December 1st, 1655
The city of Indore, Dakshin Bharatiya Empire
After the battle that ended on the morning of November 30th, the city of Indore was in disarray, with dead bodies scattered throughout the city and the destruction of the majority of buildings.
On the scale of destruction caused, Indore was a special case where the Bharatiya Empire chose not to preserve its structural integrity and decided to go all out on their offence, not worrying about the destruction it could cause to the city they were about to occupy.
This decision was influenced by the enemy general having wiped out the majority of Hindus living there, which made the idea of preserving the city’s foundation vanish from the minds of many Bharatiya military leaders. All of them wanted to immediately tear the Mughals to shreds, While not even bothered about the destruction their attacks would inflict on the city.
Now, with personnel sent from the empire, the city that looked dead 12 hours ago was currently bustling with activity. Different departments were assigned various tasks. One department questioned survivors and relocated them back to the empire, where residences would be provided.
Another unit focused on cleaning up the dead bodies throughout the city, and these bodies were swiftly transported to the southern part of the city where the genocide occurred.
Enemy bodies were piled up and burned, while their own people were either sent back to the empire to their families or, if the bodies were in very bad condition and unrecognizable, an object belonging to the person, along with a body part, was buried in a designated area in the city, marked with plaques stating their names and service to the empire.
Moreover, A collective burial ceremony was also held this morning, Sending the dead back to the afterlife and wishing they have a good life in their next incarnation.
Unfortunately, Vijay could not witness these rituals, as he was not in a condition to attend. Moreover, the event could not be postponed due to the high risk of disease spreading rapidly, potentially leading to a plague outbreak. also, the bodies of the dead could not be left exposed for too long, as they would begin to rot.
In a large noble building located in the city centre of Indore, Vijay, who had been asleep for the last ten hours, began to slowly wake up. By the time he was fully awake, it was already evening. Fortunately, the pressure of the battle had subsided, leaving Vijay with ample time to arrange his schedule as he wished.
The building Vijay was currently in had previously been the living quarters of Islam Zaheer.
Speaking of Islam, as the military general of Indore, Islam Zaheer had once suppressed the power of the ministers and amirs sent by the royal palace to oversee the city. He cleverly utilized a loophole by pushing his pawns into the deputy positions of all these ministers, acting as the black hand and the real controller behind the city of Indore.
This is one of the main reasons the city took such a deformed path, where the rich nobles were richer than anywhere else while the poor were poorer than anywhere else.
As for why Vijay slept in the enemy’s quarters, which he despised, well, for one, Vijay was not aware of where he was sleeping, as he was dead tired and collapsed onto the ground after the death of Islam Zaheer.
Also, due to the overuse of his instincts, the sugar level in his blood, which had not dropped for a long time since he first used the power, had dropped to a threatening level, leaving him with no strength to stand.
For another, as all the noble quarters in the city had been destroyed by Vijay himself, no other acceptable place for him to sleep was found, so he was brought to this large castle-like building to rest.
The only silver lining in this incident is that Birbal Singh, who was responsible for the situation where Vijay, had to sleep in the same building as the Mughal general, had taken out all the belongings of the Mughal General and burned them to the ground. Surprisingly enough, he even invited a priest to perform a ritual while Vijay was asleep in order to remove the aura of the enemy or something.
*Stretch*
Vijay woke up and stretched his body as he got down from the bed and went to freshen himself up.
His current mood was very complicated. He felt like he had done something he could never go back on, but he knew he had done nothing wrong. However, as a person from the 21st century with the knowledge and ethics of that time, he could not accept some things as normal occurrences in the same way people in this era accept them as natural.
But, Since he was a monarch in this era, he would learn to accept them soon enough, that was for sure.
The flames at the southern end of the city finally died down. This fire had been burning for a whole day, and even after it reduced its intensity, there were small embers that burned for a longer time and with the burning of the enemy bodies, The flame lasted even longer.
Vijay, along with Birbal Singh as an entourage, came to the southern end of the city,
Witnessing the visual in front of him, he couldn’t help but sigh after seeing the endless char and ash spreading at least a few hundred meters in all directions. He could still see some smoke rising from beneath the top layer.
Vijay couldn’t help but think about how many people had died in this genocide.
Even though he did something similar, what he did was essentially less ruthless. The only people he harmed were the men in the noble families. They were immediately tied down in their respective homes, while the women and children below a certain age were evacuated back to jail in the empire.
Vijay initially wanted to destroy these noble families along with their women and children, but fortunately, reason told him that he could not mirror the enemy and lower his morals to their level, which were pretty nonexistent, to begin with. Hence, Vijay only killed all the men of the nobles.
Thinking about it now, he couldn’t help but feel amused. When he just took over the throne, he would hesitate to even sentence a single man to death, but now he casually burned down thousands of soldiers, hunted down even more, and incinerated a whole settlement of nobles.
Even after doing all this, he could tell that he was still sane, which is something he would have never expected a few years ago, and yet here we are.
