Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 1090

Chapter 1090: The Olympics (1)

Port of Busan

The sky was overcast, and strong winds whipped across the coast as waves crashed relentlessly against the shore, spraying fine mists of seawater into the air and thickening the humid atmosphere over Busan Port.

Busan is the largest port of the Joseon Kingdom, but when compared to ports of the Bharatiya Empire and other nations around Southeast Asia and Suvarna Dwipa, it can only amount to a medium-scale port. But thankfully, it is gifted with a massive natural port with depth, which can even allow, not to mention a 4000-tonne behemoth of the current Bharatiya Empire, it can even accommodate large behemoths of the 21st century, the aircraft carriers, with little modifications. In fact, USS George Washington could be seen docking once in a while in the Busan Port Harbour.

Ever since the Joseon Kingdom personally came into contact with the Bharatiya Empire, thanks to introductions made by the Nippon Kingdom, trade has greatly prospered, and the people of Joseon started to come into contact with the latest industrial goods. Before, the only trading partners of the closed-off Joseon Kingdom were only two nations, the Ming Empire and the Kingdom of Nippon.

Its policy, similar to the Nippon Kingdom before and the Ming Empire a few decades ago, was an isolationist policy. But when the Bharatiya Empire’s delegate arrived at the shore of Joseon in a metal ship, the king was forced to open up his country and trade with the Bharatiya Empire while giving the empire access to his market.

Suk Jong, adorned in luxurious robes that were newly acquired from a merchant of the Bharatiya Empire, apparently from a boutique apparel store called Sri and Shrimati, sat on the port next to the athletes he had selected. The invitation of the Bharatiya Empire to participate in the Olympics came suddenly. Initially, he was not interested in the so-called Olympics, but after understanding the Bharatiya Empire, he felt uneasy rejecting the invitation. So he selected a few people from his country and sent them to the Bharatiya for training. All of them came back a few months ago, and finally, it was now time to set off to Greece.

Suk Jong really wanted to see the Bharatiya Empire. All the people he had sent had a lot of good things to say about the great eastern nation, be it how advanced it was or how massive it was. But unfortunately, he was in the middle of Hwanguk. Great change, so to speak.

The problem began a few years ago. Suk Jong’s favourite concubine, Zhang Ok Jeong, had given birth to a son, whom he named Yi Yun. He wanted to declare him the Crown Prince, but his wife, Inhyeon, who represented the powerful Seoin faction, opposed. How dare she! So he carried out a purge of the Seoin faction. It lasted for over two years, and the kingdom was beginning to settle down. But then he met the Bharatiya delegates. After learning everything about the Bharatiya Empire from the delegates and from the people he sent to the Ming Empire and the Nippon Kingdom, he understood that the world had changed a lot. In the outside world, people were using water-powered machines to move from one place to another, yet here he was initiating a purge to strengthen his control.

He decided to reform and strengthen the country, and for that, he had to stay back.

The wait of several hours was finally over; on the horizon, a large ship could be seen getting closer to the shore. Sukh Jong squinted his eyes because this was not the same metal ship the Bharatiya Empire used last time. It looked more like the merchant ship made up of wood that the merchants from the Bharatiya Empire and ASEAN used.

But as this ship got closer and closer, his expression froze, and his eyes widened. The ship was gigantic; the metal ships he had seen before were not even half the size of the ship he was seeing before him, and he was sure that it was not even the true might because it was still quite far away. His players were no different; they all had sombre expressions tinged with a hint of disbelief.

They had been to the Bharatiya Empire. They had seen cars, bicycles, locomotives, steam-powered ships, and a lot more things, but they had never seen a ship this gigantic.

As the ship got closer to only a few hundred metres away, Sukh Jong finally realised this was less of a ship and more of a floating island. The next moment, determination took hold of him; he clenched his fist, and his eyes burned with firm will. No matter the cost, he would carry out the reforms. Joseon would not fall behind. Even if it could not match the might of the Bharatiya Empire, it should not fall behind the Kingdom of Nippon.

