April 5th, 1656
Dakshin Bharatiya Empire, Northern Frontier
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Countless cannonballs flew through the air like cluster missiles, accurately targeting the Mughal artillery before they could enter the range to initiate fire.
Throughout the Northern Frontier, Cannons were raging as the commanders of all four battle zones intensely stared at the enemy, watching their every move and not giving them a chance for resistance.
In the western Madhya Pradesh Battle Group, Marshal Kiran Poojari directly took command and initiated the battle.
"Aim the target at a cross angle to get better coverage," Kiran Poojari ordered as he watched the enemy’s movements with the newly produced handheld telescope, which gave him a visual of the enemy’s organizational structure and their movements.
Although Kiran Poojari is primarily known for his genius in defensive battles, having proven time and time again his ability to thwart the Mughal Empire’s plans to invade the central region of the Bharatiya Empire, that does not mean Kiran Poojari is not good at attacking. No, that is a misconception.
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His command of attack strategies is no different from some of the prominent military generals in the military. The reason why he never participates in an offensive strategy is because his ability to guard is too great, so great that no one could replace him. It is for this reason that he has been protecting the Northern Frontier ever since the war started alone.
His actions and his presence in the military are like a backbone for the commanders to fight their battles wholeheartedly, whether overseas or in any military campaign. They always knew that there was a man back in their homeland who was protecting it without letting the enemy step even an inch.
As all the other commanders have their own roles in this war, Kiran Poojari chimed in to be the commander of the western Madhya Pradesh Battle Group. Looking at the scene of enemy artillery being bombarded without leaving any resistance, it could be said that he is doing very well.
"Tsk."
Feroze Jung, who was facing the bombardment of the Bharatiya artillery, could not help but click his tongue in annoyance. He hates being completely dominated without even being able to resist.
*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*
Witnessing the constant bombardment of the Bharatiya cannons, Feroze was getting restless. As he couldn’t stand it anymore, he roared at his lieutenant,
"**** have the artillery move forward quicker. I don’t care if you have the soldiers act as horses. I need to hear our cannons roaring within 20 minutes. UNDERSTAND?"
"Y-Yes S-s-sir."
Hundreds of Mughal soldiers were asked to work together to pull the cannons forward, and despite the danger, they did as ordered. However,
*BOOM!**BOOM!**BOOM!*
"AHHHHH!"
As expected, the death toll in this job increased tremendously as the people who were directly hit by the cannon shot were reduced to meatpaste, and the soldiers in the vicinity were caught by the heat and had various parts of their bodies injured by the explosion.
That’s right, an explosion. Kiran Poojari ordered the use of alternating ammunition: round shot, grapeshot, canister shot, and incendiary shot.
Although some of these ammunition would not provide the same range for the cannon as the round shot, which provides the maximum extent of the range, changing the ammunition frequently makes the artillery firing pattern hard to detect and hard to guard against.
Obviously, the plan had worked. Sometimes an incendiary shot would fall into the ranks of the infantry and immediately turn the surrounding area of four to five meters into scorched earth with the smell of burnt blood.
Or a grape shot would fall on the Musketeers and create a sinkhole of corpses within the army.
Or even a canister shot, which has a better range. Not only does it damage the enemy artillery, but it also explodes on impact and shoots out shrapnel, piercing and shredding the people near it.
However, despite the large casualties, it was undeniable that the Mughal Empire had more troops than the Bharatiya Empire, over 60,000 more. Hence, the sacrifice of soldiers to pull the artillery faster was painful but deemed necessary, As the artillery of the Mughal Empire sprang to life.
*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*
As expected, with the artillery of the Mughal Empire finally in operation, the frontier wall started taking damage
----
Kiran Poojari, who witnessed the cannon fire of the enemy that was starting to cause damage, knew it was time.
"Fire the Stage Two Artillery," Kiran Poojari ordered.
Lieutenant General Gowri Putra, with a serious expression, nodded and followed the commands.
