Dominate the Country

Pondicherry.

This former French Indian colony has now raised a red flag and is the largest colony of Chen Han on the Indian mainland today - nearly 500 square kilometers, comparable to half a county in the Central Plains of Han territory.

When Pondicherry was in the hands of the French, it was only 60% of its current size, but after China took over, it successfully expanded its territory to its current size through the gun trade.

Compared with the real muskets and cannons, land is not rare for Indian princes, especially a piece of land that is not very large.

In a small town outside the city, it is particularly lively today. Forty or fifty residents are crowded in a house built with bricks and cement, watching a group of local Ah San hired workers carry a few small boxes into the house.

This is the capital of a trading company invested by the mayor of the town, Chen Zhizhong, and the "rich man" Li Xiang. Both of them are quite appealing in the town. The current forty or fifty people are the "small shareholders" who responded to their call.

The registered capital of this company, Xinyuan Trading Company, is 50,000 yuan. In addition to the 35,000 yuan raised by the two big guys, the remaining 15,000 yuan is raised by the current 30 to 50 small shareholders. It can be said that after today, this private stock company will make a shining debut.

And this brick and cement house is the bank savings office of the town.

50,000 yuan is not just paper money, there are also some gold and silver in it, and now all of them have to be deposited in the savings office.

Since the restoration of "calm" in the Indian region, the trade volume between China and India has quickly returned to the amount before the war, and there are signs of further improvement. After all, the war in Europe also affected Britain's industry and sea transportation, and the British imports decreased, and the market for Chinese goods also became larger accordingly, and compared with British commercial goods, Chinese goods are cheaper.

For example, cigarettes.

India has a large population and an extremely vast tobacco market. When Chinese cigarettes entered India, this novel thing quickly became popular just like in China.

Both the Chinese and the British traded tobacco in India and set up factories in India. Even the specially supplied cigarettes for opium smokers were quickly learned by the British after they were introduced in China. And they also sold them back to their own homeland in Europe.

The tobacco planting area in India is rapidly expanding, and the amount of high-quality tobacco exported to China has soared from hundreds of tons a year ten years ago to more than a thousand tons today, a tenfold increase in ten years. In today's India, high-quality tobacco leaves have no worries about not having a market.

Although the demand for homemade cigarettes in India is increasing day by day, many indigenous princes are greedy for profit and have also started cigarette factories, but their production efficiency is too low.

Chen Han has developed the cigarette industry over the years and has long produced rotary cigarette machines driven by steam power, which are much faster than manual labor. It's just that there are still some minor flaws in the quality of the finished cigarettes, and there is also refined cotton wool as the filter tip raw material. The process and efficiency are far ahead of the British, let alone the Indian natives.

They just rely on abundant labor and pure manual production. The inferior cigarettes produced cannot even guarantee the fineness of tobacco, let alone the filter and the addition of essential oils and spices.

The British also developed a hand-cranked cigarette machine, although it is not as sharp as the steam-driven cigarette machine, and the efficiency is not comparable to that of pure manual work, and the quality assurance is worse than that of steam cigarette machines. China and Britain saw this vast market of interests, and their first reaction was to enhance their productivity. Only Indians, pure handwork, nothing but pure handwork.

If China and Britain don't make money from them, who will make money from?

Soon this cigarette became the second largest textile industry in India. India exported raw materials - tobacco leaves, and imported industrial products - cigarettes.

Now the tobacco industry has become a highly profitable industry comparable to the textile industry in the Indian market for China and Britain.

Xinyuan Trading Company is mainly engaged in the pharmaceutical business. You should know that Li Xiang, one of the company's major shareholders, his cousin is Chen Antong's personal soldier, and Chen Antong is the boss of Chen Han's military police. A great man who has been in charge of military discipline and regulations for thirty years and was conferred the title of Marquis at the beginning of the founding of the country.

Although Li Xiang's cousin was only a guard with the rank of sergeant, his business was much easier with this relationship.

And Chen Zhizhong, the mayor of Chen Town, was also a member of the royal family's distant relatives. Of course, the blood relationship was not close, but there was more or less a relationship.

Their trading companies could get the most sought-after wound medicine and cigarettes with added ingredients.

In this era without penicillin and ansulfuron, Chinese wound medicine with Panax notoginseng added was an absolute treasure. And the cigarettes with added ingredients were strictly controlled by Chen Han.

But there is no way to a thousand miles without accumulating small steps. No matter how big the relationship is, it is useless without capital. Chen Zhizhong and Li Xiang emptied their family's assets to get enough money to buy that thing, and then the remaining capital was only 35,000 yuan. After mobilizing the masses, they only got 15,000 yuan. This capital is really very little. This little capital is really a small shrimp entering the ocean.

At the same time when this Xinyuan Trading Company was established, the fourth cigarette factory in Pondicherry had already started operation. Compared with the small company with 50,000 yuan of capital started by Chen Zhizhong and Li Xiang, this cigarette factory recruited more than 300 workers alone, with a total investment of no less than 300,000 yuan.

