Gou Quanxin thought that he was exiled, but he accepted this appointment, he felt that this was what he deserved, the loss of the army would lose his armor, the emperor did not kill his head, it was good, he should be punished for this, and he did not have the face to stay in the army in a short time, he was a general-level officer who played a record of annihilation of the whole army, just he was a general-level officer, was captured, such a shame, how could he still be cheeky to stay in the army, not to mention that his troops were not even numbered, and all the remnants of the army were eliminated, There's no way he's going to be the commander of the light pole.

In recent years, Zhou Lang has run a large number of schools.

The first was the establishment of a customs school with the help of a Dutch civilian adviser to manage the customs, in which in addition to professional accounting knowledge was also trained in administrative skills.

The school started from Donggang, and now there are 3,000 people studying, Wang Fuqian runs the imperial examination every year, and every year there are 1,000 students who are selected in the imperial examination are directly sent to the customs school for reconstruction, and then distributed to the tax authorities in various places, specifically responsible for collecting commercial taxes.

There are also engineering schools in Fuzhou to teach the technical knowledge of the children of craftsmen, and there are only more than 200 students in the discipline of architecture and machinery, and only 70 or 80 people graduate every year.

There is a nautical school in Guangzhou, teaching the fishermen's children navigation knowledge, there are fewer students, only more than 100 students, more than 30 people graduate every year, and after graduation, they are sent to the sea ship for internship, these are all trained as captains.

The teachers in these schools, like Fischer, are all kinds of technical advisers invited from the West, and they have a common characteristic, that is, they are second-rate or even third-rate talents in the West, and those first-class talents are also social elites in their own countries, and it is impossible for them to go to the far East to make a living.

Therefore, Zhou Lang's school can only use these second- and third-rate talents first, but because of the problem of translation, it can only teach a small number of students at the beginning, and these students are going to teach other students after graduation, which leads to the fact that the teachers in the school are generally learning from second- and third-rate Western talents, and they are also like their teachers, who can only be fourth-rate talents, and even many people themselves do not understand it, so they can only read from the book.

It cannot be said that such a school has no effect, in recent years, they have intensively trained a large number of tax officials in industrialization, and in the process of Zhou Lang's promotion of the new business system to the whole country, it is unthinkable that there are no grassroots officials who can be promoted to the simple tax system and taxation model. But the quality of education in these schools really can't be complimented, to put it bluntly, it has developed to a certain level, and it needs to move to a higher level.

It's like a person who has just read a book, and he must ask Mr. Meng to learn with peace of mind, at this time an old Xiucai, or even an old boy is enough, but when he wants to compose poems and compositions, Xiucai is a little powerless, so he has to invite a talented man to teach, and when he wants to make a difference, then he must go to those great Confucians to ask for advice.

The idea of sending students to the West has been around for a long time, but it has never been possible, and the main reason for not making the trip is because of the war in the West.

European countries are generally not interested in communicating with foreign countries, and the only countries that are still trading on a large scale in Guangzhou are the United Kingdom, the United States and the Netherlands. The UK is a good country to study in, pursuing the principle of elite education, and the education penetration rate is not good, but the level of education is very high. But the British did not accept Zhou Lang sending people to study at first-class universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, and they were not interested in letting Zhou Lang send people to study at their naval school.

The Americans are the most active, and they are very welcoming to Chinese students, and it is a new country that is eager to prove their superiority to the outside world, and it is very culturally symbolic to have a famous ancient civilization like China to learn from them.

But Zhou Lang thinks that Americans, whether in the field of science and technology or education, can only be compared with second-rate European countries.

The Dutch are also relatively enthusiastic, and the level of education in the Netherlands has always been the best in Europe, but Zhou Lang considered that the war in Europe would quickly drag the Netherlands into the water, and it would become unsafe to send students to the Netherlands.

So they have been negotiating with the British, and the British said that they can accept students of up to ten students into their universities, and military schools can be slightly more. According to the British, it's not that their government is unreceptive, their government is very welcoming to cultural exchange, but their universities are reluctant to accept too many people with the required level of education to enter their campuses.

Zhou Lang didn't know if this was a pretext, but the single-digit number of international students was far from meeting the requirements, and it was better than nothing, so he selected suitable overseas students, selected students with outstanding knowledge and intelligence from schools, selected officials with outstanding abilities from government agencies, and selected suitable officers from the army to send them for further study.

Shortly after the departure of students to the UK, a French ship brought French diplomats with them early last year.

They came to establish diplomatic relations with China, which was the representative of the Great Zhou regime, and this was the eighth diplomatic representative to come to China after Britain, the United States, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Denmark, Sweden and other countries, and it was also the eighth international to establish diplomatic relations with China.

The reason for the delay in the arrival of the French was mainly due to their domestic political chaos, which had been in turmoil since the French Revolution, first with the Girondists in power, then by the Jacobins, who purged the Ebel and Dantonists, followed by the Thermidorian coup d'état that overthrew the brutal Jacobins; Externally, the French fought wars against the First and Second European Anti-French Coalitions, and the British, Austrians, Prussians, and Russians fought against them. In this situation of internal and external troubles, the French government, which is not yet functioning smoothly, is really not interested in any diplomatic interaction with a distant country.

