Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

21st March 1657

Akhand Bharatiya Empire, Gangapuri State (Odisha), Paradeep Military Barracks

"Left, right, left! Left, right, left!"

Soldiers were doing their routine drills with mud all over their faces while the sergeants were busy breathing flames down the cadets’ necks. The barracks were functioning in an orderly manner.

It was the season of heavy rain, but still, the training did not stop, and the intensity persisted under such circumstances. Under the curious eyes of the soldiers guarding the barracks, a group of men dressed in full black attire entered the barracks with emotionless expressions on their faces.

"Stop! Please show me your credentials; this is a classified area," a soldier standing guard sternly warned as he stood ready, clutching his gun.

The person who appeared to be the leader of the group took out a document and handed it over to the soldier while passing the umbrella to avoid damaging the paper.

The soldier, reading the document was shocked, as this was a warrant of investigation issued by the Imperial Committee. This type of document was something he had never seen before; the soldier had only heard about it once while he was in the military academy for a few months.

He immediately gave back the document, made his subordinate lift the gate, and saluted, "Sir!"

The black-cloaked man and his group nodded in appreciation and entered the barracks.

The group of men were naturally the combined force from the Bharatiya Internal Pragya and Bharatiya External Pragya. This special unit, temporarily formed, was called the Joint Operations Unit.

After the investigation began, the combined intelligence from both Internal Pragya and External Pragya quickly uncovered suspicious activity within the Bharatiya Sainik Pragya.

For example, in the Intelligence Department of the current barracks, a man named Bhaskar had been caught snooping around suspiciously in various state-owned military enterprises, and this man had recently bought large tracts of land. His income sources were very doubtful.

---

Bhaskar, who was going through battlefield scenario simulations with his subordinates, was caught off guard when a group of cloaked men barged into the office and started searching through it.

"Hey! Who are you? Don’t you know this is a classified area? Which department do you belong to?"

Bhaskar was angry as he questioned loudly. However, his voice went unanswered as the Joint Operations agents completely ignored him and continued with their work.

The feeling of being ignored made Bhaskar mad; it reminded him of the time when he was weak and pitiful in the past.

"Answer me, you bloody mongrels! Guards! Guards!" he roared, with veins popping in his neck.

However, before he could continue to threaten, his heart dropped as he saw a black-cloaked man pull out a trunk from under the tiled floor. Opening the trunk, it was filled with hundreds of coins and bundles of Varaha notes.

"Oh my God!"

Bhaskar’s subordinates, who were trying to resist these black-clothed men, immediately stopped their actions as they exclaimed.

They then looked at Bhaskar as if they were looking at a monster, beginning to understand what was happening.

A few weeks ago, they were also tasked with finding corrupt elements within the Intelligence Department of the Empire. So after seeing the current scene, they quickly realized it was their turn to be under scrutiny.

However, who would have thought that their team leader was one of those crooks they hated?

Bhaskar was now panicked; no matter what he thought, he could not find a reasonable explanation for how the trunk was placed in his personal office. Having no other option, he stammered, "I-I w-want t-to t-talk t-to the l-lieutenant c-colonel."

A look of contempt flashed across the faces of his subordinates, but the agents of the Joint Operations group did not listen to his words as they quickly controlled his body and dragged him out of the barracks.

The soldiers, seeing that one of their own was being dragged away on the muddy ground, couldn’t help but stop their actions and gather around to question these black-clothed men.

However, before they could act, a roar was heard from their Boss.

"Hey, what are you all doing? Go back to your duties!"

The man cursed, his expression furious. "Bastards! As punishment, there will be no dinner today."

The appearance of the lieutenant colonel successfully scared the soldiers back to their duties.

The lieutenant colonel secretly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He had received a message from the Imperial Committee through the Arkha Dristhi Communication Channel, warning everyone to cooperate with the agents of the Joint Operations unit. If adequate cooperation was not given, the said military officer would be put on trial in court on charges of harbouring a felon.

For this reason, he was worried that his men would make mistakes before he arrived. Fortunately, he got back in time.

Then, looking at Bhaskar’s face, he couldn’t help but feel disgusted as he spat in his face and left.

---

Somewhere in the city of Pune, in a temporary interrogation room, a man in a military uniform was tied up.

Numerous cuts were visible on the man; his face was dripping with blood, his nose was deformed, his shoulder was dislocated, and he was panting heavily.

"Mr. Shankar Choudhary, why do you resist? Why don’t you just give us the names we want? You have already been caught red-handed with the money. With the amount you have, you will not be able to get out of prison for at least a few decades, so why bother saving your colleagues?" a Joint Operations agent asked in a neutral voice, his eyes merciless.

