Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 1150

Capítulo 1150: Greek war: Stacking up difficulties!!!

14th June 1698

Piyush Rudrakarna looked at the newly arrived supplies and let out a sigh of relief.

“Open it!” he ordered his lieutenant.

Over a dozen large wooden crates were pried open by a crowbar, and within them were neatly stacked bullets, all of the same size, on top of one another.

Adding the numbers of all 15 crates, there were at least 2 million bullets. It sounds like a lot, but in reality, Piyush did not think it would last more than a week. After all, thousands of bullets are used by each soldier every freaking day. Not to mention, these bullets are manufactured partially by the Greeks themselves and partially by the Israelites; their quality is yet to be tested.

Piyush picked up the Dhanush 61 rifle, the standard army issue rifle, loaded up the bullets, took aim at the sandbags in the distance, and pulled the trigger.

“Bang!”

His arm jerked a little, and the sandbag in the distance was punctured. Piyush looked through the binoculars at the damage it caused to the sandbag and nodded in satisfaction. He could feel the slight reduction in the recoil, meaning the power of the bullet is not at the same level as the ones made by the Bharatiya Empire, but he could feel that the discrepancy is only around 5 to 10%, so it is acceptable for now.

He picked up the ledger and signed the acceptance form, then he looked at the logistics staff who had come to deliver the supplies. “I remember asking for camouflage kits and first aid kits as well.”

The logistics staff took back the acceptance document and signed their own name as he looked up and answered, “The Greeks and the Israelites seem to be having trouble in producing the camouflage kits exactly like ours, and the same goes for the medical supplies. They do not have the industries to produce some of the chemicals as we do in large scale, but they have indeed sent a few batches of alternatives to the logistics department, and they are currently being tested.”

“If they pass, I will be meeting you again tomorrow, Sir!”

Piyush nodded in satisfaction. Then he asked with curiosity, “What do you think about the ammunition?”

The logistics staff was about to turn around and leave, but hearing the question, he stayed back, looked at Piyush, and answered, “Its gunpowder ratio is not up to the mark. Even if the ammunition is the same weight as the ammunition we make in the Bharatiya Empire, it is not as efficient, so the explosion is not too powerful, leading to a dip in speed. We measured the discrepancy to be around 7% to 8%.”

Piyush felt happy that he was right, even a smug grin appearing on his face, but it was not for long, as he quickly controlled his emotions and had the logistics personnel from various brigades send the ammunition back to their men.

Suddenly, a communications officer ran out of the barracks with a bunch of documents in his hands.

Piyush had a bad premonition in his heart, and after reading the documents, he closed his eyes as it had come true. When he reopened his eyes, a look of frustration appeared on his face, but in the end, he could only shake his head and let out a deep and turbulent breath.

“Hey, Elias, are you familiar with the expression ‘Chidreṣu anarthāḥ bahulībhavanti’?”

Elias was a liaison officer sent by the Greek Republic, and was one of the few people who was responsible for relaying information and connecting the Greek government and the Bharatiya military.

After he heard the question, he thought about it deeply and shook his head, “I am not exactly familiar, sir. I haven’t yet read any of your classical literature.” He answered, but the look of frustration the commander showed a moment ago stayed in his mind and kept bothering him, “Did something go wrong, sir?”

Piyush did not directly answer the question, but instead explained what the phrase meant: “The literal translation is, where there are loopholes, problems multiply.”

“To say it in a more straightforward way, it’s like saying, when the roof creaks, the floor caves in.”

Elias showed a look of realisation, but at the same time, the ominous foreboding he had only increased.

“The Europeans who had seized the key strategic strongholds are now pushing inland, with both the Spanish and the Portuguese formally joining the coalition. As if that were not enough, the radical factions that should have been long extinct have resurfaced, breathing new life into old hatreds and clearly planning something on a far larger scale. And on top of all this, Slavic Byzantium and the Austrian Kingdom are receiving covert support from the Prussian Kingdom and the Polish–Lithuanian Kingdom.”

