The French army occupied the whole of the Netherlands, and the Netherlands signed a "Hague Treaty" with France, and the French army in the Netherlands regarded itself as liberators, and established the "Republic of Batavia", which was undoubtedly a puppet republic "based on the principles of the French Revolution".

It was also the government of this puppet republic that announced the dissolution of the Dutch East India Company.

Zhou Lang had a close cooperation with the Dutch before, all through the Dutch East India Company, and then established a close cooperation with France, and now the French team of scientists has arrived in China and is actively preparing for the Royal Academy of Sciences. At this time, Zhou Lang was really reluctant to participate in the Nanyang region, so as not to affect the relationship with the Netherlands and France.

At the same time, it was impossible for the British to let France control the Dutch colonies through the puppet republic, and the British could occupy Java at any time. At this time, Zhou Lang supported the establishment of a Nanyang Company and appointed a governor to explore the area, which would further complicate the situation there, and bring the British fleet from Europe to Asia, which would be more than worth the loss.

In recent years, with Zhou Lang's policy of encouraging opening up and no longer restricting population migration, a large number of poor people in Guangdong and Fujian have gone to Nanyang to seek refuge in Chinese forces such as Lanfang Company and Dagang Company, which have established themselves there.

Therefore, Zhou Lang is not keen on official participation, and maintaining the status quo is the best interest for China.

Zhou Lang is very confident that as long as China can gain a foothold in a certain place, backed by the motherland's strong manual production and population resources, it will not be long before it will be able to form an absolute advantage in a certain place, which will never be comparable to Western countries. There are already those Chinese forces in Nanyang, and the Dutch do not dare to change the status quo, so they will maintain it for the time being. The best deal at the moment is to establish a new foothold elsewhere before the Western colonizers, rather than messing up an area that is already de facto controlled and holding back the prospect of opening up elsewhere.

Therefore, Zhou Lang successively established the American Company and the African Company, but he maintained restraint in Nanyang, which was most familiar with the Chinese forces, and did not officially intervene in the development.

Zhou Lang's attitude in Nanyang was to support where the Dutch would maintain their existence, so as to block British infiltration, which was much more terrible than the Dutch. Zhou Lang has always regarded Britain as the biggest rival in the future, so he will do everything possible to curb British expansion.

Let Xie Qinggao seize Singapore, in fact, there is a plot to prevent British forces from crossing the Strait of Malacca.

But at least now, Zhou Lang's naval strength is still a big gap compared with the British, he can use more troops to make up for the technical gap with the Russian army, but compared with the British Navy, both in terms of fleet size and military level, it is at an absolute disadvantage, so it is powerless to stop the British.

Now the maritime merchants who are engaged in the Nanyang trade can no longer hold back, and people like Zhou Guan are indeed the most suitable candidates to open up the Nanyang, but the current situation is not suitable, he does not want to stimulate the British, let the British do it in advance.

This Zhou official must be restrained, in case he starts to do it without permission, if he wants to create a fait accompli, he will also cause trouble.

Soon Zhou Lang thought of how to arrange Zhou Guan.

Zhou Lang then said to Xie Qinggao: "Brother Xie, I think you just don't have people like Zhou Guan to help you." Isn't it very good for you to cooperate with Zhu Mian in North America, let Zhou Guan help you, what do you think? ”

This is Zhou Lang's solution, first stuff Zhou Guan into the African company, the African company is based on the development of African business as the slogan, which is very confusing to Westerners, when Westerners still regard commercial interests as the greatest interests and do not pay much attention to territorial issues, using commercial companies as a cover can indeed reduce their suspicions. That's what the Russians did, because they were afraid of provoking Britain, so when they developed North America, they chose to establish a Russian-American company instead of the government directly taking over the territory.

As soon as Xie Qinggao heard that the emperor had this idea, he immediately became interested, he was not interested in trade, if it wasn't for the way, he didn't want to engage in this African company at all, as if he was not interested in sailing, and he studied navigation seriously for the sake of travel, and now it was also for the purpose of inspecting exotic customs, so he chose to be the governor of this African company.

So he said happily: "Your Majesty, the minister is willing to abdicate and make way for Xian, and ask Zhou Guan to be the governor of Africa." ”

Zhou Lang shook his head and said, "It's not for him to be the governor, but for him to help you." Isn't it possible for an African company to appoint an officer, so how about appointing him a general department of customs and taxation? Let him be in full charge of the management of the port. ”

Xie Qinggao said: "I'm afraid he won't." No one recognized the company's officials. ”

Zhou Lang smiled: "You can rest assured of this." I wanted to see this person, and I told him personally, and I believe he would agree. ”

Xie Qinggao said: "It's bothering Your Majesty." ”

Zhou Lang sighed and didn't say anything, after becoming the emperor, the old people began to be estranged from their psychological relationships, which can be seen from the title.

After receiving the order summoned by Zhou Lang, Zhou Guan, who was already in his fifties, did not stop and did not take a boat, but rode a fast horse all the way from Guangzhou to Nanjing, which took only 15 days.

