In the colonial expansion, Zhou Lang has always maintained a respectful attitude towards the British, because he is afraid of the British, but this fear is not a mental timidity, but a kind of restraint based on strength, Zhou Lang knows very well, at least in the navy, his sailors are far from being the opponent of the British navy.

The number of capital ships is inferior to the other side, the quality of the sailors is not as good as the other side, the combat experience is not as good as the other side, and the morale is not as good as the other side, because the Chinese naval division has not yet established the strong heart by defeating the strong enemy again and again, but the British already have it, and Nelson dares to surround the other side even if it is inferior to the Franco-Spanish coalition army in terms of strength, just like the courage of a regiment to attack an army, which was constantly staged on the British Navy in the following era.

On the premise that all the soft and hard power comparisons are not as good as the other party, they dare to press everything to block, not gambling, but suicide. But there is a kind of person who ignores all the realities and blindly fights, you talk to him about strength, he talks to you about morality, you talk to him about technology, he talks to you about people's hearts. This kind of people emerged in an endless stream, especially in the late Qing Dynasty, so in the case of insufficient preparation, the Beiyang Naval Division, which had not added new warships for 20 years and did not carry out new improvements, was forced to fight a Sino-Japanese naval battle with the Japanese Navy, which had updated its ship age and artillery technology; So without any possibility of winning, the Empress Dowager Cixi declared war on the whole world.

In the end, Li Hongzhang, who was unwilling to fight, was burdened with all the infamy after losing; In the end, the Empress Dowager Cixi almost ruined the future of the country, "began to measure the material resources of China and the favor of the country", and became the old witch who brought disaster to the country and the people in the mouth of the revolutionaries in the late Qing Dynasty; But those main war factions who forcibly forced Li Hongzhang to go to war and instigated Cixi to declare war were packaged as patriots again and again!

Zhou Lang did not agree with Li Hongzhang, but the situation at that time was like that, on paper, the Beiyang Naval Division seemed to be stronger than the Japanese army, but it was completely backward in technology and training, Japan had been preparing for war with the Qing Dynasty as the goal, but the Beiyang Naval Division was increasingly abandoned; Lack of preparation, this is definitely Li Hongzhang's responsibility, with his power, but as long as he uses snacks, even if there are many obstacles, even if he can't buy new warships, it is always possible to strengthen training, even if he can't change to new guns, it is always okay to reserve enough ammunition.

Li Hongzhang's fault for the lack of preparation before the war, but the matter had come to this point, and the most rational choice at that time was to delay time, strengthen armaments, and use the national strength of the Manchu Qing Dynasty to defeat Japan if it did not rush out and consume Japan, and Japan would have no hope of winning.

As for Cixi's later declaration of war on the world, there is nothing to say, what is the reason for a crazy girl who has lost her mind.

Therefore, in dealing with great power politics, reason is not cowardice, and toughness is not bravery.

As for the words despicable and noble, that only exists in propaganda, the British can beat the Manchus for drug trafficking, the Americans can exterminate the Indians for the land, and almost all white maritime countries are involved in the bloody trade of blacks.

But this kind of behavior must not be called noble, he must be despicable, a kind of hooliganism, there is a term in the rivers and lakes called stepping on the old. The most convenient way for a little hooligan to become famous is to step on an old hooligan who has been famous for a long time.

Zhou Lang is now going to step on the old Spaniards.

But to be a hooligan, you also have to pretend to be a civilized person, so you can't go up and step on it, you have to pay attention to the right name. Lu Zhishen punched the town of Guanxi, not to fight when he went up, but to find fault first. Wu Songyu beat Jiang Menshen, and he also went up to molest other women first. The British did not mention drug trafficking in the Opium War, they only said that you were obstructing free trade. Disgusting things are done behind the scenes, and everyone should be glamorous on the surface.

Therefore, Zhou Lang wanted to salute first and then send a diplomatic team to the West. They went to Spain to protest, and at the same time, after several years of training, there are a group of people who know Western languages and have learned some negotiation skills, and they can send envoys to the West. At the head of the list is none other than Lindy, who has grown up beside Zhou Lang, who will be based in France and will be responsible for the overall foreign affairs of the rest of Europe. Diplomats from other countries should report to Lindy first when they encounter something that cannot be handled. On the one hand, long distances affect communication and cannot respond quickly.

Zhou Lang's purpose was to step on Spain, and sent a representative to protest, in order to prevent a protest, just at sea by the British navy, on land by Napoleon's suppression, the Spaniards who had been aggrieved retreated, Zhou Lang had to create an obstacle for the Spaniards that could not retreat.

At the same time as sending a diplomatic team to the West, Zhou Lang sent a message to the Americas, asking Zhu Li to take practical action to retaliate against Mexico's seizure of his merchant ships, the more ruthless the retaliation, the better, Zhou Lang suggested that at least bombard Mexican ports, and if possible, land and sack Mexican cities.

First the Spaniards seized the Chinese merchant ship first, and then the Chinese retaliated later, at this time the official protest, how will the Spaniards respond? It is definitely not possible to let the ship lose money, and in turn it is necessary to make a claim to China. The diplomatic lawsuits between the two sides began to rip off, and it broke down "naturally" after coming and going, and the next diplomatic procedure was to sever diplomatic relations and declare war!

