Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

8th May 1660

Vijay, reading the report from the front lines of the Middle East, was very annoyed. "I didn't expect these Ottoman bastards to use such a despicable strategy," he clenched his fist in anger.

'Tsk!'

His rage was partly because of the amount of blood it would shed and partly because he was helpless and had no way to stop it.

He could see, as if right in front of his eyes, hundreds of thousands of black people enslaved like animals and pushed to the front line only to be butchered, all in order to make the Turk bastards' lives easier. He hated that he could not do anything about it, and hated the fact that he had no way to stop the Ottomans from bringing in more slaves.

What's more heartbreaking is that, even if they brought them he could not in good conscience tell the soldiers at the front lines to spare the blacks, even if he knew the only reason the blacks were participating in the battle was because they were forced to. He couldn't be merciful. Being merciful to the black slaves who had come to assist the Ottomans was equivalent to being cruel to his own men, murdering them with his own hands.

Fortunately, his heart had been hardened from a decade of rule. Vijay was rational.

Discover hidden stories at empire

Currently, no single empire or kingdom has control over the vast resources of Africa, but if a nation had to be pointed out as having the largest advantage in obtaining these resources, it would be none other than the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire not only controls Egypt, historically the most prosperous region of Africa but also has control over large tracts of land along the Northern coast of Africa which touches the Mediterranean Sea.

The Ottomans are literally the slave lords of the world. They enslave anyone and everyone. The weapons they can provide the Takkalu family might be outdated and inadequate, but the slaves they could provide are definitely not lacking.

Vijay is not the type of person who would be bothered by something for too long. Within a few seconds of adjusting his mind, he returned to normal.

"Well, since it has already happened, there is no use brooding about it. Let's think of a solution," he muttered.

Vijay walked to the corner of the room and pulled out the map, which included Africa and the Middle East.

He sat on a rocking chair right in front of the map, fidgeting with the handle of the chair with one hand while stroking his chin with the other.

His eyes scanned over the whole continent of Africa, from north to south and east to west. Then he looked at the Middle East, seeing if there was anything he could use. Finally, he looked at Europe, considering if his allies could do anything about it.

Plans kept popping up in his mind, but he struck them out one by one. Most of the plans he thought of were unreliable. However, he didn't give up. One hour passed, then two hours, and his lunchtime arrived, but still no clue.

Vijay didn't feel impatient, but he was feeling lost.

Suddenly, a sound caught his attention. It was a sound that was barely audible, and for him, who had super senses, if it was barely audible, that meant the sound was coming from somewhere far away.

Vijay would have normally ignored the sound, but for some reason, his intuition was telling him that listening closely would benefit him greatly.

So, he got up from his chair and went to the window. At a distance of over 100 meters away, the grandpa who usually takes care of the lawn was yelling at a young man.

'Should be the new intern,' Vijay guessed.

"Ravi, is this how you do the work? Look at what you are doing, wasting so much time! Is this why the manager pays you so much money?"

Ravi was confused. "Hey old man, what happened? Am I not pulling out the weeds just like you asked? Now why are you angry all of a sudden? Just so you know, I have been at it for the last two days. Don't you see I have already completed weeding out a quarter of this plot?"

The old man suddenly got even more angry. His face became red. Vijay swore that he could see smoke coming out of the old man's ears. "Idiot, that's exactly the problem! If you pluck one weed at a time, do you know how long it will take for you to complete the whole plot? Over a week! If this is your work efficiency, how can I expect you to inherit my position?"

Ravi's mouth was wide open, his eyes a little lost. He looked depressed. The old man's expression softened a little. He didn't have any grandchildren after all. Ravi, whom he had raised, had already taken the place.

"Listen, Ravi, no matter how many weeds you uproot, you cannot complete the task without working on it for a whole week. What you should be doing is trimming out the top part so that work will be completed faster, and you will have more time to do other things."

Ravi was unconvinced, "But old man, won't that mean that the weeds will keep coming? What's the use of trimming then?"

