Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Sultan Tipu lightly shook his reins and passed quickly in front of his soldiers, and the soldier by his side immediately presented his rifle in salute, casting a respectful gaze upon him.

"Lord Jahanzeb, do you think my army can defeat the British?" Sultan Tipu turned his head to ask the slightly portly old man riding a horse behind him.

"Certainly, great Sultan," the elder named Jahanzeb Khan lifted his wide sleeves slightly and bowed, "Your great army is unmatched, and no one can stand against you."

He paused, gauging Sultan Tipu's mood, then continued, "However, the British have superior weapons, and their warships coordinate from along the coast. To be enemies with them, your army will also suffer not insignificant losses.

"Moreover, we need to rely on trade with the British to obtain the gold coins required for the reforms you're implementing."

Sultan Tipu nodded slightly. This Jahanzeb Khan was a minister heavily relied upon since his father's time, and his opinions were naturally not to be ignored.

"So, you think I should drive out those French?"

"That's not necessary," Jahanzeb Khan took two steps forward, speaking in a low voice, "They have brought quite a number of weapons and technologies, and you can completely make use of these for what you want to do.

"As for their desire to use your strength against the British, we just need to keep stringing them along.

"Right now, the most important thing is to teach Travancore a lesson with a force as colossal as mountains and seas, to deter other nations and prevent them from daring to be our enemies.

"And after the British see our strength, they will definitely choose to cooperate with us."

Sultan Tipu nodded and raised his hand to point south with his riding crop, "Then at the beginning of next month, we shall march on Travancore. As for the French, leave them to you to entertain."

"Yes, great Sultan."

In a luxurious building in the southern part of Mysore City, Lafayette paced back and forth with irritation.

He had been in India for a month now and had several times suggested to Tipu Sultan that they should take the initiative to attack the English. He had even devised the battle plans, but the stubborn leader of Mysore had yet to agree.

Here he spent each day either attending banquets or being asked to oversee military training, but he saw no hope of accomplishing the Crown Prince's plan.

And his own rapid rise to success would turn into a mirage!

Lafayette suddenly stopped and signaled for a servant to fetch his coat, then said to an attendant, "Go invite Mister Salah."

"Yes, General."

Soon, a man around thirty years old, dressed in Arab-style robes with neatly trimmed sideburns, stood outside his door, offering a chest salute and said in French tinted with a North African accent, "General, you wanted to see me?"

"Yes. Please accompany me to Ambavilas Palace; I must convince him!" Lafayette strode towards the carriage in the courtyard, "The rainy season is approaching, at which time large-scale combat is impossible."

Salah hurried to catch up, "General, you have already spoken with Tipu Sultan five times, and he seems quite reluctant to accept your opinions."

"It's all that old man named Jahanzeb!" Lafayette hopped into the carriage, frustrated, "Every time I talk about the importance of defeating the British, he interrupts with 'The British are here for trade,' and 'They bear no ill will towards Mysore'..."

"And 'the war stemmed merely from a trade dispute.'" Salah added, "He is indeed a problem. To my knowledge, there are quite a few pro-British forces in Mysore, and Jahanzeb Khan is their representative."

As the carriage slowly set off, Lafayette's eyes suddenly turned cold, "Perhaps, I really should get help from intelligence to make that guy disappear for good!"

"No, no, that's too risky," Salah said. "Perhaps you've forgotten the instructions His Royal Highness the Crown Prince gave you before you left. I believe it's time to try those methods now."

"The Crown Prince?" Lafayette immediately shook his head, the Crown Prince's "special methods" were practically a joke.

What "telling stories to the people of Mysore," "labeling those who oppose," "using mythology to guide the public opinion of Mysore," "even considering a marriage alliance with Sultan Tipu"...

Salah tentatively suggested, "If you need to be occupied with negotiating with Sultan Tipu, allow me to implement these methods of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. What do you think about that?"

Lafayette, frustrated, raked his fingers through his hair and absently said, "Do whatever you want."

When Lafayette left the palace of Sultan Tipu an hour later with a heavy heart, Salah did not return to the inn with him, but instead hurried towards the west of the city.

With the help of the intelligence bureau, Salah, the second consul of France in Mysore, easily met with Mysore's General Sheikh Khan. The intelligence bureau, though it had only been in Mysore for less than a month, quickly set up a usable intelligence network with the help of former employees of the French East India Company. They had even extended their reach beyond Mysore, into several other princely states.

Sallah, a Muslim from Tunisia, got along quite well with General Sheikh Khan, who spoke French. The latter had been part of Sultan Tipu's military reforms and had gone to Europe to study military technology. He learned French in the Ottoman Empire.

"You're right, Jahanzeb Khan must have accepted benefits from the British," Sheikh Khan, sitting cross-legged on the carpet, nodded continuously as he looked at Salah. "However, His Majesty the Sultan trusts him very much, and we can't even criticize him in front of the Sultan."

Salah came to see Sheikh Khan precisely because the man was a political opponent of Jahanzeb Khan.

Salah said with a smile, "You can completely let others oppose him."

"Others?"

"Such as the lesser nobles, or even the common people."

"I don't understand what you mean."

"If Jahanzeb Khan is pro-British, then we shall make the British lose the hearts of the people..."

Salah and Sheikh Khan discussed until 5 p.m., and Salah prepared to stand up and leave. As he was about to leave, he seemingly remembered something and said to the other, "I wonder if His Majesty the Sultan would be interested in an alliance by marriage with France?"

Upon hearing this, Sheikh Khan's face lit up with ecstasy, and he nodded vigorously without any hesitation.

You see, since the time of his father, Sultan Tipu had begun learning from Europe, aiming to strengthen Mysore. And as he continued to contact Europe and learned of the West's advancements, he unavoidably developed a strong admiration for the European powers. Basically, he was a "Europhile."

Sultan Tipu himself could speak English, French, and Turkish.

However, the European major powers were rather cool towards this indigenous person from the Far East, who was also a nonbeliever, and in the end, he had to settle for less and reached out to the Ottoman Empire.

Thus, Mysore's military training system was largely modeled after the new army of the Ottoman, and they had also learned a little from the people of the British and French East India companies.

Now that France, a top major power of Europe, expressed an interest in a marital alliance with Sultan Tipu, how could he not be ecstatic?

But Sheikh Khan immediately thought of a serious issue: "Mr. Consul, if there's a marital alliance, would it require conversion?"

"Conversion" means changing one's religious beliefs. Mysore practiced Islam or Hinduism, while France was Catholic. If there was to be a marriage, surely one side would have to convert.

Salah laughed and shook his head: "Of course not, General. Mysore could welcome a Muslim princess as a bride."