Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

140  Casualty Report And Area Expansion

Vijay returned to Vijayanagara a week ago after settling matters in the newly occupied regions. Instead of immediately diving into his workload, he took a well-deserved break of two days to recover from the exhaustion caused by constant battles throughout the last year and to enjoy the festival. After this short break, he finally took the time to review the report Logananda had submitted to him two days prior.

To his dismay, the report, which should have been ready in just a few days after the battle, took a few months. Vijay was quite unhappy with Logananda for the delay. Yet, he soon learned that there had been some difficulty with the data collection. When he heard this from the marshal, he was genuinely surprised. Initially, he thought the old man might be pulling his leg, but considering Logananda's character, he shook his head in denial. Still, it was hard to believe that data collection could be so challenging, especially when Roshan was fully cooperating with their search.

However, Yogananda hinted that the reason for the slow data collection might be related to the Secret Service. This revelation caught Vijay by surprise, given that the Secret Service was directly under his control. How could he be hindering the Army's work? Dismissing these perplexing thoughts, he set them aside and focused on the battle report, beginning to read it.

The report began by detailing the casualty report, providing the following information: The initial army used to conquer the main strongholds of the Mughal Empire consisted of 100,000 soldiers who were well-trained, and many of them were battle-tested after the Dutch War. Fifty thousand soldiers were headed by Ramaiya Senapati, leading a campaign to Mumbai through the Navy. Fifteen thousand soldiers were led by Kiran Pujari, campaigning to Panhala Fort, and another fifteen thousand soldiers were led by Yogendra Singh, campaigning to Ratanpur Fort. Lastly, twenty thousand soldiers were led by Narasimha Nayak, capturing Paradip Port Town, Cuttack City, Puri, and Bhubaneswar.

The campaigns were successful within a week as intended, but it took a lot of casualties to make this happen. In the Mumbai battle led by Ramaiya Senapati and Vijay, there were 618 casualties on the ships, 2318 casualties of the infantry, and an additional 1569 casualties as the heavily injured soldiers could not be rescued. Further losses occurred as the army moved to secure their foothold on the mainland. In total, at least 5000 people ended up diseased, leaving the Mumbai army with 45,000 soldiers. This figure is not terrible considering the Mughal Empire also had at least 50,000 soldiers in the Mumbai region. The advanced weapons and better naval capabilities saved a lot of manpower.

During the raid on Paradip port, Narasimha Nayak incurred a total of 9,000 casualties, with the majority being infantry. Naval casualties were minimal, thanks to a successful ambush, but ground skirmishes accounted for most of the casualties. In the battle, 7,000 individuals lost their lives, and an additional 2,000 couldn't be saved due to severe injuries. While the data might suggest a significant number of casualties concedering that Vijayanagara had superior equipment compared to the Mughals, Additionally, the Mughal Empire only had a 5,000-soldier advantage over Narasimha's 20,000-strong army. However, the larger distances Narasimha had to cover to secure victory and establish Vijayanagara rule in Odisha must be taken into account. Viewed from this perspective, Narasimha Nayak successfully gained full control of Odisha with only 9,000 casualties. The remaining 11,000 soldiers were utilized to establish control over local towns in Odisha, contributing to the success of the Final battle, as the eastern front was secured and the reinforcements flowed through smoothly.

The attack on the furthermost point was led by Yogendra Singh, who utilized 15,000 soldiers to take on 25,000 soldiers of the Mughal Empire. As they were not fighting in a head-on battle, the casualties were relatively acceptable considering the 10,000 soldier Gap, with 6000 killed in battle and 2200 who could not be saved due to heavy injuries. Bringing the total casualties to 8200 soldiers, leaving only 6800 soldiers remaining to guard Ratanpur Fort.

The attack on Panhala Fort was led by Kiran Poojari, who controlled an army of 15,000 soldiers. The casualties in this battle were very severe, as nearly 70% of the soldiers were wiped out. There were 8000 casualties during the frontal battle, and 2500 more casualties who could not be saved and were heavily injured, leaving a total of 10,500 casualties and only 4500 capable soldiers.

Reading this report again, Vijay did not feel like he wanted to punish Kiran Poojary. As he further participated in the following battles, he knew how unpredictable these battles could be.

During the one-year-long battle, a Mughal soldier wandered out of the camp in a secret route, carrying a tied-up woman on his back. The woman was struggling, indicating that he intended to harm her. He had to kidnap the woman because she was eyed by his captain, but he had taken a liking for her. With no other option, he chose to do it secretly and kill her after his work. Fortunately for him, in his attempt to find a hidden place, he stumbled upon the Vijayanagar army laying a trap. Seeing this, he quickly tied up the woman to a tree, ran back, and informed the Mughal general, leading to the full destruction of an artillery platoon. Unfortunately, the platoon was using a large cannon, which was then confiscated by the Mughal army.

Ever since then, Vijay started to think more three-dimensionally, considering backup plans whenever something happened. So he did not put much blame on Kiran Poojary, especially when he fought against a veteran general like Aamir Ali Khan, whom even Logananda respected. To add on top of the troubles, he was facing a well-trained veteran army of 30,000 soldiers. Now that he looks at it, he is surprised how they won at all.

Overall, By the end of the battle, Vijayanagara was left with 67,300 soldiers out of 100,000, and all of this happened within the first week of occupying the main strongholds.

Then started the gruelling battle that took a whole year to complete. In this long battle, more soldiers were invested. Ten thousand soldiers were recruited and trained at a time. Within Six months of the start of the battle, 70,000 extra soldiers were recruited, but the casualties still kept piling up. Although Vijayanagara had better military equipment, the Mughals utilized at least 50% more soldiers than them, making the further inland battles more and more difficult as the logistic channels were getting stretched. Within the seventh month of the battle, 30,000 soldiers were recruited again, making Vijayanagara invest a total of 200,000 soldiers in the whole battle.

