Vimura wanted to convert to Christianity, and the English priest Victor also wanted to baptize him, but Vimula had been hesitating, he was afraid that someone would kill him if he did so, and believing in a strange god always made him panic from the bottom of his heart, and that kind of overwhelm frightened him even more than death, because everyone said that if you believe in the gods of foreigners, you will live forever and sink into the sea of misery, which is much more terrifying than suffering in this life to repay debts, and the ending of a good birth in the next life is much more terrifying.

For Zhou Lang, there is no trouble, in fact, Zhou Lang himself is very confused now, he looked at the wooden statue that was hung on the cross, and muttered in his heart, could it be that such a god got himself to this era?

Zhou Lang was born in China, and his educational background made it impossible for him to grow up to be a devout believer, in fact, he did not believe in any religion. But he never denied the gods, of course, if the gods are explained as higher-level extraterrestrial civilizations and technologies, then he is willing to believe that there are such "gods" in the universe.

In fact, this is a world phenomenon, and many masters who have reached the pinnacle of science will end up studying theology strangely, as was the case with Newton and Einstein.

However, in modern society, everyone is more inclined to explain the unknown world in a more scientific way, and in the Silicon Valley where Zhou Lang made his fortune, the group of scientific and technological powers, world-renowned scientific leaders and emerging giants believe that the world is virtual, and the human world and even the entire universe are just a complex program.

People are complex, and Zhou Lang is also complex. Zhou Lang neither affirmed the existence of gods, nor denied the possibility of the existence of gods, which is a bit like Confucius said to respect ghosts and gods and stay away; In the same way, he does not affirm that the world is virtual, nor that the world is real.

Zhou Lang is actually an agnostic.

He neither denies nor is superstitious about mysterious phenomena, and he is not obsessed with deciphering the so-called truth, so he is a typical realist living in the present.

This made him quickly accept the reality that he was far away from the hustle and bustle of modern society and into the magnificent period of the Industrial Revolution. As for whether the gods and Buddhas sent him here, or whether he encountered some natural phenomenon by chance, or whether super-civilized aliens sent him to this era for experiments, he is not attached. Because he knows that, like countless unsolved mysteries in the world, it is impossible for him to find the answer even after exhausting his life's efforts, so why waste his efforts.

So after he traveled through an hour, he began to think about what he should do and what he could do in this era.

It's not his character to go with the flow, whether he was thrown here by aliens for experiments, or if the gods and Buddhas sent him to complete some kind of mission, he doesn't care, he will only act according to his own wishes, and he is not willing to live a mediocre life.

In the 21st century, Zhou Lang knows very well that relying on a single fight to lay down a piece of mountains and rivers only exists in the story, even if he has the ability to reach the sky, he also needs a platform to perform, in this era, what platform is more suitable than the British East India Company?

So when it became clear from Vimura's mouth that the current Calcutta had long been the territory of the British East India Company, and was operated by them, Zhou Lang understood that the East India Company would be the first stage for him to play, so he came to the only local church, St. John's Cathedral.

In any culture, religion is a special existence, on the one hand, it is connected with the general public at the bottom, and on the other hand, it maintains close ties with the upper class, because of this special factor, the clergy of religion often have a transcendent status, and in Western countries, priests are often the center of local social life, a special kind of elite, with strong influence. Even in China, where the religious atmosphere is relatively weak, once the official relaxation is a little, Taoist priests, monks, and even all kinds of masters will soon achieve this kind of social status, and later even the activities of officials at all levels will have to go through various masters, and these masters will operate them into a status similar to that of social platforms, like courtesans in the old society and aristocratic salon masters in Western society.

This is why Zhou Lang asked Vimura to bring him to the church, because the priest of the church was the only person he had access to at the same time, and at the same time had connections to the upper echelons of the British rulers, and he needed the priest to introduce him to the shareholders of the East India Company, or even the governor of the East India Company.

Father Victor was also interested in Zhou Lang, and Zhou Lang's Chinese identity alone was enough to fill his imagination. Western society, from the time of ancient Rome, has been full of all kinds of fantasies about the East, from the Persian Empire to India and finally to China. It's just that the Persian Empire has long since declined, and with the expansion of Western colonizers in India, the mystery of India no longer exists, but because of China's closed country policy of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the mystery has not disappeared, but has become more mysterious.

Victor's knowledge of China even had to be obtained from the biographies and letters of Jesuit missionaries in the late Ming Dynasty, so Zhou Lang's self-proclaimed identity as a Chinese was enough to arouse his curiosity.

Zhou Lang didn't beat around the bush, he briefly introduced his situation, of course, he had reservations, because he couldn't explain the reality he had crossed, and he couldn't judge what impact this kind of supernatural story would have on him if he said it, Christianity has a tradition of burning heretics and witches, and modern Western religion has become a little enlightened, but Zhou Lang still doesn't want to be that outlier, more is better than less. So he told Victor that he was a merchant from China who had encountered a storm at sea and drifted to Calcutta.

