December 6th, 1655
The region of Baluchistan, on the frontier of the Mughal Empire, the city of Khuzdar
The city of Khuzdar has beco unusually active. The people had panicked expressions on their faces as they ran back to their hos, while what looked to be soldiers rushed towards the city wall.
An invader, who was not among the known tribes of Balochistan, had attacked their city.
Surprisingly, the enemy carried weapons that threw tal eggs, and these tal eggs exploded on impact.
Due to this, an ergency eting was held within the tribal council of Lashari.
"Sardar, who do you think the enemy is?" Farzan Lashari, one of the elders of the Lashari tribe, questioned the old man sitting in the middle of the table. Not because he is the leader but because he is the oldest one among them at 73 years of age, and his experience in life is greatly valued.
Sardar Lashari thought for a mont and replied, "They are not from any tribe that I know of, and I don’t even think they are from the Mughal Empire. Their dressing style does not even remotely match that of the Mughal Empire." His face beca thoughtful, his hand stroking his chin. "I might have a clue where they are from, but I am not completely sure."
Hearing this, everyone in the eting was curious as they stared at the old man, urging him to quickly solve their doubts.
The old man could feel the urging of his colleagues, so he did not hide it and responded, "50 years ago, when all of you were still kids, there was a person I t who said that he would travel and explore throughout the Mughal Empire. However, when he ca back 20 years later, he also said that he had been to an empire called the Vijayanagar Empire on the southern side of the Mughal Empire.
From what my friend described the empire and their dressing attire, I suspect these invaders today are probably from the Vijayanagar Empire since their dress is quite a bit similar to what my friend described."
Everyone was taken aback, as they could have never expected that it was not any of the neighbours they should have been wary about, but a distant empire in the southern part of the subcontinent, which didn’t even have a connection with them by land.
"So, Sardar, you are saying that these people are invading through the sea?" Bhaktihar Lashari asked, finding the idea unbelievable.
Hearing Bhaktihar’s words, Sardar did not hesitate and replied, "If I’m not mistaken, that is exactly what has happened." As soon as he uttered these words, the four council mbers had different expressions on their faces. Seeing the unbelievable and suspicious expressions of those in front of him, Sardar, who was already old, got irritated and retorted, "Hey, you all, do you think I am lying?
You all grew up in this isolated city and don’t know much about the world because the city is not near a larger water body like a river that leads to the sea, and because of that, you do not know much about shipbuilding technology, Which in turn isolates your thinking to the areas surrounding the city and nothing further.
So what do you know about the world?" With a sigh, he continued, lowering his tone, "Even 50 years ago, when my friend travelled the subcontinent, he told that the Mughal Empire had ships that could traverse the Arabian Sea. So 50 years later, I am sure that there are bigger ships that can travel larger distances."
Hearing this, the tribal chiefs cald down, realizing that the background of their invader had beco too unfathomable for them to handle. The strongest opponent they had faced in their lifeti was the Rind tribe, a cousin tribe, with whom they fought a 30-year war. Fortunately, they won that war due to better managent, but now the opposition was a whole empire.
They wondered if they could survive.
"Sardar, do you think the Mughal Empire will send so reinforcents?" Gulzar Lashari, another tribal chief, asked with so hope. "We are theoretically part of the Mughal Empire anyway."
Hearing this, everyone’s faces lit up with sudden realization as they stared at the old man with hope. However, the answer they got left them disappointed. "That is very unlikely to happen. They shouldn’t even know that we are being currently attacked ."
"How is that possible?" they exclaid, their eyes widened. Discussions broke out soon after.
Sardar shook his hand, motioning them to stop talking and allow him to continue. "Even we were not aware of the destruction of the Rind Tribe. How can the Mughal Empire know about what our small city has beco?"
"What! The Rind Tribe was destroyed? How? When?" Hamidullah Lashari suddenly exclaid, standing up from his seat. However, no one paid any attention to this disrespectful action, as they too had the sa doubt and had no ti to complain.
With a sigh, Sardar looked at their eyes, unable to help but let out a long breath. He sotis wondered how they even beca tribal chiefs with their intelligence. Reluctantly, he had to explain to these young tribal chiefs, "Can’t you people think a little?
Since our enemy is attacking from the sea and they have managed to reach Khuzdar, what do you think happened to Awaran city that is in between?"
Now that Sardar ntioned it, it suddenly hit them. That’s right, if anyone wants to attack them from the southern region, they will have to bypass the Rind Tribe first. And since the enemy has already reached their location, doesn’t it an that either the Rind Tribe has been completely annihilated or they have lost the battle and given up?
This made them feel happy. Even though it is an enemy that is attacking them, they have a better impression of this enemy.
"Then, Sardar, do you think we have to give up?"
This was indeed an option for everyone to consider because if the enemy was not malicious, it might not be a big deal to give up. They had given up before when the Mughal Empire invaded, as recorded in their history, So giving up again is not a big deal, as long as their way of life is not interfered with.
