March 30th, 1656
Two days have passed since the bombardments of the cannons started. The cannons, made in some of the most prominent armouries of Europe, ranging from the Royal Armouries in England to the Imperial Armory of Vienna, gave their best performance as the fortress wall of Ballari was riddled with holes and was eventually rendered unusable, while the Bharatiya cannons were nearly destroyed.
Fortunately, the damage was not one-sided, as the situation of the Swiss mercenaries could be said to be not much better than that of the Bharatiya Empire. Although more cannons of the Swiss mercenaries remained intact, Due to there not being any substantial defence for the people, more casualties occurred.
General Conrad von Zwingli, who saw blood stains and body remains of his soldiers, still maintained the calm expression that he had at the beginning of the battle, as in his opinion, things were not yet out of control and the initiative was still with him since they had better weaponry and more skilled soldiers.
Vijay, who also understood the gap in equipment, did not hesitate and quickly ordered a frontal assault since the involvement of cannons was pretty much not an option.
"Two phalanx defensive formations, form!"
The captain of the guard immediately gave an order for the royal guards, and the guards promptly formed two phalanx of heavy infantry carrying large iron tower shields. behind them were the gunners, light infantry, and grenadiers, all present and waiting for a chance to act.
"Flying wedge charge," General Conrad von Zwingli quickly ordered, noticing the change in the battle style.
"Yes, sir," the chief of staff, Colonel John Meyer, replied as he barked orders to his troops.
"Pikemen, arquebusiers, sharpshooters, musketeers, take formation and march."
As if they were a well-oiled machine, 16,000 pikemen, 16,000 arquebusiers, 5,000 sharpshooters, and 10,000 musketeers immediately took their positions accordingly.
In the previous battle, which was only the exchange of cannon fire, the Swiss mercenaries lost most of their 10,000 artillerymen, while the Bharatiya Empire was not far off with the death of nearly 80% of their artillerymen.
For this battle, As a last resort, Vijay had to recruit his own royal guards, numbering 50,000, as well as the city defence forces of Hampi City, which numbered 40,000 troops, making the strength of his army a total of 90,000 troops.
Fortunately, unlike the Mughal Empire City Defense Forces, which were filled with corrupt elements, the Bharatiya Empire City Defense Forces were filled with real military veterans and talented people. This was even more so for the capital city, Hampi. As for the Royal Guards under Vijay, their training reached the same level as the special forces, so there is nothing more to be said there.
Although experience-wise the troops recruited might be a little far off from the enemy, they will never be too far off physically or may even surpass the Swiss in physical strength.
In the current standoff, putting aside the people who were unfortunately killed in the battle, the Bharatiya Empire had 90,000 troops remaining, while the Swiss mercenaries had 50,000 troops.
However, surprisingly, when it came to the standoff, unknown to each other, only 75,000 troops participated on the Bharatiya side and only 45,000 troops participated on the Swiss side.
As for where these missing troops went, it remains a mystery.
Oblivious to these small details, the two armies, one with a Two phalanx defensive formation and the other with a Flying wedge formation marched steadily, about to collide at any moment.
"20 meters."
"17 meters."
"13 meters."
"Bang!"
As soon as the gun firing ranges were reached, both opponents started firing without saying a word.
The arquebusiers, sharpshooters, and musketeers acted in unison, as a barrage of bullets of various calibres was shot at the Bharatiya Army.
However, the Bharatiya Army was not easily pushed over. Even though their guns lacked the speed and power compared to the top weapons in the world that the opponents were using, they had something that the opponents did not have: standardization.
Due to this, by the time the opponent shot two barrages, the Bharatiya Gunners, carrying the latest Brown Bess Flintlocks, were able to fire three times, which is nearly 50% more speed and efficiency than the opponent.
"Ahhh!"
"Oh, Holy Mary!"
"Ahhh F!@$!"
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"F!$!@ piece of S@$!"
The mercenaries began to take damage as roars of pain, praying with devotion, and a string of profanities left their mouths.
Fortunately, although there were a lot of people who were severely injured and couldnāt move further, there were not too many, due to the pikemen holding heavy defences as they formed the vanguard and marched forward.
"8 meters."
"3 meters."
As the distance got down to a couple of meters away, both armies screamed at the top of their lungs.
"Bharat Mata Ki Jai!"
"Glory to the Helvetian Vanguard!"
The atmosphere was filled with brutal pressure, with both sides gritting their teeth and persisting as they knew the battle was only getting started.