Zhou Lang's messenger ventured out in the summer and drifted eastward along the Japanese Kuroshio, which flows eastward, but the monsoon of this world is the northeast monsoon, which is a headwind. If the wind direction of this journey is not cooperative, the ship will be easily blown to Alaska, so for the sake of insurance, Zhou Lang sent three letter ships to ensure that the news must be sent to the Americas.

The three ships set off one after another, headed north along the coast of China, avoiding the interference of the northeast monsoon, using the reflected winds from the coast to Shandong, then turned to Japan, and then sailed east from Japan.

There is no tailwind along the way, but it is not a positive and headwind, and the Chinese hard sail has a unique feature in the efficiency of using the wind, as the saying goes, the ship makes the wind in eight directions, even if it is a headwind, it can also move forward in a zigzag pattern. But this is equivalent to lengthening the voyage and taking much more time.

Departing in the summer, two of the three ships managed to reach the coast of North America, and the other blew to Alaska, where they were captured by the Russians, but fortunately, the captain destroyed Zhou Lang's letter before surrendering to the Russian colonies, as ordered.

The two ships conveyed Zhou Lang's opinion to Zhu Li.

After Xie Qinggao left, Zhu Li began to be stationed in the Shuanghe camp. Camp Twin Rivers is the name of the colony that Zhu founded on the Columbia River, and it is now a small town.

The reason why it is called Shuanghe Camp is because it is located at the confluence of the Columbia River and the Laodi River (Willamette River), when Zhu Lian set up a large camp here, and gradually not far away Chen Zhouquan's gang called Zhu Lian's base Shuanghe Camp, and the same Zhu Lian's men and horses slowly called the river they occupied called Chen Zhouquan the Laodi River.

Names are often called by others, not by themselves. The elder brother river came from the Columbia River, because this river has a name, Xie Qinggao marked the Columbia River, but the name is too long, and Zhu Li's subordinates have accents, and gradually it is referred to as the Columbia River, and it becomes the Ge Lao River, and finally everyone begins to call the Lao Ge River, the Lao Ge River has it, and the river that meets the Lao Ge River is slowly called the Lao Di River. In fact, Chen Zhouquan himself didn't recognize this name, because he felt that he was a head shorter than Zhu Li, but there was no way, the new and old immigrants all called it that, and the name was called by everyone, and it could only be like this.

Chen Zhouquan has now completely gained a foothold, and the first two years of immigration were indeed miserable, with more than half of the people killed, and in the end only 80 people remained. In the third year, more than 2,000 old brothers from the Heaven and Earth Society came to join Chen Zhouquan, and those people made an appointment with Chen Zhouquan, and Chen Zhouquan first went to stand on his feet, and then summoned them to go. The arrival of these people greatly improved Chen Zhouquan's situation, and he led people to reclaim enough land to be directly distributed to these old brothers for cultivation, and at the same time to cultivate more land.

Due to the experience of land reclamation, this time Chen Zhouquan's men suffered much less damage, and the living environment was greatly improved, no longer on the verge of wilderness, but a camp established in the center of the mature farmland that had been developed, plus a large number of medicines were brought, and only a few dozen of the more than 3,000 people died of illness, which was no longer so desperate.

In the fourth year, Chen Zhouquan recruited 10,000 brothers. In the fifth year, Chen Zhouquan even began to gradually bring their family members. Because you can't bring your family to it, these heaven and earth will be bandits, and they can't stand loneliness at all, and there are no women, so they hit the idea on the local Shengfan women, and that thing is exchanged for women, and if they can't be exchanged, they will rob it, and in the end, they almost swept the Shengfan Clan in the Laodi River (Willamette River) basin, but they only got a few thousand women, because there are only 10,000 people in this generation, fishing and hunting along the river for a living, and there are not many young women at all.

The snatching of the raw woman has made the team more unstable, because some people have women, some people do not have women, and in the case of unfair distribution of resources, fights are inevitable, and there have been many injuries for this reason, which made Chen Zhouquan decide to bring his family together.

Beginning in the sixth year, Chen Zhouquan immigrated his family on a large scale, and there were four or five thousand women who came to Laodihe, all of whom were brothers and dependents who did not grab women.

From the second year of Chen Zhouquan's opening up of the Lao Di River to today's eighth year of the Great Zhou, six full years have passed, and this year is the seventh year, Chen Zhouquan has an army of 30,000, more than 10,000 women, and a total population of more than 40,000. Chen Zhouquan established two more bases, one at the confluence of a river upstream of the Laodi River (Albany) and the other next to a waterfall (Oregon City Falls), where he had to pass to Camp Shuanghe.

These three strongholds were called Old Camp (Salem), Great River Camp (Albany), and Flying Camp (Oregon City), all of which were strongholds built along the river, and although there were no enemies, they built a high wall around the camp with the precious bricks they burned, and most of the houses they lived in at this time were mud houses, so cautious, it is self-evident who to guard against.

Chen Zhouquan's forces are already so strong that Zhu Lian feels that it is best to unite with Chen Zhouquan to take military action.

So he personally visited Chen Zhouquan, but he didn't salute, met him as an equal, and then asked Chen Zhouquan if he wanted to make a fortune, and did he dare to rob a handful of people?