Twentieth Century Chronicle

Page 77

So he settled down opposite Lin Xinyi, who had set up a small command post there—basically a wooden shed. While the view was excellent, the mountain winds were quite biting. Therefore, sitting there and enjoying a cup of hot tea was quite a treat.

After taking a sip of tea to warm himself up, Wu Luzhen said, "The tea from Darjeeling is quite good. It's not that I don't want to keep an eye on Gyantse's affairs, it's just that things have already started in Hubei, right? Zhang Yintang asked me what our plans are. Also, he wanted to ask where you're planning to go. Taking back Sikkim and Bhutan is enough; we can't hold onto anything more."

Lin Xinyi shook his head and said, "Even Sikkim and Bhutan are places we can't hold. If the British hadn't been caught off guard, we wouldn't have won at all. Once the British realize what's going on and figure out our strengths, with the manpower and resources of an entire Indian subcontinent, how could they not take the southern foothills of the Himalayas?"

If they were to gradually squeeze our territory with their sheer numbers, even if we traded one for a hundred, we would still fail. What's putting the British in a dilemma now is that internal conflicts within British India are intensifying, which is why they can't mobilize the entire Indian subcontinent to deal with us.

We're essentially stalling for time, waiting for the Indian people to awaken and rise up to challenge the British. An Indian nation seeking independence from the British Empire won't covet this mountainous region, at least not before independence.

After thinking it over, Wu Luzhen could only admit that Lin Xinyi was right. If the British were to quell the internal strife, they would have no choice but to retreat to the plateau. It would be good if Sikkim and Bhutan could fight guerrilla warfare for a few years.

While the two were talking, the first British attack on the opposite hillside had been repelled. Li Gen, stationed on the hilltop, hadn't even ordered the use of the Maxim machine guns. He walked along the trench, constantly berating the soldiers who weren't following tactical procedures, "...What's there to panic about? We have fortifications, they don't. You just need to follow the tactical requirements, aim, and pull the trigger. What's the rush..."

On the mountainside, Lieutenant Wavell, who had retreated, reported to Lieutenant Colonel Mellis: "The Chinese are well prepared. I think it's impossible to break through from the front. We should send a force to circle around from the dense forest on the east side, and focus on a feint attack from the front."

Lieutenant Colonel Mellis glanced gravely at the mountaintop. The Chinese fortifications were ingeniously designed; hardly anyone could be seen on them. Even with a cannon at his disposal, he might not be able to hit the Chinese inside. He then looked eastward, beyond a ridgeline, at the dense forest, and said hesitantly, "The Chinese have set up such excellent fortifications on the mountaintop; wouldn't they have noticed the dense forest to the east?"

Lieutenant Wavell insisted, "We have to try no matter what. Charging straight up would just make us easy targets for the Chinese. Those Indian soldiers don't have the courage to keep going..."

Chapter 268 Battle Without Experience

Unbeknownst to the British, the Chinese army in Gershyam consisted of three battalions. While two of these battalions were composed of new recruits, one was made up of veterans who had fought in the Tibet campaign. Although Lin Xinyi did not appreciate trench warfare, he believed that constructing necessary fortifications should be a basic skill for the army, and therefore the Marine Corps School had invested considerable effort in this area.

The Marine Corps School not only taught old defensive tactics but also introduced new defensive concepts, such as how to defend against their own inventions: mortars and grenades. The defensive tactical concepts of the Marine Corps School were fully embodied in the fortifications along the ridge in Tindalia. The reason Lin Xinyi didn't order a guerrilla-style interception of the British forces along the way was to allow the recruits to familiarize themselves with combat tactics here.

If there were time, no one would send a group of new recruits to the battlefield to learn warfare, but what the Shannan Detachment lacked most right now was time, so these new recruits, who had been in the army for less than half a month, were only taught how to obey orders and how to fire a gun before being sent into the trenches.

Both Li Tang and Li Gen understood Lin Xinyi's objective for this battle: to train the troops. Therefore, they avoided using unconventional tactics, such as having snipers kill British officers or using Maxim machine guns to mow down groups of infantry. The British performed as expected; they wouldn't crawl or disperse, and when subjected to heavy rifle fire, the Indian soldiers quickly turned and fled, forcing the British officers to retreat as well.

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Mellis quickly realized something was wrong. After two failed attacks, even though they were feints, he could tell the difference from the gunfire. The Chinese troops above must have had many new recruits and only a few veterans. Whenever a burst of gunfire rang out, it meant the attacking force was collapsing. Clearly, the Chinese were using his troops for training.

