"Brother Xie, you go to Zuoying immediately, the Yi people have sent troops!"

After receiving the news of the arrival of the East India Company's assistance, Zhou Lang immediately found out that the situation was serious, and invited Xie Qinggao over as soon as possible.

At this time, there were all kinds of distractions in his heart, but he knew that he had to stay calm at this moment, but human nature dictated that even a veteran who had been on the battlefield for a long time could not be completely calm when Mount Tai was overwhelmed.

Zhou Lang forcibly suppressed distracting thoughts, thinking that he should send someone to Zuoying immediately, because all the Indian aid went to Zuoying first, because Harald, who returned with aid, did not know that Zhou Lang had occupied Dagu Port.

Xie Qinggao has been staying in Dagu Port during this time, the cannons on his merchant ships have been disassembled, and there is no need to go to sea for the time being, all the materials here are supplied by Fengshan County, and what Fengshan County cannot supply, it is basically impossible to buy in other places, such as rifles.

Xie Qinggao was rarely idle for a while, he couldn't be idle, he visited everywhere, and was full of interest in local customs and habits, especially the clan on the mountain, he asked the tour guide to take him over and over again, recording all kinds of customs and customs. Doing these things, Xie Qinggao was full of enthusiasm, and he found that the local feudal tribes were similar to the indigenous customs in some areas of Nanyang, all of them were reborn as females and not males, and even gave births to others to raise boys. After the daughter grows up, the son-in-law completes the inheritance, which obviously has the customs of a matriarchal society.

Marriage is also relatively free, adult men play the mouthpiece, women are satisfied with it, after they are satisfied, they will tell their parents, prepare wine and food banquets to invite people from the same society, that is, become spouses, called holding hands. If the husband and wife are not in harmony, whether they have children or not, they can easily drive the husband away, divide the family property equally, and then the rich man will hold hands with other men again.

Xie Qinggao, who was still immersed in the customs of these exotic China, suddenly heard that the Yi people had sent troops, and his heart suddenly became cold, he was a spectator and liked these customs and customs, but it did not mean that he was willing to become a Yi and a Fan people, he was looking at these affairs with the eyes of a Chinese civilization, and interpreting these affairs, but what he was most worried about was to change Xia with Yi.

Immediately, he didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly asked about the situation, and immediately prepared to go to the left camp according to Zhou Lang's request to negotiate with Colin.

Zhou Lang finally explained to him: "Don't be in a hurry, don't quarrel with Colin, I'll let Wei Lianli follow you." The most important thing is to get those guns and cannons, and if he doesn't give them, don't fight, go to Harald. Tell Harald to send me supplies anyway, these are the company's assets! ”

Harald is reliable, because Harald is the captain recruited by Xie Qinggao, and this time he received the news that Harald sent someone to send him, and he came to ask Zhou Lang's attitude if he wanted to unload all the goods in Zuoying. And Colin asked Harald to unload all the goods in Zuoying, Harald thought that Zhou Lang was the director of Oriental Affairs, and he was an employee of the Chinese company, so he should listen to Zhou Lang, so he sent someone to ask for advice. Only then did Zhou Lang know that India's aid had arrived, but this aid was a little worrying, as if it was specifically for Colin, not for him.

At nine o'clock in the morning, Harald's messenger came to Dagu Port, and just after ten o'clock, Zhou Lang sent Xie Qinggao to the sea, without any delay at all, and in the afternoon Colin's messenger also came, and Colin did not delay.

Colin sent someone to deliver a letter, and he asked Zhou Lang to reply to him immediately. The letter discussed the construction of the port, and Colin believed that there were problems with the safety of the drums at present, so he hoped to concentrate on building the port of Zuoying, employing craftsmen, building breakwaters, and digging waterways, so that Zuoying could become a port where large ships could enter and exit. As for the port of Tagu, there is no need for repairs for the time being, and large ships can be docked, which is nothing more than a few berths, but it does not affect the use.

The reason why I wrote a letter to solicit Zhou Lang's attitude was because Zhou Lang was nominally the person in charge of the Chinese company Dongfang, and without Zhou Lang's approval, it could not be passed procedurally, without Zhou Lang's signature, and it was financially unreasonable. Besides, now the money is in Zhou Lang's hands, and Colin is sent military pay on a monthly basis, and the cash brought by Harald also refuses to be handed over directly to Colin, so Zhou Lang disagrees, and Colin has no money in his hand at all.

Colin also suggested that he continue to recruit soldiers and form an army of 3,000 men. Now the weapons brought by the East India Company fleet have been handed over to Colin, and his men have trained 300 soldiers and purged the forces of the Heaven and Earth Society, and it is not difficult to use these soldiers as seeds to expand to a 3,000-scale army.

Zhou Lang confirmed from Colin's letter that some of the supplies on Harald's ship had not yet been handed over to Colin, the most important of which was Henry Pitt's newly raised funds, a total of 300,000 pounds, all of which were exchanged for silver coins.

In this era, the price of silver fell due to the large-scale mining of silver in the Americas in Europe, and the ratio of gold and silver has reached 1:15, that of China, 1:10, and that of Japan, which is the most exaggerated, is 1:5. The depreciation of silver, coupled with the absorption of silver in the Eastern world, gradually established the gold standard, starting with the United Kingdom.

