Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

In the blink of an eye, it was January,

Preparation for the Bharatiya Premier League is already heating up, with all the qualifiers being packed to the brim and team clothes being sold like samosas. Meanwhile, the sports clubs have already started to do the promotions to the teams by marketing their star players, holding roadshows, fan service events, and the whole 9 yards.

They were doing their best to earn more revenue, whether through endorsements, partnerships, selling limited-time merchandise or igniting rivalries, and, to add fuel to the fire, all newspaper ads they did were filled with provocative challenges, whether it is in a daily, weekly or even monthly newspaper. Recently the advertisements are even being done in Chitrakalas and sometimes, in rare cases, novels.

This ignited the passion in the fans due to the spicy rivalries and generated more interest, so much so that sometimes even Vijay is swept into the excitement.

Vijay sat in his office at the Simhasana Bhavana, bracing himself for the day's work as he had quite a few important reports he had to go through.

The first report was about the situation of the war in the Qing Dynasty.

From what Vijay could read, the war had turned quite bloody, initially, the Wu warlord had the advantage as he controlled vast swaths of land and more population, but as time went on, due to the deal reached by Southern Ming Dynasty King Zhu Yu Lang and the Bharatiya Empire, the Southern Ming Dynasty began to close the gap of strength with the support of better equipment and weapons.

"Sigh!!"

Vijay rubbed his temples. "I wonder...How many lifetimes will it take to wash off the blood on my hands?", he muttered, letting out a deep breath. First, it was the war in the Balkans that led to the death of hundreds of thousands in a span of a single week, and now it was the war in China. He often wonders how those big arms manufacturers in his last life could remain sane after causing so many deaths, because judging from his personal experience, if it was not for his evolved brain, which in a way gives him more control over his mind, he did not know whether the chief ISRO researcher Vijay would be able to bear the burden he was currently bearing.

With a grunt, he continued to turn the papers, forcefully throwing the thoughts aside. "At least the number of migrants from China has increased," he whispered to comfort himself, trying to focus on the good side of the situation.

The outflow of population from the Bharatiya Empire to its overseas territories had reached a record low in recent months. This was especially true after the establishment of Industry Training Institutes (ITIs). These institutes offered courses that were much easier to finish than traditional college programs, making many who once planned to go abroad pause and think, "Who knows, I might get a good job after I graduate from an ITI."

Meanwhile, the Qing refugees displaced by war became ideal candidates to fill the gap left by reduced Bharatiya migration, helping to maintain development in the overseas territories.

Vijay just had to make sure not too many Chinese migrants settled in one area to avoid demographic imbalance. Thankfully, the next report offered a simple solution, a way to increase Bharatiya migration to the overseas territories.

On the surface, it sounded contradictory because it's already established truth that the migration from the mainland reduced due to the opening of ITIs and industrialisation, but in actuality, it wasn't. Vijay had no intention of forcing anyone to migrate, yet, knowing what would follow from this report thanks to his knowledge of the future, he was sure mass migration would happen anyway.

To be fair, he wasn't scheming to push out his own people just to keep Chinese migrants in check. That would be bonkers, like putting the cart before the ox. Instead, quite the opposite, he was preparing to push the Empire's mechanization to a whole new level.

The report was about the fourth batch of Kesari K1 engines coming off the assembly line, a whole 4,000 units, ready to be shipped at a moment's notice.

And why he is sure that these 4000 steam engines will lead to mass migration? the answer is simple, it is because the companies who refuse to modernize and are still clung to old production methods will definitely go bankrupt, as they cannot compete in terms of price and quality with the factories equipped with the steam engine.

In fact, this phenomenon has already occurred, where thousands of non-productive factories have already gone bankrupt, but the only reason it did not cause a wave was because most factories were still able to rely on exports to Southeast Asia or overseas territories to survive. But once the 4000 steam engines are shipped, nearly 20% of all manufacturing companies in the Bharatiya Empire will be equipped with production multipliers like the steam engine.

These 20% of the companies equipped with the steam engine will be able to occupy the market of at least 70% of the Empire, and what will happen next is obvious.

It is an economic crisis, companies will go bankrupt on a large scale, there will be massive unemployment, and it will feel like the Great Depression in the United States, one of the harshest economic crises the world has witnessed.

Vijay cannot stop it, and he does not want to stop it either, because although the economic crisis will bring extreme distress to the Empire's economy, it will also give birth to a newer, more robust, and advanced economy.

The very same thing happened to the United States in his previous life, the Great Depression caused the large-scale and massive collapse of older industries like the family-owned manufacturing industry, small-scale agriculture, and traditional banking industries. It was horrible, unemployment was at its peak, but the Great Depression did give way to newer, large-scale, corporatised, electrified, and standardised industries.

