Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 1158

Chapter 1158: Developments Back Home
Iron and steel special economic zone, Gangapuri, Akhand Bharatiya Empire.

While the war was still raging in the south of Africa between the empire and Europe, large developments were taking place in the empire.

The pedestrians on the main street looked at the labourers digging up the ground in the middle of the street with curiosity.

“What are they doing?”

“Looks like they are making a deep tunnel?”

“Is it some sort of a new project?”

“I don’t know, the Panchayat has not posted any information about this.”

People came together in groups, stood outside the perimeter that was drawn up using a boundary tape, and started discussing about the things they were seeing.

A knowledgeable elderly man adjusted his glasses and speculated. “It is probably an order from the military logistics department.”

His words immediately attracted the attention of the people around him, ” How do you say that…uncle?”

“Well, you all probably know that his majesty the emperor has initiated the military economy mode.”

Various people nodded.

“In the past, during the war against the Mughal Empire, when the empire was in military economy mode, the entire government and all organisations were taken over by the Military Logistics Department. That is why I assumed that, since this was not the work of the Panchayat, it must be the work of the Military Logistics Department.”

Hearing the answer, everyone showed a look of enlightenment. A young man, feeling that the old gentleman was very knowledgeable, couldn’t help but ask, ” Hey, uncle, why do you think they are digging a tunnel?” His eyes flickered, and he put forward the conjecture he had in his mind, “Could it be a new drainage channel?”

The old man observed the workers moving with practised efficiency and stroked his chin. “Probably not,” he said, shaking his head. He then pointed toward the gap between the pre-existing drainage channels and the tunnel being excavated and explained, “Each road in the economic zone already has a pre-installed drainage tunnel, and all of them are connected to the main drainage channel along the main road. This tunnel is being dug far too away from the existing drainage line. Given the distance, it makes no sense for it to be a replacement for the old channel, not to mention the fact that the current drainage network is functioning just fine. If there were any congestion, at most, they would deepen the tunnel, not construct an entirely new drainage channel. Also, look.”

He pointed toward the sacks of cement piled up within the construction site.

” If I am not mistaken, that is the new water-resistant cement by the Ambuja Cement Group, and look at those moulds. They are completely different from the ones that are used for drainage channels.”

” Adding all the inconsistencies together, the tunnel is definitely not for drainage.”

Hearing the step-by-step logical explanation, everyone who had gathered around nodded in agreement. They could not refute or find any fault with the words of the old man. In fact, now that they understood that it was the work of the military, more clues were pieced together by the people.

” Right!” The middle-aged man made a fist and slapped his hand as he remembered something, ” My friend works at Ambuja Cements, he said that the company has been nationalised and the military is investing heavily in increasing the production. After it was nationalised, it became very hard for civilian companies to purchase the cement from Ambuja Cement, as the whole inventory was monopolised by the military, but now that the new waterproof cement from Ambuja Cement Company appeared here, it is definitely the work of the military.”

A steel company worker squinted his eyes and zoomed in on the small insignia on the helmets of the workers. Confirming his suspicion, his eyes lit up, ” There is no doubt, because the insignia on the helmet is an insignia assigned to civilian companies that had been nationalised under the emergency economy initiative. My iron and steel company has been nationalised as well. After the nationalisation, my helmet was also changed, and a similar helmet was given to me. Although the patterns are different, the symbol of Ashoka Chakra, as well as the sickle and hammer in front of it within the insignia, is unmistakable.”

The people all observed the workers carefully, and sure enough, there was a symbol as the man mentioned. It was so small that most people had ignored it before, but now that they deliberately looked for it, it became the centre of attention.

Since the tunnelling operation was going on throughout the special economic zone simultaneously, it was not only a single group that gathered around and discussed about what was happening. Several groups all over the city did the same thing.

In fact, the people of the city did not know that the project was being carried out across the entire empire. The Military Logistics Department, mobilising nearly four million people, had launched a massive infrastructure effort to dig tunnels throughout Bharat. Within urban cities, the tunnels were excavated directly beneath the street lamps at the centre of the roads, at a depth of several metres, while in the wilderness, they were dug alongside the Arkha Dristi Communication Towers.

The task of tunnelling might have seemed simple, as it involved nothing more than digging passages underground, but the real challenge lay in the objective. The tunnels were meant to mirror the full reach of the communication towers spread across the empire. Even conservative estimates placed the total length of the Arkha Dristi communication network at well over eighty thousand kilometres. Covering such an immense distance in a short span of time, even with four million people working toward it, was anything but easy.

Thankfully, manual digging was only implemented in the urban regions. In the wilderness and other low-density traffic areas, a tractor attached with an excavator arm was used, and each excavator was able to cover several km every day. Given that nearly 80% of all excavators had been nationalised and over 1000 more orders have been put forward by the military to the tractor manufacturers, the whole project should be completed before 1700.

Due to the empire being put in an emergency, no prominent and regional newspaper or media company was allowed to cover the news. Small-town level or city-level newspapers reported about it, but the reach was simply too small for it to become a widely known piece of information.

Although the elite of the society, be it businessmen, celebrities, high-level civil servants, and high-level blue-collar professionals, got to know about the huge project the empire was undertaking through various means, the vast majority of the people were still under the impression that it was simply something that was happening within their district.

