Nanjing, Hot Spring Palace, Listening to the Rain Pavilion. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

A silver kettle engraved with a dragon pattern makes a soft sound on the stove, and white mist rises from the spout. Outside the bamboo curtains, raindrops dripped from the corners of the eaves and bamboo leaves, and the sound of rain was heard, and the light in the pavilion gradually dimmed, and the first spring rain of 1876 finally arrived.

Kusumoto Takako poured off the residual tea, took out the strong green new tea from the paper bag with a bamboo spoon, put it on a piece of white paper, brushed off the finely chopped tea, and put it into the purple clay pot. Then take a silver kettle and pour boiling water. Her hand was extremely steady, the boiling water flowing in was level with the spout, and the tightly rolled tea leaves stretched out with a slight sound, without spilling out at all. Obviously, he received strict training in Chinese and Japanese tea ceremony in Japan, and after following Zhu Jishi, this skill of making tea can be regarded as useful.

Gao Zi picked up the lid of the purple clay pot, skimmed off the fine foam from the spout, covered it, and poured boiling water on the pot. The tea foam rushed down the body of the pot, and a refreshing tea fragrance wafted out. After a while, the water on the body of the pot dried up. Gao Zi poured boiling water over the teacup, poured two cups again, and handed one to Zhu Jishi. The other was given to a woman dressed in an Indian veil, who was none other than Zhu Jishi's Indian Chamberlain, Queen Bayi, who was an official lady in Zhu Jishi's harem. She heard the news that the British were going to arrest her, and fled overnight on a French merchant ship to Yingtian.

Zhu Jishi picked up the teacup and took a sip, then said with a smile: "Bayi, you came just in time, Daming will soon march into Assam...... My son, King Dali, had just defeated the Anglo-Indian army at the Guling Temple near Assam in the 'one' book 'reading 'novel'. ”

The news of Zhu Guowei and Wu Changqing's defeat of the British and Indian troops reached Nanjing yesterday. The number of enemy annihilations was reported at 10,000, which may have some moisture, but the top brass of the Ming army did not care. What they cared about was that 16,700 stone of military rations were captured in this battle. It was enough for the 40,000 Ming troops and Dali troops on the front line of the Guling Temple to eat for a month. Plus the previous seizure at the Guling Temple. Zhu Guowei already had enough food in his hands for 40,000 troops to eat for more than two months, and if he doubled the number of troops, he could last for a month. A shipment of weapons and ammunition was also seized that could be supplied to the Soviet-controlled Assam resistance. Now the conditions are ripe to sneak through the Naga Hills and outflank the back of the Imphal Fortress.

"That's really good, Bayi congratulated the emperor, and the Indian people can be regarded as saved." Naturally, Bayi was overjoyed.

She came to Yingtian not only to take refuge, but also to represent a secret group of Hindu princes in India called the "Maratha Revival Alliance".

The Maratha Revival League is, of course, to revive the Maratha League, which had been destroyed by the British. It was a Hindu kingdom that was once so powerful that it nearly destroyed the Mughal Empire, but it was easily conquered by the British because it had become a loose union of states due to the implementation of a system of feudal vassals, which lost its cohesion. Queen Bayi's late husband's family was part of the Maratha National Alliance – which, by the way, is now split into two factions within the anti-British forces in India. the MSL faction, led by the descendants of the princely states of Hyderabad and the Mughal dynasty, respectively; Queen Bai and Maratha Union Peshwa (Prime Minister) Nana. The Hindu faction headed by Sahib. Both sides wanted to compete for the most territory, and the dedication of the nominal throne of Maratha to a favored prince of the Ming Dynasty was clearly the best gift that the Hindu faction could give - if it were not for the infertility of Queen Bayi, it would have been better to support Queen Bayi as the son of Zhu Ji Shisheng as Emperor of India.

"My son will be the king of the Maratha League?" Listened to the request made by Queen Bay. Zhu Jishi tilted his head and thought for a while. "What kind of territory does this Maratha alliance consist of?"

