Kolkata is located on the east bank of the lower reaches of the Ganges Delta. Before 1690, this place was just a quiet small village. The ox and its owner worked slowly in the fields. Old people chatting gathered under the banana trees outside the village, and naked children rushed from the beginning of the village to the end of the village and shed loud laughter along the way. In the summer of this year, the British broke the tranquility here. They found a place where they could park the sea ships and established the East India Company Economic Center here. From this year on, the British firmly stationed in India. In 1716, the East India Company spent 5 million rupees to build William Castle here. They connected the three adjacent villages together and named the castle after "Kolkata". Later, it gradually developed into an international commercial port and industrial center.

At the end of 1830, Kolkata was already a typical colonial city. The towering European-style buildings were visible from time to time in the city, contrasting with the narrow and dark streets and countless slums. The air in winter was filled with the humid and heat of summer and some indescribable corruption.

In the Governor's Palace in Kolkata, Lord Auckland, the Governor of India, was holding an important meeting in his round large conference hall.

This is the second time that the Chinese have been hit by the Chinese. The opium ship can no longer be safely sailed on the coast of China. As a British gentleman, he must make a certain gesture. He waved his fists and throat at the conference table with some anger: "Britain should attack the Chinese coastline in an all-round way, break into the capital, drive the emperor out of the palace, and obtain material guarantees to avoid being violated in the future. We should use the nine-tailed whip to beat every python official who dares to insult the symbol of our nation. They should treat them (Chinese generals) as pirates and murderers, hanging them in the UK

On the mast of the national warship, these bad guys with buttons, murderous faces and murderous clothes, hung a dozen or so on the masts to show them to the public, so that they can flutter in the wind, which is a happy and beneficial scene. In any case, terrifying means must be used. We are too generous! We should teach the Chinese to respect the British, the British are the best and should be their masters. We will keep Guangzhou in our own hands like Kolkata, turn it into our commercial center at the easternmost end of the East, and lay the foundation for a new territory."

Although Lord Auckland spoke such a bold statement, it was the mourning period when King George IV of England passed away, and most of the members of the upper and lower houses of the UK did not agree with this matter.

The newly appointed British Prime Minister Earl Grey has sent Lord Russell, a diplomatic envoy to China, to mediate the matter. At this time, he was attending this meeting. Regarding Lord Auckland's heroic tone, he asked politely: "Is Mr. Auckland confident of attacking the imperial palace in China? The treasures there are enviable, but the Chinese emperor will definitely send his hundreds of millions of citizens to stop you, hoping that you will bring enough bullets."

Lord Auckland was a little angry at Lord Russell's question. This time the Whigs reorganized the cabinet. The British domestic attention was on Prime Minister Reiber's reform bill. The Whigs and Tories in the country fought each other like fire, so both parties hoped to calm down the situation in the Far East. Lord Auckland tasted the sweetness of the opium trade. How could the Chinese fight against the opium trade like this not to make Lord Auckland start fire? Hearing Lord Russell's words, Lord Auckland's fist swung again and said with a splash: "China is just a huge elk. No matter how big the elk is, it is just a deer. The Empire has to distribute a fleet, and it has the ability to make a piece of wooden board of the Chinese go out to sea. The few small boats owned by the lowly Chinese are fishing in the river. Once the British fleet drives over, they can sink to the bottom of the sea forever without a single shelling."

"Then Mr. Auckland is not going to trade with the Chinese, nor does he plan to land on China's territory. If that happens, the Chinese palace will still be safely located there."

"Since my Marines can conquer India, I will never forget China. I only need thousands of people to get the Chinese palace to touch it from the map."

Lord Russell did not intend to continue to argue with Lord Oakland. He had to carry out the orders of Earl Grey. Lord Russell wiped off the spit flying on his face and said to Lord Oakland: "Earl Grey has more important things to do. We cannot forget about the domestic affairs because of the far east. Even if we want to attack China, we should not act at this time, and now we should follow the orders of His Excellency the Prime Minister."

***************************************

1830 is the year of the Tiger in the year of Gengyin in the lunar calendar. At the end of this year, hotels near the Chongwenmen Gongyuan in the capital were gradually becoming lively. This kind of liveliness comes from the upcoming Shuntian Prefecture Country Examination to be held next year. In order to smoothly make use of their ten years of accumulation, the students' families were slightly more abundant and familiar with the examination room near the test site. Some simply lived in the local area and stayed until next year's scientific examination. Therefore, the business of hotels of all sizes is booming, making the store owners so happy that they can't stop.

At that time, Chinese intellectuals had a rumor to list the three major happy events in life. The first sentence was "When nominated on the Golden List", compared with the last two sentences "I met an old friend in a foreign land at night." Indeed, this first joy could bring more real benefits. In China at that time, I had everything, and studying and taking the subject exam was one of the important conditions for being an official.

Compared with the joy of the store owner, students have been talking about it recently. The Emperor of the Scientific Examination in the Wuzi year (1828) added a "counter-calculation" test question to the subject. Next year's provincial examination emperor posted a list to inform the students that the goalkeeper would join the "Earth" chapter. Fortunately, the emperor did not make things difficult for the students. The questions and answers in the "Earth" chapter were posted on the bulletin boards near the tribute courts in various places, and even the explanations were written clearly on it.

Zeng Guofan, 20, was watching the newspaper column of the Chongwenmen Gongyuan at this time, and there were big questions hanging in his mind. Could it be that the earth is really round? The world is really composed of six continents (Antarctica is excluded), and there were so many countries in Europe. Zeng Guofan seemed to have seen the light outside through the crack of the door in the dark night, and he was deeply shocked. This shock was not only on Zeng Guofan. Three days later, the great scholar Ruan Yuan in the capital, Wang Niansun, will organize a large number of Confucian scholars and returned officials to hold an open debate at Fayuan Temple. The theme of this debate is what is mentioned in the chapter "Earth".

There is a Fayuan Temple east of Jiaozi Hutong near Xuanwumen in the capital. The Fayuan Temple has a long history and can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty. In order to mourn the fallen soldiers who encircled Liaodong in the north, Emperor Taizong of Tang Li Shimin ordered the temple to be established here to commemorate it, but failed to do so. Wu Zetian completed the temple in the first year of Tongtian and named it "Minzhong Temple". Zhao Huan, the Emperor Qinzong of Song, was captured by Jin soldiers and went north and lived here. In the 26th year of Zhiyuan in Yuan Dynasty, Song's resigned minister Xie Fang failed to resist the Yuan Dynasty and escaped from the Tang stone mountain in Jianning. He was later captured by the Yuan army and taken to Dadu. He refused to surrender to the Yuan Dynasty and died of a hunger strike in this temple.
Chapter completed!