I met my old friend Henry in the temporary palace in Nantes Harbour.

Fortunately, Henry was supervising the construction of warships in several port cities on the west coast, which is also a new national policy for France.

After not seeing him for many years, Henry's face was still rosy, revealing a healthy color. His voice was loud and his pace was steady. The only thing that was difficult to accept was that the smell on his body was still so "special" that it was impossible to get close to.

"Hey! Hey! My friend, just sit there and say it's fine, just hug or something!" I looked at Henry who was about to come and refused in pain.

However, this man did not regard such accustomed to things as a big problem. He walked over with great strides and gave me a hug!

I took a deep breath as he approached one meter, and let my lungs store enough oxygen, and then hugged Henry heavily!

We slapped each other's back hard to express our excitement. The only difference was that he was laughing, and I didn't dare to say a word.

This scene was a bit awkward, but fortunately, Henry was used to this situation. After hugging, he let go of his arm and returned to his seat with me.

Finally, my breathing returned to normal. It was really a happy thing to be able to breathe air in large mouthfuls.

"My friend! Do you feel good when you go home?" Henry asked with a laugh.

"Very good! My friend, but I am also very eager to return to the West and see you whom I have not seen for a long time!" I replied happily, crying at the scent of the scent in my nostrils.

"Really?" Henry asked with a strange expression: "I don't think you are good to me!"

"Puff!" I put out a mouthful of tea, quickly reached out and pulled off the square scarf on the table to wipe it, and asked in a somewhat embarrassed manner: "What do you mean?"

Henry said seriously: "People say that Elizabeth of England had the friendship of Sun Qilan, so he defeated Spain; William of the Netherlands had the friendship of Sun Qilan, so he rose to become the most powerful coachman on the sea. What about me? He first had the friendship of Sun Qilan, but he had nothing, and he was still a native chicken that was scattered in this pit!"

"Puff!" I couldn't help but spew out a second mouthful of tea: "The person who is the most powerful empire king on the European continent is described as a native chicken! What are the others? Groundhogs? Cockroach? Loach?"

Henry could no longer hold back his expression and laughed and shouted, "Anyway, it's not enough! I want you to help me, Qilan, I not only want to be the strongest country on land, but also have our tricolor flag flying on the sea!"

Looking at Henry's vigorous expression, a feeling that could be called "envious".

What is the most valuable thing for a person? It is the spirit of upwardness!

What is the happiest thing for a person? It is to fight for his dreams!

Looking at Henry, after I was envious, I developed another feeling called regret.

Yes, compared to Henry's ambition, I seem to have lost tomorrow, and I feel like I can just pass on everything, and I no longer have the spirit of rushing upwards.

Is it because the Ming Dynasty hit me too hard? It shouldn't be that I have experienced much more blows than this one.

Is it because I am not persevering enough? It seems that neither is it. I can continue to have strength for a matter for decades, such as for revenge in the previous life, and for this life to find seven divine stones.

Then why am I so depressed? In a trance, I was asking myself, why? Why are I so depressed?

"I want the three-color flag to penetrate every corner of the world, and let the glory of France shine on the whole world!" Henry had changed the tea to red wine at some point, holding the cup and laughing at me in a daze.

"Yes! Shine the whole world!" I also picked up the cup at hand, touched Henry hard, raised my head and drank the red wine.

Yes, I understand, what I am missing is a goal!

Yes! Target!

When I returned to the Ming Dynasty, I wanted to help the Ming Dynasty defeat the invasion of foreign enemies, help the Ming Dynasty build the most powerful navy in the world, and help the Ming Dynasty resist the invasion of the Jurchens outside the pass!

However, all of this has disappeared now and turned into dust of history. So I am confused, I am confused, I don’t know where the direction of the future is. This is the biggest problem I face!

Let the tricolor flags penetrate the whole world? No, this is not what I want, but Henry has such ambitions, so what if I help him?

Just treat it as I am looking for my own direction and give myself a short-term small goal.

"What are your plans? Henry." I put down my wine glass and looked back at Henry again, looking downstairs. Huamei and the others were having a happy conversation with Henry's concubines, and they were having a happy time.

"What you said is wrong. My friend, we should have any plans!" Henry replied, with an excited red light on his face.

"We?" I smiled: "Then I have to make a long-term plan."

