Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 1147

Chapter 1147: Greek war: Siege (3)

Eastern Mediterranean, several kilometres off the coast of Dakshina Mukhi.

The European coalition fleet, composed of 800 warships, approached the Suez Canal and the ships guarding it like a group of insects smelling sugar.

Agni’s expression was not looking good as he lowered the binoculars. He naturally understood the strategy behind letting the Clippers and frigates spearhead the fleet. It was simply a meat shield to absorb the punishment the Bharatiya fleet would be dishing out.

Knowing this, ‘this will be tricky’, he said to himself. Not only was the enemy fleet spearheaded by low-value targets, but these low-value targets were also moving around like fish out of water, spasming as if their life depended on it, making it much harder to hit them.

Suddenly, a naval officer stood next to him and performed a standard military salute. “They are in range, your highness, ” Vikram Das Chauhan, the Vice Admiral, informed.

Agni let out a deep breath. “Fire when ready, ” he said, eyes flickering. Vikram was about to leave, but Agni’s voice rang out again. “Also inform Rajendra to use the torpedoes, all of them, after the enemy battleships come into range. “Vikram’s eyebrows jumped, but in the end, he nodded and left.

Agni stared at the enemy fleet, a hint of ruthlessness flickering in his eyes. The torpedoes were not armed on every ship; hell, they were not even installed on all the battleships. They existed only on the eleven capital ships that once commanded individual battle groups. Basically, torpedoes were only limited in number and were only supposed to be used in emergency situations, but Agni felt that there wasn’t a better time than now.

You have to know each torpedo is a deadly weapon, capable of completely neutralising a battleship, no matter how massive it is. In this era, no one really thought about reinforcing hulls against such threats. So with the enemy still clustered at the front and no risk of friendly fire, Agni felt that this was the perfect moment to unleash the torpedoes.

Time slowly passed, and the European fleet got ever so closer. And then, there came a moment in the battle, a moment where it felt like time itself had come to a halt. Agni could swear that he even saw a crow flying in slow motion. Everyone held their breath, and all hearts began to race.

The next second.

“BOOM!”

The first and second batteries of all the seventeen Delhi-class battleships and six Surat-class battle cruisers fired out in unison. The sounds superimposed and formed sonic waves, pushing the ships back and sending vibrations through the sea. Shells as big as a human head were ejected from the naval cannons, and the gunman, without a second thought, reloaded it and pulled the trigger.

“It’s here.”

Edward Russell, standing on the deck of a Sovereign-class, was left shaken after looking at the cannons approaching his fleet like a meteor shower. He even forgot to take out the smoke pipe from his mouth and ended up coughing.

At the front of his fleet, in a French Rochambeau-class light frigate, navigator Leblanc was scared out of his wits. His captain was screaming, “Portside, portside, portside, “on top of his lungs, as if his life depended on it.

Leblanc could have sworn the captain’s pants were a little wet, but he frantically turned the wheel as the sail operators changed the sails as fast as they could.

“Boom!”

The boat was suddenly rocked by an immense force. ‘Are we hit?’ Leblanc’s heart dropped, but the next moment the excited voice of his captain was heard, “Hahaha, it’s just the lookout, we have not been hit. ” He screamed, but the explosion that sounded from behind drew everyone’s attention.

It was the English ship that was tailing them from behind. It was up in flames, and it stopped in place.

Leblanc even saw a few mangled corpses right on deck that were on fire.

He turned his head, trying to rid his mind of the terrifying visuals, but when he did, horror greeted him. The sea had erupted into chaos. Ships scrambled desperately to evade the falling fireballs, creating utter pandemonium. Some collided at full speed, others, failing to see incoming cannonballs, were engulfed in flames on impact. It was as if a royal rumble to the death had broken out, and he was right in the middle of it.

Sadly, Leblanc could not think anymore because the second round of bombardments from the enemy was heard.

But this time, Leblanc no longer stayed at the steering wheel, as he didn’t trust his captain, a son of a nobleman, to get them out of the predicament safely. So, ignoring the military punishment, he took the matter into his own hands and got up and looked around in all directions to decide the next step.

After all, even to receive the punishment, he should first be alive. Leblanc could hear the captain throwing a tantrum and roaring on top of his lungs, but he completely ignored him. On the left and right sides of the ship, he could see that two ships were on a collision course with his ship, and at the front, he could feel the cannonball approaching.

