. However, as the so-called "misfortune lies", because quinine has not been widely used in later generations, naturally there will be no later generations. Most common malaria parasites have been screened by quinine. . In other words, there is no resistance to quinine in this era. So quinine is still a miracle medicine for malaria.

After using quinine, Major Leon Berthier's symptoms eased. A few hours later, the high fever subsided, and his head was not so painful, but he was still weak. Fortunately, the prospecting team has already reached where they want to go, and there is no need to travel long distances anymore, just explore nearby.

It took about a week for Major Leon Berthier to heal. However, this did not affect the exploration process. Even on the second day after he recovered from his illness, François Guerrero Trainee Academician asked him to come and tell him, "There was an amazing discovery."

"Major, I'll show you something that I just found this morning." Apprentice François Guerrero stood facing him under the sun outside Major Leon Berthier's straw shed with a cloth bag in one hand. wave.

Major Leon Berthier walked out of the grass shed. He has just recovered and is still weak. In addition, in order to prevent mosquitoes, François Guerrero trainee has ordered a lot of wet grass in the camp. I don’t know what kind of grass there is. The straw made the entire camp a smog. So as soon as he came out, Major Leon Berthier couldn't help but cough violently.

"Academician, your smoke is too choking." Major Leon Berthier.

"Ah, Major, this is the only way to prevent those **** mosquitoes. Well, you have a good complexion, and you are recovering really quickly." François Guerrero said.

"Academician, what did you find?" Major Leon Berthier asked. When he saw that the academician apprentice was full of uncontrollable joy, there was a conjecture in his heart, and this conjecture made his heart beat.

Apprentice François Guerrero handed the cloth bag in his hand to Leon: "Look for yourself."

Leon reached out and took the cloth bag. As soon as the apprentice academician let go, Leon felt his hand sank suddenly.

"What is this?" Leon's heart jumped wildly. He opened the cloth bag with a trembling hand. A large strange shape and full of holes appeared in front of him with a brilliant golden light reflecting in the sun. This brilliant light His head was dizzy, his hands and feet were weak, and he almost sat on the ground.

"This is... this is..."

"This is a natural gold nugget." The apprentice academician said greatly.

Leon couldn't help but look around. This place is so desolate. If other people see the fortune, suddenly... Then he takes this large piece of gold and runs to the Far East incognito. It's really...

But this kind of thing, when we come back, everyone will be prepared. The above promised everyone that the gold they found in the exploration would be divided equally among all people, and it would be regarded as everyone's legal income. In fact, the soldiers in this company are also specially selected. There are wives and children at home. Under the premise that everyone can legally divide the gold equally, the possibility of these guys being black-minded is greatly reduced.

In fact, when this piece of gold was put into a large box prepared and locked under the witness of the major and the academician as well as all the soldiers and staff, what happened to **** the gold and kill each other? None happened. Just to guard this box ~lightnovelpub.net~The number of people staying in the camp every day has doubled.

Another effect is that everyone's attitude towards this expedition and exploration has changed, and it is much more positive than at the beginning. In the first few days, nothing was found. Many soldiers complained and even hoped to end this "exploration survey" as soon as possible. But now, except for those soldiers guarding Kotoujin in the camp, other soldiers can't wait for a day. Go to Kotoujin for 24 hours to know that everyone who finds it has a share.

On the contrary, the apprentice academicians seem to have changed their focus of work and are really paying attention to animals and plants. According to him, that is, he is now doing some private work for himself.

However, in the days after that, they never found such a large piece of natural gold. But they still discovered some other mineral veins one after another, and they found some small pieces of gold. If it's not because they don't have the tools to mine veins. Coupled with the discovery of a large number of Zulu activities nearby, it is not safe for people and gold to continue to stay, I am afraid they will suggest to investigate for a few more months.

But now, Zulu’s short spears and shields painted with poisonous snakes and lions persuaded everyone to leave in order to return to France to enjoy gold.

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