Battle of Brussels

Marquess Wellesley sat down in the chair opposite him, recalling the news he had just heard in Parliament. "According to Fox, nearly two months ago, Mysore sent 6,000 troops into Kannur. The defending East India Company soldiers resisted for only three days before being utterly routed."

Kannur was an important East India Company stronghold in the southwest of the Indian Peninsula. If it were lost, trade in southwestern India would suffer an enormous blow.

Although the East India Company was nominally a company, it was effectively the United Kingdom's administrative authority in India. From government officials to members of Parliament, from bureaucrats to merchants, almost everyone in the United Kingdom owned shares in the East India Company. It could be said that damage to this company's interests would have even greater repercussions in the United Kingdom than a huge loss to government finances.

Pitt the Younger's brows knitted tightly. "You mean those Indian natives committed only five thousand men and..."

Although the East India Company's garrison in Kannur numbered fewer than 600 men, nearly all had experience serving in the regular army, and their fighting strength absolutely crushed that of the Indian natives. There were also several thousand locally recruited auxiliary troops there. Based on past experience, they should have been able to withstand fierce assaults by over ten thousand Mysore troops for at least a month or two.

Yet this time, the place had fallen after holding out for only three days.

Marquess Wellesley's expression was grave. "Reportedly, these Mysore troops were extremely formidable. They were all equipped with European-made flintlock guns and had more than a dozen excellent cannons. They even blasted breaches in the East India Company's bastion fort."

These excellent weapons had naturally been brought to Mysore by Lafayette.

Moreover, Princess Amira of Tunisia had already