The Great Empire has been trying to dominate the eastern trade market because it is the largest market in the world.
Dong Shuheng hopes to artificially create a situation where the interests of all European countries are equally shared. For the Renaissance Army, it is not a matter of selling things to whom they are sold.
This will allow European countries to compete in Eastern trade. Who doesn't want to have more customers in his hands?
The more buyers there are, the easier the business will be.
In the trade with Europa, the Renaissance Army actually made a profit.
The tea, silk, porcelain, and now various small electrical appliances, furs, luxury goods, etc. sold by Fuxing Army are all high value-added commodities.
Moreover, it is sold exclusively, there is no competition, and the pricing power is completely in the hands of the Fuxing Army.
Therefore, even if there is a war with Dayang now, the Renaissance Army can still continue to trade with Europa.
You can increase taxes at the transit ports you control.
But he did not dare to attack merchant ships from other European countries heading to the east, let alone cut off other countries' trade routes.
In that case, Da Ying will offend the public and fall into complete isolation.
The countries in Europe are very concerned about free trade. If Da Ying dares to make a fuss about this, he will surely end badly.
History shows that the final result of any hegemonic country in Europe will not be very good.
Just like Napoleon at the beginning, and the European military police Tsarist Russia later.
Therefore, Da Ying did not dare to block trade.
The opening of Xiangjiang Island will give small European countries the opportunity to participate in Eastern trade.
Dong Shuheng knew very well that he could never work behind closed doors at any time.
Even he has now established the Greater China Circle.
Including the Greater China Circle Free Economy and the Greater China Circle Military Alliance.
It controls almost one-third of the world's land and nearly one-half of its population.
But he still cannot exclude other countries and regions.
At present, the most economically and culturally active region is the Europa region.
Most of the countries in the Greater China Circle are still backward countries or the kind of New World that has just been developed.
If we live our lives behind closed doors now, we will lose the motivation for development, and sooner or later we will end up being conservative and backward.
To the west of Ceylon Island, in the Gulf of Mannar, a huge fleet composed of nearly twenty ironclad ships was chopping the waves on the sea.
Bao Youzhi stands on his flagship "Zhenhai".
This kind of destroyer of more than 3,000 tons is no longer the most advanced warship.
But looking at the 240mm-caliber main gun on the front deck, Bao Youzhi still felt excited.
Eight destroyers, sixteen frigates and nearly twenty torpedo boats.
This is a huge wolf pack, such a ferocious pack, even if the opponent is an elephant. Bao Youzhi can lead his men to tear them apart.
"Commander, all ships are in position." Fleet Chief of Staff Wang Huatao reported.
"Okay, give the order and the drill begins."
The newly arrived fleet ushered in their first exercise in the Indian Ocean.
On the sea, various types of ships were grouped into formations.
The huge body of the destroyer was at the forefront. The frigates penetrated through the gaps like enemies.
The torpedo boat formation made a detour to harass the enemy's flank.
Although not a single shot was fired, the tense atmosphere on the sea felt like a real naval battle.
Let us shift our attention to the southernmost Cape Colony in Africa, the city of Cape Town.
The Cape of Good Hope was already world-famous at this time.
The Port of Cape Town is the most prosperous port in southern Africa.
Cape Town means "Cape City" in English. The city stretches out with mountains on its back and the sea on its back. Its western suburbs are adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, and its southern suburbs are inserted into the Indian Ocean. It sits at the meeting point of the two oceans.
In 1806, the French captured Cape Town from the Dutch. It has always been the most important city established by white people in Africa.
Surprisingly, we can actually see Chinese people here.
In 1856, Wu Jianzhang fled to Xiangjiang after his defeat in Guangzhou.
Zhang Yong fled with the defeated troops at that time.
However, Zhang Yong is no ordinary soldier. He is the secret agent placed by the Fuxing Army in the New Army in eastern Guangdong.
At that time, the New Army in eastern Guangdong was hastily established and a large number of soldiers were recruited. It was very easy to insert a few people into it.
At that time, there were even assassins planted by the Renaissance Army who became officers and directly led their men in the battlefield uprising.
An ordinary dark man like Zhang Yong is not high-level, and he is just a small leader in the army.
What a coincidence that this guy was taken to Xiangjiang by Wu Jianzhang.
