The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 509: The Peak of the Colonists
Just as Mozibu was resolving the issues of Shaanxi, Gansu, and Mongolia in the north and south of the Gobi Desert, the war on the Indian mainland also reached its most tense moment.

October 1781, 10 AD, August 11, the sixth year of Guangzhong in the Chinese calendar.

First, the squadron led by Commander Mo Gongyan captured a British Indian squadron at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca.

The Chinese side had a fifth-class sailing cruiser and three armed merchant ships, while the British had three armed merchant ships and a frigate with a displacement of only more than 200 tons.

In an artillery battle, four British ships were slightly damaged, more than 30 people were killed and more than 200 were injured. They then fled towards the Strait of Malacca.

An armed merchant ship of over 400 tons from the Chinese fleet was blocked, surrounded and severely damaged, with more than 50 people killed and more than 80 injured. The other four ships were almost unscathed and followed closely behind.

Then on August 29, the main force of the combined fleet encountered the British fleet 80 nautical miles off the east coast of India.

The British fleet commanded by Edward Hughes was defeated because he only had one fourth-level battleship, while the Chinese had two third-level battleships.

But precisely because of this, the British fleet did not form a battle line, and the two sides engaged in a purely one-on-one melee.

During the battle, the Chinese fleet sank one British frigate, seriously damaged two, and slightly damaged six at the cost of one seriously damaged and three slightly damaged.

The British Indian Fleet completely lost its fighting spirit and left the Indian Ocean, fleeing to the Middle East and Africa.

However, Lieutenant General Suffren, who achieved a decisive victory, made a mistake that was neither big nor small.

He failed to track down the IV-class battleship commanded by Edward Hughes, allowing the ship to slip north into the Hooghly River.

The Governor-General of British India, Warren Hastings, then ordered the guns on the fourth-class battleship to be towed into Fort William, and then scuttled it along with three large cargo ships in the Hooghly River.

On September 19, the Chinese fleet escorted 27,000 Mysore troops to the estuary and went up the Hooghly River, only to find that the river channel in front of Fort William had been completely blocked.

In the past, we were worried that the third-level battleships would run aground if they entered the Hooghly River. Now, even the fifth-level sailing cruisers cannot enter, and it is completely impossible to bombard Fort William from the Hooghly River.

Now, either they had to tow the sunken ship away, but this would be very difficult given the heavy bombardment from the 36-pound naval guns on Fort William, and the casualties would be unbearable.

Then, all that was left was to completely give up attacking Fort William from the Hooghly River and just take it bit by bit from the land.

It is easy to imagine how difficult it would be to attack a giant bastion like Fort William from land.

There are also two Fort William, the new fort is located in the northeast, and the old fort is located in the southwest, and the two forts are less than one kilometer apart.

In other words, if you attack the new castle, not only will you not be able to deploy your troops on the southwest side, but you will also be bombarded from behind by the artillery of the old castle. Therefore, in order to successfully capture the new castle, you must first capture the old castle.

Damn, we could have gone around it by water and only attacked one bastion, but we ended up attacking two.

As for going around to the northeast to attack the new fort from the land, not only can the troops in the old fort come out at any time to cut off your retreat, but you also face the danger of the main transportation channel being exposed to the artillery range of the old fort.

Unless you can fill in the surrounding streams and swamps and build a new road.

Well, then it would be better to take down the old fort first.

Lieutenant General Suffren blamed himself deeply, but Chen Lian was quite open-minded. He pointed at the majestic New William Bastion in the distance and said:

"This is the fruit of a hundred years of hard work. The Kingdom of England is one of the largest and most powerful nations in the world. Their position as a fulcrum in the East is naturally not so easy to capture.

Moreover, His Majesty's decree has arrived, and he will mobilize the strength of Southeast Asia and even the whole of China to support us.

As long as France is still fighting with England in North America, China will certainly continue its offensive in India.

If the two great powers of China and France were to face the Kingdom of England alone, I think they would be the first to collapse."

Otherwise, why would Chen Lian be able to be the chief commander? Although his naval combat capability is not even as good as Ma Bo (Manuel Bonn), his scope is more than twice as big.

