I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 504: The Chancellor and the Poor

"That's impossible!" Cornwallis, the Governor-General of India, shouted, "Vijayanagar now belongs to the East India Company."

Britain spent a huge amount of money on this war and only occupied two and a half provinces northwest of Mysore. At the same time, trade on the west coast of India was stagnant for more than half a year. It was already a huge loss. How could it give up the spoils?

Tipu Sultan ignored him and looked at the Hyderabad Prime Minister Abzam: "Are you just going to watch the people of Vijayanagar being ruled by infidels?"

Hyderabad and Mysore are both Muslims and even formed an alliance decades ago.

Abzam also knew that Tipu's intention was to divide himself and the British, but Hyderabad had lost more than 3 soldiers for the British in this war, so it was reasonable for it to receive Vijayanagar as compensation.

He coughed lightly and said to Xili cautiously: "Sir, if we can help you manage Vijayanagar, we can increase the tax by 30%..."

"Your opinion is not needed here." Xili interrupted him abruptly, knocking on the table, "Vijayanagar is not within the scope of negotiation."

"Humph!" Tipu Sultan stood up immediately. "In that case, let's meet on the battlefield."

In fact, he was quite uncertain when he said this. At present, the British army had an absolute advantage on the battlefield, and Seringabadan was already in danger. But at the same time, he firmly believed in the words of Marquis Lafayette - the British would definitely withdraw before the end of the rainy season. Therefore, he had to pretend to be tough during the negotiation.

Sure enough, there was a flash of helplessness in Sir Seely's eyes - the British Expeditionary Force had less than half a month's supply left, and it had to withdraw to Kannada as soon as possible, otherwise the retreat would likely turn into a rout.

After some bargaining, Seely finally accepted to hand over the part north of Bellary to Hyderabad for "custody" and allowed residents of other areas of Vijayanagar to go to Hyderabad.

Abzam exchanged a glance of gratitude with Tipu, but at the same time he felt a little more resentment towards the British.

Afterwards, Seeley and Tipu began to discuss the issue of Carnatic. According to the previous secret agreement between Britain and France, the Carnatic east of Mysore would end its alliance with Britain and remain neutral.

During the Mysore War, the main forces of the British army were concentrated in the northwest, and almost no assistance was provided to the Carnatic, which was severely beaten by Mysore.

If Tipu Sultan had not followed Joseph's advice and reduced his defensive forces, it is likely that all of southern Carnatic would have been lost.

Therefore, the Carnatic had no objection to ending the alliance - what use was there for an ally who was bossy, only knew how to collect taxes, but couldn't protect himself?

After the three parties reached an agreement on the status of Carnatic, Tipu Sultan said to the Carnatic negotiating envoy: "There should be no war between Mysore and Carnatic."

He glanced at Cornwallis and Seely, and almost said, "It was all the British who instigated it," and then said, "So I am willing to return Tiruchirappalli to you."

Tiruchirappalli was a southern Carnatic province which was captured by Mysore soon after the war began.

According to the French, Mysore would have to spend a lot of energy to rule here, and would be hated by the Carnatic. It would be better to return it in exchange for the gratitude of the Carnatic.

Pondicherry, the last French foothold in the Indian peninsula, was adjacent to Carnatic, and if the latter was convenient, Mysore might be able to establish secret contact with France.

The Carnatic envoy obviously did not expect to regain the lost land, and immediately saluted to Tipu Sultan excitedly and said: "On behalf of His Majesty the King, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to you!"

After several days of bargaining, Britain and Malaysia signed an armistice agreement on October 10.

Although Mysore lost nearly three provinces of territory, it was not seriously damaged.

You know, historically, Tipu Sultan dared to fight the Fourth Mysore War with Britain even after losing half of his territory including Seringapatam and Bangalore.

Now that he still has strength, how could he not seek revenge on Britain once he finds an opportunity? On the British side, it seems that they have won the battle against Mysore, gained some land, and maintained their dominance in the Indian Peninsula, but they have invested huge military expenses and have not received any war reparations.

In addition, the reason why the British launched the war was "Mysore annexed Travancore", but now that the war has ended, no one mentions Travancore anymore. The British can pretend to have no memory of this, but all the big and small states in India have seen it.

The overlord is still the overlord, but he has lost his former glory.

……

France.

Outside Paris.

More than a dozen big men from the Tax Farmers' Association, surrounded by servants and hunting dogs, were chatting and laughing as they rode their horses to Ford's hunting grounds.

Hope smiled and said to the people around him:

"You can probably imagine Brian's desperate expression when Mr. Charles said, 'Due to business problems, the loan mentioned earlier may not be provided.'"

A middle-aged man walking on the left had a smug look on his face:

"There are only two months left in the year. How is our finance minister going to get 2 million francs?"

Another person followed with a smile:

"Soon the various government departments and the governors will ask him for next year's funding. That's when he will experience the despair of hell."

The middle-aged man looked at Hope:
"Mr. Hope, then we will have to speed up the tax package negotiations."

"No, quite the opposite." Hope looked at the hunting fence in the distance, "Look, we're almost there. Brian is the one who's anxious now, but we can make Viscount Bertrand sick or something.

"By mid-November, Brian might not even be in the mood to bargain, and we might even be able to sign a deal for the same amount as last year."

Borore urged his horse to come closer and shouted:
"I think the Chancellor of the Exchequer is no different from those poor people who borrow money at high interest rates, haha. As long as we hold our purse strings tightly, won't they have to beg humbly and allow us to set conditions?"

"You're right."

When the group crossed the wooden fence of the hunting ground, they began to direct the servants to set up a temporary camp, and at the same time sent out teams and commanded dogs to look for prey.

Ford and Hope were chatting about the prey in late autumn with a relaxed look on their faces when they saw a carriage coming quickly. As the ground in the wild was not flat enough, the carriage was jolted from time to time.

Soon, the carriage stopped and a tall man in his forties jumped out.

When Ford saw the appearance of the person coming, he couldn't help but frowned slightly:
"Viscount Berlant?"

Led by his servant, the tax farmers' representative, Bertrand, walked quickly to Ford and said breathlessly:
"Mr. Fuld, something has happened... The assistant to the Chancellor of the Exchequer informed me this morning that the tax package negotiations have been officially cancelled."

(End of this chapter)