Without instructions from above, Zhang Yong could only continue to remain silent.
Wu Jianzhang was later executed by Fuxing Army spies in Xiangjiang.
Only then did Zhang Yong learn that there was a force from the Intelligence Department of the Renaissance Army here in Xiangjiang.
After going through many twists and turns, Zhang Yong regained contact with the organization.
But his wish to return home was not fulfilled.
Instead, a new online appointment was arranged for him.
Zhang Yong was told online that his family had been allocated hundreds of acres of land. His younger brother was recommended to an academy, his elder sister married into a good family, and his parents were both in good health.
All of this was earned by Zhang Yong working as a spy outside.
The superiors hoped that he could continue to stay in Huayong Camp.
After Zhang Yong heard this, he was extremely grateful to his superiors.
The boss didn't say if he would get these benefits if he went back now.
The result of his own thinking is that if he does not continue to obey the superior's arrangements, then all the benefits to his family will cease to exist.
In this way, Zhang Yong continued to be a soldier of the Huayong Camp and helped the people of the country to work.
At first they were stationed in Xiangjiang.
Although they are also servants of the Yin Army, their status is very low.
Those Ah Sans in the military camp can bully them at will.
On the surface, they appear to be an army, but in fact they are just slaves of the rebel army or even the Indian servant army.
They do all the dirty and tiring work such as washing clothes and cleaning toilets.
Zhang Yong is also a company commander after all.
Moreover, he has activity funds provided by his superiors. With plenty of money, he often goes to help some low-level soldiers of the Huayong Battalion.
Everyone is oppressed and living in extreme poverty. The only way to improve their lives is to stick together.
The people in Huayong camp are ordinary people at the bottom. In addition to working, they also gamble when they have nothing else to do.
Zhang Yong is bound to lose every bet, but he actually uses this method to support his subordinates.
In this way, a small group gathered around Zhang Yong.
Later he started a small business in the military camp.
He obtained some in-demand goods and sold them to the Yin Army barracks in Xiangjiang.
Some of the lower-level officers, Ying Jun and Asan, had to give him some thin noodles.
In this way, he stayed in Xiangjiang for two years.
Later, his superior contacted him again. At this time, the army was preparing to select a group of people from these Huayong camps to serve as police officers in the colonies of the subcontinent.
The boss hopes that Zhang Yong can seize this opportunity.
Apparently the Ministry of Intelligence has quite a few spies in Hong Kong.
If Zhang Yong stays here, he will not have much effect.
It is very difficult to place spies in the colony of Da Ying.
Because Chinese people and white people look completely different.
Fortunately, in the surrounding areas of Nanyang, there are already a lot of Chinese here.
It is easy for the Renaissance Army to develop or install its own spies.
But in places like India, it's very difficult to do that.
The Huayong Battalion surrendered to the Yu people before the Fuxing Army occupied eastern Guangdong.
In their view, these Chinese are trustworthy.
Just like this time the Japanese decided to select people from the Huayong Camp to serve as police officers in other colonies.
In their opinion, these soldiers of Huayong Camp were loyal, obedient, and able to endure hardships and stand hard work.
Prior to this, the grassroots police officers of the Chinese in the colonies were Indian Asans.
However, although those Asans are loyal, they are also very slippery, prone to corruption and bribery, and they are also very lazy.
Therefore, the colonial authorities decided to dispatch some Chinese from Huayong Camp to various colonies to improve the local grassroots police structure.
With Zhang Yong's connections, it is not difficult to be selected.
And he was able to be selected together with several of his younger brothers.
However, Zhang Yong was also a little uneasy, which meant that they were further away from their hometown.
Most of Zhang Yong and his brothers are from eastern Guangdong.
Now in Xiangjiang, although they cannot go back, they are not far from their hometown.
Not long after, Zhang Yong boarded the ship and embarked on the journey together with hundreds of selected brothers.
Before setting off, Zhang Yong secretly kowtowed three times to his hometown in the northeast in his room.
However, this mission also allowed him to receive a large subsidy.
The money will be transferred to his family by the organization.
Zhang Yong and the others had been on the ship for a long time and stopped at Calcutta, but they were not all allowed to disembark here.
Only half of the people got off the boat, while Zhang Yong and the remaining half of the brothers continued to move forward with the boat.
