Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

January 6th, 1658

Akhand Bharatiya Empire, Imperial capital Bengaluru, Simhasana Bhavana

A small welcoming ceremony was being hosted in the Simhasana Bhavana for Vijay’s return from the northern part of the empire. Kavya, dressed in a beautiful blue saree, along with Agni, was wholeheartedly waiting for Vijay’s arrival.

Vijay, who had gotten close to the vicinity of his palace, was filled with anticipation as he travelled by carriage, accompanied by the cheers of the people. He was initially surprised when the people of the Bengaluru Panchayat actually organized a welcoming ceremony for him at the northern gate of the city since his schedule wasn’t published anywhere.

However, after getting a newspaper at a bookstore on his way home, he fully understood why the people of the city knew of his return.

"His Majesty, the Emperor, is returning to the capital."

Vijay couldn’t help but smile when he saw such bold words on the front page of the newspaper. He did not expect that during his absence, the newspaper would expand so quickly.

From what was written, he understood that with the help of reporters stationed in surrounding cities, the editor-in-chief, Meera Nair, who used to be a top analyst in Bharatiya Internal Pragya, was able to analyze and ascertain when he would return to the capital.

Although Vijay was a little helpless since his arrival was not peaceful, he could not blame anyone for his predicament. After all, he couldn’t exactly be mad at the reporters and editors at the newspaper company for doing their job—especially when they worked for a company owned by Vijay himself.

Annoyance aside, Vijay was very impressed with how far Meera Nair had taken the newspaper company. With a quick glance, Vijay could tell that Bharatham Daily now had reporters located in Mysore, Krishnagiri, Kolar, Tumkur, Vellore, Salem, and other important cities within a 200-kilometer radius.

Although Vijay wasn’t sure how far the newspaper’s sales had expanded, he could at least confirm that it had reached all the nearby cities around Bengaluru, which made him quite satisfied with the editor-in-chief he had recommended.

---

Vijay finally made it to the Simhasana Bhavana, where Kavya and Agni were waiting for him.

Seeing Vijay get out of the carriage, Kavya momentarily forgot her surroundings and ran into his embrace. Vijay, who had been on high alert for the last four months due to numerous assassination attempts by the remnants of the Mughals, suddenly felt at ease and at home. He simply closed his eyes, feeling tranquil as both Vijay and Kavya hugged each other without saying a word.

It was not until Agni came running with his little steps that Vijay woke up from the embrace.

"Haha, how is my little fighter doing? Is he well?"

Vijay picked up Agni with a wide smile on his face, unable to hold in his joy.

"Agni been good, Papa! Agni go learn with Grandpa Tukaram, yes!"

"But why you go ’way? Agni miss you lots!"

There were tears beneath Agni’s eyes, looking aggrieved, that almost broke Vijay’s heart, but he recovered quickly and was very moved by the care his son showed. He was also quite impressed by Agni’s improved motor skills, as he was now able to almost run and form simple sentences, it was even more amazing considering that Agni was only 1 year and 7 months old.

Going inside the palace, Vijay spent a few hours with Kavya and Agni, narrating all his experiences throughout his journey, ignoring the parts about the assassinations of course, while Kavya told him all the interesting things, including newspapers, new inventions, the sales of her new novel, and other happenings in the capital during his absence.

Eventually, Vijay had to get back to his work.

"Your Majesty, Prime Minister Vinod and the Director of Bharatiya Internal Pragya, Selvan, have arrived at the palace upon your request." Ganesh looked thinner than before; Vijay felt it was because of the increased workload during his absence.

"OK, bring them to the conference room. I will meet them right away."

"As you wish, Your Majesty."

---

After changing his clothes, Vijay made his way to the conference room. Entering the room, he was immediately greeted by Vinod and Selvan. Vijay gestured for them to sit down and started the meeting by informing them about the main issues he wanted to discuss without beating around the bush.