Lieutenant Wavell's maneuver through the dense jungle was a complete disaster. Although he led a Gurkha company into the forest—and these Gurkhas were indeed adept at traversing mountains—the British and Indian forces had already lost half of their Gurkha companies during the Tibetan Expedition, and this time they could only muster a battalion of Gurkhas. However, their skill in traversing mountains did not mean they could advance through the trap-filled jungle, especially when another Gurkha force was lying in ambush within.

While dealing with the attack from the Chinese army, Lieutenant Wavell accidentally stepped into a trap and was shot in the thigh by a bamboo arrow. However, his men suffered even worse fates. Some stepped directly into bamboo nails buried under fallen leaves, some were crushed to death by falling logs, and some had their legs broken by traps used to hunt wild animals.

If the Bhutanese and Gurkhas are skilled hunters in the mountains, then scientifically optimized traps and various psychologically manipulative traps have transformed their prey from animals to people. Although the British used the Gurkhas as a mountain force, they did not invent any new mountain warfare tactics; they simply utilized the skills the Gurkhas honed from childhood in the mountains.

The Chinese army, however, was completely different. Although they also absorbed the Gurkha and Bhutanese who were good at moving in the mountains and forests, under Lin Xinyi's leadership, the hunting experience of these mountain hunters was summarized and combined with guerrilla tactics, and a preliminary mountain warfare method was completed. The company of Gurkhas led by Lieutenant Wavell became the first test subjects of this tactic.

The entire Gurkhas collapsed before even triggering the second line of defense. The Chinese army had established two lines of defense in the dense forest. The first line of defense mainly consisted of traps set with melee weapons to disrupt the organization and structure of the attacking troops and create chaos. The second line of defense was equipped with explosives, with the primary purpose of causing casualties.

However, it is clear that while the Gurkhas were described as brave and fearless by the British, this actually referred to their willingness to climb seemingly dangerous steep slopes and cliffs and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. Apart from a few martial ethnic groups such as the Sikhs and Marathas, few Indian soldiers were willing to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy; however, only the Sikhs were willing to participate in large-scale operations within the British Indian Army.

This weakness of the British Indian Army was actually exposed in both the Boer War and the Eight-Nation Alliance invasion of China. The ineffectiveness of the British forces under Vice Admiral Seymour's command drew the attention of other armies, to the point that the British had to relinquish command of the Allied forces. British officers could instruct Indian soldiers to line up and fire with whips, but they couldn't get them to engage in hand-to-hand combat with bayonets under the whip. Therefore, the Gurkhas and Sikhs who dared to fight hand-to-hand were regarded as brave by the British.

However, this bravery was nothing more than reckless courage, because their bravery was not supported by anything substantial, and was even less than that of an army incited by nationalist slogans. When they realized that the jungle was full of traps and that they would either die from enemy bullets or be wounded or killed in the traps, the Gurkhas in the British army also turned and fled, even abandoning their officers.

Upon learning that Lieutenant Wavell's attack plan had failed and that he himself had not escaped, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Mellis felt a sense of foreboding. He gathered his officers and said to them, "Now we only have two options: either let the British infantry charge once and try to take the hill in one go, or retreat now."

The officers were surprised by the two suggestions given by the lieutenant colonel, because so far, apart from Lieutenant Wavell's company suffering heavy losses in the dense forest, with only fifty or sixty of the more than one hundred men escaping back, the total number of dead and wounded on the frontal attack battlefield was only fifty or sixty. They had 12 companies, and now they had only lost one company. It was obviously unreasonable to choose to retreat under such circumstances.

Therefore, an officer quickly argued, "Of course we should continue the attack. We won't be able to reach Tindhariya before dark if we retreat from here. If the Chinese start pursuing us, we'll lose all our supplies, and who knows how many more will die along the way. It's better to let them die on the charge than on the retreat. I can tell the Chinese gunfire is chaotic; most of them must be new recruits with poor marksmanship, otherwise we wouldn't have lost so few men..."

Although Lieutenant Colonel Merlis remained uneasy, believing the Chinese would have machine guns, the absence of any machine gun fire during previous attacks fueled a sliver of hope. He reasoned that either the Chinese hadn't brought machine guns, or they lacked the personnel to operate them. Machine guns, unlike rifles, were prone to malfunction without specialized training. This was why Indians were forbidden from operating machine guns in the British Indian Army—partly out of caution, and partly because they were believed Indians lacked the technical skill to handle such expensive weapons and would likely damage them.

