Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 869

Chapter 869: Agni goes into battle 7 (END)
Lachit Borphukan, with nearly 80,000 to 90,000 soldiers in tow who were stationed along with him in Hamedan, rushed towards Qom. Behind him, several kilometres away, more troops came rushing into the Ottoman-occupied territory in batches. The whole of Persia and Lalishsthan was put in overdrive as resources were thrown into the army like there was no tomorrow.

It might be a coincidence, but as Agni became the fuse, the war, which was supposed to go on for longer, is now showing signs of being cut short as the whole alliance army took on a bloodthirsty light as they prepared to slaughter the Ottomans once and for all in their weakness.

A few hundred kilometres away, the full brunt of the Western Command of the Bharatiya Empire and all of its eight regiments on the border are on the move, wanting to have the Ottomans on a platter. The Royal Army of the Persian Kingdom acted as well, sending their own. The kingdom troops of Lalishsthan disregarded the line of control and actually set up camp in the Ottoman-controlled territory, waiting for the retreating army to arrive at their location so that they could butcher them in full.

—

Outside Qom…

Koprulu Mustafa Pasha, Uzun Ibrahim Pasha, Salim Al Abdullah Rahaman Pasha, getting closer to the city of Qom and knowing that there are enemy troops within it that they can butcher and torture to relieve some of their rage from having been forced to retreat, were overjoyed as they cackled by making jokes at the expense of the alliance army.

But what they do not know is they have already become rats crossing the street, everyone gunning for their throats, almost one or even two million knives and guns waiting to taste their blood.

Within the city of Qom, it was chaos. The people who were asked to get out of their homes and retreat to the west were crying and begging for mercy. In their impression, the army of the sinful alliance was there to kill them all, butcher them in groups, and make their blood flow into the river. They thought they were being evacuated precisely in one of the alliance’s nefarious schemes. The soldiers under Cyrus who were handling the evacuation were troubled, but there was no time to explain since even though due to the negative propaganda of the Ottoman Empire these people all thought of them as demons, at the end of the day the good thing is they were extremely afraid of them and no one had to be killed as a show of power and deterrence. Following the principle of “it doesn’t matter if it is a black cat or white cat, as long as it kills the rat,” the evacuation was done very quickly.

Lieutenant General Sriram Kakkar, in the meantime, spread his people, who had now expanded since the squadrons who had come to reinforce the special forces had now been brought under his control, and he had them scour all over the city and bring forth all the oil, firewood, and most importantly, horses that could be found.

Lieutenant Colonel Alvaidi and Lieutenant Colonel Yusufani had gone on to fulfil their tasks as well.

The resources were all transported towards the eastern side of the city at a rapid pace.

“Light the fire!!”

Agni ordered without hesitation. Soon, what started as a house catching on fire in one part of the city engulfed the whole eastern side, lighting up all the houses and creating a wall of fire 20 meters high, looking like the whole city was being burnt in the purgatory of Hell, causing all the birds and insects to flee in panic.

Feeling the heat hit his face like a 1,000-kilogram hammer, Lieutenant Colonel Sriram Kakkar took a step back and looked at the stoic expression on Agni’s face. ‘Well, at least no one can breach the eastern part of the city, that is clear. I just don’t know if we can really rush through in these intense flames,’ he was skeptical, but there was nothing he could do.

“There are several wells in the city. Dig out all their water.”

“Have all the soldiers clothed in thick cotton or woollen clothes on top of their military uniform.”

“Have everyone get familiar with the horses. We don’t have a lot of time.”

Giving his orders, Agni got on a horse that was brought from somewhere in the city, and to his surprise, this was actually an Arabian warhorse used by the Ottomans. He patrolled a small distance away from the flaming wall, feeling where lies the most danger so that he could pick the most appropriate spot for the breakthrough.

—

On the other side

The smile on Koprulu Mustafa Pasha, Uzun Ibrahim Pasha, and Salim Al Abdullah Rahman Pasha was completely wiped off. They thought that the enemies in the city would realise their fate and simply give up, but them fighting back is something they never expected to see.

