Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

Everyone's eyes immediately lit up as they felt the boy's plan was feasible, but sadly, the tactician still shook his head.

"It is not possible," the tactician said. Even though he could feel so many hateful gazes falling on him, he didn't mind as he explained, "It is true that the Europeans do not directly control Madagascar, but who can say that they do not have any influence in the region, hm?"

"What's more, the whole island of Madagascar is almost 1,600 kilometres wide from north to south. How long do you think it will take for us to conquer this island? And more importantly, do you think it is even possible to do such a thing with the European anti-Bharat alliance constantly sending resources to the native powers who want to maintain their rule?"

The reason immediately made the young theoretical researcher sit down in disappointment as he discovered that his plan was indeed flawed.

Everyone was feeling a little disappointed since like the tactician had said, frontal combat seemed to be the only good solution.

However, the analyst was still unwilling. He did not want to lose to the tactician. When he was in a dilemma and looked at the map, he suddenly got an idea. "How about we use a kiting strategy?" he blurted out.

Gautam's eyebrows were raised. "Explain," he said, curious. In fact, throughout the discussion, he was also coming up with various plans in his mind, but hearing the reasons stated by the tactician, he himself scratched off his plans one by one, finding them not feasible.

Even the tactician looked at the analyst with a curious expression on his face.

The analyst, getting all the attention to himself, felt a little smug. "It's like this: why don't we, in secret, have His Highness King Sarvesh Ranavikrama disembark on the coast of Africa in the region of Mozambique?

"Then we will make it seem that our full naval force is being directed towards Mauritius and Réunion. "

"This should reduce the tight naval security around the islands of Comoros and Mayotte. "

"This should give His Highness Sarvesh the opportunity to directly launch a landing operation on the islands of Comoros and Mayotte. "

"Before the main navy realizes what is happening, we would have already conquered Comoros and Mayotte."

"Then we can use these two islands as logistical channels of our own. With this, we can quickly wear down the strength of the European Navy with constant blood transfusion from the nearby Seychelles navy base."

His throat was a little dry, but he did not care to moisten it. Instead, he looked at everyone around the table with an eager expression on his face. "How about it?" he asked as he looked at the tactician with a provocative gaze.

Sadly, to his disappointment, the tactician did not fall for his provocation and kept an emotionless face. Gautam, who had heard the idea, immediately felt that it was feasible, but he still looked at the tactician for a final confirmation.

The tactician, who had been deep in thought until now, let out a sigh of disappointment and shook his head.

Your journey continues on empire

"It's a pity; it was such a genius plan, but we lack the resources to make it work," he said.

The analyst immediately wanted to refute the tactician's words, but after hearing his statement, he was stunned.

Gautam was confused. 'Do we lack something?' he frowned, unable to figure out what it was.

Fortunately, the tactician did not keep the matter in suspense. "It's the special forces, sir. They are only limited in number. As far as I know, adding the three branches of special forces, only around 10 battalions (8,000) have participated in this mission."

"The coast of Africa in the region of Mozambique is a dense, forested area. This is an area highly suited for the Rangers, but among the 10 battalions, only three are composed of Rangers. The rest are the special forces and the Marines."

"So now, how would you expect only 3,000 Rangers to traverse through the jungles of Mozambique, open up a path for the commandos, marines, and even the soldiers?"

"Even if somehow that could be done, how many of our soldiers do you think can resist the insects and germs present in these forests?"

"Do we really want to take this risk?"

"I believe everyone has read the precautions put forward by the Ministry of Health. It is explicitly mentioned in red that under no circumstances are we to enter the forests of Africa, as we can not only get infected by the indigenous diseases in Africa but also could spread our own diseases to the African continent, which could be disastrous."

Gautam suddenly realized the problem. 'How could I have forgotten about this?' he lamented.

Seeing the expressions of enlightenment and realization on everyone's faces, the tactician was very satisfied. "So the best option for us is to fight head-on with the four islands directly.

"Keep all four of their navies occupied and use our greatest advantage—the existence of frigates and clippers—to the fullest.