However, many old-fashioned British officers were actually prejudiced against machine guns. On the one hand, they did not believe that machine guns were reliable. After all, could they really hit a person by firing so many bullets in such a short time? On the other hand, they felt that this thing was too wasteful of bullets and was simply a waste of money, because it only takes one bullet to kill a person.

Lieutenant Colonel Merlis, while not exactly a die-hard old man, only knew of machine guns as a sophisticated weapon that only a specialized gunner could operate. Despite his subordinates' objections, he ultimately decided to launch one last attack of the day, using a British infantry battalion as the main force. To prevent the Chinese from actually having machine guns, he even deliberately dispersed the troops' formation.

Lieutenant Colonel Mellis, however, had never witnessed a machine gun battle. His envisioned dispersed formation was merely a change from a close-knit line to a looser formation with two or three people gaps in the middle. He didn't make any significant changes to the front and rear ranks of the attacking troops; it remained an enlarged firing squad.

To be fair, the British infantry were indeed much braver than the Indian soldiers. Under the fire of the Chinese army, they maintained a constant pace as they climbed the mountaintop, without suddenly collapsing after being hit by a burst of intense fire. As a result, Li Gen and Li Tang, who were in charge of the defensive operation, had to order six machine guns to join the firing.

On the mile-long battlefield, the British infantry's frontal formation was less than 150 meters wide, with four infantry companies advancing in four staggered lines towards the hilltop. While this formation was indeed somewhat loose on the battlefield where firing squads were being lined up, it remained a dense target for machine gunners.

Upon hearing the machine gun fire, the Indian soldiers on the flanks of the British infantry immediately turned and fled. The British infantry company left in the middle became the primary target of machine gun and rifle fire. The British held out for about 45 seconds longer than the Indians before finally collapsing. These 45 seconds inflicted heavy casualties on the British infantry company; of the four companies that withdrew from the hillside, fewer than two remained.

Seeing this, Lieutenant Colonel Merlis turned ashen-faced; he knew this campaign was doomed. This retreat had even demoralized the Indian soldiers, and many had begun fleeing back the way they came, as if a tiger were chasing them.

Seeing that the unit had completely lost its organization, the officers surrounding the lieutenant colonel could only help him retreat. However, Lieutenant Colonel Mellis did not want to run. He said dejectedly to the officers around him, "It's too late to retreat now." However, the officers around him ignored the lieutenant colonel's words and simply pushed the fleeing soldiers forward with their heads covered.

At this moment, Li Tang and Li Gen on the hilltop reacted a beat too slowly. The battle they had just fought with the British army had kept them in a defensive mindset. Therefore, when they saw the British army turn from retreat to a rout, they had not yet reacted and did not order their men to jump out of the fortifications for a pursuit. It was not until the British army had completely lost its formation that the two ordered the reserve force to rush down the mountain.

Seeing this scene, Wu Luzhen, who was standing on the opposite hilltop, couldn't help but stop and say, "How could you stand there in a daze at a time like this? If you had rushed down with the retreating British troops earlier, none of these people would have been able to escape."

Lin Xinyi said nonchalantly, "They're all new recruits after all, so their lack of experience is understandable. But it's impossible for them to run back. Tindhariya should already be in our hands; this is Sikkimese territory..."

Chapter 269 Ceasefire Proposal

When an army begins to flee, its organization ceases to exist. The British army appeared to have at least eight companies remaining, but in reality, it consisted of only 800 men. Until they were reorganized, none of these 8 would obey orders from others; they would only follow their most fundamental desire—to escape.

Although British officers attempted to stop and regroup their troops during the escape, the Chinese army relentlessly pursued them, launching swift attacks whenever anyone stopped, dispersing the crowd once again. Under this pursuit, apart from the British, the other Indian soldiers refused to stop any longer; they even discarded their weapons and backpacks in order to run faster.

After running about 5 kilometers, Lieutenant Colonel Mellis felt as if his lungs were on fire, and his legs kept slipping. Although his officer's boots were sturdy, they were really not suitable for running on such mountain roads. He finally shook off his subordinates' hands that were supporting him and said, panting heavily, "No, I'm not running anymore."

As his men stared at him in astonishment, the lieutenant colonel, having caught his breath, finally managed to say a complete sentence: “We’re on a fox hunt. Once we’re exhausted, the hounds will easily tear us to shreds. Surrender here with honor, and don’t let our soldiers have died in vain.”

