Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 1230: WW1: Taking back Thessaloniki (4)

The frontline.

"Commander, we received an encrypted message from a First Lieutenant of the Rangers." A communications officer respectfully held out a letter with both his hands.

Vaibhav Krishnamurthy took the letter with anticipation on his face. In a normal time, he might feel it was odd for a first Lieutenant to contact him directly, skipping past the chain of command, but remembering the order he had given to the commandos and the scouts, he was actually looking forward to such a message.

He eagerly tore open the envelope and quickly perused the report. Soon his eyes widened, and then a wave of clarity washed over him. "Tunnels, of course. How could I ignore that the Europeans might have constructed not only the fortress of Çorlu but also an intricate network of tunnels?"

He felt a little regretful that he had not ordered a carpet search of the area they were occupying before the battle, but the feeling lasted only a moment, since he also knew that launching such a search was impractical. After all, the area currently occupied by the million troops under his command was over 100 kilometres wide. Even if the search radius was reduced, considering the width of the tunnel networks themselves, the area he would have to search would still span dozens of kilometres. He really could not waste so much time ordering a search that might or might not yield any result.

Coming back to his senses, he quickly considered what to do next, and the conclusion he reached was to wait until the first lieutenant secures the tunnel so that it could be used to their own advantage.

As for his invocation of the 24-3A protocol and the use of a controlled resource like the poison gas, Vaibhav Krishnamurthy did not care about it at all. If anything, he nodded in affirmation at the quick thinking and rapid response shown by the second lieutenant.

Çorlu, Slavic Byzantium, European Union

Lucca Petrovich paced from left to right, unable to stay still. A restless tension gnawed at him as the enemy showed no sign of relenting. The barrage continued with unbroken intensity, and if anything, it felt even stronger than before, as though their assault was fueled by rage and anger.

"Come on, what are you guys doing?" Nearly two hours had passed since Arthur and Hugo had departed through the tunnels, yet there were still no changes in the Bharatiya Army. The feeling of unease within him only continued to grow.

"Did they fail?" he questioned himself, the mere thought making his heart skip a beat. But in the end, he decisively shook his head and continued to believe in his strategy.

"Your Excellency, a part of the eastern wall has been breached. All the defenders on that section have been killed, and the soldiers have started to riot. The senior officers have requested your presence, sir."

Lucca Petrovich froze mid-step, his expression stiffening for a brief moment. However, he quickly composed himself and replied with a resolute look.

"I will be sending reinforcements. Quickly integrate them into the defence forces. Materials will also be sent. Have the officers oversee the wall repairs."

He then paused, hesitating over whether he should say what was on his mind. In the end, he gritted his teeth and continued.

"I am overseeing a secret operation that might very well determine the fate of the battle, so I will not be able to join the officers on the wall. However, they can rest assured that everything is going according to plan. As long as they hold on for a few more hours, their merits after the war will be doubled, enough for them to settle as governors or nobles."

A kilometre from the frontline.

Arthur Thorne was feeling very happy. Apart from that one time that he was unlucky to go against a whole company of commandos, the rest of the journey was smooth and without any troubles. Although he did encounter a few Bharatiya scouts along their way, they were in single squadrons who ran away as soon as they came into contact with his regiment.

Arthur suspected that they were going to reveal his location to the special forces, so he did not pursue them and simply quickened his pace, hurrying over to rejoin Hugo’s regiment.

Moments later, a fairly large town appeared in his sight, and he was overjoyed, for at that very moment the signal flare of Hugo Schmidt’s regiment rose into the sky.

Without hesitation, he led his regiment towards the flare and moments later, he caught sight of the second regiment.

Arthur smiled from ear to ear as he finally met Hugo Schmidt. He had participated in countless battles and exercises, all of which had pushed him to the limits of his mental and physical endurance. Yet despite all that training, he could still feel his heart palpitating from the loneliness and unease of being behind enemy lines, dancing on the edge of a knife where death could find him at any moment. Now, although the reality had not changed, he at least had a companion to share the burden.

