Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

20th July 1673

Zaranj, the kingdom of Persia

Farhad Jamshidi walked at an almost jogging pace, along with a dozen of his neighbours, heading towards the large tent in the distance.

His heart was beating like a drum, not because he was tired, but because he was filled with anticipation and excitement. A few days ago, news was spread all over the city and its surrounding towns about a large company from the Bharatiya Empire recruiting workers for over 900 daric per month (~157.8 varaha).

For people like Farhad, 900 Daric is a lot of money. He could probably purchase grain for half of the year with that kind of money, not to mention he was told that the work contract was signed for two years, and the salary will be increased as the months go by, so by the end of his contract he would have earned at least 21,600 daric, even without the increase of the salary.

If he controls his family's consumption, he can probably save up at least 14,000 daric, enough to start a small provision store, buy a few acres of land, and become a land owner in one fell swoop.

As Farhad got closer to the tent, he could see a lot of people huddling together, struggling desperately to get to the front. The anticipation began to increase, and a sense of urgency crept into his heart. However, he was not intimidated. Farhad knew that he had to fight hard this time, and people like him were used to it. Living in an arid region where food cannot be guaranteed, people had already become ruthless and tough.

Farhad is the same, even though he looked lean, he had a strong heart and an even more resilient mind.

Without having the consideration of getting hurt, he took a deep breath of the earthy air and wiped the sweat that had already accumulated on his forehead, and moved into the crowd without hesitation, twisting and turning as much as possible to get ahead.

Just then, a shout was heard, filled with annoyance,

"Damn! You guys, make a line, everyone will get a job, no need to rush."

Farhad looked around, and it was a Bharatiya man who wore a white half shirt from the top and military pants on the bottom. He looked pissed. He hesitated and slowed down his struggle, which made other people push him to the back. By the time he realised that he had been pushed out, it was already too late. Looking around to see if the Bharatiya man would do anything, he was disappointed since the man did not do anything but shout a few more times.

Farhad realised that he could not hesitate, so he once again exerted force and plunged into the wrestling contest without takedowns.

However, before he could get in, he felt a stinging sensation on his back, and the next moment, a sting of pain hit his senses.

"Ahh!" A groan escaped from his mouth, and he contorted his back into an S shape. He looked behind, his face shrivelled up with only a single eye, while the other was closed due to the pain. Unexpectedly, another man holding a long stick was whipping at people like him who were trying to wrestle.

He did not realise it, since he was in the heat of the battle, but the man was continuously shouting,

"Form a line quickly, or else no one will be selected."

Farhad immediately became nervous and started to look for this so-called line, which to his delight, formed quickly with the intimidation of the man holding the lati. He could still feel the pain in his back, and he felt like the hit left a whipped mark, but there was nothing he could do except consider himself unlucky and move on.

The person before him was also a guy who was hit in the back. He was groaning with pain.

"Damn, the beast hit me hard," he exclaimed, his face contorted.

Hearing this, Farhad felt a sense of closeness. "He hit me quite hard as well," he replied in the man's ear, having a person to share the pain is always a good thing.

"What is your name, Bhai?" Farhad asked.

The man turned around, he had a face covered with dust, and even though his skin looked young, his hair had started to grey, but his eyes were really lively and filled with vitality. "Asim, what about you, Bhai?" he replied, constantly taking breaths as the pain still affected his expression.

"Farhad."

Men's friendship is so simple; they met in a similar circumstance and immediately became familiar with each other.

The recruitment started, and the line began to move forward, but the movement was extremely slow, and it felt like an eternity for the applicants.

Taking a step forward, Farhad let out a sigh of relief. "Fortunately, we were able to at least occupy the middle position in the line."

Asim wiped the sweat on his brow as he said with a laugh, "True, although we were both unlucky and got beaten, at least we do not have to worry about fighting with others to get into the tent."

In such a way, the queue became shorter. Farhad and Asim looked at each other's backs to see how serious the markings were, and they proceeded to talk about each other's families.

Until it was finally their turn.

"Good luck, Bhai!" Farhad patted the back of Asim, completely forgetting about the mark on the back.

Asim felt a sting of pain, but he didn't have the patience to complain about his pig-headed teammate, not to mention his adrenaline was already pumping, reducing the sense of pain.