Although the information shows that this Zhou official has never been a pirate, but has a certain friendship with pirates from all walks of life, he can still see a kind of toughness of a person who goes to the sea from this person, and he is not lost to Zhu Lian at all. With a dark and translucent face, a short but familiar physique, and a pair of fierce eyes, this is a standard pirate leader.

But under the farming culture of the Central Plains, this kind of person can only be the lowest identity, and when he sees the emperor's five bodies on the ground, where does he look like a half-point hero.

Zhou Lang has ordered the abolition of rituals throughout the country, stipulating that except for major ceremonies, such as worshipping the heavens and ancestors, the people can see the officials, the officials see the emperor, and the people can not worship the emperor. The enforceability is not very good, although it is strictly forbidden for officials to punish the people who do not worship the officials on charges of disrespect and other crimes, but the people are spontaneously afraid of the identity of the officials, and their legs tremble. In addition, the propaganda is not in place, most people are illiterate, and everyone does not believe in the fact that officials do not need to worship.

"Get up and speak!"

Zhou Lang called Zhou Guan up.

"The grass people thank the emperor for his grace."

Zhou Lang said: "Grace can't be talked about, but there is really a good thing to find you." ”

Zhou Guan's eyes lit up, he knew that he had asked Xie Qinggao to have an eyebrow, if he could mix with the title of a governor, his family would get ahead in his life, and he would be a decent person when he went out in the future.

Hurriedly kowtowed: "Although Your Majesty sent it, the grass people dare not refuse." ”

Zhou Lang then told him about asking him to join the African company and help with the operation and management, and sure enough, Zhou Guan was disappointed.

Both the American Company and the African Company can appoint their own officials, but although those official positions also follow the official regulations, no one will really take those official positions seriously, and the governor is different, Zhou Lang clearly stipulates that the governor of the colony is at the same level as the governor of the country, and all the powers that the governor should have, such as the power to perform affairs, directly to the emperor, etc., are the same as the local governors.

Zhou Guan just wants the identity of a colonial governor, and he doesn't care about power, what he wants is the identity itself.

Zhou Lang understands too well that China's official-based thinking formed for thousands of years has made the people eager for official status, those pirates can fight to the death for the Xishan Dynasty, most of them are not because they are the officials of the Xishan Dynasty, the official position of a rebel army in Vietnam is so attractive to them, not to mention that Zhou Lang is now a serious emperor, the governor he appointed, that is a very high status.

Knowing that Zhou Guan would not be interested in an official position appointed by the company itself, Zhou Lang naturally had a way to convince him.

"When you join an African company, you just want you to go through the experience. Three years is limited, and if you do a good job, I will transfer you to be the governor of Nanyang. And you can also invest in shares, and if you do a good job, there are also benefits. Finally, African companies are not unable to operate in Nanyang. I have some idea, you did it, maybe in less than three years, I can promote you. ”

Zhou Guan suddenly came to his senses and kowtowed again: "Your Majesty, please send, the grass people don't dare to disobey." ”

Zhou Lang said, took out a chart, and beckoned him to come to his side.

"This place is called Australia, which is not part of the South Seas, but it is next to the South Seas. The British have surveyed this island clearly, and it is very vast, comparable to Shenzhou. But the British have only been immigrating here for more than ten years, and there are no more than a thousand immigrants, and I want you to land and build a settlement on the coast of Australia, near the South Seas. It's called New Zealand, and it's also owned by the British. There are also not many people, most of them live in Shengfan. You have to find a place to build a settlement, and when these two settlements are built, as long as there are 10,000 people, you will be the governor! ”

Zhou Guan was silent for a moment, it is not difficult to build a settlement, but 10,000 people is a bit much, but it is not impossible to do, or it has to spend a lot of money. If you can use the resources of African companies, you don't necessarily need to spend your own money. Having said that, it is also cost-effective to spend your own money to send 10,000 people to the Nanyang side and buy a governor dangdang.

After thinking about this, Zhou Guan agreed: "The grass people thank Your Majesty for appreciating it, and dare not do your best." ”

After Zhou Guan received the errand, he soon went to visit Xie Qinggao, and the two immediately began to discuss the next plan.

As a first step, they also needed to provide transportation capacity for Manchu immigrants, and for each person they transported, Zhou Lang allocated ten taels of silver from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to him as freight, which was a no-loss transaction.

Moreover, the number of immigrants of this banner is too much, which can make them do a big deal for a few years. Fortunately, Zhou Guan agreed to lend all his fleet to African companies, otherwise the capacity would not be enough.

Not only did Xie Qinggao lament that there were many immigrants from the banners, and the Great Zhou government had already noticed it, and was very nervous about it for a while. Because a large number of flag people were temporarily pulled in by Jiaqing, they were not the flag people in the past, but people with complex composition, such as the Wuer in southern Ili and the Kazakhs in western Yili, a large number of herdsmen were forced or tempted by Jiaqing to join the Eight Banners. This once made the Great Zhou government think that Jiaqing was expanding its troops, and had other plans, and even marched into Ili in advance, almost re-opening the war with the Jiaqing group.