"Vinod, during my time in the northern part of the empire, the biggest issue I realized is that there aren’t enough civil servants and police officers to maintain the unity of the empire."

"According to what I saw, our influence only reaches the main cities, strategic military fortresses, and main transportation networks in the north, while the rest of the areas are left unattended, unsupervised, and almost abandoned.

The northern part of our empire is almost like a feudal era where we, as lords, control the main backbone of the region, while local landlords and local nobles have free rein over their regions. They can do whatever they want."

"Since there isn’t enough police force to interrupt their illegal actions, the police have only become a demonstration of soft power to discourage and warn these people not to go out of bounds and not the wielding of hard power of the empire that makes them dare not challenge the rules and laws of the nation."

Vijay’s expression looked very annoyed, but in his expression, there was also a hint of uneasiness.

"This won’t be a big problem if we can produce enough civil servants and police officers, but if we do not act quickly enough, there is a possibility that these local landlords, who are currently clueless about the situation they are in and are enjoying their lives, will suddenly realize that they are nothing but a thorn in my eye.

I’m worried that they will do something drastic in order to retain their power. You know, if truly each and every village in the remote countryside is united, their combined power is enough to bring our control over the cities to the ground.

While such a thing happening is highly improbable due to our intelligence network, the potential itself shows the threat of these forces being left unmonitored and unattended for too long."

"So, Vinod, do you have any ideas on how to get enough civil servants for the empire without having to reduce the requirements too much?"

Selvan did not change his expression while listening to the problems his majesty mentioned, because as an Intelligence director, he knew that these conditions existed.

But, he did not think it was a big deal since the empire could always use the military might if the need arose, especially since they controlled the most strategic locations in the land, had the support of the people, and also had legitimacy in their actions.

However, different from Selvan, Vinod, being a prime minister, put more of his attention to this matter since the situation Vijay mentioned directly affects whether he is reelected or not.

If riots take place under his government, he knows for sure that even if he has accumulated a lot of reputation throughout the years, the people wouldn’t be too kind to a prime minister who let a rebellion take place under his reign.

But sadly, Vinod did not have any clue about how to solve the problem. "Your Majesty, due to the purge that took place half a year ago, we had to make the college students graduate early to take posts in the civil services and police services, but that was just barely enough for the southern part of the empire at that time."

But now, not to mention the northern part of the empire, even the southern part of the empire is facing a shortage of civil servants due to our economy expanding at a geometric proportion.

The civil servants who were enough at the beginning of the year are now nowhere near sufficient; every department in the government is facing a shortage of civil servants as the economy of the empire increases by a few hundred Varaha per capita every passing week.

"Overall, the best suggestion I can put forward is to further reduce the requirements to be a civil servant. Your Majesty, I believe a person who knows how to read and write is enough to be a civil servant. If we can get past this difficult time, we can reinitiate the previous standards."

Vinod looked helpless.

"Goddamnit," Vijay cursed to himself in his heart. Theoretically speaking, if he hadn’t initiated the purge, the empire could still cope with the expansion of the economy, but now, with the purge, a lot of civil servants have been removed and put into prisons, leaving the new graduates from colleges to take the burden of the expansion.

But Vijay had no other choice. He did not want the filth in the government to become more prosperous and stronger with the growth of the empire, However by removing the filth, he was stuck in a dilemma.

"Vinod, let’s do one thing: publish the problem of insufficient civil servants in the newspaper and see if anyone has any ideas that could help. But make sure that our backup option of reducing the difficulty of the civil services exam is not mentioned."

"I believe out of the hundreds of thousands of people who buy the newspaper, someone should have some idea about how to solve this dilemma our empire is facing now."

"If even that is not possible, we can only turn to our backup option."

Vinod thought for a while and felt that the idea was feasible. "I will get it done, Your Majesty."

Vinod was about to leave the office, but suddenly he remembered something. "Your Majesty, I was just about to report this news, but we got a reply from the Spanish."

