Dominate the Country

"He must have known some news and came to tell you. But it's a pity that you made him angry." Perrier, who had been silent throughout the whole process, only laughed at Robert at this time.

Although he also disagreed with Newton's "shocking words". The whole of Europe can only compete with China if it is tied together? Is this a fantasy?

China is very powerful, Perrier admitted. In a one-on-one competition, France really would not be the opponent of this ancient empire. The development of Chinese machine technology is a little worse than that of Europe. In the past two years, they have imported a large number of various types of machinery from Europe, but their weapons development is not inferior to Europe at all, and they are even better than Europe in artillery. China also has a large population, countless wealth, and huge war potential. European businessmen often say that if the Chinese market is opened, it will be equal to the supermarket of the whole of Europe, but this does not mean that China's strength can compete with the whole of Europe.

Robert didn't care about Newton's mood. "I think he was frightened by some news and became insane. What a poor man. May God bless him." Anyway, the news will be published in the "Zhongyuan Daily". Robert will know it then, right?

It's just a little time difference, what's the big deal?

Robert has always been a loyal reader of the "Zhongyuan Daily". He knows very well what is published in this official newspaper with the largest circulation in China. Since the news Newton wants to tell will be published here, it is not a heavyweight secret.

"Let's continue our topic." Perrier came to Robert tonight not to laugh at Newton.

"Does the Kingdom of Great Britain really want to subsidize the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma?" Although France no longer has any major interests in the East, it still attaches great importance to the British's movements. Moreover, the French East India Company also wants to do something in Guangnan, South Vietnam, and they need the support of the British.

"No, not the Kingdom of Great Britain. It's just our company!" The British East India Company and the Kingdom of Great Britain are different. Although their interests are completely consistent in many cases.

"Aren't you afraid of arousing opposition from the Chinese by doing this?" China is Britain's most important trading partner, and the proportion of tea tax in Britain's fiscal revenue in Europe is no secret. And Perrier was also very nervous about the company's decision to intervene in Guangnan. Guangnan is not Myanmar, it is too close to the core area of ​​China.

"But to the west of Myanmar is Bengal, and to the west of Bengal is India." The British absolutely cannot tolerate India's interests being coveted by other countries. Even though China has clearly listed Myanmar as an enemy country, the British will also give Myanmar a transfusion so that the Konbaung Dynasty can more effectively resist Siam and China.

The British reason is very simple.

"And the board of directors in London believes that it is time to change the trade relationship between the East and the West. We cannot always be in such a disadvantageous position. The breakdown of bilateral trade relations will lose the common interests of both sides, not just our interests." Although Britain's losses are far greater than China's, when there is no black tea in India, at this moment, the British really do not have the courage to turn against China. So this time it was the East India Company that came forward, not the British government.

"Why should I be afraid? Why should I be afraid?" Robert waved his fists, his tone was fierce, but in Perrier's eyes, it was more to cheer himself up.

The East India Company has the dominance of Britain's trade with China because the company has a monopoly on trade with China. At that time, China was still under the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The Tatars were very wary of foreign Westerners and set up one checkpoint after another in bilateral trade exchanges. Therefore, the British East India Company's monopoly on trade with China at that time could not be compared with the huge benefits now.

And now, in London, in both houses, many members have raised the significance of this point. Perrier knew about this, as the Times had already revealed it. The British East India Company urgently needed to prove its great role in the oriental affairs of the Kingdom of Great Britain with facts.

But the French India Company did not have such a thing, because France was a monarchy, and Perrier's boss's boss was none other than the French royal family.

In 1664, Jean-Baptiste Colbert founded the French East India Company to oversee France's trade with India, East Africa, the East Indies, and other territories in the Indian Ocean. The company often competed with the earlier Dutch East India Company and suffered heavy losses in the French economic collapse in 1720. Then the company changed its name, and its official name was the India Company.