Henry laughed twice: "I like your caution, Qi Lan." As he said that, he clapped his hands, and two waiters walked out of the curtain behind him, erecting a huge world navigation chart in front of us.

I looked at this nautical chart. Although there are still many places that are very vague and obviously have not been effectively explored, it is already a very detailed work under the current world view.

"So, what is your goal?" I asked, pointing to the navigation chart, turning my head to look at Henry.

"My goal?" Henry stood up, walked to the navigation chart, and gently stroked from the western end of Europe with his fingers, directly to the eastern end of the world!

"Of course my goal is to be bigger, the better, but it's obvious that I can't do it!" Henry looked at me and laughed.

"You are honest." I shook my head and smiled bitterly: "Not to mention anything else, the countries in France are not easy to mess with. From your perspective, from our perspective, how to break through the siege is the first priority. As for the other grand blueprints you mentioned, we can walk in steps, and there is no need to rush for a moment."

My words were like a huge hammer chiseled on Henry's heart. He couldn't help but feel a little depressed, lowered his arms, sighed, and sat back next to me.

"The foundation is so bad! Qi Lan, you know, Spain, Portugal, Britain, Netherlands and Italy have better foundations than us. France is indeed weak in the navy. I want to make the navy, but it is so difficult! It's so difficult!" When he said this, he was like a frost-beating eggplant, wilted and unspirited.

I gently shook my wine glass and looked at Henry and said slowly: "Ten years of army, a hundred years of navy. This navy is something that needs accumulation, so how can I come in a hurry?"

"What do you think you should do?" Henry slapped the table and asked me: "A hundred-year-old navy? My ashes should be melted, so I can wait there for so long?"

"If you want to be fast? Then find a target, or say, to be a master!" I took a sip of wine and said softly.

"You mean, learn the model of one of their countries?" Henry asked with a frown.

"Why can humans continue to improve? Because we can stand on the shoulders of our predecessors and continue to move forward. If the French Navy wants to rise, we must find a reference system. There is no need to open up a path ourselves, right?" I said seriously.

"But, we are the big countries on the European continent. Are we not as good as those small countries? Why can't we take a path of our own?" Henry was still indignant.

"Brother, there is an old saying in the East - Wendao has successive skills and specialties. The fields that each country is good at are different. We must admit our shortcomings and see the advantages of others, right?" I looked at Henry and tempted: "It's not too late to wait until we get out of our own experience on the road of our predecessors and slowly develop our own things, right?"

Henry sat silently in his seat, raised the bottle and filled himself with a large glass of wine, turned his head and filled it with me again: "You guy, you always make sense! Although I don't want to admit it, you are right!"

I smiled slightly, picked up the wine glass and took a sip, and said carefully: "In fact, there are only two or three countries that can really learn. Don't you know what you think?"

Henry held his wine glass and stood in the air, and he was in a state of loss of mind.

He was thinking. Thinking about my proposal.

Yes, there are many powerful European naval powers today, but there are only three countries that are truly worth learning from in France.

United Kingdom, Netherlands, Spain.

Spain's tactics dominated the sea for a hundred years, but were defeated by the British, so their tactical equipment is a relatively outdated type and can be ignored.

The Dutch followed the company model, just like the East India Company I established, they used this company shareholding model to promote it. In France, which is mainly agricultural and small handicraftsmen, and in France, where the commercial trust system is still imperfect, it is obviously unrealistic to follow the naval development model under this credit system.

So in fact, there is only one model left before the French - the British model.

"Do we really want to learn from those Saxon savages?" Henry muttered in dissatisfaction, picked up the wine glass and took another sip.

I couldn't help but smile: "As long as the other party is worse than me, no matter what he is, we will learn their advantages! There is another old saying in the East - accident disciples don't have to be inferior to teachers. When we truly learn their essence, then turn them over and become teachers?"

After hearing what I said, Henry squeezed the wine glass heavily, raised his head and took a big sip!

"You are right! Since we want to develop rapidly, we must let go of our dignity and face! You have the final say on how to learn it! When it comes to Qi Lan, you have nothing to do now, right? Why not stay and be my naval commander!" Henry suddenly had his eyes lit up and shouted happily.

"You look down on me!" I shook my head: "I still have my own affairs, or my wishes. But I won't go too far in a short period of time. I can help you build the prototype of a new navy. When your navy has its own skeleton, it's not too late for me to go out!"

"A word is certain!" Henry raised his glass to me!
Chapter completed!