June 17th, 1656
Capital City: Venice, The Venetian Republic
Giovanni Morosini was extrely surprised after receiving the war report from the Bharatiya Empire. According to the report, the Bharatiya Empire, which was their partner, had successfully occupied three prominent regions of the Mughal Empire’s territory.
Although this was indeed a piece of surprising news due to how fast the pace of the war was, what surprised Giovanni Morosini more was the sheer scale of the war.
’Nearly three million troops’. Giovanni repeated the numbers multiple tis as he was too overwheld with the figure. You know, Adding up all the people in the territory the Venetian Republic controlled, the population would not exceed 5 million, yet their partner in the subcontinent dared to utilize nearly 1.5 million troops in a war of annihilation.
What’s more, from the report, he could see that the military technology of Bharat was continuing to rise steadily. For example, innovations and inventions like hydraulic machine tools, Brown Bess rifles, Hasta Dwani hand cannons, culverins, Puckle guns, land mines, ploughs, printing machines, and shipbuilding technologies—all had improved by leaps and bounds.
With this data alone, Giovanni imdiately ca to the conclusion that the Bharatiya Empire, with whom they cooperated, had beco sothing not anyone could provoke. At least according to his estimation, if they wanted to breach the Bharatiya Empire, the British, the Spanish, the Dutch, and the Portuguese would have to join hands together and launch a strategic assault.
As for whether it was feasible? Unless the Bharatiya Empire actively provoked or targeted the interests of these naval forces on a large scale, the coalition would not be ford.
Coming to this conclusion, Giovanni Morosini imdiately called out, "Guards, send my request for the arrival of His Excellency Marco Molin and His Excellency Antonio Erizzo."
A few hours later, the Patriarch of the Molin family, Marco Molin, and the Patriarch of the Erizzo family, Antonio Erizzo, arrived at the Parliant of Venice.
*Thud*
Giovanni passed over the copy of the docunts to the two gentlen.
Marco and Antonio looked at each other in doubt receiving the docunts, but soon they put their doubts aside and got imrsed in the reports.
However the content of the report was sothing that they had never would have expected, The more they read, the more shocked they beca, and the more their mouths dropped, especially after seeing the statistics of 3 million people overall fighting in the war.
They knew what this concept ant. It ant that if Bharat and they were neighbours, their country would be overrun and occupied without even having a chance of resistance.
"Fortunately, there is an ocean dividing us," they thought.
However, their surprise did not end there. Looking at all the new innovations and inventions that have been implented in the war, Antonio, who is nominally the naval admiral of the Republic, although not well versed in the tactics of the army, couldn’t help but shudder.
It could be seen that in this war, which is being fought in the subcontinent, the core of the attack has already shifted from cold weapons to hot weapons, and the strength of even the Mughal Empire, the weaker party, has undergone earth-shaking changes, much less the Bharatiya Empire, which has pioneered new innovations and inventions.
Marco, although he did not know much about military strategy, looked at the reports and felt his head go numb. He could only ask weakly, "Your Excellency Doge, is this true? But how did we get hold of this information? We don’t have a spy network in the Bharatiya Empire, do we?"
Giovanni Morosini nodded his head and stated, "Well, this report is authentic as it ca directly from the embassy, so there is no need for any doubt regarding the source of the information. As for more details, although we do not have intelligence channels within the Bharatiya Empire as we do in Europe, there is no problem getting to know the general information that is widespread."
"For example, all the weapons and innovations you have read in the report, although we do not know how they work and what their principles are, we do know of their existence, and this is a fact. So, by further inquiring a little from so higher-level military leaders by so ans, we got to know their specifications."
"As for detailed design drawings, even though we could not get in contact with the manufacturers, we could, however, get in contact with the low-level workers. Unfortunately, even this yielded minimal results, as the workers are only responsible for a small part of the production. Hence, we could not obtain the complete design drawings of these weapons. Fortunately, all was not lost.
From the information we gathered, we can get a vague outline of the weapons. It should be possible to absorb these new innovations within a year."
