Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 1250: WW1: Breaching into the Polish Lithuanian Kingdom 2.5k (2)

Chapter 1250: WW1: Breaching into the Polish Lithuanian Kingdom 2.5k (2)

The attack of Lavanga Sinha was intense, earth-shaking, swift, and unrelenting, but the counterattack from the opponent was not soft either. With most of the cannons being installed on top of buildings or behind strategic defensive positions, the artillery of the Bharatiya Empire, despite being superior, was far less effective than in a normal situation.

The only artillery that was even remotely as effective as in a normal standoff, and arguably even a little better, was the mortar, be it big or small. Thanks to its high-angle trajectory, its projectiles, as they fell from the sky, were able to bypass the wall and hit the targets behind it, making them almost completely responsible for the successful attacks on the enemy battlements behind defensive positions.

In contrast, cannons, culverins, howitzers, and siege cannons, as weapon systems focused on power, range, and speed, simply hit the defensive wall due to their low-angle trajectory.

Unfortunately, even if the mortars proved effective, their range was very small. They had to be relatively close to the enemy position in order to get a hit, and sadly, in the current situation, where the area between the Bharatiya artillery bombardment and the European artillery bombardment had turned into a literal dead zone, there was no way to install a mortar.

It had been nearly 60 minutes since Lavanga had sent the report to his majesty, and he had not received any reply. He was feeling a little impatient, but at the same time, he knew he had to wait and continue to slug it out with the enemy.

’If only there were more breaches,’ he sighed. Currently, the Empire’s army isn’t able to get an advantage over the enemy, since there are only two breach openings, and the enemy is simply targeting those openings and suffocating them. But if there were multiple, chances are the firepower would be spread out, making the intensity of each unit crossing the breach several times less.

"Hey, recalibrate the siege cannons, put some more holes in the wall, as many as possible," he ordered. Then there was another possibility, where the Europeans were not using all the artillery at their disposal. They were only using the artillery, which had the enemy, that is, them, in its crosshairs. The firepower concentration at the new breaches might not be too different.

This was something he did not want to see, but given that there was a good chance that it might be true, he was prepared for this situation as well.

The siege cannons roared to action once again, their aim redirected towards other parts of the wall. They started firing like angry beasts, spewing out long flames of dragon breath.

In the meantime, at the rear,

Vijay received the second report from Commander Dhanush Sathakoti, the commander leading an assault over Mazyr, and the contents were not too dissimilar from the one Lavanga Sinha had sent.

"It looks like they have achieved primary battlefield logistical capabilities," he muttered. "How troublesome," he sighed, but his eyes did not show any dejection, a clear indicator that he had a plan in mind.

Vijay swiftly called over the commando units, the Ranger units, and the motorcycle units. He put all the leaders in one room and gave them a direct order.

"Your mission will be to destroy the railway lines connected to the fortress."

He pointed at the map. "There are mainly three railway lines that have to be dealt with. Two of the rail lines are the ones running parallel to the border from one fortress to another, and the third railway line goes inland directly to their industrial base or to the capital. Either way, all three of these railway lines are being used to supply the fortress with unlimited ammunition, personnel, ordnance, and resources."

"So we have to stop this logistical supply before we are able to defeat the enemy, because if not, our logistics will be stretched and we will not be able to contend with the enemy if it comes to a war of attrition. We have to end this while we have the superior hand."

"The railway tracks running parallel to the border will be easy to handle. But, keep in mind that once a railway track is destroyed, it will take only half a day for it to be repaired and put back to use." This was where he felt the backwardness benefited the European Union, because the trains of the Bharatiya Empire had gotten so advanced that their speed had increased, their power had increased, but at the same time, their ability to stop in emergency situations had decreased. Whereas the Europeans, since their trains are moving so slowly, once a problem is discovered in a track, the train could be halted before derailment, and given that it itself carries a few spare rails on one of its carriage vans, repairs would be fairly smooth.

"So you won’t have too much time to waste. As soon as you destroy the railway lines on the border, you will have to immediately aim at the one going inland."

