Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 1238: WW1: Final stretch

24th January 1706

The ports of the Greek republics, be it the port of Izmiz, Bodrum, Volos, or even the newly conquered ports like Thessaloniki and Kavala, had become extremely busy over the last few weeks to several months. In fact, the activity had increased to such an extent that the port administration had even resorted to the extremely expensive method of blowing up the coast with gunpowder explosives and moving the dirt using hundreds of thousands of people in order to expand the berths and harbours.

This surge came with Bharatiya ships constantly passing through the Suez Canal, transporting all the military supplies required to maintain and manage over five million troops. As a result, the Greek republics received a throughput of goods that had never been seen in history.

All the ports had now become strictly military-controlled, with ships neatly lining up and leaving the harbours in an almost mechanical manner. The local Greeks witnessed the scene with looks of amazement, as if they were seeing the ports for the very first time.

However, in Athens, a different scene could be witnessed today. All the large ships had parted away, forming an imaginary wall and leaving open a gigantic path, through which a giant battleship, flying the flag of an Ashoka Chakra along with the emblem of Shanku and Chakra, the emblem of the Bharatiya Royal family, the Devaraya family, entered with a majestic stride.

So many years later, Vijay finally set foot on the European continent. As soon as he arrived at Athens, he was immediately welcomed by Georgios Paleologos, the Secretary General of the Union of Greek Socialist Republics, as well as the Governors General’s of all six republics of the nation.

Vijay, setting foot on the land of Athens for the second time in his life, felt extremely complicated. The last time he was here, it was for a great event that would be remembered throughout history, the first-ever Olympics in the modern era, which was set off by the Bharatiya Empire. But now, he set foot here for a life and death battle against the European Union.

"Thank you, everyone, for your hospitality. You have my gratitude," Vijay smiled and greeted back.

However, he did not accept the proposal to enter the parliament and give a victory speech, and instead directly set off to meet his commanders who would be commanding the battle. Georgios showed a look of reluctance when he rejected the proposal, but fortunately, Vijay had not come alone; Agni had travelled with him as well.

As it had become clear that America would not be the deciding factor to end the war, and as he was confident that there would be no opportunity for the United States of his previous life to be born again, he felt that it was no longer necessary to let Agni continue overseeing all the military operations on that continent. So, he simply summoned him back to join the battle and help him out.

Thanks to Agni’s presence, after rejecting the proposal to give a speech in the parliament, he pushed all the burden onto Agni and quietly slipped away.

As planned, over the span of four to five months, the military command of Vaibhav Krishnamoorthi, numbering over a million, took down the enemy-occupied bases in the Orthodox Greek lands and also occupied new territory so that the Greek Republic could establish a land route connecting its mainland with Anatolia and Syria. This included, most notably, the conquest of Constantinople, a city hailed as the capital of the world if the world were an empire.

Meanwhile, the rest of the troops, over four million in number, were transported along with all the advanced weapon systems and military equipment the command required.

The preparations for the war were ready, and it was only a matter of time before the bloodshed began.

Waiting for Vijay, all the commanders, including Commander Vaibhav Krishnamoorthi and even the newly promoted Commander Lavanga Sinha, sat around a large table without making a sound, their eyes focused on the board behind the empty chair, lost in their own thoughts as they continued to contemplate the battles in their minds.

Unknown to them, instead of entering through the main door, Vijay had already entered through the back door and was in the conference room, lost in thought along with all the commanders, his eyes fixated on the European map, with countless battles raging in his mind.

It wasn’t until Agni came through the front door and was stunned to see him standing at the back of the room, staring intently at the map, that Vijay woke up. And it wasn’t only him; the other commanders also snapped out of their thoughts and immediately stood up, paying their respects to the Prince of the Bharatiya Empire, still unaware of the Emperor’s presence.

Only when Vijay spoke were they truly caught off guard.

"We have six main targets to take down in order to half-cripple the Kingdom of Austria and to bring the Kingdom of Slavic Byzantium to its knees."

The commanders were first shocked, hearing the voice coming from behind them, but then a chill ran down their spines as they recognised it as the voice of the Supreme Commander, the emperor of the empire himself. But understanding what the Emperor said, the commanders quickly recovered their expressions and intently listened to what His Majesty had to say. Even Agni did not question why he was standing at the back of the conference room or complain about the cumbersome work being thrown onto him, and simply pulled a chair and sat down, his look curious and filled with a little expectation.

Vijay slowly walked to the map and started placing large X marks on the locations he had identified.

