Wearing British clothes as a second-generation aristocrat

68. The Governor-General of India summoned him.

Knock knock knock

There was a gentle knock on the office door.

"Please come in," Megan said.

Dressed in a neat suit, Foley stood up and said in a low voice, "Mr. Megan, Colonel Dugan, there are orders from the Governor's Office. Governor Richard Wellesley requests that you both come to the Governor's office immediately for a meeting."

Richard Silsley, the current Governor-General of British India, is the older brother of Major General Arthur Wellesley, the battlefield commander.

The Wellesley brothers were a man of strategy and a man of action. The younger brother, Arthur, commanded troops on the front lines, taking charge of the Indian theater and sweeping through the Maratha tribes.

Richard, the elder brother, was based in Calcutta, overseeing the colonial administration, finances, and diplomacy of British India. He was the true supreme ruler of South Asia at that time.

Megan immediately stood up: "Okay, we'll go right away."

Compared to the solemn and orderly East India Company headquarters, the Governor's Office has a more royal air.

The guards under the corridor were fully armed and stood tall and straight. The air was calm and solemn, and every furnishing showed the weight of the highest colonial power.

The two arrived at the door and entered together after being announced by the servants.

In the spacious and magnificent governor's office, a middle-aged man dressed in an exquisite governor's uniform, with a calm and sharp face and an elegant demeanor, stood by the window.

He shared a striking resemblance to Arthur Wellesley in his handsome features, but possessed an added air of composure, shrewdness, and cunning befitting someone in a high position. He was none other than Richard Wellesley, the Governor-General of British India.

Upon noticing the two enter, Richard Wellesley slowly turned around, his gaze calm yet penetrating as he swept over them.

"Commissioner Megan, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting." He first looked at Megan, giving her a slight nod, then his gaze fell on the tall, uniformed Dugan, his eyes showing a hint of appreciation and amusement. "This must be Colonel Dugan, right?"

Megan bowed gracefully: "Your Excellency, this is my brother, Dugan."

Dugan immediately raised his hand in salute, his posture impeccable: "Colonel Dugan Connby, 108th Infantry Regiment, salutes you, Your Excellency the Governor."

Richard Wellesley gestured for a servant to offer him a chair, his tone amiable.

He first looked at Dugan, his eyes filled with genuine admiration: "Colonel Dugan, I invited you here purely because of my brother Arthur. In the past six months, almost every battle report Arthur has written to me from the front mentions your name."

"He praised you in his letters several times, saying that you were brave and decisive in battle, and that you turned the tide of a collapsing battle several times, reorganized the lines, and defeated the enemy. Whether it was training troops, commanding, or responding to situations, you far surpassed your contemporaries. You were the most outstanding young officer in the 108th Infantry Regiment and even in the entire Indian theater."

Dugan stood up again, saluted, and said, "Thank you for your recognition, General Wellesley."

Richard nodded slightly and said with a smile, "So, I've always been curious about what kind of person you are. Since you've come to Calcutta today, I simply want to meet you in person."

"Thank you for your kind consideration, Your Excellency."

Richard's expression then turned serious, and he said, "I'm summoning Commissioner Megan because of the situation in Europe."

"Now, at the end of 1803, Britain and France are at war, and the flames of war have spread throughout Europe. Napoleon is preparing his army for war, and the Continental Blockade is becoming increasingly tight. The cabinet in the UK has already predicted that large-scale wars in Europe will not stop for the next few years, and our ammunition consumption will be a huge and terrifying number."

Richard said, "And the core lifeline supporting the mass production of all artillery, muskets, and ammunition is saltpeter."

Saltpeter is the core raw material for making gunpowder. Before the industry was mature, natural saltpeter was a strategic necessity for countries to wage war.

Britain controlled Bengal after the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and Bihar after the Battle of Buxar in 1764, thus controlling about 70% of the world's nitrate production.

The British East India Company exercised a state monopoly: prohibiting private merchants from exporting at will and giving priority to supplying the Royal Ordnance Company. This was the source of the British Empire's confidence in maintaining its global military power.

Richard's sharp gaze met Megan's as he issued a command in a low voice: "London headquarters, send an urgent message: the domestic saltpeter reserves are critically low and cannot sustain a prolonged, large-scale war. Of all the British overseas territories, only the Calcutta region of India has the richest saltpeter reserves and the most suitable conditions for extraction."

"I need the East India Company to increase saltpeter production significantly in the short term at all costs to ensure the supply of raw materials for the domestic gunpowder production line."

In present-day India, although the East India Company holds absolute power, the Governor-General of India remains the supreme ruler in terms of the administrative structure.

The officers often said, "In India, the governor's pen carries more weight than the company's money. The trading post lords only care about accounting; when it comes to war, saltpeter, and territory, it's all up to the governor."

The East India Company employees said, "We are employees of the company, but in Calcutta, the governor is the king. He wants saltpeter for the army, so we have to move the goods from the ships to the barracks without uttering a single word of complaint."

However, Megan did not readily agree to the wartime mission imposed by the governor.

Megan, with a respectful yet firm stance, said, "I apologize, Your Excellency, but the production of saltpeter in Calcutta and the Bengal region cannot be significantly increased in the short term. It's not that I'm shirking responsibility, but rather that due to local production processes and the natural climate, it's difficult to forcibly exceed the production limit by manpower."

Richard Wellesley frowned slightly: "Why?"

As he spoke, Richard instructed his men to pour drinks for Megan and Dugan.

Megan politely accepted the glass and then began to speak.

Throughout the entire Bengal region, saltpeter is produced entirely through the ancient method of leaching natural saltpeter clay; there are no industrialized artificial synthesis methods. Local villagers have relied on the mud walls of old houses, the mud floors of cattle sheds, decomposed manure, and the white frost that forms on the damp surface as raw materials—this is their only source of saltpeter.

The process begins by scraping away old saltpeter soil from the ground, mixing it with wood ash to filter out impurities, and then repeatedly rinsing it with clear water in a sedimentation tank to extract high-concentration saltpeter brine. This brine is then boiled in a large pot to evaporate, cool, and crystallize, and finally dried in the sun to obtain crude saltpeter, which is then refined and purified.

This process relies entirely on natural saltpeter accumulation, natural drying, and natural crystallization; it does not rely on machines or strong furnace fires, and is entirely dependent on the weather.

Finally, Megan said, "It's currently the end of the year, the transition between the cold and wet monsoon season in Bangladesh. The air humidity is extremely high, making it difficult for new nitrates to form on the surface. The old nitrate soil has excessive moisture content, resulting in very low concentrations of leached nitrate water. The drying process is further hampered by rainy, foggy, and humid weather, leading to extremely slow crystallization and very high losses."

"In addition, the accumulation of saltpeter takes time. A piece of land needs to be left to decompose for at least several months before usable saltpeter can be extracted. It cannot be rushed or expedited. Even if I spend all my resources to increase manpower and recruit more workers, I can only extract more existing saltpeter. The increase is completely dependent on the natural cycle and climate conditions."

"Simply put, manpower can speed up the mining and boiling process, but it cannot force the earth to form nitrates quickly, nor can it reverse the production reduction caused by climate. Reckless actions will only lead to a sharp drop in the purity of crude nitrates, an increase in waste soil, and a doubling of costs, which will ultimately be counterproductive."

"I understand." Governor Richard nodded slowly, but then his tone shifted. "However, this is a mission that must be completed. I said before, at all costs! If you can't do it, perhaps someone else can?"

Megan frowned, thinking to herself, "Others? Which others? Could it be that bastard Garfield?"