Dominate the Country

In the original time and space of China, the enthusiasm for going abroad after the reform was burning half of China's sky. At that time, just talk about going abroad without distinguishing the country, the United States, Japan, Western Europe, Eastern Europe,...Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand, college students from prestigious schools (Qingbei University, etc.) came out in droves. Many people who went out from other schools were not willing to go out. However, it is because there are few channels to go abroad, even for those who act in movies, sing, perform in dramas, dance, play table tennis, play violin, paint... everything that can be thought of in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Almost in full force.

The ‘passion’ at that time was simply unstoppable.

This was not only because of the huge wealth gap between China and foreign countries at that time, but also because of the social environment at that time.

Of course, people who want to go abroad are people who are not satisfied with the status quo. You can say that they are people with ideals. They hope to change their poor lives by working abroad, and some even smuggle out illegally. At that time, the entire society was full of admiration for Western countries, believing that the moon abroad was rounder than at home.

Chen Ming cannot completely eliminate poverty. He has not even eliminated poverty in China, let alone poverty in foreign countries. Many foreigners who come to China only find that reality and dreams are so far away after arriving there. Their lives are very difficult, and everything seems to be as poor as before.

Chen Ming didn't care about this and had nothing to do. He was initially delighted with China's strong attraction, but now he has become accustomed to it.

Among the vassal states surrounding Chen and Han, why was China so attractive? This depends on various internal problems in Japan, Siam, Ladakh, Sikhs, and Gorkhas.

Except for Japan, serfdom still exists in several other countries. This is very different from slaves in the usual sense. The former covers a large area of ​​the country's people, while the latter specifically refers to the slave trade.

Countries such as Ladakh, Gorkha and Sikhs have long been influenced by Hinduism. The Sikhs here are very advanced and Sikhism is firmly against the caste system. The caste system was established long ago, and the Tantric Buddhism passed down in Tibet does not have the big deception of "all living beings are equal" in Han Buddhism. In Tibet, although there is no obvious caste system and strict hierarchy like in India, the ruled, that is, the vast serf class, are roughly divided into more than ten different levels of social status, some of which have obvious differences. The caste system in India, for example, is more commonly regarded as Local blacksmiths, butchers, and bamboo pullers (except Lhasa) are regarded as recognized lower castes, as are gold and silversmiths, carpenters, stonemasons, potters, undertakers, leatherworkers, boatmen, and fishermen. They are usually called those who are of low birth, and those who marry with them are limited to the same untouchables, that is, blacksmiths, butchers, etc.

In places like Ladakh, local young people naturally yearn for China. Because no young person with knowledge is willing to let himself be born inferior to others. This is just like many Chinese who wanted to go to the "freedom" of the West after the reform. The latter has been suppressed for too long, coupled with the fact that old ideas have been beaten down and new ideas have not appeared for a long time, as well as the huge stimulus brought by the gap between rich and poor... the same is true in Ladakh now. The teachers, doctors, instructors, and consultants sent by Chen Han to support Ladakh are all channels for spreading ideas.

And just when Ladakh began to recruit troops with great fanfare, northwest India, the northern border of the Marathas. The rumble of artillery continued from the front line. It has been eight days since the war began.

Ten days ago, the Ladakh army, with the cooperation of the Sikh army, captured Jalandhar. The vanguard then rushed to Ludhiana and launched artillery bombardment on the Marathas in Ludhiana that day.

Ladakh's military strength is relatively weak. As a small country with about 2 million people, its entire army only has 30,000 people. The maximum caliber of the hexagonal artillery of the infantry brigade is only 60mm. There are no heavy artillery above 100mm here. And whether it is material reserves or combat endurance, their comparison can be said to be a notch weaker than that of friendly forces, all because of the poor traffic conditions there.