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With a complicated expression on his face, Despite feeling heartbroken looking at the scene, he decided to move on and do his best in order to further get justice for these innocent people. With this goal in mind, his expression immediately changed as his eyes radiated a firm determination. He had a new goal, and that was to ensure that the deaths of these poor souls wouldn’t be buried.
"Everyone should know about this," Vijay said to himself. He wanted each and every one on the subcontinent to know about the genocide committed by Islam Zaheer, A high-ranking Mughal General.
"Maybe you thought your actions would have no repercussions; unfortunately, you were wrong. I will show you that it is your actions that shook the foundation of the Mughal Empire," Vijay said to himself, thinking about Islam.
As Vijay said, if Islam did not think that there were repercussions for his actions, he would not have done it. But since he thought that there would be none, he was very willing to do so.
Now that Vijay had decided on what he wanted to do,
"How to do,"
He said to himself, falling into deep thought, pondering how to spread the story.
It wasn’t long before a sudden idea sparked in Vijay’s mind, his eyes lighting up.
Feeling that his idea was feasible, Vijay quickly decided on the next course of action, but for it to happen, he would have to go back to the empire. Additionally, he felt like his mental state was not right, so he wanted to see his family.
Despite the victory in the city of Indore providing a huge strategic position for the empire, with its momentum at an all-time high, Vijay and the rest of his troops who participated in the battle weren’t the same. They were tired, weary of war, and overall lacked the proper mental stability to wage another battle.
Additionally, even though the Mughals suffered a huge loss, the Bharatiya Empire was also not damage-free, as they also suffered losses. Hence, Vijay needed a few weeks to recuperate, and the military also needed a few weeks to recruit more soldiers.
But before going back, he had to inquire about something.
"Birbal, have the statistics been collected?" Vijay inquired.
Birbal, quick to remember, immediately nodded his head and reported, "Your Majesty, among the 20,000 troops who participated in this battle from the northern defensive frontier under the command of His Excellency, Marshal Kiran Pujari, the casualties, although lower than expected due to the new medical knowledge taught to some of the soldiers in the squads, still amounted to upwards of 3,823 deaths and 4,528 injuries of varying degrees, leaving the rest of the battle-ready troops to guard the surrounding towns and villages."
Vijay nodded his head as he continued to listen, finding the casualty count, although somewhat high, still acceptable.
"As for the main battle unit that participated in this battle, the Western Force," Birbal paused for a beat and continued with a serious expression, "we had brought 40,000 soldiers along with us. After multiple battles and military engagements, our losses are significant, with more than 12,123 people losing their lives and nearly 18,430 sustaining injuries.
Although most of them are minor injuries, there are also a lot of soldiers who have life-threatening injuries and are barely clinging to survival."
Vijay was startled upon hearing this news. He had expected a high number, but a number this high was still unexpected. However, upon further thought, Vijay felt that it made sense, considering the high-intensity nature of the battle they participated in.
While casualties had been controlled at the beginning of the battle due to limited direct engagement with the enemy, the numbers began to mount as they entered the forest and began to hunt down the enemy reinforcements.
That was more so after they rushed into the city of Indore with him in the lead, especially since the soldiers did not have his danger-sensing abilities. Hence, one mistake became the end of their lives.
Seeing the downcast expression of Vijay, Birbal felt like he understood his Majesty’s thoughts as he comforted him.
"Your Majesty, please don’t feel that this is your responsibility. It was the soldiers’ own choice and duty to sacrifice their lives in the line of battle. Since you have provided all the necessities and benefits to them and their families, they have no qualms about sacrificing their lives for the country. Moreover, the things that happened yesterday would make anyone’s blood boil.
These kinds of evils should not be left unpunished. Hence, Your Majesty, you don’t have to feel responsible, However, please be proud of the achievements of the soldiers under your command."
Birbal’s eyes were filled with his earnest wish for Vijay not to take yesterday’s events too hard as he continued, "And Your Majesty, please also consider the number of enemies we had to face. We had to face 50,000 reinforcements, as well as 10,000 soldiers inside the city, all by ourselves, with only 40,000 troops. Coming out alive from this battle would have been a victory."
He suddenly clenched his fist in pride, his head raised high as he declared, "But we not only did not run away, we butchered these sons of bitches, one at a time, absolutely annihilating them, wiping them off the face of this planet.
Hence, the loss of nearly half of our combat power is not too bad, Your Majesty, considering that we managed to wipe out 60,000 enemy troops, which, if I am being honest, left a considerable dent in the Mughal Empire."
Vijay, who heard all this, finally came to his senses as he ignored the amount of troops he had to fight. Failing to consider his own downcast demeanour as similar to spitting on the hard work of his soldiers, he sighed with relief after recognising his mistake and patted Birbal on his shoulder as he got onto a carriage, ready to go back to the empire.
P.S. Only 1 today, for some reason, I forgot English.