September 1538, Royal Palace, Capital city, Dharanikota.
Once again, the Royal chambers were full. After the fiasco that happened last time, with the education minister Acharya, only some of the ministers were in attendance this time, as the issue was outside the area of their expertise.
The diplomatic and foreign affairs advisor Vasudhna Prabhakar, was pacing around in the room, waiting for the King to arrive. The trade and Justice advisors were also standing around the table.
The chairs around the table were removed, and a large map of the kingdom was placed on it. Important strategic locations such as forts and large towns were marked, with various miniatures, making them easier to identify.
Around the table, instead of the regular council advisors, military personnel were present. Three older men who were generals, some colonels with close relation to the king, and the head of the new training institute, Kadhumalla, were there.
"It seems that you ministers are too scared to even confront the king. I don't know why the kid restricts us from participating in your so-called council meetings. They seem to be just a redressed version of the old Royal Court meetings. At least they used to have some entertainment." remarked General Saradhi, to Prabhakar, who then stopped to stare back at him.
General Saradhi was the one who was in charge of the Southern front against Vijayanagara. He was also the oldest man in the room at sixty years old. As Vijayanagara was somewhat of an ally, his job was the easiest of the bunch.
"The king wants to maintain a separation of state and military. It is to prevent what happened with General Sangama. As for the new court structure, the king has a lot to do, and wasting time on entertainment is not one of them." answered Vasekar, the man in charge of Royal affairs.
Gen. Sangama, participated in the rebellion, fighting with the King's uncle, in the battle for Dharanikota. His fate was known to everyone, as he was such a highly influential person in the kingdom's military.
"General Saradhi, I didn't know that you were so concerned about the Council and its activities. Given your relationship with our neighbouring Empire, I thought you would be more interested in us merging into them than, anything that happens here," Prabhakar, who after composing himself, replied.
Gen. Saradhi was once a member of the army headed by the man who was supposed to be the King of Dharanikota, i.e. Rudra's other grandfather, who unexpectedly died causing his son, Rudra's Father to become KIng.
Saradhi agreed to become a part of the Kingdom's military, and took up the role of a General, in the then-young armed forces of the Kingdom. But he was born and raised in the Empire and spent 20 years before that, serving as an officer of the Vijayanagara Empire.
He had very good relations with the officials of the Empire, and he always served as the voice of the Empire in the Kingdom's military. Who could blame him? Most of the original members of the KIngdom's administration were from the Empire.
The Empire's influence only started to reduce, with the slow usurpation and Change of officials under Rudra's uncle, who also served as the prime minister. Then it changed even more, with Rudra taking the reins.
Vijayanagara's ambitions for the Kingdom are well-known to all of the people in the room. Dharanikota was, after all, a buffer state established to prevent the Gajapathi Empire and the Vijayanagara from going to war.
After access to the Gajapathi was cut off with the Golconda Sultanate's invasion 10 years ago, the Kingdom's role as a buffer state became redundant. People both from within the Kingdom and the Empire had raised the matter of merging back into the Empire.
"Are you questioning my loyalty, Prabhakar? I served the kingdom for more than 20 years, and I served under the King's grandfather, for even longer. Besides, you were working in Hampi, the capital of the empire, for quite some time, before you were appointed here." the general spit out, " If anyone is working for them, it is you."
"I was an ambassador, you fool. What would you barbarians from the armed forces know about the finesse in diplomacy? Maybe that is why, you are still stationed at the border, while I am now serving the kingdom from the Capital." Prabhakar replied, not the one to back down from the challenge.
The other members, both from the military and the council, watched from the sidelines, as the two prepared for a battle of words. But when the General was about to reply, The door to the room opened, and Rudra Deva, the king of Dharanikota walked in.
The room fell silent, as all of the officials, put their fists to their chests, with their heads bowed down, the standard salute in the kingdom. The foreign affairs minister, and the General, who were about to sling insults at each other, went silent.
"Relax," Rudra said as he walked to the head of the table, to the spot where his chair would usually be. " Go on. Continue your fight. I am sure all the other people are wasting their precious time by coming here, to see the creativity of your words."
The room remained quiet. Neither the guilty nor anyone else spoke up. Rudra didn't need to worry that his officials were remaining quiet either, as he had his butler already in the room, to observe.
He was not looking to punish someone. These are grown people, both talented and influential. It would only tarnish his name if he were to issue punishments for every little thing. Besides, such squabbles were common in politics.
"Now, let us get to the topic you all are here for, " Rudra addressed the people in the room." We have suffered a diplomatic insult, from what happened in the port of Machilipatnam. One of the members of the council is injured in the incident, and another one narrowly missed it"
The infrastructure minister/ advisor Selvappan, was injured and is still in recovery. The man was lucky that he was not injured further, as the causalities had grown to 70 people, not counting the small riot that occurred after the fact.
The Council member who survived the incident, Montra, was present in the room. Taking the opportunity, she commented on it. " I am quite fortunate to have come out relatively unharmed from it, Your Majesty. I am praying to the gods, if they exist, that the injured recover, and for that fleet to encounter all the storms in the ocean"
"I am sure retribution will come, Lady Montra. It's a pity that we are not strong enough now, to take it ourselves. But I assure you, a day will come in the future When no armies at our borders can threaten us, nor will any fleet at our shores." Rudra promised Lady Montra and then asked the foreign affairs advisor, " Prabhakar, have you gotten anything about what I asked you about?"
