Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 1133

Chapter 1133: Suez Canal Openning (1)

16th May 1698

Dakshina Mukhi Port (Port Said), Suez Canal Company, Kingdom of Israel

The Dakshina Mukhi port is a newly constructed, medium-scale port located at the entrance of the Suez Canal leading to the Mediterranean Sea. Given that the Suez Canal Company has nominal sovereignty over 500 meters of land on both sides of the canal, where neither the Kingdom of Egypt nor the Kingdom of Israel could interfere, the company further decided to invest and build a port on its own to increase its profitability after figuring out that the geographic location of the opening was very suitable for a large scale container port.

The way it did that was by issuing bonds through the Raya Royal Bank, and thankfully, since sovereign bonds and treasury bonds had already become a second form of hard currency within the empire, and further given that the bonds were issued by the Emperor’s company, the Suez Canal Company successfully absorbed enough money to build a medium-scale port.

Usually, the port of Dakshina Mukhi, despite being almost as large as the famous Port of Alexandria of Egypt, was not too busy. In fact, most shipping vessels would not even station their ships at Dakshina Mukhi. Only the military vessels of the Bharatiya Empire and its three allies, Greece, Egypt, and Israel, docked in the port once in a while to restock their supplies. Due to this, the port looks empty the majority of the time, and this emptiness is even more glaring considering that the port is a gigantic architecture built according to the standards of the Bharatiya Empire, with steam-powered cranes, hundreds of docking stations, and all the bells and whistles.

However, to the surprise of the local fishermen from Egypt, there was actually a huge commotion at the port.

Although it could not be said that the people were everywhere, it was definitely lively, especially with the large ships bobbing up and down at the mercy of the Mediterranean Sea, and a bunch of people, all wearing exquisite clothing, walking around socialising.

Among the very same crowd was the king of the Kingdom of Egypt, Ibrahim Hassan al-Masri, introducing his son, Aslam Hassan al-Masri, to the old monarch of the Portuguese kingdom, Alfonso IV de Braganza.

Looking at the respectful young man, Alfanzo nodded in satisfaction and introduced his youngest son, Miguel de Briganza.

A young man in his mid-20s stepped forward and greeted the king of Egypt as well as the Crown Prince of Egypt with royal etiquette, while the Crown Prince of Egypt responded in kind.

While they were chatting, the Secretary General of the United Greek Socialist Republics arrived in a Greek military uniform etched with the emblem of UGSR at the shoulders.

“It is nice to meet once again after such a long time, Your Highness Hassan, and Your Highness Alfonso, it is my pleasure.”

Both Hassan and Alfanzo couldn’t immediately respond because a lot of awkwardness had been generated between them in the last 6 years. The root of this awkwardness is that the economy of the Greek republics continued to prosper, and the living conditions of an average Greek citizen continued to increase, leaving all the neighbouring countries in the dust.

Although the living conditions of the Greeks are not as good as some of the better second-tier cities in the Bharatiya Empire, UGSR is much closer to Europe, allowing more people to see and observe how the Greeks lived.

Due to this, recently, the voices for more rights to be given to the proletariat, the working class, have continued to increase, causing random strikes by the so-called worker unions, and outrageous demands for compensation.

The worst situation was experienced by Slavic Byzantium, where the servants who were taken off the field, given education, and taught how to operate machines, suddenly started a large scale strike throughout the kingdom after comparing their situation with the situation of the workers in the United Greek Socialist Republics, and when Dmitri, the old stubborn fellow, did not budge, the protest even devolved into a violent riot which was only quelled after the death of hundreds of soldiers and thousands of laborers. In the end, Dmitri had to promise to increase the minimum salary to the workers, and even had to set 12 hours as the maximum amount of work a company can expect.

Due to this, most of Europe suddenly became aware of the hidden beast that is socialism, and they became wary.

The Kingdom of Egypt and Portugal were not different.

