Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 1244: WW1: Balkan Attack (4)

15th March 1706

Plovdiv, Slavic Byzantium, European Union

The sky was calm and cloudless, while the wind was a little chilly, carrying a hint of winter, as if it were the lingering essence, or a quiet sigh of the frost that refuses to dissipate under the morning sun.

Commander Rudra Bhalachandra stood a few hundred metres from the foot of a large hill, his beard and clothes rustling as he looked up. His eyes carried a hint of apprehension, but it was soon replaced by determination, and even a bit of stubbornness.

He walked back into the barracks and simply sat on the main seat, his eyes intently focused on the overhead map of Plovdiv, while the person from the research and analysis wing continued to brief the lieutenant generals as well as the major generals about the city.

"Plovdiv is a city built directly on and around several syenite rock hills, rising abruptly in the Thracian Plain. Some of these hills are a few dozen metres high, while others can go upward to a hundred to two hundred metres. The hill a few hundred metres from here, at two o’clock, is one of such hills."

"Each one of the hills functions as a natural citadel, with the ancient Thracians and later the Macedonians further fortifying the three central hills, calling it Trimontum, an almost impenetrable acropolis."

"And at its rear, the Maritsa River, called in ancient times as Hebros, acts as a natural moat around the city as it curves on its outer edges. So flanking the enemy is out of the question. Not to mention, it is surrounded by open plains, so for the city, which is in a higher geographical position, If in case we attack from the rear, our entire army will be clearly visible."

"This is arguably one of the strongest defensive sites in the entire region of the Balkan, and the ancient Romans, Byzantines, Bulgarians, and even the recent Ottomans all recognised its strategic value and had made it one of their primary military fortresses."

"This fortress has been conquered very few times. The Ottomans under Murad I took it in 1364, largely by exploiting political weakness in the Bulgarian Tsardom and not by storming the hills. In fact, when the Russian Empire launched an attack on the Ottoman Empire, they did a similar thing. They used riots within the city, as well as the chaos among the military leaders, in order to get the position. And even when King Dmitry Alexanderwich Romanov took over the city, he did it by purchasing the loyalty of the military leader who was in charge, in exchange for a noble title."

"But that doesn’t mean this city is unconquerable. It is one of the cities where humans have existed for at least six to seven thousand years. Who knows how many times it has been attacked, but a few notable instances where the attackers came out victorious include Philip II of Macedon in 342 BC, Trajan’s campaigns in the 1st–2nd century AD, Krum of Bulgaria in 812 AD, the Crusaders in 1189, and some more. So it is definitely possible for our army to take over the city by force."

Then he went on to elaborate on the plan Rudra had come up with.

Rudra, who had been sitting without moving an inch, finally stood up. He let out a deep breath and clenched his fist. He made the decision to go through with the plan, no matter what.

"Move out!"

With his order, the entire army boiled over, and the army, organised in regiments forming a clean formation, marched forward towards the large hill.

As soon as the army approached the hill, the enemy started to fire cannonballs, one salvo after another, along with a crossfire net of bullets.

"War tractors onward," he ordered.

Soon, the heavy infantry that was leading the army parted and opened up a huge path, like a landmass split apart by a canyon. From within the opened path, huge, monstrous metal beasts rolled forward, their bodies gleaming under the morning sun, radiating a shimmering glow, making the heartbeats of all the soldiers witnessing the behemoths rolling past rise uncontrollably.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

Unfortunately, the bombardment from above continued without a pause and the war tractors started to take heavy damage without even having the chance to fight back.

on top of the hill

"Fire, keep firing. Aren’t these **** known for using tactics where the enemy has no way to fight back? Now let them taste their own medicine, hahahah... fire!" Rostovski laughed like a maniac, feeling supreme satisfaction every time a cannonball hit those metal lumps on the ground.

The smell of blood soon permeated the foot of the hill, and the colour on the faces of the soldiers turned white. This was the first time they had suffered such a loss. Their eyes were filled with disbelief as they witnessed the mighty war tractors being bombarded without resistance. But Rudra did not change his expression. Pain could be seen in the depths of his eyes, yet he was simply too determined, and his heart too hard.

"Any time now," he muttered, his eyes becoming more focused as he saw some of the war tractors, despite the abuse, slowly rolling forward with a stubbornness far beyond ordinary.

In the end, out of the thirty to forty war tractors that advanced, only four or five made it to the wall of the hill.

Rudra knew the losses would be massive, but it still pained him. The people in those war tractors were not only the tractor operators but also commandos, so in one move alone, one hundred and fifty commandos had died, with only twenty or so surviving.

Rudra’s eyes were bloodshot, but he kept his will firm. "The second batch onward."

Hearing the order, the lieutenant general took a big gulp, and only then gritted his teeth and left to mobilise the second war tractor unit.

The second war tractor unit had not seen what happened to the first unit, so they were not resistant to the order. But when they approached the vicinity of the hill and saw the wrecks of the war tractors scattered everywhere, along with bloodstreams throughout the field, their hearts palpitated. At the same time, the thought of retreat arose, but unfortunately, they were not given the chance, as the bombardment from above came as if to inform them that their path had been cut off, and their only chance of living was onward.

In this way, four batches advanced, and a total of thirty-two war tractors made it to the wall, with around one hundred and thirty commandos still alive.

Rudra looked like a devil, his expression filled with unbridled rage barely contained by reason. This was the first time he had lost so many troops, and what was more humiliating was that he had to give the order himself, knowing very well that most of them would not survive.

