Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 588 East India Company
When they met for the first time, Deng Fei presented two beautifully crafted revolvers to Tipu Sultan on behalf of Beihai Town, with matching flash caps and fixed ammunition in paper tubes, as well as ten bolts of python satin woven by Jiangning of the Qing court. and a sable cloak.

After the signing ceremony was over, Deng Fei sent out the 12-pound gun and [-] percussion rifles used for demonstration. Tipu Sultan ordered the waiter to fetch his saber and gave it to the Deng Fei as a gift in return.

Although Deng Fei is not good at swords, when he pulled out a part of the blade, he immediately knew that it was definitely a good sword!

This knife is not in the shape of the Indian Tava scimitar, but a kili long knife with a strong Turkish style.The body of the knife is a bow-shaped narrow blade, one meter long, thick and heavy, and it is made of Damascus pattern steel.The golden handle and gorgeous scabbard are inlaid with gemstones of various colors, and a tiger is engraved on the blade near the handle, which is the mark representing the "Tiger of Mysore".

According to Tipu Sultan himself, this knife came from Ottoman Turkey and has been worn for many years. In the previous battle with the British, he used this knife to kill several British people.

By the way, in another time and space, Tipu Sultan's knife was seized by the British after his death in battle; in the 21st century, the auction price of this knife in the antique market was 21 billion rupees—equivalent to 1.8 million.

Before Deng Fei could express his thanks to Tipu Sultan, the Sultan's prime minister, Purnaya, raised his hand and slapped him twice, and then saw twenty strong male servants carrying several seemingly heavy boxes into the palace.Behind these people, there are twenty women with veils on their faces and wearing light cotton sari, each of them has a graceful figure, especially the deep eyes that are revealed are extremely moving.

Are you going to sing?Deng Fei couldn't help but think of the later Bollywood singing and dancing scenes in his mind
Unexpectedly, just as he took a sip of coffee and was about to start admiring it, Tipu Sultan asked someone to open the box. Everyone present, except Deng Fei, stopped breathing for an instant, and were all fascinated by the golden light in the box. Shut up.

Tipu Sultan saw that Deng Fei was calm and unmoved, and couldn't help admiring that Deng Fei was not an ordinary person!But he didn't know that this little gold handicraft was really nothing in Deng Fei's eyes. He had seen gold bricks that were a hundred times more than this.

"These, including forty servants, are my presents to the King of the North Sea."

cough cough!Deng Fei had seen the big world anyway, but it was the first time he had encountered someone as a gift, and he instinctively wanted to refuse.

"Your Majesty the Sultan, this"

The envious Major Duroy saw Deng Fei's hesitation, and hurriedly told him in a low voice that the gift from the Sudan could not be refused, otherwise it would be considered an insult.

Well, look at the trouble, you can't do it if you don't want it.He decided to place these people on the piece of land he just bought after he went back. As for Zhao Xin, forget it, the waist is more important!

After handing over the gifts and forty living people, Deng Fei asked Tipu Sultan to have a look at the Mysore army.He explained that he wanted to rush back to the local government as soon as possible, so that he could notify Beihai Town to ship the supplies needed by the general, and he also hoped to make a preliminary training plan before leaving.

Tipu Sultan immediately agreed and asked his ministers to immediately issue a summoning order to recruit 2000 people to the military camp outside the city to stand by according to the agreement between the two parties.

Today, the Kingdom of Mysore has only 10 square kilometers of territory left, which is the size of Zhejiang Province in later generations.With such a corner of the land, it is impossible to support a large standing army.Except for the [-] Sudanese Guards, most of them are civilians in peacetime and soldiers in wartime.The problem is that the Kingdom of Mysore is surrounded by enemies on all sides. If there is no Beihai Town, Tipu Sultan will be useless no matter how hard he is.Some people in later generations always thought that the Indians adopted a "lay down policy" against the British as soon as they came up. In fact, the truth is that all those who dared to resist were killed.
The appeal of the "Tiger of Mysore" is huge!On the second day after the summoning order was issued, the [-] soldiers who came on horseback from the surrounding villages and towns were all assembled. They all wore chain mail, held machetes and spears, and looked murderous.

