October 20th, 1656
In the blink of an eye, two weeks passed by.
In this span, a lot of things happened. For one, the common people of the empire got to know about their capital being changed from the city of Hampi to the city of Bengaluru. The reactions were varied; some were happy, some were sad, and there were also some who did not have any opinion. But overall, the move of the capital could be said to be going on smoothly.
This has a lot to do with the prior efforts put forward by Vijay and the government. You must know that the Imperial City of Hampi is the most populated city in the world, with a population nearing 1 million. Given its density, maybe only Nanjing of the Ming Dynasty could compare and not even the capital of the Mughal Empire could compare.
For a city of this scale, changing anything was bound to have a large impact on the citizens of the empire, not to mention removing the status of the national capital from such a city.
Vijay, for this reason, endured the persuasion of many people, but he stuck to his ideas and did not budge. There is a reason for that, though. For one, although the city of Hampi could be considered acceptable to be the capital of the Vijayanagar Empire if it were to be made the capital of the whole subcontinent, it is not geographically feasible.
The city of Bengaluru, on the other hand, is centrally located in the southern part of the subcontinent, undoubtedly making it more suitable.
It is true that locating the capital somewhere in the central parts of the subcontinent would be even more advantageous, but Vijay had other considerations. He did not want Bharat’s influence to be stuck within the Bharatiya Subcontinent and the Indian Ocean due to the subcontinent being geographically isolated from the rest of the world by natural barriers.
He wanted the influence to go outward, and this outward direction he chose was the ocean and not the land, in order to signify this, he selected a central region in the south as the capital city. Moreover, this will also comfort the neighbours, showing that the Bharatiya Empire has no ambition for their lands.
It is not that Vijay does not want to conquer the regions of the Arabian Peninsula and Central Asia; it’s just that land conquests take time. And if he knew anything about colonization from the future, it is that colonies almost never last long.
Hence, with this knowledge, if Vijay has to fully integrate these regions conquered in the Arabian Peninsula and Central Asia, he has to not only completely erase their education systems but also heavily push for compulsory Bharati language education and force these people to live like the Bhartiyas.
Vijay believes, "Don’t do to others what you don’t want others to do to you." Hence, being born in a country that was colonized for a millennium, he does not want to act as a colonizer now that he has the power.
Let’s say for some reason, even if Vijay decided to take the empire down the colonization route, putting aside whether the people of the country would be happy, he himself knew that this process would take many decades to complete.
While Vijay is stronger than usual and is at the limit of what a human could be, he is not immortal, and he would have to die someday. So he did not want to spend all his days considering how to expand the land area and how to integrate these hard-to-integrate lands.
Vijay has no intention of doing that; on the contrary, he would rather progress the technological development of his nation and spread its influence over a vast region, which would drastically increase the civilization’s survivability for at least a few thousand years.
For these reasons, Vijay was very firm in his choice to choose Bengaluru as the capital city of the empire.
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Ahom Kingdom
Garhgaon
"So what do you think, Lachit? Why do you think the Bharatiya Emperor is inviting me for a discussion?" Jayadhwaj Singha, who sat in his royal palace, asked General Lachit Borphukan.
Lachit, although not a politician, had a keen intuition. He knew that the current situation, where the influence of the Bharatiya Empire within the kingdom was so high, was very unusual.
"Your Majesty, I do not know why this sudden invitation came about, but I do know that this invitation is connected with the unusually high influence of the Bharatiya Empire within the kingdom. There is also the Bharatiya Empire readily taking back their troops, showing they mean us no harm, which increased their influence among our military.
Considering both the factors of the unusually high reputation among the people and the military, I can only make a wild guess and conclude that the Bharatiya Empire, although it does not want to forcefully annex us, wants to annex us peacefully without bloodshed. So I think this invitation is related to that."
