Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 1146

Chapter 1146: Greek war: Siege (2)

1st June 1698.

Agni noticed a few inconspicuous reconnaissance boats on the distant shores, but he did not pay any attention to them.

He knew that the war was of great importance to the Bharatiya Empire, but it was much more important for the Kingdom of Egypt, the Kingdom of Israel, and the United Greek socialist republics. Although the loss in this battle would be a heavy blow to the Bharatiya Empire, it was just that. A heavy blow. But for those kingdoms closely linked to the Bharatiya Empire, however, it was a disaster of extinction.

One might ask, ‘Your Highness Agni, were the Kingdom of Israel, Egypt, and the United Greek Socialist Republics not doing well even before a direct naval connection to the Bharatiya Empire was established through the Suez Canal? Then why suggest that the decline of the Bharatiya Empire would mean the annihilation of these three allied Mediterranean states?’

However, as a response, Agni would simply shake his head at the naivety of the question; this question itself is a fallacy and a bit laughable.

Yes, the three close allies of the Bharatiya Empire survived and developed just fine even without the Suez Canal, but that was precisely because a direct naval link did not exist, and in order to threaten the European countries, the Bharatiya Empire still had to send ships around the globe. But unfortunately, now, that was no longer the case. With the canal being inaugurated, the Europeans understood that the Bharatiya Empire was no longer half the way across the world, but only two Mediterranean seas away.

Although theoretically still a long distance in terms of geopolitics, for the European countries that saw the Mediterranean Sea as nothing but an inland lake owned by them alone, it was no different from being a neighbour. And who wants to be a neighbour with a superpower that has the most influence over the largest continent of the world, Asia, controls the entire Southeast and Oceania, and has immense control over Africa, Arabia, and the Middle East?

Isn’t being the Bharatiya Empire’s neighbour simply sleeping next to a colossal tiger, which sane person wants to do that?

It was precisely because of this that there was such an intense reaction. If the Bharatiya Empire were to lose the Suez Canal, things would not simply go back to how they were before for the allied countries.

Instead, countries that had formed a coalition thanks to the trigger of the Bharatiya Empire might try to completely control Israel, Egypt, and Greece. So even though their strength was insufficient, they still sent reconnaissance vessels to understand what was happening.

It was these exact ships that were being noticed, and it was because he understood their intentions that he simply kept quiet. Not to mention, even if he wanted to do something, his attention was attracted by the approaching enemy fleet.

On the other side, over five kilometres away from the shore.

Three gigantic battleships, each at least 2000 tonnes, travelled close to one another, protected by several heavy frigates, light frigates, and clippers.

Aboard the ship, the Supreme Commander of the British Royal Navy, Lord Edward Russell, Earl of Orford, took out his smoking pipe, let out a puff of air, and stared intently at the map on the table.

Edward was left thoughtful and finally spoke out. “Assign the Hawkins class and Victory class to lead the charge.” He slowly pushed forward nearly 100 pieces in front of the coalition navy. “And inform the other fleets to deploy their light warships forward as well.”

George Rooke, the vice admiral, nodded and left.

After understanding how the inter-fleet communication worked in the Bharatiya Empire during the Battle of Crete, the French and Italians adopted the technology in their own fleet, and it quickly spread throughout the coalition navy within a week.

So the command of Admiral Edward Russell quickly reached the other three fleets.

Technically, each kingdom was an equal participant in the coalition navy, with no one being superior to the other in terms of rank, but practically, due to the British Royal Navy being the stronger navy with a larger number of ships, the British Admiral, Lord Edward Russell, nominally became the leader of the coalition navy. Although not everyone was happy with the situation, they were ultimately helpless.

If the English fleet did not cooperate and did their own thing, their combat effectiveness would be reduced by half, and it would possibly even give a chance to the Bharatiya Empire to take advantage of the situation, so they tacitly came to an understanding without any prior discussions.

The Supreme Commander of Armata Federazione Italiana, Marco Antonio Giustiniani, received the order from his right-hand man, Vice Admiral Francisco Cianci, but when he heard about the contents of the order, his brows furrowed. Usually, it was the battleships and the capital ships that took the initiative to spearhead a naval battle, both because they had higher defence and firepower, but why was the British admiral suddenly asking him to send the light clippers and frigates to the frontline?

