Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 1246: WW1: Balkan Attack (6)

Warsaw, Polish Lithuanian Kingdom

In front of the elderly man, a group of people had knelt down with both knees touching the ground, crying bitterly, their faces filled with remorse.

"We have lost, your Highness, we have truly lost the kingdom."

"His Highness Alexander has been captured as well, my king; the hateful Bharatiyas have already imprisoned him."

"It’s all the fault of the Borisov family, my liege; they are the very ones who betrayed the kingdom and captured His Highness, Alexander. They deserve to be stripped naked in public and then beheaded with a sickle."

The voices, one after another, showcased a plethora of emotions ranging from deep sadness, anger, and fury to utter desperation, but the old man, his eyes clouded and unfocused, had almost no reaction at all. The only real proof that the man was even paying attention was in his slightly trembling hands, his faintly quivering lips, and his eyes, which, although showing no movement, had slowly begun to moisten.

The old man was none other than the eldest son of Alexis I, the late emperor of the Russian Empire, Dmitri Alexandrovich Romanov.

Due to Slavic Byzantine being a part of the European Union, and since it had been deliberately chosen as a meatshield against the advancing Bharatiya forces, the support it received from the European Union was naturally not small. Although this support did not come in the form of industrial resources, the union still provided a considerable amount of ordnance and ammunition, and along with that, it even extended protection to the royal family. In the event that the kingdom was lost, the royal family could take shelter in any member kingdom of the union, and once the kingdom was eventually reclaimed, the throne would be returned to them.

This was precisely the reason Dimitri had been shifted to Warsaw in the Polish Lithuanian kingdom. In fact, his son Alexander should have accompanied him as well, but now that he had gradually begun to lose his senses, he remained king in name only, and everyone had already started to regard his son as the new king. In such a situation, how could he possibly control him? His son, who had been confident from a very young age and tended to take things far too simply, had naturally chosen to stay behind to defend his kingdom with his misplaced sense of bravery.

John II Casimir Vasa and his successor, Jakub Stanislaw Zamoyski, stood silently as they looked at this scene from the other side of the door, unable to help but let out a quiet sigh.

"A man who was once supposed to inherit the mighty Russian tsardom has now become like this; perhaps this truly is fate." Casimir Vasa slowly shook his head and turned around. He had originally come here with his successor to console Dimitri, but now, upon seeing this, he could clearly tell that the person he had come looking for was, in a sense, no longer alive.

As he walked away, his determination to defend Polish Lithuania, no matter the cost, only continued to grow stronger.

UGSR, Military logistics headquarters

Vijay was routinely going through the inventory data and warehouse logs, but he was disturbed by one of his assistants.

"Your Majesty, the new king of Slavic Byzantine has been brought over."

Hearing the message, Vijay’s eyes lit up, and he became alert. But then, thinking about something, he asked, "Have you gotten a response from the Romanov family?"

"We have, your Majesty. His Excellency Peter has requested to redeem his nephew and asked us to name our price."

’Just as I expected,’ Vijay muttered quietly. He had already guessed such a thing would happen, and it was not a hard guess either. He knew his in-laws very well; he had an almost obsessive desire to expand his empire. Although this desire had smoothed out with age, Vijay could tell that those desires were still hidden in his heart, so when an opportunity came before him where he could rightfully claim the throne of Slavic Byzantium, which could not only be directly assimilated with the Russian Empire but also used as a buffer against Western Europeans with almost no cost, Vijay believed that Peter would not miss it at all.

As for looking at the familial affection of uncle and nephew, he would simply laugh.

After briefly considering what price to demand, he got an idea to make it look like Russia was siding with the Bharatiya Empire and made a decision.

"There’s no need to demand too much," he said, stroking his chin with a faint smirk before continuing, "simply request that the Russian Empire sell us 10,000 tonnes of processed iron in exchange, that would be more than enough."

"I will relay your orders, your Majesty. Also, sir, Commander Kartik has asked what should be done with the Borisov family."

"Hmm," Vijay pondered for a few seconds before arriving at a decision. "Although what they did was dishonourable, in the end, they saved us a great deal of time, energy, resources, and lives. More importantly, they handed over such a valuable bargaining chip, so it would not be entirely fair of us to treat them harshly. Strip the Borisov family of their noble ducal title, but allow them to retain all the wealth they have accumulated."

"I will relay your message, your Majesty."

"I will take my leave now."