When Li Tang led Lieutenant Colonel Merlis to Gersyan, the sun was already setting. The golden sunlight adorned the town before them like an oil painting, but Lieutenant Colonel Merlis was not fooled by this illusion.

This wasn't his first time visiting Gersyan. As the largest village between Siliguri and Darjeeling, the train arrived just in time for lunch or dinner, so there were still some nice British-style hotels for tourists to rest and eat.

Outside the hotel, however, lay a filthy market and hordes of begging children, mostly the children of workers from nearby tea plantations, for whom begging was a way to stave off hunger. This was because the tea plantations closed during the peak season when tourists flocked to the area to escape the summer heat.

But this time, when he entered Gersyan, he didn't see the hordes of child beggars, which surprised him. Could the tea plantations still be operating at this time? The streets were also cleaner, and it did look somewhat like a small European town.

While surveying the surroundings, Lieutenant Colonel Merlis was taken to the town's most famous hotel, the Clarendon Hotel, a British-invested establishment renowned for its fine British beef. Previously, tourists visiting Darjeeling could order food below the Great S-Bend and then enjoy a meal at the Clarendon Hotel after reaching Gersyan; without ordering in advance, they might not be able to get a table.

Now, the restaurant with its stunning snow-capped mountain view has been transformed into a war room filled with various maps. When the lieutenant colonel entered the restaurant, he noticed five or six pairs of eyes looking at him, but they quickly looked away and resumed their hushed discussions about the battle plan while looking at the maps. Then, two young men in military uniforms approached him.

The lieutenant colonel immediately recognized that the Chinese men's uniforms were modeled after German ones. Although the shoulder insignia of the two young men indicated that one was a colonel and the other a captain, the captain-looking young man seemed to be the officer in charge. Although he never paid much attention to the ranks of Easterners, he still saluted the colonel and said, "Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Mellis greets you. May I ask who defeated me?"

Wu Luzhen instinctively stepped aside, then returned the greeting and said, "It wasn't me who defeated you, it was this Captain Lin Feng."

Lin Xinyi, however, didn't seem to care. He simply gestured for them to sit down and said, "Lieutenant Colonel Mellis, let's sit down and talk. I have a lot to do, so we'd better not waste any more time."

The lieutenant colonel glanced at Lin Xinyi and then silently sat down in the seat by the window. Lin Xinyi poured him a cup of black tea and said, "Lieutenant Colonel, let's get straight to the point. Many of your men are seriously injured. We have no doctors and no extra medicine. I think it's inhumane to leave them to die."

Therefore, I would like to issue a statement with you, calling on the British Indian government to temporarily cease hostilities with us so that we can send these seriously wounded down the mountain. In addition, we also need some medicine and food to treat the lightly wounded and to feed your prisoners. What do you think?

Although the lieutenant colonel felt his throat was on fire, he didn't pick up the fragrant black tea in front of him. He looked at Lin Xinyi with a solemn expression and said, "If it's just to get the wounded down the mountain, I'm certainly willing to make this statement. But I can't guarantee that Calcutta will send medicine and food up the mountain. If that's the case, are you still willing to get those wounded down the mountain?"

Lin Xinyi replied without hesitation, “Of course, we are fighting to protect our people, not to satisfy our own bloodlust. Even if British imperialism is a bunch of lunatics, we won't compete with them to see who is more cruel. Although the wounded we bring down the mountain may not accept our good intentions, I believe that some will eventually wake up from their imperialist illusions. Then we will have eliminated one of these imperialist lunatics. What's wrong with that?”

Lieutenant Colonel Merlis was momentarily at a loss for words. If someone had told him in the past that imperialists were a bunch of lunatics, he would have scoffed at it. Without the sacrifices of these imperialists, where would the British Empire be? However, after being captured by the Chinese, his thoughts had changed somewhat.

The imperial high command that sent Colonel Francis Janhasben to Tibet to conquer the Chinese were nothing but a bunch of lunatics. The Chinese had shown absolutely no interest in India; the empire was simply encroaching on Chinese territory, from Sikkim and Bhutan to the Chumbi Valley. The empire's policy of advance lacked a real objective. If they successfully captured Lhasa this time, the next target would be Chengdu or Kashgar.

It's no surprise that the Chinese rose up and fought them to the death. The real scoundrels were the imperial high command who sent him and the other British to fight this war against China. They wouldn't even give the Indian soldiers a second glance when they inspected the army, but they always liked to draw a line on the map and then send troops to occupy it. In the end, the credit was theirs. It's so damn shameless.