Vijay’s face immediately lit up; the issue resolution with the Spanish is one of his strategic goals, so he attaches great importance to this matter, but he does not want to look too eager. "Hasn’t Jai Shankar trained enough in Thiruvananthapuram? Let him discuss the matter with the Spanish representative.

I heard that he did quite well during the New Year and Christmas by giving gifts to all the ambassadors as a diplomatic move. He did well; now is the time for him to get on a bigger battlefield."

Vinod simply agreed to His Majesty’s suggestion and left the conference room, keeping the name Jaishankar in his mind.

---

Only Vijay and Selvan were left in the room. Vijay’s face suddenly gained a very stern expression. "You do know about the assassination attempts, do you?"

"I do know, Your Majesty," Selvan did not look surprised.

"So what do you think? How do you think we should deal with these Mughal remnants?" n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"It depends on what your decision is, Your Majesty. Do you want to completely eradicate these remnants or use other means?" Selvan’s face was emotionless as he inquired.

"Well, the situation is tricky. If I root out all the remnants related to Mughal nobles or even remotely related to them, I am sure that the death toll will be around a quarter million people."

"But I am also sure that among these quarter million people, only around 10% or 15% of them are actual culprits, and the rest are in no way involved or want to be involved in going against the Bharatiya Empire."

Vijay was about to continue, but Selvan suddenly added, "But Your Majesty, if 10 to 15 percent are left unchecked, they will find a way to corrupt all the remaining people. I heard a saying: ’Salt in a sweet pudding.’ The situation of these Mughal remnants is like this; although the harmful ones are only a part of a large pot, their existence continues to spread their malice throughout the pot."

Vijay’s face was unpleasant. "Do you think I don’t know that? Or do you think that I don’t dare to execute all of them, young and old alike? If u do, Then you are mistaken. I know what position I am in as the head of the state.

Even the great emperors like Ashoka and a great politician like Chanakya could not escape slaughtering innocent masses for the overall peace, and I do not think I am greater than them." He had a troubled expression.

"But think about it: if this quarter of a million people are eliminated who are 99.99% people of the green book, what will the People of the green Book of our empire feel? The emergence of Dharmik Islam is the greatest factor that assimilates and combines these People of the Green Book with our own people."

"But what if they suddenly find out that a quarter of a million of them have suddenly disappeared? Even if we say that these were criminals who were plotting to launch a rebellion, how many of them will truly believe this news?"

"Our empire has roughly 4 to 5 million People of the Green Book, out of which nearly 1.7 million have already been converted to Dharmik Islam. But now, if this contradiction arises, will this process of assimilation be completely stopped, or will those who have already accepted the Dharmik nature of their own religion return to their previous isolation?"

"The People of the Green Book used to be a united group, and they are very strong in their traditions. So what if they hold a grudge for my actions and seek revenge someday? Maybe during my reign, they don’t dare to act, but what if they act up during my successors’ rule?"

"You have to know, Selvan, that an informed minority is stronger than a clueless majority. This is a comparison between a wolf pack and a sheepfold. No matter how small the wolf pack is or how large the sheepfold is, it is the wolf that poses more of a threat to the sheep than the sheep to the wolf."

"Putting that aside, even if I ignore my conscience, I cannot really be as ruthless as slaughtering 5 million People of the Green Book. Even if I decide to take this action, not to mention the backlash from foreign countries, even the people of our own nation and of our own faith will oppose it. So, I need you to come up with an alternative that could be the best of both worlds.

I should be able to clear out as many remnants as possible while, at the same time, not making it look like it was a deliberate attack against the People of the Green Book."

"They are currently divided all over the empire. Let’s not do something stupid and make them united again."

Selvan wiped the cold sweat from his forehead; he finally understood that he had taken things too simply. He failed to calculate the repercussions of his suggestion. Fortunately, his majesty was sober enough to realize the mistake in his suggestion.

Then again, he began to think of a solution according to his majesty’s requirements. Suddenly, he got an idea.

"Your majesty, what if we do it like this..."