Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

In a police station, the Sub Inspector was dealing with a case pertaining to a recent mob fighting incident.

"Sir, he is still young; he does not know many things. Could you please forgive him this one time? As an apology, here, take this," a man who looked to be the father of the student who caused the riot was pleading with the Sub Inspector.

The Sub Inspector looked offended as he stated, "How dare you, sir! Please take your money away. I am a respectful police officer; how can I take a bribe?"

Just then, unexpectedly, a man wearing a black cloak arrived. The man was taken aback as he stood there stunned; he felt like he had seen this scene for the second time because he was the one who had arrested Dharma Chaudhary in the Department of Industry.

The agent could not help but grumble, "These bastards like to pretend. And why do they all have such honest names? Goddamn it."

"Mr. Sub Inspector Satya, you are under arrest for colluding with several politicians of the Cabinet as well as with a local judiciary in overturning a judgment."

"All your properties in the 60-foot road, villas and bungalows in Mumbai and your farmlands in Nashik are hereby seized by the government."

Satya was immediately shocked. He wanted to refute, but seeing as how the man brought out all his hidden properties, he knew that it did not make much sense to refute, so he immediately gestured to his constables to act.

The agent saw the constables slowly moving towards their guns, but he did not mind or care, because the next moment, several soldiers carrying advanced Brown Bess rifles immediately pointed their guns at the constables.

There was a pin-drop silence in the police station. The constables, who were accomplices of the Sub Inspector, stood there like statues in terror.

The agent was not done yet. He simply moved to the side, which gave Satya a view of a window opposite him. Through the window, he could see a soldier carrying a Shikari C-70 rifle, ready to blow off his head at any moment.

Satya immediately dropped to the ground, giving up all hope.

The agent casually walked towards the slumped body as if this were his 9-to-5 job and as if he were already fed up. He simply tied down the hands and feet of Satya and had his men deal with him.

While on his way out of the police station, he caught a glimpse of the middle-aged man and the teenage boy. With a doubtful expression on his face, he quickly took out a ledger and flipped through the pages, searching for any information about the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man was unable to comprehend what was happening. He was terrified, watching the black-cloaked man turn the pages as if searching for records of his sins like Chitragupta in Naraka.

The agent finally spoke, "Mr. Desai, an authority in gear mechanics, son studying in the local college, rebellious and high-spirited, recently arrested for causing a riot between two colleges."

Desai felt a chill run down his body. He did not expect these black-cloaked men, whoever they were, to know so much. His hands were trembling as he considered leaving his son in the police station and abandoning any thoughts of bribing anyone to get him out.

But the black-cloaked men simply left, without saying anything else, leaving Desai dumbfounded. What was he supposed to think?

Desai, in a panic, saw that the black-cloaked men were about to leave the police station.

"Sir, what will happen to my son?" he yelled out.

The agent turned around, thought for a while, and said, "I don’t know. It’s not in my pay grade. Go to another police station or something. Anyway, I don’t care. It’s not in my purview. I couldn’t care less.

I don’t give a s***."

Just as the agent was becoming more and more out of control, he was suddenly pulled away by another agent.

--- Nôv(el)B\\jnn

In a state-owned flour mill, the director was arrested for mixing sand into the flour and embezzling state property.

In a college, the director was arrested for embezzling the scholarships of excellent performing students.

In a major hospital, the dean was arrested for overcharging on medicine.

In a court, the judge was arrested for taking bribes from a rich entrepreneur.

The Empire was suddenly chaotic as men wearing black cloaks became omnipotent within the empire.

No one who was corrupt was spared, doctors, lawyers, directors, teachers, postmen, police officers, and even politicians. Thousands upon thousands of criminals were being pulled out of society like farmers pulling carrots from the ground.

The atmosphere in the empire was uneasy, as even honest workers became scared, fearing they would be framed by someone. Overall, the reputation of the government began to lessen.

There was a precursor to a riot in some parts of the empire.

Vinod and the Cabinet ministers were beginning to feel panicked. They went on to plead with His Majesty to stop the inspection, but Vijay did not relent and insisted on his order.

However, he knew their worry, so he comforted them: "Don’t worry. All of you have three more years to prove your worth. After these criminals are taken out of the system, your work will become easier, and you can also advertise this as your contribution." The politicians’ eyes lit up, and their brains worked hard.

Immediately, the politicians joined in the effort, utilizing their personal connections to help the intelligence departments.

The men in black cloaks became a nightmare for all the corrupt officials in the empire.

The black hat and black overcoat became symbols of purity, honesty, uprightness, incorruptibility, and virtuousness.

The start of the operation became a national day of cleansing.

15th May 1657

The chaos in the empire has died down, and the presence of corruption in the empire has been largely removed. The civilians can now sigh with relief.

