April 5th, 1656


    Dakshin Bharatiya Empire, Northern Frontier


    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!


    Countless cannonballs flew through the air like cluster missiles, urately targeting the Mughal artillery before they could enter the range to initiate fire.


    Throughout the Northern Frontier, Cannons were raging as themanders of all four battle zones intensely stared at the enemy, watching their every move and not giving them a chance for resistance.


    In the western Madhya Pradesh Battle Group, Marshal Kiran Poojari directly tookmand and initiated the battle.


    "Aim the target at a cross angle to get better coverage," Kiran Poojari ordered as he watched the enemy’s movements with the newly produced handheld telescope, which gave him a visual of the enemy’s organizational structure and their movements.


    Although Kiran Poojari is primarily known for his genius in defensive battles, having proven time and time again his ability to thwart the Mughal Empire’s ns to invade the central region of the Bharatiya Empire, that does not mean Kiran Poojari is not good at attacking. No, that is a misconception.


    Hismand of attack strategies is no different from some of the prominent military generals in the military. The reason why he never participates in an offensive strategy is because his ability to guard is too great, so great that no one could rece him. It is for this reason that he has been protecting the Northern Frontier ever since the war started alone.


    His actions and his presence in the military are like a backbone for themanders to fight their battles wholeheartedly, whether overseas or in any military campaign. They always knew that there was a man back in their homnd who was protecting it without letting the enemy step even an inch.


    As all the othermanders have their own roles in this war, Kiran Poojari chimed in to be themander of the western Madhya Pradesh Battle Group. Looking at the scene of enemy artillery being bombarded without leaving any resistance, it could be said that he is doing very well.


    "Tsk."


    Feroze Jung, who was facing the bombardment of the Bharatiya artillery, could not help but click his tongue in annoyance. He hates beingpletely dominated without even being able to resist.


    *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*


    Witnessing the constant bombardment of the Bharatiya cannons, Feroze was getting restless. As he couldn’t stand it anymore, he roared at his lieutenant,


    "**** have the artillery move forward quicker. I don’t care if you have the soldiers act as horses. I need to hear our cannons roaring within 20 minutes. UNDERSTAND?"


    "Y-Yes S-s-sir."


    Hundreds of Mughal soldiers were asked to work together to pull the cannons forward, and despite the danger, they did as ordered. However,


    *BOOM!**BOOM!**BOOM!*


    "AHHHHH!"


    As expected, the death toll in this job increased tremendously as the people who were directly hit by the cannon shot were reduced to meatpaste, and the soldiers in the vicinity were caught by the heat and had various parts of their bodies injured by the explosion.


    That’s right, an explosion. Kiran Poojari ordered the use of alternating ammunition: round shot, grapeshot, canister shot, and incendiary shot.


    Although some of these ammunition would not provide the same range for the cannon as the round shot, which provides the maximum extent of the range, changing the ammunition frequently makes the artillery firing pattern hard to detect and hard to guard against.


    Obviously, the n had worked. Sometimes an incendiary shot would fall into the ranks of the infantry and immediately turn the surrounding area of four to five meters into scorched earth with the smell of burnt blood.


    Or a grape shot would fall on the Musketeers and create a sinkhole of corpses within the army.


    Or even a canister shot, which has a better range. Not only does it damage the enemy artillery, but it also explodes on impact and shoots out shrapnel, piercing and shredding the people near it.


    However, despite therge casualties, it was undeniable that the Mughal Empire had more troops than the Bharatiya Empire, over 60,000 more. Hence, the sacrifice of soldiers to pull the artillery faster was painful but deemed necessary, As the artillery of the Mughal Empire sprang to life.


    *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*


    As expected, with the artillery of the Mughal Empire finally in operation, the frontier wall started taking damage


    N?v(el)B\\jnn


    ----


    Kiran Poojari, who witnessed the cannon fire of the enemy that was starting to cause damage, knew it was time.


    "Fire the Stage Two Artillery," Kiran Poojari ordered.


    Lieutenant General Gowri Putra, with a serious expression, nodded and followed themands.


