Chapter 1060: Undercurrents

Chapter 1060: Undercurrents


No one, including Vijay, who had eyes and ears all over the empire and the vassal kingdoms, knew about the large group of Japanese who had come for the 17th-century version of the Iwakura Mission.


The Japanese, after spending a long time in the Kingdom of Vishala Nagari, moved to the Kingdom of Reshmi Vardhan in the train they had just seen. Their expressions were filled with curiosity, amazement, and even a little fear, fear that they were left far behind, and fear that their country would be controlled by another nation if they did not become strong quickly enough.


At the same time, a big change took place in the mainland of the empire as well. A large group of civil engineers were recruited from all over the empire by the five largest infrastructure companies. What caused people to talk more about it was that the pay was extremely generous, so much so that each salary package was equivalent to the salary of a chief engineer in some of the smaller projects.


Due to the recruitment and excellent conditions, a lot of people did end up joining, and they all collectively set off through the sea and land.


Harihara stretched his legs comfortably as he sat in a large carriage with two more people accompanying him. The three had the carriage all for themselves, and the journey was extremely comfortable on their way through the Middle East.


Opening the curtains, Harihara saw Persians working tirelessly to lay down roads for the Bharat–Russia Economic Corridor. Gazing at the enormous project stretching to the horizon, he couldn’t help but feel impressed. It was the first time he had seen such a vast undertaking come together, the kind every aspiring civil engineer dreamed of leading. Yet he felt no envy, for he too was about to take part in a project of similar scale. In fact, he was on his way to assume his post as one of the engineers in the Suez Canal project.


Just then, the words of his travel mate, who was an engineer like him, caught his attention.


" I wonder why none of the workers from the empire were employed for the project? "


Harihara’s expression turned thoughtful as he was intrigued by this question as well. That’s right, why did the project employ no labourers from the empire?


Parikshit, feeling the two gazes on him, shrugged and leaned back into his soft and comfortable chair with his hands behind his back.


" Two reasons. "


" The first one is because we do not actually have so many people to work on the project so far away. "


This answer immediately surprised Harihara and his travel mate, who asked the question.


" How can that be? Didn’t the report say that our population had continued to increase, and it is now at 270 million? "


Parikshit didn’t deny it. "True. But did you guys notice what percentage of the population is employed in the infrastructure sector? More than twenty percent, and it’s not really surprising. With the ongoing road construction, railway laying, and canal projects aiming to build inland networks for transportation and water security across the empire, the number of people employed, both directly and indirectly, comes to at least fifty to sixty million."


" Apart from this, a lot of people go to the vassal kingdoms, ASEAN, heck, they even come to the Middle East looking for opportunities. "


" Not to mention, a lot of labour now prefers to work in a factory, which pays the same amount or even sometimes more, without the effort they were previously putting. Tell me, if it were you, would you accept the offer? "


Hariharan nodded in understanding, as expected of a person whose father is a politician. Then he became more curious as to what the second point was. " Then what is the second reason? "


Parikshit smiled, " It’s simple really, it’s because the price to employ a Bharathiya to work overseas has become too much. "


" With so many job opportunities in the empire, and so many better opportunities in the vassal kingdoms, ASEAN, and the Middle East, who would want to work so far away for a normal labourer’s pay? "


" Take us, for example, would we have chosen to accept the job if the salary was not enticing? "


Harihara had a look of enlightenment. " Makes sense, but isn’t this bad? If the price of labour keeps going up, the price of infrastructure would also go up exponentially. This cannot be good, right? "


" Who said it’s not? My father and a few ministers from other constituencies brought this topic to the Chief Minister, and do you know what he said? "


" What? "


" He said that as time goes on, the need for labour itself will reduce with the arrival of machines. "


" In his words, ’ A few years ago, in order to transport a few hundred tonnes of cement from one city to another, a few hundred people along with a few hundred horses or oxen were required, but now, after loading it onto a train, not to mention bringing it to the next city, it can even be brought to the edge of the empire where the railway tracks go. Similarly, as we advance further, the need for low technical manual labour decreases, and this labour will be replaced by machines, while the people get more valuable and they get into more productive aspects of society. ’ I’ve thought about these words for a long time, and I have to say he makes sense. "


Their discussions drifted from one topic to another, from politics to sports, from sports to faith, and then to countless other subjects that filled the long journey. Eventually, their conversation ran its course just as the carriage crossed into the neutral territory between the Kingdom of Egypt and the Kingdom of Israel, a region now known as the Suez Autonomous Territory.