Victor asked about the situation in China, and Zhou Lang answered according to some of the history of the Qing Dynasty that he had learned in books, Zhou Lang did not understand China in this era, and Victor did not know anything about it, so there were basically no mistakes. In addition, the theory of drifting at sea is also more reasonable, and Victor does not have many doubts.

Soon the conversation between the two changed the flavor, the priest was of course keen to tell Zhou Lang the gospel, in this era, the clergy who can come to the other side of the world, without exception, are a group of extremely firm and even fanatical guys, they really regard themselves as God's servants from the bottom of their hearts, such people, the biggest and basically the only joy in life is to spread the gospel of God, so that more people believe in God. Zhou Lang's purpose in coming to the church was naturally not for any faith, but for the purpose of making friends with the upper echelons of the East India Company through the priest, a figure of social platform.

After finally discovering that Victor's preaching enthusiasm was extremely hot, Zhou Lang selectively followed Victor's topic, and could always ask some itchy questions, which greatly released Victor's conversation, since he came to India to preach, he had never met such a cool object, and even made him have a kind of other party has been moved by him, but "slightly" hesitated, "slightly" a little confused, he only needs to "slightly" work hard, the other party will have no doubt about the existence of the Lord, From then on, under his own guidance, he became a lamb who was no longer confused.

With Victor in such a smooth mood, he naturally would not refuse Zhou Lang's request that was not too excessive, such as promising to temporarily help Zhou Lang find a job as an accountant.

As for the untouchable Vimula, who hesitated and refused to turn back on his superstitions, even though he was discriminated against and humiliated, he always thought that he had suffered because of the evil retribution in his previous life, and had forgotten about Father Victor.

Victor even very enthusiastically arranged for Zhou Lang to live in the church, Zhou Lang happened to have nowhere to go, and he was happy to get a decent place to live. But the purpose of the two is still different, and the priest hopes that he can work "a little" hard to successfully influence Zhou Lang, a lost lamb. Zhou Lang hoped to stabilize for the time being, wait or find a way to join the East India Company.

The priest stayed with Zhou Lang for three days, during which Zhou Lang always maintained a proper interest in the priest's preaching, so that the priest would not be disappointed in him and give up preaching to him, and always let the priest feel that Zhou Lang still had confusion in his heart, but that confusion became less and less, and he was getting closer and closer to converting to God.

In addition to pretending to be very interested in the belief in the true God to listen to the priest's preaching, Zhou Lang is also working hard for his goals in the past few days, almost every day there are white people who come to the church to confess, these white people who have crossed the ocean to the strange world, except for religious personnel like Father Victor, are all rushing to get rich without exception, most of them are poor and low-level people, and getting rich is their only goal, so they are quite unscrupulous, for some of them who are more pious in faith, Coming to church to confess will give them some peace of mind for their sinful crimes.

Therefore, Zhou Lang, who has temporarily helped the church as a handyman in the past few days, has come into contact with all kinds of characters, he knows that he is in the church, with a religious halo, so friendly contact with these people, it is easy to get closer to these adventurers, the only pity is that most of the characters encountered are at the bottom, there are mercenaries from Hesse, criminals from Liverpool, but there is no upper level of the East India Company that Zhou Lang is eager to befriend.

Until the third day was Sunday, hundreds of people poured into the church, this time he finally met the top management of the East India Company, and even the governor of the East India Company was here, compared to Confucianism and Taoism in China, Western religions seemed more equal, after all, where is the concept of everyone a brother under God, but unfortunately this day is also the busiest time for the church, Zhou Lang did not even find a chance to say a word to those high-level people.

The opportunity soon came, Father Victor told Zhou Lang that he had helped him solve his work problems, the East India Company promised to hire him as an accountant, Victor said that he was a recommender, after a few days of observation, Victor thought that Zhou Lang was a qualified accountant, because Zhou Lang had sorted out the accounts of the church clearly in three days, and the level was quite good, so he was willing to recommend, and the priest's recommendation, the East India Company was willing to give a face.

Chinese pay attention to circle culture, and think that it is the dregs of traditional culture, in fact, Westerners pay more attention to connections, before World War II, basically all promotion channels in the Western world are monopolized by the upper class, even the United States that lacks aristocratic culture and traditional elite immigration countries, ordinary people want to climb up from the normal system, all need to have an introducer, such as World War II famous general Bradley If he did not get a letter of recommendation from the governor, he would not have entered West Point.

In contrast, China's traditional imperial examination system has been criticized for its incompleteness, but it has always been much more reliable in terms of fairness than in the West, at least in ancient China, the chances of a noble son from a poor family were much greater than the chance for a poor person in the West to become a nobleman through hard work. Later, many Chinese cultural celebrities also criticized the college entrance examination system, and many people who eat melons followed the blind coaxing, if the college entrance examination system is really abolished, how many chances do the poor have to pass the examination to enter a prestigious school? I'm afraid that elite schools will be crowded with rich children who can easily get letters of recommendation from various cultural celebrities, and the poor may not even have the opportunity to meet those celebrities.

