I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 339: Newbie in Public Opinion Warfare

The marriage between Mai and France came so suddenly that it took everyone involved by surprise.

This also includes the Marquis de Lafayette.

Coming out of the Ambawila Palace, he looked at Salah, his tone full of confusion and surprise: "You actually want to facilitate a marriage with the indigenous people?!"

Salah smiled politely: "This is the bargaining chip left to us by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Of course, we have to throw it out when necessary. You yourself said that the rainy season is coming.

“Besides, this is just a marriage between Haji Bey, oh no, Haji Duke and the Kingdom of Mysore, and it has no impact on the royal family.

"According to the secret agreement between the two parties just now, the marriage will not be made public before the British withdraw from the Indian peninsula. Only a secret wedding will be held and the dowry will be delivered. This will not affect British and French diplomacy in the short term.

"Oh, and the £60 dowry! That's enough for you to bring two regiments from France to fight here."

Yes, Salah used his eloquence to persuade Tipu Sultan to add another 10 pounds to the betrothal gift during the marriage negotiation just now.

"It's up to you..." Lafayette had no interest in these political operations, and still looked anxious, "But Tipu has not responded to what I said about attacking the British. Your marriage plan doesn't seem to have any effect."

"This is just part of the plan." Salah followed him into the carriage, closed the door, and continued, "It brings us closer to Mysore, and at the same time we gain an important ally - General Sheikh Khan.

"By the way, Marquis, I need to ask you for 10 livres of funding."

As the main person in charge of Indian strategy, Lafayette was in charge of both the military and financial affairs. This time, Joseph allocated him a total of 70 livres.

"What do you need so much money for?" Lafayette looked at his Tunisian colleague in surprise. If the latter was not a disciple of Elder Alayi, with a prominent status and a powerful family, he would have suspected that Salah wanted to run away with the money.

"To deal with Mysore officials who spoke for the British," said Salah, "such as Jahanzeb.

"Although it's cheaper to hire people in Mysore, you know, there are no newspapers here. Even if there are, they are useless. Most people here are illiterate, so if I want to do some publicity, it will cost a lot of money. I can only hire a lot of people and use their mouths to spread the news."

"Propaganda? What do you want to promote?"

"Well, in the words of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, this is called a war of public opinion." Salah still smiled, "Put the pro-British guys in trouble. Then General He Khan will deal a fatal blow to them!"

Lafayette had no other way to persuade Tipu Sultan. After thinking for a moment, he nodded and said, "Okay, I hope you can succeed. But you need to write a report on the flow of funds and give it to me every day."

"You will see the daily financial report, Lord Marquis."

Soon, stories about the British began to spread to cities such as Srirangapatna and Gonggu, with Mysore as the center.

Thanks to General Sheikh Khan's connections and resources, the news spread very quickly.

In fact, Salah only spent one-third of the funds he applied for. In order to overthrow Jahanzeb's forces more quickly, Sheikh Khan, as an ally, paid 5000 pounds out of his own pocket, equivalent to more than 300 livres, and mobilized many nobles of the same political faction to help. On the streets of Seringapatam, a dozen Hindu citizens gathered together, talking excitedly, "My relatives in the Ambawila Palace heard those generals say that more than million people died at that time! But most of them were from Madurai, so we didn't feel it here."

“The British actually killed so many people!”

"Don't you know this? This is to intimidate us." A short man with fair skin and wearing a red robe continued mysteriously, "Have you heard about it? In order to control North America, a very remote land, the British killed all the Indians they could see, that is, the people who originally lived there! There were as many as tens of millions!"

"Yes, I've heard of this." A middle-aged man nodded. "My business partner has been to North America, and he told me about what happened there. The British would trick the Indian chiefs into a room, saying they wanted to discuss something, and then set fire to them and burn them all to death. Oh, they would also give blankets used by plague patients to the Indians, causing a whole village to be infected with the plague and die."

"I heard that the British are preparing to attack Mysore. They will do to us what happened to the Indians..."

A man stroked his chest with lingering fear and said: "Fortunately, there is Tipu's army, otherwise more than 300 million people would have died in the two wars with the British. Maybe even we would..."

Another old man added nervously, "I also heard that the British like to eat children, especially high-caste children, who are clean and have more meat. They only eat the limbs and the heart, and throw the rest to the dogs..."

The people around them immediately showed expressions of horror. Although they were not of high caste, their children were fair and plump. If the British attacked this time, the children would probably die tragically on the dining table.

They are, of course, referring to the "script" written by the writer who accompanied Salah.

It was just that Joseph didn’t know much about the specific situation in Mysore, so he only gave a rough idea of ​​the propaganda war, and left the rest to the executors of the “Indian Project” to act according to circumstances. As a novice, Salah finally made up such a terrifying thing.

However, he did understand the principle of "eight parts true and two parts false" as stated by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

The story is based on the psychological trauma left by the two Mysore Wars on the locals. Most of the content is about what the British actually did, but the numbers are slightly exaggerated. For example, the total number of deaths in the Mysore-British war was less than 13. It is also far from the number of Indians who were massacred in the tens of millions.

Of course, eating children was something he attributed to the British based on the horror stories he heard in his childhood, which falls into the category of "two-part falsehood".

Since Indians have very limited sources of information, it is difficult for anyone to verify the truth of this. Salah, who sent out a large number of trolls, quickly gained the right to speak during this period.

Meanwhile, in Madurai in the south, people were talking about the same thing, adding to the massive slave trade being carried out by the British.

Because this place is close to the sea, everyone began to worry that they would be sold to America like the Africans and do hard labor day and night.

In more places, the news that the British would ban Hinduism and Islam in Mysore, force everyone to convert to Protestantism, and execute those who disobeyed, caused even greater panic.

For a time, the memories of the first two Mysore wars, coupled with the widespread news about the British, filled the hearts of every Mysorean with hatred and fear of the British.

All it takes is a spark to ignite the powder keg.

(End of this chapter)