Giovanni’s face was confident as he said this.
Seeing the confidence in the Doge’s face, Marco and Antonio were confused, not because they did not believe him, but because they still did not know why they were called.
"Since everything is going according to the plan, then what can we do for you, Your Excellency?"
Giovanni imdiately realized that he had not inford them of the reason they were summoned, so he put on an apologetic expression and explained, "Oh, sorry, looks like I got a little sidetracked. Yes, I am thinking about furthering our cooperation with the Dakshin Bharatiya Empire, and I need the cooperation of both of you."
Marco and Antonio were still confused as they could not understand what they could do, but they patiently waited.
"Your Excellency Marco, among all the families in the nation, it is your family that has the most contact with the Bharatiya Empire thanks to the Shivaji Shipyard under your control, so please take a look at this."
Giovanni passed over a design drawing.
"This is the design drawing for the Pune-class battleship produced by the Bharatiya Empire in the Shivaji Shipyard, in which your family has the largest stake."
"So I request Your Excellency to contact your son, Francis Molin, to act as an interdiary to negotiate with the Bharatiya Governnt for the sale of this ship modified for the diterranean Sea."
Antonio’s eyes imdiately lit up as he could understand the thought process of His Excellency the Doge. However, Marco was not the sa.
He was taken aback. "But Your Excellency, don’t we have our own shipyards? Why do we have to buy ships from the subcontinent?"
This ti Marco was really confused. Although the Venetian Republic had beco less dominant in the naval industry over the past few years, they were still at the absolute top echelon in the world when it ca to shipbuilding. Now why do they have to buy warships from the subcontinent?
Giovanni did not reply but stared at Antonio.
Antonio, knowing the reason for the stare, quickly spoke out.
"Well, Your Excellency, your Molin family is mostly involved in administration, so you might not know."
"Although we do not have a problem with shipbuilding, our problem is with the speed of construction and the cost of the ships. In recent years, even though we have been fighting a war with the Ottoman Empire, we have not been able to keep up with their naval construction speed due to their huge scale. Hence, we have had to rent and lease man-of-war battleships from other countries at a high cost.
So I think what His Excellency is suggesting is that buying ships from the Bharatiya Empire is both cost and ti-effective. Isn’t that right, Your Excellency?"
Giovanni nodded his head and replied, "What His Excellency the admiral said is true. It is exactly this consideration that gave this idea. Although the cheap weapons we procured from the Dakshin Bharatiya Empire gave us an advantage in land warfare, due to our naval capabilities not being able to catch up, we were not able to decisively strike at the Ottoman Empire’s pain points."
Marco had an expression of enlightennt as he finally understood the ins and outs behind the decision. He imdiately beca happy as the investnt he made, only hoping for large profits, had started to beco a gold mine.
If this deal goes through, it is foreseeable that his family will gain a lot of fa and fortune. Being as how the Shivaji Shipyard could fully manufacture the Pune-class battleship, it is expected that most of the orders would go to the Pune shipyard under the family’s shareholding.
But his happiness was fleeting as he asked worriedly, "Your Excellency, what you said is true, but could you please let know what the price of a Pune-class battleship could cost? And given that the Dakshin Bharatiya Empire is so far away, is it worth it?
Even though the manufacturing is faster, what if the travel ti is more than the difference between the construction tis of Europe and Bharat?"
Giovanni understood this math, and only after he did so, did he take this decision. "Antonio, what is the cost of a man-of-war battleship if we build it, and how long will it take?"
Antonio did so calculations in his mind and replied, "Your Excellency, for a man-of-war battleship of the sa scale as the Pune class, it could range anywhere from 9,000 ducats to 11,000 ducats. As for the ti, it could range anywhere between 10 to 18 months, depending on various circumstances."
Giovanni nodded, but with a smile on his face, he said sothing that absolutely exceeded the expectations of Marco and Antonio.
P.S. Thank you I_am_truck_kun for Ice cola
P.S. Thank you its_a_joke for Ice cola*5
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