October 6th, 1655
It was early in the morning in the city of Ahdabad. Everyone was getting up from their sleep and trying to go about their duties even during these tough tis.
Well, everyone except the City Defense Corps, of course, because they had to stay awake all night long in order to guard the city.
At the southern end of the city, there was a village called Gayaspur. This village was built on an island in the Sabarmati River.
*Glug, glug, glug*
Near the village, bubbles began to rise steadily from the water. At first, it was a slow trickle, but then they surged, increasing dramatically. Suddenly, *splash*!
Out of nowhere, a human head slowly popped out of the river and took big breaths of air. This was Sarvesh, who had left Kasindra the previous night. Sarvesh first looked around to make sure that he was not spotted. Fortunately, due to it being early in the morning and the sun not yet fully up, when he walked out of the river, he was covered by the darkness.
After confirming that no one had seen him coming out of the river and making sure that the coast was clear, he threw four rocks into the river at varying intervals.
Imdiately, hundreds of soldiers erged from the water. All of them had so sort of animal bladder in their mouths, which they were using to breathe. Dragging their heavy bodies onto the shore, they discarded their wooden flippers and collapsed, sprawled out and breathing heavily. The journey had taken its toll, leaving them utterly exhausted.
As they glanced up at Sarvesh, who remained standing, they couldn’t help but marvel at his strength.
Seeing the 700 or so people crawling on the riverbank, Sarvesh knew that they needed so rest. They were not in a combat-ready state.
"Co on, get up, march. If you’re discovered, our operation will fail. Either you move or go back into the river and abandon the operation. The current will take you sowhere downstream."
The people who heard the words were disheartened as they had to get up and move again. "Sigh."
"Not everyone is a monster like you, commander," so of them muttered in low voices. Sarvesh heard it but acted as if he didn’t.
They quickly moved to the Gayaspur village. On the way, sothing rustled in the bushes beside them. Everyone was alerted, including Sarvesh. He pulled out his knife, as it was the most suitable weapon in the current situation.
Sarvesh motioned for everyone to stay back as he went closer to the bush.
"Ah!"
A high-pitched, startled sound was heard from the bush. Sarvesh carefully took a branch of the bush in his hand and pulled it aside to reveal what made the noise inside. What they saw startled everyone present: a boy around the age of nine or ten, squatting on the ground, visibly shaking all over. He was not wearing any clothes except for a loincloth.
The soldiers felt embarrassed, realizing that the little guy had been taking a dip and had been startled after noticing their presence.
Sarvesh, upon seeing the boy, lowered his hand which was holding the dagger.
The soldiers wanted to stop and convince or even plead with Sarvesh not to do anything to the boy. They could just capture him, and he wouldn’t leak any information. But, to their surprise, the unforgiving Sarvesh actually just gently ruffled the hair of the little boy.
"Inquire about the boy’s family and the village," Sarvesh commanded.
The soldiers, still surprised and dumbstruck by Sarvesh’s actions, quickly realized his orders and approached the boy. The boy, still scared, revealed everything about the village and his family. After gathering this detail, Sarvesh surprisingly ordered them to go to the village.
When they arrived at the village, they received inquisitive glances due to their obviously unusual clothes and the weapons they carried. As the news passed around, the village chief was alerted, and the old man quickly got up from his sleep and ran to the street to et with Sarvesh and his crew.
"Lord, we are only a small village on the outskirts of Ahdabad. What can we do for you?" the village chief inquired.
"We will stay here for a few hours. The only thing everyone in this village should do is not leave until we say so," Sarvesh commanded with authority. The village chief hesitated to follow the command and was unwilling. "But this... Lord," he began, expressing his concerns.
His words stopped abruptly when Sarvesh pulled out his talwar, obviously stained with a lot of blood, and pointed it at his throat. "Aye old man, this is not a request."
*Gulp*
The old man, being threatened, finally chose to give in. Although the thugs who frequently ca to the village threatened him sotis, he could tell that they did not actually an it. But looking into the guy’s eyes who pointed the sword at his neck, he knew that this guy ant it 100 per cent, and he would do what he said. So, he had no choice but to give in.
*Neigh*
A horse’s neigh was heard, and a person was quickly trying to get out of the village. Sarvesh realized that this could be a Mughal Guard who had stayed in the village.
Before it was too late, Sarvesh acted. He swiftly snatched the bow from one of his crew mbers, pulled the string, and launched the arrow. All within a few seconds.
"Shoo"
The arrow cut through the air and accurately hit the man on his shoulder. The man lost his balance and fell down, while the horse just kept running and eventually slowed down, proceeding to graze the grass in the fields.
"Ah, Dad!"
To their surprise, the boy they t earlier ended up being the son of the man who was just shot. They did know that his father worked as the security guard of the village, but they were just unaware that this guard worked for the Mughal Empire. If not, why would he run away as soon as the commander said not to leave the village?
Anyway, Sarvesh went closer and pulled the man by his collar, asking, "Why did you try to run? Where were you going? To inform the Mughals? Are you their dog?"
The villagers exclaid in shock as one of their own was shot by an arrow. Although they were furious, they could do nothing but watch as the soldiers tightly guarded the injured man and unsheathed their weapons. No one in the village dared to try anything with the soldiers present.
*Ah!*
The man was still in pain, constantly rolling on the ground and screaming loudly. Hearing his dad scream in pain, the little boy also panicked, tears running down his eyes. "Dad! Dad, don’t do anything to him!" Despite this, Sarvesh forcefully pushed the boy aside, causing him to fall down and scrape his elbows on the ground.
