Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

In front of the scrutinizing gaze of Vijay, Ezidi Serwan, although he did not want to agree, could only report the truth, so he nodded with a pained expression. "Your Majesty, you are right to think so. The Ottomans really have many spies, and if my guess is correct, in the Kingdom of Persia and other member countries as well, since the people we arrested and interrogated for working as spies for the Ottoman Empire were mainly traditional Old Testament Islamists who feel like they have been wronged. And these Old Testament Islamists are not only found in the Kingdom of Lalishsthan but in other kingdoms and nations as well."

"However, that was not all, Your Majesty. The enemy agents did play a major role in transmitting the news from one place to another, allowing the Ottoman cavalry to retreat before our reinforcements and main forces arrived, but what played a decisive role is something else."

This caught Vijay's attention. 'Is there some other reason?' he did not know.

"Your Majesty, the Ottomans have preliminarily established a way of communication very similar to our own rocket communication."

"Although their method is very crude and not as efficient and effective as our rocket communication method, it is cheaper, and it worked for them."

"Your Majesty, whenever a group of Ottoman cavalry are raiding from a village or a town, several dozen scouts would stretch out in all directions up to several kilometres away."

"When these scouts notice the arrival of our forces, they immediately set off an explosive and retreat. Another scout who is in the audible range of this explosive sets off another explosive. This gets repeated until the sound of the explosive is heard by the main group of cavalry raiding the village."

"In such a case, by the time we arrive at the village, the cavalry had already retreated."

The anger in Vijay's eyes can no longer be concealed, 'Damn it, I should have expected it.' Vijay didn't know how to feel. In the end, he could only let out a wry smile. "We have been fighting with the Ottoman Empire for the last eight years. They were bound to learn our tactics and come up with a version of their own. We are too conceited, thinking the Ottomans as backwards compared to us, but now it looks like this war is a tight slap on our faces."

Everyone agreed with the statement as they clenched their fists and lowered their heads. This was one of the most shameful things they had all experienced.

"One last question: What went wrong with our intelligence gathering capabilities? Why did we not know about the raid of the Ottomans, and why did we not know about the city of Qazvin being vacated and a new fortress being built?"

There were no people from the intelligence department here to answer these questions, but Lachit Borphukan, the receiver of all the intelligence reports, still came forward. "Your Majesty, even we were unaware of the matter because the decisions taken by the Ottoman generals were too fast. It was as if they already knew there were spies in their ranks, so in order to counteract, they gave multiple orders erratically at times, leaving us confused."

"By the time we could figure out which order was a feint and which was the actual one, it was already too late."

Vijay fell into deep thought. Moments later, he gave out his orders. "In that case, the best way to detect this is to increase infiltration into the ranks of the military. It looks like the people at the bottom are too tightly controlled and are not even able to send out messages."

"In the future, focus investments in the area of the military, as it is an unskippable link for any decision to be taken. It's best if we can gather intelligence from the military directly."

He paused for a moment. His expression looked entangled, but he soon regained clarity. "As for how to deal with Amol and other fortress cities of the Ottoman Empire, then I suggest instead of using the cavalry or a large-scale military unit, form special forces specialising in sabotage and assassination operations."

"As far as I know, each of the regiments of the alliance army already has a prototype of the special forces, so all you need to do is combine the resources of all the regiments and bring out the best special forces unit. Have this unit target the top leaders of the fortress or destroy key infrastructure; afterwards, we can take advantage of the resulting chaos."

"If the alliance army requires assistance in training such a unit, I can assign Commander Sarvesh Ranavikrama, who pioneered these tactics, to train a few units."

'In the meantime, I will find something to distract the Ottomans,' he said to himself in his heart.