Lieutenant Colonel Mellis suppressed his last shred of arrogance, picked up the teacup in front of him, and drank it all in one gulp. The warm tea soothed his throat, and he calmed down. He then said to Lin Xinyi, "I am willing to make such a statement, but may I go and see my men now? I want to know how many people need help."

Lin Xinyi waved to the guards at the door, then stood up and said to the lieutenant colonel, "Thank you very much for your cooperation. He will take you to the place where the wounded are being cared for. Also, please have your men cooperate with us to register their identities and backgrounds. We need some skilled people to help us repair the railway and locomotives, and we also need manpower to help repair houses and roads..."

Watching the lieutenant colonel leave dejectedly, Wu Luzhen asked Lin Xinyi with some surprise, "Making a ceasefire with the British now? Isn't that giving them a chance to catch their breath? Shouldn't we take advantage of the British's lack of reaction, rush down the mountain, give them a good beating, and then retreat?"

Lin Xinyi glanced at him and said, "It's the season for spring planting and spring tea picking now."

Wu Luzhen asked, somewhat puzzled, "What does this have to do with our war? You're not thinking of disbanding the army and sending them back to spring planting and tea picking, are you?"

Lin Xinyi nodded and said, "If a ceasefire can be reached, I will allow some people to take leave and go back to work. We are fighting the British to protect our lives, not to kill as many British people as possible."

London has plenty of unemployed workers, and if the British government wanted, they could quickly assemble a British army of 100,000 to go to India. Following the principle of a one-to-two ratio for troop building, the British Indian government could recruit 200,000 Indian troops, thus creating a large army of 300,000.

Therefore, we should not presume to eliminate the British Empire's potential in terms of manpower; what we need to eliminate is the British Empire's desire for war. The British Empire's desire for war is determined by the common people, not the nobles and capitalists. If the nobles and capitalists themselves were to take to the battlefield and fight us, then there would be no British Empire.

Why would civilians fight us? They're simply blinded by the illusions of imperialism and nationalism. We need those wounded to go back and tell the British that imperialist wars bring no honor, only pain and shame. Only then will the British proletariat wake up.

The real battlefield isn't here, but down in the mountains and in Europe, in the newspapers. This is a long battle, and we need to constantly maintain the fighting spirit of the people, ensuring they don't think the war will end after just one defeat of the British. Therefore, living while fighting must become the norm; we must learn how to live in battle, and maintain a fighting spirit in daily life—this is our path to victory.

Although the prisoners' quarters were rudimentary, Lieutenant Colonel Mellis had to admit that at least the Chinese had kept it clean, which was quite good. But what surprised him even more was seeing his subordinate. "Lieutenant, you're still alive! I thought I'd never see you again. I don't know how I'm going to explain this to your father."

Lieutenant Wavell, lying in bed, gave the lieutenant colonel a feeble salute and said, "I was lucky; I only took an arrow to the thigh, and the doctor told me it almost hit a major artery. However, my entire company is wiped out."

Lieutenant Colonel Mellis, standing beside the lieutenant's bed, remained silent for a moment before speaking, "No, it's my brigade that's finished. Get some rest, I'll find a way to get you down the mountain for treatment..."

Lieutenant Colonel Merlis's judgment was correct. The Indian soldiers who desperately ran to Tindhariya were merely being held captive by the Chinese troops stationed there. The British had only a few roads leading to Darjeeling, but the Sikkimese knew countless trails. After the main British force left, these Sikkimese led the Chinese troops around to their rear.

Lin Xinyi dispatched two battalions to attack the villages between Tindhariya and Sukna, leaving Lieutenant Colonel Merlis with no way to retreat. The only drawback was that Deng Yulin and Harry Singh attempted to overrun the garrison at Sukna, where the British had stationed a battalion to monitor the pass and serve as a reserve force for Lieutenant Colonel Merlis.

Although Lieutenant Colonel Merlis remained unharmed after entering the mountains, giving the British troops there a false sense of security, Deng Yulin and Harry Singh's attempt to wipe out over 400 men with only 600 was overconfident. After all, Sukna was only 10 kilometers from Siliguri, so when the raid was thwarted by the British, the battle quickly became a stalemate. With reinforcements arriving from Siliguri, Deng Yulin had no choice but to order a retreat.

In the Battle of Sukhna, the Chinese suffered 80-90 casualties, while the British lost over 150-160 men and had a supply depot burned down. Although Lin Xinyi did not believe he had gained an advantage, it was a major shock to the British, as this was a real attack on an Indian city, not the previously childish occupation of Siliguri.