Before the gold standard, the currency of the West was very chaotic, especially the years of war, so that the currencies of various countries continued to depreciate, the monarchs of countries who had no money to use, have reduced the gold content of the currency, the most powerful economy, Britain, decided to end this situation, by the famous Newton as the director of the British Mint, re-approved the precious metal content of the pound. Newton believed that the exchange rate relationship in Britain at that time led to the continuous inflow of gold into Britain and the outflow of silver from Britain, and believed that Britain should use gold as the standard currency, which was more in line with national interests.

Under Newton's auspices, the price of gold was pegged to the pound sterling, and it was stipulated that 1 ounce of gold of 0.9 purity was worth 3 pounds 17 shillings and 10 pence, which was equivalent to 1 pound equal to 7.32238 grams of pure gold, which was seen as the beginning of the gold standard. As for the price of 1 pound equal to 1 pound of silver in the original sense, that was hundreds of years ago.

According to the exchange rate, 1 pound sterling can be exchanged for three taels of silver in China, 300,000 pounds sterling can be exchanged for 900,000 taels of silver, and 1.28 million Mexican silver coins. This exchange rate did not change much until the Opium War, and it was not until the European countries began to implement the gold standard that the price of silver fell sharply, and by the time of the Sino-Japanese War, 1 pound could be exchanged for 7 kuping taels of silver. (The description of the exchange rate is a comment in the book review area, I didn't write the exchange rate randomly, I have checked the information, the information is on the Internet, I dare not guarantee absolute accuracy, but it is generally in line with the facts.) ）

Now Colin has sent a letter to seek Zhou Lang's consent, obviously this more than one million silver dollars is not only still in Harald's hands, but also shows that Colin has an attitude, that is, he does not dare to rob it at present, which proves that he is still taking into account Zhou Lang's strength, or Zhou Lang's role, which means that Colin has no intention of breaking with Zhou Lang.

But whether Colin wants to break with Zhou Lang or not, Zhou Lang has to raise his evaluation of Colin's threat level, sometimes not because of what the other party wants to do, but because of what the other party can do will determine the final outcome of things. Now Colin suddenly had 1,500 well-trained and combat-experienced Indian mercenaries in his hands, which instantly made Zhou Lang regard Colin as his biggest threat now.

I have to write a reply to Colin, because Colin doesn't want to break with Zhou Lang, and now Zhou Lang doesn't want to break with Colin, even if he wants to, he can't afford to break up.

But the letter can't be replied immediately, he has to wait for Xie Qinggao to come back, if Xie Qinggao can pull Harald over, then Zhou Lang is a reply, if the goods on Harald's ship are forcibly seized by Colin, it is another reply.

As long as the money on Harald's ship is sent to Dagu Port, it is possible for Zhou Lang to continue to balance Colin, otherwise Colin has money, weapons, and an army of about 2,000 people, so what can Zhou Lang do to restrain Colin.

After waiting for three days, Xie Qinggao returned to Dagu Port, and Harald came back together. The two ships entered Tagu Port one after the other to dock, and Zhou Lang's heart seemed to have found a harbor to dock, and the hanging heart was put down.

But the matter was not over yet, Zhou Lang immediately called the two of them to learn more about the situation.

Xie Qinggao said that he had negotiated with Colin, he knew English, but he lacked common sense in Western law, so he insisted that the weapons were all Chinese companies, and asked Colin to move them on the ship and let him send them to Tagu Port, but Colin refused, on the grounds that the Zuoying was safer than Tagu Port at present, and he thought that it was unreasonable for the weapons to be placed in Tagu Port.

According to Zhou Lang's instructions, Xie Qinggao did not deal too much with Colin, but directly met Harald and asked him to immediately send the supplies on the ship to Tagu Port. Harald obeyed Xie Qinggao's order and immediately set sail and brought the money with him.

It's just that Harald was very confused, he didn't know what was going on, as soon as he arrived at the left camp, Colin asked him to send the money to the warehouse of the left camp, but he didn't see Zhou Lang at that time, and knew that Zhou Lang was in the drum port, and he hoped to get Zhou Lang's order. And he saw something strange in it, as if something happened between Colin and Zhou Lang.

In Harald's opinion, he was an employee of the Chinese company, and Zhou Lang was the head of the company's oriental affairs, and even in his opinion, Colin was equivalent to his status, but he had the status of a representative of the East India Company, and he did not absolutely follow Zhou Lang's advice, but Colin did not have the authority to directly order Harald.

Obviously, there is a difference of opinion between the shareholders and the managers, but in this disagreement, Harald must listen to Zhou Lang, it is Zhou Lang who hired him, and it is Zhou Lang who pays his salary, which is very clear.

After learning some information from these two people, Zhou Lang communicated with Wei Lianli alone.

Sending Wei Lianli to the left camp is because Wei Lianli is a person who is very skilled, and more importantly, he is a member of the Heaven and Earth Society, and he was sent to feel the extent of Colin's cleansing of the Heaven and Earth Society in the Left Camp army, to see if there is still hope that the army will be affected through heaven and earth.

The situation found out from Wei Lianli made Zhou Lang understand that he had made a fatal mistake during this time. He had a chance to get rid of Colin, he had a chance to take possession of all the aid he had now, and he missed this opportunity and was subject to others.

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Everyone is interested in adding a group: four, four, six, five, six, one, three, four, two.