Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

12th May 1660.

Angul arrived at the mining site with confusion and doubt evident on his face. It was located in the state of Gangapuri, a state with abundant mineral resources. so it was quite popular for mineral exploration and mining companies. His main job was acting as a foreman responsible for managing over 500 miners for various mining companies. Sometimes he worked for a large mining company and sometimes for a small one. Whoever paid the money, he would work for them. Not every company could find minerals all year round, so people like him were quite free to choose which company they worked for, and the companies were also quite open to this way of employment because the majority of the companies were unwilling to pay for employees when there was no work. However, After what happened a month ago, things had silently changed.

First, one of the seven largest mining companies, Patnaik and Bro's, voluntarily raised the salary of the miners and himself by over 50% on the condition that they sign a contract to exclusively work for them for the next two years. Angul was taken aback by the offer. Such a contract was never offered to them, and in his mind, it didn't make sense either. He was left scratching his head, wondering why Anil Kumar suddenly raised their salaries, he was quite hesitant to sign the contract. But sadly, even if he knew something was weird, he could not reject the offer. The miners, as soon as they heard they would be paid 50% more for the same work, started to pester him to accept.

As the saying goes, the happiness of a master is within the happiness of the subjects.

Angul was the spokesperson for the miners, so the miners usually listened to whatever he said, all on the condition that he could bring greater benefits to the miners than if they negotiated deals personally. But once the interest of all the miners was concerned, Angul was nothing; he could no longer order them to do anything. It did not matter if he said yes or no, the miners would personally sign the contract if they had to. So, in order to save face, he agreed to the proposal and became an employee of Patnaik and Bros.

Another unusual thing that started to happen was that manager Anil Kumar was not letting go of the mining sites after the mining was completed. Usually, selling the mining rights to smaller companies netted a little profit, but in the last few months, no mining site had been sold.

What's more, director Anil Kumar started to order foremen like him to make efforts to mine the minerals even deeper underground.

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He, along with his colleagues, were shocked by the order, but since they were all employees and had no right to refuse, they did so. In a few mining sites, they were able to go underground up to 50 meters, while in others, they stopped at 10 to 20 meters as they hit a water vein and the mine got completely flooded.

The mining site that Angul arrived at today was one of those mines where water had flooded it.

"Hey Chotu, come here," Angul called to a familiar man in his mining team.

The thin young man came running over while removing his helmet and placing it on his chest as a sign of respect.

"Did the director come?" he asked as he looked around, unable to see the familiar face of Anil Kumar.

The man who was called Chotu scratched his head honestly and nodded, "The director is indeed here, but big brother, the owners are also here."

"The Patnaik Brothers have also come?" Angul's eyes widened. He was surprised. If those three are here, then something big is definitely happening, he thought to himself. Throughout the time he worked for Patnaik and Bros, he had only seen the three Patnaik Brothers one time in his life, and that too when the Patnaik Company was just a medium-scale company.

He looked around, and not seeing any of the familiar foremen, he asked, "Hey, Chotu, where are your uncle Jay and the others?"

"Um. They are all near the old tree. We miners are not allowed to go near, but I saw all the foremen going there. Big Brother, I think you should also go."

Angul patted Chotu on his back and quickly left.

The Patnaik Brothers, Vikram Patnaik, Suresh Patnaik, and Raghav Patnaik—all owned 30% of Patnaik and Bros equally. The remaining 10% was held by Anil Kumar, who was appointed as the manager.

Anil Kumar got the 10% stake not because he was the director of the company but because he came in as an angel investor when the company needed it the most. After the company barely escaped bankruptcy, the Patnaik brothers realized that they could not manage the company by themselves, so they employed Anil Kumar.

"Klang!"

"Bang!"

"Knang!"

Sounds of men grunting and heavy metal moving were heard.

The three Patnaik brothers and Anil were all intently staring at the giant machine that was being built. There was expectation and excitement in their eyes, as well as a little weariness—what if it failed? A quarter million Varaha was not a lot of money, but it still hurt. The company had already placed orders for over half a dozen such machines and had already paid for them. If the thing failed, the losses would be huge.