Chapter 270 The Chaos in the British Indian Government

The Battle of Sukna actually had a greater impact on the Indian people than the defeat of the Merlis Brigade, because the defeat of the Merlis Brigade would not affect their lives, but the Battle of Sukna left a lasting impression on ordinary Indians.

During the first Chinese occupation of Siliguri, they not only forced local landlords and merchants to waive their debts, but also spent all the county's taxes and the taxes paid for goods transported there for transshipment. In addition, they forced some wealthy residents in the city to lend them money in the name of the British Indian government, which actually created economic disputes in the area.

The British refused to take responsibility for the loans made by these Chinese, despite the signatures of the county magistrate and tax officials on them, which they considered to be coerced and therefore legally invalid. Similarly, the British believed that the Chinese misappropriation of local tax revenue and tax funds awaiting transfer was illegal, even though the documents bore the signatures of the county magistrate and tax officials.

Therefore, the British insisted that the landowners and merchants who had received the money should return it to the national treasury, but did not cancel the already closed debt cases. In other words, the British wanted the landowners and merchants to bear the losses this time, and were unwilling to offend the farmers for a small amount of money.

There were only a handful of wealthy families in Siliguri, so most of the farmers' debts were related to them. If the British were to pursue the farmers for their debts, or support the landowners in doing so, it would only make the farmers in the region opponents of the British Indian government, which the British naturally wouldn't do. The British tolerated the existence of these landowners precisely so that they would bear the brunt of the farmers' anger, not the other way around.

The entire state of Bengal operates under the Zamindar system of land ownership, where the tax farmers are essentially the government's tax collectors. They possess the right to levy taxes and govern the land. This is why the county tax official also oversees administration, while the county magistrate only oversees the courts, because the county magistrate has no way to control the tax farmers on a daily basis.

Below the tax farmers were the perpetual tenants, who were the actual operators of the land and the de facto rulers of the countryside, more akin to the Chinese concept of landlords. These perpetual tenants shared the majority of the rent with the tax farmers, paying only the remaining ten percent to the British Indian government. This is why county tax officials often increased the rent per acre; no matter how much they increased it, they could only raise the government's share from one-tenth to two or three-tenths.

Of course, some were willing to cooperate with the county tax collectors, reducing their total land rent to pay less tax and sending the rest of the tax money directly into the tax collectors' pockets. But in any case, the perpetual tenants and tax farmers were the rulers of the countryside. They collected taxes for the British and helped them suppress peasant rebellions, so they naturally deserved the peasants' anger.

The British effectively replaced the Indian emperor, and their rule over India was essentially a rule over these tax-farming landowners, not over the Indian peasantry. The British Indian Army was more like the Eight Banners, an armed force unrelated to the Indians but supplied by them; it protected British rule over India, not the integrity of India.

Ordinary Chinese people wouldn't care about the victories or defeats of the Eight Banners troops, and the Indian public would naturally care even less about the defeat of the Meris Brigade; in fact, Indian intellectuals in Calcutta might even gloat over it. But the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was different. This peasant army, which believed in God, directly impacted the rule of the southern landlords, thus giving rise to the Xiang Army and Huai Army, which carried their own provisions.

The situation was similar in Siliguri. Although the tax farmers and permanent tenants were arguing fiercely with the British and were forced to hand over their property to cover the misappropriated tax revenue in the county, they still did not want the Chinese to come down from the mountains. This was because the actions of the Chinese in Siliguri last time had made them realize that these Chinese were different from the British. The British only wanted money, while the Chinese were destroying their authority in the countryside.

However, the British completely disregarded the landowners' allegiance to them; they were now in a state of utter chaos. When Sukner was attacked, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Rawlinson, stationed in Siliguri, already sensed something was wrong and felt that the Merlis Brigade was likely doomed. Sure enough, three days later, Darjeeling Commissioner Charles Bell, accompanied by a group of Indian porters carrying a group of wounded men, emerged from the pass with a joint statement from Lieutenant Colonel Merlis and the Chinese.

Lieutenant Colonel Henry Rawlinson knew he couldn't possibly respond to this statement. He had neither the extra troops to rescue Lieutenant Colonel Merlis nor the ability to tell the Chinese that even if the wounded died on the mountain, he wouldn't give them a single pill or a grain of food. After all, there were hundreds of British soldiers wounded on the mountain, not just Indians. Therefore, he could only pass the problem on to Calcutta.

