Empire of India: Rise of the Ruthless Prince

First Prince Chandra had sent in Ram, his trusted bodyguard, and a seasoned commander to lead the merchant union's army against the Cochin faction noble and commander Vijayarama panicker.

Ram, despite being the bodyguard of the prince, had numerous achievements on the battlefield. He led many small skirmishes and battles, also occasionally leading reconnaissance units to spy on or assassinate the enemies during wars under the orders of the Prince.

He rode a horse alongside the marching army and looked at the merchant union general who was accompanying him.

"Do you have any terrain information for this area?"

The general pondered for a while, scratching his head.

"There is a forest close by, and the forest is situated on elevated ground."

"Hoo, that's good for us. Did you survey the terrain beforehand?"

"No, General. I used to live in Anantapur, so I have an idea of the terrain around here."

"I see."

"General. The forest stretch is very huge, and the elevated terrain can prove to be useful indeed for us if we face him there."

"The scouts already saw Vijayarama's army moving towards us. Let's use the forest, as you say."

"We can lure them into the forest easily, General."

Ram's brows furrowed in curiosity.

"What is your plan for that?"

"That plan is to..."

Meanwhile, at the base camp of the Vijayarama Panicker. The scouts were unable to gain any new information about the army that should be sent in by the first prince. Vijayarama Panicker's army had been marching for a while.

The food supplies were running short. They had to reach the city of Anantapur to restock their supplies. The scouts proved useless for Panicker, as they failed to uncover any information about the army that was sent to Anantapur. They had to proceed with caution towards the city.

They settled close to the forest at night, and the soldiers were fed their rations as usual, prepared for the march. heightened security and patrols as they were in close proximity to the city.

Vijayarama called a meeting after dinner. The commanders gathered in the main battle tent.

He scanned the room to check for anyone missing and started the discussion.

"Our scouts have failed to get any information about the army ahead. But there is an army stationed close to Anantapur. That is certain."

An eerie silence settled in the tent. A young commander raised his hand and spoke, breaking the eerie silence of the room.

"My Lord, if the scouts have failed, how are you so certain there is an enemy ahead?"

"Several scouts lost contact with us." Vijayarama said, leaning forward with a serious expression.

The main reason behind his suspicion was that the scouts were losing contact with the army. This only meant one thing: They were killed by the enemy scouts to avoid any leak of information about their army.

A senior commander and general of the army cleared his throat.

"My Lord. It's going to be an inevitable battle for us. We should prepare for the worst."

The other commanders nodded at the suggestion.

"We cannot do much about this; we are running out of supplies and need to reach the city soon."

The army led by Vijayarama was relatively big. Containing many soldiers, the main flaw being the lack of war elephants in his arsenal. War elephants are a great tool to break through infantry positions and cause chaos in the enemy lines.

The task given to him by the second prince was to take out as many supporting nobles as possible that could potentially regroup at the capital to support the first prince. Bhairava didn't want to fight at a major disadvantage. The main job given to Vijayarama was to reduce the potential threats during his march.

The army of Vijayarama Panicker took off in the early morning of a cloudy day after the rain from last night stopped. A massive downpour of rain happened in the area last night. The wet, muddy road bears witness to the rain.

As they marched through the wet road to the city of Anantapur,. The scouts were still employed in front of the army, looking for potential ambushes.

The scouts had come back from the search and reported the issues ahead to the head commander and leader of the army, Vijayarama Panicker.

"My Lord. The road was washed away in the flash flood. It is very likely it was caused by the rain yesterday."

Vijayarama pondered for a moment, scratching his chin.

"Is it that bad to move through?"

"Yes, my lord, the water flowing is too much; our soldiers may be washed away by the force."

"Any other route towards the city?"

"There is a detour to the city through the forest. We can move through that; we have already sent scouts in to check for anything."

Although skeptical about the detour, he had no choice but to agree, as they needed to reach the town before nightfall. After seeing the stream, he knew he couldn't cross over through the road without losing many soldiers in the process. So in the end, he took the detour to the city.

The forest trembled under the march of the army. The scouts' surveillance ahead of the army was quickly relaying information back and forth to the army.

The scouts suddenly went radio silent as they made their way deeper into the forest. The moving army came to a halt as they noticed multiple dead bodies on the damp earth. Each scout was killed with clean strikes.

A barrage of arrows poured into his disoriented army. The archers were hidden on the trees, patiently waiting and releasing a hail of steel onto the exposed soldiers. A few war elephants and infantry emerged from the shadows.

Vijayarama looked at the situation and quickly understood that they had walked into a trap. To take control of the chaotic situation, he blew his war horn. A battle cry echoed through the forest.

"AMBUSH! COMMENCE SHIELD WALL!"

The army's being in the forest didn't allow them to take a quick formation amidst the chaos of the relentless fire of arrows. The narrow forest didn't allow them to make a quick recovery, but despite the ambush, Vijayarama managed to guide his army into a proper defensive formation against the relentless assault of the enemy.