Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 842

Chapter 842: The Bear wakes up
18th November 1670

Kremlin, Moscow, Czarist Russian Empire.

In front of the majestic Palace of the Romanov family, the Royal Guards watched with their eyes wide open as they saw an exquisite carriage with the flag of the Romanov family stop with a screech.

A majestic-looking man with deep blue eyes and golden blonde hair walked out of the carriage in unhurried steps. Identifying the person, the Royal Guards did not dare to stop the man despite his arrival being rude and unannounced, instead, a Royal Guard ran into the courtroom and whispered something in the ear of a dignified old man. Soon, a loud proclamation of the Grand Herald Borisovich was heard reverberating throughout the palace walls:

“By the voice of the Bear and command of the Throne, let it be known: His Highness, Lord Duke Peter Alexandrovitch Romanov, has arrived. All hail the noble son of the North!”

“What!!” Peter’s arrival caught the nobles off guard. They looked at each other and gossiped in hushed voices.

“Is he allowed to do that? Coming unannounced—so disrespectful,” Mikhail Zarashtri disdainfully commented. However, Boyar Alexi Korzikov, who was right next to him, replied without any emotion on his face, “This matter should be left to His Majesty the Emperor to decide. The royal family doesn’t need Sir Zalistry to care about its personal affairs.”

“Humph!!”

Soon, all the major nobles like the Markovs, Volkovs, Korsukovs, Yaropoulsky’s, Morozovs, Zaarestrye’s, Petrovich’s, and Aleksandrov’s stood up with solemn expressions on their faces and shouted,

“All hail the noble son of the North!”

Dimitri Alexeyevich, the Crown Prince of the Russian Empire, looking at his younger brother, who garnered so much respect and admiration, felt very irritated and uncomfortable; it was as if a group of insects were crawling all over his body.

‘Damn Guy!!’,

When he first convinced his father that the territory of Siberia should be allocated to Peter as a dukedom, he thought that the threat of his extremely capable younger brother, who was only a year younger than him, would once and for all be eliminated. Because in his opinion, Siberia was a barren land where nothing could be developed, and there was no stage for growth. However, the things that transpired later were completely beyond his imagination.

If it was only about peter finding a new route, Dimitri wouldn’t be too bothered, but what bothered him was Peter building a brand-new city on the eastern coast of Russia and getting the help of the Bharatiya Empire to develop the city into a medium-sized city capable of producing hundreds of thousands of rubles every month.

He was very jealous of the wealth of his brother. You have to know that, as the Crown Prince of the Czarist Russian Empire, although he gets an annuity of several million every year, there are restrictions on how he uses the money placed by his father, the Emperor. For example, he can’t fund his own army, he can’t buy political favours, he can’t assassinate people he doesn’t want to see, ‘ like what’s the point of having annuity if I can’t even use it as I like ‘. But Peter has no such constraints, which was frustrating.

He can use the money however he wishes, not to mention the money which he earns has not even hit an upper limit. His personal intelligence channels have already told him that Peter is further increasing his presence in Siberia by constantly annexing the tribes in central and eastern Siberia, while simultaneously encouraging the people to migrate to Siberia for job opportunities and winning over a lot of prominent business nobles and new nobles with the number of mines that are being discovered.

His father, Alexis I, doesn’t think anything is wrong with it, since he is only happy that Siberia, which has been a desert without any benefits for the Czarist Russian Empire, is now developing and has already started to provide funds in the form of taxes. But Dimitri is cautious. With everything he knows about peter—like the secret army built from tribal people that his younger brother is assembling, or the secret factory in which preliminary muskets and grenades can be manufactured—he does not know if his younger brother would still be as obedient to the crown as he is now when he takes over as the new Czarist Russian Emperor, or whether he has any ideas for the crown himself.

If it weren’t for several forces still supporting his younger brother and his father still being able to control the whole situation, he would not hesitate to assassinate his brother and wipe out the trouble once and for all. Thinking of this, he clenched his fist with a hint of regret.

In the end, not being able to do what he actually wanted, he chose the next best option—and that was to win over support from other noble families who would come to his aid politically when he rightfully claims the throne. He has already won over the Markov family, Volkov family, Kusukov family, Zaristi family, and other prominent families to suppress his younger brother Peter.

Ignoring the complicated gazes of the nobles and the somewhat hostile gaze of his brother, Peter Alexandrovitch Romanov casually greeted his father with a bow and walked to his rightful seat beside his father and sat down without saying anything. As for the thoughts of his elder brother, he doesn’t care anymore. He is currently in a position where he has the final say in Siberia. Even if his brother makes some move and causes him trouble, like making it difficult for people to emigrate into Siberia, it would not cause him too much harm. If anything, it’ll only cause a little drag. He cannot really form a border of millions of square kilometres in order to stop people, after all.

Alexis was surprised when his son came to the court unannounced. If it were someone else who pulled this stunt, then he would be very angry and even think about taking away some of their rights. But he knew Peter—he wouldn’t cause a disturbance like this unless there was a reason.

Thinking of this, he quickly concluded the court session within a couple of hours and privately summoned Peter to enquire what was going on.

