Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

193  Civil Exams, The Ahom Soldiers Arrival Part: 1

Dakshin Bharatiya Empire. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Today is the day of the civil exam in the empire. All the 1.5 million eligible citizens, who have applied to take the exam, have come to the nearest exam center, whether it's a city school or a town school. Due to there being only 1.5 million applicants, the exams were conducted in larger towns and cities spread out within the Empire. The exams took place on the school grounds of various public schools. To write the exam, some participants, who were actually from smaller villages, had to travel two days beforehand and book accommodations in the towns and cities.

The day was declared a government holiday as an exception since it is the first year of the exam, and all government employees will have to take turns writing the exam at different times of the day. However, it is to be noted that when the civil exams are conducted every year, no holiday would be given. This is because once a person passes the civil exam, he will not have to take another one for another 20 years. Hence, it is unnecessary to inconvenience the populace for only a portion of people writing the exam. Vijay arranged this civil exam for people to understand the constitution of Bharat and by connection also understand their rights and who or what they are actually voting for. Additionally, as a bonus, this exam could be an excellent gateway for people to enter civil service in the current environment of a shortage of personnel in the Government.

Although the difficulty of this exam is very little, considering only simple questions about the constitution will be asked, Vijay is satisfied with the difficulty for now as it provides the people of lower castes with an opportunity to enter government departments in this way. In the near future, after the educational system becomes standardized and more of the population gets educated, the civil exam will be divided further. One to have the eligibility to vote, and the other one to get into civil service.

Security was also very tight for the examination as the military was mobilized. In places where the smaller examination centres were located, like in some remote towns, Few armed soldiers were arranged as a security measure. The medium-sized examination centres in some small cities were arranged with a squad of soldiers wielding muskets. For the larger examination centres like the capital cities of different states, where thousands of applicants participated in the examination, a whole platoon of armed soldiers was deployed. The applicants, after entering the examination centre, were completely cut off from the outside world as they were tightly guarded by the soldiers at the gate.

Kishore Balabhadra, the Observer of the Empire Is working overtime, constantly travelling between various places, making sure that everything is up to mark as his competency is being tested by the government on this occasion today. Although he may be one of the most powerful people in the Empire according to the constitution, in practicality, he found out that it was actually not even close to the truth. Because, although he could arrange the soldiers to guard the examination centres, that was all he could do. He could only order them to guard a certain location and nothing more; it was more like temporary hired labour than his own actual power. But Kishore did not feel sad or disappointed; if anything, he was relieved.

He was relieved that His Majesty had such control of the army. From what he knew, the army of the Empire was primarily commanded and controlled by the emperor. The employment of the army comes from His Majesty, the emperor, and not the government. The ideology within the army, which is being taught by the officers, is also controlled by the emperor. Also, recently, most of the soldiers in the army had been from the lower and Dalit castes, making the support for the emperor unshakable. Hence, Kishore was relieved that no rift could be created with his power as a trigger.

On a different note, while the civil exam in the empire was taking place, some other important events also happened.

Dakshin Bhartiya Empire, Kakatiya Puri state, Visakhapatnam.

The head officer of the Visakhapatnam port is waiting at the dock, as a group of late 16th-century sailboats, numbering in dozens, makes its way to the port. Behind this group of old boats, 10 Hampi-class sloops, which were escorting the old boats, docked in the port. But surprisingly, out of the 10 sloops, some had damage on them, whether it was holes in the hull or damage to the masts and sails. By the time the BNV vessels docked, a thousand or so men with Northeastern features disembarked from the old boats. These were the men sent by the Ahom Kingdom to receive artillery training from the Dakshin Bhartiya Empire. Their task is to learn everything there is about artillery warfare in the shortest time possible and go back home to teach the rest of the soldiers.

The captain among them, a person wearing a unique ornament, stepped forward and greeted the administrative head of the Visakhapatnam port. The captain is called Neerab, and the person following beside him, who is the second in command, is called Ripun. While the leaders were greeting each other, the boys at the back looked around the whole port like curious children. They had never been out of the kingdom since they were born; this was the first time they travelled to a distant country. They had quite a bit of reverence for the Dakshin Bharat Empire as it managed to defeat the Mughal Empire, their lifelong enemy.

