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The Fox of France - Chapter 525
🕑 Added 2024-05-03 06:28:24 +0000 UTCChapter 525: Negotiations
Just as many in the city had hoped, Governor Prima was indeed negotiating with the French and Dutch outside the city at this time. He was trying to buy time or to seek a surrender proposal that could guarantee the lives, property, and personal dignity of the British in Cape Town from harm.
The reason for buying time was because right after the night battle in the Sardinian Bay, Governor Prima realized that the loss of sea control was inevitable. Moreover, he learned that the enemy still had transport ships surviving. From that moment, he started to look for escape routes for the British in Cape Town.
After the night battle in Sardinian Bay, Governor Prima immediately issued a new order to the "Miracle" frigate, which had just returned from a swift battle— to immediately head to India and make contact with the authorities there, asking them to send personnel and ships for support or evacuation.
Theoretically, since a major war had broken out in Europe, the colonies in India might get the news earlier than here. Those with ulterior motives might take the opportunity to create trouble. So, at this point, it was reasonable to assume that the East India Company would need reliable immigrants. And the East India Company also had enough transport capacity to take the British in Cape Town, along with their properties, away.
However, considering the distance, it would take at least a month to send the distress message there, and another month for ships from the East India Company to arrive. Considering the response time of the East India Company, that was truly frightening.
Governor Prima knew that although the East India Company was a company, in terms of bureaucracy, it was hardly worse than the British government. Moreover, they were influenced by Indians in many ways, becoming somewhat Indianized. Ah, as Joseph Bonaparte said: "When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."
This phrase applied to the folks at the East India Company meant: If you're always dealing with Indians, who have no concept of time, you too will become a person from the East India Company who has no concept of time.
For example, when a guy from the East India Company tells you that he can be there immediately, that he's already at your doorstep, ready to knock, you still have time to light a Havana cigar, enjoy it for a while, and then, you'll hear the knock; if he tells you he'll be there in ten minutes, well, you can take a relaxing bath, go out with your companion to see a Shakespeare play, and then come back, wait a little, and he should arrive; if he tells you he can be there in an hour, then, you might as well go to sleep, at least for today, he won't be disturbing you. As for tomorrow, well, who knows about tomorrow?
So, the rescue document fell into the hands of those big shots at the East India Company, and they took a few days to discuss it, like a certain monkey discussing with Prince Li about the responsibility of Prince Li’s daughter for abducting a decent man, and then reminded by Taibai Jinxing, "Great Sage, you must know, a document runs for a day here, and a year might pass in the world... Do you really want this to be public?" And then the monkey immediately chose to settle it privately, publicizing it was just too slow!
Therefore, Governor Prima had to prepare for two possibilities. The first was moving to India. If the East India Company could grasp the urgency and send ships timely, they would retreat to India. But just in case, if the document discussed at the East India Company took a few more days— well, a few days in East India Company time— then he must be ready to surrender to the French.
However, in either case, they had to buy time through negotiations.
Since they needed to buy time, there were some tricks to it. The most important trick was to nitpick on details.
"First, question the other party's qualifications for negotiations, demanding legally valid identity proofs. During this process, some time can be dragged out, and then you can pick on other aspects. Just keep creating and exploiting minor issues, avoiding the substantive issues. Just keep the balance right, both delaying and not making the French and Dutch feel that we have no intention to negotiate, do you understand?" Governor Prima said to Bona, who was about to leave the city to negotiate with the French and Dutch.
"Governor, I'm not quite sure about this balance," Bona replied honestly.
"Ah, Bona, never pretending to know what you don't, that's truly your best quality," Governor Prima remarked, "We can emphasize the need for very reliable means to ensure the safety of the lives and properties of British citizens in the city. For instance, a document personally signed by His Excellency Napoleon, the First Consul of France. And demand that they allow
us to leave with our possessions and arms. In essence, we have to act like we know we can't win if the fight goes on, but we can't trust you, we just want to preserve our money and lives.
They have their difficulties too; their cannons can destroy our cannons, but with cannons alone, they can't bring down our fortress—they just don't have that many cannonballs. Of course, without our cannons, they could still storm in with rifled muskets and explosive devices. But a fortress is still a fortress; storming in without casualties is impossible, and many would die. So, they also have a need to talk.
Moreover, this is ultimately a peripheral battlefield; the outcome isn't decided here. Whether it's us or them, both can afford to delay. If, as they claim, they have won a decisive victory on the European battlefield, this place would eventually be theirs anyway. If we win in Europe, even if they capture Cape Town, ultimately, it would be ours. So, why should they rush to storm the fortress and lose lives? Moreover, observe if they are really in a hurry to enter the city."
"Is there something to that?" Bona asked.
"In principle, they don't need to be in a hurry. If they appear especially eager, it suggests that their previous claims of a decisive victory in Europe are false. The situation in Europe is probably still very tense. It's likely that there will be no clear winner between us and them, in which case, holding Cape Town makes sense. We still need to delay as much as possible. You should note, there's a difference between verbal urgency and actual urgency. Got it?"
