Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology
Chapter 969: Moroi’s Fiend 8 (End)

Chapter 969: Moroi’s Fiend 8 (End)

Completely monopolised by the government, all the factories that could produce penicillin only produced penicillin, while other factories, small, medium-scale, or even larger ones, began to process the auxiliary herbs like Shilajit, Ashwagandha, Giloy, Tulsi, Turmeric, Liquorice and other herbs and ingredients.

Due to this massive initiative, the internal economy of the empire was greatly affected.

In an office of the Agricultural Company at Indraprastha,

" What! Why is it so expensive? " A middle-aged man who looked to be around his mid-40s exclaimed with a look of disbelief.

" Come on, Mr Khanna, you are being unreasonable now." His eyes narrowed, and his gaze towards the sales representative was not friendly at all.

In fact, the man wanted to scold the company for its greed, but thinking about the previous cooperations, which were very harmonious, he relented and waited to see how the person would respond.

The customer service representative did a namaskara, his face apologetic.

"I’m sorry, sir, but there’s nothing I can do. I can offer Amla, Brahmi, and Shatavari at the regular price, but herbs like Shilajit, Ashwagandha, Tulsi, Turmeric, and others, I can’t provide them at the same rate. The government has already hoarded most of our production capacity for these."

He spread his hands and shrugged in helplessness.

"As you know, His Majesty has declared a national emergency, and the medical sector is at the centre of it. Most people don’t realise this, but we’re currently under military administration. We can’t reject orders from the Military Logistics Department, nor are we allowed to raise prices. So whatever remains in our stock can only be sold at a higher market rate; it’s the only way we can manage to make any profit."

"I’m only sharing this with you because you’re a long-time customer, sir. Please understand."

"You can either wait a few months, maybe half a year, until our production scales up, or buy now at a premium. No other alternative as my hands and feet are tied."

The customer service representative, Mr Khanna, put on an expression as if to say It’s out of my control, you can choose what you want.

The middle-aged man was stunned, but he had no other choice but to believe it, because if this was a false statement, it was simply too easy to verify. Besides, he and Mr Khanna had done business dealings several times in the past. He knew that Mr Khanna wouldn’t sabotage the relationship just for a one-time profit. After hesitating for a while and considering his needs, he still decided to purchase the herbs, but reduced in quantity, as his capital, or should he say his company’s capital, was limited.

Such scenes could be seen in other places in the empire as well.

The herbs needed for the concoction, as well as those required for the powder blend to be sprinkled over hot coal or embers, such as dried neem leaves, ajwain seeds, mustard seed husk, and other ingredients, have all increased in price.

It was not easy for the Logistics Department to acquire over 80% of the raw materials across the empire, but nothing ever was. Everything had to be fought for, and that is exactly what Naveen, the Minister of Trade and Commerce, did.

He convened all the major herb farmers in a convention and made them offers they simply could not refuse.

"I know many of you are dissatisfied with the government taking most of your herbs at cost price," he said.

"Unlike the manufacturing industry, which, by being nationalised, only gets bigger and better, your industry is not growing anytime soon, since there is only so much herb that can be grown at a time."

"So here’s the deal. His Majesty believes we’ll need these herbs in large quantities going forward, so I encourage all of you to expand the scale of the suggested crops. Representing the government, I promise you will be paid in full for these future orders, so you will not bear the burden of expansion alone."

Board Members, directors, chairmen, and managers of various agricultural companies at the convention looked at each other. In the end, there was a spark of delight in all of their eyes. They knew what happened to the manufacturing companies the last time the empire was put under military administration. All the expansion of the companies was taken care of by the government, and so were issues like cheap raw material origins, training the labour, and other things.

They were jealous and envious of this because these things could not be done in an agricultural field, as expansion in their field doesn’t actually mean quick returns. Instead, the government will have to wait half a year or even more to reap the required raw materials from them. By this time, what if the problem that caused the empire to be put in a military administration is solved? Then wouldn’t it mean that the government had made a useless investment? Doesn’t it mean it gave away a boatload of money to the agricultural companies?