It also laid the foundation for electrification in rural areas through the Rural Electrification Act, gave rise to the assembly line, mass production, as well as the growth of unionised labour and centralised industries. Each one of them could be arguably considered a pillar that helped America stand on top of the world's food chain in the future.

Vijay wants to do the same. Sure, putting the 4000 steam engines into the market will cause great distress among the traditional companies, but in the long term, it will be like the fire that swept the forest, only to act as the nourishment for better growth.

If there was something Vijay was uneasy about, it was that he knew that a lot of people were going to die due to the economic collapse. However, comparing it with the deaths of Transylvania and the Qing Dynasty, he felt like he could handle it just fine.

Once again, forcing himself to think about the positives, after the economic collapse, a lot of excess labour will be available in society, unskilled labour who are not qualified to work with machine tools or on a mechanised factory floor.

In his previous life, the Americans, to deal with their excess labour, came up with several New Deal policies which eased the crisis by creating millions of jobs through public works, provided direct aid to the unemployed and poor, restarted the economy by boosting the agricultural, construction, and banking industries, and they also added regulation for banks, stock markets, and labour.

But in this life, these New Deals cannot be used by Vijay since the conditions of America and the Bharatiya Empire are completely different. A lot of backbone infrastructure in the Empire has already been built, there is no need to develop public infrastructure anymore. Although more railroads could be added, it would only be icing on the cake. Instead, if these people are directed towards the overseas, and let them develop there, it would be like fertilising a barren land, the concept is entirely different.

After considering everything, Vijay resolutely signed the report and sent it to Sri Ranga Industrial Tools to officially ship the 4000 steam engines to the buyers in industrial zones scattered across the vast span of the Empire.

"Should I alert the government about this?" Vijay asked himself, but he quickly rejected the proposal. "No, this should be a good opportunity to do a stress test on the government's systems, let's see if there are any areas that can be improved." He thought, then he got another idea.

"Maybe I can even take the opportunity to clean up the intelligence departments operating within the empire."

Vijay felt like the chaos would be the perfect opportunity to achieve multiple things at once. He quickly made a mental note to himself to think about it at a later time.

With most of the work done, Vijay picked up the report he had gotten from Akhilesh Banerjee. He was looking forward to the report from Akhilesh, hence he put it at last, but he got sidetracked when he knew about the 4000 steam engines and what they could mean to the empire.

Anyway, quickly reading through the report, Vijay was pleasantly surprised.

"Who would've thought the situation would be like this?" he chuckled, apparently seeing that the Qing Dynasty was in trouble, the Khoshut Mongols under Güshi Khan actually stretched their claws to annexe Tibet for themselves.

In his last life, such a thing did not happen because there was no civil war in Qing, at least not a large-scale one like it is now, and the Mongols only acted as a counterbalance to the rising Qing presence in Tibet. But now, it looks like with the absence of Qing presence, the Mongols saw a rise in ambition.

In the report he read, there was another surprising piece of information. It is that the Bhutanese royal family, which ran away to Tibet, had actually survived, at least most of them, since King Tenzin Drukdra had already died, but his daughter and his son are both alive and well. They were apparently even instrumental in mounting a resistance against the Mongols, with Jigme Namgyal, the Bhutanese prince, taking the post of the General of the Tibetan resistance army, putting up resistance against the Mongols.

The reason why Vijay is excited is because of the last words mentioned in the report.

"Your Majesty, His Excellency the Dalai Lama and His Excellency the General Jigme Namgyal both asked for the military support of the Bharatiya Empire to resist the Mongols and take back all the lands that have been lost. In exchange, they are willing to swear loyalty to the Bharatiya Empire, and they are willing to be ruled by the Empire under the same framework of the autonomous territory of Khalsa Nagari."

Although Vijay did not want to conquer territories that did not originally belong to the Bharatiya people, there were always exceptions. The Khalsa Nagari is one, a new state which was added to the Empire as an autonomous state almost out of a coincidence, and now quite possibly Tibet.

He did not want to emulate the Russian Tsar and go on a war of wild conquest, but he was not some Gandhi either, to reject several states that later became countries from joining India after independence, just because of how India would look in the eyes of Westerners.

Without wasting any time, Vijay quickly summoned Kiran Poojari and passed him the report.

"Kiran, mobilise both the Kashyapamar Regiment and the Gurkha Regiment, and have them assist the Tibetans. I want the Mongolian presence in Tibet to be completely removed by the end of the year."

Kiran Poojari quickly read through the report and nodded with a smile. How could he not be happy? The Empire is becoming bigger again.

"I will draw up the orders immediately, Your Majesty. Please rest assured."

"Good!"