Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

8th September 1657

Sulu Sea, Spanish Philippines

The Sulu Sea is a sea located on the western coast of the Philippines. It lies right below the South China Sea and right above the Celebes Sea.

Most of the time, there isn’t much action in the Sulu Sea, as it has become the backyard of the Spanish Empire, with a significant military presence from the Spanish Navy. Hence, neither the Dutch, the English, nor the Portuguese send their ships to this region unless they want to start a war.

Even the Chinese pirates, who are unscrupulous and ruthless in the South China Sea, rarely enter the Sulu Sea. Even they know the fate of willingly going into the barrel of a gun.

However, on one fine morning, things were a little different.

---

The Spanish Empire had large ships called Manila Galleons, which were normally used in its colonies in the southeast. These are 1,500-ton vessels with a length of 160 feet, a beam width of 45 feet, and a draught of 25 feet, carrying nearly 40 20-kg calibre cannons, with a crew of 300 and a four-mast design.

This was a ship designed to withstand long voyages across the Pacific; it was truly a marvellous battleship of the era.

The Manila Galleons are not too numerous, as the ships only make two trips a year between Manila in the Philippines and Acapulco in New Spain (Mexico). However, oddly enough, two of the ships are currently patrolling the Sulu Sea. Joining this behemoth are numerous frigates and galleys. Due to this lineup, even traders from other European nations stopped visiting the always-popular Manila Bay.

The reason was naturally the unrest in the Philippines. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Within the past few months, Luzon had been almost completely compromised by the rebel leader Tamblot. After Tamblot gained initial control of the cities surrounding Manila two months ago, he savagely began to expand his range of operations. He recruited more troops for his army, and he bought more guns to arm them. The occupation of San Pablo City and Santa Cruz did not stop his conquest.

The cities of Lucena, Lopez, Labo, and Daet had fallen under his command. The Spanish simply couldn’t withstand the constant offence from Tamblot, which came like wave after wave, like a zombie horde.

Even when the governor of Luzon used all his armed forces, sufficient damage could not be done to Tamblot due to his forces being primarily spread throughout the forests of the archipelago. The army of Tamblot came without warning in the middle of the night and destroyed all the fortifications of the Spanish. The forest was their greatest cover; it was their home and the nightmare of the Spanish.

After such consecutive attacks, even the highly militarized Naga City and Legazpi City had crumbled against the indigenous army composed of nearly 60,000 people. Manila Bay was the only major city that remained within the main island of Luzon was still under Spanish control.

Fighting against Tamblot and his army was very hard for the Spanish, but not impossible. As the first colonial empire spanning the globe, the Spanish had more experience in managing colonies than anyone else, even the British. Hence, with a constant supply of firepower and reinforcements, even Tamblot’s mighty forces could be thwarted and obliterated.

However, the Spanish sadly realized that these rebels were well-equipped, so well-equipped that their equipment was not inferior to that of the colonial army.

Perhaps in terms of experience, skills, and training, the Spanish colonial army still had an advantage, but that advantage became negligible in the face of absolute superiority in numbers.

The Spanish governor in Manila realized that if he did not stop the smuggling of arms, the colony would be completely lost. It is for this reason he convinced the Navy to appoint the Manila Galleons in order to curb the smuggling.

---

A sun-tanned Spanish man around the age of 33 stood on the deck of the monstrous galleon, looking at the west coast of the Philippines curiously. "Captain, do you think we will catch any smugglers today?" The man was the Executive Officer named Randolph Fernandez aboard the Manila Galleon, serving under Captain Marc Anthony Lopez.

Mark did not respond to the question of his XO.

He was a serious man, and he wasn’t one for casual conversation. His life was boring and unassuming, and it seemed he had no particular pursuits, as he longed for neither fame, money, nor women; he had these things since childhood since he was a noble. But there was one thing which he loved to do the most, he liked to go on adventures, which explained his choice of profession.

"I don’t know if we can catch some smugglers, but I would love to get out of this damn place." There was annoyance in his voice; he did not like staying in one place for too long, and his limit had been reached after being stuck in the Sulu Sea for the past two weeks.

And In the past two weeks he had been in the sea, except for a few smugglers, he had caught nothing not even one of the distributors.

"I want to conquer the Pacific again, goddamnit," he thought, boiling inside like a pressure cooker.

"Captain, there is a visual of a suspected enemy 3 clicks south!"

The shout of the lookout immediately alerted Marc and his executive officer. They immediately ran to the rear to get a visual on the suspected enemy vessel.

Marc could see vague dots on the horizon. To a normal eye, it would mean nothing, but for Marc Anthony Lopez, an experienced captain of one of the largest ships in the world, he could immediately tell that these were warships with displacements of no less than 1,000 tons.

"This is going to be interesting," Marc’s heart began to beat faster as he loved the feeling of adrenaline rushing through his veins. It was this exact feeling that led him to disregard his family’s suggestion to join the army and resolutely choose a position in the navy.

The Executive Officer, Randolph Fernandez, unlike his captain, was not too excited at the sight of multiple battleships coming toward them at full force, he covered his eyes with his hands to block the sun, "How many do you see?" His expression was solemn as if he were facing a life-and-death enemy.

The lookout squinted his eyes and looked into the distance with the help of a magnifying glass. "1...2...4...5..."

*Gulp*

Sweat trickled down his brow. "Five Bharatiya warships, sir."

The XO’s eyes widened. "Why are there five Mad Marcos here?" A chill ran down his spine as he couldn’t help but shiver. "Isn’t the Malacca Strait blocked off by the Dutch? How come these bastards are here? Goddamn it."