“What gives them the courage? Is it this flaming wall?” Salim Al Abdullah Rahman Pasha shook his head in disdain. “I have to give it to them, this is the first time in all my decades of military service that I have seen someone using such a strategy to resist the enemy—lighting up the edges of the city to form a wall of impenetrable fire. Why didn’t anyone think of this?”

“But no matter, their fate has been sealed the moment they went against Allah. It’s only a matter of dying now or dying a while later.”

He paused for a moment and asked as he looked at his scout, “Is the city’s borders engulfed in flames like the one before us in all directions?”

“No, Your Excellency, Pasha. It’s only the east, half of the north, and half of the south. They have lit up the flame in a semicircle, covering part of the city.”

“Hmm,” he stroked his chin. “Are they retreating from the west?”

“Most probably, Pasha, since our scouts informed us that hundreds of people are rushing out of the west every moment. Although they all look like civilians, the infidels might be mixed among them.”

Salim’s eyes lit up. “Very smart. I have to give it to them—there is a good strategist within this wall somewhere.”

“Pity. He will be killed today. Haha.”

“Sir Mustafa and Sir Ibrahim, would you please have your troops catch up with these so-called civilians and eliminate all the infidels using them as cover?”

“Simply ask them to recite a few lines of the Quran and see if they are circumcised to determine if they are one of us.”

“If proven to have come from the alliance army, detach their head and tie it to the horse. Let us take them back with us—at least let the people in Istanbul know that we are not running away in disgrace.”

“YES!!”

Koprulu Mustafa Pasha and Uzun Ibrahim Pasha answered disgruntledly. In fact, their military rank was equal to that of Salim Al Abdullah Rahman Pasha; it was only that they had to respect him due to his extensive experience, richer than their own. Not to mention being the first Pasha of the Ottoman Empire sent to the Middle East, his influence over the army was much greater than theirs, who were considered newcomers. Usually, if his so-called suggestions were not too outrageous, in order to maintain the internal stability of the army, they followed his suggestions.

This time it was the same, but what annoyed them was that even if he did not tell them what to do, they had the same idea of catching all the people running away in the West and butchering them, even if they felt something was off about the people. In this current situation, they would no longer get the credit for their actions; it would be the old monster. Disgruntled, they rolled their eyes, muttered about the old man under their breath, and quickly left, taking their armies along.

—

Unknown to them, within the wall of fire, Agni, who was constantly patrolling the wall, had a smile on his face that had not appeared for a long time.

It was working, his plan was working. The sense of impending doom that was overwhelming began to be reduced and spread out. He could tell that it was thinning, splitting in two directions, covering the whole city like a snake devouring prey several times larger than it.

‘Your overconfidence will be the end of you,’ Agni thought.

“Your Highness!!”

Agni turned back, and it was Sri Ram Kakkar, but what surprised him was that along with him was an unfamiliar middle-aged man and a little boy, barely 6 or 7 years old.

“This is??”

“We found them hidden in a cave made up in the wall of a well, Your Highness.”

“Oh!” This ingenious way of hiding surprised him a little, but he soon came back to his senses.

“Then why did you bring them here? Why did you not simply have them evacuate through the Western side?”

“I did, Your Highness, but after roughly knowing about the situation, this guy actually said that he can help us escape through the forest. He knows of a path where horses could be ridden.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Ye-ye-yes, y-y-your high… highness!!”

The words were pretty broken. Agni realised that the guy didn’t know how to speak Bharati. Thankfully, there was a Persian soldier who was there to translate.

“Then why do you choose to help us instead of evacuating the city like everyone else?”

“Ah, because I am not Muslim, Your Highness. There is an army of hundreds of thousands outside the city wanting to defeat you all. In this case, they will suspect everyone who is not Muslim to be part of your army. I know how they work, Your Highness. My family has lived in this city for centuries. Although the people in the city are kind, the Ottomans are not. They have completely radicalised and extremized the people. It had already become hard for me to live in it.”

“So I judged that if there is a chance for me and my son to live, then that is only through you.”

