While contacting Mysore, Ding Guofeng selected an officer with the best eloquence and a relatively calm personality from the Mysore soldiers who were undergoing training to serve as the envoy, and gathered fifty followers and honor guards for him. He bought a bunch of gifts and went to the Maratha Kingdom of Thanjavur to win over the new Sultan.
The guy who served as the messenger was called Madhu Sultan Raju, who came from the famous Kshatriya family in Mysore. Despite his poor training, he learned Mandarin very well. This guy was very excited when he learned about his mission, and he patted his chest to express that he would complete the mission. Ding Guofeng did not dare to be careless. The unreliability and mysterious self-confidence of the Indians in another time and space really impressed him, so he arranged for several officers and soldiers from the special operations battalion who knew Tamil to accompany them.
It’s not far from Pazayarai to Tanjore, the capital of Thanjavur. Go 60 kilometers south by sea, then change to a river boat and walk 70 kilometers west from the entrance of Kolidam River. Then go 15 kilometers by land. The whole journey only takes three days.
Because of the close distance between the two places, Thanjavur knew more than half a year ago that a group of Orientals had come to the south of the local governance, but because the other party's territory was too small, they didn't take it seriously at all.
Later, Beihai Town and Mysore launched military cooperation, and Amar Singh was extremely dissatisfied when he heard about it. You must know that during the second Anglo-Mysore War nine years ago, the Mysore army invaded Thanjavur for half a year and plundered the population; Tipu Sultan even kidnapped Thanjavur from Thanjavur. Twenty thousand children are gone, almost a generation is missing. The tension between the two sides is growing.
Fortunately, Ding Guofeng had prepared many gifts for the trip, including Indians' favorite silk fabrics and porcelain, and he also said that he would purchase 50,000 pounds of sesame seeds locally. Amar Singh was a little surprised after hearing the news, so he changed his mind and decided to meet him in person.
As Zhao Xin said, Amar Singh, who had just succeeded in usurping the throne, was not having an easy life, especially since he was already in a deep financial quagmire.
Since 1775, Thanjavur has become a vassal of the British East India Company. At the same time, it has formed an alliance with the Carnatic Sultanate of Hyderabad. It is under its military protection and has to pay huge protection fees every year. In the previous war against Mysore, they suffered double extortion from the British and the Carnatic Sultanate. They sent troops and money, and they were really overwhelmed.
But the problem is that the only crops Thanjavur can get are rice, sesame, beans and other crops. Apart from occasionally supplying food to the British army in Madras, there is no foreign trade. Now those Orientals actually want to purchase 50,000 pounds of sesame seeds, which makes the local landowners and businessmen extremely happy.
During the subsequent interview, Amar Singh seemed quite surprised when he learned from Madhu about the North Navy's record in dealing with the Dutch in Java. He still knew the Dutch, who had always been entrenched on the island of Ceylon across the sea. Although they were not as powerful as the British now, they were still the overlords of the sea.
Madhu later proposed a condition on behalf of Beihai Town that Amar Singh was very excited about. That is, Beihai Town was willing to purchase no less than 200,000 pounds of long-staple cotton from Thanjavur every year and ensure that the other party's throne was stable. and national independence; and the price is that no matter what happens to the British in the future, Thanjavur will not be able to send troops.
Amar Singh is certainly happy to see this happen. Although he does not produce cotton here, is that a problem? The Deccan Plateau is the best land for cotton cultivation, and you can harvest it within three months of planting.
The fact that he was unhappy with the Lutheran Church for sheltering his nephew in Madras meant that the British could always find an excuse for him to oust the Sultan from the throne.
On September 23, the artillery support from Madras was in place. The British built two more forts in the northeast corner of the city in advance and bombarded the French day and night. In the southeast direction of local governance, the two regiments originally responsible for the feint attack also increased their siege efforts.
On September 27, the French finally could no longer resist. The 24-pound guns and 12 12-pound guns all fell silent. The only ones still fighting back were the six 12-pound guns operated by the Northern Navy artillery, but the shells were also firing quickly. Empty.
Seeing that reinforcements from the Northern Navy had not yet arrived, the French commander Colonel Clement knew that he could not count on them, so he proposed to the British army a 24-hour ceasefire to negotiate surrender terms. The British commander, Colonel Braithwaite, only allowed until eight o'clock the next morning. During this period, the earthwork construction outside the city would continue. The isolated Clement had to accept the conditions.
After learning that they were about to surrender, the French troops in the city lost their fighting spirit. They immediately opened the wine cellar and got drunk. While these people were sleeping soundly at night, thirty artillerymen from the Northern Navy first gathered the remaining "shrapnel", then filled the barrels of 16 12-pound cannons with explosives and ignited them. After a long fuse, they climbed down from the southwest city wall and retreated to Pazayarai with the support of the special operations battalion outside the city.
Two minutes after the Northern Navy artillery left, a rumbling explosion sounded on the wall of the local government, startling both Britain and France inside and outside the city. When he learned that all 16 12-pound guns had been blown up and all the Northern Navy personnel had disappeared, Colonel Clement cursed angrily.