Peter did not talk any nonsense and immediately passed over the signed confidential document, which he had taken personally from the director of Bharatiya External Pragya Roshan in Vladivostok.

Looking at the serious expression on his son’s face and then at the letter, the heartbeat of Alexis I began to quicken. He vaguely felt a premonition about what was about to come.

There were no words between father and son, but after reading the letter, Alexis’s eyes were burning with intent to fight as he crumpled the letter and burned it into cinders.

Very soon, the second court session was once again held abruptly on the same day.

“What could have happened? His Majesty called a session twice on the same day.”

“Who knows? But since His Highness Peter came back, it should be something related to this.”

“Most probably that is the case…”

When all the nobles gathered once again, Alexis I, with gleaming silver hair, loudly proclaimed in the court like an enraged lion:

“The tyranny of the Ottoman Empire shall no longer be endured. Their sins weigh heavily upon the world, and patience, once a virtue, has become a burden. I, Aleksey Mikhailovich Romanov, Sovereign of the Czarist Russian Empire, inheritor of ancient Roman glory, do hereby solemnly declare: The Czarist Russian Empire is henceforth at war with the Ottoman Empire. Let it be known — this war is not born of ambition, but of justice. Effective immediately.”

Like a shockwave, the news spread throughout Europe.

“Ohh Lord, the sleeping bear is waking up,” Baltasar Charles murmured with a complicated expression on his face.

“It is finally starting,” Louis XIV looked sombre as he clenched his fist with a grave look.

“Immediately bring me the general,” Charles X Gustav said as he worried about who the enemy of the Great Bear would be.

“Send recruitment orders throughout the Commonwealth NOW!!!” John II Casimir Vasa acted immediately and mobilised the whole of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in order to prepare for a possible war against the Czarist Russian Empire.

“Edward, increase the investment in intelligence,” Charles II Stuart ordered.

“Great! Let the bear and the crescent wolf fight each other to the death — we can reap benefits in between,” William III of Orange laughed heartily.

The full-scale mobilisation of the Russian Empire put the whole of Europe on edge. Smaller countries, city-states, and principalities like Prussia-Brandenburg, Denmark-Norway, Tuscany, Naples, and others were on high alert.

Europe suddenly came to an inevitable realisation that the giant bear had woken up from its slumber, and it was about to show its fangs and go on a hunt. Who dared to take things lightly?

Within the Czarist Russian Empire, the situation was like a wound-up clock whose tension had suddenly been released. Troops that had been trained over the past decade began marching toward the defensive fortresses and strategic positions in the Cossack and Balkan Theatres.

“Za Veru, Tsarya i Otechestvo!” (За Веру, Царя и Отечество!) – “For Faith, Tsar, and Fatherland!”

“Za Veru, Tsarya i Otechestvo!” (За Веру, Царя и Отечество!) – “For Faith, Tsar, and Fatherland!”

“Za Veru, Tsarya i Otechestvo!” (За Веру, Царя и Отечество!) – “For Faith, Tsar, and Fatherland!”

Chants echoed throughout the empire as soldiers started to march toward the fortresses of war.

Fortresses like Tsarev-Borisov Fortress, Voronezh Fortress, Yelets Fortress, and Oryol Fortress in the south, as well as Severynivka Fortress, Hlukhiv Fortress, Kiev Fortress, Pereiaslav Fortress, and Nizhyn Fortress in the west, have all been turned into springboards to pierce the territory of the Ottoman Empire.

Resources began to be madly poured into the military. Thousands upon thousands of serfs, farmers, and civilians began to be conscripted to the war. Within a month, the famous Gray Animal Army of the Czarist Russian Empire, known to use humans as disposable tools, had been assembled.

All the incompetent generals who had been putting up a front until now had been replaced, and competent generals like Grigory Romodanovsky, Vasily Sheremetev, Ivan Rzhevsky, Yuri Alexandrovitch, and Grigory Korsakov had taken their place.

“Bloodbath. There will be a bloodbath until Constantinople. The holy city can only belong to the inheritor of the Roman Empire.”

“If one soldier cannot breach through, then we’ll use 100. If 100 doesn’t work, we’ll use 1,000. If 1,000 doesn’t work, we’ll use 100,000. No matter what, this time the doors of Constantinople will open to the mighty bears.”

The morale was at an all-time high.

In the meantime:

Mehmed IV, who had received the news about the Czarist Russian Empire declaring war, clenched his fist tightly and slammed it onto a table, causing it to break into pieces.

Even though he had already expected this to happen, he still felt very angry and annoyed when it did.

Currently, the Ottoman Empire only has around 300,000 troops in all of its fortresses in the Balkan region and the Crimean region. But since he was going to focus on defence, these troops should be able to resist the advancements from the Czarist Russian Empire. But he couldn’t be too sure, since the Russians will definitely be using the weapons made by the hateful Bharatiyas.

“**** **** it all.”

“**** it, bring it on, you Northern Arctic barbarians. I will show you what the punishment is for being the gun of someone else.”

He rose up with a livid expression and held a meeting with his generals.