Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 858

Chapter 858: Sergeant Agni
Constantinople(Istanbul), the Ottoman Empire

“Crash!!!”

The antique porcelain vase shattered into a million pieces as Mehmed continued to reach out for other objects, unable to control his rage. “Garbage, all of them, garbage, they couldn’t even resist the Russians until the reinforcements arrived.”

He kept scolding without pause. Köprülüzade Fazil Ahmad Pasha, the Grand Vizier, stood aside in absolute silence, as if he was unaffected by the news of the Ottoman Empire losing Moldova. But the furrowed eyebrows, reddened complexion, throbbing temples, and nerves popping out of his neck said otherwise. The only reason he could still control himself was because he was in the presence of His Majesty the Emperor, and it would appear extremely disrespectful if he acted out in emotions right now.

The destruction of several ancient antiques later, Mehmed IV finally calmed down.

“This can’t go on anymore, Faizal. Immediately order Köprülü Mustafa Pasha, Uzun Ibrahim Pasha, Salim Al Abdullah, Rahman Pasha to return with their troops.” His chest heaved up and down. “At least temporarily, we have no choice but to give up Amol and the territory to its east.”

It took all his willpower to suppress the pang of irritation and the desire to destroy everything in order to give the order.

He had envisioned that he could defeat the Russians by simply exhausting their will to fight, by not giving them space to continue the battle. But as if fate was laughing at him, barely a year after the war started, the fortress of Chișinău—the only major fortress for several hundred kilometres in the surroundings—fell into the hands of the Russians. This is not only a big loss but also a huge humiliation. If the Ottoman Empire can’t even protect its interests in the Balkans, then who would continue to respect it as one of the superpowers of Europe?

So he made up his mind: even if he had to give up some of the interests in the Middle East, he could not lose ground in the Balkans.

Fazil Ahmad’s mouth opened several times, wanting to say something, but in the end, he simply let out a breath of turbulent air and nodded his head. “I will convey your orders, Your Majesty.” Even though he felt like it was a pity to give up 400 thousand square kilometres of land in the Middle East, he could also understand the decision His Majesty had to take. But in this case, either directly or indirectly, they would become the neighbours of the Bharatiya Empire. Thinking of this, a hint of worry appeared in his heart.

As he slumped onto the chair, Mehmed gestured for the servants to clean up the mess. Looking at the receding back of the Grand Vizier, he stroked his temple with a defeated look on his face. “If this doesn’t work either, then I will have to ask support from those western bastards.” He really didn’t want to ask for help, but considering his current situation, he was left with no other alternative.

‘Tsk!’

—

30th September 1671

A week later, the news eventually reached the ears of Vijay.

He was pleasantly surprised to say the least. “How did it happen? How did Chișinău fall so quickly? All the fortresses of the Ottoman Empire have recently been reinforced with cement. Given that the walls were already made up of sturdy granite or basalt rock to begin with, they should be very resistant to cannonballs. How were the Russians able to succeed so quickly?” he asked, bewildered.

Roshan, Director of Bharatiya External Pragya, placed the report in front of His Majesty and responded, “It’s mostly because of their own doing, Your Majesty.”

“Theoretically, as you have said, the fortress of Chișinău shouldn’t have fallen for at least a few days, and if the reinforcements arrived quickly enough, the Ottomans could have resisted the onslaught of the Russians for at least several weeks. But unfortunately, Hussein Pasha, the general who was responsible for the defence, got too impatient and messed up the morale of his army. Not to mention, the people under him, in order to fulfil his requirements, burnt down five different families, violated dozens of women, and had hundreds of Christians killed by constantly whipping them until they pulled the massive cannon to the top of the fortress.”

“When the news about the incident spread, mostly by the Russians, publicly, the Ottoman Empire gave an excuse that those people were sinners who had committed evil deeds when questioned by European countries. But in reality, they were just people who questioned the sudden increase of tyranny in Chișinău and were arrested to suppress the rising voice of dissatisfaction. If it were any other time, they were bound to be beaten up and released in a few days. Unfortunately, they were unlucky to have encountered the Russian Empire, which had chosen to attack at that very moment, and military officers who would go to any lengths to achieve their goal.”

“It could be seen that the Ottomans were set out on the path of failure from the moment they treated the locals with such tyranny.” “Especially when the Russians acted so decisively to the point of being ruthless to their own, where they used hundreds, if not thousands, of heavy infantry as disposable weapons to blow up the bottom of the fortress, the Ottomans stood no chance.”

“As soon as the fortress was breached, the Ottoman defences were completely torn apart almost immediately. The soldiers, whose morale was already shaken, collectively committed treason and ran away.”

“Unfortunately for them, General Vasily Sheremetev had already spread a lot of the Ottomans’ deeds. Civilians of Chișinău, along with the defeat of the Ottomans, heard all about how their own people were treated in the military fortress.”

“Understandably, they were extremely outraged.”

“The angry civilian population, without any surprise, staged a rebellion.”