Not only did he say this, he also thought so in his heart.

Before attacking Fort William, Chen Lian knew in his heart that this battle of uprooting people would not be accomplished smoothly and overnight.

Half a year ago, Chen Lian submitted a memorial to Mo Zibu in Lower Burma, mentioning this matter.

Mo Zibu also agreed that as long as the war in North America did not end, the imperial court would support the Allied Fleet to continue besieging Fort William even if it meant selling everything it had. It would just depend on who could not hold on.

. . . .

In Fort William, all the high-ranking British Indian officials, except Baron Woodhall who was guarding Chittagong, were stationed there, including Vice Admiral Edward Hughes, who was defeated twice.

But in the end, Vice Admiral Hughes brought the fourth-level battleship back and successfully sank it into the Hooghly River, which was considered a small way to save face.

"Gentlemen, please allow me to introduce to you the achievements of the Fort William Provincial Government in the past six months." After seeing that everyone was present, Governor Warren Hastings began to take out a thick stack of documents and distribute them.

At this time, the British government had not yet named their Indian colony directly British India, but called it the Province of Fort William.

This Fort William Province included the entire territory of later Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, most of Uttar Pradesh and a small part of Madhya Pradesh.

It is basically the entire Ganges River basin from Delhi downwards, and it is also the core area of India in later generations.

Governor Warren Hastings took a look at the venue. There were a lot of people there, basically all the Europeans above the rank of captain in the garrison were there, and even some locals who were deeply bound to the British.

"In the past six months we have perfected the design of the Zamindar system, which caters to the interests of both the Kingdom of England and the Indian nobility.

It brings us closer together and allows us to enjoy India's prosperity and wealth together.

I think that no matter who or where the people who rule India come from, it is impossible for them to take into account the interests of everyone like the Kingdom of England or the provincial government of Fort William.

Zamindar will keep us together forever."

As Governor Hastings gave his impassioned speech, the locals below cheered, apparently because what they saw was very favorable to them.

To put it bluntly, Chai Daming's tax farming system is nothing new in India. They have been doing this for thousands of years.

However, in the past, when various rulers came to India to implement the tax farming system, there were rules, or you could say there was a bottom line, although this bottom line was really fucking low.

In the past, India’s tax farming system was similar to that of the Japanese, with a ratio of about 6:2:1.

That is, the farmer took six, the tax farmer took two, and the supreme ruler took one. The remaining one was distributed by the ruler to ensure the normal operation of the kingdom. This thing basically ensured that everyone benefited, the farmers could survive, and the tax farmers and the kingdom's nobles could all live well.

Of course, the rules vary from place to place, but basically farmers can get at least 50% of their harvest. Although their status is low, their income is decent and can barely ensure that their families have enough to eat.

Of course, although it seems a bit small that the supreme ruler only gets one, you have to take into account India’s social structure and Hindu culture.

Under the influence of the Hindu caste system, the Indian people are extremely submissive. They eat very little and pay taxes obediently. This means that the cost of ruling for the Indian rulers is less than 20% of that in China.

Moreover, the tax farming system was not implemented everywhere. It was only implemented in areas where the supreme ruler was relatively weak or disdained to rule directly.

As for the British, historically they implemented the tax-farming zamindar system on almost all the land they occupied.

The tax collection was unprecedentedly harsh. The British required the tax farmers to hand over 90% of the taxes they received every year.

This seems to be a complete dead end!

It is true that there is no way to survive, but it does not mean that there is no way to survive for everyone, but only for the farmers at the bottom of the society.

Because after the British took away 90% of the profits, they didn't care about anything else.

In other words, they only take 90% of the current tax amount, and they don't care how much the Chaimindar collects.

Therefore, after the implementation of this zamindar policy in history, the tax-paying zamindar would generally collect taxes twice. Ninety percent of the first tax would be paid to the transaction, and 100% of the second tax would be kept for himself.

This caused the lower-class farmers to increase their initial requirement of handing over 40% of their output to 60%, or even to a 70% level that could lead to starvation.

