Chapter 8
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1827, Jan
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The cold winds of the winter swept past Bhimsen as he folded his hands behind him and looked at the city of Kathmandu. Bustling with men and women working side by side to live their lives with each other. Bhimsen smiled briefly. With the execution of the assassinators of King Girvan, all virtual political opposition to Bhimsen had evaporated into thin air. Which meant that this reformist movement was starting to gain ground among the new nobles which replaced them. The reactionary core was now virtually only limited to the old guard.
The war in Tibet had also been a successful endeavor. The annexation of Barung and Nyalam was a good decision on Balbhadra’s part. Ideally, Bhimsen wouldn’t have annexed them, however both Nyalam and Barung had huge mountains facing towards the north, meaning that they were excellent defensive positions for the Nepalese traders, and most importantly, the Nepalese Army. Of course, Bhimsen hadn’t demobilized the army after they returned from their stint in Tibet. There was always that off chance that the Chinese would intervene.
The Qing Emperor had replied with a letter to Kathmandu.
Mukhtiyar Bhimsen Thapa,
It seems that the quarrel regarding trade between our tributes of Tibet and Nepal has ended. This is good news for all of us. No more men to die in arid mountains for you two, and no more uneasy spectating for us from the distance. We would have liked to work with the treaty between your two nations, however it seems that both parties have managed to negotiate a common ground treaty between yourselves.
Thus, congratulations on winning the war and conflict, and exercising your military prowess to keep your economic capability in shape. However as is customary, the Emperor must warn the Durbar of Kathmandu, that any further action than what was agreed in the treaty will provoke us into intervention and anger, and such a result would not be in the interests of either us, or the Durbar of Kathmandu.
However, now that we can dodge that part, we are fascinated by the astounding victories that your general Balbhadra Kunwar, managed to reap on the battlefield against the enemies of your nation. I am wondering if military advisors can be exchanged between our nations? However that is a discussion for another time.
Nevertheless, we must digress. Congratulations on your victory against Lhasa, and I hope that any further disputes between both of your fine nations will not take place anymore in the future.
Qianlong Emperor.
Bhimsen Thapa had agreed to allow 2 military advisor swaps and Mathabir Thapa, one of his brothers and a veteran of the Anglo-Nepalese War and the Second Tibeto-Nepalese War, was sent to China on military affairs, as the Chinese had sent to him, a fortification expert. Not the best deal that Bhimsen had received, however Bhimsen was making the most of it by leading him to the engineers where he was giving the Sapper Corps lectures on how to effectively destroy fortifications and lectures to the construction corps on how to build resistant forts and fortifications.
Of course, the latter part of the lectures were wholly disregarded by Bhimsen. With accordance to the Treaty with the British, he was forbidden from building forts facing anywhere in the south barring the main pass into Kathmandu Valley. He could only build forts facing the north against the Tibetans and Chinese, and after hearing about rumors about rising tensions between Qianlong Emperor and the Honorable East India Company, Bhimsen very much doubted that Nepal would require any such fortifications. However the lecture on destroying fortifications were much appreciated.
Bhimsen then sighed and rubbed his weary eyes. He needed to go to sleep. Idly he wondered how Pushkar was doing. He should have reached Great Britain about few weeks ago.
***
London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
***
Pushkar Shah sat down uncomfortably as the Duke of Wellington, a man named Arthur Wellesley beckoned at him as the Parliament looked on and said “This is Mr. Pushkar Shah. He is envoy from an important kingdom in South Asia. He is here today to look at our proceedings in the parliament in the name of His Majesty.”
The parliament largely just shuffled and largely did anything else. Wellesley looked at Pushkar and said “There is a seat beside the Speaker. You may sit there, Mr. Shah.”
“Pushkar bowed slightly and stated, “Thank you for providing me this opportunity.”
Wellesley smiled back with a polite smile and said “Of course.”
And then the Parliament session began in earnest.
***
Later that evening, The Duke asked Pushkar to have dinner with him.
