The news of the annihilation of 100,000 British troops came back to Da Zhou, and Zhang Lingyang's heart that had been hanging for many days finally relaxed.

You must know that the 100,000 British troops who counterattacked Tianzhu were the elite divisions of England, far from being comparable to the previous Tianzhu defenders.

However, it was these elites who were completely annihilated by the Great Zhou army, which made Zhang Lingyang completely realize that although the industrialization process of the Great Zhou has not yet been fully rolled out, the combat power of the Great Zhou army is no longer inferior to any European country.

Of course, this is only talking about the army, and the Great Zhou Navy still has a long way to go if it wants to catch up with and surpass the British.

After ordering Sun Dingzong to lead troops to garrison Tianzhu, Zhang Lingyang began to pay attention to domestic affairs.

However, not two months later, Pierre, the French envoy to the Great Zhou, asked to see Zhang Lingyang and sent a letter from the French Emperor Louis XVIII.

After reading the letter, Zhang Lingyang was a little moved in his heart.

But Zhang Lingyang also understood that although the Great Zhou Army had defeated England in Tianzhu before, it was only an army.

Today's Great Zhou Navy has less than 200 warships, and the navy's combat experience is extremely immature, so it is not a wise move to attack Australia at this time, so Zhang Lingyang categorically rejected Louis XVIII's request.

Joke!

Although Australia is far from the English mainland, there is also a sea barrier between Australia and the Great Zhou. If Da Zhou wants to attack Australia, he must be fully prepared.

At the very least, the Navy can't afford to lose too much to England.

But at this time, although Ying Li suffered a crushing defeat to the Great Zhou in Tianzhu, his navy was still unrivaled in the world.

At least for a short time, Zhang Lingyang will not make the decision to attack Australia.

However, considering that after all, in the Battle of Tianzhu, France helped Da Zhou a lot behind the scenes, so Zhang Lingyang also had to say something.

Therefore, although he rejected Louis XVIII's proposal, Zhang Lingyang was able to reach a purchase agreement worth tens of millions of taels of silver.

In the next three years, Da Zhou will purchase machinery and equipment worth 10 million taels of silver from France and introduce French scientific talents on a large scale.

After the agreement was finalized, Pierre left the palace happily, and upon his return to the embassy he hurriedly revised a letter to Louis XVIII to report the good news.

After sending Pierre away, Zhang Lingyang smiled coldly.

In fact, Da Zhou is not short of any machinery and equipment at all now.

In recent years, Da Zhou has purchased a lot of machinery and equipment from Europe. In addition, through independent research, Da Zhou has also developed its own machinery and equipment, and its performance is not much inferior to that of Europe.

But in order to balance the trade deficit between Da Zhou and Europe, Zhang Lingyang had to do this.

Europe has been trading with the Great Zhou for several years, but in the years since then, the silk, tea and porcelain of the Great Zhou have been selling well in Europe.

However, compared with the goods exported by the Great Zhou to Europe, the textiles and other goods exported by Europe to the Great Zhou are still at the point where no one buys them.

Over time, the Great Zhou's trade deficit with Europe became larger and larger.

Therefore, in order to balance the trade deficit with Europe, in fact, Da Zhou has to purchase tens of millions of taels of silver worth of machinery and equipment from Europe every year.

Of course, there is also the introduction of scientific and technological talents.

Although in the past few years, there have been no less than 200,000 scientific and technological talents and skilled workers from Europe, Zhang Lingyang has always been eager for the introduction of scientific and technological talents.

After all, no one would dislike the number of scientific and technological talents under them, right?

Topic again, there is another very important reason why Zhang Lingyang refused to send troops to Australia, that is, until now, in addition to the Indochina Peninsula, there is only one Borneo that the Great Zhou can control in Nanyang.

Now Zhang Lingyang's plan is to start attacking Luzon, Java and other Nanyang islands one after another after the Royal Navy of the Great Zhou Dynasty gain a firm foothold in Borneo, so that the entire Southeast Asia will be completely under the management of the Great Zhou.

Today, England has been defeated, and the only European powers that control the islands of Southeast Asia are Francois and the Netherlands.

These two countries, before the rise of England, were also real maritime hegemons and fought for colonies everywhere in the world.

However, since the rise of England, the colonies of Francois and the Netherlands have been snatched away by England one after another.

Today, apart from South America and Southeast Asia, there are no other colonies in Francois and the Netherlands.

Therefore, in the face of the Franc Ji and the Netherlands, whose hegemony had been declining for many years, Zhang Lingyang believed that this was a good time for the Great Zhou Royal Navy to seize the whole of Southeast Asia.

Moreover, Zhang Lingyang also believes that in the war against Francois and the Netherlands, Da Zhou will never lose.

After all, did the Great Zhou win soon after attacking Borneo, where the Francophone was entrenched?

However, in order to attack the colonies of these two countries in Southeast Asia, Zhang Lingyang had to make a good plan with the middle and high-ranking generals of the army to see how many troops should be sent to Southeast Asia.

In the ninth year of Tai'an, the total strength of the Royal Navy of the Great Zhou Dynasty was less than 50,000.

This is already the limit of how much Da Zhou can build a navy.

After all, no matter how many troops are raised, if there are not enough warships, it will only be in vain.

More critically, the Navy is different from the Army.

In the navy, even if you are just an ordinary sailor, you have to know astronomy, geography, etc.

In the final analysis, the navy is an elite army with extremely high requirements for knowledge and culture.

Therefore, because of many restrictions, Da Zhou did not build a lot of navies.

However, with the opening of primary and secondary schools in Dazhou, there are more and more talents who understand knowledge and technology. In another three or five years, Zhang Lingyang believes that the Royal Navy of the Great Zhou Dynasty will definitely be able to expand to 100,000 people.

Therefore, the most important thing for the Great Zhou Royal Navy now is not to expand the army. Rather, it is to strengthen training, familiarize themselves with the hydrological conditions of various places, accumulate experience in naval warfare, and sum up naval warfare tactics.

Only when these are familiar can the navy smoothly carry out large-scale expansion.

Otherwise, it is just a group of land forces fighting at sea, and it cannot be regarded as a navy in the true sense.

However, even so, Zhang Lingyang decided to take action against Francois and the Netherlands within the year, and put the whole of Southeast Asia under the jurisdiction of the Great Zhou.

Although the Netherlands and Franco, two countries that have been reduced to second- and third-rate small countries in Europe, cannot pose the slightest threat to the Great Zhou.

As the predecessors said, on the side of the couch, others are not allowed to sleep soundly.

Zhang Lingyang also thinks so.

Now that the Great Zhou is rising day by day, its comprehensive national strength has been significantly improved, and it has defeated the global maritime hegemon England.

If at this time, in the southeast, there is any place that is not within the sphere of influence of the Great Zhou, Zhang Lingyang will feel extremely dazzling.

This is the case in Luzon and Java, and Zhang Lingyang feels that colonizing these two places is extremely unsightly......