March 18th, 1656
Dakshin Bharatiya Empire, Kakatiya Puri State, Warangal
Over the last half a month, a lot of things have happened in the empire.
For one, Kavya is five months into her pregnancy and has drastically reduced the time she spends dealing with affairs, whether it’s fashion designing, handling matters of field hospitals, or even writing a new book. All of these activities have become impossible for her.
She is now attended to by multiple doctors around the clock in the palace, whereas Vijay, even though he is far away in the state of Gujarat, dedicates his attention to her around the clock and responds immediately if something urgent arises.
With the establishment of Arkha Drishti communication channels, many things can now be achieved. Communication across distances of thousands of kilometres can be done within a few hours.
Speaking of Arkha Drishti Communication, the naval communication channel through the Drishti-class catamaran has been completed on the western coast of the empire. Now, throughout the west coast, the Drishti-class catamarans stand in the Arabian Sea, like an impenetrable naval wall, blocking off any ambitions from the Europeans travelling through the Cape of Good Hope.
Additionally, the production of these strategic ships has not stopped. They are continuously being produced to form the East Coast communication and defence line, similar to the setup on the West Coast.
---
The battleship Vijay asked the Venetians to build is almost complete, and additionally, the prototype of the armed merchant ship has been built and is awaiting approval in the Raya shipyard. As for the competition between the Boswell Design Bureau and the Berunda Design Bureau, the winner was naturally Vishesh Neeladri from the Boswell Design Bureau.
He designed a more completely armed merchant ship that could be modified into a battleship when needed. In contrast, Ghana Prabhu Berunda designed a pure merchant ship that could not handle battle conditions, even though it was much steadier and stronger than his previous Samudra Bandhu class merchant ship.
Although his design was not selected in the final analysis, his cost-to-performance ratio made his design quite popular among the merchant class of the empire and the logistics branches in various states.
Consequently, the Berunda shipyard and the Shivaji shipyard, with the majority shareholding of the Molin family who took a liking to the design, began producing his designs for local use, while Vishesh Neeladri’s design was produced in the three shipyards of Shivaji, Ashoka and Raya dedicated to war logistics supply.
Progress has not slowed down in scientific fields; on the contrary, it has accelerated. Research for new drugs has become the new norm in the empire with the invention of the microscope.
Due to the same, the causes of multiple diseases are being discovered constantly, and hundreds of research papers are being written every week, stating precautionary measures and theories about disease prevention, which has increased awareness of hygiene among the educated group in the empire.
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Meanwhile, inventions related to war are undergoing iterative upgrades constantly, and the accuracy of the machine tools is improving every passing week. Theoretically, at the current speed, in another two months, the machine tools should be accurate enough to produce more sophisticated weapons, and the rifling of the present muskets should be possible.
Coming back to the progress of the war, the strength of the Bengal Mughal army has fallen to 120,000, as their numbers were whittled down in the past battles of Muniguda and Dantewada, which were two main cities after the Mughal army conquered and crossed Cuttack.
The new battle strategies involving Bharatiya Scorpion grenade launchers, land mines, and the Earth Cannon AKA Fougasse, were used to decrease the strength of the enemy while paying relatively little in terms of personnel.
As proof of this, in the entire 938 kilometres that the Mughal army marched, the death ratio between the two empires stayed at 1:25. This means that for the death of 280,000 Mughal soldiers, the price paid by the Bharatiya in terms of personnel was only 11,200.
Warangal Fortress, Kakatiya Puri State
Warangal Fortress is an ancient stronghold that has been the centre of many dynasties and kingdoms throughout history, including the Great Kakatiya Dynasty which ruled from the 12th to the 14th century. It was established as the capital of King Rudradeva I during his reign. Renowned for its impressive architecture, Warangal Fortress features a massive stone gateway and formidable fortifications.
Essentially, the fortifications and defensive facilities in Warangal are no less impressive than those found in the current capital city of the Dakshin Bharatiya Empire - Hampi.
Stationed in such a place, Ramayya Senapati, now commanding the operations of what would be the final battle, is very satisfied with how the war has progressed. Despite initial doubts, witnessing the slow and painful demise of enemy soldiers convinced him that the methods employed by the emperor were ingenious and well-suited for the situation.
In order to deal a final blow to the enemy, apart from the 20,000 troops under his command inside the fortress, Ramayya also oversees the 100,000 troops stationed in Siri Konda Fifty kilometres away, ready to be deployed if needed.
"Your Excellency, the enemy has reached the 10-kilometer vicinity," a lieutenant informed Ramayya calmly.
Fists clenched, fighting intent burning, "Good. It’s time to end this farce," Ramayya stated, his expression resolute.
1 hour later...
Salim Khan, who was no longer as confident as before, arrived with his army only a few hundred meters away from the city wall of Warangal. Originally, Salim wanted to end the war as far back as Cuttack because he lacked confidence in retaining any further gains. He believed that logistics delays had stretched their supply lines too thin, making it impossible to proceed further.
Unfortunately, his request to end the war and consolidate the conquered region was rejected back in the empire. The Mughal nobles who now influenced the war felt that greater benefits could be gained by advancing farther inland.
Receiving such a reply weeks ago, Salim Khan couldn’t help but curse aloud.
"These stupid pigs! Don’t they understand that it’s the Bharatiya Empire deliberately pulling them inland?" His face flushed with anger, he roared, swinging at tables and chairs around him. "Now that we’ve conquered a large chunk of land, these useless pigs aren’t thinking about consolidating it. Their greed is pushing us to risk everything."
