November 23rd, 1655
The city of Makran, Southeastern part of the Safavid Empire, on the Gulf of Oman.
11:00 PM
Sarvesh, who was up on the tree, wore an expression of disbelief on his face because he couldn’t believe how easy it was to split the large army, composed of 8000 soldiers, into two separate groups.
"Don’t these guys first send a scout to make sure that the gunshot was not a distraction or a trap?" Sarvesh asked himself as he found that the way these Safavid troops were commanded was almost like their leader was a novice.
Sarvesh wore a perplexed expression on his face. because, By the time he had entered the ranks of the military, the culture of nobles commanding the troops for their birthright had been almost eliminated by His Majesty the Emperor. While Sarvesh had heard tales of such practices from the older generation, he had never experienced it himself.
He found it ridiculous for someone to command a group of soldiers without any knowledge of the battlefield. Why would anyone entrust troops that were so hard to train, after pouring so many resources into them, to a useless individual just because they were born into a so-called noble or high caste bloodline?
As Sarvesh witnessed the scene unfolding before him, he began to understand how these "higher humans" would behave. "Fortunately, his Majesty is an enlightened monarch and does not care about all this blood nonsense," he said to himself as he slowly descended from a tree. Halfway down, he jumped onto the mud house beside it.
He picked up a rock from the mud house and threw it in the direction where he had previously seen a marine hide when he instructed everyone to hide.
The Marine who was in an alleyway soon noticed Sarvesh on top of the mud house, and thanks to it being a full moon night, the gestures Sarvesh was making were barely visible. After figuring out what His Excellency the commander wanted to do, the marine acted fast.
He simultaneously climbed the mud house next to him, and through various means informed his comrades about the commander’s instructions.
Immediately, the Marines were informed of the commands, and they acted swiftly. Thousands of Marines ran on top of these mud houses like wolves playing on their hunting grounds. And with it being a full moon night, the scene similar to a pack of werewolves running on top of roofs in an urban city became more vivid.
Fortunately, the civilians of the city were not familiar with fantasy stories about werewolves and vampires, or else they might have thought they were invaded by a clan of werewolves. Considering that it is still the Middle Ages for the people of the Mengal tribe, it might have become an urban legend and be passed on to future generations.
"20 clicks north. Distraction sequence one."
"Affirmative."
"10 clicks south. Distraction sequence three."
"Affirmative."
"Kite the left army. 18 clicks north. 5th, 3rd, 8th, and 9th company, take action."
"Affirmative."
"Kite the right army. 7 clicks south. 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 7th company, take action."
In a similar fashion, orders quickly circulated throughout the Marines with the help of gestures alone.
This sign language was actually popularized by Vijay in the military to convey commands over further distances between soldiers. It is also used by the Marines in covert missions or missions requiring stealth, similar to its current purpose.
As for the sign language Vijay chose, naturally, it was the most popular Indo-Pakistani sign language that had originated from the subcontinent and had over 6,300,000 speakers worldwide as of his death. Hence, Vijay made sign language a must-learn language in all colleges of the empire, as well as in all branches of the military.
Back to the battle, Immediately after the orders were passed throughout the Marines, like an overpowered and brainless video game boss, the two armies were kited to separate ends of the town to ensure they could not reinforce each other.
A total of ten companies participated and cooperated in this kiting operation, while the rest of the soldiers were already sent to the target locations to be paid actors.
Sarvesh was on his way towards one of the designated kiting points for the left army. While he was moving, he also came across the Left Army, which was marching towards the kiting point they had arranged. But then Sarvesh noticed something peculiar. It looked as if these 4000 soldiers were actually commanded by three different generals, not captains or lieutenants, but generals altogether.
"Surely not," Sarvesh thought, suddenly getting a bizarre idea. If this idea worked out, instead of being very happy, he would actually be very mad. So although he did not want his plan to work, he also wanted to lessen the burden on his Marines. Hence, immediately, Sarvesh sent multiple orders to the marine running a few meters beside him.
Although reluctant, his choice was very logical. Between his own will to fight stronger enemies and the lives of his Marines, he chose the latter.
The marine quickly understood the message, nodded his head, and after informing the rest of the Marines, he deviated from his path in order to fulfil the new mission.
01:00 AM
On the ground, the three noble representatives, Hussain, Ahmed, and Murad, were commanding their troops and slowly advancing towards the location where the gunshots were previously heard. But what surprised them was that the gunfire actually got further and further from their location. While Hussain and Murad did not think much of it, Ahmed was beginning to get suspicious.
So he voiced his doubts, "Hey, I think something is wro—" But Unfortunately, before he could fully express his doubt, he was cut off by Hussain’s exclamation, "Hey, look! There are multiple bodies lying here!"
Hearing his exclamation, Murad rushed forward to take a look, and Ahmed, who was left alone, had no other choice but to go forward and take a look too.
As Ahmed got closer to Hussain and Murad, he also witnessed a pile of 20 or more bodies. "This is the uniform of the Mengal tribe warrior," Murad specified.
"Yeah, but look at how they died. Only one or two of these bodies have gunshot wounds; the rest of the deaths are from stab wounds. So our speculation is right: there aren’t too many guns with these invaders, and they might be very weak since they are resorting to sneak attacks," Murad concluded with a relieved expression.
