Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 1249: WW1: Breaching into the Polish Lithuanian Kingdom (1)
The Europeans might have noticed some unusual situation throughout the Eastern Hemisphere with constant personnel movement, but they had no time to worry about civilian movement when the Prince of the Bharatiya Empire, Agni, or rather Vijay, disguised as Agni, finally approached the frontline with his troops.
January 1708.
Vijay looked at the map, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
"The Poles have really laid down railway lines between the major fortresses on the borders," he said with a hint of admiration.
According to the intelligence he had received, the border cities on the western side of Polish Lithuania like Wroclaw, Cezestochowa, Katowice, Krakow, Lubin, and Bialystok were all connected by railway tracks, while on the eastern side, Brest, Mazyr, Homiel, Mogilev, and Vitebsk were similarly linked.
Considering the geographical borders from his previous life, the western side was simply Poland, and the eastern side was Belarus.
Additionally, he had learned that the entire outer defensive perimeter was interconnected. The major fortresses, linked by railway lines, were also connected to key inland cities, such as the capital, manufacturing hubs, grain transport centres, or logistical bases. Cities like Poznan, Łódź, Warsaw, and Minsk were all part of this network.
"It looks like a lot of work hasn’t been done in the Lithuanian part, right?"
Vijay asked this because he had not received any information about railway lines being laid in Lithuania or Latvia, which in this era were simply part of the Polish Lithuanian Kingdom. Even the southern part of Estonia was under them, while the northern part belonged to the Swedish.
"Affirmative, Your Majesty. They have not laid any railway lines within Lithuania. But I don’t think they had the time to do it either, and honestly, sire, what they have achieved in a year is nothing less than a miracle."
Vijay paused for a moment, then nodded. "It is indeed impressive."
"Also, there is no way we can target the Lithuanian region directly without crossing through the Polish side. The only other option would be to seek passage from the Russian Empire," He paused for a moment and considered whether Peter would allow it, then felt it was unlikely. "They might have already considered this point as well." He let out a deep breath and shook his head.
"Alright, forget it. So, is the army prepared?" He diverted his gaze and looked at the two commanders sitting before him.
The commanders looked at each other and then resolutely turned towards the emperor and nodded with determined gazes. "Prepared, Your Majesty. Just give your word. We will immediately march towards the enemy."
Vijay nodded and immediately set forward the plan of action. "We will try to breach the kingdom from two fronts, one from Krakow in the west and the other from Brest in the east."
"Brest can be taken as the centre line, and going forward from here for 200 km, we would reach Lithuania. If we are able to capture this line, we would be cutting off a huge chunk of the Polish Lithuanian Kingdom from their logistics channels, isolating a section of their logistics systems and stopping it from going from east to west and vice versa."
"But first, we have to understand how fast their logistical chain operates, so launch a concentrated attack. If we are able to overwhelm them in one swift move, then their railway can be considered useless, but if they are able to mobilise forces from the surroundings quickly enough, then we will have to disrupt these logistical chains."
"As for how to carry out the disruption, I will explain it when the time comes, but for now, simply test the enemy."
After a few more minutes, he dismissed everyone in the room
Kraków, Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom
Yan Kowalski, the commander of the Polish-Lithuanian Defence Frontier Army, had a look of someone who had seen a ghost when he was informed that the Bharatiya army was on the move, and was even more horrified when he learnt that the direction of the movement was Krakow, the fortress he was responsible for.
Theoretically, the railway tracks and locomotives should have given him the confidence to stand firm in the face of the Bharatiya Army’s arrival, but the momentum and sheer aura surrounding them were far too overwhelming.
The Austrian Kingdom, which they had long believed could never be defeated without years of sustained and concentrated warfare, had collapsed in a single campaign. Even its capital, Vienna, had fallen to what could only be described as a brutal, forceful assault.
And then there was the Slavic Byzantine Kingdom. Its northern territories, fragmented into nearly a hundred principalities, had been swept away in the span of a single month, a single, unbelievable month.
Both Austria and Slavic Byzantium had once been powers they treated with caution, kingdoms they had carefully avoided provoking. For years, they maintained their safety through isolation and neutrality, choosing distance over confrontation.
