Negotiations

Just as many in the city had hoped, Governor Prima was indeed negotiating with the France and Netherlands outside the city to buy time or to find a surrender plan that would "guarantee the safety of the lives, property, and personal dignity of the Britain in Cape Town."

The reason for the delay was that immediately after the night battle in the Saldanha Bay, Governor Prima realized that the loss of naval control was inevitable. He also learned that the enemy still had surviving transport ships. At that point, Governor Prima judged that the prospects for the battle were not good. From then on, he began to look for a way out for the Britain in Cape Town.

Following the night battle in the Saldanha Bay, Governor Prima immediately issued a new order to the frigate "Miracle," which had just returned from a rapid battle: to immediately go to India, make contact with the India side, and request that India send personnel and ships to provide support or to evacuate its citizens.

Theoretically, with a major war breaking out in Europe, the India colonies might receive the news earlier than we do, and those with ulterior motives might take the opportunity to cause trouble. Therefore, at this time, the East India Company should logically need reliable and useful immigrants. The East India Company also has sufficient transport capacity to move the Britain in Cape Town, along with their property, away.

However, considering the great distance, it would take at least a month to send a distress message from here, and then another month for the East India Company's ships to arrive. If we also take into account the East India Company's response time, it would be truly terrifying.

Governor Prima knew that although the East India Company was a corporation, when it came to bureaucracy, it was almost no less efficient than the Britain government. Moreover, they were heavily influenced by India and had become somewhat India in many ways. Indeed, Joseph Bonaparte said, "When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."

If this applies to the guys in the East India Company, it means: if you're always dealing with India who have no sense of time, you'll become one of those East India Company people who have no sense of time.

For example, if an East India Company guy tells you he'll be here soon, he's already at your door and about to knock, then generally you can light a Havana cigar, enjoy it for a bit, and then you'll hear the knock. If he tells you he'll be there in ten minutes, well, you can relax, take a shower, go out with your girlfriend to see a Shakespeare play, come back, and wait a little longer—he should be there by then. If he tells you he'll be there in an hour at most, then you can wash up and go to bed; at least he won't bother you today. As for tomorrow, well, who knows what tomorrow will bring?

So, the urgent request for help ended up in the hands of those big shots at the East India Company. Asking them to spend a few days discussing it was like a monkey going to Li Jing (the Heavenly King) to discuss the responsibility of Li Jing's daughter forcibly taking a respectable man, only to be reminded by Taibai Jinxing (Venus): "Great Sage, you must understand, a day for an official document to travel here might be a year in the world... Do you really want to settle this officially?" The monkey immediately chose to settle it privately; he couldn't afford to wait for an official resolution!

Therefore, Governor Prima had to prepare for two scenarios. The first was to prepare to relocate to India. If those guys at the East India Company could grasp the priorities and send ships in time, he could retreat to India. But if, just in case, the official documents were discussed at the East India Company for a few more days—yes, a few more days in East India Company time—then he would have to prepare to actually surrender to the France.

In either case, they must negotiate to buy time.

Since the goal is to stall for time, there are naturally some tricks to it. And the most important trick is to scrutinize the details.

"First, question their eligibility to negotiate and demand legally valid identification. During this process, you can drag it out for a while, and then find fault in other areas. Just keep using details, keep creating minor issues, and avoid the real problems. In short, you have to strike a good balance; you need to buy time without letting the France and the Netherlands think we have no sincerity in negotiating. Hmm... do you understand?" Governor Prima said to Bona, the representative who was preparing to leave the city to negotiate with the France and the Netherlands.

"Your Excellency, I'm not quite sure about this," Bona replied honestly.

"Ah, Bona, never pretending to know what you don't, that's truly your best quality," said Governor Prima. "We can emphasize that there must be a very reliable way to guarantee the safety of the Britain citizens and their property in the city. For example, a document personally signed by His Excellency Napoleon, the First Consul of France. And demand that they allow us to take our valuables and weapons with us when we leave. In short, we should make it seem like we know we can't win if we fight, but we don't trust you, and we just want to keep our money and lives."

They also faced difficulties. Their artillery could destroy our cannons, but it was impossible for them to destroy our fortress with cannons alone—they didn't have that many shells. Of course, without cannons, they could still break in with rifled guns and demolition devices. But a bastion is a bastion after all; it's impossible to break in without casualties, and not just one or two. Therefore, they also had a need to negotiate.

Besides, this is, after all, a peripheral battlefield; the outcome isn't decided here. Both we and they can actually stall. If, as they say, they win in the Europe theater, this place will eventually be theirs. If we win in the Europe theater, then even if they capture Cape Town, it will ultimately be ours. So why would they sacrifice men to rush into the fortress a few days earlier? Hmm, also, you can observe whether they are in a great hurry to enter the city."

"Is there any particular reason behind this?" Bona asked again.

"Logically speaking, they don't need to be in a hurry at all. If they seem unusually anxious, it means their previous claims of a decisive victory in Europe are false. The situation in Europe is likely still very close. We might end up with a stalemate, and in that case, holding Cape Town would be worthwhile. If that happens, then bloodshed can probably be avoided. However, we still need to delay as much as possible. Hmm, you should note that there's a difference between verbal anxiety and actual anxiety. Understand?"

