CHAPTER 23- Formation training.

1538, Capital city, Dharanikota Kingdom.

After convincing Hemadri to join the council, Rudra went back to the Palace to perform his Kingly duties. As the Royal court was effectively demolished after the civil war, Most of the duties fell on him. 

Still, the frameworks of the bureaucracy were there, and it made his life a lot easier. He couldn't wait to dump these things on someone more qualified and get to doing something more productive.

He was currently dealing with all the wealth confiscated from the families supporting Karana Deva. After they were dead, all of that became the crown's property.

It was a slow process, and dealing with it took time. The wealth confiscated by his soldiers was no small amount, by any means, and accounted for nearly 20 percent of all cultivated land in the kingdom.

He arranged for the workers in those farms to keep working in them, but it looked like there would be crop troubles this year. The crown has to bear the cost of the reduced output because he decided to take out those families.

After dealing with the day's work ( delegating it to others), Rudra left the palace again that day, to a military camp that was set up on the outskirts of the city. Rudra arrived with his usual procession of guards and a few servants to the camp. 

After dealing with the security at the entrance of the camp, Rudra Deva went into the huge, wooden-walled compound. Inside, the soil was flattened, and shown signs of regular use. 

There were a few buildings that looked recently constructed, but most of it was just flattened soil and grass. That doesn't mean there was no activity, however. 

There were hundreds of soldiers inside the camp, all divided into groups. Each group was circling the field, in formation. Although it seemed that some groups of soldiers were struggling, they were only being trained in this type of formation march for less than a month.

"Your majesty," Kadhumalla said, bowing to him slightly, as he approached. The man was the same as he had seen him the last time. Rudra expected him to take the dismissal from the Royal guards, a bit more deeply.

'Some people can endure a lot.' he thought to himself.

"You are looking well, Kadhumalla. Is the new job treating you well? " he asked the former leader of the Royal Guards, a small smile on his face. He intended to just tease the ever-serious man a bit, so that he may relax.

"These people are still soldiers, your majesty. Just because they had seen a bit of bloodshed over the past few months, doesn't mean I can't whip them into shape." Kadhumalla replied confidently as he looked at the marching soldiers.

The soldiers were of course the ones who participated in the death squads, led by some of the unloyal officers. After the officers were dealt with, Rudra gathered all the soldiers and put them under the command of Kadhumalla.

Kadhumalla was the strictest man he knew, and if he could not whip them back into shape, no one could. It seemed that the progress was going very well, going by the looks of it.

"How is the formation training going?" Rudra once again questioned. As these soldiers were being trained anew anyway, he decided to copy a bunch of training guides from the Kingdom of Prussia, the most modern ones he could find in his memories.

He still had to understand it and retranslate it himself, but the book was worth it. Rudra took various formation maneuvers and basic formation practices, from the 19th-century military books of Britain, France, Prussia, and many other well-known armies, and put their essence in the training book.

But the books are not a be-all, end-all, however. Many practices don't directly transfer, and a good officer knows to not rely on books. So he explained some of it to Kadhumala, who readily understood it.

Still, there was a lot left in those books to be learned, and he only published the basics. He was sure, his officers have to understand it all in the future. But for now, the basics are enough. 

"Very well, your majesty. I don't know how formation training will be helpful in the coordination of the army, but the progress is going well, as you ordered." Kadhumalla replied, still skeptical of the training methods.

"We are just training them for the use of muskets in the future. Although the progress is stalled for now, I have confidence that we will start producing them by the end of the year." Rudra replied to the middle-aged man, who was as sharp-eyed as ever.

"The old matchlocks from the storage that you have provided seem a bit difficult to handle Your Majesty. Do these old rusty weapons, really 'change the world' as you put it the last time?" Kadhumalla asked, and the doubtful tone remained. 

The matchlocks, which the Dharanikota kingdom has access to, were old. More than 20 years old. They had been taken from the corpses of the Portuguese matchlock mercenaries, who fought in the war between Vijayanagara and the Gajapathi Empire, in the 1510s.

Matchlocks were of course tested in the kingdom itself after the topic came up. But it had been dismissed by his father's court as something worse than an archer. And Rudra couldn't blame them for that.

Although the weapon technology gap between Europe and Asia, was not that much during the 16th century, with countries in both continents being specialized in different fields, the overall technology was quite backward. 

The time to load a matchlock musket for an average soldier ranged anywhere from 1 minute to 2 and a half minutes. In battlefields, which are time sensitive and a wrong move can spell your doom, spending 2 minutes standing there and loading a musket, that probably misses, will seem like an extreme waste of time.

This is one of the main reasons why, even though South Indian kingdoms had access to European weaponry via the Portuguese, for a longer time than the Northern kingdoms, they didn't adopt them.

You have to note that, even though gunpowder technology existed in India from the 13th century, the arrival of the Portuguese in the south in 1498, and the Mughals in the North after 1528, marked the beginning of a new era in the sub-continent's weapon history.