On the eve of the Fu Han Army's uprising, the company had just lost its monopoly on the trade between France and India, but the rise of the Fu Han Army gave the Indian company a new turn. With China's increasing openness, the trade volume between China and France has continued to rise in recent years. In Paris, more and more people have begun to invest in this promising business. The French India Company should have added capital, expanded trade ships, and expanded trade volume. But the rulers of the French India Company "have" a higher vision. They believe that if France wants to win the showdown with the British in the Eastern trade, when India has completely lost hope, it cannot rely purely on Spain. The contradiction between the latter and the Chinese government is a huge powder keg. Once it explodes, the French India Company relying on Manila will definitely suffer heavy losses.

So last year, the future King of France made a suggestion-France should have a colony with absolute control not far from China, and after choosing and choosing, they chose Guangnan, which is on the decline.

Since the uprising three years ago, the Tây Sơn Army of the three Nguyen brothers has grown bigger and bigger, and the blow to Quang Nam was even more severe than the damage to Northern Zheng by the remnant Qing army in Lang Son. Moreover, in the battles again and again, Quang Nam, Northern Zheng, and even the Tây Sơn Volunteer Army, all realized the importance of guns and cannons.

Three years ago, the French missionary Pigneau returned to Ha Tien Town from Phnom Penh. He became famous in Quang Nam because he compiled a French-Vietnamese dictionary and a Vietnamese catechism. However, Ha Tien Town is Chinese territory. Since Mo Tianci established a relationship with the Chinese government, Pigneau's situation in Ha Tien has been greatly restricted. Pigneau's choice is to go to Phu Xuan (now Hue), the capital of Quang Nam, and then rely on fluent Vietnamese to establish a relationship with the Quang Nam royal family. He also used his connections to operate a batch of 300 muskets and four cannons from Manila and traded them to Guangnan, thus becoming a guest of the Guangnan royal family and the powerful minister Zhang Fuluan.

The French had been eyeing the Indochina Peninsula as early as the last century. In 1687, the French sent 1,400 troops [from India] to Siam under the pretext of assisting Siam. Their leading officers took the opportunity to steal the command of part of the Siamese army. French missionaries urged King Phanarai to convert to monotheism in order to manipulate Siam's internal affairs. They also ambitiously attempted to station French and Indian troops in Bangkok and Mek, which aroused strong opposition from the Siamese government and the public, resulting in the outbreak of war. Monotheism and the French and Indian troops suffered heavy losses and were completely expelled from Siam. Now the French are going to make a comeback and plan to reopen the "world" in Guangnan.

And what the French are most concerned about is the attitude of the Chinese on this matter.

Guangnan is too close to China's core area. Although China has not done anything to Annan since the Ming Empire of China gave up North Vietnam, it is hard to guarantee that Chen Han, who is on the rise, will not intervene. Since receiving this news, the only thing that made Perrier feel good was the location of Guangnan. Hundreds of years ago, it was a land occupied by a country, and it was not considered China's territory "since ancient times."

"Poor Perrier, your board of directors has confused the interests of the company with the interests of the country..." Robert suddenly sympathized with Perrier.

Perrier was in favor of seeking a piece of land that belonged entirely to France in a position close to China. This was a far-sighted decision. In order to defeat, or to curb the development of Sino-British trade, at least not to be left far behind by the British, this was necessary for the future trade interests of France. But the geographical location of Guangnan was too terrible. He personally preferred to seek a piece of land in Nanyang, even if it was a pure trading point without weapons like Pondicherry, Mahi, and Yanan in India.

But the opinions of the crown prince and the heir apparent cannot be changed, not to mention that the respected King Louis XV is aging and will soon ascend to heaven.

Perrier needs the support of the British on this matter. "France has absolutely no intention of being hostile to China, and I think the Kingdom of Great Britain has no desire to have a fierce conflict with this powerful country.

The entire Indochina Peninsula and the entire South Seas may take ten years or twenty years, but one day they will be completely incorporated into the sphere of influence of the Chinese." This is the empire. Which empire does not include surrounding countries and lands in its sphere of influence?