Although they had also defeated the Mughal Empire numerous times, unfortunately, it had no further effect on the Mughal Empire. It only made the Mughals more and more aggressive while they were getting weaker and weaker in their counter. Bharat was different because the battles they won made them stronger, and the territory also increased. The soldiers, Seeing all around, could see people looking at them with curious expressions just as they were looking at the people. The people were wearing a lot of different kinds of clothes, and the hustle and bustle of the port was evident. The port was massive, as even though their boats and the sloops were large in quantity, they only occupied a small part of the port's occupancy. Since Visakhapatnam had been declared as the financial capital of Kakatiyapuri state, construction projects have begun to take shape, as work has already begun to widen the port area yet again, Workers could be seen diligently working, displacing the dirt as part of their ongoing tasks.

18:04

The soldiers, Seeing all around, could see people looking at them with curious expressions just as they were looking at the people. The people were wearing a lot of different kinds of clothes, and the hustle and bustle of the port was evident. The port was massive, as even though their boats and the sloops were large in quantity, they only occupied a small part of the port's occupancy. Since Visakhapatnam had been declared as the financial capital of Kakatiyapuri state, construction projects have begun to take shape, as work has already begun to widen the port area yet again, Workers could be seen diligently working, displacing the dirt as part of their ongoing tasks.

Finally, as the leaders' discussion concluded, the captain of the Bharatiya Navy East Second Squadron also arrived and saluted the Head Officer of Visakhapatnam Port. The officer accepted the salute and returned his own. Not forgetting the damages to the sloop, the head of the Visakhapatnam port, although it was not his right to question the captain of the squadron, as he had no jurisdiction over the Navy, couldn't resist and decided to bring up the matter of the sloop. "Captain, if you don't mind, let me ask you a question." The captain, who saluted the head, also had an inkling of an idea what the question would be, so he did not mind and replied, "Is it about the damages on the sloops?" The officer nodded his head and replied, "Yes, I know it is not within my right to know this detail, but I just got curious."

"Well, it is not a problem to tell you. It is not even a big secret. While we were escorting the ships from the Ahom Kingdom, we ran into a fleet of Mughal vessels, so we had to fend them off for quite some time before the Ahom ships were at a safe distance away from the Mughal range of fire."

Hearing this conversation, the captain of the Ahom soldiers, Neerab, who understood Sanskrit and could somewhat grasp the meaning of the Bharati language, couldn't help but feel embarrassed. It was because their boats were too slow, burdening the Dakshin Bharati vessels and requiring them to cover their backs.

Soon, a group of carriages was arranged for the Ahom soldiers to travel, and they were set to be housed in the Military academy on the outskirts of the city. It was a long way to travel. Neerab and Ripun saw more of the Empire's customs as they were taken through the urban streets of Visakhapatnam. The streets were wide and large, where three carriages could pass through at a time. Two separate roads were built for this explicit purpose. The roads were extremely clean, and trees were planted inside the barrier in the middle of the road.

Where there was a congestion of carriages, a person, whom Ripun got to know as a police officer, controlled the flow of traffic by allowing one side of the carriages to flow while stopping the rest to avoid the same congestion.

People on the streets wore luxurious clothes as they went around shopping for different things; they could have never imagined this was how an urban person lived their life in the Dakshin Bhartiya Empire. For all the things these people on the streets were experiencing, only the nobles of the Ahom Kingdom could relate.

As they got to the outskirts of the urban area, they got to see a different view of where there were farmlands. No matter how far they looked, it was green on green on green.

The farmland stretched to the horizon, and water irrigation channels were made so that water could be supplied to these vast plots of land.

People worked on these lands with happiness and excitement. Seeing this, Neerab found it odd because back in his home, the people who actually worked on the farms were not so happy. Even in their own family, the farm workers were not so dedicated. So, in order to clarify his doubts, he asked the carriage driver.

"Oh sir, you're talking about the farmers. They are actually the actual owners of that land. Before, that land used to belong to the nobles, but his majesty defeated those blood-sucking vampires and distributed the land to the poor farmers who used to work on it. So, since the land they used to work on due to compulsion is already theirs, they are now working hard to make the yield of crops higher than ever before."

Neerab finally understood the ins and outs of the phenomenon but did not know how to feel. Finally, after a day of travel, they were settled in the Military academy until their 10 Day of training began.

To Be Continued...

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