January 10th, 1656
The Mughal Empire, In the region of Baluchistan
Narasimha Nayak and Ramayya Senapati met once more after their departure in the city of Khuzdar. However, they had serious expressions on their faces as they looked at the city wall in front of them.
Currently, they were in front of the city wall of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan and the most prosperous city, which also happens to be the gatekeeper of the Kojak Pass.
A week ago, Ramayya Senapati attacked the city of Dhadar. After continuous bombardment and realizing that no reinforcements were coming, the people of the Kakar tribe decided to accept defeat, similar to what happened with the Marri tribe when Narasimha Nayak sieged the Kalāt city.
In this manner, With the help of Bharatiya External Pragya and Sainik Pragya, one of the three main geographical strategic points of Baluchistan, the Bolan Pass, was captured by Ramayya Senapati.
Having similar experiences, both Commanders felt confident about winning the battle with the same strategy in Quetta city. This time, they even had more troops and increased combat ability, so their confidence was at an all-time high when they marched towards the city of Quetta.
However, when they arrived, their confidence was dashed after looking at the tall city wall in front of them, which seemed to be made of rock and not clay or wood like the previous cities they had encountered. They felt like they would have to stay here for years before the siege succeeded.
However despite the odds not in their favour, they still had to try and do their job, so they commenced the siege operation.
With a stern face, Narasimha Nayak ordered, "Advance forward, prepare to install artillery."
The army, which received the orders, moved in a practised manner. Platoons and squads acted individually as the Bharatiya scorpion grenade launcher was being assembled, and the infantry advanced to provide protection to the logistics unit responsible for building fortifications for the artillery.
A thousand or so soldiers advanced one step at a time, fully armed with cutting-edge defensive gear. Behind them, the military logistics team followed, carrying tools and sandbags to quickly fortify the artillery positions.
Narasimha Nayak and Ramayya Senapati watched this operation from behind calmly, as they had already experienced it multiple times in the past.
"BOOM" "BOOM" "BOOM"
However, suddenly their calmness was wiped out when they heard multiple cannon shots.
"Ahhh!"
There were screams of agony and pain within the infantry division. Multiple squads were hit with cannonball shots, a few dozen people died, and the rest panicked.
Narasimha Nayak and Ramayya Senapati looked at each other’s faces in shock, as they did not realize the city was equipped with cannons. But now that they heard the sound and identified the location where the cannonballs were ejected from, they could clearly see that it came from the windows on top of the city wall.
These windows were built throughout the entire length of the city wall as if the architect understood how to confuse and intimidate the opponent.
A chill passed through the spines of Narasimha Nayak and Ramayya Senapati.
Although they only heard three to four cannon shots, looking at the windows where nothing was visible inside, they could be sure that they wouldn’t know from which angle the cannonball would come, even if there were only a few cannons, since the position of the cannons inside can be changed after each shot, making it impossible for them to get a read on their position.
"Fallback, retreat!" Ramayya Senapati ordered, as he already knew that it was impossible to build the fortifications in the presence of these cannons watching their every move.
"Where did the cannons come from anyway, damn it?" Ramayya Senapati cursed.
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Narasimha Nayak fell into deep thought and came up with a feasible solution. "It might be imported from the Safavid Empire. It is in close proximity, after all, and given that both the Mughal Empire and the Safavid Empire are of the same caste, I feel like it wouldn’t be a problem to equip such an important city with ample defensive equipment."
Although Narasimha Nayak realized this, he was still deeply annoyed by the enemy’s artillery.
"Damn it," Ramayya Senapati cursed again, his fist clenched in anger.
The infantry unit and the logistics unit that went forward to build the artillery positions came back with sombre expressions as they carried the remains of their comrades along with their weapons.
looking at this scene, Narasimha Nayak, similar to Ramayya, clenched his fist in anger.
There was no more action from them until nightfall.
When the torches in the city were lit up, it was time for the Bharatiya Army to act.
Outside the city, at its southern end, a few hundred meters away from the city wall, in a place that acted as natural camouflage from the Mughals’ lookouts, Narasimha Nayak and Ramayya Senapati had gathered with the troops.
Narasimha Nayak looked at the surroundings and made sure that the lights of the Mughal torches on top of the city wall would not reach this location, then started to give orders.
"Dig."
As soon as the order was passed, the soldiers, who were already equipped with engineering shovels, started to dig the ground under their feet. They dug towards the city wall.
