Chapter 1658 - 1564: The Wind Suddenly Changes Direction

Chapter 1658: Chapter 1564: The Wind Suddenly Changes Direction

In central northern India, the historic city of Ujain in the Gwalior State.

The ruler of Gwalior, Dorat Rao Sindia, coldly stared at the white man standing to his right, suppressing his anger: "I don’t quite understand what you mean by ’seeking assistance from the Emperor’."

If it had been any other Gwalior official who had said those words to him earlier, they would likely have been executed by now.

But at present, with the British army encroaching and having lost his chief commander, Peron, this French adventurer named Louis Bourquin was his last resort.

Indeed, Sindia never imagined that 7,000 British troops would capture the Aigar Fort defended by over 13,000 Gwalior soldiers trained in European style in less than a day.

Peron fled the fort early that morning. However, he was later caught up by British Cavalry and directly surrendered.

Now, over ten thousand British troops were pouring towards Sindia’s defenses along the Yamuna River, while more than forty thousand Mysore Army men were closing in from the south, putting Gwalior in peril.

As Sindia convened his ministers to discuss strategies, Bourquin suddenly suggested seeking help from Alam II, who had just fled to Pune.

It was hard to believe, that blind man had been Sindia’s prisoner just last month, and now he was to seek his assistance!

Bourquin bowed slightly: "Great King, with our nation’s current military strength, it is almost impossible to withstand the enemy from two directions.

"And as I understand it, the Mysoreans have sworn allegiance to the Emperor and are diligently honoring the oath.

"If you can earn the Emperor’s forgiveness, and have him intervene to stop the Mysore Army from advancing northward, concentrating our forces on defending against the British, there might still be a chance of victory."

Sindia squinted his eyes slightly. He had indeed heard about the Mysoreans supporting Alam II, even offering the affluent Pune to the Emperor.

His gaze towards Bourquin softened: "But I’ve kept the Emperor under house arrest for so many years, how could he possibly help me?"

Bourquin recalled the advice given by that "Porto archaeologist" yesterday and immediately said: "The Emperor has just gained his own power and now most needs the support of various states.

"As long as you indicate your willingness to submit to him, make the meeting ceremony grand, and offer a sum of money, I am confident I can persuade him."

Ah, the so-called Porto archaeologist was naturally sent by Salah.

Sindia and his ministers discussed for a long time and could not come up with any other plans, so they sent his son with one million rupees alongside Bourquin to try their luck in Pune.

What Sindia did not expect was that in less than a week, a message came back from Pune saying Alam II accepted Gwalior’s allegiance and persuaded the Mysoreans to withdraw their troops.

Bourquin’s letter also mentioned that the Emperor placed all the blame of "Maratha Confederacy’s disrespect towards the royal family" on the Holkar, revoking all titles of the Holkar family, and recognized Mysore’s occupation of Holkar’s southern territories—

Previously, Holkar occupied the "capital" of the Maratha Confederacy, Pune, so Sindia’s action of imprisoning the Emperor, as a member of the Confederacy, could quite logically be seen as orders from the Holkar.

And the "accomplice" Sindia was instead forgiven by the Emperor due to his good attitude in admitting his mistake.

Indeed, now that the Emperor was occupying Pune, he needed a pretext to eliminate its former owner, Holkar.

Even more surprising to Sindia was that Sultan Tipu seemed very loyal to the Emperor, immediately withdrawing his troops south of Pune, and sent over dozens of urgently needed cannons!

It must be understood that the defeat at Aigar Fort had caused Sindia’s army to lose 70% of its cannons; these cannons were like bringing a bottle of water to someone trapped in a desert.

Sindia immediately redirected 15,000 soldiers from the southern line towards the Yamuna River area. By now, the defensive forces here reached 40,000, and with the cannons supported by Mysore, they quickly stabilized the line that had been on the verge of collapse by the British.

At this moment, the Porto archaeologist once again came to Ujain to collect artifacts and happened to meet Bourquin at a salon.

Days later, Sindia’s envoy once again carried hundreds of thousands of rupees to Pune, pleading to His Majesty the Emperor to intervene against the aggression of the British Army towards Sindia.

Alam II initially did not want to provoke the British, but Sultan Tipu also began encouraging him to "uphold the dignity of the Empire," which could enhance his prestige in India.

Thus, just as General Lake was fiercely battling Sindia along the Yamuna River, he suddenly received a notice dispatched by the Mughal Emperor, demanding that the British Army immediately retreat east of the Trans River.

Lake didn’t take this puppet Emperor seriously at all, dismissed the envoy, and instead intensified his offensive.

Days later, Alam II sent a second batch of envoys again demanding his withdrawal, followed by a third batch.

But Lake directly refused to see these people.

Salah’s side had already begun spreading propaganda widely in Pune and Gwalior, proclaiming "the British disdain and humiliate the Emperor."

February 3, 1802.

With strong support from Sultan Tipu and Sindia, Alam II issued an edict, calling upon all of India’s states to jointly reinforce Sindia and expel the foreign invaders.

For his safety, Sindia gritted his teeth and contributed over a million rupees, asking major powers to send troops.

Mysore, following the pre-designed strategy of the Regent of France, also spared no effort in lobbying various nations to obey the Emperor’s orders to jointly resist the British, while being the first to send 3,000 soldiers to the Yamuna River.

On February 16, through mediation by the newly appointed Grand Vizier Alberz and the Mysore envoy Salah, Sindia accepted Punjab’s control over Semana, Sirhind, and other places—Singh had conveniently occupied these predominantly Sikh areas following the raid on Delhi.

Meanwhile, Singh promised to dispatch 10,000 soldiers to assist Sindia in resisting the British Army’s invasion.

Although Sikhs didn’t have a large army, they were among the most formidable fighters across India, so Sindia was quite satisfied with this deal.

Subsequently, Bhonsle and Hyderabad also began reinforcing Sindia one after another.

By early March, General Lake was astonished to find that as many as 80,000 Indian troops were forming an encirclement around him from three sides.

And he had only 18,000 British troops; even if he mobilized all the troops from the Bengal colony, it would be less than 25,000 men. Before then, he had to figure out how not to be besieged by the Indians.

As for the previous vigorous action of various Indian states in partitioning the Maratha Confederacy, it was abruptly halted as requested by Alam II.

...

Austria.

The important town of Graz, 200 kilometers southwest of Vienna.

At this time, this ancient city, bearing the glorious prosperity of the Habsburg family, had become the focal point of all of Europe’s attention, as the Vienna Conference was scheduled to be held here in two days.

As many as over forty envoys from Germany and nations closely related to Austria gathered here, preparing to discuss matters concerning Austria’s future.