In the southern kingdoms, the nations that rapidly absorbed the new technologies were the Sultanates of the Deccan. It also helped that, they had access to Ottoman Empire's engineers and artillery experts, the same as the early Mughals.

But just having access to technology does not mean you know how to use it. Without the trials of war, no one from the Sultanates knew how to properly use these new cannons. This led to the Bidar Sultanate losing a war against the Vijayanagara Empire, even though they had superior weaponry just because they could not aim them properly.

In the siege of Raichur, Vijayanagari soldiers just walked up to the portions of the wall where the cannons were not able to aim and won the siege and the following battle. What could have been fixed with something as simple as mounting the cannons on a trunnion, led them to lose the war.

This is one of the main reasons behind the contempt towards gunpowder weapons in the Hindu southern kingdoms. They not only didn't have somebody to look up to like the Ottomans, but they also won the wars in the face of this supposedly 'superior technology'.

The difficulty of using the early matchlocks, the ineffectiveness of the cannons they had faced, and the general protectiveness of the Portuguese with these technologies, led to an overall low adoption rates of these technologies in the Southern Hindu kingdoms.

By the time the challenges were solved however, it was too late. The Deccan sultanates had advanced by leaps and bounds, and the Hindu kingdoms like the Vijayanagara Empire were struck in the past. This was one of the main reasons that contributed to the defeat of the Vijayanagara Empire in the battle of Talikota in 1565, and its disintegration, that followed soon after.

But that was in the old timeline, and things could still change, however. Although he cannot change the fate of the blind elephant that is the Vijayanagara Empire, he can still change the fate of his people, by properly utilizing these new technologies.

"Yes, Kadhu. Sometimes, a flap of a butterfly can cause a storm. Some things indeed have the potential to change the world. We are already using cannons, but only in defense of our forts and sieges of the enemy's forts. What would happen if there was a cannon in every field battle, being used against flesh, not walls? Think what would happen if there were a cannon in the hands of every soldier. That is the future of war." Rudra explained to Kadhumalla.

Kadhumalla was not dumb, and could easily grasp the implications. Rudra was explaining it just for the sake of it, however, and Kadhumalla who spent his whole life in the military certainly understood.

"Everything you say sounds nice your majesty. But, can our kingdom afford to equip every soldier with these muskets? From the preliminary tests we have conducted so far, it seems that they are only effective individually at a close range. For use at longer ranges, we need a large quantity of muskets firing at the same time to hit something." Kadhumalla concluded, giving the results of the primary tests conducted with the muskets.

"Look Kadhumalla, I am going to be honest with you. This is going to be expensive, but only initially. I have plans to increase iron production as well as to establish a weapons factory. But even if I do all of that, I need men to be able to use them. That is the reason I am making you train these soldiers in formation tactics." Rudra answered back to the older man.

"I will train these soldiers to the bone. But I can only do so much if they don't even have these muskets in the first place. But you are king, your majesty. You make the Rules. Just make sure to get me the guns, so that all this, doesn't go to waste." Kadhumalla said and pointed to their surroundings when saying the last words.

"Thank you for your trust. I need the same confidence and questioning attitude when you are participating in the council meetings." Rudra said as he turned to leave.

"A what now?" Kadhumalla asked, suddenly confused at the turn of events.

"The Royal Council? Oh wait, I forgot to tell you. That was the reason I came here in the first place. You are going to be my advisor on defense and national security matters. Thank you for accepting it by the way." Rudra said as he turned to leave once again.

"Wait, your majesty! This... I can't do this. It will be too much juggling between training soldiers and attending your meetings. Can't General Pemmisani take the position? He had been quite upset ever since you relieved him of the General post while giving command of the fort to his son." Kadhumalla said, now following Rudra as they made their way towards the main gate.

"You know How I feel about that snake. I rewarded his son because he is more a citizen of Dharanikota than a Pemmisani. But the General? He was almost ready to rebel and even called for assistance from his influential family in Vijayanagara. Why would I give him such an important council position?" Rudra scoffed at the idea of giving that snake any more power.

He didn't purge the Pemmisani in the last few months because of only two reasons. First, Venkat Pemmisani was an exceptional leader, and losing him would mean losing an important talent. Second, the extended family roots of Pemmisanis lay in the Vijayanagara Empire, with them controlling the Tadipatri region.

If a blockade was placed on the kingdom's land trade routes in that region, nearly all of their trade with Vijayanagara would be affected. With the Sultanate already taxing the hell out of any trade via the water at Macherla, Rudra could not afford to make a dangerous move against the Pemmisanis yet.

"It will be difficult, but as per your orders Your Majesty. I will join the council. Thank you for considering me." Kadhumalla said as they reached the gate.

"Farewell for now, then. Train my troops well." Rudra said as he and his procession mounted the Horses and left for the palace again.