Agni looked at the middle-aged man with some interest. He surprisingly made a clear-headed choice despite the predicament he is in. If it were anyone else, would they simply run away from the West and ask for their fellow citizens ‘ support when being questioned? But this guy already knew that it was futile and resolutely made a decision that, from his perspective, might as well be madness. And yet, from this madness, he chose the most optimal choice.

Seeing the aura of the man, Vijay nodded, feeling that he was believable.

“I hope you are right,” Agni said, looking at the fire once again. His plan after breaking through the wall of fire was to use his senses to detect danger and rush into the forest with the least amount of danger, but now he had a better alternative.

In such a way, time slowly passed until Agni finally decided on the spot for a breakthrough. He couldn’t be accurate, but he was sure that on the other side of this wall, there weren’t more than 5000 soldiers.

Although it is still more than twice the number they had, it is completely manageable considering that amongst the 2000 of them, nearly 300 of them are special forces soldiers who are extremely skilled in what they do. Not to mention, they are all on horseback, wielding advanced firearms. Taken by surprise, it should be no problem to tear through the Ottoman defences.

“Ready!!”

Agni roared. Horses lined up in a pinser formation. All the soldiers, along with their horses drenched in water from head to toe, were waiting for the next orders, their bodies fully tensed up like a string ready to explode.

The eyes of Agni were wide open, the flame reflected in his amber-colored eyes causing it to resonate. Agni felt the danger constantly decreasing, and then came a moment where everything felt like it fit into place.

“Now!!”

“CHARGE!!”

He roared as he pulled the reins of the horse, causing it to neigh and rush forward like a train. The remaining soldiers followed behind, gritting their teeth—

“ZOOOM!!”

The speed at which they appeared at the wall of fire caused the fire to collapse onto itself in circles due to the air forming low-pressure zones around it, helping the alliance army even more.

The moment Agni pierced out of the wall of fire, he quickly pulled off the paper blocking the sight of the horse, which was used to prevent the horse from seeing the wall of fire.

In front of him was a nonchalant group of Ottomans who had become completely relaxed. Although they had not loosened their weapons, one glance was enough to tell that they were not ready to fight a life-and-death battle.

As more and more horses ran out of the wall, the formation began to spread out from a sphere-like formation to an arrow-like formation.

“Bang!!”

Before the Ottomans could realise what was happening, shots of fire rang out in unison, taking out hundreds of them at a time.

“Die!!”

Lieutenant Colonel Sriram Kakkar yelled as he reloaded his gun and shot once again, his eyes filled with bloodlust.

“Die, die, die!!”

All the soldiers whose nerves had been tensed up were finally released when the horses came near the Ottomans. Feeling that guns were too slow to reload, swords were pulled out, and the Ottomans who experienced the frontal charge of a cavalry that came out of the flames were completely defenceless.

Agni’s attention was suddenly attracted by an old man who was wearing armor that was extremely luxurious compared to everyone else around him. Focusing closer on his face, he was shocked to realise that this was actually one of the three Mughal generals who were stationed in the East—Salim Al Abdullah Rahman Pasha, the first Mughal general to ever set foot in the Middle East.

His smile widened, and with a kick of his feet, the speed of the horse increased even more.

“Slice!!!”

At the last moment of his death, Salim did not know what went wrong—how did the Bharatiyas know where he was, how did they know where there were the least number of troops, and why did they not evacuate with the civilians but launch an attack in return?

But unfortunately, he did not have the chance to ask any of the questions, as the last thing he remembered was the hooves of the horse that were millimetres away from his eyes, after which everything went dark.

“Quickly, show me the way.”

Now that they were at least temporarily safe, Agni fell back into the group and asked the middle-aged man for directions.

“Uh, yes, I’ll show you.”

P.S. I dragged This arc a little bit but I feel that this was needed as this will be the major battle or a fuse that will lead to the Middle East getting independence from the ottoman empire also I am sorry that there has only been single updates this month the majority as I couldnt settle down in one place as I was travelling daily and I was not in the mindspace to write more than one chapter so if you feel that chapter is shaky and stretched out you know the reason