However, when Deng Fei, Major Duroy, and several officers of the Beihai Special War Battalion were accompanied by the Sudanese Prime Minister and the Cavalry Commander, they realized that they had been busy for a long time and had neglected a very important issue, language communication. !
You must know that these Mysore soldiers are all Hindus and can only speak Hindi, so even if the officers of the special warfare battalion understand French, they must pass a password through a translator who is proficient in French and Hindi.

In the past, the French military instructors had to be accompanied by an interpreter during training, but the problem is that the officers of the special warfare battalion still don't know shit about French. Do they have to find another Chinese who understands French?Where can I find this? !

The language barrier cannot be bypassed no matter what.Deng Fei held a small meeting with Erlu and other military officers on the spot. Everyone agreed that if the Mysore army needs to be completely reborn, with thousands of people fighting against the encirclement of the British, it must win. The internal affairs must be completely copied from the Beihai Navy and copied as a whole.This also means that these soldiers must master Mandarin!

Deng Fei is deeply convinced of this, which is the same as the "African Liberation Army" in another time and space.He immediately proposed to the accompanying sultan's men that he should first bring [-] Mysore soldiers back to Beihai Town's territory in Paza Yalai, and learn the language while training.After these people have mastered a certain level of Chinese and can understand the training passwords, let them come back and teach them to more people.

300 people were not many, so Tipu Sultan agreed after thinking about it.However, he put forward a condition, that is, to let his eldest son, Prince Shezada Hyde Ali, also go to see the place and learn the Chinese language by the way.

Tipu Sultan has a lot of wives and concubines, and naturally has many children. Currently, there are 11 of them.But apart from the 21-year-old Prince Ali, the other oldest is only 10 years old.

Now that they have brought a group of people, one more prince is nothing.But when Deng Fei set off two days later, he found out that Prince Ali had dozens of men and women in his entourage alone, and he brought a lot of food and clothing with him. Besides, he also had a hundred guards.

On the way back, Deng Fei asked Jiao Xun to communicate with Prince Ali and teach him some simple Chinese dialogues.The poor Jiao Dacai even made gestures and guesses, and with Deng Fei's occasional help in French, he started the difficult teaching task.
August 1792, 8 was a rare good weather, and the continuous heavy rain finally stopped.Earl Cornwallis, Governor of the British East India Company, who was playing with his two pet dogs in the garden of the Governor’s Mansion in Calcutta, received an urgent letter from the Governor’s Mansion in Madras. When he opened it, he was surprised by the contents. !
Charles Cornwallis, this person is remembered in history mainly because he served as the deputy commander-in-chief of the British army in the American Revolutionary War, and after the "Siege of Yorktown", he led the remnants of the British army to surrender and became a Highest ranking British prisoner of war in the American Revolutionary War.It has been the sixth year since he became the Governor of India.

Although the headquarters of the British East India Company in India is currently located in Calcutta, West Bengal, more than 150 years ago, they purchased a narrow strip in Madras in southeastern India and built Fort St. This is a stronghold for trade and colonial activities, extending its tentacles to the Bengal area.

Since the seventeenth century, the British East India Company has established three governorships in India, namely Bombay in the west, Madras in the east, and Calcutta in Bengal.Since the passage of the "EIC Act" in 1784, the Governor of Bengal has become the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the British Royal Army in India, and the Governors of Madras and Bombay have become subordinates of the Governor of Bengal.

Madras is located in the northeast of the local government. The land distance between the two places is less than 1785 kilometers, and it is even more convenient to travel by boat.Since the "Treaty of Paris" in [-], as Britain and France entered into a state of peace, the business exchanges between the two sides have also become normalized; therefore, if there is any unexpected situation on the local governance side, Madras will know it within a week.

From the day when Deng Fei and the others arrived in the local administration, every move of the Beihai Town mission was followed by spies placed by the British in the local administration.No way, who made Thor so conspicuous?Moreover, because of the panic caused by the French Revolution, royalists among the French also had private contacts with the British.