Immediately, in the surprised eyes of the Mughal infantry who could see the large towers, taller than the city wall and previously covered by a blanket, a large artillery piece was revealed. They were shocked because this was a cannon that they had never seen before. Judging by its shape, it resembled a larger version of the Bharatiya culverin they were familiar with.
Just this thought made them shudder in fright as they were aware of the reputation of the culverin.
This was indeed the product of the Bharatiya military, researched by the Academy of Military Sciences. It was a larger calibre culverin newly designed and developed with an extended range of up to 1500 meters.
It featured increased muzzle velocity, its bore diameter increased from 5.5 inches to 8.5 inches, weight increased to 3.4 tonnes, length extended to 19 feet from 15 feet, barrel lengthened to 15 feet from 12 feet, and calibre increased from 7 kilograms to 12 kilograms.
Although not many of these cannons were manufactured due to demanding accuracy requirements for the machining tools needed, they were crucial in battle. To fully utilize their advantages, these longer-range cannons were placed on platforms in elevated towers behind the frontier wall.
This positioning ensured that even if the Mughal cannons reached firing range and started firing, these cannons, currently difficult to produce, would not be damaged due to their placement behind the frontier wall. Furthermore, they could achieve better aim and accuracy from a higher angle.
---
Feroz Jung, who saw the newly revealed cannons of the Bharatiya Empire, couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread; his heart sank, and he felt like he was at the bottom of an endless abyss.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Before he could react, he saw these cannons, positioned behind the frontier wall, spew out projectiles at the fastest speed he had ever seen. These projectiles, coming from various directions, made him feel small and insignificant. His eyes couldn’t help but become bloodshot as he, a military veteran, felt immense pressure now that the Bharatiya Empire was revealing its cards.
The situation, which had seemed to stabilize for the Mughal Empire, immediately turned dire as the large culverins swiftly and accurately hit the Mughal artillery that was constantly firing at the wall.
The only drawback was that there were not too many of these culverins, and although they could take out four to five enemy cannons in a minute, which could lead to a substantial long-term advantage, the short-term advantage was not too great.
Fortunately, the Bharatiya Empire had a greater number of artillery pieces due to a complete industrial chain and standard manufacturing processes. Even though the Bharatiya Empire was caught off guard by the sudden attack of the Mughal Empire, it would never lose out in a battle of equipment.
The only reason Kiran Poojari is striving to minimize damage to the artillery pieces is because the battle at the frontier is not the end of the war; it is only the beginning. Their army must march into enemy territory and face sturdier defences equipped with numerous cannons.
Therefore, it is imperative that he, as the Marshal of the empire, does his best so that commanding officers will have an easier time overcoming the enemy.
Preserving strength as much as possible in the early stages of the battle is a consensus among all military commanders and generals, including Vijay, who is currently recuperating at home and supports the plan.
For this reason, actions have been taken across all four battle groups to minimize casualties among soldiers and artillery pieces.
Whether it’s the Bengal Battle Group commanded by Birbal Singh, next in line to become the empire’s commander, or the Eastern Madhya Pradesh Battle Group led by Ramayya Senapathi, or even the Jharkhand Battle Group under Narasimha Nayak, all three commanders are employing strategies and techniques to reduce artillery losses while seeking opportunities to penetrate the Mughal army and advance inland for conquest.
----
While the war is raging at full scale, Vijay, who is back home in the capital city of Hampi, is not idle. He is contributing to the war efforts in his own way.
Vijay is currently overseeing the upgrade plan of the machine tools, which, according to him, should lay a solid foundation for the start of the industrial revolution in the Bharatiya Empire. With more accurate machine tools, he could also design and produce advanced weapons as well as upgrade the existing ones.
But that’s not all. Vijay also leads a team of scientists at the Bharatiya Academy of Military Sciences to develop a secret weapon to be used against the Mughal Empire. This weapon was inspired by the Japanese handgun that Swiss mercenaries brought back. Upon seeing this firearm, he also recalled another weapon that was used related to the Japanese by the Koreans to fight them off.
Vijay aims to replicate and improve upon its design and manufacture of the weapon.