Feng Yunshan's approach to India is actually a synthesis of the suggestions of Zuo Zongtang and Mao Qi, but it is more conservative.

Specifically, it is to divide the Indian continent into several major powers. The largest forces are, of course, the Sikh Kingdom in the northwest and part of the north, the Sultanate of Bengal in the northeast, the Kingdom of Nepal in the north, the princely states of Vadodara and Pune in the west, and the princely states of Tamil Nadu in the southeast. Feng Yunshan was ready to directly order Wei Jun to be the special envoy of the Chinese Empire to India, with full responsibility for handling Indian affairs. In fact, the plenipotentiary was no different from the British governor, except that it was called a different name to make it more acceptable to the princes of the princely states.

Immediately, Feng Yunshan asked Fu Shanxiang to draft a secret edict to Wei Jun, asking him to be cautious about Indian affairs. Among them, he deliberately explained that he consciously cultivated the power of the princely princes of India who were weaker and accepted their surrender, and at the same time, encouraged the Nanyang and Oriental companies to trade and plunder the wealth of the Indian princely states.

As for the more powerful Sikh kingdom, because of its belief in Sikhism, the harm is small, and the Sikh population is not large, and the Sikh king is currently quite loyal to himself, so he will not deliberately suppress it for the time being, but urge it to develop an offensive to Aiukhan, Persia and other places in the west, whether it is Aiukhan or Persians, they are all warlike peoples, which can just curb the growth of the Sikh kingdom.

For the Sultanate of Bengal, let the rest of the two Buddhist countries have friction with the Kingdom of Myanmar in the east and the Kingdom of Nepal in the north, in fact, as long as these forces are bordered, Wei Jun's side will naturally make the other party fight to the death. And it is naturally the Chinese Empire that reaps the benefits.

As for the Kingdom of Nepal, its population is small, and there is not much of a threat, on the contrary, Feng Yunshan consciously wants to support the other party, and the Gurkha mercenaries who served the British in later generations are even better than the Sikhs. Feng Yunshan was ready to treat him as a mercenary with a special feature of the Chinese Empire, just like the Japanese people.

The princely states of Vadodara and Pune in the west, and the princely states of Tamil Nadu in the southeast, etc., Feng Yunshan was a little difficult to ignore, and he could only explain to Wei Jun and let him find an opportunity to slowly consume his troops and support the development and growth of the princely states of India next to him. Overall, as long as this policy is maintained, India will never become a unified federal state like future generations.

Of course, the most important thing is how to quickly and ferociously extract wealth from India. Feng Yunshan thought that he would naturally replace the British, use the same methods as the East India Company, to turn India into coal fuel on the newly opened industrial machine of the Chinese Empire, and draw nutrients from India, which is the capital needed by industry, and dump the products produced by industrialization into India, a huge market with a large population. Through these princely princes and other powers, the Indians were controlled to grow cheap cotton, jute, rice and other crops for the Chinese Empire, and similarly, through the agents of these local powers, the textiles and other industrial products produced by the Chinese Empire were exported to the Indian market.

In a word, Feng Yunshan wants to completely turn India into an industrial and trade colony of the Chinese Empire, and completely turn India into an investment place, a source of cheap raw materials, and a sales market for industrial products of the Chinese Empire, so that Indian society will be divided, those princes and nobles will be richer, ordinary Indians will be poorer, and many Indian princely states will be more backward and unable to turn over and become strong.

At the same time, Feng Yunshan was also prepared to use the Indians, especially the Sikhs and Gurkhas, as mercenaries to send troops to the Middle East and other regions of Persia, Najd and Ottoman vassals, and after the capital of the Chinese Empire seized the oil producing areas in the Middle East, he could control the most important resources of later generations by supporting local forces.

After dealing with the affairs of India, Feng Yunshan asked Fu Shanxiang to get the map, called Zuo Zongtang, Mao Qi and Luo Xuan, and said: "Have the Admiralty and the General Staff formulated a battle plan for sending troops to Australia?" ”

Luo Xuan nodded and reported: "Your Majesty, the Admiralty is ready to send troops to Australia, just waiting for the return of the main force of the Nanyang Fleet that went to India. Because the British have not many colonial strongholds in Australia, concentrated in several coastal bays, and the British in these colonies in Australia did not have many troops, only the self-defense forces of a similar police nature that originally belonged to the colonial governments had a total strength of less than 10,000 troops, mainly concentrated in New South Wales with 5,000 troops, Victoria has 2,000 troops, and other Van Diemen and South Australia have a total of less than 1,000 troops, and the newly formed Queensland has not yet established an army. It is only maintained by a small number of police officers of a few hundred in NSW. Therefore, our Admiralty and the General Staff have already preliminarily discussed that the main purpose of this expedition to Australia is the navy, and the army is only preparing to dispatch an infantry division, mainly to suppress the native troops composed of local foreigners in Australia. In fact, the marines in the South Sea Fleet alone can almost capture this Australia.