"After this is done, you retreat back to the place where you originally destroyed the railway tracks and lay an ambush."

"Chances are, even without receiving any supplies for half a day, the fortresses can support themselves with the weapons and ammunition they have stockpiled. So if we want to properly choke them out, we should stop their supplies for longer than half a day. This is where you all come in. In order to repair the railway tracks, the soldiers are bound to disembark, and their position will be relatively vulnerable. Take this opportunity to launch an attack on them. The aim is not to win, but simply to keep them in one place and take up their time."

"Alright, dismissed."

Receiving the mission orders, the commandos, the Rangers, and the motorcycle units immediately got into action.

Hundreds of Naya Samrat multi-utility vehicles, as well as Haridwar 100 motorcycles, organised in groups of two, set off from the barracks towards the enemy border.

The two groups eventually split apart, one moving towards the Eastern Polish region, and the other moving towards the West. As the groups got closer to the vicinity, they split apart once again into two groups, one going left and the other right.

The border is heavily guarded, but it is also huge. Not all places could be guarded all the time, so crossing the border was relatively easy, and soon enough the railway tracks came into view, two parallel metal lines cutting through the hills and stretching throughout the horizon.

"Waste no time, men, set up the explosives and let’s get out of here."

The explosives were set up, and the Naya Samrat multi-utility vehicles, blowing out loads of smoke from their silencers, galloped forward with the rest of the crew.

Moments later, there was a loud explosion, causing the special forces on the jeeps to smirk.

This explosion appeared in four different locations at different times, but once the explosion sounded, it was as if a timer had been set off on four different groups operating throughout the enemy territory, their timers calculating the arrival of the locomotive to the precision of a minute.

Kraków

Lavanga Sinha finally received the reply he was waiting for, and upon reading it, he let out a sigh of relief. ’Half a day? That’s more than plenty,’ he thought, confidence blazing in his eyes.

He finally knew the angle his majesty was taking in order to deal with the enemy logistical lines, and he was also informed about the time window he would get to get the job done, half a day, after which the supply of the enemy would resume.

The next moment, without hesitation, he mobilised even the reserve forces and ordered them to give it their all.

"Fire, fire, fire."

With his orders, the whole army stirred like an angry earth dragon awakening. Earlier, more breaches had been made in the wall in an attempt to spread out the enemy firepower, but what he had hoped to avoid had happened; the enemy possessed more artillery, and the intensity of the attacks remained the same.

Wanting to conserve ammunition, he had chosen to pull back and maintain pressure through just two entrances. But now, with the assurance that the opponent would not be receiving any supplies for at least half a day, he resolved to do everything in his power to overwhelm the enemy and defeat them before his own supplies run out.

On the other side,

Yan Kowalski, at this point, had more or less calmed down and was no longer as wary or worried about the Bharatiya Army, because he could clearly see how they were being kept right at the wall, forced into a position where they dared not take even a single step forward.

But then, witnessing the sudden and frantic attacks of the enemy, his heartbeat began to skip.

The artillery shells of the Bharatiya Army were far more effective than his own, so even though his forces were in a superior position, behind reinforced walls and on top of buildings, the sheer intensity of the incoming firepower allowed the Bharatiya Army to push forward, slowly but steadily, several centimetres at a time, quite literally grinding through the walls and houses that were being used as stumbling blocks, destroying the artillery pieces along with the defences on the outer edge of their defensive net.

What worried him more than the enemy firepower was why they had chosen this time to go mad.

A bad feeling arose in his heart.

But in order to keep up with the enemy, his forces had no choice but to reciprocate. Yet, a doubt kept surfacing in his mind. Technically speaking, if such an exchange continued for longer, it should be he who would come out victorious, but he did not think the Bharatiya Army would be so foolish as to ignore this truth and not take it into consideration.

"Are the locomotives en route?" he suddenly asked, feeling as though he had caught onto a fleeting inspiration. ’Are they going to attack the locomotives directly?’ His face turned both ugly and pale. He might have calmed down now after gaining an advantage over the opponent, but he still clearly remembered the wariness and the fear he felt when he first got the news that the Bharatiya Army was approaching his position, and he knew the reason for that fear.

