After confirmation, the news of the reorganization of the East India Company reached Fort Kolkata.

Qin Zuoming is still the supreme commander of the East India Expeditionary Force, and Chen Bangyan will be transferred from the Nanyang Fleet to serve as the commander of the upcoming East India Company's armed merchant fleet.

"The above action is really fast. The reorganization plan is coming out so quickly. According to this plan, it is estimated that Qasim, who has just become the King of Bangladesh, will be uncomfortable." Qin Zuo knew that the military headquarters would send 700 regular soldiers to his command next, and planned to expand 2,500 Tumen mercenaries to 10,000. He couldn't help but feel sad for Qasim who had finally ascended the throne.

In front of the East India Company, which is efficient and backed by force, Qasim can only cede the power and wealth in his hands little by little until he can't bear it anymore.

"Are you going to start recruiting new mercenaries?" Chen Bangyan asked.

"It's not necessary to be so fast. The throne of Qasim has not yet sat on the hot side. We have just defeated the Mughal army. If we suddenly increase the number of mercenaries to 10,000 now, Qasim will probably be anxious and even turn against us. We will temporarily maintain the scale of 2,500 people, and then increase the number of people month by month. By the time they find out, it's too late." Qin Zuoming said.

After the East India Company was determined to carry out larger trade and expansion in the South Asian subcontinent, the reorganization operation was carried out quickly. Several strongholds in Kolkata, Bangladesh, Madras and Goa made personnel adjustments, and each stronghold had a commercial manager, a customs manager and a supervisor.

Then, business stations, customs and factories were established in various strongholds.

Currently, the expansion focus of the East India Company is in the large population of Bangladesh, which has a large amount of farmland and jute land.

The Bangladesh Coal Industry Company, a subsidiary of the East India Company, was established, and mineral experts brought apprentices and workers to Bangladesh to explore minerals. There are fewer precious metal mines here, but there are still many coal mines in Bangladesh and other nearby Tumen.

According to the Kolkata Treaty signed by the East India Company and the King of Bangladesh, the East India Company has the right to operate a wide range of businesses in Bangladesh, even the coal mining industry is no exception.

The purpose of setting up a coal company in Bangladesh is to have its own coal mining yard, provide coal for the factory's steam engines and upcoming steamships, and even export them to the local area in the future, and the amount of coal needed by the local area is increasing day by day.

More villagers and refugees were attracted to the vicinity of Kolkata, forming villages of all sizes, and this place began to become a new economic center.

In order to control the Indian coast, Jiangnan Shipyard and Guangdong Shipyard are working overtime to produce armed sailing ships for the East India Company. This type of armed merchant ship can transport cargo and shell the nearby pirate ships at the same time. Although it is far inferior to real warships, this kind of sailing armed merchant ship is not at all inferior to pirate ships in the Indian Ocean, Arab merchant ships and even Western armed merchant ships are not at all.

At the same time, a 1,200-ton iron armored patrol ship and four mosquito iron armored ships produced by the Dalian Shipyard were sent to Nanyang and joined the organization of the Nanyang Fleet.

In Malacca City, the main fleet members of the Nanyang Fleet gathered at this important stronghold that guarded the Strait of Malacca to welcome new members of their fleet.

"Is this an iron armored ship? What an iron lump!" Deng Qianlong took the school officer and lieutenant of the Nanyang Fleet to board a 1,200-ton iron armored patrol ship.

Currently, the Navy divides ironclad ships into four levels, calling more than 8,000 tons of ironclad ships, more than 2,000 tons of ironclad ships but less than 8,000 tons of ironclad ships, while smaller ironclad ships below 2,000 tons of ironclad ships are called ironclad patrol ships. As the name suggests, third-class ships are small ironclad ships used to perform patrol and defense tasks in various important ports. A shallow water mosquito ship is only able to navigate along the coastline or inland rivers, but the advantage is that they can sail to shallower waters.

"The hull is very different from the sail battleship we use, and the hull is narrower and longer. What is the structural principle of such a ship?"

"I don't know, this is a completely problem that shipyards need to consider. We just need to learn to use it. Looking at this ship, although there are not many artillery guns, it seems that naval guns are heavier than those used on ordinary sailing ships and are extremely powerful."

"This is a 68-pound cannon and a 40-pound cannon. It's really exaggerating. The artillery we usually use is only 12-pound or 24-pound, which is incomparable to such cannons. There is also the iron plate of the hull, and no native ships can penetrate such iron armor."

The officers and soldiers of the Nanyang Fleet praised them when they seized the armored patrol ships. Most of the officers and soldiers even believed that using the armored patrol ships was a waste of talent to deal with the indigenous people. Indigenous sampans, not to mention the hull of the ironclad ships, even ordinary armed merchant ships could not penetrate even with the small indigenous firearms.

"Although the first ironclad ship was given to the Fourth Fleet, our Nanyang Fleet also had ironclad ships!" Deng Qianlong patted the 68-pound cannon on the bow and was full of expectations for the future.

The only 1,200-ton iron armored patrol ship is shocking, so how terrible is the first generation of main iron armored ship being developed?

"Sir, we must find a way to win the main ironclad ship of the Daqin class. We must also share one of the two ships with our Nanyang Fleet, right?" The officers and soldiers of the Nanyang Fleet were fed with the taste of the evil spiritclad ships, and they were inevitably fond of the ironclad ships under development.

"First of all, you must learn to use steamboats. This thing is not cheap. Please be careful when you serve me. If you hit the reef in just a few days after handing it to us, I will not spare you!" Deng Qianlong said.

"Yes!" Many officers from the Nanyang Fleet responded in unison.

The Navy Department considered that the naval soldiers serving in Nanyang did not have the experience of operating steamships, so it arranged for trainees in the Navy's Martial Arts Hall to come here for a special trip. They were also responsible for teaching the officers and soldiers of the Nanyang Fleet how to use this new type of ship.

After a month of study, the officers and soldiers of the Nanyang Fleet barely learned how to operate the steamship. Deng Qianlong then deployed two mosquito ships near the oil fields on Sumatra to protect the oil fields from being damaged by indigenous people. The other two mosquito ships were deployed in Borneo to protect the oil fields. The armored patrols patrol between various important strongholds.

When indigenous fishermen, indigenous merchant ships, and foreign merchant ships discovered that iron ships were emitting black smoke on important waterways in the South Ocean, they had never seen steamers and even couldn't help but hide from unknown monsters.

However, some European merchants began to focus on the increasingly popular steamships, and they recorded a large number of descriptions of such strange ships in their navigation logs.
Chapter completed!