Lord Kitchener, the commander-in-chief of the British Indian Army, knew that rushing into Darjeeling was not a good idea, but the news of the annihilation of the Merlis Brigade still shocked him. He did not expect that the Indian army was even worse than the Arabs, while the Chinese seemed to have transcended the realm of barbarian fighting power, and should at least not be worse than the Italians.

But for Lord Kitchener, the bad news didn't end there. Lieutenant Colonel Henry Rawlinson could keep the wounded soldiers quiet, but he couldn't stop Darjeeling Commissioner Charles Bell from speaking to reporters. Thus, the joint statement between Lieutenant Colonel Mellis and the Chinese was spread around.

The British newspapers in India did not blame the defeat on Lieutenant Colonel Merlis. Instead, they pointed the finger at Sir Lord Curzon, the Governor-General who launched the expedition to Tibet, and Lord Kitchener, the Commander-in-Chief of the British Indian Army, believing that these two ambitious but incompetent reformers had made a mess of the situation in British India.

The British who had settled in India were not complaining about a complete mess, but rather about the mess brought about by the reforms. Whether it was the Governor-General or the Commander-in-Chief, they all advocated for reforms to the British government, only with different focuses. These reforms naturally touched upon the interests of these British people in India.

Compared to the British aristocrats who came to Britain for a degree and could return to London for promotions, ordinary Britons didn't care about the interests of the British Empire at all; what they cared about was the benefits the British Empire brought them. Curzon's attempts to partition Bengal, reform the civil service system of British India, and accept more Indian elites had already infringed on the interests of British officials. Lord Kitchener went even further, attempting to gradually hand over India to Indians to manage themselves, just as he had done in Sudan.

However, neither Sir Curzon nor Lord Kitchener represented themselves, but rather the will of London. Clearly, London could no longer tolerate the rampant corruption within the British Indian government. This not only undermined British rule in India but also damaged the British civil service system, because corruption, like a plague, cannot be confined to one place.

These British officials in British India were powerless against the Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief, who were backed by London, and the escalating nationalist sentiment in India against the partition of Bengal was, in a sense, a result of their deliberate indulgence. They knew very well that London's reforms to the British Indian government were intended to consolidate British rule over India, not to eliminate corruption. Therefore, once Indian nationalist sentiment was provoked, Sir Curzon would have no choice but to leave.

Without the support of the noble-born Sir Curzon, Lord Kitchener could no longer remain in India. As for Indian nationalism, it was not a major issue for these British officials. They knew the Indian elite all too well; these people were all talk and no action, but if asked to touch the interests of the landowners, they would all cower like turtles.

So, would the Indian landowners support those Indian elites? Clearly not. Because over the past century, the Indian landowners had long been subdued by the British army, and they understood better than the elites who truly owned the land. Furthermore, the infighting among the Indian landowners gave the British sufficient confidence to subdue them.

Compared to Sir Curzon's reforms, they would rather see a national uprising erupt in India. With this mindset, the British stationed in India naturally wouldn't speak favorably of the Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief, and would naturally sympathize with the plight of the Merlis Brigade. Therefore, these newspapers strongly appealed that the Chinese request for a temporary ceasefire to exchange for the wounded should be granted.

Meanwhile, another powerful group joined the pressure on the British government: the Tea Association of India. Although it was a guild-like organization composed of Indian tea plantation owners, the Indian tea industry had intricate connections with London's banking sector, and their influence extended far beyond India.

Of the more than one hundred tea plantations in the Darjeeling region, all but one belong to the British. Although Darjeeling's tea production accounts for only two or three percent of India's total tea production, its value accounts for five or six percent. This is because only Darjeeling tea can rival high-end teas from China, making it the face of Indian tea.

For these British tea plantation owners, the tea gardens in Darjeeling were the foundation, because a good tea brand, like a winery, needs distinctive features to support it. Mid- to low-end teas from Bangladesh, Assam, and Chittagong could only fool the working class, while the substantial profits of British tea actually came from the bourgeoisie.

These middle-class individuals, who emulate the lifestyle of the aristocracy, consider their wealth to be derived from their intelligence rather than their birth, yet they do not wish to live the same life as the working class. Their greatest fear is becoming part of the working class again. Therefore, they are willing to spend large sums of money to enjoy everything that the aristocracy can enjoy. A large portion of Darjeeling tea or Indian tea blended with Darjeeling tea is prepared for these bourgeois individuals.