As for the navy, perhaps because the British navy suffered too much loss when it invaded our Chinese Empire a while ago, and their naval strength was tight, a medium-sized fleet originally deployed in the Australian colony had already withdrawn its main force before the Chinese Empire declared war on it, and now there is only a small fleet in the vicinity of New South Wales, and only five or six warships of small and medium-tonnage. Sending two detachments of the Nanyang Fleet to go, Wechen thinks it's a sure win, it's enough! ”

Feng Yunshan didn't expect Luo Outline to do such a deep homework, it seems that Liang Peiyou, Vice Minister of the Navy, went to the North American region of the Russian and American Company, and only Luo Outline was left in charge of the Admiralty, but he forced him to work hard, so he nodded and praised: "King Xinzhong has carefully planned and has already discussed it with the General Staff, and it seems that it is indeed more appropriately arranged." On the side of the General Staff, Zuo Aiqing, Mao Aiqing, what else do you have to add? ”

Moltke hurriedly said: "Back to Your Majesty, what King Xinzhong said is the result of the deliberations between the Admiralty and the General Staff. Britain did not deploy many troops in Australia, they did not have many troops in Australia, and now because of the rebellion at home and in India, thousands of troops were transferred from Australia to India to suppress the rebellion half a year ago, and now the troops in Australia are very weak, it is a good time to attack! ”

Feng Yunshan looked at Zuo Zongtang. Zuo Zongtang coughed lightly and said, "Your Majesty, Wei Chen has no opinion on what King Xinzhong and Lord Mao said. What Weichen wants to say is that the sooner the troops are dispatched, the better. Even, Wechen suggested that instead of waiting for the Nanyang Fleet to come back and recuperate, he would send troops instead, but directly mobilize half of the Oriental Fleet to Australia, and then recruit some merchant ships as troop carriers to transport infantry divisions. ”

"Your Majesty, according to the information transmitted by the Secret Service Department, the Australian side has attracted countless gold diggers since the discovery of gold ten years ago. When the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the Taiping Holy Army were still in the past, many Chinese laborers in Fujian, Guangdong, and Nanyang were either recruited or rushed to Australia on their own to mine gold and become miners. However, the descendants of the British criminals in Australia are full of hostility and hatred for the hard-working Chinese miners, and the local colonial government and police are also hostile to Chinese workers and favor foreigners.

According to preliminary estimates, by the year before last, there were about 60,000 Chinese workers in Australia. However, due to the recent development of the Chinese Empire, some Chinese began to return to China or return to Nanyang one after another, but there were still nearly 50,000 Chinese workers working as miners in Australia's gold mines. Moreover, parliaments in Victoria and South Wales have passed Chinese exclusion bills to restrict the immigration of Chinese workers, stipulating that ships arriving at Australian ports from all over the world can only carry one Chinese worker per 10 tons, and the shipowner will pay an entry tax of £10 for each Chinese worker.

In addition, anti-Chinese and anti-China profiteering activities have emerged one after another in various localities, and this year alone, there have been more than a dozen violent incidents against Chinese laborers. In the largest of these cases, nearly 2,000 foreigners drove away the Chinese camp at gunpoint, looted property, killed and wounded more than 300 Chinese, and drove thousands of Chinese away.

Therefore, the Chinese compatriots in Australia have a very difficult time. Your Majesty, the sooner we send our troops, the sooner we can save those compatriots. ”

Feng Yunshan didn't expect Zuo Zongtang to inquire so clearly, and at the same time, he blamed himself for his contempt for Australia. A month ago, Fan Ruzeng, director of the Department of Special Services, went to the Americas for important matters, and he did not pay attention to the intelligence of the Department of Special Services.

As a result, Feng Yunshan was a little angry: "It's allowed to be played by Zuo Aiqing!" Passing on my will, I ordered 20 warships of the two sub-fleets of the Oriental Fleet and 20 warships of the two sub-fleets of the Nanyang Fleet, and a number of troop carriers to immediately mobilize infantry divisions from Borneo to Australia, and within a month of sending troops, Australia must be occupied and those Chinese compatriots who were bullied must be rescued. ”

It seems that Feng Yunshan was indeed angry, and the specific military orders that he did not interfere with were directly said, and he only asked to send troops quickly and occupy Australia.

Everyone hurriedly agreed, and Fu Shanxiang immediately recorded it and prepared to draft the will.