The Minister of Finance and the Poor

"That's absolutely impossible!" exclaimed the Governor of India, Cornwallis, standing nearby. "Vijayanagara now belongs to the East India Company."

United Kingdom had spent a huge amount of money on this war, only occupying two and a half provinces northwest of Mysore, while trade on the west coast of India had been stagnant for more than half a year. They had already lost a fortune, so how could they possibly give up the spoils of war?

Tipu Sultan ignored him, instead looking at Hyderabad's Prime Minister Abuzam: "Are you just going to watch the people of Vijayanagara be ruled by infidels?"

Hyderabad and Mysore are both Islam and even formed an alliance decades ago.

Abuzam knew that Tipu was trying to sow discord between him and United Kingdom, but Hyderabad had lost more than 30,000 soldiers for the United Kingdom in this war, so it was only right that they received Vijayanagara as compensation.

He coughed lightly and cautiously said to Sirley, "My lord, if we can help you manage Vijayanagara, we can increase the tax rate by thirty percent..."

"Your opinion is not needed here," Sirley interrupted him abruptly, banging on the table. "Vijayanagara negotiation."

Tipu Sultan immediately stood up. "In that case, let's meet on the battlefield."

Actually, he wasn't entirely confident when he said that. The English Army currently held an absolute advantage on the battlefield, and Seringapatam was in dire straits. However, he also firmly believed in the Marquis de Lafayette's words—that the United Kingdom would definitely retreat before the end of the rainy season. Therefore, he had to put on a tough stance during the negotiations.

Sir Xili's eyes indeed flashed with helplessness— the British Expeditionary Force had less than half a month's worth of supplies left, and they had to withdraw to Kanada as soon as possible, otherwise the retreat might turn into a rout.

After some bargaining, Sirley finally agreed to hand over the area north of Bellary to Hyderabad for "temporary administration" and to allow residents of other parts of Vijayanagara to travel to Hyderabad.

Abuzam exchanged a grateful glance with Tipu, but at the same time harbored more resentment towards the United Kingdom.

Sirley and Tipu then began to discuss the issue of Carnatic. According to a previous secret agreement between Britain and France, Carnatic, east of Mysore, would terminate its alliance with the United Kingdom and remain neutral.

In the Mysore War, the main English Army forces were concentrated in the northwest, providing almost no assistance to Carnatic, which resulted in Carnatic being soundly defeated by Mysore.

If Tipu Sultan hadn't followed Joseph's advice to consolidate his forces for defense, the entire the South of Carnatic might have been lost.

Therefore, the Carnatic had no objection to ending the alliance—what use was someone who was domineering, only knew how to collect taxes, but couldn't protect his allies?

After the three parties reached an agreement on the status of Carnatic, Tipu Sultan told the Carnatic envoy, "There should never have been a war between Mysore and Carnatic."

He glanced at Cornwallis and Sirley beside him, almost saying, "It was all the United Kingdom who stirred things up," before continuing, "That's why I'm willing to return Tiruchirappalli to you."

Tiruchirappalli is Southern Provinces of Carnatic, which was occupied by Mysore shortly after the start of the war.

The France advised that Mysore's attempt to rule the region would be extremely costly and would incur the hatred of the Carnatic. They suggested returning the territory in exchange for the Carnatic's gratitude.

France's last foothold on the Indian Peninsula, Pondicherry, is adjacent to Carnatic, and if the latter were to facilitate this, Mysore could potentially establish clandestine contact with France.

The Carnatic envoy, clearly not expecting to reclaim the lost territory, immediately bowed to Tipu Sultan with great emotion, saying, "On behalf of His Majesty the King, I extend my sincerest gratitude to you!"

After several days of bargaining, Britain and McMahon signed Ceasefire Agreement on October 2.

Although Mysore lost territory from nearly three provinces, it was not severely weakened.

It's important to know that historically, Tipu Sultan dared to fight the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War against the United Kingdom even after losing half of his territory, including Seringapatam and Bangalore.

Now that he still possesses considerable strength, how could he possibly resist seeking revenge against the United Kingdom should he seize the opportunity?

On the United Kingdom side, although they seemed to have won the battle of Mysore, gained some land, and maintained their dominance on the Indian Peninsula, they had invested huge sums of money in the war and had not received any War Reparations.

Furthermore, United Kingdom launched this war on the pretext of "Mysore's annexation of Travancore," but now that the war is over, no one mentions Travancore anymore. The United Kingdom may pretend to have forgotten this, but the various states of India have all seen it clearly.

The overlord is still the same overlord, but he has lost his former glory.

The outskirts of Paris.

A dozen or so Tax Farmers Guild leaders, surrounded by Servant and hunting dogs, were riding towards Fuld's hunting grounds, chatting and laughing.

Harper smiled and said to the people around her, "You can probably imagine the despair on Brienne when Mr. Charles said, 'Because of business problems, the previously agreed loan may not be available.'"

A middle-aged man walking on the left had a smug look on his face. "There are only two months left in the year. How is our Minister of Finance going to get 200 million Franc?"

Another person chuckled, "Soon, various government departments and Governor will be asking him for next year's funding, and that's when he'll experience hellish despair."

The middle-aged man looked at Harper: "Mr. Hope, then we need to expedite the Tax Farming Income negotiations."

"No, quite the opposite." Harper looked towards the distant hunting ground fence. "Look, we're almost there. It's Brienne who's in a hurry now; we could make Viscount Brandt fall ill or something."

"By mid-November, Brienne will probably be too tired to even negotiate, and we might even be able to sign an agreement for the same amount as last year."

Borolei spurred his horse forward and shouted, "I think the Minister of Finance is no different from those poor people who borrow money at exorbitant interest rates, haha. As long as we hold onto our purse strings, they'll all have to beg us and let us make our demands!"

You're right.

Once the group had crossed the wooden fence of the hunting grounds, they began directing their Servant to set up a temporary Camp, while simultaneously sending out small teams and directing their dogs to search for prey.

As Fuld and Harper were chatting Orthodox God about the late autumn hunt, a Carriage sped towards them, occasionally bouncing around because the ground was uneven.

A short while later, the Carriage stopped, and a tall man in his forties jumped down.

Upon seeing the newcomer's appearance, Fuld frowned slightly. "Viscount Brandt?"

Brandt, the Tax Farmers Guild' representative, rushed to Fuld, led by his Servant, and said breathlessly, "Mr. Fuld, something's happened... This morning, the Assistant Minister of Finance informed me that the Tax Farming Income negotiations have been officially cancelled."