Military power

After a while, Rajgopal said, ''Your Majesty, I will take a month to complete this task, as it is difficult to search all the records of history." Rajgopal is the finance minister and one of the advisors of Vikram Cort.

After that, every member present in the meeting takes their time to collect all the information. It will take a complete three months to gather all the information. So, Vikram has to wait for the time being to start conquering the land. After all, it will take time and proper planning. If anything goes wrong, it will affect the whole state. It will not only affect the state financially but also alert all the major powers. It is not the time to attract the attention of major powers.

Firstly, Vikram wants to ensure that there is no traitor in his court and has as many supporters as possible so that his plan runs smoothly without any obstructions.

After listening to them all, Vikram said, "Ok, I get it. You all will get the time you require. After that, you all have to submit your report to me. And also, you are responsible for the report. So, you have to take it seriously and report what is true. Now you all are dismissed."

After that, the officials all headed to their respective offices to start working. Vikram was still sitting at his seat. Vikram said to his uncle, who was still there because Vikram had signaled him for a private discussion, "Uncle, I want to spy on all the officials of the court who were present here."

Virendra was one of the best soldiers and also a military general of the state. So he knows that the new king will never trust people who were unknown to him. Thus, he was not surprised by Vikram's attitude towards his officials. However, one thing still surprised him: 'How did my nephew become so good in politics in just one night? Is he being possessed?' Not only did his attitude change overnight, but he also somehow acquired a cautious personality. This is what a good king of any kingdom always has to know - what is good for him and what is not. Ultimately, a king's decisions can change the fate of the kingdom.' Virendra was thinking about the king's behavior, but how could he ask him about that?

Virendra said, ''Yes, your majesty, it will be done.'' Vikram thought of something and said, ''I also want everyone's family details. And the spy report should be given to me every week for three months.'' Virendra was once again shocked because of the family details point but did not show his reaction on his face and said, ''Your majesty, it will be done as you order.''

Vikram asked, while sitting on his throne, ''Ok, aside from that, I want to know about our current military strength and all the other details that you can provide me right now.''

Virendra replied, ''Sir, currently we are maintaining two thousand soldiers in our army. We also have one hundred war horses. Your Highness, as you know, there is also a spy network that was created by your father. The spy network is not as big as other major empires, but it is still effective.''

Vikram then asked, very curiously, about how soldiers are trained. He inquired whether they are trained in straightforward confrontation, have defensive formations, or use guerrilla warfare tactics to ambush enemies. Vikram, being a soldier from the modern era, wanted to know how his ancestors fought in war. Virendra was confused by Vikram's question, thinking, 'What is His Majesty talking about with straightforward, defensive, and guerrilla warfare tactics? I have never heard of these words before.'

Virendra said, ''With all due respect, Your Majesty, I don't know what these words mean, and I have never seen such fighting styles in my whole life.''

Seeing his confused uncle, Vikram said, ''Uncle, these words are the ones I came up with for different fighting styles in war. I will explain them to you. I am sorry for not explaining them to you earlier. Uncle, for example, when you are fighting in a plane while the enemy is in front of you and is also fighting straightforwardly, directly engaging with us head-on. It is called a frontal assault. Uncle, for example, when you are escorting something or someone important, for example, someone like me, and you get ambushed, what will be your priority at that time, uncle?''

Virendra thought for a moment and said, ''Our top priority will, of course, be to ensure your safety. We will never compromise with your safety, Your Highness.''

Vikram nodded and said, ''As you said, your top priority will be to ensure my safety from ambush. But at that time, what formation would you use to maintain my safety and also defend from enemies? The formation and coordination used to safeguard me will be called a defensive formation. There are many types of defensive formations, for example, defending against enemies in forts, escorting important persons, supply escorts for war, or important people from other states, etc. In the third and last case, suppose you get information that enemies are going to attack. You know their numbers and their path. What will you do?''

Virendra replied, ''Your Highness, we have two choices at that time. The first is that we can engage with them directly, but it will only be possible when the number of enemy soldiers is not far greater than ours. Secondly, we can prepare an ambush before them that will directly reduce a large number of enemies, and we won't have any problem with the number of enemies as we can always retreat after delivering a heavy blow to the enemies.''

Vikram had a smile on his face and said, ''Exactly, mass, strike, and disperse are strategic elements of successful guerrilla operations. Guerrilla activities include intelligence operations, psychological warfare, sabotage, assassinations, and terrorist acts designed to inject fear and instability in the populace. This is called guerrilla warfare tactics. By using these tactics, we can prepare an ambush to reduce large numbers of enemy forces. If these tactics go as planned, we can reduce a large number of casualties, and ultimately, this will lead us to victory. Now, do you understand these terms? Are there any soldiers or units trained in these types of tasks?''