Seeing his son being abruptly pushed away, the man montarily regained so clarity. His face was panicked and desperate, afraid that sothing had happened to his son. He quickly crawled forward towards Sarvesh. His left arm was drenched in blood, but still, he managed to hold onto Sarvesh’s legs with his bloody hands and started to beg, "Lord, I beg of you, please spare my son.
He’s the sole remaining child I have. My wife has passed away, and he’s all I have left. Please, take in his place."
Sarvesh felt conflicted By the man’s sentint but still asked with the sa stern and emotionless expression, "Answer my question, or else both of you will die. Were you going to inform the Mughals of our arrival? Are you their lackey?"
Hearing the question, the man was surprised. He montarily looked at the man who was around his age in confusion. "If you are asking this question, sir, are you not from the Mughal Empire?"
Sarvesh was taken aback by this question. Looking at the man who was looking at him with a confused expression, he did not know what to make of it. "Why do you ask?"
The man finally confird that he had gotten it wrong. "Sir, I am deeply sorry. I might have misunderstood you. I thought you were gangsters from one of the factions that usually co to our village. If I knew you were not from the empire, I would have welcod you with open arms."
Taking his hands off the legs of Sarvesh, he joined them together to make a namaskara as an apology.
Sarvesh was even more confused now. "What are you talking about?"
The man explained, his anger almost overwhelming his pain as he clenched his teeth. "Sir, it’s like this. Due to our village being in the centre of the river, Which also coincidentally happens to be the centre of the Ahmadabad city at its southern edge, there are two regions in the city which claim the taxation rights on us.
Unfortunately, Diwan does not care about this small issue, so he lets the people under him settle it among themselves."
The man’s face beca sad again. "After the decision made by the Diwan, both regions that claid to have the taxation rights over our village colluded with each other and made a pact. According to this pact, which we have guessed already when it is ti to collect the tax, only one party collects it at a ti.
But the other party secretly funds so goons and sends them to our village to extort money by force."
"Because of this, our village, which was fairly affluent because of its strategic position, beca poorer and poorer, and the population has been reducing constantly. Usually, the goons do not cause too much trouble; they extort the money and leave.
But sotis they do too much and try to defile the won of the village." When he said this part, he had tears in his eyes as he stroked his son’s head, who had co to hug him.
"In these occasions, usually I go to inform the lord who was responsible for collecting the tax this year so that they could at least drive away these goons. Because, at least on the bright side, no local lord will collude with the goons.
So, I misunderstood your Excellency and your crew to be these goons, and you were bringing out the sword directly stained with blood, I thought you were one of those unreasonable ones."
Sarvesh finally understood what was going on, and the people in his crew were also saddened to hear about this news. Moreover, now that they noticed the condition of the village, it was very downtrodden.
Even though they could see so houses built with stone, indicating that the owners of these houses were very affluent, unfortunately, judging by how these houses had fallen into disrepair and ill-maintenance, it could be seen that the monetary condition of this village had beco very dire.
With the misunderstanding resolved, the man was released and swiftly attended to by one of the dics in Sarvesh’s crew. Sensing no imdiate danger in the village, Sarvesh decided to rest until the attack on the main fortress, spearheaded by Ramayya Senapati and Narasimha Nayak started.
In the anti, he tasked the boy, who still harboured hatred over injuring his father, to contact the Bharathiya External Pragya’s informant. With so convincing and bribing from his soldiers, the boy, whose na was Gajendra, reluctantly agreed. With the boy cooperating, Sarvesh instructed him to reach a specific place in the city and perform a sequence of hand signals, and that was it.
Within 40 minutes of the information reaching the Bharatiya External Pragya, the whole intelligence network in the city of Ahdabad ca alive. Suddenly, two carriages were transported to the village in absolute secrecy after forging the docunts.
Sarvesh, looking at the supplies, was very happy. They contained flintlocks, muskets, grenades, combat gear like armour, iron-reinforced boots, helts, and more.
Along with that, he had also gotten a bundle of detailed information about the situation in Ahdabad. He couldn’t help but be amazed at how thorough this information was.
"I never knew this guy Roshan was so powerful," Sarvesh muttered to himself.
It had already been a few hours since the crew had rested in the village. They had eaten and were ready to go. The fatigue from last night was almost suppressed by the excitent of battle.
*BOOM BOOM*
A smile ran across Sarvesh’s face as soon as he heard the bombardnt of the cannons starting. He could not mistake this sound; it was the distinct sound of the 30KG calibre giant cannon of the Dakshin Bharatiya Empire.
"Suit up," Sarvesh ordered in a low voice.
The soldiers who were resting suddenly were alerted upon hearing the order. "Yes, sir!" They shouted in unison.
Boots, jackets, armour, swords, guns, helts—everything was put on in clockwork like a perfectly tuned machine. The soldiers were ready and standing in formation within five minutes.
Sarvesh was no exception as he stood in front of them fully ard.
*shing* *shing*
He slowly sheathed the two bloody talwars in their holsters at his back.
His eyes were bright, and his determination to fight was burning. His aura was very strong, and it affected his soldiers. They began to notice the rise of their confidence and morale; their hearts were beating fast, waiting for the battle.
"Let’s go kick so ass," Sarvesh said with a smile on his face.
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