The Western world has not given birth to a relatively fair imperial examination system, the recommendation system has been continued, but they have slowly perfected this system, recommenders are often more responsible, and will not write a letter of recommendation casually because the other party is their own relatives, but will carefully investigate, the real situation is written into the recommendation letter, once the recommended person's situation is not true, and finally the reputation of the recommender as a celebrity is often damaged.

Therefore, before recommending Zhou Lang to work in the East India Company, Father Victor seriously examined Zhou Lang and confirmed that Zhou Lang could be qualified for an ordinary accounting job.

Before leaving the church to officially perform his duties, Victor invited Zhou Lang to accompany him to a ball, a celebratory ball, which Zhou Lang was very happy to attend, because the high-ranking officials of the East India Company would attend, because it was a ball to celebrate the victory of the war, and the British won the Third Mysore War.

This victory was extremely brilliant, not only did they defeat the largest opponent in southern India, the Kingdom of Mysore, seized half of the territory of the other side, and made the other side pay three million pounds in compensation, and most importantly, through this war, they finally removed the Kingdom of Mysore, which was a stumbling block that hindered their expansion into South India, and by seizing the territory of Mysore, they trained the territory they occupied in India, so this war was of great strategic significance. It can even be said that the Indians took an important step in the process of conquering India.

Zhou Lang briefly understood the two sides of the war, and he immediately gave a higher judgment on the strength of the British East India Company in his heart, and the words in the history book formed clear and specific details in his heart.

The Kingdom of Mysore is not the rookie he imagined before, but a rather formidable opponent.

India is a fragmented geographical term, ostensibly with the Mughal Empire but in fact a fragmented state, in which small powers have the opportunity to grow stronger through fierce competition, just as the West has grown stronger in fierce competition, and the Kingdom of Mysore has played a role in this rise in recent decades.

In recent years, under the control of the powerful king Haider, the Kingdom of Mysore has carried out a lot of innovations, implementing a policy of slaughter against the traditional feudal aristocracy, distributing the land of the nobles to his officers, thus creating a highly loyal army, using the army loyal to itself to establish a unified tax collection agency and strengthen the financial power; Then, using strong financial power, a new type of military force was formed. Mysore hired European instructors to train the army, established a Western-style army with infantry as the mainstay, supplemented by cavalry and artillery, set up field hospitals and reconnaissance teams modeled after European armies, and implemented unified command.

Such an army of more than 50,000 men in Mysore was disciplined, tactically flexible, well-equipped, and well-trained, and with the support of a strong administrative and military institution, the Mysore Kingdom continued to expand, annexing almost the entire west coast of India, opening the way for Mysore to the Arabian Sea and running the spice business, becoming Britain's greatest political and commercial rival in South India.

As a result, three wars broke out between the two sides, the first two were considered dead, and the third time was finally an absolute victory. Zhou Lang judged according to his historical knowledge that an army of 50,000 imitating the Western-style army was much stronger than the Manchu army of the same period, and you must know that in the Opium War, thousands of British people fought from south to north, from the Pearl River to the Yangtze River, cutting off the Cao Yun, and the Second Opium War even directly attacked the city of Beiqi, and the number of troops used was only 10,000.

This level of military disparity is no longer something that can be made up by individual bravery or the wit of a general, and Zhou Lang is very sure that if history continues to develop, once the British free up their hands, the outcome of the Opium War will not change.

So can he change all this, it's difficult, but this difficulty makes Zhou Lang unusually excited.

In addition to learning some details of the war from the officers who were very proud of the victory, he also talked with more than ten senior officials of the East India Company, large and small, and the other party was also quite curious about him, and the mysterious Chinese identity brought him some convenience, but the help was also limited. Because of this curiosity, Zhou Lang could not establish close contact with these officials. Especially the high-ranking officials at the governor level, who are all stars holding the moon, he still can't find a chance to get in touch. And he was not in a hurry to squeeze around the governor, the desire to get in touch with the highest level, so as to rise to the top, was just an unrealistic fantasy of a rookie in the new workplace.

Zhou Lang's most attentive thing is actually with his boss, Jonathan, the financial officer of the East India Company, this is a bald man in his forties, born in a London financial family, his father and brother are both London financiers and shareholders of the East India Company, and his career in the East India Company is quite smooth with this relationship, and he has long lost his ambition for the future, and he is most interested in women and red wine.

Zhou Lang catered to the chief's interest very well, commented on his memories of the United States, France, Germany, Russia, and of course, including Chinese women, and also discussed the difference between the quality of French and Italian red wines, and the relationship between the two soon became harmonious.

After attending the ball, meeting his boss, and determining the registration time, Zhou Lang officially joined the East India Company, and from this moment on, his hookup with the British East India Company in the same bed also began.