At this very moment, Ezekiel Oppenheimer, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Israel, got down from the large Delhi-class battleship of the Israeli Navy and walked straight to them after he noticed them.

As Ezekiel Oppenheimer got closer, his steps almost faltered when he noticed the General Secretary of UGSR was in the group as well. As a country that is entirely dependent on trade and special manufacturing, how could it not have experienced the annoying labour unions?

Thankfully, just when things were getting out of control, he passed a labour policy that was much more favourable than what the labourers were asking. Of course, he did not do such a thing for charity; the reason why he did it is that he also curbed down on all the literature coming from the United Greek Socialist Republics and further emphasised the way of a capitalist economy.

Although he somehow resolved the issue, that doesn’t mean he was not unhappy with the Secretary General of UGSR.

Georgios Paleologos could feel the awkward atmosphere ever since he came to greet the leaders of the stakeholding countries in the Suez Canal Company, but, he was not too surprised, the recent growth of the Republic was like a bright pearl attracting attention from all over the neighborhood, and he knew that the attention he attracted led to envious and jealous gazes, which in turn led to a lot of problems in the neighboring nations.

Does he regret it, though? Honestly, no, on the contrary, he felt like this is how it should be, it should not be the nobles and the kings who control the nation, but it should be the proletariat, the working class, the class that holds the right of productivity, which will say where the nation should head.

As for whether this would cause conflict, he was even less afraid. With the existence of the Bharatiya Empire, being attacked through the sea was extremely unlikely, and being attacked through the land was even more unlikely. Not to mention the Bharatiya troops, even the citizens of Greece were enough to defend against any neighbouring country.

In such a way, the awkward yet forceful conversation between the four leaders of four nations continued for a long time, until their attention was suddenly attracted by a large square-shaped vehicle that was coming towards the docks right on the red carpet.

The people and the leaders were equally surprised; they had never seen such a vehicle, so as the people split apart, giving way to the square vehicle to pass through, they began to speculate.

“Is this the locomotive the Bharatiya spoke about, the square-shaped machine?”

“No, this is something else, according to what I know, the locomotive only runs on rails, not on flat pavements like this thing.”

“Could it be the new metro we are hearing about?”

“ummm… maybe? But it looks much more like those trucks used to carry out the gravel from the canal, but instead of a bucket, a roof should have been added.”

“Hmm… now that you say it, the width does look similar, and the wheels, they look similar as well, you might be on to something.”

“But why is such a vehicle allowed inside?”

“Shut up, idiot, can’t you see the conch? It’s the emblem of the Bharatiya royal family, the Devaraya family, and that saffron flag on the bonnet, that is the flag of the Bharatiya Empire, can’t you even remember that?”

“Ugh!”

Agni, dressed in a royal blue shirvani with bright yellow gold patterns representing a peacock, got down from the bus with a smile on his face.

“Your Highness, this?” Georgios Paleologos asked, curious, while the others came forward and listened attentively.

“Oh, this? It’s called a bus,” he laughed and introduced, “It’s made by my Kashi Mobility Company. You are aware of those Gaur trucks that are used to carry the gravel, right? My company used the same platform to build it into a luxurious bus instead.”

“Come in, I will give you a small tour.”

The four kings curiously climbed behind the Prince of the Bharatiya Empire, Agni, and looked at the interior of the so-called bus with surprise.

Right at the entrance of the stairs, there was a luxurious seat that could turn around in a full circle, and right beside the seat was a full bed, a luxurious king size bed, which made them envious, and that was even for Georgios Paleologos, who was a firm socialist, he got envious that the prince of the Bharatiya Empire could travel in such comfort, but the tour did not end there, right next to the bed was a mirror and a whole wardrobe, and further at the end of the bus was a small bathroom.

In fact, there were hidden gun compartments and binoculars compartments everywhere in the bus, but Agni did not show it to them for obvious reasons.

To Be Continued…

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