Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

The request immediately startled Li Jian, but he calmed down after he got to know that he would be given new and fresh clothes, as well as finally have their work arranged.

The person who resisted the most was the wife of Pei Zhu, as she didn't want to go bald. Thankfully, the people of the Bharatiya Empire looked considerate and did not fully shave off their hair. By the time she came out, her hair was shortened like a little boy's.

As for him and the other men, they had no problem since they already were in pigtails, and it didn't matter if they cut it off. They didn't like it to begin with. The only reason they still kept it was that they still had reservations about the Qing dynasty that had ruled over them since they were born.

Apparently, the reason why they were asked to cut off all the hair was that there would be germs in the hair, and there was a possibility that it would spread to the people living in Bhanu Bhavana if they lived with them. Although he did not believe the reason, since who would believe that there exist insects smaller than the eye could see, but it was not a big deal, so he did not make any fuss, especially since he was given five different sets of clean clothes, the nicest he ever owned. From the touch, they were not made of hemp but were made of some sort of high-quality cotton. He never had clothes of such quality. He only heard his father boast about owning one when he was a child, when his family was supposedly a big carpenter family.

Li Jian returned to the carriage along with all the others.

They were taken to a place which was supposedly a school, where they were required to attend every day for three hours for the next two months until they could converse in Bharati.

Next, they were taken to a large building, which apparently they will be working in. A man who looked to be from Laos came forward to greet them.

"Welcome, everyone, welcome to the Chakra Company."

"All four of you are employed by the Chakra Company for your unique skills."

"I'll call the names, please step forward."

"Ye Chen."

Brother Ye Chen looked nervous, but he still stepped forward.

"Mr. Ye Chen, from the data we have received from the immigration department, you have served as a clerk back home, so we require you to use your expertise in management to manage four groups of your fellow Chinese men to run the water wheel in four different shifts."

"Li Jian."

Next, surprisingly, was himself, so he stepped forward, already expecting what would happen.

"Mr. Li Jian, our company is mostly engaged in producing wheels for carriages. We are the only company to do this business in this port city. The city of Bhanu Bhavana is newly established, and the boss expects to maintain the advantage we have and not lose to our competition in the surrounding cities, so your work will be 10 hours a day instead of 8 hours, but you will be paid handsomely for the overtime."

Li Jian nodded. He did not have any problem with this; 10 hours a day was not that difficult.

He went on to call Bai Zhong and Pei Zhu, and they were given the same job as well.

At the end of the day, they were settled in their own dormitories, which were individual rooms for themselves, and he got to enrol his son into a place called daycare, where he could leave his son during his work. He was initially worried about leaving his son alone, but thankfully, the daycare was within the company campus itself, so he could visit him if something went wrong.

At the end of the day, he and the other four were finally left alone to do as they saw fit.

The others didn't leave the company's dormitory, while he left to roam around in the streets to see the locality.

He left his son with Sister Liu Yuxin. Oh, Liu Yuxin was the wife of Brother Pei Zhu.

Coming outside, he was mesmerised. Until now, he hadn't really seen anything of the Bharatiya Empire. For the most part, he had been stuck on the ship, restless during the first half of the journey, and bored during the second. Even when the ship docked, he was only allowed to wander around the port. And after reaching Bhanu Bhavana, he was carted around in carriages all day, leaving him with no real chance to see the place he had been brought to.

But finally, seeing everything with his own eyes, he felt awe from the bottom of his heart.

The streets were all paved with what he could only describe as material that was as strong as a rock. The sides of the street were all opened with drainage channels, and even those channels were closed by the rock-like material. The only reason he got to know they were drainage channels was that he saw a few kids taking out the rock on the drainage channel, because apparently a ball fell down through the hole.

The kids were struggling quite a bit as well, so he helped them out by using a tree branch to get the ball up.

The kids excitedly took the ball and respectfully did a namaskar to him as they ran away.

He felt very good; the kids here were so polite. He also thanked the gods that he hadn't run into any noble young masters yet.

Li Jian moved forward and noticed more magical things, like the metal machines the people rode on, which left him mesmerised. He wanted to stop someone and ask what it was so badly, but unfortunately, he didn't know the Bharatiya language.

Thankfully, he saw a Southeast Asian walking with a bag. He stopped him and tried to communicate. Maybe it was his luck—the man knew Mandarin, although it was broken.

He laughed and explained, "Thas sheela bicycle. Good transport."

Li Jian wanted to ask the man more questions—like what was the tall tower where light could be constantly seen, what were those carriages that were painted yellow, what were the papers a few people carried with them, who were those people wearing brown clothes constantly standing on the road and whistling, controlling the carriages—and a lot of other things. But unfortunately, the man looked like he was in a hurry, so in the end, he let the man pass with reluctance.

Li Jian was finally confident that he had come to a place where people could really reach the sky. He excitedly went back to the dormitory and slept tightly after having a delicious dinner, looking forward to tomorrow.

---

The next day, he freshened up and went to the language school that was only around a kilometre away from their company. Unexpectedly, Li Jian and his fellow Chinese colleagues who had joined the same company were not the only ones going to the language school. There were Chinese people from many different companies.

Apparently, the town they were living in was the newly opened industrial frontier of the region, and all sorts of people came here for work. Curiously, he even met a few so-called Native Americans—apparently, these people came from an even farther continent on the other side of the world in order to seek refuge in the Bharatiya Empire.

These people raised more eyebrows among the Chinese because their facial features looked very similar to theirs, but their complexion was similar to the Bharatiyas', which created a very odd impression.

As it was the first day, Li Jian was assigned to a classroom, and in his classroom, there were nearly 200 people, all Chinese. The person who came to teach them was also a Chinese person, but his mannerisms, dressing sense, and everything were like that of the Bharatiya. The man introduced himself as Guan Li, a Bharatiya Chinese from the Ming dynasty. Apparently, he emigrated to the Bharatiya Empire after a diplomatic connection was formed between the two nations, and he was employed by the Department of Education to teach Chinese learners Bharati.

"Although the Bharatiya people, just like us, have a history older than 5000 years, the Bharatiya Empire, in a literal sense, is an empire that was established barely 17 to 18 years ago. It was founded by His Majesty the Emperor Rajyapathy Vijay Devaraya Maharaj. The empire we now live in came about after His Majesty inherited the throne of the Vijayanagar Empire, a much smaller but still very powerful empire in the southern part of the Bharatiya subcontinent. His Majesty grew this empire into a behemoth and successfully defeated the invaders who had then invaded the Bharatiya Empire."

"After defeating these invaders, His Majesty unified the subcontinent and finally established the Akhand Bharatiya Empire in the year 1656."

The first day was filled with such teaching. It was information about the brief history of the Bharatiya Empire and how it came about. He listened to everything with great interest, as going to a school was a very novel experience for him; only the best could go to the various sects and gain tutelage under those Confucian masters.

To Be Continued...