Exactly because of these problems, none of them had expected any support from the government. The top agricultural companies specialising in herb production had already come to a unanimous conclusion: they would have to bear the burden of the emergency this time, and there was nothing they could do about it. And since they wouldn’t incur any actual losses, though they wouldn’t earn any profit either, they had more or less accepted their fate.

But now, the government was actually willing to provide them with aid, something completely unexpected. Even though the support wasn’t in their view as desirable as what the manufacturing sector received, where expansions were far more rapid, it was still a welcome change. If their expansion was even partially funded by the government, it meant they had a real opportunity to grow at a reduced cost.

With all the cogs, gears, and parts of the empire working as one, the empire’s mobilisation saw unprecedented efficiency. For some people, it brought them memories of the past during the time of the Vijayanagar Empire or the Dakshina Bharatiya Empire.

Through tens of thousands of carriages coming in from all states, everything moved towards the Western Frontier.

---

Isolation camp near Bhandipal

"Doctor, we received the confinement." A nurse hurriedly opened the door and exclaimed.

A young female doctor, who looked haggard, immediately jumped up from her seat, "Oh, thank God."

"Quick, quick, quick, provide the infected with the concoction, the whole quarters, and let the infected start to practice the camphor inhalation."

"There is no time to waste, hurry."

"Yes, doctor, right away."

The doctor felt like a burden had been lifted off her shoulders. All these days, she was almost in a state of mental collapse after seeing so many people under her care die, die in such a way that she could not do anything about it.

She signed up to take this challenging job as the doctor responsible for an isolation unit isolating infected patients, despite knowing the threat to her life, because she felt sad for those people who would be dying lonely deaths without the care or compassion from their family members, all alone.

It brought tears to her eyes. But taking up the post, it wasn’t easy for her. She couldn’t come into contact with the people infected. She had to keep a distance and only communicate through gestures, sign language. And to make it worse, she had to see them suffer and die in great pain without having any power to put them at ease.

The greatest kindness she could show in all these months was to provide some fast-acting poisons to the infected who were brave enough to ask for them.

Many times, she even considered hugging the children who were infected when they were crying, but in the end, either the fear in her heart or her coworkers would stop her from doing such a thing. But now there is finally something she could do; she could ease their pain, increase their chances of success, and she could even get much closer to the people.

After tidying her dishevelled hair and washing her face, she stepped out of her office. In the distance, dense smoke from fumigation was already rising.

She straightened her back and walked toward the isolation camp without a trace of fear.

---

"Knock knock"

"Who’s there?"

"Military"

A young mother asked her son to go back to the room and cautiously opened the door with some unhappiness on her face.

In front of her were a couple of military officers, completely covering their faces and taking several steps back.

"Here, madam, take this."

One of the military officers tossed over a sack of something. She couldn’t tell what it was, but its texture was like that of a powder.

"This is?"

"This is called the Tanvika blend. It is an antiseptic powder. Sprinkle this onto embers of coal, wood or anything that produces smoke, as the smoke has the effect of killing all the plague-causing germs in your home or places you frequent."

"The coal supplies are running out, so you will have to make do with burning something wooden, but don’t worry, the supply will be resumed in at most a week or so. Until then, please make do."

"And these supplies will last you for a week. Next week, another batch will be allocated."

"Please use them carefully, and please sign this document stating that you have received the package." A document was placed in a bag and thrown over.

There was a little excitement in the woman’s eyes as she signed the document, but then she asked, "How is my son doing?"

The pair of military officers was taken aback, but suddenly they remembered something.

"Is your son a teenager who used to be affiliated with a militia?" the officer who gave out the package asked.

"Yes, but that was only to take care of the street. He did nothing wrong."

"We know that, madam, but it is also hard for us. Please try to understand, these teenage groups have the potential to disrupt our military operations, so we only took them in for precautionary purposes. They will be let go after things calm down."

"Also, you don’t have to worry about their safety. The location where they are kept is an isolation zone in itself, so as long as they were not infected when they were taken away, the chances of them being infected are very low."

"On top of that, the camp is currently being fumigated, which adds another layer of protection. This should give you even more peace of mind."

"Now then, we’ll take our leave. We have more packages to deliver."