May 19th, 1656
Bhopal, West Madhya Pradesh Battlefield, the Mughal Empire
* Boom! * *Boom!*
Cannons are raging throughout the battlefield, Smoke and dust fill the area, making the whole scene look like a dark noir film.
Feroze Jung stands on the city wall with a calm expression on his face as he witnesses the battle unfold.
*Rumble*
The wall vibrates like it is experiencing an earthquake due to the giant cannons targeting a specific part of the wall, with cannonballs impacting one after another. That is not all; even the enemy’s culverins, equipped with the new armour-piercing ammunition, continue to cause damage to the city wall.
However, the wall still stands strong as it is built with the strongest rock, and its thickness is greater than many fortresses. This is the confidence of Feroze Jung. Although he knew, that the city wall couldn’t withstand the bombardment forever, it could at least hold for a few more days, and that was enough because the preparations had been completed.
"Are we ready?" he asked, his face maintaining the same calm and composed expression.
"Yes, sir, we are only waiting for your orders," a lieutenant replied.
Feroze nodded his head in satisfaction. "Finally, it is the chance to counterattack," he thought to himself, his eyes filled with anticipation.
"Start the Burrow Mouse operation."
Hearing this, the lieutenant’s face took on a more serious and stern expression as he saluted Feroze with determination, after which he immediately took action. He notified all the relevant soldiers and went to get prepared.
Immediately, the 50,000 soldiers, as if already aware of their mission, lined up neatly on the southwestern side of the city, 200 meters away from the city wall.
With the arrival of the lieutenant, the soldiers moved into a single-line formation. Each of these soldiers wore a metal helmet, carried a rifle, and wore brown uniforms. Surprisingly enough, they were also carrying the newly produced grenades of the Mughal Empire.
The lieutenant immediately entered a normal house and pulled open the cellar door. Surprisingly, there was a tunnel. The soldiers, as if they had already anticipated it, silently marched through the tunnel one person at a time. Moments later, all 50,000 soldiers had entered the tunnel. The lieutenant, confirming that no one else was left out, immediately joined his men.
Thirty minutes later.
Boom!
Kiran Poojari, who was inspecting the wall in front of him, was immediately taken aback by the loud explosion from his rear.
He was shocked and knew that an enemy had somehow managed to flank him.
He immediately rounded up the High-level military officers and informed them, "Don’t let the rear be compromised. Command as many troops as possible and have them form a defensive wedge formation."
The soldiers with ranks of Lieutenant Colonel and above immediately acted. They left the front of the army and moved to the back.
Soldiers, definitely not their own, dressed in brown uniforms, carrying guns, and throwing grenades, were wreaking devastation upon their soldiers at the rear. Additionally, they could also see that the rear guard had fallen due to the surprise attack.
The generals immediately knew that the enemy was not simple. Hence, without further ado, they sought to control the situation because the soldiers at the rear of the formation were in chaos. They had panicked expressions on their faces and were running around, trying their best to avoid the gunfire and grenades.
Seeing this, the generals frowned a little, as what these people were doing was nothing but seeking their own death. However, thinking about it, it is natural too.
At the end of the day, although these people are better than the Mughal army when it comes to combat effectiveness, it is only the Mughal army made up of civilians, not the actual Mughal army that had been trained all year round.
Hence, even though these people fared very well against the normal Mughal army when challenged with unexpected and desperate situations such as now, these people who have not been trained through authentic military training did not know how to cope with various scenarios and chose to cope the best they could using their survival instincts.
Fortunately, these militia soldiers although panicked, immediately came back to their senses after the generals passed orders one by one. By that time, they calmed down. Heavy infantry, around two phalanxes, arrived from the front of the formation to the rear in order to provide a defensive wall for their troops.
Boom! Boom!
Of course, while all of this was happening, the grenades and gunfire continued to rage, taking the lives of thousands of Bharatiya soldiers at a time.
That was not all; as time went on, these Mughal soldiers, numbering 50,000, continued to push forward, making the Bharatiya Army retreat step by step until the area the army occupied had been compressed to only a few hundred meters.
Using cannons to disperse these people could be a solution, but Kiran Pujari knew that if the pressure on the Bhopal city wall was lifted for even a split second, the consequences could be disastrous as the Mughal Empire could take it as an opportunity to strike at their defences.