But now, both of those kingdoms were gone.
Completely gone.
Faced with that reality, how could he not feel cautious?
How could he not feel fear?
"Call for reinforcements and firepower support." He directly ordered without the war even starting.
And his deputy did not question it either, since he had the same pale expression on his face when he heard that the Bharatiya Army was coming right to them.
"Hey, what’s happening? Why are we asked to stay in a battle-ready stance?"
"Who knows, maybe the enemy is about to attack?"
"Oh God, is the dreadful Bharatiya Army going to attack?"
"Possibly."
"Oh Lord, please protect your child through this perilous situation he is about to encounter, please Lord..."
"Hey, stop shivering."
"It’s the cold, damn it, and you’re shivering as well."
"Ah... it’s...the cold?"
"..."
"Hey, is that disdain I see in your eyes?"
Such were the murmurs between the soldiers who were informed to take on a battle-ready stance.
On the other side,
Lavanga Sinha looked at the fortress wall through his binoculars for a brief moment, carefully observing the structure, and then, after lowering them, he gave his order without any delay.
"Assemble the siege cannons and have the war tractors ready to advance."
With his command issued, the assembly process immediately began, and within roughly half an hour, all five third-generation siege cannons were fully set up and ready. Without wasting even a second, Lavanga ordered the cannons to fire, and soon enough, massive projectiles, each the size of small boulders, were launched into the air, cutting through the sky as they flew straight towards the Polish Lithuanian defences.
"Booom!"
Five consecutive explosions were heard at the fortress, which shook violently, with the screams of Polish Lithuanian soldiers mixed in between.
As expected, when the dust settled, a breach was opened up, but to Lavanga’s surprise, it was as if the enemy had already anticipated that the wall would not be able to hold the Bharatiya Army back, so they seemed to have taken precautions and installed artillery pieces behind the wall as well.
"Did they fortify the entire city? Are there no civilians anymore?" This thought immediately popped into his mind. ’Tch, if they really did that, it would be quite troublesome,’ he thought to himself, but his original orders did not change. Once the main wall of the enemy was breached, the war tractors advanced steadily, taking on a hail of bullets as if it was nothing, and once in a while shrugging off a small artillery round, while in the meantime, the complete artillery firepower of the army was unleashed onto the enemy defences, not giving the enemy artillerymen a chance to fight back and attack the war tractors.
This was an all-out attack with no dead ends. From the sky, the artillery pieces fell like meteors; from the ground, the machine guns in the war tractors ripped apart anything in their way; and to make it all worse, once in a while, a missile would precisely hit a crucial part of the wall, disrupting the counterattack.
Eventually, the war tractors did cross the wall, and Lavanga’s bad feeling came true. The entire city was fortified, every building top had a cannon, its aim directly pointing at the breaches on the city wall.
"Halt!" Brigadier General Muthappa decisively halted the war tractors right at the city wall. The war tractors were defensive beasts, but that didn’t mean they could take on artillery fire all on their own, so he quickly informed the rear about the current situation and continued to put pressure on the enemy through the machine guns.
Lavanga Sinha, receiving the intelligence, did not waste a single moment. He quickly ordered the artillery pieces to be brought forward, while simultaneously mobilising infantry and rangers for urban warfare.
Right at this moment, he received bad news. "Your Excellency, scouts have received intelligence from a lookout stating that a locomotive has appeared in his vision, and it seems to be carrying troops and supplies."
"Dammit," Lavanga Sinha cursed. He now understood why His Majesty, the Emperor, was so cautious about the Europeans breaking the locomotive technology. Even though the speed at which they reacted was a little slower than that of the Bharatiya Empire, it was still miles ahead of whatever they did before.
He thought of what to do, but then he remembered his only mission this time around was to completely breach the fortress if possible, and to report back about the logistics capabilities of the enemy if not possible. And since he was sure that he could not take down the fortress any time soon, he simply wrote a detailed report on what happened and sent it back to the command.
"Our plan remains unchanged. Bring the artillery pieces onward. If it is the destruction and turning the whole city into rubble that we have to do to win this war, then that is exactly what we will do," he declared, his tone regal and majestic.