“Close the sails, ” he roared on top of his lungs, “and stop the ship no matter the cost. ”

The sailors on the ship were startled. Who do they follow? The second in command or the captain? But then they looked at Leblanc and the captain, who was screaming like a lunatic with snot and tears, side by side. They made their own decision and followed Leblanc’s orders.

Leblanc ran to the front of the ship, and his heartbeat jumped as he saw an Italian light clipper and a French light frigate collide into each other. And no sooner than his expectation, the cannonball came hurtling onto the ships.

“BOOM!”

The cannonball wreaked havoc on the two ships that had already collided with each other, causing an explosion. Leblanc could even feel the heat of the flames emanating from the ships and the smell of burnt corpses. He could not help but retch out everything he had eaten.

The scene greatly shook the sailors, constantly drawing crosses in fear and gratitude, and that included his good-for-nothing captain, who had stopped sobbing and started to devoutly chant out Latin verses.

Leblanc shook his head and cautiously looked around to be prepared for the third round of bombardment. ‘We should now be able to hit back, right?’ He hoped, but something coming towards them under the water got his attention. He did not know what it was, but for some reason it made his heart palpitate.

“Hard right rudder, “he roared.

The sailors did not understand why Leblanc was so panicked, but since he was able to save them once, most of the people trusted him. The lookout, who had just gotten down since the lookout platform was completely obliterated in the first bombardment, immediately took the wheel and turned it frantically.

There was a ship to the side, so when they changed course, a collision occurred, but thankfully, both ships were going in the same direction, so it was not that serious.

Leblanc could hear the English bastards from the next ship hurling abuses at him, but he completely ignored them and ran to the port side of the deck and peeked into the water to see what the thing coming towards them was.

“zzzzzzzzz”

This time, he was sure it was definitely not a shark, because he saw the metallic sheen under the water. And more importantly, ‘What kind of shark swims in a single path and so quickly?’

The metallic thing missed the back of his ship by a quarter of a metre and plunged into the fleet.

‘Gulp!’ Leblanc let out a sigh of relief, but what happened next made him wide-eyed and he began fearing for his life.

At the back of the fleet

Understanding what was happening at the frontline, Edward Russell clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Although the orders he gave were greatly helpful and indeed very successful in wasting as much ammunition of the Bharatiya fleet as possible, he could not have accounted for the actions of the sailors in panic. Although, as he expected, the number of ships that were hit by the enemy artillery was low, the number of collisions that happened because of chaos was high. In the end, it was as if he shot his own foot.

“Dammit, “he cursed.

But suddenly, several muffled explosions occurred at the front of the fleet.

He did not understand what was going on, but the next moment, to his horror, over six battleships were beginning to tilt, and soon they capsized, followed by completely sinking into the sea.

His eyes widened. “What the **** happened?” He exclaimed, but just like him, everyone looked forward with shock and bewilderment.

“Why doesn’t anyone answer? Is Everyone Deaf? What the hell…happened?” He roared. But alas, for no avail.

Thankfully, a few moments later, his commodore in charge of communication, John Benbow, came forward and replied,

“Italian Supreme Commander Marco Antonio Giustiniani suspects that it is an underwater weapon of the Bharatiya Empire. He also added that three of his battleships were hit by such a weapon during the war for Crete.”

“He also added that the Bharatiya Empire couldn’t have too many of these weapons.”

Edward Russell had not completely calmed down, but his expression did relax.

He still had a lot of questions in his mind, but he knew it would have to wait for a later time. “Rescue as many people as possible and,” his eyes flickered, “hit back.”

Agni was in a good mood because the strategy of the enemy backfired on themselves, and also because he was able to take down over six battleships. But the next moment, looking at the shower of flames, much larger than what his fleet could unleash, his expression turned serious.

“Boom!”

Cannonballs came crashing down, destroying the decks of various ships and injuring or even killing the people on board.

Blood-curdling screams echoed, and anger ran deep.

“Fire, fire, fire, kill those bastards!”

The return fire swept the situation, and once again it devolved into a fight between heavyweights, exchanging blow for blow. But unfortunately, similar to the Battle of Crete, although the Bharatiya Empire could pack a punch and injure the coalition greatly, its endurance was not at the same level.

Under the bombardment of over 700 ships, the 240-odd ships of the Bharatiya Navy slowly began to lose combat effectiveness.

If 100% is the total combat effectiveness of the Bharatiya fleet, it had now dropped to 70%, while the opponent still had a combat effectiveness of over 80%.

Deep in his heart, even Agni knew this would happen, as emotions and morale alone do not win wars, but he still felt unwilling.