"In the meantime, let His Highness Raja Sarvesh Ranavikrama land on Madagascar and lead the army to conquer the island while we keep the Europeans busy."

The tactician suddenly looked at the analyst. "Although the previous plan cannot be used, I think we can incorporate a part of the idea."

" The kiting tactic is good "

"We will not send the full brunt of our navy split across the four islands. Instead, we will only send around 70% of it, divided into four parts. "

"The remaining 30% could be located in an unknown location, reachable for all four of the islands."

"When any battlefront shows a weakness, we can use this 30% of the navy, which we have not used, to put pressure on them. And when our side is feeling the pressure, we can also coordinate the unused naval force to relocate to the battlefront."

"In this way, the battle could be fought effectively and we can also create the illusion that our navy is bigger than it actually is."

The tactician finally sat down, having finished everything he wanted to say. For the next few minutes, there was absolute silence in the war room as no one had anything to say anymore. Everyone was convinced by the plan proposed by the tactician. Finally, all gazes fell on the commander seated in the main seat.

Gautam nodded his head. "It can only be like this," he said as he got up. "It is finally time."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

He looked around at the faces of everyone in the room.

"Until now, we have won all our battles using the underestimation of the enemy, but we have grown to the level where our enemy will not underestimate us anymore.

"So it is no longer the time for the Bharatiya Navy to search for shortcuts to victory like we have always done. It is now the time for us to stand our own ground and show the Europeans that we mean business.

"Now, who stands with me?" he declared, clenching his fist.

"I will," the analyst and the tactician screamed at the same time. They looked at each other in surprise, but it soon turned into mutual respect.

"Now tell me, who would dare to go into the battlefield with me?"

"I will," everyone roared, their sound reverberating through the military base.

"Very good," Gautam nodded in acknowledgement.

"Tomorrow morning, 0500, we set off."

---

Port of Mauritius

European warships, which were nowhere to be seen in normal times, have all been docked at the port of Mauritius. Surprisingly enough, most of the ships present in the port were from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

The main reason is that, even though the Bharatiya Empire did not directly trade with them, it doesn't mean they wouldn't trade with other European countries. Just because the Bharatiya Empire and Britain or the Dutch have bad relations with Bharat doesn't mean they would stop making money off Bharat or wouldn't become its customers through an intermediary.

Hence, whenever the Dutch or the British required something manufactured in Bharat, they placed an order with a European merchant of a different nationality, who then sold the product he bought from the Bharatiya Empire at a marked-up value. Most of these transactions happened in Mauritius, which had almost become an unofficial trade centre for the Dutch and the English.

It is also for this reason that they had so many ships ready to go. As for the Dutch, along with having so many ships to trade with other Europeans who had bought Bharatiya products, a lot of the ships were used to transport materials from Mauritius back to their colonies. Mauritius was one of the smuggling channels for His Highness Henry Casimir II, the current leader of the VOC.

It is for this reason that even though the naval net operation was quite unexpected for the Europeans, the Dutch and the British were still adequately prepared, with the Dutch still having over 134 ships under their command, out of which six were the newly constructed Brederode-Class warships and nine ship-of-the-line warships ranging from 1,000 tonnes to 1,500 tonnes.

In fact, in Vijay's previous life, Brederode was a battleship that only had a displacement of 1,300 tonnes to 1,500 tonnes, but the existence of the Akhand Bharatiya Empire has altered the development course of the naval industry and drastically improved technological advancements. As a matter of fact, even the British, who had not built a 2,000-tonne warship for a long time, had already started building the Elizabeth-Class battleship, designed to be around 2,000 tonnes. In the current battle, the British had involved their five Royal Charles-Class 1,000-tonne battleships.

Surprisingly, the same goes for the French, who had actually already built Solein Royal-Class battleships, each weighing 1,800 tonnes, and had already decided to participate in the war against the Bharatiya Empire. As for the Holy Roman Empire, due to their neutral relations with the Bharatiya Empire, they had not invested in any ships, but there were still two battleships they had bought from the Portuguese, both in the 1,500-tonne class.