At dawn the next day, the British army, who had been on tenterhooks all night, realized what had happened in the city. Braithwaite was also shocked by the Northern Navy's actions of adding insult to injury, but he still ordered the army to immediately enter local governance and take over the city. However, when the British troops entered the city, they discovered to their amazement that the French garrison was so drunk that they could not even participate in the surrender ceremony.
The British army suffered 988 killed and 631 injured during this siege. The losses were very serious, equivalent to two regiments being disabled; the French suffered only more than 40 casualties. Afterwards, the British captured 600 drunken French soldiers and more than a thousand indigenous soldiers in the city, as well as guns of different calibers and a large amount of ammunition.
Later, the British took the order written by Colonel Clement and sent people to notify the French colonies of Kaleka, Yanam, Mahé and Jinder Nagar to surrender.
On October 3, Cornwallis, who was in Madras supervising the war, finally breathed a sigh of relief after hearing the news, thinking that everything was fine and he could finally sleep peacefully. Unexpectedly, that night, Ding Guofeng, who had been preparing for a long time, sent a message to the Guo Xuexian fleet cruising in northeastern Ceylon, ordering them to launch an attack on the British fleet anchored in the local governance port at 3:15 in the morning.
At the same time, the special operations battalion he brought from Bacheng was also dispatched. Under the surveillance of drones, they first cleared away the British sentries outside the city and on the city walls one by one, and then entered the local governor's palace and trapped Colonel Braithwaite, who was sleeping soundly, in a urn.
At the same time, the three thousand servants who had just disembarked two hours ago entered the attack position one by one along the path that the special operations battalion had scouted and planned, followed closely by hundreds of 12-pound guns and dozens of 80mm caliber mortar.
At 3:15 in the morning, when it was darkest, with a roar on the sea in the distance, a bright fire broke out in the locally managed port. Immediately afterwards, the artillery of the Northern Navy outside the city also launched an attack. .
It was too late. The awakened British troops fled like headless flies in the artillery fire. The first to collapse were the indigenous mercenaries, followed by the Scottish soldiers wearing tweed plaid skirts. The British troops in the city tried to organize a counterattack, but they could not find their commander!
Everything was in chaos. The British army, which had always lined up to fight in an upright manner, had never fought such a battle. Who the hell is this? It's so shameless!
By 6 a.m., local governance had been taken back by the North Korean navy. One of the British naval blockade fleets in the port was bombed and sunk, and the rest surrendered.
The more than 2,000 servants responsible for the pursuit pursued them fifteen kilometers north of the local government, and fought a hastily assembled British army the next day.
The servant army, which had already fought against the Dutch, stepped up its efforts to build a ring of fortifications while the British army was busy lining up. When the British army began to attack, dozens of mortars smashed into them. During this period, although the British army sent a large number of cavalry to surround them from the flanks, under the cover of more than a dozen machine guns from the special operations battalion, blood flowed from those killed. In the two-hour battle, the British troops were killed and wounded more than 2,000 people. In addition, more than 2,000 indigenous soldiers were frightened and simply surrendered with white flags.
When the local Frenchman who governed the city walked out of his house in shock, he was surprised to find that what was flying on the castle was actually a white-backed gold iris flag representing the French Bourbon dynasty.
Oh mon dieu! who I am? where am I?
Not to mention the French in the city, the British spies outside the city were stunned after seeing it.
As for Colonel Braithwaite, who was captured by the special operations battalion, he was taken to the living room of the Government House after dawn, where a middle-aged French nobleman wearing a silver wig and gorgeous clothes was waiting for him.
"I'm sorry, but it was my order to attack local governance."
"You? Who are you?"
The other party introduced himself and said that he was the former Governor-General Leclerc. This time he was ordered by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Louis, with the assistance of the Northern Navy, to recover the occupied local governance and restore the legitimate rule of the Bourbon Dynasty.
"Currently, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Princess Charlotte, and Lady Elizabeth are all recuperating in Beihai Town. He has authorized me to manage all affairs in French India."
Braithwaite's chin almost hit the table, and his mind felt like ten thousand mythical beasts rushing past. In the end, he concluded that his "far trip" mission was a big joke.
A few days later, Colonel Braithwaite was sent back to Madras by a small boat in despair, carrying an autographed letter with the ring seal of Louis XVI. At this time, Cornwallis already knew that the British army was defeated, and the duck was flying. However, when he saw the content and seal on the letter, he stood stunned for a moment, and then suddenly realized it.
"It turns out that what happened in Paris was done by them! This was a conspiracy that had been planned for a long time! They came to India and Europe and refused to reach a friendly agreement with us. It was a conspiracy from beginning to end!"
Cornwallis roared, and his voice shook the Governor's Mansion. Everyone who heard it was stunned. What happened to the always kind-hearted Governor?
Well, Beihai Town’s sneak attack on the Temple Tower has since become known to the world. When the news reached Europe half a year later, the royal families of various countries were shocked. The Duke of Anjou and the royalists, who were in exile in Brussels and had been regarded as the heir, were even more delighted.
