Shahzad felt a sense of déjà vu hearing the report from the lieutenant. This situation was too similar to the one he had encountered during the Frontier War, And that encounter was not very pleasant, hence his nerves tensed up, and the blood left his face, turning his face pale white like a ghost.
He did not want to find out what went wrong, But no matter how unwilling he was, he had to go over and assess the situation. Forcefully calming his turbulent mood, he retreated to the rear to handle the emergency.
Unfortunately, what he saw next completely destroyed his sanity. For a moment, he felt like he was hallucinating. But looking at the people next to him who were similarly dumbfounded, he put down this suspicion. Initially, he had suspected something unusual might happen due to how the Bharatiya Empire normally operated, but this was more bizarre than anything he had expected.
Explosions were happening near the barracks built at the rear of the city, and the ammunition stored there was going up in flames.
’Calm down, don’t panic, handle yourself,’ Shahzad screamed to himself, trying his best to regain his sanity. It was working, as his turbulent eyes were slowly returning to calmness, but unfortunately, it was his bad day. He was experiencing something mothers refer to as getting up on the wrong side of the bed, and as people refer to as not informing one’s family where one was going.
Because, Another important message reached his ears, causing him to lose control of his weak will for the second time.
"Your Excellency, riots have spontaneously started in various areas of the city, and people are rushing towards the noble areas wielding sticks and sickles."
Shahzad Khan immediately roared like a beast, "Isn’t the intelligence channel fully blocked now? Who the F*** is commanding these infidels, ha?"
The lieutenant had a depressed look, as he did not feel like explaining and pointed his finger upwards.
*Gasp!!*
Three hours ago...
Generals Gaurav and Charan, after a three-hour ride on the boat, took some rest near the town of Chapra before continuing their journey through the river Ganga.
Along the way, the Mughal artillery installed in various villages and towns on the shore tried their best to attack their group, but unfortunately, the Mughal Empire did not have any cannons with sufficient range to hit their boats.
The area where they were travelling was one of the wider parts of the Ganga River, which could be as wide as 900 to 2000 meters. There was no way any Mughal cannon could reach such a range. Adding to this was the fact that their boats were travelling through the central region of the river, making it even harder for the Mughal cannons to cause any damage.
The Mughals tried to attack them through their own boats, but they were eventually defeated as they were not as skilled as the 10,000 Marines in naval combat.
For instance, when the Mughal forces somehow manage to bypass the firepower to arrive at a close enough distance, the Marines would immediately jump into the river, swim underwater, use the river as a defence against any rifles, and resolutely anchor the Mughals’ boats to their own.
They would then utilize their superior combat effectiveness to fight in close-quarters combat and defeat these Mughal enemies. After several instances of this happening, their boats also inadvertently increased, and coincidentally their boat formation had become somewhat similar to a platform floating in the river, giving the Bharatiya Empire more room to maneuver.
While in this process, there were some casualties, but they were few compared to the Mughals.
However, it was not without obstacles.
"General, enemy warships three clicks ahead!"
The scout lookout, equipped with a telescope, immediately informed them of the news.
Gaurav and Charan were both surprised as they were not expecting there to be any considerable naval forces so far inland of the Mughal Empire. If anything, they were only expecting some patrol boats equipped with small cannons.
But it looked like the situation was very different, as both Gaurav and Charan witnessed a warship whose tonnage could not be less than 50 tons and equipped with multiple cannons in their sight.
"Halt!"
Both generals passed the command, and the boats immediately came to a halt.
"Brother Gaurav, if I remember correctly, we were equipped with 40% extra balloons. Do we have them now?" Charan enquired with some hesitation because he was not sure.
However, Gaurav, who was responsible for this aspect, resolutely nodded his head and replied, "We do, and it is not 40%—it is 60%. The think tank anticipated that we would encounter further resistance, so they equipped us with extra."
"That’s good," Charan said, relieved.
The next moment, the marines opened their supplies and took out hundreds of balloons made of silk and linen. Assembling them according to the instructions, they roughly estimated the wind speed using the turning of the small windmill and adjusted the amount of mustard oil used as fuel. They installed the payload, and the lamps were lit.
The balloons were slowly filled up with hot gas and started to rise into the air, following the wind direction.
The Mughal soldiers on the warships were waiting until the enemy approached the range of their firing, but witnessing them halting before they reached the range made them dumbfounded. Seeing how the enemy sent flying objects their way, they were even more puzzled.
The Mughal soldiers did not understand what was happening, but as the balloons came closer and closer, they started to drop in altitude as the lamps in them began to flicker. Eventually, these balloons, which looked beautiful in the sky, started to drop near their vicinity.
The captain of a ship noticed a balloon drop right next to him into the water. Except for a few bubbles, nothing happened.
"Huh, scared me to dea—" Before he could complete the sentence, a balloon actually managed to drop on their ship.
*Boom!*
An explosion occurred on the deck, damaging the ship. The people immediately panicked and started to jump into the sea, as they were just fishermen caught by the Mughal Empire and had not signed up for this level of bizarreness.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
Except for those who jumped into the water, all those left on the ships started experiencing explosions one after another. Eventually, the ships began to take damage to the hulls, and water started to seep in.
