It was winter, and the war in the European continent had once again co to a slow, trickling halt. In a blink of an eye, nearly two years passed since the Russo-Ottoman War started. The Ottomans were thoroughly humiliated with 4 constant defeats, with the losses of major fortresses like Budapest, Chișinău, Transylvania, and Azov. But, unfortunately, the continuous losses seed to have made hd IV, the emperor of the Ottoman Empire, mad with fury.
He beca tyrannical and butchered countless minorities in the Ottoman territory, Arnians, Jews, Romani, Greeks, Assyrians. It did not matter, as long as the minority possessed so wealth, he would wipe them all out.
The minority in the southern side and southeastern side luckily escaped as they ran into the Middle East, where they were resettled into the Persian and Lalishsthan kingdoms, but people in the north and west were very unlucky.
The money he gained from such atrocities was directly funneled into the war efforts, expanding the army of the Ottoman Empire to nearly 1.5 million troops, and as if that was not enough, the military industrial capabilities of the Ottoman Empire began to expand crazily, almost as if they were in a miniature industrial revolution of their own, but in only one sector of the economy. hd IV ordered workshops to be built and artisans to be trained to make all the guns and cannons.
Although he did not have the machinery like the Bharatiya Empire, he used the vast human resources he controlled to make it happen. In such a way, despite losing the four territories, with more than 30% of its army being equipped with firearms, and that is saying a lot, since the army is already in the millions, the Ottoman Empire has reached its strongest it has ever been.
Noticing these developnts, every European leader was startled by the madness shown by hd IV.
Even the Russians, who knew no fear in the face of death, did not make any hasty actions for the last 6 months, as the Ottomans defended their borders by fighting tooth and nail. In fact, the Ottomans almost recaptured Transylvania by their relentless efforts, but unfortunately for them and fortunately for the Russians as well as the Holy Roman Empire, the winter seed to be heavier this year, and even for the Ottomans, who have gone mad, fighting against the European winter is a jarring task.
Despite the Ottomans being stopped in their tracks due to the weather, the atmosphere in Moscow was not good.
Dmitri knew just how close he was to losing Transylvania. If it wasn't for the unexpected blizzard, the city would have been breached, and he would bear the infamy of losing a fortress as soon as it was conquered, and such a bla for him who had just taken the throne was never a good thing, especially not since he has a capable younger brother who seed to be getting more and more influential and powerful.
He imdiately needs a victory to safeguard his position and tighten his grip over the empire.
It is for this reason that he held a deliberation with his trusted nobleman to cope with the Ottomans' next offensive.
Mikhail got up and responded, "Your Majesty, if you ask , there is no need for us to already think of going on the defensive. In fact, we can once again take the offensive and march into the Ottoman territory." His words imdiately caused so nobles to scoff.
Ivan got up and directly refuted the words, "Mikhail, are you asking our troops to be butchered? Don't you see that the Ottoman bastards have already gone mad? Do you want us to go mad along with him, and sacrifice thousands of troops for every inch of land?"
"Although those grey animals don't an much, if too many of them die, who will we rule? The rocks? Or... perhaps do you suggest the trees?"
Ivan was very jealous of Mikhail. Ever since he signed the Corridor Agreent of Baku, his reputation among the noble circles in the empire had increased greatly, so great to the point of becoming one of the people who advise the emperor on various affairs.
Hearing the sharp rebuttal, Mikhail was not angry. He already knew that a lot of nobles were unhappy with him, but who could bla him for taking the opportunity, and who could bla him for having the foresight?
He calmly replied, completely ignoring Ivan
"Until now, we were able to fight the Ottomans due to the advanced weaponry. Before, we were able to equip even serfs going into the front line with so sort of a weapon, be it a musket or sothing else, but the winter has completely cut off our trade with the Bharatiya Empire due to Siberia being frozen over."
"Not to ntion the second-hand weapons sold by the Bharatiyas are proving to be extrely unreliable in the winter."
"A similar thing happened last year as well, which led to a situation where, as soon as winter ended, we had to go on the defensive to withstand the Ottoman onslaught until our arms supply resud."
"But let remind everyone that was in the past, when we had only one fast trade route. That's no longer the case. We now have a second arms channel from the Bharatiya Empire."
The realisation dawned on the nobles like a window paper being sliced open. However, like a bubble gum stuck on the shoelace, Ivan, who had been ignored, stood up and started to make trouble again, "Isn't the trade corridor supposed to be functional only after a few years? Why are you ntioning it now as if it is already ready? If that's really the case, I wonder why we had to make so much investnt."
The question imdiately drew the interest of all nobles and directed their gaze towards Mikhail.
