The War Reignites

To be honest, Franz had previously considered strengthening the Sikh Empire to help them hold out for a while longer, but almost all the intelligence coming from India repeated the same thing.

"It's rotten to the core; it cannot be saved."

It is hard to imagine a country decaying so rapidly, but in reality, the rot in this nation did not begin only after the death of Ghilant Singh.

It was destined from the very moment the country was founded; it had simply been suppressed by a strong monarch.

Franz had once tried to establish trade ties with this region, but the reality was that it was simply impossible—not to mention that the Sikh government at the time was only interested in freeloading.

Even if Franz did not care about the weapons and only wanted to cause trouble for the British, the Sikh Empire was landlocked, meaning trade would have to pass through the hands of other princely states.

Furthermore, the Sikhs had poor relations with both the indigenous Hinduism of the Indian Subcontinent and the incoming Islam.

The surrounding princely states did not want to see the Sikhs grow powerful. If Franz were to force trade with the Sikh Empire, he would not only lose a large amount of money but also offend those princely states that were initially well-disposed toward the Austrian Empire.

Moreover, the Sikh Empire was situated on the Sindh Plain with no natural defenses; their conquest by the British was only a matter of time. Besides, Franz had prepared a contingency plan many years ago—a contingency that the British would never be able to eliminate.

Following the "crushing defeats" of Tej Singh and Lal Singh, the Sikh Empire could only retreat further and further. Coupled with the internal sabotage of Queen Jind Kaur, Sir Henry