So what if the harvest can’t be harvested due to natural disasters?
Don't panic. The British allow Zamindar to owe debts as long as they pay interest as usual. You can suffer a disaster once a year, but you can't suffer disasters every year.

Therefore, in India, historically, a strange phenomenon has emerged where disaster years are not scary, but good years after disaster years are scary.

Because of the good harvest after the disaster, the Chaimindars have to pay the arrears of taxes with high interest as soon as possible, and they will exploit the lower-class farmers without any bottom line.

If you say that I suffer from disasters every year, that's even simpler. When you owe an amount agreed upon by both parties, the British colonial government will take back the land that was given to you for tax purposes.

At the same time, your status as a zamindar will be stripped away, and your land will be auctioned off to other people who can collect taxes to pay off the debt.

Now, I can understand why there were always severe famines during the British rule in India.

The British and the local Zamindars in India turned the lower-class Indian people from human beings into cockroaches. In India, where the water and heat conditions are so good, people starve to death every year.

What made many locals in Fort William cheer was that Governor Hastings reduced the tax paid by the Zamindars from 90% to 80%, and also promised to use British Indian force to protect their property.

Don't underestimate such a promise. The grassroots situation in India is very complicated. Governor Hastings has to clarify the relationship between all the zamindars, be targeted in tax farming, and coordinate their relationships.

This is very difficult because the British zamindar tax farming system means that each zamindar is destined to be very small.

The reason is that once the Zamindar becomes too large, it will be out of the control of the British and will use various means to conceal tax revenue and even secretly accumulate strength to cause trouble.

One can imagine how difficult it would be to divide a completely unfamiliar country, a territory much larger than Britain, into hundreds or even thousands of zamindars.

At the same time, there were originally great nobles in this land, and the British needed to crush these great nobles first before they could settle the large number of zamindars that they could control.

Finally, the British Indian government had to convert all the various forms of taxes collected into things needed by the motherland.

And at the smallest possible cost, destroy India's self-sufficient rural economy and incorporate them into the motherland's economic system.

This is a very complicated task, no different from rebuilding a kingdom.

Hearing the cheers of these local Zamindar representatives, the British in the conference room, especially the officers, felt much calmer.

As long as these locals are not taken away by the Chinese, they will have the confidence to hold on.

In the corner, a Hanoverian clerk who had received a lot of benefits from the Southern Pacification Office sighed.

The Chinese Empire's roots in India were too shallow, and they were unable to take root in the deepest part of India like the British who had been working here for more than a hundred years.

The meeting continued in a cheerful atmosphere. Governor Hastings announced several policies, which made the Indians in the meeting room even happier and they expressed their loyalty to the Governor.

However, once this meeting is over, if they participate in the next military meeting, these people will be terrified.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, Lieutenant General Sir El Coot, told everyone at a meeting of senior officers:

"I think we should take the initiative to engage in a medium-sized field battle with the Chinese army before they attack us.

Our army currently has about 14,000 troops, including 2,500 European soldiers and 11,500 local soldiers.

The total strength of the Chinese and Mysoreans was about 50,000, but it was impossible for them to coordinate to appear near Fort William at the same time.

So we can seize this opportunity and fight them in a field battle of 10,000 men against 15,000 to 20,000 men.”

"Can we defeat them, or is there a high probability that we will be defeated?" asked Governor Hastings.

"Judging from the Siege of Madras, the possibility of our defeat is relatively much greater," said Sir Al Coote with a gloomy face.

But after saying this, his triangular eyes with light blue pupils became full of viciousness.

“But if we win, all the Chinese attempts will be thwarted.

If we lose the war, while we will certainly kill a large number of Chinese, we will also perfectly consume our own military strength because we don't need so many people to defend two Fort William.

We only need 5,000 people. If there are more, there will be supply problems.

I imagine this siege will probably take years, so supplies are far more valuable than soldiers."

Governor Hastings stood up and nodded with satisfaction. "Sir, you will be responsible for the specific arrangements. Remember, try to make the deaths of these local soldiers as valuable as possible!"

(End of this chapter)