NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1035: European reaction
The handover of power is a very critical matter, so Vijay had to personally travel to each and every frontier, inspect the whole frontier for the first time, and then officially do a small enthronement ceremony in the frontier, elevate it to a subordinate kingdom with its own insignia, flag, anthem, and move on.
This whole trip took Vijay several months; by the time Vijay had gotten back to the Bharatiya Empire, it was already February of 1687.
Coming back to the empire, he was not free either; he had to appoint new commanders to the Army and Navy.
While Vijay was busy fulfilling his duties, a whole debate had started about the matter, and the debate was naturally held by the 3 largest media companies of the empire: Raya Media Corporation with its flagship Bharatham Daily, Bakshi Media Corporation with its flagship Times of Bharat, and Kalyan Media Works with its flagship The Observer.
"Although it is imperative that legendary commanders like King Sarvesh Ranavikrama, King Ramayya Senapati, or even ministers like Prime Minister Vinod get their due respect and position deserving of their service to the empire, the question is, is it really the right time to do it, or let me rephrase the question, is promoting them all at once bottlenecking the empire's military and the government without proper candidates?" Sridevi Prasad, a popular political analyst from Gupta Nagari, questioned.
Harishchandra Bomai, a retired Brigadier General and the current minister of the Solanki Puri Parliament, did a namaskar to the audience and responded, "First of all, I would like to thank the organisers for giving me the opportunity to stand on the stage with my fellow panellists. I am very grateful for this gesture."
"Second of all, I would like to thank Mr Sridevi Prasad for bringing out such sensitive but important questions to light, because if such questions are not asked, our empire cannot function."
"Now let me answer Sir's question in two main aspects."
"Number one, with Prime Minister Vinod stepping down from his post this year, will the empire be affected by him not being at the helm for the first time since the government's founding?"
"I will not lie, it will definitely be affected, after all, that man was the face of the government for over three decades, it is not so easy to replace him, but I reckon we will all get used to the new prime minister by the end of the year. I do not think it is controversial to say that we have a lot of talented and outstanding political leaders who could take his place."
"Besides, the Emperor of the empire is still His Majesty, with him still in good health, what is there to fear?"
"Number two, with the commanders of both the Army and Navy stepping down at the same time, will the situation in the military be affected?"
"I am uniquely enabled to answer these questions, since all of you know I have been a Brigadier General of the Bharatiya Army for almost half of my life, so I can say this with full confidence, the military is actually the least affected area. It might come as a surprise to a lot of people, but the military is not actually helpless without the commanders, because maybe the commanders already knew the plan of His Majesty, or they were paving the way for their subordinates."
"But for the last five to six years in the war against the European countries in the Kingdom of Israel, the commanders only participated in the earlier stages of the battle, while the rest of the battles were commanded completely by the subordinates. The commanders only acted when an important decision had to be taken and they couldn't be left out, like that time when the bridges were blown up and we had to go on a complete defensive, and the logistical channels had to be rerouted."
"So basically, my point is, we have adequate talent in the military to replace the commanders. Besides, with the commanders now stepping down, it gives the Bharatiya Empire more flexibility to create more positions for new commanders, since we will have our army now positioned all over the Middle East and in the Kingdom of Israel, in Egypt, all over Southeast Asia, all over Suvarnath Dwipa, and even as far as the Hawaii Islands and the Americas."
"The previous military structure was bound to become limiting, but now we have no problem in dividing the power of the military and expanding its scale."
The debate went on for a long time, but the consensus reached was that the empire would definitely be affected, but not to an extent that it could not be handled with the emperor at the helm.
Vijay, who read the reports after finishing his work, was very satisfied with how the people were receiving the news. In fact, he wouldn't be wrong to admit that he had initially doubted whether making the change so quickly was the right decision, but now, in hindsight, he knew he was right. Allowing the outsiders as little time as possible to react had indeed been the correct course of action.
Although he felt a little melancholy when he remembered that he wouldn't be seeing most of his loyal confidants for a long time, he cheered up quickly enough; after all, he had already anticipated this day to come.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Vijay went home after a fulfilling day of work.
---
Back in the Bharatiya Empire, Vijay might be relieved, but halfway across the world, most European monarchs were on the edges of their seats, unable to stay calm.
"What, are you serious?"
Charles II Stuart exclaimed. A few days ago, he had received the news of the high command of the Bharatiya military collectively resigning. He was so overjoyed, he unified all the forces he could to do a combined attack on the Kingdom of Israel for one last time, now that the Bharatiya commanders were no longer there. But just when he was about to act on his decisions and was about to set off in a few days, he received this news.
"Are you sure that Vijay promoted these people to kings and gave them their own territory?"
His eyes were squinted, only a sliver of light appearing, which showed a wary glint in his eyes.
'Gulp'
Robert wiped the sweat from his brow and responded, "I am sure, Your Majesty, this is not a secret. A huge ceremony was held to commemorate the event."
"Damn it!" Stuart cursed and banged the table.
The situation was not too dissimilar in the Kingdom of France.
"And I thought we had an opportunity to take advantage of the Bharatiya's weakness," Louis XIV clicked his tongue in annoyance.
William III of Orange, the oldest enemy of the Bharatiya Empire, was even more furious after understanding what Vijay had done.
His eyes were bloodshot.
"Can we still go through with the plan? Even if a civil war is not about to break out in the Bharatiya Empire, it should take the Bharatiya Empire a long time to respond if we attack the Kingdom of Israel now, shouldn't it?"
He wished for nothing but to rip open the Kingdom of Israel, which reminded him every moment of his failures to strangle the budding Vijayanagar Empire in its cradle.
"Unfortunately, it is not possible, my lord. Even if the commanders are not present in the Kingdom of Israel, the 8 star fortresses they have built are still occupied by the Bharatiya military, and the right and left-hand generals of all the commanders of the Bharatiya Empire are still in the Kingdom of Israel. If we attack them now, instead of catching them by surprise, we might actually be falling into a trap."
Unfortunately for William, his ideas were immediately cut short by his subordinate, who was still a little sane.
There was no surprise from the reaction of the three usual suspects of Europe, but what was surprising was that Peter actually showed a look of regret when the Bharatiya Empire was not in trouble.
Now that he had managed to conquer the Russian Empire, his dependence on the Bharatiya Empire, although not completely erased, had been greatly reduced. So even if the Bharatiya Empire were to face trouble, he would still aid the Eastern Empire, but he would also demand greater autonomy and advanced technology to make himself self-reliant. Unfortunately, however, such aspirations could only remain dreams.
The emotions and thoughts of Ferdinand William were similar to those of Peter. If the Bharatiya Empire really got into a civil war and was not able to completely protect the Kingdom of Israel, he would definitely help the Kingdom of Israel, but on the condition of being provided with the advanced steam engine technology and advanced gun-making technologies. Yet he felt regretful that he did not even get the chance to ask.
Ironically enough, the people who were most relieved were King Leopold I of the Austrian Empire and Dmitri Alexandrovitch Romanov of the Kingdom of Slavic Byzantine.
Although both of them hated the Bharatiya Empire for being responsible for them losing their empires, they were also completely reliant on the support provided by the Bharatiya Empire to prop up their kingdoms. They hated to be in their current position, but they were left with no choice. Until they could find a replacement for the Bharatiya Empire, until they could find a great power able to protect them from the Kingdom of Prussia and the Russian Empire, they would have to delicately maintain their relationship with the Bharatiya Empire, and they would help the Bharatiya Empire when the situation arose.
P.S. MAP of Europe in comments