"I understand, Your Excellency," Bona replied.

So the Britain representative, Bona, with a few cavalrymen, left Cape Town and began the first round of negotiations at a farm not far from Cape Town in Babel.

After they met, they first introduced themselves.

"I am Sir Bowen Prima, the Plenipotentiary Governor of the Cape Colony appointed by His Majesty the King, and I am hereby appointed to negotiate with you to cease hostilities and seek a peaceful solution. This is my warrant." Bona first showed the warrant to Philippe Treville and Babel, who were representing France and the Netherlands respectively.

The two men glanced at the authorization letter—which was merely a formality—and then Babel nodded, saying, "Then we can begin—although your country is still not a party to the Paris Declaration, as long as you lay down your arms and surrender to us, and abide by the obligations under the Paris Declaration, we will, in accordance with the principles of our own and the Holy See's Paris Declaration, treat your officers and soldiers, as well as your peaceful inhabitants, in accordance with humanitarian and Christ principles of love."

Looking at the smug look on that Netherlands bumpkin's face, Bona wanted nothing more than to slap him and tell him to stop daydreaming. But he took a deep breath and held back.

"Before we formally begin negotiations, I would like to ascertain your authorization status, to understand whether you have been authorized by your government to represent it in negotiations with us..."

Of course, neither Babel nor Treville had a fully compliant authorization certificate. So the two sides started arguing about this issue.

Bona insisted on seeing valid documents proving the other party's identity, preferably an authorization document personally signed by His Excellency Napoleon, the First Consul of France, before any effective negotiations could take place.

"Otherwise, even if we reach an agreement, what if your government says that you haven't received any authorization and that the documents you signed are completely illegal? What will we do then? Are you going to return the weapons and Cape Town to us? And then we'll start fighting and negotiating again? No, no, you must have sufficiently substantial authorization documents; otherwise, we can't negotiate. I suggest you contact your home country as soon as possible and obtain authorization."

"We have authorization; Governor Babel has authorization from the Netherlands government."

"Yes, but Mr. Babel's authorization states that he is the provisional plenipotentiary governor of the Cape Colony appointed by the Netherlands government. However, Cape Town is still under our control, meaning the Cape Colony in the Netherlands does not yet exist. Therefore, Mr. Babel's governorship of this non-existent colony is naturally questionable. You might say that since the Cape Colony in the Netherlands doesn't exist then, any agreements signed by the governor of the Cape Colony in the Netherlands would be invalid, and you would refuse to implement the agreements we reached. Wouldn't we have been completely deceived?" Bona shook his head and replied.

Thus, the two sides argued endlessly about the issue of representative status for over a week. During this time, Babel repeatedly slammed his fist on the table, threatening to let "cannons and rifled guns debate it." However, despite these threats, the France and Netherlands forces did not actually launch a larger-scale operation. Their daily routine remained one of feints followed by artillery bombardment, then another. Infantry would feint, artillery would bombard, and after the artillery finished, the infantry would feint again. There was even an instance where Netherlands infantry launched a feint attack, but the Britain didn't fire their cannons, intending to get closer and use muskets instead, before the Netherlands retreated. Of course, Babel stated that this demonstrated "the Netherlands people's sincerity and magnanimity in the negotiations."

After more than a week of wrangling, the Britain finally agreed to acknowledge the other side's negotiating rights. Then, a new problem arose: the seating arrangements and the national flags on the table.

Bona noticed that the chairs behind the negotiating table were different sizes. The backrests of the Netherlands and France chairs seemed to be higher than those of the Britain delegation. He protested strongly, and the argument about the chair back height lasted all day. The next day, when Bona returned to the negotiating location, he brought his own high-backed chair, whose backrest was noticeably higher and wider than those of the France and Netherlands chairs.

Then, everyone got caught up in a race to make the chair backs higher and the chairs wider and wider. Soon, the chairs had to be moved into the negotiation room in several parts and then installed on-site—because the height of the chair backs had exceeded the height of the door, and the width of the chairs had exceeded the width of the door. If this situation continued, the day when the chair backs would touch the ceiling was just around the corner.

So everyone had to spend another day reaching an agreement on the standards for the seats they would be using. Only then could further negotiations continue.

However, after only two days of talks, Treville discovered that the Britain's flag on his table was larger and taller than those of the Netherlands and France. So the flag on the table replaced the chair back and began to grow wildly, even faster than the chair back... Therefore, they spent another week meticulously agreeing on the various arrangements of the negotiation venue and the dress code for both sides. Only then was this barbaric competition put to a halt. Otherwise, next week, everyone would probably be comparing whose hat was higher or whose heels were taller.

In short, after nearly a month, everyone finally achieved the first major result of this negotiation - the "Agreement on the Handling of Relevant Matters in the Negotiation".

It took the France over a month to land their cannons, and after landing, they bombarded the Britain for almost half a month. Then there was another month of negotiations about what kind of chairs, flags, and hats to use. Governor Prima felt that India should have received the distress call and should respond.