It should have been an arduous task to create a tunnel in such a short time, but it was not too hard for the Bharatiya Army since this was part of the training they received. Also, soldiers would only have to work for an hour until another soldier replaced them, leading to maximum effectiveness.
The soil that was dug was collected by the logistics unit and used to fill up more bags for artillery fortifications. The bags were placed inside the newly dug tunnel, positioned by its wall to ensure quick access when needed.
03:00 AM
The tunnelling operation had been going on for all night, and fortunately, they were successful; the Mughals did not notice. However, they were running out of time, so they started to fortify the opening of the tunnel with sandbags and camouflage nets.
Fortunately, the Mughal soldiers were drowsy, hence they didn’t notice 18-20 mounds that suddenly appeared throughout the battlefield. Due to their negligence, they allowed artillery to be directly pointed at them.
06:00 AM
"Ah!"
A Mughal soldier was startled after seeing these twenty mounds that suddenly appeared in front of their city wall overnight. He was horrified as he stared with widened eyes at these small hills. The rest of the soldiers, taken aback by the soldier’s reaction, also looked in the direction he was looking, and what did they see?
Twenty neatly positioned fortifications, all of them lined up perfectly for artillery bombardment.
Immediately, the news spread through the ranks, and the Mughal leaders were quickly informed.
As for Narasimha Nayak and Ramayya Senapati, one of them had a drowsy expression and red eyes as he was responsible for the tunnelling operation overnight, while the other was looking very happy and excited because the fortifications had been successfully built.
And they built more fortifications than expected due to the unexpected surprise: the soil under the top layer turned out to be soil with the texture of beach sand. They concluded that this was a place where flooding frequently happened in the past. Due to the soil having this texture, it was easier for them to dig through it.
Hence, the main tunnel, which had started 300 meters away from the city wall, split up into 20 smaller tunnels dotted across the battlefield.
If the city wall hadn’t been built very deep inside, Narasimha Nayak, who was responsible for the tunnelling, would even consider directly digging the tunnel inside the city, Making things a lot easier for themselves.
Currently, Ramayya Senapati who is responsible for the upcoming battle is waiting for the green signal from the artillerymen in order to restart the operation. A few minutes later, he did get the reply he wanted, and with a happy and satisfied expression, he immediately ordered, "Start the bombardment."
The Bharatiya Scorpion Grenade Launchers, which had already aimed at the place where the Mughal Empire’s artillery was positioned, immediately fired.
*ZOOP* *ZOOP* *ZOOP* *ZOOP*
Screams were immediately heard as the launched grenades exploded and the shrapnel tore flesh apart inside the confined space. Looking at the scene, Ramayya Senapati had a smile on his face as he could see a mist of blood coming out of the artillery compartment.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t smile anymore since the cannons were immediately brought over to the top of the wall and started firing at their grenade launchers.
*Boom* *Boom* *Boom* *Boom*
"Now that you no longer have to hide, you’re showing off in an open and bold manner, huh?" Ramayya Senapati muttered. With the decision made by the Mughal defenders, Although the strength of the enemy became clear, dealing with the cannons became unclear since the grenade launchers could not reach that high.
And even though the fortifications they built were relatively safe, they could not guarantee that they would always be safe, since what they built were temporary positions, and these had to be repaired every night before the battle commenced.
Seeing no hope in destroying the cannons, the grenade launchers were aimed towards the city wall in order to see how much damage they could cause, sadly, As expected, the damage was negligible at most. Narasimha Nayak and Ramayya Senapati both came to the conclusion that without better firepower, it was almost impossible to breach the city wall without some unconventional means or proper artillery.
Hence, they quickly sent a few men back to the cities they conquered in order to request firepower. As for how The Empire would deliver the firepower, it was unknown, but all they knew was that without more firepower, the task was impossible to complete.
If there was a delay in the mission, it was possible for the Mughal Empire and the Safavid Empire to act, further complicating the already messy situation.
The Messengers who reached Dhadar and Kalāt immediately informed the news, and the station brigadier generals in these cities immediately relayed the news through a messenger to Khuzdar. Since Khuzdar had become the logistical node of the operation, the news passed through quicker and eventually reached the port cities of Gwadar and Ormara within that day.
From there, using the Arka Drishti Communication channel, the news immediately reached the northwestmost point of Gujarat at Narayan, where the transmission station was situated. Eventually, it reached Vijay, who was at the Northern Frontier, preparing for the eventual Mughal attack with bated breath.
P.S. Im sick, so only 1 today