After leaving Spain, Lindi first went to Portugal, where she sailed to England.

As the Chinese Consul General in Europe, he chose Paris for his permanent residence, which was politically motivated. It symbolizes China's recognition that France is now the center of Europe, and because Napoleon smashed the third and fourth anti-French alliances in 1805 and 1806 for two consecutive years, no one on the European continent dares to oppose him.

In two years, he successively issued the Edict of Berlin, the Edict of Milan twice, and the Edict of Fontainebleau, declaring that any commodity must have a certificate of origin, and it is indeed a product of non-British and its colonies before it can enter the mainland; All ships of neutral nations that have docked in England shall be confiscated from them; Neutral ships that have submitted to Britain are considered "deprived of their nationality" and may be captured.

Although the blockade system could not completely prohibit the flow of British goods into Europe, it greatly affected the open contact with Britain, and the placement of the Consulate General in Paris would make it easier to communicate with other countries on the mainland, and if you put it in the United Kingdom, you would have trouble entering the mainland.

From Portugal to England, because Portugal has always been a staunch ally of Britain, a large number of British goods, smuggled or re-exported into the European continent through Portugal, Napoleon of course could not allow this situation to exist, so a month ago he sent troops to occupy Portugal, the Portuguese royal family under the protection of British warships, fled to Brazil, and began a long journey of exile.

Napoleon also plugged the last blowhole of the continental blockade. In fact, even if Portugal joined Napoleon's continental blockade, Napoleon would have to fight him, and who made Portugal close to Britain. Even if it's not close, maybe they will fight, anyway, there is no country that Napoleon didn't want to fight, he even fought Switzerland, who is Switzerland in the way?

Even though Portugal had been conquered by the French, Lindy heard that Portugal still had ships bound for England, because it had maintained an alliance with Britain for hundreds of years, and Portugal's contact with Britain would be constant for a while, the French had just occupied here, the blockade system had not yet been perfected, and a large number of smuggling ships were trading.

He went to England to do one thing, to recall the Chinese officers who had served and studied in the British Navy.

These officers were in 1802, the year when Britain and France signed the Treaty of Amiens, and now six years have passed, these naval officers are the best talents under Zhou Lang, and many have even become captains, some of them directly followed Xie Qinggao to sea all the way as apprentices, and some later graduated from the navigation school that hired the Dutch, in short, they all have the most high-level navigation knowledge in China at present, and they also have certain combat experience, but they were still sent to England by Zhou Lang, because they are very good, But there is still a big gap with the world-class British.

In the first two years, they alternated study and internship in the British Navigation School and the British Navy, which is the characteristic of the British, known as the sandwich education method, learning theoretical knowledge for half a year, and practicing in the Navy for half a year, then studying, then practicing, combining theory with practice, and the effect is obvious.

But whether it is a study or an internship, it is painful for these students, at least for most of them, although they have already started to learn English on the way to the UK, but not everyone is a language genius like Little Staunton, from the UK to China can learn Chinese and Chinese characters, most students come to the UK, still do not speak English, let alone write.

It took them a year to master the ability to read and write in English, and Britain and France fought fiercely all over the world, and the merchant ships of the two countries would attack each other when they met, so they had a lot of practical opportunities, plus they had some combat experience themselves, and they quickly mastered the methods and concepts of European naval combat.

Most of them even had the privilege of participating in the Battle of Trafalgar, a rare battle between battleships, from which they learned a lot.

Now more than five years have passed, the naval struggle between Britain and France is still going on, but there is no longer any heart, they have seen what they should see, they have also learned what they should learn, and the emperor has always been more dissatisfied with his navy than the army, and attaches more importance to it, so he asked Lin Di to recall these hopes for the future of the Chinese navy immediately after the end of the negotiations with Spain. The emperor said he hoped that these people would become the Nelson of China.

There were twenty-eight of them, thirty before they came to England, one of whom died of illness a year later, and one of whom died in a naval battle, not the Battle of Trafalgar, but an unknown encounter, at the hands of French armed merchant ships, not at all vigorous.

The recall of officers stationed abroad is also part of the preparation for war, but it is difficult to recall them immediately, because this group of people is now scattered in four or five different places, scattered on British warships for internships, and only a third of them are rotated to study in schools, so they can only send these people back first, and then slowly recall the others.

These people were all cultivated as captains, because in this era, the cost of sending them from China to Britain to study was really not small, and the cost of capital was not high, but the communication and coordination with the British were wasted.

But directly appointing them as captains, this matter is not easy, one turnip and one pit, they have been away for more than five years, their pit has long been filled, among which those officers who used to be captains are good to say, let them return to the original ship as captains, squeeze the current captain to the position of deputy captain, the opposition will not be too great, because the Chinese like to talk about seniority, and the current captains are basically their subordinates back then. However, the arrangement of those crew members who had only just graduated from school, who had only been on board for a few days, who had only served in technical positions or even apprenticeships, had become a problem.

It would obviously be a waste to let them continue to work as apprentices or as draftsmen, observers, etc., and they studied and interned in England for five years, not to let them come back and continue to do these things, but to let them be captains, let them be Nelson.

Discussed a solution with the fleet commander Qiu Tong, he also felt that he couldn't let these people become captains as soon as they came back, otherwise they would only make them the target of public criticism, they had been away from the naval division for more than five years, it was best to let them integrate, otherwise they would not be able to do it for long in the future.

Zhou Lang does not agree with the tradition of seniority, perhaps this tradition born in agricultural civilization has its advantages in maintaining stability, but it is absolutely unable to adapt to the rapid development of the business era, the business era is about competition, pay attention to the survival of the fittest.

Thinking of this, Zhou Lang suddenly had an idea, using these people as the team to form a new fleet and let them compete with the old fleet.

This is all an afterthought, this time to clean up Spain, these people are still embarrassed, and it is too late to play a role.

Even the entire naval division will not show much performance, because the Spanish navy will not be able to rebuild for a while and a half, and the main problem in dealing with such an opponent is not the battle itself. I'm afraid that occupying the Spanish colony is more difficult than controlling it, the Spanish colony has not yet been taken, but Zhou Lang has already begun to worry about how to control these colonies.