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Then started the gruelling battle that took a whole year to complete. In this long battle, more soldiers were invested. Ten thousand soldiers were recruited and trained at a time. Within Six months of the start of the battle, 70,000 extra soldiers were recruited, but the casualties still kept piling up. Although Vijayanagara had better military equipment, the Mughals utilized at least 50% more soldiers than them, making the further inland battles more and more difficult as the logistic channels were getting stretched. Within the seventh month of the battle, 30,000 soldiers were recruited again, making Vijayanagara invest a total of 200,000 soldiers in the whole battle.

The culmination of these concerted efforts for a whole year and the backing of the Vijayanagara Empire, which was running on overdrive, resulted in the ultimate triumph following the decisive engagement commanded by Logananda Senapathi. However, the theatre of war was far from accommodating. Out of the deployment of 200,000 troops, a mere 127,300 soldiers endured, retaining their operational capability. This marked a substantial 36.5% Death rate, translating to a staggering total of 72,700 casualties, which equates to the loss of approximately 14 brigades. To put it into perspective, Vijay's father only used 10 brigades to be stationed at the border. That is how huge the casualties were seen in this war.

"Sigh."

Vijay sighed, as he would have never imagined that it would lead to so many casualties. But he recovered the next moment, having gone through a lot in the past year and built up a good mental defence. What cheered his mood was the land captured by Vijayanagar. Looking at this data, a smile ran across his face very fast because, after this one year of struggle, Vijayanagara had its area doubled.

Before the war, it was at 701,390 square kilometres, including the land area of Sri Lanka, which is 65,610 square kilometres. But after this year-long war, it occupied the large area of Maharashtra, which spread 307,773 square kilometres, Chhattisgarh, which spread 138,495 square kilometres, along with Odisha, which spread 155,702 square kilometres. This brought the total area of Vijayanagara to 1,303,360 square kilometres, making it one of the largest countries in the world.

To put this area in perspective, when Vijay took his throne, the land area of the Vijayanagar Empire was just over 635,780 square kilometres. After the two major wars, with the Dutch and the Mughals, the land area of Vijayanagar increased by 105% along with the boost of population and resources that came with it.

Vijayanagara, with a population of at least 35,000,000 people, now faces the significant challenge of incorporating an additional 30,000,000 individuals due to the recent territorial expansion. This sudden population surge presents a considerable headache for the empire. Each region in the newly occupied areas speaks its own distinct language, each with its rich history. Forcing them to learn South Indian languages poses a formidable challenge. Until now, Telugu and Kannada have been the official language, and court meetings were conducted in Sanskrit. The Empire had been lenient with other languages, avoiding potential cultural identity issues.

However, the Tamilians proved to be a more challenging group within the empire. Their cultural identity has deep historical roots, and Tamil, although not as ancient as Sanskrit, predates many present and future languages in Bharat. Integrating Tamilians became particularly difficult, considering their influential Chola Empire in the past, which reached from coastal India to Southeast Asian countries in the Malay Peninsula (1014-1044 CE). The Chola Empire had extensive trade and diplomatic relations, even with the Chinese. On top of that, they had the largest navy the world has ever seen during the time the British were still duking it out with the Vikings, and the ships they made were not comparable even to the Vikings. Such a rich cultural and military heritage of the Tamilians became a pain in the ass for the integration process. Fortunately, after hundreds of years, they have somewhat calmed down.

It took so long to integrate the people, and Vijayanagara only had to deal with the four major languages in Southern India, which the Vijayanagara Empire ruled – Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada. Now, adding more languages with hundreds of different dialects for each small region would be an impossible task. Vijay knew that this was one of the reasons why the Bharatiya empires never stood for a long time.

Although the three states that were occupied are peaceful now, that is because they just left the oppressive rule of the Mughal Empire. So they are very accepting of the new Vijayanagar Empire, which they consider from the same root. But as time goes on, the cultural identity they have formed for thousands of years and the rich cultural heritage they have won't let them be satisfied being under foreign rule. Even though they come from the same roots, the riots that happened in the three states are a major example of it. Although most of it was instigated by the separatist forces behind the scenes, many people were still tempted by the idea of an independent kingdom, so a lot of civilians participated, which shows that using normal means will never be able to integrate these three states into the Vijayanagar Empire and will always be ticking time bombs. Though brute force could be one way, like the Mughals and the British, such rule will always come to an end. When the main oppressor shows a little bit of weakness, the people will start rioting, making the weakness even more evident; it is not possible to stay strong always after all.

This is not the kind of Empire Vijay wants. No, he doesn't want this kind of empire. He wants a united Empire where every culture, and language, with different types of people huddle together in tough times to get through the immediate troubles. They get together to make the empire a better place, an empire where the world will fear to cross, an empire where the world will yearn to live, an empire where all its people will be raising their heads in pride, an empire where the world is influenced, the one and only Akanda Bharathiya Empire.

In order to achieve that lofty goal, he has to find a common factor linking every school of thought, every religion, every tribe, every male, female, young, and old together. And he couldn't think of anything more than a Bharatiya Empire which every Culture of Bharat agrees with. And he needs to implement a unified official language that connects all these people together.

His blood boiled just thinking about these thoughts. But for his plan to work, he needs to do the groundwork for at least the next six months.

The next topic got his attention as the whole details made him frown. He couldn't help but stop reading the document and quickly summoned Roshan and the other top officers in the Secret Service, along with the four military generals.

To Be Continued...