In this way, after only one month, Madras figured out the content of the cooperation between Beihai Town and the French, so they immediately reported to Calcutta.

Two days before Governor Cornwallis received the report from Madras, he had just received news from Bihar in the north that Bashadur, the regent of Gurkha, had sent an envoy, and the other party requested The East India Company sent military aid to fend off the Qing army that invaded the country.

So when the Beihai Town fleet arrived for local governance and signed a package agreement with the French, Cornwallis' first reaction was that this was too coincidental, right?In the north, the Qing Empire attacked Gurkha, and in the south, the Beihai Town Fleet visited French India. It was indeed a posture of attacking the British from the north and the south.

So he hurriedly found Major William Kirkpatrick, who had previously participated in military cooperation with the Qing Empire, visited Guangzhou, Xiamen, and Dagukou, and had acquaintance with Beihai Town.

Cornwallis teased the two Great Danes casually. After the secretary finished explaining the situation to his subordinates, he asked, "Major, what do you think about this matter?"

William Kirkpatrick thought for a while and said, "I think it's just a coincidence."

"No reason?"

"The Gurkhas invaded the Qing Empire two years ago, and they invaded again last year, so the Qing Empire may have been prepared for this war. As for the Sires in Beihai Town. Your Excellency, they just took the Dutch Driving away from Batavia and impatiently joining India will pose a huge challenge to us."

Cornwallis paced back and forth in the garden with his hands behind his back, pondered for a long time before saying, "Major Kirkpatrick, I have decided to appoint you as the special envoy of the East India Company to lead a team of twenty officers and one hundred soldiers. On behalf of me, I will go to Patna to meet with the envoys of the Shah Kingdom, who will be responsible for mediating the war between the Qing Empire and them.”

"Thank you very much for your trust, Your Excellency the Governor!" William Kirkpatrick stood at attention and saluted, and then asked, "How do you respond to the military assistance proposed by the other party?"

"Only mediate, we will not send troops! Offending the huge Qing Empire will not do the company any good at the moment, and the trade in Guangzhou is more important to us!" Cornwallis said to the secretary, "Draft a letter to Hobart. The Baron’s letter, let him personally send an invitation letter to the Siris, and at the same time, be sure to find out the content of the talks between the Siris and Tipu Sultan in Mysore.”

The Baron of Hobart mentioned by Cornwallis was the new Governor of Madras, and his invitation was a great honor to Beihai Town.

Cornwallis was still very afraid of the sudden appearance of Beihai Town.During the Battle of Changxing Island that year, Major General John Jervis, who passed by Calcutta on his return home, gave him a careful report.Cornwallis was horrified to realize that the sail fleet and advanced carron guns he was so proud of turned out to be like paper in front of the North Navy.Such a powerful force suddenly appeared in India. If it reached an alliance with Mysore, it would pose a serious threat to the colonial hegemony of the East India Company.

For the Kingdom of Mysore, which resolutely resisted the British, the British had to get rid of it and then quickly.As long as Mysore is eliminated, the Governor-General of Mumbai and the Governor-General of Madras can be connected as one, running through the South Asian subcontinent. The only thing we need right now is an excuse to start a war
It was too late for Cornwallis to send someone to intervene in the Clearance War, and he didn't know that he was about to have an extra neighbor.After a "Battle of Dongjue" for eight consecutive days and nights, the front of the Qing army had already pushed into the Yangbu River Valley.

It is said that Fukang'an ordered the troops to continue to attack south after capturing the Resuo Bridge, but the terrain at the southern foot of the Himalayas was harsh, and all the places they passed were narrow mountain paths and clusters of rocks.The Qing army walked along the river, even at night, they slept on the narrow river bank and under the rocks.Fortunately, after walking for 200 or [-] miles, I didn't meet the enemy. It wasn't until I arrived at Xiebulu, which was more than [-] miles away from the Resuo Bridge, that I found a large blockhouse of the Kou army on the other side.

However, the terrain here is similar to that of the Resuo Bridge. It is also separated by a big river, and because of the heavy rain for days, the flash floods broke out and the torrents rushed. give up.

