Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

155  Recruitment and Mohamad's Trouble

Vijayanagar Empire, The Naval Academy.

"Sir, we could feign a retreat and take advantage of the terrain, letting our battleship stationed 4 km north approach and flank the opponent. Doing this can not only prevent a close-up battle with the enemy in case of ammunition exhaustion in our ship, but we can also capture the enemy's soldiers without any more casualties than there already are."

A young man who looked to be in his early 20s replied to the teacher who asked him a question based on a simulation of a battlefield. His name is Gautham, one of the best-performing students in the Vijayanagara Naval Academy.

"Very good, sit down."

The teacher responded, very satisfied with the reply. He has always been surprised at how many talents were coming out of the Naval Academy. He was a normal captain of a Dutch frigate back home in the Netherlands, but due to a mistake, he was demoted by a rank and sent on an expedition to India. Unfortunately, the expedition failed. After being captured, he was interrogated. Since he did not harm anyone in Sri Lanka during his service, he was given a condition to teach in the naval academy in exchange for his freedom. He was very happy that he did not harm anyone in the colony, so he readily agreed.

At first, he was ordered to learn the native language as soon as possible in order to start his teaching career. Initially, he was put on tabs by the military to see if he was teaching the real things or just spewing propaganda or acting as a missionary of the church. Fortunately, when the white man did not make any nasty moves, his surveillance was reduced quite a bit.

John has been living a full and fulfilling life, and teaching here is not a difficult task, as all the students he has taught in the Military academy seem to know a lot about military tactics and strategy. He was intrigued by this phenomenon and asked a few students, but most, if not all of them, attributed this knowledge to God. According to them, sometimes when they think about how a battle should be fought, inspiration suddenly comes to them. It's like they already know this knowledge, but they have forgotten it.

The atmosphere in the academy is quite religious, as the students celebrate many holidays in a year. They wear some red dots on their faces; some have a thread going around their body and many other different features that he could not understand. But what he is sure of is that a lot of it has to do with the theological aspect of these people's lives. There is even a deity with an elephant face placed at the entrance of the Naval Academy. At first, he felt uneasy and fearful of all these practices, as the only thought that ran through his head was that these practices people are doing were demonic. But as the days passed, he grew less wary and even got to know quite a bit about their traditions. The most surprising part is that not once did anyone try to convince him to convert to their faith. Isn't it what everyone does after conquering or winning a battle against someone? Isn't it natural to spread the faith of the winner? But why is that not happening here? He was confused. Soon, he shook his head and came back to the topic.

After confirming that the students had some knowledge of tactics, he just had to make sure what they were putting forward could be applicable in practice. The application aspect is one area where all the students are lacking.

Even Gautam, who falls into the top echelon of best-performing students, when asked to do a trial run of a training frigate, became clueless like a headless chicken. Even though he knows all the theories and tactics, he seems to have never been on a warship. This similarity is noticed in all the students. So Identifying the problem, John soon changed his classroom from the Naval Academy to a lake nearby and concentrated on building up the practical abilities of the students. It was then that the gold from the silt was separated; students who had a natural talent for the field rose above their peers, while those who were not as proficient still struggled.

But still, on average, the success rate of training a qualified sailor was higher than what he had seen back home in the Netherlands.

Today, Just like any other day when he was training the new batch of students, a man dressed in a military uniform came near the lake and handed him a letter. After reading the letter, his face became solemn. He quickly dismissed the classes for the new batch and went back to the Naval Academy to convey the news to his old students.

Gautam and his classmates assembled in the class as their teacher convened them to gather.

John soon came to the class and relayed the information in the letter. "I have just received the recruitment notice for the newly formed Coast Guard."

* yesss *

Everyone became happy as soon as they heard the news. Their futures were very uncertain because Vijayanagar did not have a proper Navy, so they did not know where their positions would be in the future. Now that there is a Coast Guard that has been newly formed, that is the place where they should showcase their talents and make His Highness the King and the Empire proud.

John, looking at the excited faces of his students, decided to pour cold water on them. "But this recruitment has a condition. We will have mock battles with the other classes in the Naval Academy, and the best-performing people will be considered as winners."

"Also, the ranks that could be achieved could go up to the commander rank."

He said, as he eyed Gautam, who had come a long way from not even knowing how to tie a proper knot in the beginning to being one of the best and talented commanding talents he had ever witnessed.