Gaurav and Charan, who witnessed the scene, were very satisfied and excited. Initially, they were skeptical about this new weapon, as they were informed that the accuracy of this weapon was only around 10%. But now, seeing how the ships were being sunk, they realized how destructive this weapon was.
Although the weapon’s accuracy was indeed ridiculously low, as the professors suggested, its advantage lay in its ability to absolutely ignore enemy defences and in the low cost of the weapon, which led to a very large scale of production.
Hence, even though the Mughal navy was stronger than them, facing the hundreds of balloons equipped with 400-gram explosives, the 25-odd warships that were arranged urgently could not resist and lost their combat effectiveness within a few hours.
Charan was still in a daze as he witnessed the destruction of these ships. Then, looking at the balloon in his hand, he suddenly got an idea. He felt like he had discovered something revolutionary and stated, "Brother Gaurav, do you think if these balloons are big enough, they can carry people on them, and maybe these people can drop bombs on enemy targets?" Charan’s face was excited.
’Maybe I can, like the commander, be used as a role model to the students of the military academy,’ he thought to himself, his expressions smug.
Unfortunately, he was disappointed when Gaurav said, "Yeah, it would be awesome, and the scientists seem to be discussing the same thing too. But unfortunately, according to them, we do not yet have strong enough fibre to hold the weight of a human being, and the research is still in progress."
Charan was deflated. ’Was I not the first one to discover this? So will I not be engraved in the military strategy books as a founder of a strategy like the commander? What a pity,’ he thought.
Gaurav: " ?? "
He ignored the sulking Charan for some reason unknown to him and ordered, "Forward!"
The boats, which had been stationary with the help of ankers, immediately started to move forward. At the same time, the Krodha Rocket Launchers were taken out and launched at the warships that were still standing.
The Mughal Navy, which was reluctantly put together due to the urgent situation, collapsed.
Eventually, Gaurav and Charan, along with their Marines, reached the vicinity of Patna. Things became more dangerous for them since the river became narrower and the artillery became denser. Fortunately, they followed a single-line formation, and the cannonballs could still be reluctantly avoided if they stuck to the absolute centre of the river.
Unfortunately, the boats of their invaders, which they had brought along, were destroyed, and their foothold was reduced.
Knowing that the situation was urgent, both Gaurav and Charan acted immediately.
"Military balloons, launch!"
"Civilian balloons, launch!"
Two groups of hot air balloons, nearly 1000 of each category—one equipped with explosives measured for short distances and another carrying papers of 100 grams added with more fuel to travel longer distances—were launched.
"Ahhh!"
Screams and wailing immediately started among the barracks and defences of the Mughal Empire stationed at the banks of the River Ganga.
The balloons became more effective on land targets due to the majority of balloons exploding unlike on the water.
These balloons, thousands of them travelling in the sky, looked like beautiful harbingers of death. As soon as these balloons dropped down, the sensitive gunpowder within the explosive package immediately detonated and caused a loud explosion.
The artillery on the shore started to show gaps.
"This is our chance! Let’s go, Marines!" Gaurav roared.
4000 Marines immediately followed his lead and went to breach the gap in the Mughal defences.
Charan, staying back, proceeded to oversee the deployment of the balloons and at the same time ordered cover for General Gaurav.
"Boom!"
"Ah!"
The Mughal soldiers tried their best to regain control of the breach, but it was made impossible by the constant rockets that flew towards them.
While Gaurav and his Marines were swimming at full speed towards the shore, the Marines equipped with Krodha rocket launchers stood ready on their boats and constantly kept firing towards the shore, providing suppressive firepower.
*Pah!*
*Deep Breths!!*
The firepower subsided when Gaurav reached the shore, but unfortunately, even if the Mughals wanted to regain the situation, it was made impossible as Gaurav immediately took out his talwar and stabbed the man in the chest who came near.
Soon, his Marines followed, wreaking havoc among the artillery men of the Mughal Empire.
The breach in the defences grew larger, and even Charan, along with his men, started to move towards the shore, this time using the boats.
By the time Charan and his Marines reached the shore, Gaurav and his men had gained control of the area.
By the time all this happened, riots had also broken out within the city.
The angry shouts for justice were heard.
Gaurav and Charan looked at each other with smiles on their faces.
"Marines, move!" Gaurav, drenched with the blood of the enemy, roared at the top of his lungs as he moved inward into the city.
The smaller cannons, which were still usable and relatively mobile, were brought along.
However, something happened that shocked not only the Marines on the shore and the Bharatiya soldiers outside the city walls but also the Mughal soldiers themselves.
"Boom!"
A deafening sound echoed through one of the main streets of the city—an explosion. Within seconds, there were sounds of wailing and panic.
It was the civilians who had started to riot upon receiving the signal from above, and they were immediately blasted apart.
This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.
P.S. Thank you Yashwant_Reddy Garu for an Ice Cola