Zhou Lang knows for sure some of the history of British development in Calcutta, in the earliest days, there were only three villages near the river with merchants living here, and the British came here only to do business.

It was because of a rebellion in a nearby area, Budwan, that officials of the British East India Company took the opportunity to ask for permission to fort their trading posts or factories, and the officials of the Bengal province were eager to suppress the rebellion and had to accede to the British's request.

As a result, the British built a military fortress in Calcutta, Fort William, and quickly established themselves here, and a few years later, the British opened up their ties with the province of Bengal and purchased the rights to three villages in Chai Damin. This kind of Qaidamin is a unique feudal territory system in India, the emperor or the provincial government, or the prince of the big princely state, will not pay his officers, but give him a certain territory, allowed to collect taxes on these territories, and the lord of Qaidamin must provide military services for the emperor or prince, this kind of Qaidamin lord, at least it is a tax contractor, at least it is a princely state.

The British bought the power of Qadaminr in Calcutta, and according to Indian political tradition, the East India Company was effectively an Indian princely state. Based on this, the British slowly built up a strong strength in the conflicts between the Mughal and Maratha in India, and finally directly defeated the Mughal dynasty and occupied the entire province of Bengal.

In addition, the British were also good at supporting puppets to rule. For example, the British army won the Battle of Plasse under the command of Klevu, and did not have enough manpower to rule the whole of Bengal, he supported the Bengali magnate Jafar who stood on the side of the British army to become the prince of Bengal during the Battle of Plasse, and ruled indirectly through Jafar, and after Jafar was disobedient, it was abolished, and it was re-established a few years later, but since then Jafar has become a prince who receives the East India Company annuity, and the real power is completely in the hands of the East India Company, and the East India Company has completed its full control of Bengal.

Suddenly, Zhou Lang found that with the emergence of the forces of the Heaven and Earth Society, the British were given a huge space to operate. They could have followed the example of Bengal and chose to support the Tiandihui, give military support to defeat the Qing army, and then rule Taiwan with the help of the Tiandihui, and when the time came, kick the Tiandihui away with one kick and turn Chen Zhouquan into a puppet with the East India Company's annuity.

This means that Zhou Lang has become dispensable for the East India Company and has become a rag that can be thrown away at any time.

Zhou Lang has always been very clear that the relationship between himself and the East India Company is one of mutual use, but he has always believed that he has unique advantages, and the current situation has developed, so that the cooperation between Zhou Lang and the East India Company has become more and more unfavorable.

"Colin must be eliminated!"

Zhou Lang said secretly in his heart.

He knew that only by cutting off the nail that the East India Company had placed beside him as soon as possible and cutting off the pawn of the East India Company in Taiwan could the East India Company cut off the connection between the East India Company and Taiwan, so that the other party could not gain a foothold, and quickly accumulate his own strength, and it was possible to continue the game with the East India Company.

But what Zhou Lang is worried about is that if Colin has really started to calculate himself, then Colin must be on guard against Zhou Lang, and if he wants to get rid of him, he can't use a simple way.

Besides, now that the Qing army is pressing, Zhou Lang himself is difficult to protect, and everything has to wait until he gets through this difficulty.

At present, the Qing army has not yet arrived, and all Zhou Lang can do is to step up training and strengthen his strength as much as possible before the big war. The problem of equipment has always bothered Zhou Lang, imitation rifles have always been very difficult, the craftsmanship mastered by local blacksmiths is not enough to make qualified rifles, and the iron itself is very scarce.

The place where Fengshan County is located was previously known as Xiapitou Street, which is not a very official name, because this place had no official color at all before, and it was completely a bazaar formed by Han immigrants from the mainland. But this bazaar developed rapidly, the reason is that in the last years of Kangxi, the ban on mainland immigrants to come to Fengshan for reclamation, a large number of immigrant groups mainly composed of Hakka people came here, the Pingtung Plain along the Lower Tamsui Creek (Gaoping Creek), the land is fertile, and it is the only place in the entire Taiwan Island where double winter early rice can be planted, after the reclamation of the Kang Yongqian Dynasty, it has become the largest rice production area in Fengshan County, and Xiapitou Street is located on the avenue from the Pingtung Plain to the capital city of Taiwan, so the government established a barn here, Slowly developed into a bustling street market. Long before Fengshan County moved here from Zuoying, Xiapitou Street was already the most prosperous market in Fengshan County, even surpassing the old city of Fengshan.

Because it is a bazaar formed in the process of agricultural immigration reclamation, the most important tool in agriculture is the hoe, it is impossible not to need iron, so there are also a large number of iron shops here, and it is said that there is no shortage of iron in Xiapitou Street, but the problem is that the Heaven and Earth will revolt and cut off trade, and at the same time, there will be tens of thousands of people in the world who need to be armed, and the stock of iron in the city is not enough at all, so Zhou Lang can't even buy iron, let alone equipment. At one time, it was so cold that he could only use sharpened bamboo poles as weapons, and he really cut wood for soldiers.

It wasn't until Chen Zhouquan was defeated by the Qing army twice and began to send people to ask Zhou Lang to stay, that Zhou Lang's situation began to improve. Xiapitou Street has always been the location of the barn in Fengshan County, and there is no need to worry about the grain storage here, so Chen Zhouquan has always been very generous in food, and sent a lot of food to Zhou Lang, this time in order to keep Zhou Lang from leaving, he directly sent enough food to eat for three months. And even the weapons that Zhou Lang asked for were not stingy, and Chen Zhouquan didn't have rifles and cannons, but he had more spears in his hand, and he directly sent a thousand spears.