This news again excited everyone. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

With the commencement of the selection battles in Vijayanagar, Chilika Lake became busy as the mock battles were decided to take place in that location. Due to there being insufficient warships, they were temporaly replaced with merchant ships, and the Mughal frigates that were captured in the war. These mock battles would take a long period of a month to complete, and all the students were happily awaiting their chance to perform.

While the students of the Naval Academy were happy, Mohammad the Fifth in the Mughal Empire was feeling depressed.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Mughal Empire, Agra.

" Why can't it be done?" Mohammed yelled in annoyance.

In front of him were Adam, the chief craftsman, and Moin Ali, the spy, who were bowing their heads in shame.

Several weeks ago, as the Mughal Empire grappled with the challenge of mass-producing muskets similar to those of the Vijayanagar Empire, a member of the border patrol stumbled upon an individual. This person surprisingly assured that he could provide invaluable assistance to the Mughal Empire, presenting himself as an insider within the Vijayanagar Empire. Intrigued by this prospect, Muhammad, after thorough verification through various channels, decided to place his trust in this informant. In return for revealing the musket manufacturing process, the individual had one condition: Muhammad must aid in the rescue of his family.

Unfortunately for Naveen, when the Mughal Empire sent a few skilled assassins to capture his family and bring them back to the Mughal Empire, the house was found to be empty. When inquired with the neighbours, they got to know that after the disappearance of Naveen, both the elderly people living in the house, along with the younger brother and his wife, were arrested by the police and taken into custody. There has been no news since then.

Listening to this news, Naveen was frustrated and angry. 'Didn't I just take a few more gold, why did you have to go after my family?' he thought, feeling sad, frustrated, and believed that he was in the right.

With this hatred in his heart, he chose to reveal how Vijayanagara was able to produce such standard muskets. However, it was still unknown to him that the assassins sent by the Mughal Empire had actually found his relatives, killed them, and framed the Vijayanagara Empire after completing the task. As for why they didn't directly put the blame for the murder, Moin Ali thought that it would look too fake, considering Naveen's insider status. Moin Ali went to such lengths because his majesty, Mohammad, wanted to plant the seed of hatred in Naveen's heart, ensuring that he would be a loyal pawn in the future and not defect at a moment's notice.

After learning the details reported by Naveen, Adam was very excited. He clenched his fist and struck it into his thigh as he exclaimed, "Such a simple solution. Why did I not think of this? Damn it!" expressing annoyance that he was not the one who thought of such a straightforward solution.

Seeing the excited look on Adam's face, Mohammad felt like he was closer to replicating the musket. However, back in the present, he felt like he was slapped in the face by the circumstances he faced.

"Your Majesty, while breaking down the task into numerous micro-tasks and assigning a specialized craftsman to handle each small part might seem straightforward, we've come to realize through experience that this process is more challenging than initially anticipated.

For starters, each craftsman we find uses a different measurement system, making the parts they make highly inconsistent and cannot be assembled. Also, the nobles did not want to outsource the work, as they felt that they were losing money. We received a lot of backlash from the noble community.

And when we ourselves tried to force this model on the market, the products we got were not reliable. There were no standard indicators about how much gunpowder should be used and what type of ammunition should be used. More importantly, the guns looked like they had cut some corners when manufacturing.

Since last month, we have had 15 deaths and 45 injuries just in the testing process, as sometimes the gun explodes out of thin air, and at other times, the gun backfires, injuring the soldier wielding it.

Overall, it has cost a lot of loss of reputation in the army," Adam said, with a helpless expression on his face.

"God damn it!" Mohammed cursed again in annoyance.

"Then why is Vijayanagar able to do it? Why are they not facing all these problems?" For this question, it was Moin Ali who responded. "Your majesty, before these muskets were produced, it looks like Vijayanagara had made a lot of reforms which led to this result. First, the weights and measures of Vijayanagara were unified, making it easier for transactions. The power of the nobles was highly reduced, and the land was distributed, making the ordinary people rich. As the peasants were no longer tied to the land, more people began to be employed by various workshops, making the manpower abundant. When the new model was introduced, it was not actually introduced by the emperor, but it was a merchant who found out about this method, and all the other merchants followed suit. As far as I can see, after weakening the power of the nobles in the Vijayanagar Empire, they chose to transition themselves into a rich merchant class, which is more progressive in nature. There are more reforms that have taken place which I can't understand."

Moeen Ali concluded, as he took a large document from his bag and handed it over to Muhammad with one of his knees lowered and with a humble expression.

"Your majesty, I have compiled all the changes that took place in Vijayanagar in this document. Please look at it." Mohammed, taking the document, fell into deep thought as he read it.