April 27th, 1656
The Mughal Empire, Region of Bengal, City of Kolkata
In the Royal Palace of Kolkata, the environment was weird and the atmosphere tense. The owner of the palace and the commander of Mughal forces in Bengal, His Excellency Nawab Mohammad Azlan, currently wore an angry expression on his face.
Even though he had lost nearly 100,000 troops due to his mistake of engaging the enemy in a bad strategic position, he at least felt that he would get a chance to counterattack when he retreated back to the stronghold.
But now he received the news that the enemy had actually separated nearly 100,000 soldiers and sent them towards Dhaka, the backyard of the Murshidabad Nawab family. After learning this news, it would be a miracle if Muhammad Azlan was not angry.
Prepare the troops to set off. We will stop these 100,000 enemy soldiers, Muhammad Azlan ordered as he got up from his seat, ready to personally act on his orders.
"Just a moment, Your Excellency."
However, a call from one of his ministers stopped him momentarily.
"What is it, Zain Rafi? You better make it fast."
Zain Rafi, with a scheming expression on his face, replied, " Your Excellency, it is nothing. I just think that the enemy’s move could also be an opportunity for us to completely eliminate them from our lands."
Muhammad was intrigued. He put on a curious expression, " How so? "
Zain Rafi, with a sly smile, explained, " Your Excellency, didn’t the enemy fool us by making us go from one place to another like headless chickens? Now we can use the same strategy on them and strangle these 100,000 soldiers with minimum casualties."
Although it was a little embarrassing to admit, Muhammad knew that what Zain Rafi said was indeed true; hence, he was looking forward to hearing the minister’s plan. "Go on," he said.
Motivated by the support given, Zain Rafi continued, "Your Excellency, isn’t it your uncle who is stationed in Dhaka? I am aware that His Excellency Fazil has extremely adequate military strength. So my question is, why not inform His Excellency about these Bharatiya soldiers’ arrival beforehand and have your uncle be prepared?
Then, when these Bharatiya soldiers reach the vicinity of Dhaka, we can have our troops march to this location and sandwich these 100,000 troops."
Muhammad’s eyes lit up as suddenly his blood was boiling. Wasn’t this the exact same thing that had happened to them? Just thinking about Counterattacking the enemy with the same strategy was giving him goosebumps.
Zain Rafi emboldened, explained, "And with the loss of these 100,000 troops, we might be able to regroup our strength and launch a surprise attack on the frontier again. Since the enemy’s strength is dispersed, the difficulty should be easier."
"Good, good, good," Muhammad was very excited as he nodded his head like a woodpecker and replied, "It is a brilliant plan, Zain. After this, I will reward you handsomely, hahahah."
Looking at the happy and satisfied expression of Muhammad Azlan, Zain Rafi also laughed. However, unknown to anyone, an imperceptible glint of disdain flashed past Zain’s eyes.
Muhammad, without any delay, crafted a letter directly to his uncle stating the strategy and plan they had just discussed. Muhammad gave it to a trusted messenger to deliver the letter. However, not feeling secure enough, Muhammad wrote another letter with identical contents and sent it through another messenger, this time having the messenger travel via the naval route.
Having done this much, he was satisfied and leaned back in his chair, happily waiting for the reply.
---
Zulfiqar, who was the messenger, secured the letter he was supposed to deliver close to his body, quickly got on a horse, and was about to start his journey.
However, before he could leave, he was stopped by some soldiers who had smiles on their faces.
Zulfiqar was curious as to why he was stopped, so he asked, "Is there anything wrong, sirs?"
The man who appeared to be the leader among the soldiers immediately widened his smile, came forward, and said, "Zarina Khan, age 32 years old. Mumtaz Khan, age 23 years old, is married and has two children. Jalal Khan, 18 years old, working as a government administrator."
Zulfiqar immediately broke out of cold sweat as his body felt cold. The names the man mentioned were, of course, his family members. Thinking about the task he was supposed to carry out, his heart sank. He looked around to see if there was anyone who could help, but unfortunately, these men had camouflaged their actions as if they were inspecting the horse shed.
"Please don’t, Sir Zulfiqar. You know what you have to do, so please do not cause trouble for us and yourself. Do this small favour for us. Not for nothing, of course; your family has already been safely shifted back to the Empire, and after you complete the mission, you can naturally join them."
