『Chapter error, click here to report』

Zhou Lang had been informed that the East India Company's authority to Henry Pitt was limited to the exercise of power on behalf of the East India Company on the board of directors of the Chinese Company, and did not include negotiating with the Chinese Company on behalf of the East India Company.

However, since Henry Pitt was able to obtain the authorization of the East India Company, it means that after Cornwalli left, his influence within the East India Company had been greatly enhanced, and he did not have the right to negotiate with other forces on behalf of the East India Company, but his attitude must have had a huge impact on the Governor General and the Governing Council of India, and his judgment was likely to influence the judgment of the East India Company.

Therefore, Zhou Lang proposed that the Chinese company and the British company form an alliance, and the way of the alliance is that the Chinese company fully supports the British company to carry out business development in China, and the British company facilitates the development of Chinese companies in India, and both sides give each other certain tariff preferences within their respective spheres of influence.

It is true that with the current comparison of the strength of the two sides, the Chinese company is not qualified to negotiate with the British company on an equal footing, because the area controlled by the Chinese company is only a Fengshan county with a population of more than 500,000, but the British company has a population of up to 30 million in the territory of India, and indirectly controls most of India.

But the Chinese company had a wonderful prospect, Zhou Lang painted a big pie for them, and at the same time the British business expansion in China was extremely difficult, even Magalny was auctioned, but could not get a preferential commercial treaty from Qianlong, although Zhou Lang currently only controlled a small area, but will continue to expand.

At least for the time being, Henry Pitt was very optimistic about the prospects of the Chinese company, and his attitude had great influence on the East India Company, and if the East India Company could be made to make such a judgment, then an alliance would be feasible.

The advantage that Zhou Lang can get from this is that it greatly facilitates the trade in India, and when the goods produced in China can be dumped in the Indian market, of course, there is no market for ordinary cotton cloth and other goods, but as an advantage of tea, silk and porcelain and other products, it still has a unique competitiveness in the world. India's market is so large that even a small fraction of the population has purchasing power enough to expand its current exports several times.

Henry Pitt was surprised by Zhou Lang's suggestion, but at the same time he was full of expectations, which he thought was very feasible. In addition to his confidence in the prospects of the Chinese company, he was mainly aware of the East India Company's support for trade, not to mention the Chinese company, the East India Company welcomed all merchants to trade in India, the larger the trade, the higher their tax revenue, as for tariff protection, it has not yet been introduced, that was in the 1810s, when the industrialization of Britain was basically completed, and industrial products urgently needed a huge market, so a large number of protective measures would be introduced.

The only obstacle was to give preferential treatment to the Chinese Company, which would certainly arouse opposition from the Netherlands and other countries, but it was not non-negotiable, and the British East India Company would not refuse to give the Dutch the same concession if they were willing to open the colonial market to the British.

Thinking of this, Henry Pitt accepted Zhou Lang's suggestion that he would write to the Governor of the East India Company and the Commission.

Whether it is successful or not, this is a year later, for Zhou Lang, the self at that time is not the current self.

The benefits are obvious, the East India Company is now in a phase of contraction, trying to absorb the fruits of the victory in the Mysore War, and the outbreak of the war against France in Europe has made it almost impossible for Britain itself to give new support to the East India Company, and it is estimated that the British East India Company will not take large-scale action in China until the end of the Napoleonic Wars, unless someone provokes them.

Zhou Lang not only did not provoke them, but would help the East India Company to develop interests, so it was easy for the East India Company to regard the Chinese company as their partner in developing interests, and the more they relied on the Chinese company, the less they would invest resources in China. Zhou Lang also expanded his power more calmly, and when the Napoleonic Wars ended, it would be more than ten years later, if Zhou Lang had not established a force sufficient to resist the infiltration of the East India Company at that time, then he would not have to bother to reverse the general trend, and he would not have to bother to be a hero in this reluctant era, because he would definitely not succeed.

After resolving all the issues with Henry Pitt, the two of them met again and the resolutions were procedurally passed.

A management committee was formed, consisting of representatives of the East India Company and Zhou Lang, as well as Henry Pitt himself, and both agreed to appoint Henry Pitt as chairman of the committee.

The headquarters of the committee is currently set up in Donggang, and all major actions of the company need to be approved by the committee, and all the company's accounts must be under the supervision of the committee.

Zhou Lang's power was limited, but he still had broad autonomy, and in the general direction, he was confident that he would persuade Henry Pitt to support him, and if the other party did not support it, if necessary, Zhou Lang did not mind going his own way, just as Colin could use the army despite Zhou Lang's opposition back then, and now the situation has reversed.

The board of directors also approved Zhou Lang's proposal to open a new commercial base in China's coastal areas within this year, and try to open up the Chinese mainland market, as for how to do it, Zhou Lang did not say, but they are full of confidence in Zhou Lang, and do not blame their blind trust, except for the unknown source of funds, Zhou Lang's current behavior seems to them like a legend.