“So tell me, Elias, is the expression not very apt for the current situation of the Greek Republic?”

Elias’s face turned white like a piece of paper. What? How? He kept questioning in his mind, which was already in chaos. In the end, in order to keep his sanity, he started to rationalise.

‘The Europeans launching an attack from the occupied bases has already been hypothesised, so the secretary general should have a way to deal with them. The radicals coming back into the light are surprising, but not completely out of the blue. There were rumours within the Republic’s intelligence circles about small radical groups, four or five people at a time, still operating in Anatolia and Syria, and now the commander has only proven those rumours to be true. But…’

Worry clouded his mind. The news about the Slavs and the Austrians receiving support from their northern neighbours was so unexpected that he could not even begin to rationalise it.

“But how?” were the only words that could come out of his mouth.

Piyush Rudrakarna seemed to understand the thoughts of Elias, even though he only uttered two words.

“We don’t exactly know that they are cooperating, but the Research and Analysis Wing reached this judgment with over an 80% probability, so it is practically confirmed,” he shrugged. “Apparently, both the Kingdom of Austria and the Kingdom of Slavic Byzantium have reduced their military strength along their northern borders and reallocated more troops to wage war against the Greek Republic. This point alone brings the probability of cooperation to over 50%, and along with other weird details, we have reached a judgment that is nearly certain.”

“As for whether they will join the battle, it is unknown. Maybe they will in the future, or maybe not. But the fact is clear that they will not be attacking their ‘enemies’ down south, while their enemies are attacking their enemies, that is us.”

“So basically, they have formed an unofficial coalition on the foundation of attacking the Greek Republic.”

Elias slumped down on a chair. He needed some air. Piyush patted his back and wanted to comfort him, saying that the Bharatiya Empire had the Greeks back, but in the end, the words of comfort could not come out of his throat, as even he did not know if the empire could get the Greeks out of the terrible situation they were in.

Port of Thessaloniki.

The smell of gunpowder was in the air, and the Dutch troops relentlessly bombarded the Greek positions within the city.

“Reload and fire.”

The Dutch cannons were not as powerful as the Bharatiya artillery, but they were numerous in number, giving them a slight advantage against the Bharatiya and Greek artillery companies.

Hendrick lowered the telescope and nodded with satisfaction. As he expected, the intensity of the counterattack had been steadily decreasing. Although he did not dare to push his troops forward, the time when he would give that order was not too far away.

The Greek army was massive, and the Bharatiya Army, although small in comparison, was extremely skilled and deadly, but both armies were lacking proper weapons and ammunition.

Now, with the Suez Canal blocked, supplies could only come through land routes. Even if they came from the Middle East, from countries allied with and controlled by the Bharatiya Empire, it would still take a few weeks for those supplies to reach mainland Greece. Not to mention that some of the advanced weapons used by both the Greek army and the Bharatiya Army relied on proprietary ammunition systems produced only by the Bharatiya Empire. For this ammunition, and for more weapon systems to arrive in Greece, it would take at least a month at the fastest, and up to two months if trouble occurred along the way.

This should be more than enough time for Hendrick to push forward and eventually reach the border of Slavic Byzantium, cutting off a large chunk of territory from mainland Greece.

With that thought in mind, he requested more artillery systems to be dispatched from the homeland. He was confident that he could fulfil the mission within a month, but just to be sure, he would equip his army with more artillery, as the consequences of losing were too severe.

Once the ammunition replenishments as well as more weapon systems of the Bharatiya Empire arrived in Greece, and he had not completed his mission, he could bid his advantage goodbye. After all, even in the current situation, the mortars, culverins, and breach-loading cannons of the Bharatiya Empire were holding their own despite being fewer in number. He could not even think what would happen if thousands of such weapons suddenly fell into the hands of the Greeks.

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