Anil Kumar and the Patnaik brothers noticed Angul, who had arrived at the location, but they ignored him and intently kept staring at the steam engine that was being built.

Soon, half an hour later, the engineers who were assembling the Devaraya Atmospheric Steam Engine wiped the sweat from their brows and cleaned their hands.

"It is done, sirs. Everything is installed."

Anil Kumar and the Patnaik brothers looked at each other. Everyone thought the same thing: "Let's start it up and see."

The engineer nodded. He gestured at his colleagues to start the preparations.

In the curious eyes of everyone, a few kilograms of coal were placed within the furnace, and it was lit on fire. The boiler began to get hot. The engineer turned a valve, and suddenly the piston started to rise. When the piston couldn't rise anymore, the engineer operated a few more valves, which made the piston come crashing down.

Suddenly, the pillar, which no one expected to move, rose up to the sky.

"Ahh!"

Angul was taken aback as he was startled by the sudden movement of the machine. He had a look of disbelief on his face. His eyes were wide open like saucers, and his mouth was agape. 'The pillar was made up of steel, isn't it?' 'How did it move without anyone doing anything to it?' He clearly saw the piston rod made of steel, and he could tell that it would be at least a tonne or two, but he couldn't understand how it moved without anyone touching it. 'Is it because of the fire lit under the boiler? But how is this possible?' If it was not for the fact that the timing was inappropriate, he would have wanted to grab the engineers by their collars and ask them what black magic they were using.

Not to mention Angul, even the Patnaik Brothers and Anil Kumar were taken aback. Although people from Sriranga Industrial Tools had already explained to them how the thing worked when they ordered the machine, they had not seen it firsthand after all.

When it happened right in front of their eyes, it was still unbelievable.

The engineers did not bother with the audience. It was as if they had seen the scene too many times and had already gotten bored with it. The group of engineers continuously operated the machine until it reached the fourth cycle.

"Ahhh!"

"Water is coming out of the ground!"

Suddenly, a scream was heard from a foreman, and everyone looked at the place where he was pointing, and sure enough, water was gushing.

Angul's heartbeat violently. Everything he had seen until now left him questioning his own worldview. He had gone to school for the adults and had studied until the 10th grade, which made him one of the more educated people in the mine. But looking at the engineers who nonchalantly operated the machine, and then back at the water, which came gushing out with every time the machine went up and down, he felt like a naive country bumpkin who did not know anything about the world.

"Ha!" Anil Kumar laughed out loud. "It worked, it really worked! Your Majesty, you are a bloody genius." He clenched his fists until they turned white with the excitement he was feeling.

The Patnaik Brothers also understood how amazing the news was. They could feel adrenaline coursing through their veins just imagining the future of their company. Their smiles could not be concealed.

Angul didn't know why the director and the owners were celebrating, but he instinctively knew something good had happened. But what and how, he could not tell.

Vikram Patnaik suddenly remembered that the engineers could not stay for too long, so he hurriedly called over all the fourmen.

"Is there anyone educated among you guys?"

Everyone looked at each other, and finally, all eyes landed on Angul.

Angul didn't know what the owner wanted to do. 'They don't want me to do something bad, do they? But since they were laughing just now, it should be a good thing.'

The Patnaik Brothers looked up and down at Angul and nodded in satisfaction. "Angul, you know how to read and write?" Vikram inquired.

Angul nodded. "I do, Sir. I have passed the 10th grade."

"That's good, that's good." Suresh Patnaik and Raghav Patnaik nodded repeatedly. Vikram simply smiled and put his hand on Angul's shoulder. "How would you like to change your job?"

Angul's eyes widened. "Sir, are you firing me? Did I do something wrong?" He was panicked. Although the demand for people like him was quite high, getting fired so suddenly was really something no one could bear.

Vikram knew that the guy misunderstood, so he quickly shook his head. "No, no, no. How can we fire talents like you?"

To be Continued...