After the death of Ahmad Shah, Afghanistan was plunged into chaos. His successor, Timur, ascended the throne, and at the same time the governor of Kandahar established himself king with the support of tribal nobles, and Afghanistan descended into civil strife. After the death of Timur in 1793, Afghanistan began to divide and Timur had thirty-six sons and daughters, the nomadic people's power transfer was always bloody, and having too many heirs was often a great disaster, the Ottomans kept power centralized by having the succeeding monarch slaughter all their brothers, and China maintained stability through the traditional imperial system.

Afghanistan did not have the institutions and culture to ensure a smooth transition of power, and after Timur's death, his fifth son, Zamanshah, succeeded to the throne with the support of the nobles as the new king. Then the other sons were not convinced, and the scuffle began. First, Timur's eldest son, Humayun, raised an army, and was soon defeated. Mahmud then raised his army and was defeated by Zamanshah. Zamansha did not consult with the tribal chiefs on state matters, reusing his own prime minister and trying to impose a bureaucratic system. The tribal leaders supported Mahmud and rebelled again, and Mahmud succeeded this time. Zamansha fled to India with the help of the British.

Mahmud's reign was short-lived, and the conflict between church and state was severe. Suga was put on the throne in 1803 and his reign was similarly unstable, and in 1809 he was defeated by Mahmud, who re-became king. In 1816 Persia sent troops to attack Herat. Mahmud was thus overthrown in 1818, and then Afghanistan was divided into 5 independent monarchies.

It was under these circumstances that the Manchu forces entered Afghanistan, and in Chinese parlance, the Afghans at this time were determined, and the Mongol tribes had always occupied a high position of power here, and Jiaqing quickly took control of the situation in Afghanistan. When China and Britain settled the territorial issue of India, they suddenly found that the Manchus were in the other direction, bordering China again.

Since the Manchus were busy implementing the Eight Banners system in Afghanistan, they were unable to conflict with China for the time being, but it was difficult to say about the future, because Peshawar, controlled by the Chinese African Company, was the only place for Afghanistan to enter and leave India, and if the Manchus wanted to continue to expand southward, the two forces would inevitably clash.

The British, in order to counterbalance China, had begun to contact the Manchu dynasty.

The small actions of the British, the Chinese diplomatic department was clear, first, the intelligence agencies under the Lifan Yuan had been paying attention to the every move of the old rival of the Manchu Dynasty, and second, the Manchu Dynasty itself sent people to report the situation.

They have sent envoys to each other with China to maintain friendly relations with China, which has always been Jiaqing's diplomatic strategy, and I don't know if he still has the idea of fighting back to China and chasing the Central Plains, but this kind of Taoguang and obscure strategy is indeed the most suitable.

Britain supported the Manchu Qing to gain a foothold in Afghanistan and put forward trade and other demands, and also supported the Manchu regime's continued southward seizure of the Indus Valley, which was controlled by the Chinese African Company, including Peshawar.

Obviously, through the Australian-Indus Territory exchange, the British have not been able to completely expel Chinese power from India, and the British have always been resentful.

Britain is good at playing this trick of cultivating proxies and spending money to kill others to satisfy its own strategic intentions.

It's a pity that Jiaqing is not a fool, and he turned around and sent someone to inform the Chinese Imperial Court of the activities of the British, not how loyal Jiaqing is to China, but to show loyalty, which is also a smart person. Playing political strategy, the Chinese have been playing for thousands of years.

But the British have been able to do things around China, and China, which is better at playing conspiracy and trickery, has never been able to do anything, this is not a matter of wisdom, but a problem of pattern, the British have suppressed their own problems very well, so that others can't do things, at least in Europe there is no country that can do British things, China is beyond the reach of the whip, and the whip is not long enough.

Since the establishment of the East India Company by the British, it has been expanding in Asia for two hundred years, and China has only been expanding for more than 20 years since Zhou Lang returned to China.

China's influence in Europe, at best, depends on a few diplomats to make empty plans, and it has no real power at all, and if it wants to have global influence, it must have the ability to project power around the world.

Zhou Lang's plan is to open European routes, to this day, China and Europe do not have a fixed route, not a problem of navigation capacity, but a lack of a fixed line of interests, China has sent ships into Europe many times, but under the blow of European business groups, there is no ability to continue to make profits.

Scattered maritime merchants lacked the motivation to continue to develop, and the occasional state action was meaningless, so Zhou Lang planned to form a European company, and Westerners could form an East India Company, relying on monopoly trade with the East to make profits, and use the huge capital of the monopoly organization to open up long-term interests, as could China.

As a result, after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, a European company was formed, and the southeastern maritime forces, which had already eaten the dividends of African companies and American companies, and the maritime merchants of Zhejiang and Shandong, who had just set foot in the ocean but lacked competitive advantages, placed high hopes on this commercial company and vied to subscribe for the company's shares.

This kind of company, which is licensed by the state to issue stocks and bonds, and is granted monopoly privileges, is not comparable to the power of ordinary individual maritime merchants. They raised five million taels of shares, quickly established a commercial network in Europe after the Napoleonic Wars, and began to ship Chinese goods directly to Europe and sell them directly at auction in the British and Dutch commodity exchanges; Ship goods from Europe directly to China and sell them at auction on the commodity exchange in Guangzhou.

After the Napoleonic Wars, Europe was the first to benefit from the reopening of shipping routes with China.

The European company had an exclusive ten-year concession to trade with Europe, and the emperor also gave the power to sign diplomatic treaties with Europe on behalf of the state, but this power was limited to the European region, and they could represent China in Europe. But without Europe, they are just ordinary commercial companies. This is a huge power, they can act in the name of the state in Europe, contact the countries in the name of the state, sign treaties to attach their companies, and China's influence in Europe is instantly transformed into the resources of the company.

The maximum power that Zhou Lang gave them, even greater, was to allow them to open up commercial bases on the route from China to Europe, and they could build commercial bases along the African coast.

There was no need to open up colonies, because according to the treaties signed by China with the Netherlands and Portugal, they could use the bases of these two countries, saving a lot of costs, and unless a certain commercial base could give them an absolute advantage, there was no need to directly intervene in the development.

There are very few bases worth investing heavily in such a construction, at least to replace the bases of European colonies, and it is difficult to find other options than the opening of the Suez Canal.

According to the authorization given to them, if the Suez Canal is opened, the canal will be operated and managed by the Chinese European Company.

Are European companies interested in digging the Suez Canal? I'm afraid there isn't a single company that isn't interested. The question is do they have the ability?