Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

24th March 1660

Admiral Gangadhar arrived at the Secret Naval Testing Centre located in the city of Paradip in full secrecy. He got down from the carriage, his brows furrowed as he had no idea why His Majesty asked him to inspect a secret weapon that had been in development for the past 4–5 months. 'Is this weapon more important than the year-end summit?' he wondered in confusion.

Manoj Reddy, who was alerted of the arrival of the admiral, quickly came forward to greet him.

"Welcome, Admiral. Please come in," he said with a namaskaram as he gestured him inside.

Gangadhar, looking at the caster-shaped, prickly object the size of a standard oil barrel (50 liters), was perplexed, as he did not know what to make of it.

"What am I looking at?" he asked, staring at Manoj in confusion.

Manoj simply smiled. "This... is a naval bomb that we just developed, code-named Type A."

"It is an explosive that is used on water."

Gangadhar's eyebrows raised in surprise. He remembered the report he had read last year submitted by Commander Akhil, about the Dutch using something similar. 'Is it a replica of it?' He did not want to reach hasty conclusions.

"How does it work?" he asked, his eyes fixed on Manoj with interest.

Manoj didn't know what the admiral was thinking, but he simply explained, "You are aware of landmines, aren't you Admiral? Now this right here mirrors the same functionality but on the sea."

'I knew it.'

"So this is left floating on the sea, waiting for an unsuspecting warship to pass over it, and it explodes, similar to the ones the Dutch used during the Indian Ocean Unification Battle?"

Manoj nodded. "Exactly, but not entirely, since our design is only inspired by the Dutch design, but the execution of our bomb is better."

Gangadhar was non-committal. He wasn't going to believe the claim until he saw firsthand evidence. He pointed at the bomb. "From its looks, it appears to be made of metal. Does it really float on the water?" he asked. It was not that he was illiterate and knew nothing about fluid mechanics; since being an admiral of the largest navy in the world by tonnage, he knew what buoyancy was and how it worked. But the knowledge and common sense ingrained in his mind, saying that metal can't float, wouldn't let him just accept that it could.

"Of course, it can," Manoj replied with a shrug as he slapped hard on the metal casing.

"Dong!"

"Dong!"

A dull and hollow metal sound was heard.

"!"

Gangadhar was startled, but Manoj didn't notice it as he went on to explain, "Most of the interior of the bomb is left empty to increase its buoyancy. It's only the central part that holds the mechanism and the charge, which adds some weight. Overall, when calculated as a whole, its density per square centimetre is actually less than water, which would enable it to float on water."

"In fact, we could have made it even less dense, making it show more than 50% of its body when on water, but we did not do it after the idea was rejected by the design practicality engineer in the team."

"Apparently, it would make it stick out, so we stopped."

Manoj finally turned around, and he was immediately confused after seeing Gangadhar take a few steps back and look at him worriedly.

Manoj Reddy was perplexed, but then he looked at his hand leaning onto the bomb. He suddenly realized, "HAHA, there's nothing to worry about, Admiral. This thing is only a shell; it has not been armed yet."

"Whew!"

Gangadhar wiped off the imaginary sweat on his forehead and laughed wryly. "Can we begin the test?"

"Ha ha, of course, of course. Please come, a prototype is being armed the very moment, we are preparing to test it."

Gangadhar saw a few scientists wearing white laboratory coats placing what looked like a square container within the metal casing of the bomb. He could identify the flintlock mechanism on top of it, but he could not guess how it was put into use.

Moments later, Gangadhar was attracted by Manoj, who held a glass beaker in his hand with some sort of powder in it and walked very carefully, as if he were holding some sort of explosive.

When Manoj came back, Gangadhar raised the question.

"What is that you were carrying just now?"

"Oh, it's a new compound that we discovered called Mercury Fulminate."

"It's an explosive several times more powerful than gunpowder."

"The production is not too difficult either. We just dissolve mercury in nitric acid to form mercury nitrate, and we react the mercury nitrate with distilled alcohol, and finally, crystalline substances are formed, which we filter and dry."

Gangadhar became excited. "Then can this fulminate be used as a replacement for gunpowder?"

Manoj's eyes lit up. "I had the same idea, Admiral, but for some reason, the financial manager of the research group immediately denied the idea, saying that it was impossible."

"Ah!" Gangadhar was immediately choked. "Um, what's the price of mercury, nitric acid, and distilled alcohol?" he asked in a roundabout way because he had a hunch that Manoj wouldn't know the cost of fulminate per gram.