But such armament still has certain advantages over the Maratha army. Because the prince of Ludhiana is only an inconspicuous one among the Maratha princes, the Maratha people led by Hyderabad have expanded their army to 500,000 in these years. These five million refer to The entire Maratha army, and this passer-by The prince was just one of countless Maratha princes, and he was still a very inconspicuous one. He did not even have an army of 10,000 people, and he was seriously lagging behind in armaments. More funds were used to build forts. Many people still hold old-fashioned muskets and smoothbore cannons. The defeated remnants of the Jalandhar princes joined the Ludhiana army, but they only allowed Ludhiana's resistance to persist for a few more days.

As the boss and close ally of the Marathas, the British hurriedly mobilized a large amount of military supplies after receiving news that Ladakh, Gorkha, Sikh, Mysore and other countries had declared war on the Marathas. Shipping to Hyderabad but it takes time. In order to give the Maratha people confidence, the British colonial government in India removed hundreds of middle- and junior-level officers and sergeants as quickly as possible and sent them to the Maratha army. They originally had a large number of military advisers and instructors in the Maratha army.

The entire Maratha Empire had a total of 500,000 troops, which was a very powerful military force. However, they had to divide their troops in all directions because they were attacked from all sides. At the same time, their military supplies also needed to be dispersed in all directions. This not only greatly dispersed the power of the Marathas, but more importantly, it brought a lot of trouble to the Marathas.

You must know that the Maratha Empire was essentially just a large alliance, and the monarch was just a nominal leader. Peshwa gradually became a name without substance. In fact, this huge empire was a country dominated by multiple local power groups. While the Maratha Empire was walking on the road from a centralized country to a country jointly governed by multiple local heads of state, it was also rapidly going downhill.

Now the Maratha Empire was attacked from all sides. Naturally, the only people fighting on all sides were the real power groups in the Maratha Empire, but this involved a distribution of supplies. The money and arms provided by the British were the funding that every Indian prince desperately needed, and they would not spit it out to others. And the competition between each other immediately turned Hyderabad into a pot of boiling porridge.

The war was still going on, and the Marathas were in chaos. The British also deliberately condoned this chaos. Because London knew very well why the Gurkhas, Sikhs, Ladakhs, and Mysores suddenly declared war on the Marathas and launched a war? That was because the Chinese behind them were dissatisfied with Britain.

The traces of British involvement in the current East-West War were too heavy and too obvious.

The situation of the East-West War has not been clear at all. The situation on the Russian battlefield has not improved at all, and China is constantly hoarding troops and military supplies in Lake Balkhash, and the whole of China is also in a state of continuous military expansion. And as far as the British know, Chen Han is already preparing to issue war bonds. This is the first time in 20 years since China's fiscal reform. The Chinese are already bursting out their own strength. In this case, the British really have no confidence in winning and defeating China, so throwing the Marathas out to vent their anger on the Chinese is also acceptable to London. Although this will greatly reduce the interests of the British.

The Marathas are allies of Britain. The vast market of 80 million people in the Marathas is fully open to Britain. Every year, Britain can dump nearly 10 million pounds of goods to the Marathas and absorb millions of pounds of profits from the Marathas. If the Maratha Empire suffers heavy losses, the interests of the British will inevitably be damaged.

It’s just that things have their priorities. Although Britain’s interests in the Maratha Empire are huge, in order to appease China when necessary, it must be abandoned when it is necessary.

In fact, since the establishment of the Chen Han country and the rapid development of Sino-British trade, many of the benefits China has gained from the British are the "compensation" that the British have to take out after provoking the Chinese.

This was the case when Chen Han entered India before, and it was also the case when Chen Han entered the Midwest of the northern region of North America before. Now the British are abandoning the interests of the Maratha Empire.

The British have bad intentions again and again, and then they are hit on the head again and again. They have to apologize after being hit, which is also masochistic.

Hundreds of British grassroots officers and sergeants have been able to appear in the eyes of most of the elite Maratha troops. Although for many of these officers, the Marathas are a completely unfamiliar land, where they can hardly survive independently, if they lose their own translators. But in the eyes of the Marathas, they are noble.