Sardar fell into deep thought for a mont and then asked, "How long can we resist the attack at the current rate things are progressing?"
Bhaktihar and Farzana, who were responsible for the security of the tribe, replied.
Farzana said, "We can resist for a week at most. The current firepower of the enemy, although those exploding eggs cannot destroy our walls in one go, still causes considerable damage, and the walls are being chipped away little by little."
Bhaktihar added, "We also tried to flank the enemy using the secret route to go out of the city, but unfortunately, they seem to have so sort of fire sticks that shoot tal pellets, eliminating our soldiers before they even have the chance to get close to the enemy."
Sardar fell into deep thought after hearing their replies. Seeing him pondering, everyone stayed silent, waiting for his response.
After a few minutes, Sardar replied, "Alright then. There is a week of ti left. See if we can gather support from other tribes in our surroundings. Although we quarrel on other days, these invaders should be considered an enemy of all the tribes in our region."
Hearing this, everyone thought it made sense, so they all nodded their heads and agreed.
On the other side of the wall...
Ramayya Senapati, who had reached the city of Khuzdar before daybreak, had already started the bombardnt a few hours ago. Currently, he was sitting in the recently constructed barracks overseeing the progress of the war.
With the help of Bharatiya Sainik Pragya, the surrounding areas had been mapped out completely. Hence, Ramayya had a small model map in front of him to visualize the battle.
*sigh*
Ramayya Senapati sighed for the tenth ti today. "It’s a pity that cannons could not be brought over," he said. Although Ramayya knew that it was highly improbable to travel with cannons in this terrain, he still couldn’t help but miss them.
With the help of the cannons, the siege of the city wall would have succeeded within the first day, instead of having to wait a whole week for even a breach to occur in the city wall of the enemy.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t even an informant in the Lashari tribe similar to the Rind tribe. The only information they had was provided by Raftaar, the intelligence asset of Bharatiya intelligence agencies, and the intel was unfortunately very outdated. The only thing that could be used was the terrain info.
Ramayya stared intently at the city wall as he leaned back into the chair, getting comfortable in his seat, and preparing for a long haul.
His only current wish was for the faster arrival of Commander Narasimha Nayak.
130 kilotres away...
Narasimha Nayak is rushing towards his destination with his troops as fast as possible. Currently, he has reached a town settlent called Nāg.
With his current pace, it should take another three days to reach Khuzdar.
December 6th, 1655
Dakshin Bharathiya Empire, Chera nadu State, Ramakkaldu
Vijay, after requesting Kavya to write a novel, visited the wind capital of the Empire, Ramakkaldu, for the third ti in the year. Despite knowing that his request could cause her a lot of emotional stress, Vijay couldn’t help it. He was also helpless, as he did not find anyone better suited to write the book on the Indore massacre other than Kavya.
Vijay only chose Kavya after going through multiple considerations. Firstly, she was very skilled in literature, although she didn’t let everyone know. Vijay, who knew her very well, could tell that she had excellent pen skills after witnessing the reports she wrote.
Secondly, as her kingdom was destroyed, Vijay felt that Kavya could relate to the main character in the novel quite a bit.
Finding the sa attributes already present in Kavya, in a woman residing in the Empire would require a resource-heavy search for a literate and trustworthy refugee who had escaped from the Mughal Empire, and had also gone through sowhat similar experiences to the character in the novel. Hence, Vijay did not want to go through such a long, botherso process and had Kavya write it anyway.
Thirdly, Kavya’s pregnancy actually made her more sensitive to people and emotions. Hence, although unwilling, Vijay felt that she should be able to convey these emotions very well.
*rumble*
*rumble*
*rumble*
The sounds of the printing machine suddenly woke Vijay up from his thoughts. Currently, Vijay is personally overseeing the printing of pamphlets destined to cause huge chaos in the Mughal Empire.
Due to the printing of pamphlets, a lot of resources had to be utilized, further stimulating the economy. The scale of printing this ti has reached millions of paper pamphlets, as Vijay decided to flood the Mughal Empire with propaganda.
Even though Vijay had asked Kavya to write a novel to spread the propaganda, he also ordered the printing of pamphlets. The reason for both being prepared was that Vijay considered that these two diums, pamphlets and novels, have two different audiences.
The pamphlets were for the common people and citizens of the Mughal Empire who might not know how to read, so a lot of imagery was included for this reason. And for the higher level literate people, in both the Bharatiya Empire and the Mughal Empire, Kavya’s book should suffice.
Vijay wants people in the subcontinent to know about what the Mughal Empire did with the Hindus, and he also wants to expose the atrocities of the Mughals which remain hidden from the public eye. He even considered whether to translate these books into European languages and sell them there. That way, the Mughal Empire’s image in the minds of common citizens of Europe might decrease drastically.
However, this had to wait until Kavya finished writing the book, and there was also the consideration of whether the Europeans would like the writing style and a story from the subcontinent.
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