July 28th, 1656
Surat, the region of Gujarat, Dakshin Bharatiya Empire
A sea of people had gathered in front of the army recruitment office of the Bharatiya Empire in Surat.
All these people were very consistent in their gender and age; all the people present near the recruitment office were men under the age of 40 and above the age of 16.
Due to the crowd present, the atmosphere was a little rowdy, especially considering that all these men were here to join the army, so their personalities were expected to be loud and forthcoming. Hence, the noise they generated was extra loud.
"Hey brother, do you think I will be recruited?"
"Who knows? The criteria to pass are very hard after all. I have already tried 5 times in the exam, and it is always due to the logical test that I fail. This time, I’m confident in my performance, so I should pass. Anyway, it’s all God’s blessing. Let’s see how things turn out."
"I can’t wait to join the army, march to the bloody Mughal Empire, and rip it to shreds."
"That’s right! How dare they destroy Kashi and try to attack Ayodhya? Do they think we Hindus are chickens to be slaughtered?"
"Well said! I feel the same way. For that reason, I have prepared my own weapon. Yeah, look at this. This is a sword that I forged myself, and I call it Long. Do you guys like it?"
In a similar fashion, conversations among groups and strangers were constantly going on. Some were concerned about their job, while others were excitedly discussing marching to the Mughal Empire and taking revenge. Overall, a diverse group of people had joined the army of applicants.
However, something happened next that shocked a lot of them.
The officer responsible for the recruitment suddenly came out of the office, stood up on the temporary stage that was just set up, and loudly proclaimed: "This right here is the order from the military command which has allowed for 30% of applicants to be enrolled. I will call the names one by one, so please step out of the crowd and proceed to stand beside me."
"Whooooahhhh!!"
"What! How is this possible?"
"30%? Why? What is the high command thinking?"
"Did something go wrong on the battlefield?"
Considering that according to the normal criteria, where the enrollment was less than one per cent, the reactions of the crowd were indeed expected. Since the criteria were raised directly to 30%, the chance of recruitment succeeding increased by a staggering 3000 per cent for a normal applicant, So anything that is less than an uproar would be weird.
As for why the people were actually unhappy or even hesitant about this high enrollment rate instead of being happy since their chances of recruitment would go up, well, that is because, truthfully, they are not dumb. They know that this is not the only recruitment centre in the empire, and there were tens, if not hundreds, of larger recruitment centres scattered around.
Hence, the smart applicants did not think even for a moment that the 30% recruitment criteria were only applicable to them. With this line of thought, they could naturally comprehend how monstrous the number of enrolled would be, so they were shocked as to what could lead the military command to make such a decision.
Among these smart people, there were also some who figured out that something might have gone wrong on the battlefield, prompting a massive recruitment campaign. Knowing this, a few among the already minority decided to opt-out. This decision remained unchanged even after their names were called by the recruitment officer on stage.
Fortunately enough, the majority of people were either brave, genuinely patriotic, or clueless. Hence, despite knowing or not knowing the risks, they continued to join the army.
The people who actively signed up for the job, even after knowing the risks, were recognized for their loyalty and made into sergeants of their respective groups. As for how they were identified, it was by their own claim written in the "Reason for Joining the Army" column in the application.
Some of them explained in detail how, despite the possibility of death, they were willing to march to the battlefield.
The thoughts of the people aside, the recruiter continued to call out the names one by one.
"Jaidev Balivaran, Balaji Shivshankar, Upendra Niti Bakshi, Lalith Kumar, Jiwan Yogi...."
The reactions were diverse.
"Oh, I am selected. Great!"
"Hahahah, yes! God has blessed me. Thank you, Lord."
"Oh, why me? I don’t want to die."
"Yes! Now I got a chance to blast those bloody Mughals apart."
Although there were some negative reactions, overall the majority were positive.
Naturally, the scene was repeated throughout the 358 large-scale military recruitment centres of the empire, be it Nasik, Nagpur, Rajpur, Amravati, Sagar, Rajkot, Karnavati, Mumbai, Pune, Kolhapur, Vijayawada, Warangal, Kochi, or any other place.
The result was as expected: nearly 400,000 soldiers were immediately recruited, and each of the 358 large-scale recruitment centres assigned a veteran colonel to guide them to the battlefield.
It was the 29th of July when all of the soldiers departed, and it is expected for them to reach the battlefield within 4 days.
Practically speaking, the speed could be faster, but truthfully these recruits were just civilians dressed in military clothing who didn’t even have the qualifications of the militia. So, in order to make them look like soldiers, they were not taken to the battlefield with the help of carriages but by marching in neat military formations.
By the time these recruits reached the battlefield, the fake weapons they had to use were being manufactured.
Throughout the week, the small-scale industries of the empire were packed with orders for prop artillery, helmets, and guns.
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All the metal factories of the empire were busy rolling cast iron sheets in order to make props. All the woodworkers of the empire ran their hydraulic machine tools non-stop in three shifts in order to make the fake guns.
The money that the Bharatiya Empire had earned due to conquering various regions of the Mughal Empire was being spent at a fast speed.
Due to the rate at which money flowed into these small-scale enterprises, the value of the paper Varaha continued to decrease. This was mainly due to Vijay’s orders, as more paper currency was printed without adding more gold to the reserve, thus devaluing the currency.
This is not a bad thing, though, because the market of the Bharatiya Empire had already broken all estimations of the previous years and continued to double. The directors of small-scale military enterprises are becoming upper-middle-class in society, barely surpassing the higher class. Their core team is becoming the new middle class of society.
It is expected that as the value of currency continues to decrease, the cost of industrial products should also decrease, thereby increasing the wealth possessed by lower-class people and quickly upgrading them to the larger middle class.
One thing about the middle class is that it is the pillar on which an empire or a nation stands, as the middle class constitutes the highest and most important group of taxpayers in the country.
The Bharatiya Empire, with the trick of devaluing the money and increasing industrial output, is in the process of cultivating the middle class, which is still in the minority.
However, where there are advantages, there are also disadvantages, and in the case of currency devaluation, they are naturally present.
The first thing Vijay has to consider is not to devalue the currency too much, as it could lead to an unprecedented rise in the cost of gold, which is also used as a commodity in Indian society.
The second thing is, if the currency is devalued too much, although money becomes more accessible to the poor, the wealth of the rich suddenly decreases, causing huge damage to the economy of the nation. No one would sit around and wait until their wealth suddenly decreases because of some policy; there would naturally be riots.
Thankfully enough, Vijay is naturally aware of both these things. For the first issue, Vijay is not worried, as due to the constant victories, the gold and silver in the houses of the Mughal nobles have all been confiscated. Adding them all together reaches almost 195 tonnes of gold, which is the annual revenue of the Bharatiya Empire for two consecutive years.
That is only the assets found in the form of gold and silver. Adding the solid assets, the number would definitely be something very substantial.
For the second problem, the solution is more tricky, as this problem between inflation and deflation will exist as long as humans use the currency of some sort to trade. So, all Vijay has to do is consider the exchange of benefits when doing things. As long as the benefits are not too small, no rich man would be willing to break away from his peaceful life and start a riot.
That is naturally what happened in this instance too. Even though the Varaha in the hands of the rich lost a lot of value due to the military-economic system, their fixed assets, which are predominantly industrial factories, continued to increase in value due to the government funding these assets. Eventually, the loss of money was made up by the gain of net worth.