Harihara and his two travel mates were immediately taken to the living quarters, and after a day’s rest, they were introduced by the company managers to the people who would be working under them.


They were mostly Jewish Israelis, and they commanded a few dozen labour captains from all over the place, and under them were thousands of Greeks, Egyptians, Jews, and Persians, but mostly Greeks.


Harihara was intrigued after meeting with the Greeks, the people with an ancient civilisation he had read about in the history books. ’ Well, this is going to be an interesting journey. ’ He thought to himself.


---


However, just as all the Bharatiya engineers were excitedly preparing for their first day of work, Charles Stewart, the King of England, who had heard the news, was far from pleased.


He looked as if he had bitten into a lemon, his face completely contorted, the very image of disgust.


In the end, though, he let out a defeated sigh. In the past, he would have scoffed at anyone claiming they could dig a link between Europe and Africa and build a canal connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. But now, with it being the Bharatiyas undertaking the project, he could no longer take it lightly.


Louis XIV barged into the meeting with an ugly expression, " How believable is this news? "


Charles and William took a quick look at Louis and finally went back to their sulking state.


"Don’t you already know about this, Louis? Don’t tell me you don’t have your people in Israel or Egypt. Those guys have already started digging the canal, now you are still asking how believable it is? " Charles Sneerd.


Louis sat down with a huff. Of course, he knew it; he just wanted to know if the other two knew about it as well.


" Well, how do you think this canal will affect us? "


Williams, who was supporting his head with his hand, turned around, " Need you ask how cutting down the travel time from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea by a whole month will affect us? "


Hearing the question that was filled with sarcasm, silence filled the room.


’ Sigh! ’


And it lasted until Williams himself took the initiative to speak out.


" In fact, this canal should have been built by us. "


" What do you mean? " Louis enquired, his expression not friendly.


Charles, on the other hand, became thoughtful. He seemed to understand what Williams was getting at.


" Well, think about it, " Williams explained, " If we could have built this canal, say... a few decades ago, when the Bharatiya Empire was still the Vijayanagara Empire, "


"We could not only have kept all the colonies in Asia, since the time it would take our warships to reach that part of the world, which was still barren and weak, was only a few weeks, but we could also have strangled the Vijayanagar Empire in the cradle."


" But alas... this gateway of wealth has become the gateway of Hell. "


" In that case, should we attack? " Louis enquired.


Charles immediately shook his head, " We still have to recover; the last war took quite a toll on us. Also, those guys at the research institute finally researched a few machine tools that could be rated 4.5 generation when comparing it with the Bharatiyas. "


" We can finally produce more advanced weapons. "


" So first let’s stock up, I reckon the digging of the canal, even with the efficiency of the Bharatiya’,s would take half a decade to a decade. "


" When it is about to be completed, we can launch an all-out attack and maybe even capture the canal ourselves, in a way controlling one of the major routes to Bharat. "


Williams and Louie both agreed with the plan, but Williams cautioned, " All preparations should be done in extreme confidentiality. That traitor Alfonso is also participating in this project; if he catches a whiff of our actions, I’m sure it will be known to the Bharatiya soon. "


Charles and Louie’s faces were filled with hatred as soon as the Portuguese monarch was brought up.


" Agreed. "


There was silence for a long time until Louis changed the topic and mentioned another pressing discussion.


" What do we think about the all-metal ship powered by a steam engine? "


"..."


"..."


The three monarchs were having a very bad day.


p.s. sorry a little ruff today