Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

Just then, Kaveh Atashban, who had noticed the readiness of the second artillery group, immediately ordered, "Fire volley 2!"

"Boom boom boom boom boom boom!"

It was yet another round of devastating fire that poured onto the fortress of Sanandaj.

The artilleryman, who had just lost his comrade and was terrified of the possibility that he would be next, could not take it anymore. "Ahhh!" He immediately got up and ran, leaving his battle station.

Looking at the scene, the artillery captain was furious and wanted to stop him, but unfortunately, the man who ran away triggered a similar reaction from the other artillerymen, who couldn’t take it anymore as they, too, ran.

The artillery captain, no matter how much he whipped the people running away, couldn’t stop them. Even if he tried to hold them down, these scared cowards struggled like their lives depended on it and used 120% of their strength to get away from the cannonballs that were falling.

The captains had no choice but to give up; they were disheartened and dropped their weapons. They couldn’t help but blame themselves for why they chose this job just for some extra money. Now the choice had ended up becoming their end.

Kaveh Atash Bhan was surprised when the resistance from within the fortress suddenly disappeared, but hearing the panicked screams from inside that should not be heard from any military unit, he kind of understood what happened.

He was immediately disgusted.

"Aim all the cannons at a singular point. Let us breach this fortress and end their pitiful lives."

The cannons were immediately concentrated on a singular point, and since there was no counterattack from the enemy, there was no one to stop their actions.

Thirty minutes was all it took for the concentrated firepower to break through the fortress.

*Rumble!*

With a loud rumble, the fortress came crashing down. A victorious smile could be seen on Kaveh’s face.

But he did not enter the fortress, since he felt like he had better things to do.

"Let’s go to Kermanshah," he said while he got on his horse.

While leaving, he went towards a burly middle-aged man, patting him on the shoulder. "I will leave the cowards within the fortress to you."

The middle-aged man was immediately excited, as his eyes were filled with bloodlust and pain.

---

In such a way, within a day, the surrounding cities of Hamedan began to fall one by one under the relentless might of the Atashban family. Throughout the process, having received sufficient military training from the Bharatiya Empire, the Atashban family, compared to other noble families in the empire, worked like a well-oiled industrial machine.

Kaveh Atashban was the vanguard who took charge and brought home the victory. Roxana Atashban stood in the background and played a crucial role in sending ammunition, weaponry, and military supplies to any place necessary. She also oversaw the arrival of the cargo from the Bharatiya Empire herself.

Finally, Fariba Atashban acted as the eyes and ears of the Atashban family; she received news from all over the region and immediately sent the crucial information to her cousin Kaveh Atashban, who then made plans according to the intelligence.

Overall, within a day, a hole had been opened up between the Takkalu family and the Zangana families.

Salman Zangana, Bashir Takkalu, Nawabuddin Shamlu, Mohammed Ustajlu, and Amir Afshar were all shocked by the unexpected turn of events.

However, it was not for long. The Qizilbash faction immediately took advantage of the momentary confusion of the Takkalu and Zangana families and pushed hard into the capital, Isfahan.

The Western Royal Faction immediately felt the crisis, but sadly they couldn’t immediately come up with emergency measures. Both families were torn between whether to defend the capital or to put down the rebelling noble family.

The Zangana family was of the opinion that they should suppress the rebellion, as the rebelling family posed a greater threat to them than the Takkalu family did. However, the Takkalu family believed they should firmly defend the capital, as they knew the Qizilbash faction would advance.

During the back-and-forth between the Takkalu and Zangana families, a mistake was made. By the time they reached a decision, not only had the Qizilbash faction unified their forces and marched toward the capital, but the Atashban family also seized this momentary opportunity to push south toward the region of Arabistan.

The Atashban family already knew that if they were to win this war, they needed better logistics than they had at that moment, which was mostly reliant on smuggling. Hence, they aimed to expand their territory into the Persian Gulf, from where the Bharatiya Navy could directly supply them with all the necessary equipment required for war and the cargo needed for livelihood.

A month had passed, and the Atashban family had successfully captured Arabistan and had already begun expanding their territory into Zangana territory.

As for the Takkalu family, they faced a disastrous defeat against the combined might of the three Qizilbash families. They lost the capital and retreated to Azerbaijan, their old capital.

The Western Royal family had already lost, and the Qizilbash faction was happily celebrating their victory. But unknown to them, the Atashban family, whom they thought was a bug they could squash, was relentlessly expanding their territory and becoming a significant threat.

The chess game between the noble families once again became chaotic. But fortunately, this time, unlike the start of the civil war when the Bharatiya Empire had no control over the course of the war or any of the events taking place in the Safavid Empire, the Bharatiya Empire now held significant influence over what happened in the Safavid Empire and what would occur in the future.

They had firmly taken control of a chess piece known as the Atashban family, which had suddenly emerged as a competent and strong competitor for the claim to the throne from the southwestern part of the empire, occupying the previous territory of the Zangana family.

---

While all of this was taking place within the Safavid Empire, the growth of the Bharatiya Empire had not stopped.

The two new banks, namely the Shetty & Co Industrial Bank and Bharatiya Southern United Bank, silently opened their doors to the public.

"Hey, what is this? A new bank? Since when do we have more than one bank?"

"Shetty & Cooperative? Is this the bank opened by Sir Ravi Shetty? Wow, I thought this was only a rumour, but it turned out to be true. Amazing!"

"By the way, what is this Bharatiya Southern United Bank? Who are the owners of this bank?"

"Hey, you don’t know? An article has been written about this bank in today’s newspaper. Apparently, this bank was mainly started by the Kalyan family and invested in by almost all noble titleholders in the empire, including the title of the king.

According to what I have read, this bank will be responsible for safeguarding the assets of its investors in the form of real estate investments and infrastructure projects, as well as buying construction and maintenance contracts for government infrastructure from the government."

"Wow!"

The two banks, having been opened by influential individuals, had already become a discussion topic among all the Interested people throughout the empire.

Since the specialization of each bank was clear enough, those who saw the advantages in this specialization quickly swarmed in to either invest in the products of the banks or utilize various services. For Shetty & Cooperative Industrial Bank, various entrepreneurs and technical talents flocked to the bank in order to get much friendlier loans to start their industrial entrepreneurship projects.

Even though they still had to mortgage something of value, the advantage of Shetty & Cooperative Bank was that the amount they would get from the mortgage was a little bit higher than what they would get at the Raya Royal Bank, and the interest they had to pay was a little less.

Wealthy individuals who had recently become rich from the dividends of war quickly funnelled their money into the Bharatiya Southern United Bank. The bank offered stable interest rates over extended periods of time, safeguarding their hard-earned wealth from devaluation.

These affluent clients understood the bank’s main appeal: while they wouldn’t earn huge profits from their deposits, they valued the stability it provided in maintaining the currency’s worth.

Overall, both banks had their own favored customers, which contributed to the growth of the Bharatiya economy. When Vijay was informed about a 10% drop in traffic flow within Raya Bank, he was not too disappointed since he also knew that the amount of money circulating through the economy through these three banks had suddenly risen by 30%.

So overall, although his move made him lose a little money, in the grand scheme of things, it was a profit since his wealth had always been proportional to the wealth of the empire.

P.S. If anyone is expecting a detailed Safavid battle I am sorry, I have to start the next volume quickly, I can’t drag on any more.