The Fox of France

Chapter 527: Negotiations (3)

The expedition team spent nearly a month returning to the vicinity of Sardinia Bay. There, they built a barracks for themselves and sealed themselves inside, not allowing anyone to enter freely. Meanwhile, the high-speed transport ship that had been anchored in Sardinia Bay quickly left the bay and headed north.

On the other hand, in India, the East India Company finally convened an expanded meeting to discuss the situation in South Africa. Compared to South Africa, the British in India actually knew more about the situation in Europe, as they could obtain information from the European continent through Turkey. By now, the French had established a wired telegraph system across Europe, organizing a transnational wired telegraph alliance, with telegraph offices even in Saint Petersburg and Istanbul.

Of course, the news coming from Turkey was not good, and many British in India did not fully trust it, but the unfavorable situation was certain. Especially after the news of the North Atlantic naval battle, the British in India became very nervous, knowing that if the British were defeated in the war, they could forget about holding onto India.

Governor Prima believed that the East India Company folks, considering the preservation of India, would definitely be willing to accept more reliable British people. However, the East India Company folks didn't see it that way. They thought, could the handful of people from Cape Town really change the fundamental balance of power? If the French ultimately triumphed in Europe, could they defend India with just those extra hands from Cape Town? That was simply a fantasy.

Thus, the future of India depended on the outcome of the war in Europe. If Europe won, then the East India Company didn't need to bring people from Cape Town here. If Europe lost, the best course of action for the East India Company's gentlemen would be to hurriedly scrape up the land in India before the French arrived, grab everything they could before leaving, and then, those of lower status and less money could take the plundered valuables and flee somewhere else, like Australia. Those of higher status had more money and connections; they had already prepared channels to store the plundered money in Roman banks before the French arrived. Then, they could buy a new identity in Austria or the German states, swagger into Paris, and live a happy and financially independent life thereafter.

With such thoughts, the response speed of the East India Company could be imagined. In short, the representative sent by Governor Prima was kicked around from one department to another by the East India Company folks, like a soccer ball. In the end, every department had its own rhetoric, each with a roadmap that always pointed the "next step" towards another department.

It's unknown if Kafka, who later wrote "The Castle," had ever been involved in such bureaucratic runarounds. However, if this novel could be brought back in time for Major Joson to read, he would certainly feel that he was completely the character "K" from the book.

He followed the roadmap given by the East India Company folks, running around like a foolish dog. He was first informed by the company that this matter had to be requested by Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, the Earl of Minto and Governor-General of India, for the company to take action.

"My friend, you know, when dealing with some political issues, the company is greatly restricted. Without Governor Elliot's approval, that's definitely not going to happen."

Thus, he was kicked from Mumbai in the west of India to Kolkata in the east. Then?

"My friend, you know, we do not have the power to make decisions. You know, according to the Act of 1784 (the 'East India Company Act'), such major decisions must be authorized by the board of control. And the board is now back home."

"That's not a problem, sir, steamships have very distinctive features, we can detect them early and avoid them."

"What about at night? Can we avoid them in advance at night?"

"We do need to be careful at night. However, their long voyages may not have enough coal, nor sufficiently good maintenance to sustain high-density cruising of their warships..."

"But overall, it's still very dangerous, right?"

Seeing Major Joson fall silent, that "superior's" superior gave a slight smile: "I think you can bypass our company, just like you bypassed the Governor-General. You can go directly to the captains and talk to them, then we will pretend we know nothing..."

Thus, Major Joson was kicked from the upper level directly to the lower level, to talk directly with those captains. Then...

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"How is that possible? They pretend not to know? Once something goes wrong, wouldn't the responsibility be on our heads? How can they pretend not to know? This won't work, it just won't work, these upper-level bastards, they just twitch their buttocks, and I know what they're about to dump! My friend, listen, this really won't work, unless you add money..."

Adding money was possible, but the price the lower-level captains were asking was a bit too exorbitant.

"Why so expensive?"

"Isn't that very normal? Think about it, this route is very risky, and we also have to fool our superiors, at least they shouldn't assign us another task while we're running this errand, and the guys upstairs are pretending not to know, not really not knowing, so we have to share the profits with many upstairs, even most of the profits have to be theirs. And, you know, if our ship is going to the Turks, I'll bring some goods and make some money along the way. But running to Cape Town, I can't bring any goods along the way. This is like running an empty ship... So, my friend, my price is really not expensive, it's very, very conscientious indeed."