Francisco, noticing the Supreme Commander in doubt, told him his idea. “Maybe this is to avoid the battleships getting attacked early. I’m sure Admiral Edward made this plan keeping the advanced weapon systems of the Bharatiya Empire in mind. He probably asked the light brigades and clippers to the frontline to absorb the firepower of the Bharatiya fleet while causing as little loss as possible to the overall coalition.”

Marco’s eyes lit up, his face showing a look of enlightenment. “That’s probably the case.” He even started nodding. Now that he grasped the main logic behind the command, he also realised one more advantage. “Sending the light clippers and frigates forward could also make the Bharatiya consume their ammunition much faster. After all, these smaller ships are much more nimble and quicker, making it harder to hit them.”

If he had any resentment before about being forced by the situation to follow the orders of the British admiral, he was now completely convinced.

Slowly, all the kingdoms started to send their light frigates and clippers forward to the frontline of the battlefield.

—

Leblanc, a French Rochambeau class navigator, was startled when he was ordered to move forward to the frontline. His heart began to palpitate, but being a competent sailor, he complied with the orders. To his astonishment, all the battleships and warships before him slowly gave way, as if they had received orders to do so. Taking a big gulp, Leblanc turned the wheel and plunged into the path that had been opened up. He looked to his left and right, and to his shock, he could see ships of other countries and his own moving to the front of the coalition navy, like insects crawling out of a nest.

Reaching the front, he found a clear sea with no obstructions in sight, but he was soon ordered to fall into formation with the other ships advancing alongside him. Leblanc immediately understood that they would be spearheading the fleet.

“Orders received. The primary objective is to survive the first and second bombardments from the Bharatiya Navy until our battleships bring the enemy ships within firing range. Good luck. May God be with you.”

The worst thing Leblanc imagined finally happened. In the end, he could only draw a cross in prayer and get ready to sail as he had never sailed before.

—

While the eastern Mediterranean Sea was about to become the graveyard of ships, battles raged heavily on the borders of the United Greek Socialist Republics.

Attacks had been launched on several northern cities of the Greek Socialist Republics by the Kingdom of Austria and the Kingdom of Slavic Byzantium.

Both the kingdoms came with as many troops as they could possibly muster.

Republic of Anatolia.

“BOOM.” “BOOM.”

Cannonballs flew across the sky, ploughing the fields and destroying everything in their path. Gunpowder was in the air, and the atmosphere of desolation had already begun to take shape.

The Kingdom of Slavic Byzantium did not have the advanced weapons of the Bharatiya Empire, like the mortas, howitzers, or the breech loading cannons, but what they did have were simple and brutal muzzle-loading cannons, and a boatload of them.

And given that the Kingdom of Slavic Byzantium was advancing from a superior geographic stronghold like Constantinople, the defence of the Republic of Anatolia appeared very fragile. But thankfully, Giorgios Paliologos took the battle extremely seriously, and for the first time declared a national emergency and started conscripting over 500,000 able-bodied men into the military.

While all this was happening, the Greek army was not immediately ready to take on the brunt of over 200,000 soldiers, but thanks to the Bharatiya military still garrisoned in the United Greek Socialist Republics, they were able to hold off the assault from the Kingdom of Slavic Byzantium temporarily. But how long this situation could last, even the generals of the Bharatiya Empire did not know.

Technically, it should not have been hard for the Bharatiya Empire to defend the border, especially with the Greeks quickly mobilising, but the truth was, like always, the problem was logistics. Although it was no problem procuring normal rifle bullets from Greece, procuring the proprietary ammunition and ordnance systems that were only being made in the Bharatiya Empire would be extremely difficult. Therefore, until the Greeks had gathered enough troops to counter the numbers of the enemy with numbers of their own, the troops of the Bharatiya Empire could only hold the enemy off temporarily.

A similar situation was observed in the Republic of Epirus and Thessaly. The situation in the border regions against the Austrians was not looking too good, not to mention that the port of Thessaloniki was occupied by the coalition navy, and with a lot of ground troops defending the ports, logistics had become incredibly hard.

P.S. A little ruff soory.