Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 1233: WW1: Taking back Thessaloniki (7)

After the battle that ended in favour of the Bharatiya Empire, Vaibhav Krishnamurthy did not immediately move on to the next objective. Instead, he called for a high-level meeting, as he wanted to assess the damage and handle the post-war tasks personally.

The five senior logistics officers had been preparing for this day since the battle had ended, so none of them was caught off guard or showed any flustered expressions when they were summoned personally by the commander.

"Deaths on the frontline are numbered at over 9,000 soldiers, Your Excellency, while the number of injured is over 32,000. Among the injured, over 80% will be able to recover to a combat-effective state in an average of a month, while the rest will have to retire due to serious injuries that would either take longer than a month to heal or will not be able to recover at all."

"These war heroes will be transported back to the Empire with the utmost care, and then the logistics department will take responsibility for settling them in society and putting them in a position where they can make a decent living."

"As for the deaths caused due to the surprise attack of the enemy, although thanks to Your Excellency’s fast action, we were able to react quickly enough, over 25,000 soldiers were still lost during the sneak attack. Sadly, due to the nature of the attack, not a lot of people survived."

"As for the equipment and weapons, the losses are negligible. All 70 war tractors are operational, although some of them were hit during the enemy’s final struggle. The damage is not too severe, and the engineers have already taken care of the repairs. As for the artillery pieces and other ordnance, apart from a few hundred crates of standard-issue rifle bullets and several dozen crates of standard-issue artillery shells, we haven’t lost any of the long-range artillery pieces."

"Sadly, over 48 short-range artillery pieces that were closest to the enemy have been rendered unusable, the mechanics already declaring them beyond repair. Fortunately, we have a few hundred spare barrels in our inventory. We can use the remaining parts manufactured by the Israelites to assemble new artillery pieces and make up for the shortfall."

"In the case of medical supplies, we have used over 800 litres of morphine, penicillin, and other concoctions, and when adding together the sanitisers and miscellaneous materials, we did indeed consume a large amount of medical supplies."

"However, thankfully, the main fluids like morphine, penicillin, various concoctions, and other compounds are still in stock. We still have a few tonnes of them in inventory. The only problem is the quickly consumable disinfectants and miscellaneous medical supplies. But thankfully, we just received news that the Egyptians are able to supply us with all the miscellaneous goods, which will be arriving in a few days."

"Overall, we still have a month’s worth of medical supplies. Besides, a shipment has also been sent from the Empire, and it should reach us in a few weeks, more than enough to restock our supplies before the end of the month, even if the Egyptians fail."

Vaibhav Krishnamurthy nodded in satisfaction. Then he brought up a topic he was concerned about. "How about the fuel?"

"We did indeed use quite a bit of our stock, but thankfully, the Empire has set up a small refinery in Lalishtan, right at the oil well in Baku. This refinery is not comparable to the refineries in Gujarat and Ahom, but it is still able to produce several dozen barrels a day, more than enough for our purpose."

"As for coal, we still have plenty of it in stock. Not to mention the Greeks have hoarded several thousand tonnes of coal. We can use these supplies anytime."

"How about the grains?" Vaibhav knew that his army would not be facing a grain shortage anytime soon, since he had started off with 20,000 tonnes of grain, but still, it was always good to keep the situation of grain in mind. After all, his army consumed about 230 tonnes of grain per day, around 1,600 per week, and roughly 6,810 tonnes per month.

As he expected, they still had quite a bit of supply.

"The food situation is not a problem, sir. We still have several months’ worth of food for both the soldiers and the horses. Not to mention the Egyptians, Israelites, and the Yezidis are all ready to supply us with grain whenever necessary. They are even willing to ship it straight through the Black Sea, making transportation faster."

Vaibhav Krishnamurthy ended the meeting with the five logistics officers, then immediately gathered all the senior officers under one roof and started tallying the merits.

This was one of his major duties, tallying the merits and promoting people. According to what he had learned in the military academy, doing this would not only increase the confidence of the soldiers in the organisation but also raise their overall morale while enhancing the talent, combat effectiveness, and efficiency of the army as a whole. Besides, the fact that soldiers usually eagerly waited for this specific meeting almost led to him being peer-pressured into holding it.

But hey, it’s not like he was complaining. He would rather get this cumbersome procedure over with now than do it all at once after the battle, which would not only waste a lot more time but would also require him to invest more resources in verification and even take support from the Bharatiya External Pragya. In contrast, if it were done now, he would only need to consult the Bharatiya Sainik Pragya.