Look at the real empires in European history, Rome [not the Holy Roman Empire], Frank, Germany [the First Empire], all of which are like this. Later, Europe was completely divided, and Western Europe, Central Europe, and the countries such as Britain, France, and Austria that rose from the fragmented small countries were also trying their best to build their own subsidiary forces and expand their sphere of influence. But Europe is too small.

Based on his knowledge of European history and Chinese history, Perrier knew that every time the Chinese dynasty changed, after a short period of recuperation, the Chinese, whose strength and national power had greatly increased, would turn their spearheads against the surrounding areas.

The Ming Empire swept across Mongolia, made seven voyages to the West, and established the Xuanwei Office in Jiugang. The entire East Asia was shrouded in the shadow of the Chinese. When it came to the Qing Empire, the Qing Empire, which had solved its internal problems, did not take any action in Southeast Asia, but for China's northwest and southwest, the Qing Empire, through wars again and again, finally strangled the Dzungar Kingdom, the last glory of the Mongols.

And now the Chinese are obviously developing their own naval power, and more and more sailing warships are appearing in the sequence of the Chinese navy. In Perrier's eyes, the Chen Han, which exploded violently towards the surrounding areas after unifying the country, is at least the scale of the early Ming Empire, and compared with the Ming Empire's self-cutting wings, this time the Chinese are likely to occupy Nanyang permanently.

"France should seek a suitable place to settle down, and Paris does not have the ambition of London." Compared with the British support for the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma, and the Burmese power to block China from Bangladesh, France's plan is much smaller. The Gallic roosters did not obstruct or challenge the Chinese. If it were not for the insistence of the king and the prince, Perrier would not even have any worries. Controlling Guangnan and building a purely commercial base in Nanyang are two completely different concepts.

But now this task forces him to move closer to the British.

"Thinking about running before learning to walk!" This is a sentence often said by the Chinese.

No matter what attitude Perrier had when facing Robert, deep in his heart, he had a very disrespectful evaluation of the decision of the crown prince.

Robert had completely put Newton aside. He was completely shocked by the meaning of Perrier's words. The French were planning to attack Guangnan. Oh my God, did he hear it right? But then he was completely excited! It was like an electric current suddenly passed through his body. Robert was so excited that he couldn't sit still.

He stood up and turned around twice in front of Perrier. Countless thoughts flashed through Robert's mind, and finally turned into a big "friendship". No matter what the French were planning, at this time they were the best partners of the company.

"The Kingdom of Great Britain certainly does not want to have violent contradictions and conflicts with China, but China should also respect the legitimate interests of the Kingdom of Great Britain in India. Nanyang and Indochina will eventually belong to the Chinese, but India belongs to the Kingdom of Great Britain." They spent a hundred years, exhausted their thoughts and money, and finally gained absolute advantages in the South Asian subcontinent. John Bulls would never give up the interests they had obtained.

A sudden change hit Chen Ming, who was ignorant in the Prince's Mansion. At this time, he had no idea that the French would be interested in South Vietnam, and as for the British in Bengal and the Burmese next door, Chen Ming did not fail to see the "danger".

The British still regarded Chen Ming as a traditional oriental emperor. They and France were worried about whether they would be unilaterally banned from trade by China after their interests conflicted with China. Because such behavior has appeared several times in the history of the Qing Dynasty, whether it was the Thirteen Factories in Guangzhou or Kyakhta in the north. Because of the issue of "dignity", the Qing Empire cut off trade, which would cause heavy losses to both the British and French.

But in Chen Ming's view, it is very normal for the two countries to have strong conflicts of interest on one side and important trading partners on the other. In the 21st century, as a small citizen, Chen Ming has seen too much of China, Japan, South Korea, Europe, etc.

There are few truly friendly countries in the world. It is normal for China to keep expanding bilateral economic and trade exchanges on the other side while criticizing them verbally and penally.

However, in this time and space, China, which holds the initiative in trade and has eyes on its head, will directly block trade with hostile countries when its own national interests are damaged. Robert and Perrier, who have a certain understanding of Chinese culture, are very sure of this.

The interests and status of businessmen have never been on the table in China, an ancient country. Even if Chen Han has greatly raised the social status and even political status of businessmen in the past two years, it is still useless.