Finally, they came to Cape Town.
Here, he became a police officer.
Gold will shine wherever it is.
Zhang Yong relied on his cleverness and quickly became a Chinese police chief.
He was in charge of more than a dozen Chinese police officers. He also joined the Cape Colony's household registration and became a naturalized Chinese.
Here, the Chinese police are still inferior. They have no contact with the upper-level white police officers.
The middle-level positions are all occupied by Ah San.
The Chinese police can only continue to do things that are dirty, tiring, and without any gratification.
However, Zhang Yong was very talented in making money. He and his Chinese policemen ran to the port in their free time.
The most popular people here are those sailors who go to the ocean, and what they love most is to have fun.
The so-called fun is nothing more than eating, drinking, whoring and gambling.
Zhang Yong led his people to set up a game and make money from the sailors.
Most people think he is making some extra money. In fact, Zhang Yong has another purpose.
Because he lost contact with his upline again. After staying in Cape Town for more than a year, he had no contact with his upline.
When he first came out, Zhang Yong did not expect that he would be transferred to Cape Town.
Of course, he didn't expect to go online. This is a completely unfamiliar place for the Renaissance Army.
There are almost no merchant ships from the Renaissance Army that can get here.
It wasn't until a year ago, when he was hanging out with the sailors at the port, that someone finally approached him.
The person who came was not his superior, but a Portuguese.
The Portuguese man named Santos came up and checked the code with him.
This guy actually speaks so well in Cantonese.
From Santos, Zhang Yong got a new task, which was to lurk in Cape Town as a spy.
He also got a new code book. In the future, the news he got would be taken to the East via ships of the Portuguese Tahao Shipping Company.
Dahao Shipping Company is the largest shipping company from Portugal to the East. They have dozens of clipper ships, and ships dock at the Port of Cape Town almost every month.
In this way, Zhang Yong's life as a spy in Cape Town began.
He protects his identity very well, even the younger brothers around him don't know.
He also does not easily develop offline, because that will increase his risk of exposure.
This place is too far away from home now. In such an environment, people's hearts are the easiest to change.
Three months ago, Zhang Yong was given an important task, which was to monitor the armored fleet of the Great Empire.
The Port of Cape Town was the most important port of the Great Empire in southern Africa.
Ships from the Great Empire to the East must pass through here. Most of the ships will be repaired and supplied here.
Before Zhang Yong received the order, he had discovered that a supply station had recently been built at the port, and a large amount of coal was stored in the supply station.
The towering coal mountains are easy to observe.
He also discovered that these were high-quality anthracite coals.
How do you know it's anthracite?
In fact, it's very simple. Zhang Yong found some scattered coal on the roadside where he was transporting coal and burned it.
Half a month after he received the mission, a fleet entered the port as expected.
There are dozens of ironclad ships painted white.
It's really spectacular.
Zhang Yong's main task is to estimate the tonnage of these warships and observe the artillery settings on the upper plywood.
On a hill not far from the port, he had already found an excellent observation position in advance.
After all the information was prepared, he planned to pass the information back through the Portuguese merchant ships through the predetermined method.
It's just that this time the Japanese didn't allow any ships to leave the port.
Foreign merchant ships entering the port were told that they could not leave the port until the fleet had left.
This made Zhang Yong extremely anxious. He could only send two capable men to send the news to Portuguese Mozambique in the northeast.
There must be Portuguese merchant ships there.
However, the risk of transmitting information in this way is very high.
It took him several years of observation to develop these two subordinates.
Loyalty is no problem as both have families back home.
Zhang Yong has already reported their family's place of origin.
Even if they have different intentions, they still have to take care of their families.
In addition, I am missing two Chinese policemen, and this matter needs to be sorted out.
The most difficult task of gathering intelligence has been completed, but now I am stumped by delivering the news.
Fortunately, the Portuguese merchant ship sent a man to help accompany the two men to the Portuguese port of Maputo.
Maputo Port is located northeast of Cape Town. It is thousands of kilometers away from Cape Town Port.
It is impossible for Zhang Yong to send the message by himself. If he goes, he will never come back again.
He has a special status as the sergeant in charge of all Chinese police.
If he disappeared, someone would definitely notice him.
Furthermore, he had to stay to cover the two police officers leaving Cape Town.