The gathering commenced, and the analysts from the Research and Analysis Wing quickly started to tally all the merit points. In the meantime, Vaibhav Krishnamurthy personally wrote down the certificates that had to be awarded. He hated doing this repetitive job, and that was one of the reasons why he felt the whole ceremony was cumbersome. But in the end, it was only a small part of his duty, so he begrudgingly dealt with it anyway.

Nearly half a day later, when the merits had all been tallied, he began granting the certificates and promoting the officers one after another.

He had no impression of most of the officers who were being promoted, because honestly, there were simply too many of them. However, he did recognise a few important ones who had contributed a lot to the battle and, in a way, were even the main proponents of his plan.

For example, his lieutenant. He had not only taken care of the division of the military according to his command, but had also been responsible for micromanaging the larger troops in his stead. So, although he had not yet reached enough merit points to attain a promotion and reach the level of commander, the highest title in the military, second only to the marshal, he was not too far off. Vaibhav reckoned that before the end of the entire operation, he could officially be promoted and take charge of his own theatre in the war.

Then there were people like Veera Venkat, Veerabhadra Shastri, Sumit Pawar, Kushal Kesari, and others.

Playing a major role throughout the battle, Veera Venkat, who held the title of Brigadier General, was only a few merit points away from being promoted to Major General. In a few days, when the army began to march again, it should not be a problem for him to secure the promotion during the next mission. As for Veerabhadra Shastri, he was directly promoted from Second Lieutenant to First Lieutenant, a leap of a whole rank. And given his age, Vaibhav had a lot of hope for him.

Besides, he had not forgotten that it was Veerabhadra Shastri who had come up with the plan to fake the Europeans’ victory. Although in the end the plan that was used was quite different from what Veerabhadra Shastri had proposed, it was undeniable that his plan had served as the prototype for the final strategy that was eventually used.

As for Sumit Pawar, the First Lieutenant of the Rangers, due to his major contributions, he was also promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, a whole rank above. Not only that, his merits as a Lieutenant Colonel had already surpassed over 70% of all Lieutenant Colonels in the army. So by the end of the campaign, Vaibhav would not be too surprised if Sumit took the major step of jumping from the ranks of senior officers to Brigadier General, a rank that was the crème de la crème, the cream of the crop, and the very top of the food chain in the military.

"Now that the promotions are out of the way, let’s discuss what we are going to do next."

Vaibhav nodded at his subordinate, who then pulled out a huge map and hung it from the ceiling. Vaibhav quickly took out a long ruler and tapped it on the map.

"We have liberated Çorlu. The Greeks are grateful for our help, so we can pat our backs for our actions, but we are just getting started. Our final destination is" tap, "Thessaloniki. "

"However, completing our objective is not a straight line. We have several objectives that we must complete before we aim for the prize."

"This town here is called Tekirdağ. It was a small village before, but the Europeans were in the process of turning it into a city, as it is in a very good strategic location facing the Sea of Marmara. Thankfully, we caught them off guard and their plans were disrupted, but due to their earlier investments, it is able to dock a few battleships and several dozen large cargo vessels. Taking this under our control will solidify our influence in the Sea of Marmara while also opening up a new logistics channel."

"This town is only around 40 kilometres from our current location, and given that we will be receiving support from the navy, this mission does not require too many of our resources."

"So only a part of our force, composed of two regiments of infantry, a battalion of commandos, a battalion of rangers, a company of motorcycle units, and an artillery brigade, will be handling this operation."

"Meanwhile, another part, the rest of us, will be going inland to conquer the farthest Greek fortress called Edirne. It used to be the Greek frontline against the Slavic Byzantium Kingdom, but it is currently occupied by the Slavs. This will be our objective."

"This mission is a little troublesome, since the distance from our location to the objective is over 120 kilometres, so it will take quite a while for us to reach it. But the good news is that the Europeans, for whatever reason, are not trying to concentrate all their armies in Greece. So what we will be facing will only be the force that Slavic Byzantium can muster, not the complete army of the European Union."

"Once we occupy these two places, we will have formed our own little bastion, or a launchpad of sorts. From this area, we will launch attacks on Komotini, Xanthi, Kavala, Serres, all major cities in Thrace and Macedonia, and finally aim at Thessaloniki."

"Once all the objectives are fulfilled and our main objective, Thessaloniki, is also conquered, our main mission will be completed. The Greeks will not only once again be free from European occupation, but they will also be able to gain a land route to their Republic of Anatolia and the Republic of Syria."

"So, ladies and gentlemen, now that you have the blueprint, prepare yourselves mentally for the next few months. We will get very busy. For now, take four days off. Early in the dawn of Friday, we will set off."

P.S. Thank you, Chirag_Singh_1741, for the IceCola