Gangadhar scratched his head and thought hard. "I don't know the exact numbers, but in order to produce enough fulminate for 10 of the prototypes, it took 6952 Varaha."

Gangadhar: "..."

He didn't know what to say. 6000 Varaha was enough to manufacture a truckload of gunpowder. He looked at Manoj, who had a confused expression as if to say he was clueless as to why mercury fulminate could not replace gunpowder. Gangadhar immediately felt his head throbbing and had a sensation of wanting to strangle the guy. Fortunately, with his immense willpower, he held back.

In the meantime, the bomb had been armed and taken to the middle of the lake, ready to be tested.

Gangadhar saw the warship that was docked on the shore and immediately identified its origin.

"Isn't this the ship confiscated from the Mughal Navy?" He looked back at Manoj in confusion, wondering how these guys got their hands on it.

"Uh, yes," Manoj nodded. "No one wanted to buy it because its maintenance cost was higher than its purchase cost. It began to take on water soon after, and shortly, it was ordered to be scrapped by the BSO. After negotiating with the government, we got the ship for testing for free," he said, looking at the Mughal warship with a smile on his face.

Soon, the 600-tonne Mughal warship sailed towards the edge of the large Chilika Lake.

Moments later, it was only a few dozen meters away from the sea bomb,

Gangadhar was using his personal handheld telescope to get a clear visual, but Manoj Reddy and the other scientists were using high-power telescopes with more zoom to get a better visual.

Gangadhar realized that he had made a mistake, but it was already too late to change the telescope. So, he simply went back to using his own.

The hull of the ship, going at speeds upward of 7 knots, made contact with the needle-like protrusion of the bomb, and it immediately deformed.

Within a split second, the mercury fulminate reacted with the compound attached to the needle, causing the flintlock mechanism to go off. The densely packed gunpowder within the container at the core of the bomb immediately ignited.

"BOOM!"

A muffled explosion was heard with water spilling merely 100 metres away

The face of the hull was immediately torn apart. The sailing ship, which was moving at 7 knots, couldn't go even a few dozen meters before its rear was up in the air. Soon, before anyone could react, the ship had completely sunk.

Everything from the explosion to the ship eventually sinking happened within the span of half an hour—a ridiculously small amount of time for everyone on the ship to get off, especially if the ship was a large sailing ship of 2000 tonnes. Fortunately, there was no one on the Mughal ship, and after deciding on the direction, everyone got off from it.

"Bloody hell, it is so deadly," Gangadhar's mouth was agape. He exclaimed, but his eyes looked bright as if they were saying something else entirely. He clenched his fist in excitement.

---

Bharatiya Parliament

Bhuvan, the Minister of Justice, took the center stage.

"The number of courts in the empire has been increased from 3,000 in 1655 to 15,000 as of February 1660, and they are continuing to expand."

"The number of legal professionals expanded from 8,000 to 50,000."

"We currently have established 8,500 circuit courts, 3,000 dedicated civil courts to resolve land dispute matters, 2,000 criminal courts to resolve criminal issues, 2,500 large district courts, twenty high courts, one per each state, and finally a single Supreme Court."

"The ministry still maintains the standard of at least one judge and two lawyers for any type of court."

"As far as anti-corruption is concerned, this has never been a problem since law professionals is a new field in the empire, but I am aware of the importance of a law professional and the importance of the field to be without corruption. So, I have prepared a bill that I am ready to put forward."

Vijay got a copy of the bill and curiously looked at it. Reading the bill, he soon smiled and immediately signed it.

Bhuvan was immediately overjoyed and officially put forward his bill to the members of the parliament.

"Law Liberalization Bill 1660," he loudly proclaimed.

"The bill constitutes that a lawyer can now start his own law firm independently without being attached or employed by the government."

"With this, the systemic corruption that might appear in any place of power which remains stagnant should be eliminated for the most part."

The ministers were in thought as they discussed the pros and cons of the bill with each other. A minister from Cheranadu raised his hand.

"This is a good initiative put forward by your Excellency, but can I ask if the lawyer is no longer attached to the government and is a private person running his own business, how will his capabilities be examined?"

Bhuvan nodded. "It's an excellent question. Yes, any lawyer who has to become a practicing lawyer can now take the All Bharat Bar Examination (ABBE), yet to be established, but I promise it's coming soon. The exam is conducted by the government, with its questions prepared by some of the most successful lawyers in the Empire, encompassing both theoretical and practical aspects."

"As for what the newcomers can do in order to rank up their skills, well, they can intern in any of the established law firms and rank up from there."

"From now on, what position you reach will be left to you and not on the bureaucracy of our ministry."