24th March 1660
Admiral Gangadhar arrived at the Secret Naval Testing Centre located in the city of Paradip in full secrecy. He got down from the carriage, his brows furrowed as he had no idea why His Majesty asked him to inspect a secret weapon that had been in developnt for the past 4–5 months. 'Is this weapon more important than the year-end summit?' he wondered in confusion.
Manoj Reddy, who was alerted of the arrival of the admiral, quickly ca forward to greet him.
"Welco, Admiral. Please co in," he said with a namaskaram as he gestured him inside.
Gangadhar, looking at the caster-shaped, prickly object the size of a standard oil barrel (50 liters), was perplexed, as he did not know what to make of it.
"What am I looking at?" he asked, staring at Manoj in confusion.
Manoj simply smiled. "This... is a naval bomb that we just developed, code-nad Type A."
"It is an explosive that is used on water."
Gangadhar's eyebrows raised in surprise. He rembered the report he had read last year submitted by Commander Akhil, about the Dutch using sothing similar. 'Is it a replica of it?' He did not want to reach hasty conclusions.
"How does it work?" he asked, his eyes fixed on Manoj with interest.
Manoj didn't know what the admiral was thinking, but he simply explained, "You are aware of landmines, aren't you Admiral? Now this right here mirrors the sa functionality but on the sea."
'I knew it.'
"So this is left floating on the sea, waiting for an unsuspecting warship to pass over it, and it explodes, similar to the ones the Dutch used during the Indian Ocean Unification Battle?"
Manoj nodded. "Exactly, but not entirely, since our design is only inspired by the Dutch design, but the execution of our bomb is better."
Gangadhar was non-committal. He wasn't going to believe the claim until he saw firsthand evidence. He pointed at the bomb. "From its looks, it appears to be made of tal. Does it really float on the water?" he asked. It was not that he was illiterate and knew nothing about fluid chanics; since being an admiral of the largest navy in the world by tonnage, he knew what buoyancy was and how it worked. But the knowledge and common sense ingrained in his mind, saying that tal can't float, wouldn't let him just accept that it could.
"Of course, it can," Manoj replied with a shrug as he slapped hard on the tal casing.
"Dong!"
"Dong!"
A dull and hollow tal sound was heard.
"!"
Gangadhar was startled, but Manoj didn't notice it as he went on to explain, "Most of the interior of the bomb is left empty to increase its buoyancy. It's only the central part that holds the chanism and the charge, which adds so weight. Overall, when calculated as a whole, its density per square centitre is actually less than water, which would enable it to float on water."
"In fact, we could have made it even less dense, making it show more than 50% of its body when on water, but we did not do it after the idea was rejected by the design practicality engineer in the team."
"Apparently, it would make it stick out, so we stopped."
Manoj finally turned around, and he was imdiately confused after seeing Gangadhar take a few steps back and look at him worriedly.
Manoj Reddy was perplexed, but then he looked at his hand leaning onto the bomb. He suddenly realized, "HAHA, there's nothing to worry about, Admiral. This thing is only a shell; it has not been ard yet."
"Whew!"
Gangadhar wiped off the imaginary sweat on his forehead and laughed wryly. "Can we begin the test?"
"Ha ha, of course, of course. Please co, a prototype is being ard the very mont, we are preparing to test it."
Gangadhar saw a few scientists wearing white laboratory coats placing what looked like a square container within the tal casing of the bomb. He could identify the flintlock chanism on top of it, but he could not guess how it was put into use.
Monts later, Gangadhar was attracted by Manoj, who held a glass beaker in his hand with so sort of powder in it and walked very carefully, as if he were holding so sort of explosive.
When Manoj ca back, Gangadhar raised the question.
"What is that you were carrying just now?"
"Oh, it's a new compound that we discovered called rcury Fulminate."
"It's an explosive several tis more powerful than gunpowder."
"The production is not too difficult either. We just dissolve rcury in nitric acid to form rcury nitrate, and we react the rcury nitrate with distilled alcohol, and finally, crystalline substances are ford, which we filter and dry."
Gangadhar beca excited. "Then can this fulminate be used as a replacent for gunpowder?"
Manoj's eyes lit up. "I had the sa idea, Admiral, but for so reason, the financial manager of the research group imdiately denied the idea, saying that it was impossible."
"Ah!" Gangadhar was imdiately choked. "Um, what's the price of rcury, nitric acid, and distilled alcohol?" he asked in a roundabout way because he had a hunch that Manoj wouldn't know the cost of fulminate per gram.