Mikhail took everything in calmly and responded, "While it is true that the Bharat-Russian Economic Corridor is not completed yet, it does not stop us from using this trade route without it as well, because even if there are no proper roads from the Bharatiya Empire to the port in Baku or Amol, there are still mud paths between one town to another. Although this will take longer, transportation can still be done. We will be getting our shipnts exactly by this route, at least until the roads are laid down."
"Also keep in mind everyone that, unlike Europe, the Middle East and the Bharatiya Subcontinent don't have too harsh a winter, they can produce weapons year-round, and they could ship it year-round as well."
"I have received intelligence that the first shipnt of weapons has already left the frontier cities of the Bharatiya Empire. It should reach us in a few weeks."
"Before the war restarts, if we can amass a lot of weapons along with the weapons we already possess, I don't believe we cannot cut through the Ottoman defences like a knife cutting through butter."
"Please rember everyone, although hd IV is possessed by a devil and has more than a million and a half troops under his command, most of their troops are farrs who do not know how to properly wield the gun, not to ntion most of them are equipped with a sword, which requires more skill, that is obviously lacking."
"In this situation, if we feign our intentions by appearing to prepare for defence and then launch a sudden attack, I am confident we can advance as far as Wallachia or even Silistra."
"And this advantage will only continue to grow as the support of weapons from the Bharatiya Empire increases."
"Enough."
"I have heard enough."
Dmitri made a decision, "We will do as Mikhail suggested and increase the procurent of arms from the Bharatiya Empire through the Middle East."
After the eting, Dmitri imdiately summoned the top generals in the army for a eting. He was going to convey what Mikhail suggested about the offensive plan.
While all of this was going on in the Russian Empire, a breakthrough had been made in the Bharatiya Academy of Civilian Sciences.
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A middle-aged man rushed out of his laboratory with ssy hair, holding what seed to be a fabric in his hands. As soon as the people in the corridor saw this man coming towards them, they all ran to the wall as if they were avoiding a skunk.
The middle-aged man did not care about the weird glances the researchers and interns were giving him. He continued to run excitedly towards the end of the corridor as if his life depended on it.
The man's na is Tarun Chawla. He is a chemical researcher in the Bharatiya Academy of Civilian Sciences, a person researching different fabrics and how they react with different chemicals.
The reason why he is so excited is because he has finally succeeded in creating a fabric that has tensile strength exceeding 1500 kanda/ter, a strength that is able to bear inhuman weights. But his excitent stemd not from his research alone, but from what his research signified.
A few years ago, he tead up with fellow researchers Rishabh Ghosh and Neelesh Bhatia to produce a hot air balloon capable of carrying humans.
It was actually Rishabh Ghosh who brought the idea forward. He could still rember the fateful day when he was minding his own business and Rishabh Ghosh burst into his laboratory like a special forces soldier.
"Mr Tarun, what is the strongest fabric you can currently produce? What is its tensile strength?" he asked. At the ti, Tarun was very panicked due to the sudden appearance of a fat middle-aged man, so when the question was asked, he unconsciously responded, "It is a fabric titled QAZ 05, it is a variant of hemp mixed with jute and other chemicals. As for its tensile strength, it is around 700 khand/ter."
Rishabh, whom he thought was strange at that ti, frowned and asked a question that made him dumbfounded, "Is there a fabric that can withstand 1500 khand/ters?"
Tarun was confused by the question, and more importantly, he was curious why the fat man would require a fabric that can withstand the pressure of 1500 khand/ters?
So when he asked why he wanted such a fabric, the answer he gave completely conquered him.
"To make humans fly."
At that ti, he was completely speechless and unable to put a word out, so he couldn't ask how he was planning to do that or anything, but the fat man continued to speak as if his mouth was powered by a steam engine.
"Didn't the military use the hot balloons to drop intelligence letters and sotis even bombs into the enemy territory during the unification war? After the unification wars, these hot balloons did not see any use elsewhere, but I figured out that if the balloons are large enough and the amount of volu is large enough, it will be able to tip the coefficient of the total density of the whole balloon with respect to the human body."
"So if my calculations are correct, if I am able to produce a large balloon, give it so energy from below in the form of hot air, humans can really fly."
"I did model tests already, it works, but the problem always appeared at the fabric and the burner. I have already found a researcher who is willing to help with the burner, but I need a fabric capable of withstanding 1500 khand/ter of force, or else the balloon is not going to go up, and even if it does, it is not safe."
That was all. After that day, he, who had until then been working simply to produce a variety of interesting fabrics out of curiosity, without any specific goal, began working with a purpose: to create a fabric that could carry humans into the sky.
From that day onwards, he, Neelesh Bhatia, and Rishabh Ghosh wholeheartedly dedicated themselves to building a hot air balloon that could make human flight possible.
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