Although capitalism has not yet mastered consumer psychology, it knows that consumers' dependence on brands is like opium addiction. If you try to wean them off it, they will quickly switch to a new brand. Just like the British switching from Chinese tea to Indian tea, it didn't take much effort. It wasn't because Indian tea tasted better than Chinese tea, but because there was no Chinese tea on the market.

To maintain their tea brand, they naturally hoped the British army could recapture Darjeeling as soon as possible, and they were among those urging the Merlis Brigade to attack. However, once they realized that force couldn't solve the problem, and the Chinese were willing to temporarily cease hostilities and resume tea production—although the Chinese conditions were harsh—they could temporarily maintain their brand, which was certainly acceptable. They figured they could wait until after the spring tea harvest before launching another attack; that was the British tea plantation owners' perspective.

Chapter 271 Holding back

When news of Lieutenant Colonel Merlis's defeat reached Calcutta, Sir Curzon had given up hope that the Indian army could regain its honor. He felt that the priority was to persuade the Nepalese to attack the Chinese rear so that the Indian army could retake Darjeeling and Kalimpong.

By this time, Sir Curzon was no longer interested in the status of Sikkim and Bhutan; he believed this was a matter for the next Viceroy of India to consider. However, before leaving India, he hoped he would not become the first Viceroy to resign after losing Indian territory. Darjeeling and Kalimpong were Indian territory according to the treaty, and losing them would be a humiliating defeat for an imperialist.

Sir Curzon found it hard to imagine the uproar he would experience upon returning to London and passionately advocating for the interests of the British Empire in Parliament, only to be met with someone asking who had lost Darjeeling and Kallenburg. Was he perhaps planning to abandon the Conservatives and embrace pacifism upon his return to London?

The pressure from the Indian Tea Association was actually a boon for him, because he needed time to persuade the damned Nepalese. The Rana family of Nepal was making excuses for the British Indian government's demands, using the pretext of domestic tensions to avoid getting involved in the conflict between China and Britain. The temporary ceasefire would allow him to send people to put further pressure on the Rana family of Nepal.

If Chandra Shamsheel continues to be uncooperative, then he wouldn't mind replacing him with another Shamsheel. Perhaps he can't do anything about the Chinese, but it would be much simpler for the Rana family, as there are countless Shamsheels who want the support of the British.

Sir Curzon's stance left Lord Kitchener feeling helpless, but the resistance from his officers was even more embarrassing. Lord Kitchener used the Teesta River as a dividing line: the area east of the Teesta and north of the Jamuna River was the eastern defense zone, mainly responsible for the area below Bhutan, defended by seven battalions led by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Townsend; west of the Teesta River to the Gosi River, roughly blocking the border between Sikkim and the Kingdom of Nepal with the Indian plains, 15 battalions were stationed there.

Frankly, Lord Kitchener had gone to great lengths to mobilize these 22 battalions from various locations, as his reorganization of the Indian army was not yet complete, and the Indian soldiers still harbored a fear of fighting far from home. In fact, he had already begun considering recruiting new soldiers to form a new Indian army and building a separation wall at the foot of the Himalayas, just as he had done during the Boer War.

However, the plan was rejected by Sir Curzon. His reason was simple: he asked, "Isn't building a wall at the foot of the Himalayas and then arranging for troops to patrol it more expensive than sending troops from Nepal? And would London agree to conscript new soldiers at this time?"

Lord Kitchener also knew that it was only a matter of time before the Conservative government fell from power. This was not only due to the Pyrrhic victory in the Boer War and the failure of the Tibetan expedition, but also because the Russians, Germans, and French had all become uncontrollable. The imperial subjects were dissatisfied with the overly aggressive Conservative foreign policy, believing that it would drag Britain into a war it should not have intervened in.

After the Boer War and the Tibetan expedition, the British Empire's subjects developed doubts about its armed forces. They feared conflict with Russia or Germany in the Far East or Europe, and everyone was waiting for a moderate party that advocated peace to come to power and rebalance the world order through foreign policy, rather than resorting to force.

If the Conservative Party were to issue a conscription order to expand the army at this time, it would not only provoke European countries, but also further offend domestic pacifists. In that case, the Conservative Party would not only lose its power to govern, but also lose its seats in parliament.

After Lord Kitchener was turned away by Sir Curzon, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Townsend dealt him another heavy blow. The commander of the Eastern District was quite dissatisfied with his position, and after learning of Lieutenant Colonel Mellis's failure, he spoke out bluntly to reporters: "Lord Kitchener has indeed received many honors in the past, but his honors have blinded him."