The Pune-class battleship of the Bharatiya Empire, known as the San Marco-class battleship oversees, had become quite famous in Europe after being used in multiple battles, not only in the first battle of the Ionian Sea but also in multiple confrontations against the Ottomans in the Greek Sea, the Mediterranean, and other waters.

In all these confrontations, even though the Bharatiya San Marco-class battleship did not have an advantage in firepower, it always emerged victorious, and it was always the Ottoman vessels that sank to the sea.

Cannonballs ripped through the hull, shredded the deck, and destroyed its cabin, but the San Marco-class battleship just refused to sink; it continued to sail as if nothing had happened. The ship was so resilient that not a single one sank after many battles in the Mediterranean.

Even the most damaged battleship managed to return to port and was only destroyed when buying a new ship was deemed more economical than repairing the old one.

The Europeans frequently saw how the San Marcos, with dozens of holes in its hull and water seeping in from all sides, managed to reach the harbour after slaughtering a group of Ottoman vessels. After a week or two of maintenance and repairs, the San Marco was back at sea again.

Throughout many of its battles, the San Marco-class battleship gained a name of its own: the "Mad Marco" and the "Undying Marco." For a time, many nations placed further orders for the San Marco-class battleship with the Bharatiya Empire.

The Ottomans distraught due to losing too many warships began to research the concept of compartmentalization of their own.

And now, as if God’s biggest joke, Randolph was facing such a ship that just refused to die. Ridiculously enough, he was going up against five.

Although the Manila Galleon is larger and more powerful, Randolph is not too confident in the matchup.

Even though their battle group, which consists of two Manila Galleons and multiple frigates and galleys, might look imposing, it is actually only formidable against normal colonial forces of Europe In the southeast and not against the powerful naval force of the Bharatiya Empire, which has proven to be a very strong naval country.

Additionally, one must not forget that even though the galleons are bigger and stronger, their firepower is actually not too different from the enemy’s despite having the size and numerical advantage.

In essence, the Manila Galleons are no different from advanced armed merchant ships built to travel the treacherous Pacific Ocean, which gives them a fearsome reputation of being capable of taking on any war-built battleship.

However, the caveat is that this statement only holds true in the Pacific Ocean, which is the domain of the Manila Galleon. It has higher endurance, a larger frame, and better durability against the fearsome weather. All these advantages are utilized fully in the vast Pacific Ocean, where no war-built warship can take on this behemoth in its playground.

Similarly, when the Manila Galleon is brought into a small inland sea, it just becomes a large tank with high endurance and firepower but low flexibility, manoeuvrability, and efficiency in military operations. Naturally, Randolph was aware of this issue, as was the captain. Unfortunately, the governor of the Philippines seems to think that bigger is always better.

While their arrival may have scared off all the smugglers, how could it intimidate the naval forces of a nation?

Randolph looked at his captain’s reaction in worry, and that one look made him desperate. There was actually a smile on his captain’s face, a smile that suggested he was enjoying himself quite a bit.

"Goddammit, Cap," Randolph cursed. Even though he had a hunch that something like this would happen, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of wanting to cry.

Marc Anthony was shivering, not with fright but with excitement. He looked at the approaching warships as if he were looking at his prey.

He knew how difficult these warships were to sink. These ships have a fierce reputation back in Europe. Studies have shown that at least 200 tons of water must enter the ship for it to begin to slow down, and more than 300 tons for the ship to sink.

How amazing was that? That was more than a quarter of the ship’s weight. The only option to sink the ship was to blast one area continuously until a large enough hole was formed that would break through all the compartments. But how could things be so easy? No one would allow their ship to be hit in the same place every time.

However, this difficulty was what Marc Anthony liked; he enjoyed challenges.

"Full speed ahead! Let’s greet the enemy, hahaha!"

Randolph’s face was pale and he looked like a dead fish, but he had no choice but to follow the orders. He knew that the captain of the other ship was a person who was captain in name only, and all the orders were actually given by Marc for both ships.

"Full speed ahead!"

---

Aboard the Pune-class battleship, a bald middle-aged man with a muscular body like that of a bodybuilder stood on the deck, looking at the Manila Galleons charging towards him with a surprised expression on his face. The bald man was none other than Akhil, one of the three naval commanders of the Bharatiya Empire.

Seeing that the process of completely removing the Spanish from the Philippines was halted at the final step because of the arrival of the Manila Galleons, Akhil was sent on this mission by Gangadhar to disrupt the situation and possibly sink the large galleons.

The Bharatiya Empire’s interference in Southeast Asian countries had become an open secret in Europe, so Bharat no longer needed to hide in the dark and came out in the open to show its dissatisfaction with the European occupation of Southeast Asian countries.

As for retaliation, neither Vijay nor Admiral Gangadhar was worried, as Bharat now had enough force to not only protect itself but hit back if necessary.

For this reason, the Bharatiya Empire had stopped allowing any European ship at odds with it, whether Dutch, English, or Spanish, from entering through the Malacca Strait.

As a result, the Dutch had to move around Sumatra Island and go through the port of Jakarta to reach Kuala Lumpur.

Unfortunately, Bharat encountered the same problem. Although the Navy of Bharat could go through the Malacca Strait, it was extremely dangerous because the Dutch had completely gone mad and began destroying any Bharatiya ship that went through the strait, even if it was a small merchant ship.

Therefore, to reach the Sulu Sea, Akhil had to go around the Indonesian archipelago, resupply in Portuguese Timor, take the Sulawesi Confederacy as a stronghold, and enter the highly fortified Sulu Sea.

Akhil looked through the telescope and noticed that the galleons were not slowing down. "To the battlements, men!" Akhil ordered with a smile on his face; he couldn’t wait for the battle to start.