“The Ottoman soldiers who were trying to escape through the rear by going through the civilian area were all caught by the civilians and dismembered extremely brutally.”

“Seeing as how things were getting out of hand, the population of Muslims in Chișinău began to retreat. At first, they did not attract any attention since all the Christians had their eyes on the Ottoman fortresses, but as soon as the Ottoman soldiers were all killed, the attention shifted towards the Muslims, and a genocide ensued.”

“Overall, it was a big victory for the Tsarist Russian Empire.”

Understanding what happened, Vijay let out a wry smile. “Is this what people call digging your own grave?” he couldn’t help but shake his head at the choices made by Hussein Pasha.

“The victory aside—is there any other news?”

“Ah, yes, Your Majesty. Mehmed seemed to be furious about the defeat, and he seemed to have sent an order to three generals located in the easternmost part of the Ottoman territory in the Middle East. I could not ascertain what the order was about, but it is better to be prepared.”

“Apart from it, I have received intelligence from fairly trustworthy sources that the Ottomans have steadily started to dig moats around the fortresses in the Balkans in case the Battle of Chișinău repeats itself.”

“Hmm, Mehmed acts fast. This should make it harder for the Russians to move forward.”

“Agreed, Your Majesty. And for this very reason, the Russians have requested to buy our mortars, grenade launchers, and hand cannons.”

“Their request should appear through the Ministry of External Affairs in a week or so.”

Vijay stroked his chin, wondering whether to allow the Russians to buy the weapons or not. He had to put some serious thought into it, especially since mortars and other weapons are fairly new.

—

Kirkuk, Vajragarbha (Star Fortress)

Within a large classroom,

A group of young men, all dressed in uniform of the Alliance Army with ornaments decorating them specifying the ranks to be that of a sergeant, sat in a semi-elliptical row, all facing a middle-aged man beside the board.

The middle-aged man explained seriously about their mission, using a long stick to point at the map.

“Your company has been given the task of being on standby in the outskirts of Qom as reinforcements to the special forces who are in the city to conduct a beheading mission.”

“Should they require support, a signal will be sent. As soon as the signal is received, all of you will jump into action with the only objective being to escort the team of special forces who have gone on the beheading mission and bring them back to the base safe and sound.”

“Have I made myself clear?”

Everyone in the room nodded in understanding, but suddenly an arm was raised, catching the attention of the middle-aged instructor.

“Go on, Sergeant Jvalā.”

All attention was directed towards the young boy who looked to be around 18 years of age with short black hair, extremely delicate facial features, and eyes that looked captivating despite being covered with a pair of glasses.

Who else could it be other than Agni, Prince of the Empire, eldest son of the emperor himself?

“Pardon my disturbance, sir lieutenant colonel, but is it too risky for our company to stay in one place? Although I do not doubt the intelligence assets we possess in the enemy territory, and I do not question their ability to get us to where we have to go, at the same time, it is my opinion that we have to take as few chances as possible.”

The lieutenant colonel was left in deep thought. “Then what do you suggest?”

Agni, or in his current identity Jvalā, got up from his seat and came forward to the map.

“I reckon several companies, along with our own, will be positioned on standby, hence why our company is positioned in the same place. But what I suggest is, instead of choosing a village or a town in the outskirts, we can all act as separate squadrons positioned in different parts of the wilderness.”

“We can actually expand our advantage by thinking outside the box.”

“In the previous plans, we would be using the already established road networks to reinforce the special forces and escort them out on horses.”

“But can I ask why we should give away our advantage and follow the norm?”

“Imagine if we split up, scatter all over the wilderness, then we have a lot more angles to take advantage of. Since the city of Qom does not have a physical city wall, my plan has grounds for feasibility. With the actions of the special forces, the enemy defences should have been rattled, giving us higher chances to pierce into the hinterlands of the city and physically reinforce the special forces side by side if they were not able to make it out of the city.”

“If they did make it out, or we had to provide reinforcements and take them back, then we can simply scatter into the wilderness. The units of squadrons retreat to designated ambush points and ambush enemies that may be chasing us from behind.”

“Moving through the complex terrain of shrubs and hills—isn’t this what most of us are used to? I believe this is the terrain for which we are trained. Now, why are we thinking in the mode of using horses in everything? I think this is inherently wrong. Although it is good that we learn new dimensions of war, we should also never forget our basics.”

The lieutenant colonel’s eyes lit up. He felt like it was a very good strategy, especially since a river passes through the city of Qom, and there are a lot of shrubs and vegetation around, giving them ample chances to use the Ranger tactics of the Bharatiya Empire. If they were to use the cavalry tactics as they had been using till now, he wouldn’t be confident that they could execute it better than the enemy, but if it is positional warfare on legs, he dared to say that no one in the world is as good as the Bharatiya Empire.

“It is a very good strategy, Sergeant. Well done. I will run it by the command,” he praised and patted his back.

“Thank you, sir!” Jvalā responded.