“Mr. Shah I wonder how your trip here to Britain has been?” The Duke asked as he poured a glass of wine and put it in front of him.
“It has been most splendid Lord Wellington.” Pushkar curtseyed. “These past few weeks have been most informative.”
Wellesley grinned and took a gulp out of his wine and asked “I hear the situation in Nepal is quite interesting? Shame I never got to fight your armies. Octolerny, the old goat had praises to heap on your armies after he returned.”
Pushkar flushed. “I would like to think that despite our loss, we fought bravely.”
“And I presume you did.” The Duke replied with a chuckle.
Pushkar craned his neck and asked, “I heart that you are a famed general here in Britain. In the war against the French? Perhaps you are correct. Fighting you with our country’s famed generals would have been a sight to see.”
“Ah yes, I have heard about some of them. Bhakti Thapa, Amar Singh Thapa, Balbhadra Kunwar, they all seem to have a very strong rapport behind them.” The Duke replied. “I do miss the days of battle…………however these old bones can’t take war work any longer.”
“You miss the battles?” Pushkar asked puzzled. “Most generals I have met have all stated that despite their military prowess, they do not like the business of war.”
“Who does?” Wellesley asked with a slight mumble. “However out there I felt that I was actually doing something for the nation and doing my part. I once wished to be a member of the parliament, however the dirty politics of the parliament has left my tongue quite bitter.”
“What about your veterans?” Pushkar asked. “Surely, your men and you-”
“My men were the scum of earth.”
Pushkar raised an eyebrow and simply nodded and drank the wine in silence.
Later on Wellesley stood up and said “Well, your ship departs day after tomorrow. Best we make a memorable last day.”
(OTL The Duke of Wellington was asked to be the host of Mathabir Singh Thapa when he was slated to visit the UK, however Mathabir refused to go later on, and the whole idea fell onto cold ice. However since Pushkar is the one going, the Duke is playing host to Pushkar).
***
Bhimsen groaned as he read through report after report in front of the Bharadari Sabha as they quietly accepted and took in the new reported facts and figures.
Bhimsen finally perked up as he got into new economic and trading plans.
He rubbed his mustache for a few seconds before speaking up again. “Now that we have effective trade monopoly over the Tibetan trade in Sikkim after the war, we can look forward to exploiting this in Sikkim."
"How? Sikkim is a puppet and client state of the British.” Asked one of the nobles.
“True.” Bhimsen conceded. “However that wasn’t our focus anyways. We are going to be using this trade monopoly to exercise advertisement of our goods in Sikkim again. Remember that our coins were used in Sikkim just a few years ago, and the new minting of coins seems to have fallen into disrepair in Sikkim. If we can exert enough influence, the Sikkim court would be amenable to pegging their coin standard back to our coinage. Such a move would make our economic situation in the north much stronger and firmer.”
“Perhaps. However we still have a problem with the Garhwal Kingdom. Even after the war they continued to use our coins, however they are starting to duplicate our coinage, with low quality grade coins.” Another noble pointed out. “Unlike Tibet however, we cannot intervene in Garhwal, for they are a client state of the East India Company.”
“That is indeed a problem.” Bhimsen murmured. “We cannot allow low grade coins to be circulated. That would completely undermine our economy. Our coinage and supervision system will have to be strengthened and made stricter. We shall also have the Royal Treasury personally oversee the flow of coins in the country.”
“Isn’t that too big a stress for the Treasury? Such overworks could mean the treasury will be strained.” The noble pointed out again.
“That will only be true for a few months.” Bhimsen retorted.
“Why?”
“I have spoken with the ministers, and the head of the Treasury, and they all have agreed to establish a National Bank led by the state in the nation.” Bhimsen revealed.
“That is a good plan.”
“Indeed.”
“I support this plan.”
“What are the current investments?”
“Now now.” Bhimsen murmured. “We are still a few months off to start actually giving out investments and the such. However I can assure you, this endeavor will not fail.”
***