"Yes, Your Majesty." Prabhakar started and then explained to everyone, "After the incident, 10 days ago, His Majesty had a meeting with me about it. We have concluded that, even though the portuguese are the ones that had attacked us, there will be no immediate threat from them. Instead, the message the incident had sent to our neighbours, is what we should be worried about."
"We have shown weakness. Our neighbours will circle us like vultures if we don't do anything about it. Now, Prabhakar, please tell the room, what happened in Golconda sultanate's court?"
"Of course." the foreign affairs advisor said as he referred to some documents before continuing "Our ambassador to Golconda sent a message after their royal court had been conducted recently. We initially thought this was going to be a meeting to discuss about the fact that, Bidar and Ahmednagar are preparing an alliance against them."
Prabhakar waited a moment for the tension to build up, " But an argument was made by some members of the court, that suggested we are ripe for occupation. It was called off for being reckless, but, the point still stands that, there are members of the Sultanate's court, that consider us weak."
"Can you please share the names of the members who suggested that, Prabhakar?" Rudra asked as he looked at the faces of the people in the room. He was already briefed about what happened, but informing the council and the military was a formality.
"Crown prince of the Sultanate, Qutbuddin, your Majesty. He suggested leading an army again into our lands, to finish off what the sultan had started, ten years ago. Granted, another prince, Jamsheed, was the one who made the argument of not attacking us."
"Jamsheed has no interest in protecting us," said Gen. Verra Naidu Pemmisani, the father of Colonel Venkat, and the man in charge of Kondapalli Fort. " All of his loyal armies are stationed on the western border of the Sultanate. Any attack against us will only benefit Qutbuddin, and will further reduce Jamsheed's bid for the Sultan's throne."
"He is right your Majesty. All my sources suggest that this is just some crown politics at play. But it is also true that we are at a backstep, and they wanted to take advantage of that." said Prabhakar, reiterating the point, Naidu made.
"It is always about some throne, isn't it? It is the same here, and it is the same everywhere else. Alright, what is the news from Vijayanagara? How are they reacting?" Rudra asked, both Prabhakar and General Saradhi.
"It has also been brought up in the court of the Vijayanagara Empire, Your Majesty," Prabhakar answered, but before he could answer, he was interrupted.
"They know what happened, and decided that they will not provide us any help," General Saradhi explained " It is just a ploy, to improve the diplomatic relations, Your Majesty, nothing else. They want us to ask for help to make it a diplomatic win for them."
Rudra did not like the way Saradhi spoke out of turn. But the man has experience in the matter, so he let it slide. The General had a lot of connections in The Empire, so he knew what he was speaking about.
"The exact words were, ' They will come begging us for help when that young brat they have for a king realizes that, he is in over his head.' "Prabhakar explained and then asked Gen. Saradhi" You are doing quite a good job, muddling what had happened. Nicely protecting your patrons there, General."
"Thank you, both of you." Rudra intervened, to prevent the argument from deviating again. " I know that Gen. Saradhi has some close ties with the Vijayanagara Empire, But the General had made it clear to me that, he was on our side. Didn't you general? You are on our side, are you not? "
As Rudra's line of questioning suddenly turned towards him, General Saradhi broke out into cold sweat. He was an older man, older than anyone in the room, But he was he was there when Rudra did what he did, in the first months of his rule. He knew that there would be no place for disloyalty, under Rudra.
"Of..Of Course, Your Majesty. I am just doing my job. You asked me to keep an ear to the ground for anything that is happening in the Empire, and It is even more difficult when you know the people on the other side." Saradhi Explained. " I am not trying to defend them."
"Alright, I will believe you. Minister Nyayapala, did your people find out who was responsible for the riot that happened, after the portuguese attack?" he asked the Justice Minister, who only nodded, and pushed him a file.
After receiving an affirmative and checking the file, Rudra continued "They are guilty of the murder of all those innocent people that day. They must be punished, but they can also help us in another way."
After gaining all of the members' attention, he explained " I want a rumour created that whatever happened in Machilipatnam was the fault of the Sultanate. Officially it is the fault of the portuguese, but people need to think the Sultanate had done it."
People needed an enemy to rally against, and the Portuguese are not someone the kingdom can go against, right now. Not even counting the firepower advantage, they are stationed out of Malabar and Malacca, both of which are far away.
"Evacuate the families of the people who had the riot, they don't need to suffer for something we are doing." Rudra explained to Nyayapala, then said " I know what all of you are thinking. Is it wise to provoke an enemy, that is why we are keeping the truth in official records. Plausible deniability."
There will be many people who will see through the propaganda, but many more will believe what the Kingdom says. After all, winning in the court of public opinion is important. Rudra did not want to look too bad in the History books, but he also needed a win to cement his power.
What better than to fight an old enemy? Maybe he can even spin it as a generational fight. 'Son wins a fight that his father lost, bringing back glory to the humiliated family.' that sounded nice, like the plot of a movie.
"Everyone, there is a war coming. It may take a few months, but it will come. We need to prove to the world that we are not weak. Golconda will help us in this, whether they like it or not."