Chapter 485 Trip to India

The battle of Paradise Castle started too suddenly, and ended even more suddenly (I haven't thought of how to describe it here).

The army of the Kingdom of Wegin collapsed almost the moment the Austrian army appeared, and the death of the commander-in-chief made the army return to its original state - a tribal armed force.

The bodies of black soldiers were everywhere inside and outside Paradise Castle, and the tribal wizard was directly hit by a siege rocket and turned into a mud paste on the wall.

Without the spiritual leader, this group of soldiers who thought the bullets were magic immediately fled in all directions. Many of the new equipment brought by Friedrich had not been used yet, and the battle was over, which made him feel unsatisfied.

Princess Sineka, who pretended to be calm on the side, was already surging in her heart.

She had seen the scimitar warriors raised by her family riding high on war horses, but in front of the troops of this European nobleman, they were just like clowns riding wooden horses.

And this was just the Austrian navy, I really don't know how terrible their army would be. However, Sineka soon calmed down and chatted and laughed with Friedrich as usual.

A few days later, the British fleet finally arrived. Vice Admiral Raven Hoback complained that he had searched for several days in the waters of the Cape of Good Hope and could not even find the wreckage of the Austrian warship.

In desperation, Friedrich had to entertain him again.

However, the British were pleased to see the desolate appearance of Bagamoyo at this time. They felt that these Austrian rookies really did not know how to run a colony. Such a good place turned out to be like this.

After a few days of rest, the British and Austrian joint fleet set off again and first arrived in Mumbai. The local Indians held a grand welcome ceremony for them.

This made Vice Admiral Hoback feel very relieved. Although he did not like these lowly Indian ants, he was still very satisfied that he could show his prestige in front of his Austrian counterparts.

However, the British soon discovered that something was wrong. Yes, these Indians came to welcome the Austrians, not their "masters".

This is also unavoidable, after all, the smuggling trade between Austria and India is prevalent at this time. As for the loyalty of merchants, there is a flexible moral bottom line, and they are naturally loyal to whoever makes money.

Britain has seen too many times in recent years that Indians are two-faced. However, Lieutenant General Raven Hoback did not connect the two things together, after all, the two are thousands of miles apart.

Mainly in the eyes of the British, Indians seem to be the same to everyone, in short, they are inferior people who like to wag their tails and beg for mercy from others.

Friedrich actually doesn't like Indians very much, but Princess Sineka is very interested in these guys who change their minds with the wind, and thinks they are mysterious and interesting.

And these Indians became more attentive after learning that the Austrian Empire and the Omani Empire were married; because in their eyes, the Omani Empire is an existence that can completely rival the British Empire, and it will bring them a lot of benefits.

As a representative of Indian merchants, Vera Weiss naturally expressed his feelings, and other merchants and princes who wanted to get on the Austrian line also funded a grand wedding.

Of course, this is just an over-interpretation by the Indians. Friedrich and Princess Sineka were only engaged, and it was the kind that did not get the consent of the Habsburg family.

In the end, although there was no wedding, there was still a grand celebration.

The unmarried couple had a great time. Friedrich lamented that Franz had extended Austria's influence to the South Asian subcontinent, while Sineka was more and more shocked by the power of the empire.

Lieutenant General Raven Hoback and the head of the British survey team, Baron Billy Mullen, had unhappy expressions, but they could only laugh at the ignorance and stupidity of the Indians.

After all, the Austrian Navy's devilish behavior, especially the unorthodox behavior of getting off the ship and fighting land battles with others at any time, was not worthy of being the opponent of the British Empire.

In fact, Lieutenant General Hoback was very depressed in his heart. The Austrians were making trouble on land all the way. He also wanted to find a pirate to practice, but it seemed that God deliberately made things difficult for him. There was not even a single prey that came to his door in the past few days.

In fact, any pirate who saw the formation of dozens of battleships would stay away, and any thought of provoking them would be tantamount to seeking death.

After leaving Mumbai and arriving in Kolkata, the locals behaved even more exaggeratedly. This time, not only Indians, but also British compatriots of Vice Admiral Raven Hoback joined the welcoming team, and even awarded Friedrich the medal of honorary mayor.

This series of actions almost shocked the general. In fact, he didn't know that the Austrian fleet had visited here.

After all, it happened to catch up with the Indian Ocean tsunami. Now many citizens and officials in Kolkata were rescued from the ruins by Austrian naval soldiers.

And then, under Franz's strict control, Kolkata became the least affected and best recovered area in the whole of India, almost eliminating secondary disasters, while other places broke out in succession.

On the one hand, it was out of gratitude, and on the other hand, it was because Kolkata was also a "severely affected area" for smuggling trade with Austria.

Officials in the colonies knew that no matter how much they earned from normal trade, it might not be theirs. But smuggling was completely different. Even if the tax rate was low, they could still make a lot of money.

So the officials here also established a deep "friendship" with the Austrian side.

However, there were still some people in Kolkata who did not welcome the Austrians, such as the opium merchants.

The Sassoon family, known as the "Rothschild family of the East", was so scared that David Sassoon, the eldest son of the mastermind behind the Opium War, wet his pants and hid in a tree. He did not even dare to go home or enter the house.

This was because Franz held a banquet in Kolkata to win people's hearts, and Albert Sassoon brought a group of opium merchants to deliver boxes of opium.

Franz did not know what the other party was thinking, but he only knew that he was very unhappy and had to do something.

Albert Sassoon said that he would ask the two royal dukes to taste the quality of opium, but he knew very well that such young people were most likely to become addicted to drugs, because their strong desire to win and their strong desire for knowledge would make them take the initiative to try this terrible thing.

So a group of opium merchants were locked up by Franz in a room that was almost flooded by sea water, which was actually like a water dungeon.

In the cold sea water, these people had no food, only laudanum and pipes, which the guards outside would provide them with unlimited.

Several people died after just one day of detention, but Franz didn't care. He just said to keep them for two more days. Friedrich forgot about it and only remembered it a week later.

In the end, only a few of the more than 30 opium merchants survived. These people relied on drinking opium and eating rat corpses to maintain their basic body functions.

So Albert Sassoon, the drug lord who was feared by East Asians, hid in the tree and trembled when he heard that the Austrians were back.

However, Franz did not forget this family. He even prepared coffins for these people.