"The first target should be the naval base of Vlorë. Controlling this base will effectively cut off the potential logistics supplies that could arrive from the Italian federation to the Austrians."

"Going inland, we should take Tiranë, the largest city in the Albanian region, which is also the capital of the Albanian principality. Taking it is effectively no different than dealing a low blow to the Kingdom of Austria."

"Moving on, we should take the fortress of Skopje, the largest city in the Macedonian region and also the region’s military core. Occupying it will deal a blow so strong that it will, as I said earlier, half cripple the Austrian Kingdom."

"In the Kingdom of Slavic Byzantium, the main targets include Sofia, the current capital of the Slavic Byzantium Kingdom, Plovdiv, a large military fortress surrounded by seven hills, and the port city of Varna, which also acts as a naval base."

"Are there any additions anyone wants to add, or... any objections?" Vijay asked, looking at the commanders.

Seeing them shake their heads, he understood that they had a similar idea in their minds, so he did not waste any more time and continued the discussion.

"With our naval advantage, this can be a two-front attack. On one front, we can take over the major naval bases on both the coasts of the Balkan Peninsula, attacking the southern territories of the Austrian Kingdom and the Slavic Byzantium Kingdom at the same time. On another, we can advance from the Greek mainland in four different units."

"Opinions?" he asked, but this time his question was not met with silent nods.

"Overall, the plan is sound and feasible, Your Majesty, but we would have to increase the naval strength of the battle group that would take over the task of entering the Ionian Sea, since the naval base Vlorë is only around 90 kilometres from the Italian naval bases," Commander Hari Prasad Obli pointed out.

Vijay nodded and was about to respond, but suddenly a commander interjected, his voice tinged with excitement, "Isn’t it a good opportunity to hit two birds with the same stone?"

"Explain," Agni asked, curious, his fingers rhythmically tapping the handrest.

"Yes, Your Highness," he said, and continued, "Why don’t we go all out and actually attack the southern tip of the Italian Federation for real, and take the initiative ourselves? The objective doesn’t have to be to conquer the entire coast of the Italian Federation; it could simply be to damage and destroy the naval bases in the south. A battle group made up of clippers and fast-moving ships would be perfect to perform such an operation. While these ships keep the Italians occupied, we can use the rest of the forces to occupy the main target, Vlorë."

"Oh, and we can spread rumours about our attack on the Italian coast, making the Europeans unable to send reinforcements to the Kingdom of Austria while they are busy dealing with our navy."

Agni’s eyes lit up. This was indeed a very good suggestion. However, just before he could praise the suggestion, his father’s voice rang out, "Excellent, let’s do it as you suggest."’

Param Kosamani was overjoyed that his suggestion was accepted. "Then, should we hand over the task to the external Pragya immediately, Your Majesty?"

Vijay shook his head. "No need. Once bitten, twice shy, the Europeans have already become extremely cautious of our war of propaganda, so there is no need to deliberately spread information among the Europeans. Besides, it is not needed either, especially when we can do it in a much more reliable and efficient way."

"Spread it among our own army. Send it in the briefing orders to the senior officers throughout the army. I am sure the Europeans will smell this intelligence out on their own," Vijay said. He was not naive; he wasn’t foolish enough to think that there wouldn’t be spies in his army, so since he knew they existed, why not make use of them for his own benefit?

The commanders looked at each other, their expressions a little awkward, but they also knew that what His Majesty said was the truth. After all, even in an army of 100,000, there are one or two spies, not to mention in an army of five million. In the end, they tacitly accepted the Emperor’s proposal, and the discussions progressed rapidly.

Input came from all sides, strategies, attack patterns, bases that had to be occupied before targeting the main objective, logistics, medical supplies, hidden routes that could be used, and all other sorts of things were discussed.

In the end, the decision was made to split the war into four separate theatres, with each theatre commanded by a commander equipped with over 600,000 troops, while Vijay would maintain a distance of at least 20 kilometres from the main armies at the rear, ready to provide reinforcements or logistics support whenever necessary, with over 1,300,000 troops under his direct command.

As for Agni, he was tasked with handling the entire logistics and supply chain operations of the battle, while also being responsible for safeguarding the territory that had been newly conquered and integrating it into the war machine as soon as possible, so that the new territory could be used to generate resources to further fuel the war.

"Well then, gentlemen, the situation for which we have all prepared for the last several years is finally here. It is time to put all our preparations into use."

"Jai Hind, Jai Bharath."

P.S.The final stretch of our journey....