Farhad, standing outside and looking at Asim disappear into the tent, felt his heart rate begin to rise once again. His hands started to shake, and he began to think about scenarios in his mind about what he would do and what he would say when he entered.

'Should I say good morning, sirs?' 'Or will introducing myself immediately leave a better impression?'

Only a few minutes later, Asim came out of the tent with a bright smile on his face.

He wanted to come closer, but he was stopped by the Bharatiya person and asked to take another route.

Before Farhad stepped his foot into the tent, he heard a loud shout, "Good luck, you bastard!" The words inexplicably made him calm down.

He stepped into the tent, and a weird sound immediately caught his attention. He turned to his side, and he could see three-bladed metal plates spinning at a fast speed. A person was right next to it, turning the handle quickly. He was amazed by the ingenious design. Stepping forward, the cool breeze hit him, momentarily making him feel like he was in heaven.

But suddenly, he heard a voice.

"Name, age, your occupation, and do you have any skills?"

It was from a stern middle-aged man wearing normal but exquisite Bharatiya clothes.

Coming back to his senses, he responded.

"My name is Farhad Jamshidi, Saab. I am 29 years old. I'm currently not doing anything, but I have worked as a farm hand, assistant in several shops, and labourer a few times. Oh, I did work at a construction site one time, helping the Sahib remove the boulders."

The Bharatiya man wrote down everything on the piece of paper, which made Farhad a little curious, so he leaned forward. He was late to react, but looking at the smooth lines that were left after the pen flew on the paper left him impressed. But soon, the middle-aged man looked up, stopping his action midway. He raised his eyebrows with surprise, but he recovered quickly and spoke out,

"You have heard about the basic salary and the benefits for the job, haven't you?"

"Yes, Saab, 900 Daric per month and a work time of two years."

"Perfect, and yes, you are right. But according to your performance and position, your salary will be increased. Food will be provided two times according to the shift. If it is the first shift, then morning and afternoon; if it is the second shift, then afternoon and evening. If the work is at a faraway place, then lodging will be provided and food will be provided three times a day. It is all mentioned in the contract. If you are literate, you can read it immediately and sign the contract, but if you are illiterate, you can take the contract back to someone who can read and bring it back after you know everything present in it, so that you can officially sign it and join the work."

Farhad stopped for a moment and shook his head, "I don't know how to read, Saab, but it's okay, I will sign the contract now itself."

"Are you sure? Don't you want to consider it?"

"It's alright, Saab. Since you are allowing people to take the contracts with them to inspect outside, that means that you are confident that most people will return, so I do not have to doubt your credibility."

"Smart," the Bharatiya man smiled.

"All right, in that case, come here and use your left thumb to stamp here."

Farhad did as he was told, and the Bharatiya man gave him a copy of the two documents he had signed and told him the date and location of the job.

He turned back and headed out, but he couldn't help but notice the man who was spinning the rotating thing had changed.

"Meeting two smart guys back to back is quite rare," the Bharatiya man within the tent muttered and shook his head, gesturing to the subordinate to call another candidate.

---

Such things are happening all over the Middle East. The Kingdom of Lalishthan and the Kingdom of Persia are experiencing the construction boom, which the Bharatiya experience constantly. Companies like Singha Construction Company, Shetty Construction Company, Kalyan Construction Company, Bhonsle Construction Company, and even medium-scale construction companies who specialize in certain types of buildings like the Frontier Construction Companies all had sent medium and higher-level management talents and engineers of their companies to handle the infrastructure construction of the Bharat-Russia Economic Corridor Project.

In the deal signed between the nations, there was a clause that stated that at least 70% of the manpower should be used from the local human resources, hence most of the labourers working for the construction project came from either the Kingdom of Persia or the Kingdom of Lalishthan.

Gathering from all over the nation, nearly a million labourers were employed in the span of a week, and the work of laying down the road or widening it officially kicked off, lowering the rate of unemployment in the Kingdom of Persia by 5% and a whole 15% in Lalishthan.

Back in the empire, this construction boom led to the stimulation of the stock market, which had already been violently stimulated by the introduction of the Kesari engines. Companies like Frontier Construction Firm, who were listed on the stock exchange, saw a rise of nearly 20% in their valuation in the span of a week, and this led to a domino effect where, driven by the construction industry, the supporting industries like the cement industries and iron and steel industries saw a rise in profits.

Additionally, nearly 200,000 posts opened up in the construction sector right in time for the graduation.