Shankar Choudhary was heavily regretting his decision to cooperate with the Logistics department and replace some military rations with substandard ones. However, what use was there in regretting now? What had happened had already happened; no one could change anything. He just hoped that his family would not be affected because of him.

Seeing that Shankar was not willing to speak, the agent nodded his head, after which a bucket of cold salty water was poured over all the wounds on Shankar’s body.

"AHHhhhh!"

Screams echoed throughout the interrogation room, but the torture continued until, finally, Shankar, in a low voice, muttered, "I will... I will tell you. Please stop."

Hearing this, the main agent gestured for another man to come forward to note down everything that would be spoken by Shankar Choudhary.

Shankar Choudhary said, "It was the logistics manager, Gauri Shankar. I have been collaborating with him and some of the state-owned enterprises. We have been replacing the grain in the army with subpar grain produced by some agricultural cooperatives. Our collaboration has been going on for a few months, and through it, we have made a lot of money."

The agent was immediately angry upon hearing the confession; his fist clenched involuntarily. Looking at the man’s condition, he worried whether he could take even one more beating, so he held back with great difficulty.

Shankar Chowdhury knew that his life was over, but he couldn’t help but plead with his last strength. "The logistics manager is a vicious man. I am only one of his collaborators. If he knows that I have uttered his name, he will do something to my family. Could you please allow my family to escape and settle somewhere else?" Shankar’s eyes were tearing up, the tears mixed with blood.

"Please, I will tell you everything I know. Please, sir."

Seeing Shankar Chowdhury like this, the agent finally nodded his head and agreed to the request.

---

"Your Excellency, an agent from Barracks 48 was arrested."

"Your Excellency, a senior agent from Barracks 40 was arrested."

"Your Excellency, an agent from Barracks 12 was arrested with a trunk of money."

"Your Excellency, an agent confessed to collaborating with state-owned factory directors to provide shoddy products to the military."

Aditya, who was sitting in his office, constantly heard these reports. His subordinates were panicked, their expressions showing fear. However, Aditya sat in his seat as if everything that happened had nothing to do with him.

Aditya remained calm because he had already expected something like this would happen. He had uprooted so many agents from the Bharatiya Internal Pragya and the External Pragya in the past few weeks. Even though it was by the orders of His Majesty, it was easy to imagine that His Majesty would flip the coin and treat him the same way. Therefore, he was prepared.

What he was unprepared for was the extent of the corrupted agents within his department. Initially, he had thought that there were fewer than a hundred agents who could be corrupted. However, looking through all the cases, he was taken aback to find that the number had already exceeded double that amount.

When he investigated further to understand why this was the case, he found an answer that was both unexpected and expected. For the last two years, the Empire had been focusing on a military-economic model, concentrating the empire’s entire resources on the military.

As the only intelligence department focused on military affairs, the agents of the Bharatiya Sainik Pragya naturally came into contact with a lot of these resources, and not everyone could resist the temptation.

*Sigh*

"What a waste of effort," Aditya thought to himself, remembering the efforts he had invested in training these agents for the empire.

---

Vijay, along with Kishore Balabatra, was receiving the same reports as Aditya, but with more details.

"Your Majesty, it looks like the people working in the logistics department of the military have the highest rate of corruption," Kishore Balabatra said with a frown.

Vijay, hearing the statement, was not surprised. "The military logistics department has been the strongest and most powerful department in the empire for the last two years. This is to be expected."

"Then, Your Majesty, are we not going to do anything about them?" Kishore asked with some worry.

Vijay shook his head and answered, "Not yet. I bet the investigation into the Bharatiya Sainik Pragya startled a lot of them hiding deep in the system. So, let us give them some time to reveal some flaws."

"Even the ones who have been caught in this inspection raid, do not arrest them or interrogate them too harshly. The people who are caught now are only small fish, but they are part of a large net of interests. They will eventually lead us to the big sharks we are looking for."

Kishore Balabatra became silent with a meaningful expression on his face.

The military of the empire was in chaos for the next few weeks. People from the intelligence department were getting arrested left, right, and centre. As Vijay had expected, many officers in the military system began to show unusual behaviour. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

One man suddenly went to his hometown and started hiring workers to dig a pit to bury his dead cow which was alright till the day before. Another man ordered a truckload of grain about to expire from the military logistics department in a larger-than-usual carriage.

All these reports were put on Vijay’s table, which did not cause him much surprise. However, there was one person on the list who did catch him by surprise: one of the leaders of the military logistics department, Bhargav.

P.S. Exams Finished