It was the sheer terror brought by an army that brought down kingdoms as if they were nothing more than simple baronies. He was sure, he knew, that if it wasn’t for the continuous supply of materials, personnel, and ammunition, he would not be able to last long.

As time went on, his dread only became more pronounced, and the fear he had came true. The locomotive, which was supposed to arrive, did not arrive, and the stockpile of ammunition was running out swiftly.

’No, we have to buy some time. I am sure the locomotives are on their way,’ his mind ran through multiple possibilities and finally came up with a solution.

"Only supply the ammunition to the large guns for now, temporarily stop equipping the small artillery," he ordered.

Lavanga Sinha almost immediately felt the intensity of the firepower drop a little, and the smile on his face widened. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"Commandos, motorcycle units, and infantry, this is your chance, go."

He never once considered that the entire battle could be solved with artillery alone, because no matter how powerful his artillery was, he simply could not destroy an entire concrete jungle within half a day. So, instead, he had been waiting patiently for the opponent to show even the slightest sign of weakness, so that he could take advantage of it, and now, finally, the opponent had done just that. Without wasting this opportunity, he immediately ordered the troops he had been preparing for a guerrilla attack to move.

Under the escort of the war tractors and the crossfire net of the artillery, batches of troops quickly disappeared into the concrete jungle.

Moving in small, coordinated groups, they advanced through alleyways, broken streets, and partially collapsed buildings, using the smoke and dust kicked up by the bombardment as cover. Some climbed through shattered windows and over rooftops, while others hugged the walls, slipping from one piece of cover to another. The motorcycle units weaved through narrow lanes, stopping only briefly to launch sudden attacks before speeding ahead, while the commandos signalled silently, marking targets and directing movements with precision. They struck quickly and without warning, appearing from blind corners, broken interiors, and elevated positions, overwhelming isolated pockets of defenders before disappearing just as fast.

Soon, the sounds of gunfire spread across the city, with the screams of Europeans and Bharatiyas alike echoing from time to time, though much of it was drowned out by the relentless thunder of artillery still roaring above. The commandos and advancing troops moved like a pack of wolves entering a herd, cutting through resistance with brutal efficiency. The opponent, clearly far less prepared for a guerrilla-style assault, began to lose numbers at an increasing rate. Their primary targets were the artillerymen, and as they pushed forward, picking off operators, cutting down crews, and sabotaging positions, one after another artillery piece fell silent.

In only an hour, nearly one-fifth of the artillery power had been dismantled. Yan Kowalski realised what was happening, but sadly he realised it too late. Left with no other choice, he ordered his army to retreat back to the railway station, the last bastion in Kraków.

As if it were a god’s blessing, although over four to five hours late, the locomotive coming from the capital finally arrived at Kraków.

"What happened?"

"The railway tracks were destroyed."

Yan Kowalski felt bitter, but informed what had happened like a wronged child complaining to his mother.

"Can’t the situation be salvaged?"

"The other two locomotives have not made it yet. What do you think, can the troops in this locomotive and the ammunition you brought alone be enough to take on the Bharatiya Army?"

The man who asked the question unwillingly became silent.

The ammunition, artillery pieces, and non-essential things were discarded and set ablaze in order to make room for the troops, and a full retreat was carried out.

A signal flare was shot into the sky, informing of the situation, hoping the other two locomotives would see it and take a detour.

When the officers operating the other locomotives, who finally got the chance to move forward amidst the onslaught of bullets, saw the signal flare, they were furious.

"Bang!"

"Damnit"

"Stop, turn off the engine, and start the one at the rear," the officer furiously roared.

Everyone on the locomotive who heard what had happened was very furious, but what could they do?

In such a way, the fortified Kingdom of Polish Lithuania was breached, and the Bharatiya Army gained two different footholds in Kraków and, only a week later, in Mazyr.