It was Robespierre who had the power and was almost furious, but what came to his mind was not Deng Fei, who spoke fluent French, but the tall staff officer who had talked with him. Officer, he concluded that this person was the mastermind. It's just that he couldn't jump around for a few days at that time, and the bloody guillotine was already waving to him.
On October 11, Tipu Sultan, who had completed the army assembly in Bangalore, personally led 20,000 troops to dispatch. The target of the attack was the Salem area in the east that had just been ceded to the British. This move was intended to open up supplies for Mysore and local governance. Transport routes. Without the material assistance from Beihai Town, he would not be able to win this war anyway.
At this time, the British had only taken over the Salem area for more than a year, and their rule was not stable. Moreover, the person in charge of the area was only a captain, and the number of troops was seriously insufficient.
So when the troops of the "Tiger of Mysore" entered the Salem area and arrived at their first stop, Krishnagiri, the local people immediately announced their defection and expressed their allegiance to them.
Although both the Bombay Governor's Palace and the anxious Governor's Palace in Madras were paying attention to the movements of the Mysore army, they were unable to fight alone. While Cornwallis mobilized troops from Bengal, he could only wait for Maratha in the north and Hyderabad in the east to send troops quickly. But the problem is that it takes time to assemble the troops, and now it's too late anyway.
When things have reached this point, Beihai Town has completely turned against the British, and there is no need to worry about anything anymore. On October 15, Ding Guofeng ordered a regiment of servants to attack Nagapattinam in the south, which was controlled by the British, and asked Guo Xuexian to lead a fleet to provide artillery support from the sea. The defenders in the castle were unable to fight back against the Northern Navy's naval guns. In just half a day, the northeast corner and north wall of the castle were severely damaged, with several holes blown out.
Seeing that they could no longer guard the castle, the defenders went out of the city for a sneak attack on the night of October 18, and suffered heavy losses. The officers who retreated held a military meeting and felt that the battle could no longer be fought, so the white flag was raised the next day. The Northern Navy then took over the city and within a few days expelled all the British, sending them all back to Madras.
During this process, despite the order from the British in Madras, Amar Singh of Thanjavur was very loud and sent more than 3,000 people five kilometers away from Pazayarai. After a round trip, we went back.
Faced with the questioning from the people from Madras, the general who had been instructed by Amar Singh to lead the army made a convincing statement, "You can't even defeat ten thousand people, and our thousands of people are not enough to put a gap in people's teeth!" The British man was so angry that he jumped to his feet, but there was nothing he could do.
Time flies into December, and Hyderabad and Maratha are still gathering troops. At this time, insufficient military expenditure has become the biggest problem facing the British East India Company. In Cornwallis's view, if he wanted to start a war with Beihai Town and Mysore at the same time, he would have to assemble a huge force of no less than 50,000 people. But the military expenditures corresponding to such a large number of indigenous troops would also be astronomical.
In fact, the issue of military expenditure has troubled the British East India Company from beginning to end. As the scale of the war expanded, the cost of military pay and weapons and equipment procurement became increasingly high. In recent years, the company's army has required tens of millions of pounds every year to maintain expenses, but neither the British government nor the British East India Company has spent a large amount of military expenditures.
Furthermore, the financial problems within the army were exacerbated by the corruption of the British East India Company for many years. Corruption of employees at all levels has embezzled a large amount of wealth, resulting in long-term unresolved debt problems. The salaries of their troops have also been affected, and mutiny is inevitable.
Let's just say that during the "Battle of Buxar", the company's indigenous mercenaries in the Patna area had a desire to rebel because their military pay was in arrears. Although the rebellion was suppressed, several of the leading indigenous mercenaries were tied to the muzzles of cannons and bombed to death. This also started the first mutiny in the history of the company's army.
Whether they are European officers and soldiers who want good treatment, or indigenous Indian mercenaries who are struggling to survive, the desire for war is essentially a reflection of economic demands. Under the trend of interests, these officers and soldiers will also abandon the sense of discipline and honor possessed by regular soldiers; if their remuneration requirements cannot be met, they will respond to their leaders in an extremely brutal manner. Against this backdrop, military spending will only increase year by year.
As a result, the unlucky vassal states had to pay huge "military subsidies" again. Speaking of which, this thing was invented by the French, but it was promoted by the British.
The essence of military subsidies is actually protection fees. By using military superiority as a political bargaining chip, the Indian princes were forced to sign an unequal treaty, handing over diplomatic and military power, and at the same time providing corresponding material and financial resources to support the company's indigenous mercenary troops.
Taking the most unlucky Awadh region as an example, they have to pay 7.5 million rupees in protection fees to the company every year. Even when it couldn't afford to pay, the company actually sent troops to detain the old Nawab's princess to demand the return of the debt.
In order to win the battle against Beihai Town, Cornwallis bit the bullet and embezzled one million pounds that the company had used for trade expenditures. At the same time, he increased the amount of military subsidies by 50%. The princes of the vassal princes in the Deccan region suddenly cried out. .
(End of chapter)