His fists clenched as he continued, "Now, because of these good-for-nothing sows, my army and I have to be the ones paying the price, despite achieving substantial military merits."
"God damn it all!"
Bang!
After weeks of intense internal struggle, he had come to terms with his position and now stood in front of the city wall, ready to initiate the siege once again, despite only having a slim chance of victory.
Looking back at his army, which had dwindled to nearly one-fourth of its original size, and the artillery to three-tenths, with thousands of cannons reduced to just a couple of hundred due to a surprise attack by Earth Cannons that took most of them, he couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh.
As he looked at the fortress wall, which was only slightly smaller than the city wall of Agra, Salim’s resolve faltered. Even though he already knew the specifications of the Fort he was about to attack, seeing it firsthand made him feel more helpless.
But still, he had no other choice but to commence the siege in the current desperate situation.
"My men, this is the last obstacle we have to conquer before glory. So, one last time, let’s fight for the Motherland to regain its lost lands! Charge!" He rallied the soldiers, momentarily boosting their morale. The soldiers, who had lifeless expressions on their faces, couldn’t help but regain the fire of hope once again just by thinking about the end of the war.
They felt like they could give it their all one last time, and it would all be over.
Ramayya, looking at the approaching army, realized that it was time. He ordered, "Cut off the logistics."
The lieutenant immediately nodded and swiftly sent his order through the arkha Dristhi communication channel to the Bharatiya commandos.
---
A few hundred meters from each of the Mughal-occupied strongholds, a battalion of Bharatiya commandos awaited further orders to act.
Step step step
The scout who had received the message through the Arkha Dristhi communication station quickly informed Lingash, the commanding officer of the operation, about the orders from His Excellency, Commander Ramayya Senapati. Lingash, his eyes sharp, crumpled the paper without showing any emotion and promptly took action.
The battalion of soldiers swiftly entered tunnels that had been prepared as fallbacks before the cities were evacuated and captured by the Mughals.
These tunnels were dug before the complete evacuation of the cities to account for the possibility that the Mughal army might pause in their campaign and consolidate conquered regions. If such a thing happened, It would then be more difficult for the Bharatiya Empire to recapture these lost cities after a siege.
Therefore, even if the initial plan failed, these back doors were left as a strategy to minimize casualties. This ensured that even if the plan failed, recapturing the cities would require fewer losses compared to direct fighting on the frontier.
These actions were repeated in all four captured strongholds as the commandos sneaked in through the tunnels and, with their pre-existing knowledge about the cities, quickly identified the enemy positions.
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"
The Mughal soldiers, who were focused on external attacks, were taken aback when suddenly enemies appeared from within the city.
As a result, in the first round of firing, nearly half of the existing troops were taken out.
"Spread out and take them out one by one."
With the order passing through, the commandos quickly spread out to various parts of the cities and engaged in a game of hide and seek with the enemy, who obviously did not have much familiarity with the cities. The hidden military supplies in the cities were immediately seized by the Bharatiya commandos, significantly increasing their firepower.
As the death toll rose, the will of the Mughal soldiers to resist decreased. Hence, the Bharatiya Commandos accepted their surrender, tied them up, and escorted them towards Warangal.
This occurred in all the captured strongholds, and within the day, all the cities that had been taken were recaptured, including the northern fortress.
Back on the Warangal battlefield,
Nearly 28,355 casualties occurred from the first stage alone, and even after such losses, the Mughal artillery only started firing now. However, Salim Khan had become more and more desperate. As time passed, he realized that the enemy was not going to retreat this time and was intent on eliminating them once and for all.
"G-General?"
Suddenly, he heard a hesitant voice calling from behind him.
Salim, who was already feeling desperate, couldn’t help but get furious when he was disturbed.
"WHAT!" he roared. However, surprisingly, the person who called him wasn’t even looking at him but was gazing northward.
Having a bad feeling, Salim shifted his attention to the north and was shocked.
It was the troops who were stationed in the conquered strongholds, lined up like lowly slaves brought to their knees.
Looking at the lieutenant, the person who had called him, with an expression of disbelief, Salim didn’t say anything more.
’’Sigh.’’
He made up his mind; in the current situation, victory was all but a miracle.
Hence, without hesitation, he raised the white flag and ordered the soldiers in the vanguard to retreat.
As soon as the flag was raised, the firing from the Bharatiya Artillery ceased. Once it was confirmed that the Mughal vanguard had halted, there was a momentary silence from both sides, followed by loud cheers erupting from inside the fort.
Near the northern wall, the Bharatiya commandos celebrated with their fists raised high, looking at the raised white flag and hearing the familiar shouts from inside the fort.
The war, which had lasted for almost a month, ended just like this, with casualties that could be seen as negligible. Even Ramayya, who had maintained a stoic face from beginning to end, smiled for the first time in a long while.
Vijay, who received the good news within a few hours, felt very happy, but he had a lingering feeling that something was wrong. It seemed too easy for the war to end, and he felt the enemies that attacked this time were too weak.
"Am I thinking too much?" he wondered.
Unable to find out the truth, he temporarily dismissed his concerns and immediately ordered an attack on Bengal. He also directed the northeastern army, which had not yet acted, to join in the upcoming war efforts.
P.S. I am not reading the comments until the war arc ends, because I am scared. also all these days only a single chap per day because I was lazy.