“Bang!!!”

With a loud thud, the port anchor dropped into the sea, and within moments, it was lodged in the seabed.

The gigantic ropes were thrown onto the port, and the dockworkers quickly tightened them around the largest pillars they had.

Sukh Jong, no matter how surprised he was before, regained the calm expression that was suited to a monarch and slowly stood up. A familiar person got down from the ship, and he immediately came to meet him.

“Greetings, Your Highness, I hope we haven’t made you wait too long.”

Sukh Jong smiled, “How can that be, Mr Tokugawa? I don’t expect you to dictate how the winds flow. How can I ask for anything more?”

“Thank you for your understanding, Your Highness.” Tokugawa gave a deep bow in gratitude.

Sukh Jong smiled and looked towards the ship. “By the way, is this ship purchased from the Bharatiya Empire?” His voice had a tone of enquiry.

Tokugawa looked back in confusion, but then immediately shook his head and waved his hands. “Oh no, Your Highness,” he had a wry smile, “we can only dream.”

“This is the largest ship the Bharatiya Empire has ever built, a 4500-tonne clipper capable of traversing the globe. It is worth a fortune. Our kingdom has no necessity for it yet; besides, even if we did, we do not have the resources to purchase this behemoth.”

“So we have rented the ship from a private company in the Bharatiya Empire for the trip.”

Sukh Jong nodded in understanding, then he asked about something that had been bugging him. “I don’t see King Takahito here. Is he not going?”

Tokugawa shook his head. “Unfortunately not, Your Highness. His Excellency has fallen ill,” it was a lie, “and will take some time to recover.” The real reason was that he was carrying out reforms, but there was no need for King Sukh Jong to know that.

Sukh Jong nodded. “That’s a pity. I will send someone to wish him to get well soon.”

Sukh Jong looked towards his athletes, his nephew Sang Woo Cho, and flicked his head as a gesture to get on board.

Tokugawa noticed the small expression and was surprised. “You’ll not be coming, Your Highness?”

“Unfortunately not.” Sukh Jong didn’t even turn his head as he kept looking towards his athletes who were boarding. “I have important matters to handle in the kingdom. Hopefully, I can attend the next Olympics.”

Tokugawa nodded with a look of disappointment. “That’s a pity.”

Finally, the ship left the port, its next destination the Bharatiya Empire, after which it would directly set course to Israel.

In a similar fashion, expeditions were being started from all the countries around the world in the eastern hemisphere. Since not all countries had the capabilities of transporting their athletes in their own ships, clusters of countries were formed, and these clusters rented large sailing vessels from the Bharatiya Empire and sent the athletes together.

This action inadvertently led to more countries wanting to buy their own large ships because renting was seen as embarrassing and led to the prosperity of the shipyards of the Bharatiya Empire, but this is a story for the future.

Vijay, along with Kavya, got on the royal clipper and set off to the Olympics themselves. Agni wanted to come, but Vijay put him in charge of the nation as his deputy for a few months while he was away. After all, even if there are a lot of systems in the nation that make it capable of being run on autopilot, someone being at the helm is always better.

As for why he did not take Vedant or Tanvika, it’s because they had their own ships. Although his son and daughter do not care about their kingdoms most of the time, they were still nominally the kings and queens of two of the vassal kingdoms of the Bharatiya Empire, so they were currently travelling with their own teams.

The Red Sea, which was not the artery of world trade like in the future, got to see a taste of what it would be like to be that artery. Large, ginormous ships could be seen every day, and local tribal people made an absolute killing selling fresh fruits, vegetables, and other necessities to the travellers.

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Apparently, some people in Kashmir do not want to sing the national anthem. In that case, we should be allowed to sing the whole national anthem, including the stanzas that were dropped, as it references Hindu deities.