Chapter 366 Battle of Brussels

Chapter 367 Battle of Brussels

The Marquis of Wellesley sat down on the chair opposite, recalling the news he had just heard in Parliament: "According to Fox, nearly two months ago, Mysore sent out 6,000 troops to attack Cannanore. The defending East India Company soldiers only resisted for three days before being completely defeated."

Cannanore is an important stronghold of the East India Company in the southwest of the Indian Peninsula. If it is lost, the trade in southwest India will be greatly affected.

Although the East India Company is a company, it is actually the British administrative agency in India. From the government to parliamentarians, from officials to businessmen, almost everyone in the UK has bought shares in the East India Company. It can be said that the company's interests have been damaged, and the impact on the UK is even greater than the government's financial losses.

Little Pitt frowned: "You mean, those Indian natives only invested 5,000 people..."

Although the East India Company's garrison in Cannanore is less than 600 people, they are basically people with experience in regular military service, and their combat effectiveness is absolutely overwhelming the Indian natives. Moreover, there were thousands of vassal troops recruited from the local area. According to past experience, they could at least resist the fierce attack of tens of thousands of Mysore troops for one or two months.

But this time, they were captured after only three days of defense.

Marquis Wellesley said solemnly: "It is said that this batch of Mysore troops is extremely powerful, all equipped with flintlock rifles made in Europe, and more than ten sophisticated cannons. The East India Company's bastions were breached by them with cannons."

These sophisticated weapons were naturally brought to Mysore by Lafayette.

Moreover, Princess Amira of Tunisia had arrived in Mysore and secretly held an engagement ceremony with Tipu Sultan's son Nawaz. Although the marriage had not been officially completed, her dowry had been shipped to India in advance.

It was a complete set of artillery production equipment, 30 cannon casting technicians, and enough raw materials to produce 50 cannons. This means that Tipu Sultan will have a steady supply of cannons.

Although the British Navy controlled the shipping in the Indian Ocean, it had no way to take away the smuggling ships. The cannon casting technicians could land safely on French merchant ships. France also had a small colony in Pondicherry, India, maintaining a negligible trade.

Most importantly, Mysore had Lafayette, a general who was good at commanding rookies to fight.

For a country like India, which was still in the middle of feudal society, only a small part of the factors that restricted the combat effectiveness of the army came from weapons and equipment, and more from various backward systems and the quality of the soldiers.

Lafayette led the military reform of Mysore as the protector of Princess Amira and the official rank of Umda. He made strict regulations from the payment of military pay to the appointment and removal of officers, from military discipline to how to coordinate between soldiers of different beliefs, and even as detailed as how to arrange tents when camping and how many laps to walk in which direction when patrolling.

After nearly three months of rigorous training with whips and sticks, this Indian army, which originally had a certain foundation in European drill, was almost reborn. Although the combat effectiveness is still far inferior to that of the British army, at least it will not be easily beaten ten by one as before.

Of course, with Lafayette's energy, he only slept 5 hours a day and only trained 4,000 new Mysore troops. The rest had to be trained by the Tunisian officers he brought.

In the battle of the raid on Cannanore, he personally led 3,000 new troops, plus 3,000 ordinary Indian soldiers, and easily took over the East India Company's camp.

However, there were also factors that the British did not expect. At that time, only half of the soldiers, that is, 300 people, were on duty in the bastion, and the others were doing business or having fun in nearby cities. And the vassal army was not formally summoned.

After Lafayette launched the attack, those British vassal troops who had no loyalty at all saw that the Mysore people seemed extremely fierce-Tip's title of the Tiger of Mysore also played a big role-so they turned against him one after another. These people were very familiar with the defense of Cannanore, which further accelerated the collapse of the British defenders.

Marquis Wellesley continued: "The last news from India is that more than 10,000 Mysore troops are approaching North Kannada."

Little Pitt's face was gloomy. North Kannada is an important base of the East India Company in western India, and the port of Malabar is there. If this place is occupied by Mysore again, Britain will not have a single trading base available on the entire west coast of India.

And India is a long way from Britain, and this news was at least a month and a half ago.

He looked at Marquis Wellesley thoughtfully: "It seems that the Royal Navy should give full support to India."

"And it will also require an expeditionary force of thousands of people." Marquis Wellesley nodded, and suddenly remembered something, and added, "Prime Minister, the Governor-General of India Cornwallis once mentioned that a group of French people have been active in Mysore recently.

"Mysore has set off a wave of hatred against Britain a while ago, and it is very likely that the French are behind it. And the weapons in the hands of the Indians should also be provided by them. "

Little Pitt was very surprised. France's financial situation should have been very serious, but it could still squeeze out funds to aid the Indians!

How could he know that France actually only had Lafayette and a Tunisian princess. The rest of the investment had long been compensated by Tipu Sultan's betrothal gifts, and even made a small profit.

Little Pitt sighed silently. He had invested a lot of money in Africa before, but the French still did not withdraw from Tunisia. Then Hanover's army suffered another disastrous defeat in the Southern Netherlands. And now India needs a large investment.

In addition, Britain's textile exports in Europe have declined recently, and the French are using cheap fabrics to impact Britain's markets in Germany and Spain. If the unfavorable situation everywhere cannot be reversed, the Whigs will definitely take the opportunity to attack, and His Majesty the King may also doubt his ability.

He calculated the cost of aiding India and the complicated situation of the war with Mysore, and finally tiredly signaled to the Marquis of Wellesley: "Please go to Paris as soon as possible. We can't produce greater losses in India."

...

Southern Netherlands.

Brussels.

Karl II looked at the officers in front of him angrily and shouted: "What are you doing? The French only have 3,000 people in Lully, and you have used nearly three times the force and failed to capture it!"

Several Hanover officers bowed their heads and said nothing, but they were complaining in their hearts.

Those French troops were really too terrible. Before their troops approached the town of Lully, the inferior French army actually took the initiative to attack and split their ranks in two.

If they had not reacted quickly and retreated in time, I am afraid that the loss would not be 300 soldiers.

In fact, it was Joseph who strictly ordered not to annihilate the enemy on a large scale, otherwise how could they escape from the hands of the Guards?

The front line south of Brussels had been in a standoff for more than a month. Charles II recruited more than 7,000 troops from Hanover, but he could not shake the French army at all, but he suffered losses one after another.