The sudden announcent of the Mysore-France marriage alliance caught everyone involved off guard, including the Marquis de Lafayette.
As he exited Amba Vilasa Palace, Lafayette turned to Salah, his tone filled with confusion and surprise. "You really intend to arrange a marriage with these locals?"
Salah responded with a polite smile. "This is a bargaining chip the Prince left us. It's sothing we can play when necessary, and as you ntioned, the rainy season is fast approaching. Besides, it's just the Duke of Haj and Mysore's alliance; it won't affect the royal family much. According to the secret agreent, the marriage will remain undisclosed until the British leave the Indian subcontinent. The wedding will be held in secret, and the dowry will be delivered. This won't affect Anglo-French diplomacy in the short term. Oh, and there's the £600,000 bride price! That's more than enough to cover the costs of bringing two regints from France here."
Indeed, Salah, with his silver tongue, had managed to convince Tipu Sultan to increase the bride price by an additional £100,000 during their discussions.
"Do as you please..." Lafayette, disinterested in these political maneuvers, remained anxious. "But Tipu didn't respond to my suggestion of attacking the British. Your marriage plan doesn't seem to be having much effect."
"This is just part of the plan," Salah said as he joined Lafayette in the carriage, closing the door behind him. "It's bringing us closer to Mysore, and we've gained an important ally—General Sheikh Khan. By the way, Marquis, I'll need to request an additional 100,000 livres for expenses."
As the main person in charge of the Indian strategy, Lafayette managed both the troops and the finances. Joseph had allocated a hefty sum of 700,000 livres for this mission.
"What do you need so much money for?" Lafayette asked, surprised, as he looked at his Tunisian-born colleague. If it weren't for Salah's prominent background as a disciple of Elder Al-Ayy, Lafayette might have suspected him of planning to abscond with the money.
"To deal with those Mysore officials who speak in favor of the British," Salah explained, "like Jahan Zeb. Although labor is cheap here in Mysore, there aren't many newspapers, and even if there were, they wouldn't be effective since most people here are illiterate. So, to spread our ssage, the costs will be high—I'll need to hire many people to spread the word by mouth."
"Propaganda? What exactly are you trying to spread?" Lafayette asked.
"Well, as the Prince described it, this is a 'propaganda war,'" Salah said, still smiling. "We'll put the pro-British factions in a tight spot, and then General Sheikh Khan will deliver the final blow."
With no other ans of persuading Tipu Sultan, Lafayette pondered for a mont before nodding. "Alright, I hope you succeed. But you'll need to submit a daily report on the flow of funds."
"You'll receive daily financial reports, Marquis," Salah assured him.
Soon, rumors and stories about the British began spreading from Mysore City to cities like Srirangapatna and Bangalore. Thanks to General Sheikh Khan's network and resources, the news spread quickly.
In fact, Salah spent only a third of the requested funds. Sheikh Khan, eager to topple Jahan Zeb's influence, personally contributed £5,000—equivalent to over 100,000 livres—and rallied many nobles of his political faction to help.
On the streets of Srirangapatna, a dozen Hindu citizens gathered, their expressions animated as they discussed the latest news.
"My cousin, who works at Amba Vilasa Palace, overheard the generals talking," one man said. "They said 300,000 people were killed, but most of them were from the Madurai area, so we didn't feel the impact here."
"The British killed that many people?" another exclaid.
"You didn't know? It was to intimidate us," said a short, fair-skinned man in a red robe, speaking in a conspiratorial tone. "Have you heard about what they did in North Arica? They wiped out all the native Indians—over ten million of them!"
"I've heard of that," a middle-aged man nodded. "My business partner traveled to North Arica. He told the British would lure the Indian chiefs into a house under the pretense of negotiations, then set the house on fire, burning them all alive. They'd also send blankets infected with smallpox to entire villages, killing everyone with disease."
"I've heard the British plan to attack Mysore. They'll do the sa thing to us that they did to the Indians..." another man said, clutching his chest in fear.
"Thank goodness for Tipu's army," soone else added. "Otherwise, in the two wars with the British, far more than 300,000 people would have died—maybe we would've too..."
An old man nervously chid in, "I also heard the British like to eat children, especially high-caste children, because they're clean and have more at. They only eat the limbs and the heart, and the rest is fed to their dogs..."
The surrounding people looked horrified. Even though they weren't high-caste, their children were still chubby and healthy, and if the British ca, their children might end up on soone's dinner table.
These were, of course, stories crafted by Salah and his team of writers.
Since Joseph wasn't fully aware of the specific situation in Mysore, he only outlined a general strategy for a propaganda war, leaving the details to the "India Project" team on the ground. As a newcor to this type of operation, Salah had co up with these horrifying tales.
However, he did understand the principle the Prince had ntioned: "Eight parts truth, two parts lies."
He used the psychological trauma left by the previous Mysore wars to anchor his stories, blending in real events that the British had indeed committed, though with so exaggerated numbers. For instance, fewer than 130,000 people had died in the Mysore-British wars, and the number of Native Aricans killed was far from the millions ntioned.
As for eating children, that was a pure fabrication, inspired by a scary story from Salah's childhood.
Given the limited sources of information available to the Indian populace, it was nearly impossible for anyone to verify the truth of these claims. By flooding the streets with these narratives, Salah quickly gained control of the conversation.
anwhile, in southern cities like Madurai, people were talking about the sa stories, with added concerns about the British mass trading of slaves. Being close to the coast, residents feared they might be shipped off to the Aricas like the Africans, forced to work as slaves.
In other places, rumors that the British planned to abolish Hinduism and Islam in Mysore and forcibly convert everyone to Protestantism, with those who resisted facing execution by cannon, sparked even greater panic.
Suddenly, mories of the previous Mysore wars, combined with the widespread rumors about the British, filled every Mysorean's heart with hatred and fear of the British.
All that was needed now was a spark to ignite the powder keg.
(End of Chapter)
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