After France, under the rule of the Thermidorians, the ruling environment began to turn relaxed, and a series of principles of the Great Revolution were established, abolishing the feudal power of the landed aristocracy over the peasants, dividing the land of the fugitive aristocracy into small plots and selling them to the peasants in ten-year installments; The communal land of the village community, which had been seized by the landlords for hundreds of years (the British enclosure movement was such an act of encroachment), was distributed to the peasants according to the local population.

Although the French Directory established in the Thermidorian coup d'état changed the harsh political atmosphere, the political situation in the country has been turbulent, several coups have broken out, all of which have ended in failure, the hungry peasants continue to revolt, the Jacobins and royalists have fought back in the political field, and many parliamentarians have been elected successively, and the foreign anti-French coalitions continue to attack, and France is still unstable during this period.

In this chaotic situation, heroes were born, and Napoleon became a lifesaver for the weak Directory, quickly rising from a junior officer to a general, and then being suspicious and transferring him from Italy to Egypt for an expedition, otherwise Napoleon would have had a chance to meet Suvorov. After Napoleon's departure, his invincible army in northern Italy was swept away by Suvorov's Russian army.

Napoleon was still invincible in Egypt, but the navy that could assist him was annihilated by the famous British admiral Nelson near Alexandria, and after Napoleon's back was cut off, and after a series of military victories on land, he himself sneaked back to France, using his military prestige and the French people's dissatisfaction with the weak Directory's inability to resist the anti-French alliance, and launched the Coup d'état.

When Napoleon came to power, he restored the French tradition and established a highly centralized system of the Louis XIV era, with all power in his hands through the ruling government, which did not attract opposition, because the French were really tired of the never-ending factional infighting.

Napoleon, with his great prestige and the talent of his countrymen, quickly stabilized the situation in France, and began his legendary series of military campaigns abroad. The following year, Napoleon defeated Austria and forced Austria to withdraw from the anti-French alliance, and then spent two years defeating Russian forces in Europe and forcing Russia to withdraw from the anti-French alliance. After these land enemies were defeated by France, Britain was isolated, and it happened that Prime Minister William Pitt Jr., who had always advocated being tough on France, chose to step down because of his disagreement with the king on the religious issue of Ireland, and it was a moderate who came to power to form a government. On this occasion, France and Great Britain also signed the Treaty of Amiens to restore peace.

This brief period of peace gave Napoleon time to stabilize the interior and suppress the royalist forces. The Napoleonic Constitution was introduced. Fiscal reforms have been carried out to raise taxes such as land tax and real estate tax. The Banque de France was founded to unify the currency. All this quickly stabilized the French economy, and when the economy stabilized, the social order at the lowest level was also stabilized.

France was stable, and at the same time restored a brief peace with all countries, but they knew very well that war would come, and at this time the French considered establishing diplomatic relations with China, because they knew that China was a country located behind Russia, and if China could stand on the side of France, then it would be possible for France to contain Russia.

In addition, it was also due to the cultural sentiments shared with the United States, and the nascent French revolutionary regime, in the context of the overall exclusion of Europe, was desperate for recognition, and was full of a sense of mission and revolutionary enthusiasm for disseminating French knowledge, ideas and culture.

The French diplomatic representative highly welcomed China's dispatch of students to France and promised to give them sincere help.

Because France had no restrictions on international students, and the Napoleonic government had more control over the school, Zhou Lang could send international students to almost any French school.

In addition, Zhou Lang also learned that since the time of Louis XIV, France has enjoyed a good reputation in the field of European culture and technology, and France can become a European cultural center, and it is not for nothing that it has always surpassed Britain in cultural undertakings.

It is recognized that France is unique in Europe in terms of engineering, and even more developed and standardized than England.

The British are praised for their outstanding performance in the field of private economy, and most of the scientific and technological achievements of the British are concentrated in the commercial field, and in those fields with commercial interests, the British are eager to follow, and as a country with too strong a commercial atmosphere, Britain is also despised by some European diplomats with status.

Since France is at least no worse than Britain in terms of engineering, Zhou Lang has enough motivation to send international students there.

So an agreement was reached with the French diplomatic mission to send at least 1,000 students of various disciplines to France, and these students have been on merchant ships of various countries to Europe, most of which are British merchant ships, and they will transit in neutral countries.

The 1,000 students sent to France made the French diplomats quite face-saving among diplomats from all over the world, and regarded this as a sign of France's cultural strength, which also greatly stimulated the British consul, who strongly advocated to his own government that it was necessary to strengthen cooperation with China in the field of culture, otherwise China might be co-opted by France, which was extremely detrimental to Britain's cause in the East.

He resented the stubborn old pedants in British universities, believing that their stubbornness would destroy the fragile friendships and growing commercial interests of Britain and the Orient. Before the reply from Britain was received, the British consul was once again stimulated, and China signed an agreement with the French consul to send military students to France.

And the scale is so large that it is surprising, the Chinese want to send 3,000 people, and after learning about the composition of this team of international students, the British consul felt that this was not to study, this was simply to send an army.