Compared with Zhou Lang, Chen Zhouquan's bottom line is much lower, he also encountered the situation of not being able to buy iron, he couldn't buy a gun, nearly 10,000 households in the city, not a family let go, even the iron bell on the bell tower was broken to create a blade, so he not only armed more than 10,000 soldiers, and even wealthy, but the cooking of the people in the city has become a problem.

Zhou Lang was not in the mood to care about the people of Fengshan County, so he was easily equipped with weapons and replaced bamboo guns with spears, and after the soldiers discarded the bamboo poles, they finally looked a bit like an army, and they didn't look so much like beggars. If you have a weapon, you must pay close attention to training, especially the use of weapons, if you don't have a rifle, you can use a spear as a rifle, and the mercenaries know how to charge with bayonets, so let them actively train to charge with bayonets.

At present, the biggest flaw is that there is no long-range weapon, the rifle is not to think about it, now it is basically in the hands of Colin, the bow and arrow can be considered, it takes several months to build a qualified bow and arrow, Chen Zhouquan has captured a batch of bows and arrows in the arsenal of Fengshan County, but they themselves are not enough, and the bird of the Qing army's equipment is not considered, because even the Qing army itself is unwilling to use it, and the reliability is too poor.

What can be relied on is the cannon mentioned in Colin's letter, Fischer's men can operate the cannon, and immediately let Fischer select the right soldiers to form an artillery corps, and strive to fire all the six cannons left by Feng Danxun. It is not easy to find the right soldiers, it is impossible to find soldiers with mathematical knowledge and can learn artillery aiming techniques, so you can only select a group of soldiers who have the best military terminology and can accurately carry out actions under the command of the officer in military terminology.

But no matter how Zhou Lang calculated, it was too late, the Qing army was divided into two routes, and the battle had already started in the left camp, so it was not far from attacking Fengshan County, and while attacking Fengshan County, it was impossible for them to let go of Fengdanxun, a key place located in the southeast of Fengshan County.

Fischer told Zhou Lang that he had no way to make the artillery form combat effectiveness in a short period of time, because the soldiers who were temporarily selected could not even learn the loading well now, and they could not fight at all.

Where the Qing army has arrived, this intelligence is very important, Zhou Lang can only go to Fengshan County again and again to investigate, and now the intelligence can only rely on the channels of the Heaven and Earth Society.

The person who went to inquire about the news today has not yet returned, and Chen Zhouquan's envoy Chen Guanghui has come with a happy face.

"The thieves have returned?"

Chen Guanghui was overjoyed by the news, and according to him, the Qing army had captured Guanyin Mountain, and had already sent troops south, but suddenly turned back halfway.

"Why did the thieves turn back?"

Zhou Lang continued to ask.

Chen Guanghui smiled: "I have to thank Brother Chen for this." The Yi people under Brother Chen's command are really brave. I thought that it was because the thieves were defeated in Banping Mountain, so they didn't dare to advance. ”

Zhou Lang asked, "Why is this?" ”

Chen Guanghui said: "The thieves must pass through Banping Mountain and Guanyin Mountain along the avenue to the south, Fuzhi Avenue to Nanzikeng (Nanzi), and then fork into two roads, all the way to the west along the west foot of Banping Mountain to Zuoying, all the way along the eastern foot of Banping Mountain through Renwu Hill and finally to Xiapitou, now the thieves attack Banping Mountain, and they will not dare to move forward rashly. It must be a turnaround and a joint attack on half of the mountain! ”

Zhou Lang nodded, he didn't expect that the victory mentioned by Colin would attract the Qing army to turn back, which was good news.

Continue to ask: "Does the Qing army have backup?" ”

If the Qing army only has 3,000 people, according to Colin, the troops in his hands can be blocked, then the danger in Fengshan County will be lifted, but if the Qing army still has reinforcements, Colin may not be able to stop it.

Chen Guanghui sighed: "The thieves are ruthless, and the chief soldier Hadang'a actually came to his aid, with two thousand government standards and one thousand sailors, both by land and water." ”

Taiwan's general soldier Hadang'a personally led the troops to come, and also sent elite pacesetters, the headquarters of Taiwan town together with the standard battalion generally does not exceed 5,000 people, and 2,000 are dispatched at a time, which is already half of it, but I did not expect the uprising in Fengshan County, the Taiwan government has paid so much attention.

However, this is not surprising, there is a lesson from Lin Shuangwen's experience a few years ago, it is estimated that once there is an uprising in various parts of Taiwan, the prefect of Taiwan will be regarded as a top priority, and even Qianlong will be alarmed.

Now that the Heaven and Earth Society in Fengshan County has captured the county seat, this is already a big move, even if Qianlong knows it now, it is not surprising at all.

But after Zhou Lang listened, he was even more shocked by another question: "You said that the thieves are advancing by land and water?" ”

Chen Guanghui nodded: "The Taiwan sailors have been dispatched, and it is said that the Penghu sailors will also be dispatched." ”

Zhou Lang sighed: "Brother Chen, I'm afraid I'm going to leave!" ”

Chen Guanghui was stunned: "Brother Zhou wants to leave?" ”