"Not counting the maharajas of Assam, almost all the Hindu maharajas are members of the Maratha Revival Alliance...... Because the Mughal Empire historically conquered almost all of India. Only the Marathas resisted to the end and managed to make some comebacks. The ancestors of almost all Hindu princes today were generals of the Maratha kingdom. ”

Zhu Jishi has long heard this history from Bayi. Before the British conquered India, India was basically divided into four major parts, one was the Mughal line of true god princes, and the more powerful ones were Hyderabad and Mysore; One is the Maratha League, where Queen Bayi belongs, all of whom are descendants of Hindu princes and Aryans; One was the Sikh Empire, which ruled over what would become Pakistan; There is also the kingdom of Assam or Ahom of the Su family - of course, they were dragged into India by the British, and were not originally part of Indian civilization.

In addition, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan were three small independent or semi-independent states that were not under the rule of British India. Before the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, these three small states were all vassals of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. However, the relationship with the Manchu Qing was not close, and after the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Jishi did not make suzerainty claims to these three countries. It was not until the relationship between the Ming Empire and the British Empire deteriorated that Zheng Yongyi, the minister stationed in Tibet, came forward to win over the Three Kingdoms. However, for these three small countries, the Ming Dynasty adopted a completely different attitude. Among them, Bhutan is regarded as a potential Zhuxia principality by the Ming because of its similar race to the Ming Dynasty and its belief in Buddhism. Niber, on the other hand, was not regarded as one of the Zhuxia because of its large number of South Asian Aryan ancestry and predominantly Hinduism, but became a Ming vassal independent of the Indian Confederacy. As for Sikkim, which was theoretically a vassal of the Lama, Emperor Zhu wanted to incorporate it into the Ming province of Tibet, and the King of Sikkim directly became a vassal of the Ming Emperor.

This time, however, Queen Bhai raised some dissenting opinions about Zhu Jishi's overall plans for India or South Asia. This is also the opinion of the princes of the Indian princely states that have been discussed repeatedly for a long time.

"Your Majesty, our Hindu princes do not want the Maratha Union to be subordinate to the Confederacy of India." Queen Bhai took a slow sip of tea, "Can the Maratha Union become an independent country?" ”

"You don't want to belong to the same country as the True God Cult?"

Queen Bhai nodded, "The Maharajas of the True God Church also do not want to be compatriots with the Hindu Maharaja, and the Sikhs also think the same. All of us can become vassals of the Ming Empire, but don't let us become brothers and sisters to each other. ”

"What about Assamese?"

"Assam? They were never part of the Maratha League. Queen Bhai shrugged. They weren't even part of India a few decades ago. ”

Zhu Jishi pondered for a moment, "Assam became the Donghui Kingdom, the Maratha Alliance became the Maratha Kingdom from India, the Sikhs restored the country in Punjab, and what about the True God Religion?" What do they want? ”

"They want to restore the Mughal Empire."

Zhu Jishi's hand holding the tea cup stopped in mid-air, and frowned after a moment. "It is impossible to restore the Mughal Empire, but both Mysore and Hyderabad can be established independently, and the Ming can guarantee their territorial and sovereign integrity. Perhaps a Delhi Sultanate could also be established to house the Christians of the Hinduth who had contributed to the expulsion of the British.

The Sindu River valley could also establish a true god state, or it could be given to Afghanistan if the king of Afghanistan was willing to go to war. Bengal was also divided into two, with East Bengal being ruled by the princely princes of the True God Church, and West Bengal being ruled by the Ba'i you, with the exception of Kolkata and its surrounding 5,000 square kilometres. ”

"West Bengal...... Give me? Queen Bayi was stunned for a moment, quickly waved her hand, and said with a smile, "I don't want it, give it all to my adopted son." I don't plan to leave Yingtian again, Your Majesty, I'll stay with you and do belly dancing, okay? ”

Zhu Jishi laughed, "This is unbelievable, you should be my concubine." But who is in charge of India? ”

"There's that and that. Sahib. Queen Bhai smiled, "As long as you can agree to the establishment of a state by the true god of India and Hinduism and Sikhism, the princes of all the princely states of India will be satisfied." In the old Chinese saying, everything is ready now, only the east wind is owed! As soon as the Great Tomorrow Army reaches Bengal, a great uprising will immediately break out in the whole of India! (To be continued......)