The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 447: Visitors from India
Two fifth-class sailing cruisers with half sails raised escorted a merchant ship of the Odestans Company flying the double eagle flag of the Habsburg family from Humen into the Huangpu Waterway.

However, the Austrians on the ship were just a cover. The real important person was a middle-aged man wearing an Indian Muslim-style green turban and a green robe.

This person was Sayyid Sahib, a trusted general and important civil official of Hyder Ali, the Chief Minister of the Kingdom of Mysore.

The Kingdom of Mysore was more commonly known as the Kingdom of Wadiya at this time, because this kingdom located in southern India, with the city of Mysore as its center, had been ruled by the Wadiya family since the early fifteenth century.

It was originally a Hindu country and the monarch was called Maharaja, but twenty-nine years ago in 1760, the power of the Wadiya family was seized by foreign Muslims.

Chief Minister Haider Ali, a Muslim, became the de facto tyrant, and his own shogunate replaced the court composed of officials appointed by the Wadiya family.

These Muslims were in a period of vigorous development, and their rapid expansion soon led to serious conflicts with the British.

Historically, the Kingdom of Mysore was known as the Prussia of South India and was the biggest rival of the British in colonizing India.

The enemy of my enemy is my ally. Hyder Ali of Mysore certainly understood this principle, so he had already established contact with Mozibu. The 600 war horses that were adapted to the relatively hot climate and were half-sold and half-given away were his olive branches.

Therefore, the Chinese Dayu court also arranged a grand ceremony for Sayyid Sahib's arrival.

The Yuan Cong Guards Regiment that was guarding Mo Zibu dispatched three companies, and the Longxiang Cavalry Guards Regiment and the Changshui Huqi Guards Regiment each dispatched a company to the Pearl River Wharf to welcome them.

Sayyid Sahib was able to go to the East as an envoy to seek allies, so he must have understood military affairs.

Historically, he led his cavalry to defeat the army of British Colonel William Bailey in the Second Anglo-Malaysian War.

Nearly 4,000 British troops surrendered, and hundreds of British troops from the mainland alone were killed. This was one of the most serious defeats of the English on the Indian mainland.

Therefore, when Sayyid Sahib saw Emperor Mo's Guards welcoming him at the Pearl River Estuary, he immediately raised his view of the strength of the Chinese Empire by several levels.

In Sayyid Sahib's view, the 300 infantrymen in the middle were wearing red robes and red helmets, and were clearly divided into 200 line infantrymen, 50 light infantrymen, and 50 grenadiers.

The line infantrymen were armed with smoothbore flintlock rifles that looked similar to Brown Bess, with gleaming bayonets, while the light infantrymen were armed with rifled muskets he didn't recognize and wore belts.

Grenadiers were equipped with a sleeveless robe with more pockets, generally without a helmet, and were particularly tall. They were also equipped with sharp long swords and pistols at their waists.

From a distance on the river, before the boats stopped, Sayyid Sahib saw them standing in standard military posture with their rifles raised. Even now, half an hour has passed, and their posture is still upright, and no one is moving.

You have to know that it was noon and the weather was not very cool. It even felt a little hot when exposed to direct sunlight.

Some of these soldiers were sweating profusely from the heat, but no one relaxed his demands on himself.

Not to mention that their equipment is already top-notch in Europe, their discipline itself is something that no ordinary army can possess.

Of the two cavalry teams, the two hundred riders on the left were wearing traditional Chinese iron armor, phoenix-wing helmets, and a robe that exposed their right arms.

They were equipped with spears, bows and arrows, pistols and sabers, obviously taking into account that there were still a certain number of enemies armed with cold weapons, especially bows and arrows, on the eastern battlefield.

On the other side was a completely European cavalry, one hundred of whom were cuirassiers, wearing shining breastplates and shining lobster-tail iron helmets.

The other one hundred cavalrymen were hussars wearing European-style tall hats and short cloaks. All the cavalrymen had completely European faces and attire. They must be the Hungarian cavalrymen from Europe.

Sayyid Sahib was very envious of the fact that His Majesty Emperor Guangzhong was able to command elite cavalry from Europe.

He even discovered that, as of now, Emperor Guangzhong's European mercenaries far outnumbered the English in India.

The sound of welcoming drums and music rang out, and the commander of the Guards, General Zhengdong, and Lieutenant General of the Army Wu Wenyong personally went to the dock to greet the turbaned Indian brother.

"General Sahib, welcome. His Excellency, the Deputy Minister, Enping Burintong, is waiting in the palace cabinet. Please follow me."

Wu Wenyong certainly did not speak the South Indian dialect, but fortunately, Sayyid Sahib knew French, and the attendants around Wu Wenyong also knew French.

Sayyid Sahib greeted Wu Wenyong warmly and got on the carriage.

At this time, Dayu had banned 80% of sedan chairs, and only allowed people over 55 years old to ride.

And after the invention of rubber and the ability to make vulcanized rubber tires, sedan chairs were completely replaced by horse-drawn carriages.

After passing through the South Gate of Guangzhou, the welcoming team, led by cavalry and escorted by infantry, headed towards the imperial palace in Daliang, Shunde.

The prosperity of Guangzhou City along the way greatly shocked Sayyid Sahib.

Not to mention that China alone accounts for at least 30% of the world's GDP now, even in the future, India will not be able to compare with China.