Ahmed, who heard this, although still doubtful, agreed with the statement, as there is indeed no reason for someone to resort to sneak attacks unless they have weaker strength than their enemy.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
However, suddenly, three more sounds came from different parts of the general direction they were travelling.
Hearing the sound, the three nobles were startled. Ahmed finally could not resist and immediately voiced his concerns, "Hey guys, I think someone is trying to lay a trap for us by dividing us up so they can take us on separately."
Hearing Ahmed’s sudden statement, both Hussain Shamlu and Murad Ustajlu suddenly became suspicious too. Just when they were about to consider his statement seriously, multiple shouts and constant firing followed in the direction where the gunshots came from.
This made Hussain and Murad finally erase their suspicions and think, "Is this guy from the Afshar family really afraid of some tribal barbarians?" But they chose not to voice their thoughts to Ahmed and decided to talk with him as usual.
"Ahmed, you are thinking too much. Where would these tribal invaders get such sophisticated strategies?" Hussain said with a sneer at the corner of his mouth.
"That’s right, Ahmed. What you said could have been true if we were up against some foreign power, but that is not the case, is it? As you can see, we can already hear men fighting in the distance. So wouldn’t that alleviate your suspicions of this potentially being a trap?" Murad added with a confident expression.
"Yes, so quit worrying too much since it is only a tribal conflict. Let’s take care of these battles separately so that we can cover the land area with the least resources. Each of us has at least 160 gunners, after all.
Let’s finish this job quickly, and if by chance the western bastards are weakened because of this battle, we can take advantage of the situation and wipe them out, earning two merits at the same time," Hussain said, which made Murad’s eyes light up with greed.
With the greed for benefits right in front of them, Hussain and Murad both ignored Ahmed’s worries and commanded 1300 troops, going their separate ways.
02:00 AM
"It should be the Shamlu family that leads the coalition, not the Afshar or Ustadlu families. If it weren’t for those western bastards, these lowly tribesmen would all be eliminated," Hussain thought to himself as he commanded his troops and moved forward. This thought was not unique to him; all the family representatives, and even the families themselves, had such a mentality.
The only reason they had formed factions with each other was to prevent their mortal enemy from getting the throne, which they could never let happen. hence, They had discussed forming a coalition after their victory in defeating the enemy.
So although this temporary compromise between the various noble families within the faction had come upon, it is still undecided who would be the head of the coalition since all the noble families had similar strength individually.
Hence, when it comes to fighting for interests, although they will be united against the opposing faction, they will be immediately divided when it comes to fighting for interests within their own faction in order to gain an upper hand even over their allies.
Witnessing both Hussain and Murad leaving him behind, Ahmed let out a sigh of disappointment and helplessly moved forward with his part of the troops.
On top of a tree 20 metres away...
"Psss," seeing this scene, Sarvesh immediately spat out the water he had just begun to drink. His face looked so wonderful as if he had encountered an alien species. He was left dumbfounded and confused about how his plan to further divide this army actually worked, almost to his amazement. He couldn’t believe there was someone so brain-dead.
Although, he could tell the guy who was left behind was a little smarter than the other two knuckleheads; he was only a little smarter nonetheless and nothing else.
"Sigh."
Disappointed with how the battle was going, Sarvesh quickly signalled to his subordinate to send the command for the navy to take action.
03:00 AM
Within the next hour, Sarvesh’s command had reached the recently conquered checkpoint, with the help of threatened civilians strategically placed along the trade route.
Although the civilians did not understand the meaning of the gestures they were doing, the person who threatened to kill their families sternly stated that they would be left alone if they performed the gesture.
Hence, they patiently sat across the trade route, waiting for the signal. When they received the command, they immediately followed the gesture exactly as it was shown, Even mirroring the body language and movement of the marine who sent them the command, fearing that if they did it wrong, their families might be killed.
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The Marines who had stayed back at the checkpoint immediately received the signal. They were amused by the awkward way in which the civilians performed the gestures, but putting that aside, sending the message was the first priority. Hence, they quickly removed the camouflage net on the boat, and a squad of Marines boarded the canoe and left for the coastline.
This took a few more hours since it was night, but fortunately, due to the moonlight, they could see.
After leaving the boats at the Bank of Chabahar Lake, the Marines immediately ran back to the shore and informed the clipper, which was hidden at the coast of the sea.
With the message received, the newly stationed Clipper immediately sailed quickly to Jiwani Bay. In order not to be lost at sea, the Clipper hugged the coastline so closely that sometimes small rocks would scrape the bottom of the hull. Despite this, although the hull was damaged by the end of the sail, the destination was finally reached.
Gautam, who was sleeping on one of the frigates, was immediately awakened by the Clipper. After he received the news, he was surprised because Sarvesh’s operation was not supposed to start until the end of tomorrow. Although he did not know what had happened, since Sarvesh had completed his mission ahead of schedule, the Navy could not fall behind.
04:30 AM
"We will set sail in one hour," Gautam stated as he started to dress up and prepare for the naval battle. Also, in one more hour, it would be 5:30 in the morning, and the first light of the day should hit the horizon before long, making it perfect timing for the attack.