In the Prince's Mansion.

Chen Ming looked at the five rubber tree seedlings in front of him. There were indeed only three green leaves. This should be the three-leaf rubber tree, right? Chen Ming's knowledge of rubber is relatively limited. He only knows about vulcanization and using carbon dioxide to make rubber raincoats. As for the rubber tree, he only knows about the three-leaf rubber tree.

In the original time and space, this kind of rubber was planted throughout Southeast Asia.

The French had long been exposed to rubber, this thing, and quinine, also known as cinchona. Chen Han bought their seeds from the four countries of Britain, France, Spain and Portugal at a high price. The first batch was obtained last summer, and the second batch was obtained this summer. They were cultivated in Taiwan, Hainan, Singapore and Borneo, and now they finally have results.

Let's put quinine aside for now. The seeds of rubber trees are actually very difficult to collect. The seeds usually mature in July and August, but they cannot be picked manually. They can only wait under the tree and wait for them to burst naturally. Rubber trees are natural sowing seeds. After drying, a few seeds flew out with a snap. No one knew where they flew to, so it was difficult to get a large number of rubber tree species without special collection.

As for Chen Ming, he would not stop collecting seeds until the rubber plantation was initially cultivated.

"Okay, okay. Let Qi Zhuo continue to work hard. Don't lose face for his teacher." The person in charge of the rubber cultivation team was Qi Zhuo, a proud disciple of Mr. Yang Xu from Guanzhong, who was one of the most famous agricultural experts in China's hundreds of years of history.

He wrote "Xiu Qi Zhi Zhi" to talk about agriculture, "Bin Feng Guang Yi" to talk about mulberry, and "Zhi Ben Ti Gang" and "Lun Sericulture Essentials" each with ten volumes. Although he is eighty-eight years old and has five generations living under the same roof, he is still in good health. He is now the treasure of the Agricultural College and an absolute authority in the field!

As for Chen Ming, that is also an absolute, absolute shame. He was ashamed of his "Xiao Bai" at the beginning. He didn't know such a person before, and didn't know that there was such a great talent as Mr. Yang in Shaanxi at this time. Fortunately, the impact of the war did not affect Mr. Yang, and the Yangsu Garden, which he had devoted his life to running, was not greatly affected. Even his many disciples and grandchildren who taught and educated people for decades, although they were damaged, were not seriously injured. It can be said that he supported the Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural College with the power of one school.

Chen Ming decided to get a few awards after ascending the throne. The Nobel Prize in his previous life made him very unhappy. Therefore, professional awards such as Luban and Shennong, as well as the comprehensive award of Huabiao, will be established, with generous prize money and great honor, and the first Shennong Award must go to Mr. Yang Xu.

In the early Qing Dynasty, the western part of Guanzhong did not grow cotton, hemp, mulberry and silkworms, but only grain crops. Therefore, the people here had food but no clothes, and they had to sell more than half of their food rations to other provinces to exchange cloth every year. As a result, they lacked food and clothing and lived a difficult life. Seeing this situation, Yang Xu studied hard and spent more than ten years to explore. He visited various places to learn about the experience of planting mulberry and raising silkworms, and personally experimented to find out the effective methods in Shaanxi. As a result, the villagers in Xingping, Zhouzhi, and Huxian imitated each other and benefited greatly. After vigorous promotion, in less than ten years, the silk industry in Guanzhong, southern Shaanxi, and even many places in northern Shaanxi developed rapidly. In the spring of the third year of Yongzheng's reign, he traveled to Mount Zhongnan and saw oak trees all over the slope. He knew they were useful, so he bought cocoon seeds from Yishui (in Shandong) and ordered them to be planted there, which was also successful. For the first time, large-scale tussah silkworms were raised in Guanzhong.

Although he was not an official, and did not have such a big name as Yuan Mei, Zhao Yi, and Jiang Shishuan, in Chen Ming's eyes, the old gentleman was much more important than Yuan Mei and others. Learning is practical learning, and industry is practical industry. He is the contemporary Shennong!