Zulfiqar knew that he couldn’t win, so he silently took out the letter and passed it over to these Mughal soldiers—no, hidden soldiers of the Bharatiya Empire, of course.
The man who took the letter quickly noted its style and handwriting. Without delay, he took the same exact type of letter and emulated the handwriting as he wrote his own instructions.
As for how the paper was the same, it was simple. The person who procured paper for the Palace of Kolkata was bribed and could only accept a specific type of paper, hence the Bharatiya Empire was prepared.
The man who finished writing quickly blew on the ink to make it dry faster and, without hesitation, pressed the seal of the Murshidabad family he was carrying with him, then handed it over to Zulfiqar.
Zulfiqar’s eyes widened at the amount of preparation these guys had done, but he was relieved; at least he could now confirm that the opponent had a very high chance of winning.
The man, seeing Zulfiqar riding off into the distance, did not stick around as he quickly made arrangements to evacuate.
Another messenger, Hyder Khan, was also apprehended by the spies entrenched in the Mughal army, and the same situation took place where the letters were swapped.
---
110 km away in Kharagpur,
Birbal Singh had a worried expression as he asked, "Your Excellency, was the operation successful?"
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Roshan and Aditya, who had joined hands for this operation, had smiles on their faces as they replied, "Of course, it has been done."
Roshan said, "It would have been troublesome if the target was some high-level leader among the Mughal Emperors’ small group, but the targets were only messengers of the Murshidabad Nawab family, which was not too hard."
Aditya continued, "Moreover, no matter how many messengers Azlan sends from that palace, It will still be the same result, as although we do not have control of it militarily, we have full control of it in terms of intelligence capture and alteration."
Roshan nodded, smiling. "Yeah, these bastards did us a favour by being as ruthless as they were when recruiting troops. They made a lot of enemies among the people, and we found hundreds of suitable candidates to use for the mission."
Aditya let out a sigh. "Not to mention the current two, Even if Mohammad sends 4 to 5 messengers, we would be able to intercept them in one city or another even if they are missed in Kolkata."
Birbal Singh, hearing the updates, was indeed relieved. His body loosened as he asked, "Then what are the Mughals going to do?"
Roshan grinned as he explained, "According to the original letter, Muhammad would not send troops immediately but wait until our troops reach the vicinity of Dhaka and then move to sandwich our forces."
"I have to say, this is a very good plan. Unfortunately, these guys have very bad intelligence securing capabilities."
"Anyway, according to the letter we wrote, Fazil will take care of the enemies up north and east with full force, not giving them a chance to attack, while at the same time abandoning the defenses of the south and west, as Muhammad will fully protect the rear of Uncle Fazil."
There was an awkward silence in the room after Roshan uttered these words. A long time passed with no one speaking until eventually, Birbal let out a sigh of relief as he stated, "Well, the Mughals are going to be unlucky."
1 Day Later...
Birbal asked about the progress of the mission from Roshan and Aditya.
Roshan explained, "Our army has reached the outskirts of Dhaka."
"As for intercepting the enemy, fortunately, we did not have to try too hard. The actual messenger of Fazil himself was willing to cooperate with us wholeheartedly because his two sons were forcefully taken into the army and subsequently killed. Hence, he intercepted the letter for us.
In that letter, Fazil sent a message back to his nephew requesting reinforcements immediately, as he would be overwhelmed fighting the battle on three sides and suppressing the riots."
"We changed it, of course, stating that Fazil is currently engaged against an army at its southern gate numbering 100 thousand, and asked his nephew, Mohammad, whether he would join in."
Birbal, the more he witnessed these operations, the dizzier he felt. Even though he was on the other side of this information, he couldn’t help but feel uneasy every time he saw both these guys scheming and evilly laughing like a couple of demons.
---
2 days later...
Roshan, with a happy expression, stated, "Your Excellency, our plan was successful. The city of Dhaka has been breached, and the leader, Fazil Azlan, has surprisingly been killed at the hands of the messenger himself."
"And more good news: Mohammad Azlan, who still believes his uncle is fighting the 100,000 army that bypassed them, has already sent an army of 150,000 troops to fully suppress our so-called disadvantaged army."
"Of course, to avoid raising any suspicion, we are continuing the communication between the dead uncle and the about to die nephew."
Birbal, who was repeatedly shocked and had become skeptical about everything, finally got up from his seat and stated, "Well done. My time to act has come. Let’s strike at the heart and end it all."