In the 17th century, Britain had not yet fully grown into the empire on which the sun never set, but by this time it had already been on its edge, and from the late 16th century onwards, Britain gradually defeated the colonial hegemony of the Spaniards and became a new colonial power.

By the mid-17th century, Britain had waged three wars against the Netherlands in order to compete for colonial and maritime trade status, and finally won a complete victory, laying the foundation for the empire's fleet to crisscross the seas.

Although the Dutch and Britain had not yet gone to war, the trade competition between the two sides at sea had already begun. As a new generation of maritime hegemon, the Netherlands, in order to contain Britain from becoming its competitor, the Netherlands carried out a series of various actions against Britain in North America, Asia and Southeast Asia, and finally made the British capitalist class angry and dissatisfied and provoked a war between the two countries.

James John was an ordinary English merchant to the outside world, and although England had all kinds of friction and unhappiness with the Dutch and Spain, this did not prevent him from making friends in these countries, from whom he obtained a great deal of useful information for the British East India Company.

"So, John, actually, he's a commercial spy."

Zhao Shijie frowned and looked at Liu Yun, admiring this friend who was a private detective before crossing over, and only investigated John's details in just two days.

"Yes, so John definitely approached us for another purpose, maybe we can form an alliance with the British through him, and although the British are indeed hateful, it can be one of our good partners in Southeast Asia in this period."

"Liu Yun's proposal is good, although the British have unveiled the appearance of the papier-mâché of the Celestial Empire, but as a traveler, we must not have too much pre-time feeling in it when dealing with the relationship between countries, otherwise it will be difficult for us to survive in this time and space."

Hu Xijing's words can be regarded as a reminder to everyone here, and now our priority is to focus on the interests of Australia.

"So does the Dutch know John's identity, and if we come into contact with him, the Dutch will have any suspicions." Zhao Shijie asked with some concern, after all, the Netherlands is still the hegemon of the sea at this time, and it has absolute force in Southeast Asia, once they find out that Australia and Britain are hooking up, will they take precautions, or strengthen the deployment of troops in Southeast Asia.

"You can rest assured that John didn't live in Batavia for a month or two, and that he could live here for two or three years, and that he had a certain good relationship with Governor Van Diemen, which means that his identity was not revealed, otherwise Van Diemen would have let him go free like this."

James John's proactive association at the dinner party and his yearning for Australia made Liu Yun interested in him, and a sneaky investigation led him to discover these secrets, and through the exchange of letters and the survey paper of the Dutch port battery in Batavia, Liu Yun was sure that he was a spy in the service of the British East India Company.

Although John did not mention too much about the conflict between Australia and the Netherlands during the whole dinner exchange, the conversation with Hu Xijing basically revolved around where Australia is located, and when he heard Hu Xijing mention that Australia has a windproof lamp that will not be blown out even in a big wind and fire, his mind filled up all kinds of imaginations what a magical lamp it was.

In fact, Hu Xijing is talking about windproof kerosene lamp, which is also one of the upcoming products in Australia, for night lighting is still in the era of lighting candles and torches, kerosene lamp is definitely a historical invention, with it no matter how much you sail at night, you don't have to be afraid of strong winds.

It was precisely because of his expression of yearning for Australia and the process of conversation that Liu Yun's professional vigilance was aroused, and he felt a sense of déjà vu in John's body, so he sneaked to John's residence in curiosity, and after some investigation, he finally found his correspondence with the British East India Company and the survey paper of the deployment of Batavia's troops.

So he decided that John definitely didn't just seem to yearn for Australia on the surface, he must have hidden a plan in his heart, Australia shelled the port of Bataviacha and sank a warship, such a big move was known to the people almost all the time, although the final result of the explanation of the governor of Batavia was a misunderstanding, but everyone knows that Australia has an absolute military existence, and the giant ship alone is proof.

In fact, just as Liu Yun expected, just as he left John's residence on the front foot, John sent a letter from the Australians bombarding Batavia, in which he explained in detail the great power of the Australian giant ship's guns, and also gave his own proposal that if he could form an ally with the Australians, he would definitely make Britain gain more benefits in Southeast Asia.

In fact, he was not the only one who thought the same way, and the declining old empire of Spain also wanted to have a strong ally in Southeast Asia, and they had to give up many interests in the face of the expanding Dutch.

The appearance of the Australians undoubtedly gave them a kind of hope, the Australian old not only has a giant ship and a strong gun but also has a beautiful mirror, if you form an alliance with such a strong man, it will undoubtedly cause some trouble to the Dutch old, but to form an alliance, you must have enough interests to impress others, otherwise how can others ally with you.

In the central conference room of the Sea Blue, Liu Yun held an application report submitted by John, which stated that he hoped to become the agent of Australian Mirror in the United Kingdom, in his own name, not the British East India Company.

"What am I talking about, John must have some plan hidden in his heart, the matter of acting as an agent is only secondary, I'm afraid there is another purpose, he is probably also testing us, we are not currently preparing to develop new agents in Europe."

"You mean, John wants to take the opportunity of becoming an agent to test whether there is a chance to cooperate with us, because he is not sure what our relationship with the Dutch is, although we and the Dutch have only recently ended a small war, but that does not mean that we will become enemies with the Dutch."

Zhao Shijie followed Liu Yun's words and said the guess in his heart, because if John was really a spy, he would definitely investigate whether there was a chance to cooperate with Australia, and he would not be stupid enough to form an alliance as soon as he came up, and he would definitely make a trial judgment.

John, the protagonist of the foreign trade panel discussion, was also sitting in his office at this time, looking at his housekeeper, old Allen: "You handed over the letter to the Australian, how did the other party reply." ”

"The other party didn't say anything, just told me to go back and wait, Master John, I think you should come to your door and pay a visit in person to show your sincerity."

"No, Alan, this is just a test of mine, and I can only move on to the next round of action if I see the next result, you know? Well, since the other party asked us to wait, let's wait quietly," John said, looking out the window in the direction of the harbor area.