Fukang'an had no choice but to repeat the old trick.Let Helin take the firearms battalion to bombard the hillside across the river with 12-pound guns to attract the attention of the Kuo army; after the Kuo army returned to the camp to rest at night, they sent Taifei Ying'a and others to lead his men who dared to die Swim across the river with a big log in hand.After that, the soldiers split up, either attacking along the mountain, or sneaking around behind, or occupying the side ridge and attacking.At dawn on July 7, all the troops from all walks of life entered the attacking position, and Fukang'an immediately ordered a joint attack, and Xiebru was taken down.

On July 7, the Qing army arrived at Dongjue, where the Kuo army was most heavily defended.Since going south, although the places where the Qing army has passed are all dangerous, as long as there is a place defended by the Kuo army, there will be a slope on their side, and they can always deploy one or two cannons.But Dongjue is completely useless here.

The terrain here is extremely dangerous. Two mountains and rivers face each other, and the walls stand thousands of feet. Standing on the top of the mountain and looking down, the "Henghe" is like a line.On the other side, the Kuo army built a large number of fortifications according to the danger. The camp was on the top of the mountain.

On July 7, Fukang'an made the following deployment: Helin led the firearms troops to bombard the front mountain with cannons day and night; He pulled several mountain peaks to destroy the Kuo army stronghold behind Dongjue; he himself led more than a dozen generals including Erdengbao, Anlu, Zhang Zhiyuan, Delentai, Kejieer, Wushao, Dingxiding and 21 soldiers. Many soldiers, after two days' detour from the upper reaches of the Kadopudu River, launched an attack from the top of the mountain on July 2000.

Because of the narrow terrain, the Qing army and the Kuo army were mixed together, and the muskets had no time to fire, and they all fought hand-to-hand with bows, arrows, knives and guns.In the mountain of corpses and sea of ​​blood, countless people from both sides rolled off the cliff.Yang Yuchun from the Green Camp in Sichuan showed great power this time, using a 140-pound heavy bow to shoot and kill dozens of people one after another.

Dongjue's Kuo army was killed by the Qing army, and the casualties were heavy. The Qing army of the three routes chased Yong Ya all the way, and then stopped.Fukang'an couldn't stop if he didn't want to. After eight consecutive days and nights of fighting, the tsampa used as military rations had been eaten up.Nearly [-] Qing troops climbed the mountain, and most of the soldiers' clothes, shoes and socks have been worn out, and now they are all barefoot, like beggars.Without shoes, the leeches and snakes in the forest also made the Qing army miserable.

In addition, the climate at the southern foot of the Himalayas is changeable. Every day at noon, it rains cats and dogs, and it turns into heavy snow at night. Most soldiers suffer from frostbite, and many people get sick.

It wasn't until this time that He Lin discovered the magical effect of the refreshing oil and wind oil essence provided by Beihai Town. These things have miraculous effects on snakes, insects and leeches, and are very effective in reducing swelling and pain.After Fukang'an learned about it, he immediately sent an order to transport all the supplies given by Beihai Town.

As for Gurkha, Bashadur, the regent, had left Yangbu and fled to the border area of ​​India and Kuo.Uncle Wang Badul Saye, who stayed in the capital, changed his previous arrogant attitude, released the detained lamas and the Qing army, and asked them to go back and explain to Fukang'an, and obtained an understanding, so that the Qing army stopped advancing.

But it's too late!On June 57th of the 1792th year of Qianlong, that is, on August 8, 23, after receiving the memorial of the "Battle of Resuo Bridge", Qianlong not only awarded rewards, but also promoted the meritorious generals.
". It is always the best policy to wipe out the Gurkhas and not leave the leader alone, thinking that it will be done once and for all. This time, we must go straight to the bandits to make a hole, let alone leave the Gurkha leader alone. Pound the Yangbu thief's nest."

　In 1784, the British Parliament passed the "East India Company Act" - the EIC Act, whereby the British government completely controlled the affairs of the East India Company and its management rights in India. For "British possessions in India".Calcutta thus became the capital of the British possessions in India.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)