The Director of Military Logistics, Basveshwara, undertook this initiative for one primary reason. He did not want the developments within the empire to become known across Europe. Although numerous spies operated within imperial territory, the emergency conditions severely limited their ability to transmit information. As a result, whatever intelligence they gathered would be confined to their immediate regions and little more.

Moreover, with the fighting underway in South Africa, if the empire’s media provided no coverage of the project, European analysts would likely dismiss it as a minor inconsistency and pay it little attention. On the other hand, if the media were allowed to publicise the effort across the eastern hemisphere, the Europeans might be prompted to interfere or attempt to disrupt the situation in one way or another.

Although the Bharatiya Empire was not afraid of the Europeans, especially with the emergency declared, which gave the military absolute control over the propaganda that was spread and what people could hear, Basveshwara still felt it was best to minimise the risk as much as possible instead of wasting resources needlessly searching for European spies who were like needles in a haystack.

“General, the guests are here.”

Basveshwara came back from his thoughts and nodded, ” Invite them in.”

The next moment, a young man with a dark complexion and energetic eyes, along with a white middle-aged man who appeared extremely cautious, entered the room.

” Please, sit down.”

The young man did not hesitate and eloquently sat down, while the middle-aged man, being quite reserved, was extremely careful in his actions.

The pair was none other than Paramveer and Ansel Eberhart, the duo who developed Telegram.

” Would you like to have some tea, coffee, or some other beverage?” Basveshwara politely asked.

Ansel smiled, although it looked a little strained, and shook his head, ” No, thank you. A glass of water will do.” Basveshwara had read about the weird accent of Ansel in the intelligence report, but still, hearing it firsthand caught him off guard. Thankfully, he quickly recovered and nodded with a smile.

“What about you, friend?”

Paramveer had no social anxiety at all. He directly asked for a glass of lemon juice without hesitation.

Ansel became a little tense, but seeing that the military officer did not show any dissatisfaction, let out a sigh of relief.

Soon, the two beverages were served, and Basveshwara remained silent and stood patiently, waiting for the young man to finish his drink. Ansel only took a few sips and put down the glass. Basveshwara was not in a hurry, but Ansel, being a foreigner, felt extremely tense sitting opposite a person who, in the special situation the empire was in, was one of the most powerful people.

“Thank you for your hospitality, sir, but can I know why we were invited?”

Basveshwara nodded and took out what looked like a blueprint and placed it in front of the pair of teacher and student.

Both Ansel’s and Paramveer’s attention was attracted by the blueprint.

” This is…” Ansel looked at the general, confused.

‘ Why am I seeing a tunnel? What does it have to do with me?’ He couldn’t help but ask himself.

Basveshwara understood the professor’s doubt and explained, ” This is a tunnel that will be housing the Telegram line both of you invented. I specially invited you here to ask whether this tunnel can get the job done.”

He got up, came behind the pair, and pointed his hand at the tunnel and explained, ” The tunnel will be tucked quite deep in the ground, and it will be encased in a thick layer of concrete so that moisture does not get inside and it remains isolated from the outside.”

” Every hundred or two hundred metres in the urban regions, we are going to install manholes for people to do maintenance if needed.”

” And the entire tunnel is built in a modular manner, where each module is over twenty metres long, fitting together using an interlocking method.”

” The width of the tunnel is over four feet. It’s not too large, but it is enough for a person to bend down and do the maintenance or whatever that has to be done.”

” So, what do you think, is this housing enough for the Telegram line to pass through?”

Paramveer’s expression was filled with wonder as he nodded repeatedly and directly approved it, but Ansel looked horrified.

” Sir, if you are going to use Telegram as a way to communicate throughout the city, then using the tunnel is completely unnecessary and, most importantly, impractical.” Basveshwara showed a look of surprise, and this scared Ansel even more. ” The Telegram system we invented needs electricity to operate.” Fearing that the man would not know what electricity was, he quickly explained, ” Electricity is a kind of power completely different from steam. Currently, we have no practical way to harness it. The way we were able to make the Telegram system was by using the battery I invented, called the Eberhart Battery. It is a temporary battery that does not last too long in continuous use.”

” If the empire is planning to run the Telegram line throughout urban cities using the battery, I urge you to reconsider and stop the project as soon as possible.” He was so worried because if the empire spent a lot of money on any infrastructure that could not be used, he would be used as a scapegoat. After all, he was one of the inventors of the Telegram, not to mention he was a foreigner, even though he had gotten his citizenship.

Basveshwara smiled, ” Don’t worry, Mr Ansel. The issue of the power supply has already been considered, and this project is initiated by his majesty the Emperor himself. I just wanted to know if the tunnelway we are constructing could work.”

The moment the issue of power supply was brought up, Ansel visibly calmed down. Although a question lingered in his mind about how the empire intended to resolve it, he pushed the thought aside. It was no longer his concern, and he was simply relieved that he would not be held accountable.

He looked at the tunnel once again and gave his opinion, ” In that case, it is perfectly alright to use the tunnel for the Telegram communication, although I would recommend finding a way to insulate the wires so that they do not short each other. I’m not too adept in metallurgy and chemistry, but I would suggest using some sort of insulator to coat the wires and then using it.”

He also wanted to say that the tunnel did not have to be so big, but since he realised that the empire had bigger plans than what he was being shown, he did not even mention the matter.

Basveshwara was silent for a long time, then nodded, ” Thank you for your input. I will be sure to relay your opinion to the relevant personnel.”