"Go ahead."

After his subordinate left, Vijay leaned back in his chair, his gaze drifting toward the north.

"In a few months, those two cities should also succumb, right?" he thought to himself.

23rd August 1706

Commander Arjun Venkataraman, a military leader who firmly believed that swiftness was the key to victory, ironically came in third when reaching the vicinity of the objective. However, he could hardly be blamed for it. Unlike the path to Sophia, or even the relatively manageable route to Plovdiv, his path to Skopje was far from well-travelled. It was a winding mountain trail, forcing him to take multiple detours due to hills and mountains that blocked his way, not to mention the constant gorilla and skirmish attacks he had to deal with along the journey.

Although he managed to thwart all the enemy plans and successfully repel the attacks, it still resulted in significant casualties and increased the travel time by a considerable margin.

Finally arriving at Skopje, the first thing he did was carefully study its geography. The city of Skopje sat within a small valley, the Skopje Valley, with the Vardar River flowing through it, while being surrounded by mountain ranges on nearly all sides, the Šar Mountains to the southwest, Suva Gora to the west, and Skopska Crna Gora to the north.

He had to admit, the city was quite difficult to conquer, and its position, though awkward, was strategically crucial. The valley effectively formed a natural funnel, meaning that whoever controlled Skopje controlled the movement between the Aegean and the Pannonian Plain (modern-day Serbia and Hungary).

If he had been a commander of a medieval army, he would have found it extremely difficult to take the city. Fortunately, he was a commander of the Bharatiya Army, an army equipped with numerous methods to break through even the strongest of enemy fortifications.

The method he chose was relatively straightforward, a classic tactic pioneered by Raja Sarvesh Ranavikrama, the progenitor of the Marines. The plan was simple in concept, yet effective in execution: the marines would breach the city from within, while the main army maintained constant pressure from the outside, forcing the enemy to divert their attention and ignore the internal threat.

This strategy had been used countless times since Sarvesh first implemented it, and since it worked more often than not, it remained a classic go-to strategy.

Moreover, the empire’s technology had advanced significantly. The marines no longer needed to surface every few minutes to breathe or operate in complete darkness. The empire had developed the capability to produce oxygen and store it in tanks.

The method used was chlorite decomposition, where potassium chlorate was heated to produce oxygen and potassium chloride, aided by a catalyst such as manganese dioxide. It was an inefficient process, but for military purposes, cost was irrelevant, and oxygen was produced continuously.

Having made his decision, he assembled an entire division of marines, numbering 12,000, equipped them with oxygen tanks along with spare reserves, and sent them to infiltrate the city.

"Blow the horns."

Meanwhile, a few hundred kilometres away,

Commander Vaibhav Krishnamurthy, after months of travel and relentless fighting, had finally reached his target, Tiranë.

Tiranë, situated in a broad inland basin with the Lana River running through its centre, was comparatively easier to attack than the other three targets assigned to his companions. However, that did not mean it could be captured within a few days. Despite being in a plain basin, the city was flanked by the Dajti Mountains, which overlooked the area and served as a crucial position for observation and communication.

Thus, while his primary objective remained the city itself, he ordered a reserve force of 300,000 soldiers to besiege the mountain and seize control of the strategic high ground. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Having been in the war longer than most and having also commanded the campaign for Greek reunification, he was exhausted. He longed for rest. In truth, the only thing that kept him moving forward was the possibility of rising in rank to the position of a titled king. Clinging to that singular ambition, he endured every hardship, yet now, with victory seemingly within reach, he felt an unusual sense of restlessness.

Abandoning his usual cautious approach of testing enemy defences and gauging their response time, he directly ordered the largest third-generation siege cannons to breach the enemy fortifications. At the same time, he commanded the war tractors to advance, while the rest of the artillery and heavy infantry provided continuous cover fire.

The sounds of battle echoed across two fronts, from the heights of Mount Dajti and the outskirts of Tiranë. The gunfire raged on for two days and two nights before finally falling silent. When it did, the flag of the Austrian kingdom was lowered, and in its place, the saffron banner of the Bharatiya Empire was raised.

Several days later, a similar fate befell Skopje. With a division of Marines launching a devastating strike from within, the city’s defences collapsed inward, unable to hold for long despite its formidable geographical advantages.

By the end of November, all major cities and military positions had been secured. The riots had been suppressed, and the Bharatiya Empire now effectively controlled half of the Balkan region.