Kiran also knew that the general he was facing was a seasoned and experienced soldier, having observed the enemy several times before, hence he could not take him lightly.
However, despite being in a very bad situation, Kiran Pujari maintained his calm mind and constantly thought about counterattacks and coping mechanisms.
He looked around the battlefield to see if he could find anything to use but to no avail. Then he remembered something, and his eyes lit up.
"Lieutenant, dig a small ditch 80 meters in front of the enemy. Empty our oil into this ditch."
The lieutenant immediately understood what his superiors wanted to do, but there was still a hint of doubt on his face. "But Your Excellency, this can only block the enemy for a few hours until the oil is depleted."
Kiran had a smile on his face as he replied, "Don’t you remember what day it is today?"
The lieutenant did not realize it before, but now that his superior mentioned it, he suddenly felt enlightened. That’s right, today is the 19th, and it is also the day when the third batch of troops arrives.
With excitement on his face, the lieutenant went to do the work.
---
The battle was raging. The Mughal army attacked with high intensity as they advanced forward, while the Bharatiya Empire slowly but steadily proceeded to retreat. Heavy infantry protected the light infantry and gunners at the rear, but there were a lot of casualties in doing so. However, the defence was not let down; they persisted with gritted teeth.
When one heavy infantry soldier fell, another quickly took his place, filling the defensive gaps. Behind this vanguard that was protecting the rear from the approaching enemy troops, a few hundred soldiers carring shovels moved with their waists bent to avoid showing the opponent what they were doing.
These soldiers immediately got to work. A ditch two feet deep and several hundred meters long was dug within half an hour. In the meantime, the vanguard had compressed even further, and the people who were digging could hear the gunshots and grenades exploding even more clearly. In some instances, the grenades even fell next to them, causing heavy casualties.
But fortunately, the work was done. The ditch was immediately filled with oil to a depth of one foot, along with some dry wood to give it more fuel. It was then covered with sticks and leaves, followed by sand.
The Heavy Infantry, knowing that a trap had been set, carefully crossed the ditch. The Mughal soldiers, who did not understand or witness the ditch, continued to advance, their guns already smoking from overheating.
The lieutenant, seeing that the Mughal soldiers had arrived, immediately ordered, "Fire!"
A few meters away from the ditch, a fuse was found and immediately lit. The fuse, drenched with gunpowder, sizzled through the battlefield as it quickly approached the trap.
*Zzzzz*
At the end of the ditch, there was a pile of gunpowder. Since the gunpowder was not tightly packed, it did not explode but burst into flames. The oil and dry wood in the ditch immediately combusted at high speed, forming a wall of flame that cut off the advancement of the Mughal army.
Feroze Jung frowned as he did not expect Kiran to use this method to form a defensive barrier. "This cunning bastard," he cursed.
But then he fell into deep thought. Being an experienced military leader, he could see that this method could only protect the rear of the Bharatiya Army for a while at most, not more than that. He could imagine that all the oil prepared for maintaining the cannons was used to set this fire. So Feroze couldn’t help but have a deep doubt about what Kiran was thinking.
Not able to figure it out, he shook his head and focused on other matters.
"Are the preparations in the tunnel done?" he asked.
"It is done, Your Excellency," a different lieutenant replied.
"Good!"
He then continued to stare at the Bharatiya Army, thoughts continuously running through his mind.
30 minutes passed...
This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom.
The Mughal troops at the rear, whose guns had cooled down and energy regained, finally stood up as they saw that the flames blocking them had begun to die down, eventually reducing to a few inches high.
*Bang! * *Bang! *
The Mughals could see that the opposing side had also completed their preparations, forming a solid wedge defence formation. But it didn’t matter; they unleashed their firepower through their guns and grenades.
Unfortunately, their dominance only persisted for a quarter of an hour, as a new group of Bharatiya troops, numbering 62,500, immediately flanked these Mughal troops who had managed to flank the forward Bharatiya Army.
*Tsk* Feroze Jung clicked his tongue in annoyance. Although he knew that the enemy was constantly increasing its troop strength, similar to himself, he could have never anticipated that the Bharatiya troops would enter the battlefield at this moment.
"Lucky bastard." he cursed
P.S. Correction its Bhopal, not Jabalpur