When the Dutch East India Company spies learned of the British East India Company's shameless behavior from the drunken Qiongzhou maritime merchants, they immediately caused an internal uproar.

Were Fan Jinyan and the British ignoring the great fleet of the Dutch Far East?

The enraged Dutch then organized another mission to Qiongzhou.

Looking for Fan Jinyan's theory, he didn't get the answer he wanted, and he could only use the exclusive agency document provided by Fan Jinyan to theorize with the British East India Company.

In this era of emphasizing whoever has the biggest fist, there is a reason for the theory, no matter what method the Dutch East India Company uses, even military threats are used, the British East India Company is not convinced.

At this time, it was reported that two merchant ships of the Dutch East India Company loaded with daily chemical goods were shamelessly attacked by British pirates on their way back to the Netherlands from the port of Jakarta to Manchuria, and all the Dutch citizens on board were not survived except for a few Oriental crew members who were released by the boat.

When the angry Dutch authorities received this news, they did not have any suspicion or confirmation at all, and declared war directly on the British East India Company.

In their view, all this was a conspiracy of the British, and they were suspicious of the power of the Dutch East India Company in the East.

Although the British East India Company occupied the Indian Ocean, its strength in the Far East could not be compared with that of the old maritime empire of the Netherlands.

The reason why they can have no fear this time and dare to directly confront the Netherlands is because of the Yezidao agreement.

In terms of the number of warships, the Netherlands has more than 300 ships in the entire South Sea, all of which are elite fleets in a hundred battles. The British East India Company did not even have a hundred ships, including colonial seamen, and from this point the two were not at all comparable.

However, Britain was supported by more than 500 armed merchant ships of the Pirate Alliance, not including the Qiongzhou Navy, which had more than 400 warships.

So, in terms of numbers, the alliance side has an overwhelming advantage.

But, is that really the case?

Is war more than people?

Although the pirate alliance has many ships, most of them are converted from merchant ships, and there is a serious shortage of weapons and ammunition, and the quality of the crew is even more uneven. The most important thing is that the alliance has several bosses, and as long as the war goes a little badly, there is still a great possibility that the alliance will collapse.

Moreover, this naval battle that was about to break out was originally planned and provoked by Fan Jinyan, how could he participate?

In the Netherlands, the elite did not suffer heavy losses for a day, and Fan Jinyan was a good comrade who sat on the mountain and watched the tiger fight for a day, and loved peace

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen's canonization decree was finally delivered, along with the purple gold robes and the gold medal for avoiding death, as well as the first batch of 100,000 people of the 300,000 people he requested.

Of course, the Holy Decree also urged the other half of his naval fleet to go north immediately.

Fan Jinyan casually dismissed the officials who had sent the decree and ordered 20,000 of the 100,000 people who had just moved in to be resettled in more than ten new villages that had been prepared in advance near the Nanzhou shipyard.

He placed the other 80,000 people in a humble and sparsely populated bay area in Xizhou, where three towns with a capacity of more than 20,000 people and dozens of villages were scattered around like a chessboard.

In fact, one million more people came to Nanzhou, and only the current high-yield crops could feed them, and no one knew why Fan Jinyan would arrange the hard-won population to that poor and remote country.

You know, there is a very serious problem in Nanzhou, the lack of labor, or a very short supply.

However, in the face of Fan Jinyan's strength, his officials could only choose to accept it helplessly.

What is Fan Jinyan's purpose?

Is there a treasure there?

It seems that except for Fan Jinyan himself, he has not revealed the reason to anyone

A few days later, when an official from the Ministry of Construction reported to Fan Jinyan about the Eighteen Zhai Railway, "Master Hou, the mine has now hoarded a large amount of iron ore and pig iron, I wonder if you can lay the railway you planned at the beginning?" ”

As soon as he talked about the railway, Fan Jinyan remembered that he had thrown the steam engine drawings to the students of Nanzhou College more than two months ago, asking them to study and make them, but there was no news, and he even forgot about it.

Thinking of it, Fan Jinyan said: "Since it has been planned a long time ago, then the construction will be carried out according to the original plan drawings." ”

After speaking, he called someone to retreat, and he called his own soldier Wang Dashan to go to Nanzhou Academy of Literature.

After the Nanzhou College of Literature moved to the new city, it was more than three times larger than before, and it caught up with the Zhennan General's Mansion that was still under construction in the center of the city, and it became much more lively than before, with not only babbling children, but also young people who are about to enter various fields, which can be said to be the only full-featured institution in the whole world in this era that includes elementary school to university.

In fact, the most fundamental reason for the establishment of such a school is the lack of teachers in Fan Jinyan's hands, because another feature of this school is that the students of the university take turns to take one class every day to teach the children in the primary school to read.

But the only regret for Fan Jinyan is that except for the primary school, there are almost no female students in the university department. It can be seen that the depth of Zhu Cheng's poisonous tea cannot be eliminated in a day or two. He has also tried to advocate for it, but with little success, and perhaps it will only be when the children in the primary school grow up that the effect will improve

Fan Jinyan was also here for the first time, and Wang Dashan inquired for a long time, only to know that the group of college students did not have classes today, but were doing experiments in a remote open space outside the school.

Could it be an experiment with a steam engine?

Done so quickly?

In addition to the excitement, Fan Jinyan and Wang Dashan went straight to the experimental field.

In fact, there are drawings, and it is not complicated to make them, but it is Fan Jinyan's original intention to really understand the principle of the steam engine.

The experimental field was not far from the Faculty of Letters, and within a cup of tea, the two saw a clearing full of people, including students, and people from nearby villages, at least more than a thousand people.

However, Fan Jinyan was taken aback, once the experiment of the steam engine failed, if there was an explosion, its power could cause no living creatures within a radius of 100 meters.

Because he couldn't see what was going on inside, he could only sit on his horse and shout, "Spread it all out, and go to the distance to see." ”

Watching the excitement, I listened to someone shouting behind me, thinking that we finally occupied a good position, who do you think you are! Is this trying to trick us away?

There are not a few people who turn back, and there are many people who know Fan Jinyan, and when they saw that the young man on the horse was Hou Ye, they immediately knelt on the ground.........

At this time, Fan Jinyan saw a swarthy black steam engine in the shape of a teacup surrounded by the crowd.

It is more than three meters tall, and its appearance resembles a teacup, which is indescribably funny.

At this time, several students were making final preparations and did not notice the movement on the periphery at all.

"Ignition." One of the leading students shouted excitedly when he saw that everything was ready for commissioning.

However, when the words fell, I heard someone shouting from behind, "Wait." ”

(To be continued.) )