However, Vijay could not relax because the next few weeks were the most critical time in the whole cleansing operation; it was time to cleanse the military of its filth.

"Are all of you ready?" Vijay asked with a serious expression on his face.

"We are ready, Your Majesty," a large group of people answered.

This group included the three intelligence directors of the empire, various ministers—including the Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Health, Minister of Finance, Minister of Transportation, Minister of Communication—and other ministries that had already been cleansed.

Vijay enlisted the support of all these ministries to ensure that the military would feel the pressure and would not act hastily.

The military is one sector in the empire where it is very hard to get involved unless Vijay takes direct action or the majority of ministries in the empire act together.

In the current situation, where there are more than 1,000 corrupt officers in the military, Vijay normally could not take action as it would take too long. So, he unified the various ministries in the empire to put pressure on the military to make things go more smoothly.

"Okay, let the cleansing operation start."

16th May 1657

For the last two months, since the first operation began, a lot of suspicious activity had been observed in the military of the empire. High-ranking officers like Gauri Shankar, the Deputy Logistics Minister in the state, and Bhargav, one of the few logistics directors, who had already been confirmed of their wrongdoings, were the first to be targeted.

Along with them, many other officers were brought to light.

These corrupt officers were panicked when the Bhartiya Sainik Pragya was inspected, but their worries disappeared when, even after two months, no action was taken against them. They thought they had not been discovered and started moving their assets restlessly.

Vijay, sitting in the royal palace and receiving frequent reports, had a smile on his face as he played on the chessboard. "Checkmate," he muttered.

Throughout the empire, all types of support to the military barracks were immediately stopped. Intelligence agents, along with police officers, stormed into the military barracks and arrested the corrupt officers.

Bhargav, who was handling the logistics affairs, was caught off guard when he was immediately arrested. Being a top official, he kept his calm and did not utter a single word. However, seeing the gold bricks brought out by the black-cloaked agents, his facade blew away. "How do you know? How do you know? Not even my wife knows about this!

How is this possible?" he cried out.

The black-cloaked agent let out a contemptuous smile and said, "Idiot, you were careful enough, but who told you to stay in your childhood home three days a month?"

"If it were only that, there would be no suspicion on you. But after adding up everything we have collected on you, we were able to guess that you had something to hide in your childhood home. I have to say I am impressed—you actually hid the gold bars inside the well.

If it weren’t for my assistant, who accidentally fell in and noticed some unusual packages inside the well, we would have never guessed."

Bhargav’s eyes became lifeless as if he were already dead inside.

---

Fortunately, with the support provided by the Legion Commanders, everything went smoothly, and Vijay was very satisfied with what had happened and the results achieved so far.

However, things were not over yet; there were still two dominoes standing.

"Start investigating the Election Nobility and Examination Council as well as the Royal Guards," Vijay ordered, catching Selvan, Aditya, and Roshan off guard.

However, after witnessing the ruthlessness of His Majesty, they knew that nothing could change his mind, so they acted without saying a word.

---

May 28th, 1657

Kishore Balabadra, who was sitting in his office reviewing the list of corrupted people for the last time, was immediately startled by his assistant, who came barging inside.

"Your Excellency, the men from the intelligence department are here. They are arresting people."

Kishore let out a deep sigh. "So it is finally my turn, huh? Looks like His Majesty is really going all out after all," he said to himself, after which he ordered his assistant, "I know about this; you go out."

After the assistant left, his eyes were ruthless. He took out a document that he had hidden and promptly sent it to His Majesty through secure channels.

The document contained information about suspicious people in his own department, and he was currently fully cooperating with Vijay to weed out the scum in his own department.

Vijay, receiving the document, couldn’t help but smile as he knew that he had picked the right person for the role. The document not only contained information about suspicious people in the Election Nobility and Examination Council but also in his Royal Guards.

If it were anyone else, they would have been furious when their own institution was inspected. But Vijay is not everyone else. The whole reason he set up the ENEC was for this exact same reason: to hold everyone accountable Including the monarch to a certain extent.

The actions of Kishor proved his ideas right.

With the capture of the scum in the ENEC, a larger network of contacts was once again revealed, thereby completing the cleansing of the empire.

The cleansing operation, which lasted for several months, was finally completed. Although this operation led to many vacancies in the empire, brought the economy to a slowdown, and caused panic among society, it was all worth it. As an immediate measure, Vijay had ordered that a new batch of college students graduate one month early to quickly fill this gap.

After the cleansing that lasted for several months, the empire was set for growth for the next decade. The people who did not seek personal benefits during the war were placed in key positions, and such individuals would naturally not seek benefits, whether big or small, in the future, creating an excellent environment for growth.

P.S. Agent cant catch a break