Jayadhwaj Singha nodded his head, fully satisfied with the answer given by Lachit Borphukan. But surprisingly, to Lachit’s surprise, Jayadhwaj Singha did not look surprised, as he had already guessed the intentions of the Bharatiya Emperor long before him. Jayadhwaj Singha’s question was only to make sure that Lachit Borphukan knew what was going on.(wink)
"Your guess is not crazy at all, Lachit. It is almost a fact, and there is no doubt about it. So what do you think we should do?" he asked again, this time with great curiosity in his eyes.
Lachit suddenly felt the pressure brought about by this decision. "Your Majesty, I have no opinion. If you wish to fight the Bharatiya Empire, then I will readily give up my life and march into the battlefield. But if you make a deal, I would not oppose it either."
Jayadwaj Singha was taken aback. Is this the same general who resisted the mighty Mughal Empire all by himself?
"Lachit, you are talking about certain death. Are you so sure that you will not be able to defeat the Bharatiya Empire?"
Lachit hesitated hearing this question, but remembering the time when he cooperated with the Bharatiya Army, he resolutely nodded his head and replied, "Without a doubt, Your Majesty. The military capabilities of the Bharatiya Empire are too scary. The military capabilities of the prior Mughal Empire, even during its prime, and the current Bharatiya Empire have no comparison at all.
The military capabilities of the Bharatiya Empire are many magnitudes ahead of the Mughal Empire. Although it is unfortunate, it is indeed the truth."
Jayadwaj Singha, whose will was not yet fully firm before, was now determined to go through with the plan. He completely gave up going against the Bharatiya Empire.
*Sigh!*
Making the decision, he felt like a huge burden was lifted off his shoulders, and he felt relaxed all over his body.
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As far back as when the Bharatiya Empire requested Lachit Borphukan to participate in the battle, Jayadwaj Singha had already vaguely guessed the intentions of the Bharatiya Empire. When he noticed the change in public opinion, he fully understood the general intent.
After knowing this intention, he spent many days pondering what decision to take, and after working multiple restless days and nights, he came to the conclusion to accept the merger.
This was not only because they could not resist the Bharatiya Empire by force, but also because Jayadwaj Singha felt that there were more opportunities for both his own dynasty and the people of the empire after merging with the Bharatiya Empire, especially after witnessing the countless innovations appearing within the Bharatiya Empire.
He knew that this empire would shake the world in the coming few decades, and he wanted to catch this train before it was too late.
Also, after he got to know about the Bharatiya Emperor’s intention of changing the capital to a city called Bengaluru and after looking at the map to see where the city was located, Jayadwaj quickly realized that the Bharatiya Empire’s focus would next be placed on the oceans.
After realizing this, a big idea took place in his mind which not only allowed him to retain his throne but also gave him a chance to go further and stronger than what the Ahom Kingdom had achieved.
This further solidified his will, and he was looking forward to the discussions.
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Vijay is unaware of the conversation between Lachit Borphukan and Jayadwaj Singha, but he is excitedly going over all the civilian technologies that have been researched so far from the military technologies that have been invented until now.
And these military technologies are now too numerous to count. There are eight to nine types of weapons alone, not to mention the technologies used in military shipbuilding and artillery.
Over the continuous work of nearly a month, the current technologies that have been researched are: lighters derived from the flintlock mechanism, hunting rifles designed for hunters, magnifying glasses derived from telescopes, microscopes further developed, fireworks derived from rocket launchers, mining and detonation tools derived from frag grenades, mechanical launches for construction derived from the Bharatiya scorpion grenade launcher used to launch cables and ropes for engineering tasks, and with the advanced shipbuilding capabilities, civilian vessels are enhanced.
A few design drawings are made for dedicated water-carrying ships, cargo-carrying ships, and other types of ships. Better locks are derived from wheel lock pistols, and in order to increase safety, lifeboats and life jackets are derived from the military standard system.
P.S. Whew! Almost missed it
P.S. I am responsible for preparing the report for the project so busy