    Immediately, in the surprised eyes of the Mughal infantry who could see therge towers, taller than the city wall and previously covered by a nket, arge artillery piece was revealed. They were shocked because this was a cannon that they had never seen before. Judging by its shape, it resembled arger version of the Bharatiya culverin they were familiar with.


    Just this thought made them shudder in fright as they were aware of the reputation of the culverin.


    This was indeed the product of the Bharatiya military, researched by the Academy of Military Sciences. It was arger calibre culverin newly designed and developed with an extended range of up to 1500 meters.


    It featured increased muzzle velocity, its bore diameter increased from 5.5 inches to 8.5 inches, weight increased to 3.4 tonnes, length extended to 19 feet from 15 feet, barrel lengthened to 15 feet from 12 feet, and calibre increased from 7 kilograms to 12 kilograms.


    Although not many of these cannons were manufactured due to demanding uracy requirements for the machining tools needed, they were crucial in battle. To fully utilize their advantages, these longer-range cannons were ced on tforms in elevated towers behind the frontier wall.


    This positioning ensured that even if the Mughal cannons reached firing range and started firing, these cannons, currently difficult to produce, would not be damaged due to their cement behind the frontier wall. Furthermore, they could achieve better aim and uracy from a higher angle.


    ---


    Feroz Jung, who saw the newly revealed cannons of the Bharatiya Empire, couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread; his heart sank, and he felt like he was at the bottom of an endless abyss.


    BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!


    Before he could react, he saw these cannons, positioned behind the frontier wall, spew out projectiles at the fastest speed he had ever seen. These projectiles,ing from various directions, made him feel small and insignificant. His eyes couldn’t help but be bloodshot as he, a military veteran, felt immense pressure now that the Bharatiya Empire was revealing its cards.


    The situation, which had seemed to stabilize for the Mughal Empire, immediately turned dire as therge culverins swiftly and urately hit the Mughal artillery that was constantly firing at the wall.


    The only drawback was that there were not too many of these culverins, and although they could take out four to five enemy cannons in a minute, which could lead to a substantial long-term advantage, the short-term advantage was not too great.


    Fortunately, the Bharatiya Empire had a greater number of artillery pieces due to aplete industrial chain and standard manufacturing processes. Even though the Bharatiya Empire was caught off guard by the sudden attack of the Mughal Empire, it would never lose out in a battle of equipment.


    The only reason Kiran Poojari is striving to minimize damage to the artillery pieces is because the battle at the frontier is not the end of the war; it is only the beginning. Their army must march into enemy territory and face sturdier defences equipped with numerous cannons.


    Therefore, it is imperative that he, as the Marshal of the empire, does his best so thatmanding officers will have an easier time oveing the enemy.


    Preserving strength as much as possible in the early stages of the battle is a consensus among all militarymanders and generals, including Vijay, who is currently recuperating at home and supports the n.


    For this reason, actions have been taken across all four battle groups to minimize casualties among soldiers and artillery pieces.


    Whether it’s the Bengal Battle Groupmanded by Birbal Singh, next in line to be the empire’smander, or the Eastern Madhya Pradesh Battle Group led by Ramayya Senapathi, or even the Jharkhand Battle Group under Narasimha Nayak, all threemanders are employing strategies and techniques to reduce artillery losses while seeking opportunities to prate the Mughal army and advance ind for conquest.


    ----


    While the war is raging at full scale, Vijay, who is back home in the capital city of Hampi, is not idle. He is contributing to the war efforts in his own way.


    Vijay is currently overseeing the upgrade n of the machine tools, which, ording to him, shouldy a solid foundation for the start of the industrial revolution in the Bharatiya Empire. With more urate machine tools, he could also design and produce advanced weapons as well as upgrade the existing ones.


    But that’s not all. Vijay also leads a team of scientists at the Bharatiya Academy of Military Sciences to develop a secret weapon to be used against the Mughal Empire. This weapon was inspired by the Japanese handgun that Swiss mercenaries brought back. Upon seeing this firearm, he also recalled another weapon that was used rted to the Japanese by the Koreans to fight them off.


    Vijay aims to replicate and improve upon its design and manufacture of the weapon.