Empire of India: Rise of the Ruthless Prince

In the port city of Hambantota, Dutch ships were nowhere to be seen. Only the cargo ships were present at the docks. The military ships were all on patrols from the recent outbreak of rumors about the Portuguese defeat in Daman.

The General Mark Hendriks had increased the patrol for the Dutch using his influence in the Kandy kingdom. He also managed to patrol in the waters controlled by the Kingdom. Since the king was their puppet, Mark had nothing to worry about.

Mark also sent his merchants to confirm the truth about the rumors. Even if he found a Portuguese ship to Malacca. He can't confirm that they lost at Daman. Hence he figured sending the merchants to Surat and Goa would be the best way to confirm it.

The Dutch traded with the Empire mostly through the port city of Visakhapatnam.

Mark paced around the room waiting for some information about the missions. He had gotten a message earlier about the Portuguese ships passing en route to Malacca. A letter arrived a few days prior to this about the merchants returning from Goa and Surat after confirming the rumors.
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"General!" A soldier barged into the room. "The merchant ship has arrived at the docks."

"Call the merchants here quickly. I want to confirm." He barked orders at the soldier.

After a few minutes, the merchants that went to Surat and Goa to confirm the rumors were seated in his study room. Mark sat on his chair and asked them with a commanding voice.

"So what was the situation like in the region?"

"Goa was filled with Portuguese nobles." A merchant remarked. "There were tents outside the city."

"Hmm... What about the soldiers?"

"Quite a few Portuguese soldiers."

Mark scratched his neck. "The Empire allowed the Portuguese soldiers into the city?"

'No, that can't be.' He thought. 'The Empire has bad blood with the Portuguese.'

'Some sort of a deal.'

Mark concluded.

"The Portuguese soldiers and merchants were so wary of us. It was too uncomfortable." The merchant remarked. "I guess the rumors must be true."

Mark laughed. "I hope so too."

"What about you?" He turned to the merchant that went to Surat.

"They didn't allow me into the city." The merchant sighed. "I had to stay in the ship."

"What?" Mark was taken aback. "Did you see the situation there?"

"The port defenses were destroyed and the buildings were under repair from a recent fight." The merchant remembered. "There were many Maratha soldiers swarming and security was heightened."

"Hmm…"

"But General, don't worry about that."

Mark raised his brow in confusion. "What?"

"I went to Daman."

"What happened?" He asked curiously.

"The flag of the Maratha kingdom was erected in the port." The merchant said with a wicked grin on his face.

Mark Hendrik laughed aloud. He couldn't believe that the rumors were indeed true. This was the best thing he had heard in a while.

"The Salt-eaters messed up real bad." He chuckled.

"True, General." The merchants laughed along. "Their only base in the subcontinent is gone."

'Good thing I already sent a message to Batavia.'

"So what is our course of action to make those Salt-eaters cry?" asked a merchant.

"Hmm... I have a plan." Mark exclaimed.

He already thought of a plan to eliminate the Portuguese influence from the subcontinent. For that to happen, he needed to eliminate their chances of taking back Daman.

Before Mark could explain his plan to the merchants. A knock on the door interrupted him.

"Who is it?" asked Mark.

"General, I have come to report about the Portuguese ship," said a captain.

"Oh…"

"Come in."

A captain dressed in the Dutch military uniform stood before him. He saluted him.

"What did you find?"

The captain took a glance at the seated merchants and turned his gaze back to the general.

"It seems the general got the news about it already." He said. "But there is a bit more."

"Continue," said Mark.

"We found a Portuguese ship while patrolling the waters of the Kandy Kingdom."

"Then?"

"We not only found a lot of nobles on board to Malacca in the ship accompanied by a protective fleet." He explained. "It was disguised as a merchant ship."

"We found someone interesting aboard the ship."

"Who was it?"

"General Barnabas of the Portuguese army."

Mark laughed aloud. "This is great."

"So, it is now confirmed that they are not in a state to fight as well."

He turned his gaze back to the merchants. "We have to take advantage of this."

"How so?"

"We have to show that we have already gotten wind of the rumors."

The merchants thought deeply with a look of confusion.

"You guys needed to go to Marathas and establish a trade deal." He said. "I don't care how you complete it. We need the trade deal in the port city of Daman."

The merchant's eyes lit up as soon as they heard the word "deal.". These people were driven by the scent of wealth. The prospect of trading with the Marathas was lucrative.

"Consider it done," voiced the merchants.

General Mark Hendriks had a wry smile. He leaned back in his chair.

'The first step is complete. Just you wait, you salt-eaters.'

On the other hand, rumors about the Dutch were getting worse day by day thanks to the extensive work by Mahasura. The first steps of his mission already commenced a few days ago in the kingdom's major city, sowing seeds of discord between the Dutch and local people.

Mahasura still managed the stall in the Hambantota port. He was doing his daily gathering of information and passing it on to his subordinates. He was a kind stall owner in the port who gave food to hungry children and the elderly.

In hindsight, he was slowly taking care of the criminals that were rampant in the city. Mostly murderers and rapists. He killed them as part of the endeavor of spreading his network in the city.

His unit spread to the other cities and scouted unhappy people with the current regime. Mahasura found it rather easy to find the people ready to rebel against the current regime. The ruler was drunk on greed and power. They didn't care about the populace.

In the current rule of Jayavira Bandara. The taxation was too high to sustain their interest on the debt to the Dutch. There were rampant shortages of essentials in the small villages due to the blatant taxation of their produce. Most of the small villages populations were cut in half due to the starvation issues and famines.

The nobles were given much more authority to collect the taxes, which resulted in more crimes in the kingdom committed by the power-drunk nobles. The people couldn't rebel against them due to their military might.

There wasn't an organized rebel group either. It was suicidal to rebel against the nobles without support. So most of them kept quiet and suffered the harsh conditions inflicted upon themselves. Mahasura noticed this divide between the commoners and nobles.

It was too good not to be exploited. The nobles were digging their own graves by riling the people with each passing day. Mahasura just had to add fuel to the already lit flames.

"Incite and make rebel groups," was his order to all his subordinates that left the city of Hambantota. The funds necessary would be procured from the Empire and through ransacking the noble warehouses.

Each Yamadut would be in charge of carrying out operations to expand their own rebel groups, creating a drive within others to join in to rebel. Mahasura also targeted some nobles that sucked up to the Dutch, like Kumara Galagoda. He worked on creating a wedge between Kumara and the other nobles by using the fact of his recent accomplishment of giving the information.

He circulated some rumors in the nobles circles about the accomplishment. This resulted in the gloating attitude from Kumara, which was hated by the other local nobles. Slowly but surely there was a wedge being created between them. The nobles shouldn't be unified for the rebel plan to work.

The more divided the nobility in the Kandy kingdom was, the easier it would be to predict each move from them.

Mahasura was thinking of ways to divide the big nobles in the Kandy kingdom. Although local nobles were easier to influence, the same couldn't be said for the higher ranks. He needed to create some big problems that affected the kingdom as a whole.

'Hmm... I think I got an idea.' Mahasura thought. 'I need to test it out first.'

He needed to study the noble relations in the Kingdom before making his first move. His plan was effective but risky, so he figured to use only Yamaduts for the plan since failure wasn't an option for them.

'Nobles are inherently greedy for power.' Mahasura thought. He decided to exploit their greedy nature to create a massive divide.

'I need more time to plan.'