The cigarette factory directly hired cheap local Indians. Although the wages offered were pitifully low compared to their domestic counterparts, the factory's recruitment office was almost overwhelmed by the influx of Indians.

Also on the evening of that day, a thousand-ton clipper ship sailed into the Thames Harbor. This ship with a red flag was made in France. Gao Leisi and Xie Qinggao landed in Egypt, rode camels across the desert, boarded a clipper ship at Alexandria Port and went straight to France, then took a carriage to Paris to meet Napoleon, and then took a ship directly to the UK at Pordo Port.

When the ship docked at the London dock, Xie Qinggao could barely maintain the demeanor of a diplomat, while Gao Leisi could only get off the ship with the help of his attendants.

When Chen Ming in Nanjing received the letter from his son, he was overjoyed.

Louisiana was like a fruit tree that he had carefully cared for, and now the fruit on it was finally ripe.

Without even a pause, Chen Ming immediately ordered Gao Leisi and Xie Qinggao to go to Europe as his chief and deputy envoys to trade Louisiana with Napoleon.

However, although Gao and Xie came quickly, they were still not as fast as the United States.

Although the United States is now somewhat estranged, there is still a deep connection between the United States and France. The personal friendship between some big figures is quite good.

Moreover, Napoleon wanted to sell Louisiana, which was strongly opposed by many of his important ministers. For example, his finance minister and foreign minister, his brother, his brother-in-law, and so on.

Therefore, the current president of the United States, the third president Thomas Jefferson, got this extremely important news as expected.

Then the whole United States was detonated by this shocking secret.

As a newly established country, the world policeman in the future, the symbol of freedom and democracy, the Lighthouse Country, is now just a small country that is not noticeable in international politics.

But this does not mean that the Lighthouse Country will "behave itself". Although there were complicated reasons for the Second Anglo-American War in history, the American initiative to attack Canada was the most direct fuse.

These Americans who had just gained independence from the British dared to covet Canada, which was occupied by the British, so they naturally coveted the vast Louisiana and the Great West.

The current situation is different from the original time and space. The old Americans in the original time and space have unique location advantages. In addition to the strong enemy of the British in the north, the others are the self-absorbed France and the already corrupt Spain. The weak United States can leisurely recuperate and calmly open its mouth to eat what it wants.

But now it is different. To the south and west of the Lighthouse Country, it is no longer the corrupt Spain and the chaotic Mexico, but the powerful and desperate Huaxia Empire.

Therefore, the Lighthouse Country is so nervous about the ownership of Louisiana. At the same time, no one in the American political arena will clamor that Jefferson made a "wasteful and useless" deal.

All the people with lofty ideals in the Lighthouse Country clearly realize the importance of Louisiana to the United States.

With Louisiana, the Lighthouse Country can stand up to China on the North American continent in the future. And if this vast and fertile land belongs to China, haha, then the Lighthouse Country should not pursue "freedom" in the future, but "defending the country".

Because China and China's expansionism have given the Lighthouse Country too much shock and fear.

Now God knows how much the Americans want to obtain Louisiana. If they get Louisiana, the territory of the United States will expand at least twice, although the United States cannot take back New Orleans.

Americans are very interested in Louisiana, and even many Americans realize that the United States should have a passage close to the exit of the Mississippi River and the city of New Orleans, otherwise, from a long-term strategic perspective, it will be difficult for the United States to keep the eastern part of the North American continent.

Jefferson's foreign policy has already determined all this-there will be inevitable conflicts between China and the United States on the issue of Louisiana.

Jefferson's actions for freedom, centralization of state power, and use of force according to the needs of the situation are not inconsistent with the expansion policy.

In 1801, Jefferson sent Robert Livingston as a special envoy to Paris, and the negotiations involved Louisiana.

Last year, he sent another special envoy, James Monroe [the fifth president later, the one famous for the Monroe Doctrine] to France, and the negotiations also involved the purchase of land.

But how could Napoleon sell Louisiana to the United States? If he did so, he wanted to completely break off relations with China.

Napoleon's mind would not think of the "Yellow-White Dispute" in the overall world situation. Because his position has not reached that height. If Napoleon had the entire European continent, he would really worry about the "international situation" when he looked at the world. Now he only sees the European continent and the interests of France itself.

He would not offend the powerful China because of the weak Lighthouse Country, and would not talk about the impact of Louisiana's gains and losses on the Lighthouse Country...

In this year [1803], a French nobleman living in the United States, Pierre Samuel Dupont, went to France to help negotiate at the request of Jefferson. They found it less than ten days later than Gao Leisi and Xie Qinggao, but it was useless.

A negotiation that was not too difficult would be held in the next few days.

Although Gao Leisi and Xie Qinggao were exhausted, they were supported into the European Office with a smile.

"Your Highness, don't worry. Napoleon is a smart man!"

Napoleon is a smart man, and just seven words are enough to explain everything.