Gangadhar scratched his head and thought hard. "I don't know the exact numbers, but in order to produce enough fulminate for 10 of the prototypes, it took 6952 Varaha."
Gangadhar: "..."
He didn't know what to say. 6000 Varaha was enough to manufacture a truckload of gunpowder. He looked at Manoj, who had a confused expression as if to say he was clueless as to why rcury fulminate could not replace gunpowder. Gangadhar imdiately felt his head throbbing and had a sensation of wanting to strangle the guy. Fortunately, with his imnse willpower, he held back.
In the anti, the bomb had been ard and taken to the middle of the lake, ready to be tested.
Gangadhar saw the warship that was docked on the shore and imdiately identified its origin.
"Isn't this the ship confiscated from the Mughal Navy?" He looked back at Manoj in confusion, wondering how these guys got their hands on it.
"Uh, yes," Manoj nodded. "No one wanted to buy it because its maintenance cost was higher than its purchase cost. It began to take on water soon after, and shortly, it was ordered to be scrapped by the BSO. After negotiating with the governnt, we got the ship for testing for free," he said, looking at the Mughal warship with a smile on his face.
Soon, the 600-tonne Mughal warship sailed towards the edge of the large Chilika Lake.
Monts later, it was only a few dozen ters away from the sea bomb,
Gangadhar was using his personal handheld telescope to get a clear visual, but Manoj Reddy and the other scientists were using high-power telescopes with more zoom to get a better visual.
Gangadhar realized that he had made a mistake, but it was already too late to change the telescope. So, he simply went back to using his own.
The hull of the ship, going at speeds upward of 7 knots, made contact with the needle-like protrusion of the bomb, and it imdiately deford.
Within a split second, the rcury fulminate reacted with the compound attached to the needle, causing the flintlock chanism to go off. The densely packed gunpowder within the container at the core of the bomb imdiately ignited.
"BOOM!"
A muffled explosion was heard with water spilling rely 100 tres away
The face of the hull was imdiately torn apart. The sailing ship, which was moving at 7 knots, couldn't go even a few dozen ters before its rear was up in the air. Soon, before anyone could react, the ship had completely sunk.
Everything from the explosion to the ship eventually sinking happened within the span of half an hour—a ridiculously small amount of ti for everyone on the ship to get off, especially if the ship was a large sailing ship of 2000 tonnes. Fortunately, there was no one on the Mughal ship, and after deciding on the direction, everyone got off from it.
"Bloody hell, it is so deadly," Gangadhar's mouth was agape. He exclaid, but his eyes looked bright as if they were saying sothing else entirely. He clenched his fist in excitent.
---
Bharatiya Parliant
Bhuvan, the Minister of Justice, took the center stage.
"The number of courts in the empire has been increased from 3,000 in 1655 to 15,000 as of February 1660, and they are continuing to expand."
"The number of legal professionals expanded from 8,000 to 50,000."
"We currently have established 8,500 circuit courts, 3,000 dedicated civil courts to resolve land dispute matters, 2,000 criminal courts to resolve criminal issues, 2,500 large district courts, twenty high courts, one per each state, and finally a single Supre Court."
"The ministry still maintains the standard of at least one judge and two lawyers for any type of court."
"As far as anti-corruption is concerned, this has never been a problem since law professionals is a new field in the empire, but I am aware of the importance of a law professional and the importance of the field to be without corruption. So, I have prepared a bill that I am ready to put forward."
Vijay got a copy of the bill and curiously looked at it. Reading the bill, he soon smiled and imdiately signed it.
Bhuvan was imdiately overjoyed and officially put forward his bill to the mbers of the parliant.
"Law Liberalization Bill 1660," he loudly proclaid.
"The bill constitutes that a lawyer can now start his own law firm independently without being attached or employed by the governnt."
"With this, the systemic corruption that might appear in any place of power which remains stagnant should be eliminated for the most part."
The ministers were in thought as they discussed the pros and cons of the bill with each other. A minister from Cheranadu raised his hand.
"This is a good initiative put forward by your Excellency, but can I ask if the lawyer is no longer attached to the governnt and is a private person running his own business, how will his capabilities be examined?"
Bhuvan nodded. "It's an excellent question. Yes, any lawyer who has to beco a practicing lawyer can now take the All Bharat Bar Examination (ABBE), yet to be established, but I promise it's coming soon. The exam is conducted by the governnt, with its questions prepared by so of the most successful lawyers in the Empire, encompassing both theoretical and practical aspects."
"As for what the newcors can do in order to rank up their skills, well, they can intern in any of the established law firms and rank up from there."
"From now on, what position you reach will be left to you and not on the bureaucracy of our ministry."
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