"I understand, Governor," Bona answered.
Thus, the British representative Bona, along with a few cavalrymen, left Cape Town and began the first round of negotiations at a farm not far from Cape Town in Babel.
Upon meeting, both parties first introduced their identities.
"I am the fully authorized representative of Sir Bowen Prima, appointed by His Majesty the King as the Governor of the Cape Colony, responsible for discussing with your side to cease hostilities and seek a peaceful solution. Here is my authorization," Bona started by showing his authorization letter to Philippe Treveil and Babel, representing France and the Netherlands respectively.
After glancing at the authorization letter—just a formality—Babel nodded and said, "Then, we can begin—although your country is still not a signatory to the 'Paris Declaration'. However, as long as you lay down your arms and surrender to us, complying with the obligations in the 'Paris Declaration', we will treat your military and civilians in accordance with the principles of the 'Paris Declaration' agreed upon with the Holy See, in a manner befitting humanitarianism and Christian benevolence."
Seeing the smug look on that Dutch bumpkin, Bona wanted to slap him right then and tell him to stop dreaming. But he took a deep breath and restrained himself.
"Before we officially start negotiations, I want to verify your authorization, to understand whether you have your government's endorsement and hence can represent your government in negotiations with us..."
Of course, neither Babel nor Treveil could possibly have fully compliant authorization documents. So, they started quibbling over this issue.
Bona insisted on seeing effective documents that could prove the identity of the other party, preferably a document personally signed by His Excellency Napoleon, the First Consul of France, before any meaningful negotiations could take place.
"Otherwise, even if we negotiate something, what if your government says you weren't authorized, and the documents you signed are completely illegal? What do we do then? Will you return the weapons and Cape Town to us? Then we fight and negotiate again? No, no, that won't do, you must have a substantial authorization document, otherwise, we can't talk. I suggest you make contact with your country as soon as possible to obtain authorization."
"We are authorized; Governor Babel has the authorization of the Dutch government."
"Yes, but Mr. Babel's authorization states that he is the interim fully authorized Governor of the Cape Colony appointed by the Dutch government. But, Cape Town is still in our hands, which means the Dutch Cape Colony doesn't exist yet, so Mr. Babel's status as the governor of this non-existent colony also poses a problem. Later, you might say that the Dutch Cape Colony didn't exist then, so the agreements signed by the governor of the Dutch Cape Colony are naturally invalid, and then you refuse to execute the agreements we reached. Wouldn't we be deceived?" Bona shook his head as he responded.
Thus, the two sides argued over this issue of representative identity for over a week. During this time, Babel repeatedly banged on the table, threatening to "let the cannons and rifled muskets debate" this, but as much as he said, the French and Dutch coalition did not really initiate a larger scale of action, it was still the same
every day—feigned attacks—artillery bombardment, feigned attacks—artillery bombardment. The infantry feigned an attack, the artillery bombarded, and after the bombardment, the infantry feigned an attack. There was even an incident where the Dutch infantry feigned an attack, and the British did not fire, planning to let them come closer to use muskets, then the Dutch retreated on their own. Of course, Babel stated, this showed "the Dutch's sincerity and generous spirit towards negotiations."
After a week of quibbling, the British finally agreed to recognize the other party's negotiation qualifications, and then, new problems arose. That was the issue of the chairs and national flags on the table.
Bona noticed that the chairs behind the negotiation table for the Dutch and French seemed to have backrests that were a bit taller than those of the British delegation. He strongly protested this, and they argued over the height of the chair backrests for an entire day. The next day, when Bona came to the negotiation site again, he brought his own high-back chair, clearly taller than the backrests of the chairs for the French and Dutch. And his chair was also noticeably wider.
Then, they fell into a contest of making chair backrests increasingly taller and the chairs increasingly wider. Soon, the chairs had to be divided into several parts to be brought into the negotiation room, and then assembled on-site—because the height of the chair backrests had already exceeded the height of the doors, and the width of the chairs had also exceeded the width of the doors. If this continued, the day when chair backrests would hit the ceiling seemed not far off.
Thus, they had to spend another day reaching an agreement on the standard of chairs to be used by everyone. Further negotiations were then able to continue.
However, just two days into the negotiations, Treveil noticed that the national flag placed on the British man's table was larger and higher than the flags of the Dutch and French on their tables. Then the national flags on the tables replaced the chair backrests and began their wild growth, growing even faster than the chair backrests... So, they spent another week meticulously negotiating the various arrangements and setups of the negotiation venue, as well as the dress standards of the personnel from both sides. Only then did this barbaric competition come to a temporary halt. Otherwise, next week, everyone would probably be competing over whose hat on their head, or whose shoe heel was taller.
In summary, it took almost a month for everyone to achieve the first significant result of these negotiations— the "Agreement on Handling Related Matters in Negotiations."
It took the French cannons over a month to land, and after landing, they bombarded the British for most of a month, followed by another month of negotiations about what kind of chairs, what kind of national flags, and what kind of hats to use. Governor Prima felt that by now, India should have received their distress call, and they should have responded.
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