The evil caste system has a relatively obvious distinction standard, the depth of skin color, the lighter the skin color, the more noble the person - although it is not necessarily accurate. And these British people are all standard white people.

George Blair is such a person. He can even speak a few words of Bengali, but for Maratha, even though the two languages ​​belong to the same geographical area, George doesn't understand a word.

There are many kinds of indigenous languages ​​in various states of India, which is a major obstacle to India's development and unification. At the same time, this is also the most straightforward evidence that India is just a geographical term rather than a country name. Moreover, there has never been such a thing as Mandarin in India. Although the coverage area of ​​Hindi is not small, it is just like this.

For example, people from the Yellow River Basin in northern China, such as Qisu, Shaanxi, Shanxi Province, and Central Plains, go to work in Qilu or Tianjin, which are also in the Yellow River Basin. There will be no obstacles to language communication with local people in work and life. Because it is just a problem of dialect accent, it can be solved by adjusting and adapting. People from Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia will not have any trouble working in the Wu dialect area of ​​Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, because Mandarin can meet the needs of work and life. People from Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia will also have no problem working in Guangdong. Just look at the shop assistants in Hong Kong Island who have learned to speak mediocre Mandarin in order to do business. You will know that in Guangdong, Mandarin has been popularized among Guangdong locals. Only the elderly may still speak Cantonese. Such things would be "official language" in ancient China, but it is impossible to happen in India at this time, even in 21st century India.

There are three or four states or provinces in India with relatively good economic development. Modi's hometown Gujarat is located on the central coast of India. Speak Gujarati. Maharashtra, where Mumbai is located, is located on the south-central coast and speaks Marathi. Maharashtra and Gujarat are adjacent. The two states were originally in the same state, Mumbai, and there is a certain degree of communication in language. These two are analogous to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai in China.

Uttar Pradesh in northern India, where the capital New Delhi is located, is also a developed region. It is similar to Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei in China, where Hindi is spoken. And the easternmost state of Bengal is even more so. Therefore, Bengali and Maratha are completely unrelated.

The cultural quality of Maratha soldiers is generally low, and it is nonsense to ask them to learn a foreign language under such circumstances. More British advisers always carry translators with them, wherever they go, and even when they go to the toilet, they have to wait for the translator at the door.

George is such a person. Without a counterattack, he didn't even know where his troops were in Ludhiana, a hellhole.

When George Blair and the translator walked for more than ten minutes to the base of the third battalion of the first regiment of the first division of the second army of Delhi, the overall atmosphere in the camp was very relaxed, because the Chinese had the front-line troops of Ludhiana and Jalandhar to resist, and they were at most in reserve.

The territories of Indian princes vary in size, but they are generally small, especially in prosperous places. A county or even smaller territory is normal, and a city or a region is a local tyrant. For example, the powerful factions of the Maratha Empire, their core areas are at most two or three prefectures in Chen Han's native land.

Deccan [central and southern India] and Hindustan [Madhya Pradesh] are the two main centers of the Maratha Empire, and Gujarat, Bundelkhand and Orissa are the three secondary centers of the Maratha Empire. At the same time, these are also the five main pillars of power of the Mattala Empire.

The enemies of the Marathas in the northwest are Sikhs and Ladakh. Gujarat mainly deals with Sikhs, although they are directly bordering Sikhs? The independence and expansion of the Sikh Kingdom caused heavy losses to the Indian princes there, and many Brahman nobles who inherited the previous year disappeared in the war. The British did not need to say hello to the princes there, and the Marathas would fight to the death with the invading Sikh army.

The small princes in Jalandhar and Ludhiana, which are located in the northern part of Madhya Pradesh, are completely vassals of Delhi, and Delhi must protect their interests. So the Second Army of Delhi came here. But they don't need to fight immediately. Until George went to the headquarters and got the order from above...