*BOOOM*
The two armies collided like two professional rugby teams going at each otherās necks.
The dust and debris flew in the air as both armies refused to take even a step back.
The fighting became very intense as the pikemen tried their best to stab the enemy in front of them, but unfortunately, the enemy was very well-guarded.
The heavy infantry of the Bharatiya Empire also tried their best to open up a path for the light infantry behind them, but unfortunately, the pikemen were very experienced and did not let go even an inch.
Fortunately, the breakthrough in the battle came when the grenadiers took action.
The fuses were lit, and immediately the grenades were thrown into the tightly packed group of Swiss mercenaries.
"Boom!"
General Conrad immediately lost his calm as, with the explosion of the grenade, a whole group of ten soldiers were immediately shredded into multiple pieces as the blood and mist floated in the air only to fall on their comrades.
Conrad had never seen such a weapon before. Although he did see similar weapons being developed by various European nations, none were as powerful as the ones in front of him.
"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"
More explosions of the grenades rang out, and more Swiss fell.
Conrad: "This canāt go on."
"John, bring out the Japanese gun," Conrad said with a serious expression on his face.
The chief of staff, knowing the seriousness of the matter, did not delay any longer and quickly retrieved the Japanese gun from the supply corps.
Soon, a gun that looked like a long, drainage pipe was carried with the help of a few big men and was quickly brought to the tail of the formation.
The gun, decorated with various ornate designs detailed in an oriental style, immediately caught the attention of the musketeers at the back.
They did not know what the general was doing, but they waited.
General Conrad von Zwingli, seeing the gun installed, immediately informed John of his orders.
John immediately conveyed these orders throughout the army. Fortunately, they were fighting against foreigners, so they could be sure that no one would understand what they spoke.
There was one exception, of course: Vijay, with his keen hearing, managed to make out what they were saying in bits and pieces. "On the sign of the gathering bread, the soldiers will split?"
Vijay was confident that he did not translate incorrectly, but he could not understand the meaning of this string of words combined together.
Due to the battlefield being on a hill, unfortunately, Vijay couldnāt see the Swiss bringing in the Japanese gun or even the place it was positioned, as its view was covered by the army.
"Bang, bang, bang, bang."
Four gunshots rang out in rhythm, and immediately the Swiss soldiers split like the red sea divided by Moses, forming two separate groups with a straight line in the middle.
Vijay immediately felt that things were not right.
"No, itās dangerous, retreat Im-"
"BOOM!"
However, he was unfortunately too late as the Japanese gun blasted the heavy infantryman apart and opened up a gap.
Seizing this chance, the pikemen, like white blood cells piercing through bacteria, immediately infiltrated the Bharatiya formation.
*Slice.*
"Ahhhh!"
"Ayaaaaa!"
Shouts of men being sliced apart were immediately heard.
The battle lost its balance immediately, and the upper hand went to the Swiss.
Even though some of the heavy infantry tried to regroup and reform the defensive formation, the experienced Swiss did not let it happen as they targeted those who wanted to regroup.
"Raah!"
Vijay knew that it couldnāt go on for long, so he quickly put on his helmet, unsheathed his Raktha Asthram, and descended onto the battlefield.
"Ahhh!"
"Lord!"
"W-what is that?"
A dazzling figure wearing black armour ran across the battlefield as if performing figure skating.
This figure was so fast that by the time he attacked one person and left, he was already a blur. As the battle continued, more and more people started to notice this dazzling figure now bathed in blood.
This figure was undoubtedly Vijay. He ran across the battlefield with fluid movements, adapting his actions to the position of the enemy.
*Hup!*
Vijay used his own soldier, who was injured, as a platform and jumped up, placing a foot on him.
He executed a somersault in the air and landed on the backs of six pikemen. They reacted immediately, but unfortunately, they did not stand a chance due to their bulky equipment slowing them down.
*Slash!*
Vijay, not giving them a chance to react, slashed his abnormally long wootz steel sword straight across the waists of these men.
*Thud!*
The six men immediately became twelve pieces as their hearts stopped beating before their brains could even process what happened.
Vijay did not stop, continuously harvesting souls throughout the battlefield.
"Ahhh! The Devil! The Devil!"
The Swiss began to panic, their formations falling into disarray.
General Conrad von Zwingliās eyes shrunk as he witnessed the scene before him. He could never have expected that the monarch of this eastern empire was such a monster.
Even he was becoming unsettled as his heart rate began to rise.
To be continued...
P.S. Fuck u laziness