Hugo Schmidt felt a similar way as he let out a deep breath of relief and firmly greeted Arthur with a hug. Sadly, their situation was no different than a frog in warm water. Their lease on life was very short. If they wanted to get out alive, then they had to quickly complete their mission of disrupting the Bharatiya artillery and escape from the vicinity.

"How are your troops doing?" Arthur asked with a furrowed brow as he noticed Hugo’s regiment looked a little worse for wear.

Hugo immediately sighed and shook his head. "I still have over 7000 troops who are battle-ready. The rest were unfortunately left behind." Hugo then noticed Arthur’s own regiment. "How about yours? They don’t look too good either."

"Sigh! I was unlucky enough to run into an ambush. Fortunately, they hadn’t fully mobilised their men yet, so I was able to escape with around 6,500 men."

Hugo felt a little better about his own predicament after hearing the losses of his companion, though at the same time, he felt a bit sympathetic.

Both Hugo and Arthur’s relationship grew stronger through their shared sorrow and experiences, but sadly, their bonding had to wait, as they still had to move.

"Judging from the size of this town, and according to my observations so far, there shouldn’t be more than a few hundred troops here. At most, there would be 1,000, nothing more than that."

Arthur commented and then quickly added,

"With our force of 13,500 troops, it should not be too difficult to neutralise them quickly."

"Agreed." Hugo Schmidt nodded without hesitation, then suddenly remembered the map. "The frontline is only a few hundred meters from this town. It should serve as a good launchpad for our upcoming action. And if I’m not mistaken, to the right of this town lies an uninhabitable jungle stretching several kilometres. Once we complete our mission, we should be able to take advantage of such terrain, which would increase our chances of breaking out of this hellhole."

Hearing this information, Arthur’s eyes lit up, and his breathing quickened. He could almost see the supreme glory before him and feel the riches and wealth that were only an arm’s length away.

The morale of the Europeans listening to the conversation between their senior officers surged by several magnitudes, and they rushed into the town with such ferocity that anyone witnessing the intensity of their charge might assume the town was being ransacked by a large bandit gang.

"Huh." Arthur Thorne immediately felt that something was off. The town was too quiet, as if no one lived in it at all. Looking at Hugo Schmidt’s face, he was taken aback, for it had turned pale like a sheet of paper.

"What happened? Have you discovered something?" Arthur asked hurriedly, but the response he received sent a chill down his spine.

"Look at the ground. All of these are hurried footsteps, and look at the utensils lying everywhere. If I’m not mistaken, the town must have been evacuated not long ago."

’Gulp!’

"That means the enemy must have been aware of our actions and set up this town as an ambush point." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Right at that moment, gunshots began to ring out from all directions, and soldiers who were hit screamed in fright and agony.

"No, we have to retreat."

"Quick, form a defensive formation. Let’s break through with one charge. We are aborting the mission."

Arthur immediately made a decision, and Hugo readily cooperated, even acting as his deputy.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"

Sadly, even after forming a defensive formation, they could not resist the onslaught of the commandos equipped with machine guns, sharpshooters, and hand cannons who had converged from all directions, turning the epicentre of the European formation into a kill zone. Also, in order to move quickly, the troops had not equipped themselves with heavy armour that could resist bullets, so at this moment, they had nothing capable of resisting the Bharatiya firepower.

Arthur and Hugo grew desperate, but despite their struggle, their efforts remained futile. Their troops were cut down one after another, and blood formed a small lake around them, while the dead bodies of their own comrades hindered their retreat.

At that very moment, a stray bullet struck Arthur directly in the neck, and he collapsed to the ground, clutching at his throat. He spat out mouthfuls of blood that bubbled out, and finally died of suffocation.

Hugo was horrified. The next moment, he raised both his hands high and dropped his weapon.

"Surrender, I surrender! Everyone, surrender quickly!"

"We gi-give up, please don’t s-s-s-shoot!" he screamed in broken Bharati.

P.S. I think I will change the name of the Chapter from Taking Back Thessaloniki to Breaking Through the Frontline. Or I’ll just let it be, since I have already saved it in that name on the computer