The capture of a coastal island is not a problem in terms of military strength, but there is a lack of an opportunity.

Zhou Lang was waiting for such an opportunity, and he judged that this opportunity would come soon.

Chen Zhouquan occupied Taiwan, and the Qing court could not ignore it, and Zhu Lian blocked Penghu, the gateway to Taiwan, and would definitely become the priority target of the Manchu Qing Division.

Once the Manchu Qing Dynasty mobilized the main force of the naval division to besiege Penghu, the coastal defense would be empty, and it would be the best opportunity. The most important thing is that once the Qing army's sailors and Zhu Lian consumed too much in Penghu and Zhou Lang occupied Kinmen, the Qing army was unable to recover it for a long time, which was enough for Zhou Lang to gain a firm foothold in Kinmen.

Zhou Lang's judgment was quickly verified in the next month or so.

The Qing court promoted Li Changgeng, the general of Fujian Tongshan, as the deputy general of the Penghu Association and ordered him to recover Penghu immediately. Li Changgeng is a fierce general, and he should be regarded as one of the few generals in the Qing army's naval division in this era who can fight and dare to fight. He once became the chief soldier of Haitan Town, Fujian, but there were pirates in the sea, and as a result, under the internal operation of the government, the pirates were accused of infesting his jurisdiction, and he was dismissed.

Li Changgeng was angry and raised troops, sold his property, recruited village warriors, and relied on his own strength to capture this group of pirates, and then he was activated, supplemented the Haitan guerrillas, and was later promoted to the general of Tongshan. During his tenure, he took the initiative to attack pirate groups from Vietnam many times.

It can be said that his official position was obtained by fighting pirates.

Such a strong general is still a great threat to Zhu Lian.

What Zhou Lang didn't know was that in history, Li Changgeng could be called the destined opponent of Zhu Lian, the pirate king, and in the end, Li Changgeng and Zhu Lian and another pirate king Cai Lian fought fiercely on the sea near Taiwan, Li Changgeng and Cai Lian both died in battle, and Zhu Lian did not escape the follow-up pursuit, and the three of them were equivalent to returning to the sea together.

Such a fateful opponent found Zhu Lang in advance, but Zhu Mian was still in trouble, and under Li Changgeng's onslaught, he quickly sent someone to report to Zhou Lang!

Although Zhu Mian expressed his sincerity to Zhou Lang last time, Zhou Lang still decided not to save it, this is not a matter of personal feelings, but a cold calculation of interests!

According to Zhou Lang's thoughts, he would rather Penghu be captured by the Qing army, in that case, Chen Zhouquan in northern Taiwan would no longer have the mind of going south to conquer Zhou Lang, but should consider how to deal with the endless strangulation of the Qing army.

Compared with Chen Zhouquan, Zhou Lang has a strong fleet, as well as a strong protective port battery system, he is not afraid of the Qing army's sea attack, and can block the landing of the Qing army, in addition, as long as Chen Zhouquan is there, the target of the Qing army cannot be Zhou Lang, after all, Chen Zhouquan is now the self-proclaimed emperor, and there is no other day, if Qianlong can accept this blatant provocation, he is not Qianlong.

Therefore, in Zhou Lang's view, on the contrary, the Qing army's naval division occupied Penghu and posed a huge threat to Taiwan, while Zhou Lang occupied Kinmen and waited for an opportunity to open up the Fujian trade route.

Therefore, Zhou Lang will not save Zhu Li, but the messenger for Zhu Li's help can't say the same, if Zhu Hao sees that Li Changgeng is powerful and chooses to give up Penghu, then it is not a good thing for Zhou Lang, it is the most beneficial for Zhou Lang to let Zhu Hao consume some more strength of the Manshui Division.

Therefore, Zhou Lang told the envoy that he asked Zhu Da to rest assured that his fleet would set sail soon, and he also ordered the fleet to prepare for an attack, so that the envoy could see that he was indeed preparing the materials for the attack before sending the envoy away.

I believe that Zhu Li, who learned that he would be helped, would be more likely to choose to hold on, after all, Penghu is very valuable to a maritime force like Zhu Li. But if there is not much certainty, pirates are prone to guerrilla habits and do not have the absolute conviction to stick to.

Zhou Lang's first ship set sail three days after the envoy left, and the purpose was, of course, not to rescue, but to explore the way.

The sea route to Fujian has long been surveyed by Harald himself, and the most detailed nautical charts have been drawn. Therefore, going to Fujian is not daunting, an old lock boat rushed to Kinmen against the wind, recorded the situation along the way, and found out where the defense was really lax before returning, and the return voyage did not return directly to Dagu Port, but boldly went to Penghu to go around, and confirmed that Zhu Li and Li Changgeng were really defeated in the battle, and then quickly returned to Dagu Port.

Only then did Zhou Lang order the fleet to attack at full speed and go straight to Kinmen!

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