Vijay still had no intention of directly participating in the battle with the Ottoman Empire. In fact, until now, only 30% of the alliance army were Bharatiyas; the remaining majority were soldiers from Lalishthan and the Kingdom of Persia. Roxana Atashban was very true in believing that Emperor Vijay Devaraya did not have any intention to expand the territory into the Middle East. In fact, even expanding the western border was only because Vijay wanted to gain better strategic initiatives, control the doorway to the empire, and avoid future troubles where people from the Pashtun ethnicity would be divided by borders, thus making way for a border dispute.

The reason why Vijay did not want to occupy the current Safavid Empire, which is under the control of the Ottoman Empire, is that he did not want the Bharatiya Empire to be embroiled in internal conflict. Vijay hated the British to his core, but one thing he felt a little thankful for was the creation of Pakistan. If Pakistan had not been created, he could have seen the country of India breaking apart into pieces due to internal disputes, especially after living among such radical groups, who even threatened to burn down a woman because of a misunderstanding over her wearing clothes with Arabic writing.

It is a similar situation now. Maybe in the past, a long time ago, all the areas of Persia and the Middle East were ruled by kings who were pluralistic and accepting of many faiths, but that time has already passed. The whole region is undoubtedly the stronghold of Islam. The current Atashban Royal family and Yazidi community, in order to stay at the top, are doing their best to suppress the traditional Old Testament Islamists and doing their best to convert as many people to the New Testament as possible.

Thousands upon thousands are being butchered every day. In the short term, using heavy-handed tactics like wiping out the stubborn Old Testament Islamists is bound to provide peace for a long term in the Middle East, and the Parsis and Yazidis are bound to prosper under the umbrella of the Bharatiya Empire, as it is the age of wars—a time of predator and prey. But the true consequences will only reveal themselves far into the future, when the age of peace arrives and countries will have to pay for their sins. When the world has softened, the oppressed, who have been brutally suppressed, will find the opportunity to fight back and strike at the rulers and ruling class when it hurts the most.

This is how the natural order of things is, and this is how it has always been. The forms may change, but the core remains the same. In his past life, the Yazidis and Pashtuns, who were the oppressed, started to fight back in the 21st century and began to brutally hurt the Islamists who had suppressed them. But maybe in this era, it may become the other way around. And if Vijay decides to occupy the Middle East, he would have to inherit all the hatred accumulated by the Yazidis and the Parsis. If he really wanted to occupy the Middle East, he'd only do that after wiping out every soul living in the land. But naturally, Vijay does not want to cause such a gruesome level of bloodshed.

In the end, he made the decision to let the Kingdom of Persia and the Kingdom of Lalishsthan occupy it and let them serve as the Bharatiya Empire's buffer against the West. Not to mention, if Vijay does not conquer the Middle East, there is actually an advantage: in the future, if the Islamists really act up, the traditional ruling class will require the support of the Bharatiya Empire even more, thus making the control of the Bharatiya Empire over Persia and Lalishsthan even more secure.

Furthermore, the situation in the Middle East can be used to set an example for the existing New Testament or Dharma Islamists in the Bharatiya Empire who feel that the Bharatiya Empire has done injustice to the people of Islam. The conditions in Persia and Lalishsthan can be used as an example to show that the Bharatiya Empire is actually very benevolent, and apart from taking back what originally belonged to it, the empire has never held a grudge against innocent people.

This is the exact reason why the Bharatiya Empire didn't participate in the war directly but only supported the formation of the alliance army and enabled the Persians and others to fight for themselves. As for why, if that is the case, 30% of the Bharatiya soldiers exist in the alliance army, and why not completely retreat, well, mostly because the war happening in the Middle East is an excellent whetstone for the military of the Bharatiya Empire—not to mention, the war has been very profitable for the Bharatiya Empire, as it made anywhere from 650 to 900 Million varaha per year from the war.

In principle, the Bharatiya Empire's participation in the war is really not necessary since there are bound to be a lot of casualties that could be avoided, but in practice, it is just too good of an opportunity to keep the army sharp and earn a lot of money to let go.