Especially along the route from southern Guangzhou towards Shunde, China's burgeoning industry, building on Foshan's already thriving handicrafts, saw a further leap forward. Thanks to the ever-expanding military and the surge in demand for weapons from civilians exploring Southeast Asia, Foshan became a virtual weapons manufacturing hub, with annual production of various rifles and muskets reaching a staggering 110,000 pieces.

Although this figure is still far from the 325,000 guns produced by France and the 350,000 guns produced by the United Kingdom, and Zhonghua is producing at full capacity, and they produce according to order requirements, if they are producing at full capacity, they can produce 400,000 or even 500,000 guns.

But for the East, this was already an extremely terrifying production capacity, and it exceeded that of all European countries except Britain and France. Austria and Prussia did not have this capacity, not to mention Tsarist Russia, which was still a feudal country.

When they arrived at the palace, Lin Tong naturally would not have much communication with this Asan, because many things had to be decided by the emperor.

More importantly, the cooperation between the two sides is still secondary, and the Kingdom of Mysore must first realize one thing.

That is the Chinese Dayu located in the east. It is not an ancient oriental dynasty similar to the Mysore Kingdom that struggled under the threat of Western powers, but a prosperous empire that is on par with first-tier powers such as Britain and France.

Only by giving them this impression, would Hyder Ali and the Mysore Kingdom regard the Chinese Great Yu as someone they could rely on, rather than a little brother who cooperated with them to fight against the British.

So, after the brief meeting, Wu Wenyong took Sayyid Sahib to visit various places in Guangzhou, especially the Royal Third Arsenal in Foshan and the Yicheng Gun Factory owned by Liang Sanye of Xijiang Hall.

Seeing the countless tall chimneys spewing rumbling black smoke into the sky like monsters, and the rivers large and small being as black as if the earth was oozing pus and emitting bursts of foul stench, Sayyid Sahib was completely conquered.

What is this? This is not environmental destruction, this is hegemony, the hegemony that coal and iron are shaping for China!

The rivers of Mysore are clear, but what good is it? They cannot even produce a thousand flintlock rifles a year, and at best they can only make a few cannons by hand.

The clear river water could not withstand the attack of the English and could not expand the territory of Mysore, but the disgusting black smoke and black water could.

In the imperial palace, all preparations for the court's return to the north have been made. They will set off immediately after receiving the third brother from Mysore.

A large map was hung in Mo Zibu's study. The Right Commander-in-Chief of the Five Military Commandery, General Anton, Lieutenant General of the Army, Austrian Moritz Kruger was explaining the situation in India to Mo Zibu.

"Mysore was a greater hazard to England's plans to establish her rule over all of India than the French.

Because according to current estimates, the Mysore Kingdom can mobilize an army of more than 100,000 people if fully mobilized, of which no less than 40,000 will be combat soldiers.

Such strength means that the English may be able to defeat them, but they will definitely not be able to eliminate them in a short period of time, and it will even be difficult to inflict a fatal blow on them.

With the existence of the Kingdom of Mysore, all anti-England forces from Europe would retreat from the coastline into the territory of the Kingdom of Mysore to seek refuge when they were unable to fight against the English. At the same time, they would train the army of the Kingdom of Mysore.

When support arrives from their mother country, they will launch a new attack together with the Mysore army. If they are defeated, they will repeat the previous operation.

For example, the French did this in India.

Therefore, the English occupied the local government several times and dealt a fatal blow to the French several times, but they were never able to eliminate the French influence in India.

The explanation was very clear, and Mozibu understood that the existence of the Kingdom of Mysore served as a backup for other forces opposing the English.

As long as it exists, the British will never be able to occupy India alone. It seems that it is indeed a very important regional stronghold that must be supported.

But Mozibu was still a little confused. "Then didn't the English support a rival to the Kingdom of Mysore? This should be what they are best at."

“Yes! The English supported the Kingdom of Hyderabad, which was located north of the Mysore Kingdom.

Abba Ali Khan, the sixth Nizam of the Asaf Jahn family, became almost a puppet of the English. In Secunderabad, near his capital Hyderabad, there was a military camp specially established for the English.

However, Moritz Kruger laughed, "But in the battle ten years ago, Hyderabad, which kept jumping back and forth, was greatly weakened. Now it can no longer pose a significant threat to the Kingdom of Mysore.

Therefore, in the current situation, only the English themselves can resolve the Mysore Kingdom."

Mozibu laughed. This was really good news, although he didn't know that the Second Mysore-England War in history was about to break out and the British suffered a great loss.

It was not until twenty years later, in May 1799, when Hyder Ali's son Nawab Tipu Bahadur, known in history as Tipu Sultan, was killed in battle, that the British were able to completely take over the Kingdom of Mysore.

But Mozibu knew very well that as long as he supported the Kingdom of Mysore and prevented it from being conquered by the English, the Chinese Empire would always have an ally that could profoundly influence India.

Even in the future, the Kingdom of Mysore will become China's powerful lackey in using India as a market for dumping its goods.

Moreover, the existence of the Kingdom of Mysore can not only restrict the British, but also restrict the French who may become powerful in India by joining forces with China.

As long as China does not need to directly rule the whole of India, the Kingdom of Mysore will always stand on the side of the Chinese Empire.

"It seems that we have found a very suitable ally. Go and tell the envoy of the Kingdom of Mysore that I will formally summon him tomorrow."

(End of this chapter)