The old man did not deny it, "Yes, but our job efficiency is very important, and even if you uproot the weeds, they will grow back in a few weeks. The difference between weeding and trimming is not too large anyway."

"So, start trimming the weeds and complete the task quickly."

"Let me give you a hint: use goats. They practically do your job for you, and it doesn't take a long time either. Within a day, everything should be clean."

The conversation opened the door in Vijay's mind.

"That's right. I don't really have to uproot the problem. Cutting off the supply of slaves to the Ottoman Empire is simply unreliable. No matter how much I try, I cannot really form a barrier in Africa stopping the Ottomans from enslaving more people."

"However, what I can do is regularly put pressure on their operations, making them invest more resources in enslaving people and constantly hindering the way they obtain the slaves."

"This way, even if I can't effectively stop the Ottomans from obtaining the slaves, maybe I can at least make them bleed more for every slave they obtain. Hopefully, in the long run, they will not be able to hold on anymore."

Vijay's mind was now clear; he now knew what he wanted to do.

He once again sat in front of the map, but this time, there was no confusion. A clear plan took shape in his mind.

Vijay did not hesitate. As soon as the plan was formed in his mind, he immediately decided to act on it.

He directly summoned the director of Bharatiya Internal Pragya Selvan. Thankfully, due to Selvan normally staying in the capital, it didn't take long for him to arrive.

"Your Majesty," Selvan stood in front of him with a standard military salute. Vijay gestured for him to sit down and put forward his order.

"Selvan, contact all the sub-Saharan Africans in the nation and inquire with them about the general political structure of the interior region in Africa."

"More specifically, in this region."

Vijay pointed at the map and circled the area which, in his past life, used to be Ethiopia, South Sudan, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic.

"Kingdoms, sultanates, city-states, tribes, alliances, or colonies. I want to know as much as possible about this region, and do it as fast as possible."

"If they do not know the map, talk with the people at the Bharatiya Institute of Manachitra Vijnana. Ask them to describe what type of vegetation, environment, and climate is found in the areas I circled, and cross-match what the researchers say with the blacks in the Empire. Ask them what their home is like. This should help us know more about where they came from and what powers exist in the region. " Vijay put down the quill pen and gave his ultimatum. "For collecting the intel on the area I marked, I will give you a month. I need full data."

Selvan did not hesitate. He immediately saluted, "I will get it done, Your Majesty. Please leave this matter to me."

After Selvan left, Vijay was not done. He immediately drafted an encrypted message written to Roshan. It was about asking Roshan to start training intelligence agents among the black people of the empire.

Vijay asked Ganesh to send the message through the military communication channel. But he was not done yet. Although he had thought of a long-term countermeasure to the Ottoman Empire, he did not have any immediate solution. So, the only thing he suggested to Lachit Borphukan was to double the military forces on the border and ask the two kingdoms to switch to military economy modes.

As both kingdoms' governing systems were highly influenced by the Bharatiya Empire, both kingdoms had the feature of a military economy embedded into their constitution.

He took the time to write a letter to the Venetians and the Russians, explaining his future plans and requesting them to follow his plan.

After doing all this, Vijay realized that unknowingly, the plan he made to counterattack the Ottomans and the plan he had in the back of his mind about the future of the Bharatiya Empire coincided greatly. It was not like they were the same, but if he had to put it in words, both plans used the same ingredients but had different outcomes.

So, at the end of the day, Vijay wrote his last encrypted letter to the deputy director of Bharatiya External Pragya, Southeast Asian branch, Jalandhar Keshav. The order was to map out all the inhabited landmasses in the South East that are suitable for habitation with a little resource support.

Just as Vijay was writing the order, his eyes lit up. 'Come to think of it, the steam engine was developed at the perfect time. Mining resources locally would be the greatest blessing to develop any inhabited land. Logistics channels wouldn't have to be wasted by transporting minerals; they could be used to transport machinery, saving a lot of cost, effort and more importantly, the time it takes to develop the uninhabited region could be reduced greatly.'

P.S. Thankyou DaoSlayer, for the Ice cola

P.S. Thankyou Lucifer_6671, for the Inspiration capsule