But the deaths so far were enough; the time had come. He would make sure that their deaths were worth it, and that their sacrifices would have meaning, that they would be used for a greater good.

"Mobilise the heavy infantry, rotate towards three o’clock, and advance through the main path."

As his order was passed, the heavy infantry marched away from the vicinity of the hill, which caused Rostovsky to laugh with unbridled arrogance and smugness.

"Look at these cowards. Take away their shiny toys. What are they? Nothing but helpless boys waiting to be slaughtered by men, hahaha."

He laughed and celebrated for a full ten minutes, and finally came to his senses and ordered, "It looks like the idiots are going to try to besiege the hill directly. Have the guys in the front prepare, set up the traps and arm the cannons. Let’s bloodbath these Bharathias some more, I want a lake of blood formed by these overpopulated monkeys."

"Yes, sir, but sir, isn’t it suspicious that they used war tractors to simply approach the wall at the foot of the hill? Could they have some sneaky plans?"

Rostovski narrowed his eyes and fell into deep thought. He had indeed thought about this as well, but he could not figure out what the Bharatiya Army wanted to do. Given that barely any war tractors survived, he felt that maybe the enemy’s initial plan had failed, but still, it was good to be prepared.

"Pour oil all over the edge at the rear and keep a few barrels of oil in stock. If the Bharatiyas try to climb the hill and attack from the rear, we can use this oil to burn them alive before they can even get closer."

"An excellent suggestion, sir. I will get it done very quickly."

"Yes, you do that."

Soon, the sound of gunfire and cannon bombardment began to be heard at the front of the hill, where a small path led to the top. At the foot, the heavy infantry of the Bharatiya Army was advancing one step at a time, but it was made very hard by the narrow path and the continuous offensive of the enemy. The Europeans were relentless. They might not have the advanced weaponry of the Bharatiya Empire, but they had a large stock of simple yet powerful cannonballs that could wipe out several dozen Bharatiya troops at a time, making it a slaughter like never before.

The matter of the rear was eventually forgotten.

In this way, several days passed. Nearly two thousand Bharatiya troops were lost without even laying a finger on the enemy, but Rudra, in response, had grown calmer and less impatient, while his eyes and temperament had become much sharper than before.

"It’s time," he muttered.

As if it were a trigger, the one hundred and thirty commandos who had been hugging the wall at the foot of the hill for the last few days finally started to act.

They used their equipment and slowly began to climb, one foot at a time.

An advantage they had was that the foot of the hill was in a concave shape, so although this made it harder to climb and required immense strength, it provided a natural cover against any sort of offensive attacks carried out by the enemy.

The whole day passed as all one hundred and thirty commandos hung at the outer edge of the concave with bated breath. It was midnight, and the commandos, their eyes blazing with hatred, immediately began their action.

They did not try to climb the hill any further. Instead, they took out small grenade launchers from their bodies and raised them upward, aiming directly at the edge of the hill.

The grenades flew in an arc several dozen metres and slowly landed within the edge of the fortified, citadel-like formation.

"Boom!"

The grenades exploded with a loud, deafening roar, and the oil barrels kept only a few feet away from the edge ignited simultaneously, making the explosion much more powerful and immediately taking out hundreds of soldiers who were sleeping in the nearby barracks.

The commandos looked at each other and tactically began to move their bodies, finally taking out the hooks and wedges and climbing at the swiftest speed possible.

Rostovski was startled on hearing the loud explosion coming from the rear. A bad feeling rose in his chest, and he immediately ran to see what had happened. But when he saw the barracks caught on fire, with his soldiers burned alive in their sleep, his eyes turned bloodshot, and his fury became boundless.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!" he roared like a wounded beast and immediately pulled out the rifle that hung on his back.

Right behind him, the alerted soldiers followed, their faces filled with fear, anger, and hatred.

Rostovski motioned for a soldier to take a look and see how many enemies they were dealing with, but as soon as the soldier peeked, his head exploded like a pierced watermelon, the blood turning into mist, and the body, with the neck gushing blood like a fountain, fell down with a plop.

There was absolute silence for a few seconds, until a barrage of gunshots rang out, and figures, like superheroes, jumped to the edge of the cliff and began to indiscriminately shoot in all directions.

The single-firing rifles of the Europeans were no match for the multi-shot rifles of the Bharatiya Empire.

The commandos had no clue that they had inadvertently killed the leader of the citadel, but it did not matter. They were like an arrow that had been shot; there was no going back. Gunfire rained on them, several were injured, and several, unfortunately, died, but there were still over a hundred commandos with battle capabilities. Without wasting any time, everyone began to bring out individual parts, which were then assembled by a large man into a small machine gun.

Two whole chains, each weighing over twenty kilogrammes, were taken from the bodies of their dead comrades, and the large commando advanced with the machine gun blazing.

"Brrrrr!"

The machine gun was like a reaper of souls. It completely obliterated the Europeans who tried to get closer, leaving them no chance to resist, and catching them completely off guard. The damage the sneak attack dealt was unprecedented.

Rudra, looking at the flaming citadel at the top of the hill, his eyes blazed with fire, and he roared, "Advance, advance, advance!"

His boundless anger amplified his voice, filling the troops with unstoppable energy.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

The Europeans were butchered ruthlessly, with no chance to fight back, and the fourth command took over one of the major hills surrounding Plovdiv, with the citadel remaining relatively intact.