Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 1224: Manufacturing the Naya Samrat (1/3)

After the sapta abhiyantāraḥ team had done with their work, they immediately submitted the vehicle to the military in order for it to be tested. In fact, their team could have submitted it later since the deadline was still a week away, but since all seven of them did not want to second-guess their initial decisions and make changes after the truck was built, they unanimously decided to end the project, leaving victory and defeat in the hands of the one above.

In the meantime, the other engineering teams stepped up their game and quickened the pace of the build. The fastest ones to complete the task were the solo engineering teams headed by chief engineers of various Fortune 100 manufacturing companies in the empire, while the other teams, formed by the union of several engineers, although most of them still completed their design and eventually did submit the finished product to the military to begin testing, some directly declined to submit the vehicle they had built, feeling that it would be a disservice to themselves and the military to submit a vehicle that even they considered "subpar."

In fact, most engineering teams with multiple engineers felt the same way. The vehicle they had built and the design they had originally envisioned had become two completely different things. It was as if they had imagined a tiger without ever seeing one in real life, but when they finally saw the real tiger, they realised that what they had was only a cat.

In their attempt to turn that cat into a tiger, they began adding whatever features they could observe on the real animal, even unintentionally copying entire subsystems. By the time they stopped, what they had created was neither a cat nor a tiger, but an awkward mixture born from too many revisions and hurried modifications.

Yet despite recognising this themselves, many of them still submitted their work. Their hope was simple: that the vehicle might still catch the eye of the Emperor. Perhaps His Majesty would see some other use for it, or maybe he would take an interest in certain features they had implemented.

While the testing of the vast majority of the prototypes began, Vijay was finally informed about the completion of the design and prototype of the light military utility truck he was waiting for.

Vijay’s eyes flickered with an eager glint. "When is my schedule free?"

"You have over four hours of free time next Monday, Your Majesty," Prabhudheva replied after quickly checking His Majesty’s itinerary and finding an empty slot.

"Hmm," in that case, schedule my inspection for next Monday."

"Will do, your majesty."

A week passed in the blink of an eye.

After the testing of the vehicles, out of the 28 teams that had submitted, only eight teams made it to the final stage, where his majesty the Emperor would directly choose the vehicle that would be used by the military.

The eight teams naturally included the sapta abhiyantāraḥ team, Venkatesh Yadav’s team, and other teams, mostly headed by solo engineers who have previously been chief engineers of various Fortune 100 companies.

The seven engineers, Mengal, Vaidya, Nayar, Purohit, Pillai, Tata, and Kaul, all sat restlessly, waiting for the arrival of His Majesty. They were not nervous about their truck being selected per se, since looking around, they were already confident about what they had created. Not to mention, they had received a very positive response from the people in the military who had personally tested their truck.

So they were quite prepared for their truck to be chosen, and had already gotten all the joy, ecstasy, and excitement out of their system when they received the word from the logistics department. They were simply nervous about His Majesty’s opinion of the truck.

The next moment, they all stood up on their feet, their faces immediately showing a respectful attitude as they saw his majesty’s exclusive car coming to a stop right at the entrance of the exhibition hall.

Vijay walked in with curiosity etched on his face. He had learnt all specifications of the eight selected vehicles, but he was dying to see them with his own eyes.

Right as he entered, a couple of men came forward to greet him. He recognised one of them, a young brigadier general whom he had personally appointed to guard the internal security of the empire. Vijay talked a few words with them and moved forward.

Looking at the scene before him, he was amazed. Eight different vehicles, each built according to a different style and concept, stood in their booths like generals awaiting their orders. The sheer diversity of the trucks he was seeing was incredible. One truck practically looked like a tractor, with its centre of gravity drastically higher than that of a normal car. He also noticed a tracked vehicle with a two-seater cabin at the front and a cargo bed at the back.

A long car-shaped truck also caught his attention. Weirdly enough, looking at it reminded him of the long Toyota Innova or the Ertiga in his past life.

And finally, his attention landed on the truck that was the military’s favourite, the Naya Samrat of the Sapta Abhiyantāraḥ team. The Director of Logistics had even personally praised this truck, claiming that there could be no better match for the military than this particular vehicle.

Without hesitation, he walked straight toward the Naya Samrat. Under normal circumstances, he would have given the other engineering teams an opportunity to showcase their products, whether he approved of them or not. Who knows, they might have come up with a clever design concept that could convince him to manufacture their vehicle in a limited run.

Unfortunately, he was simply running out of time. The longer he delayed, the more time the factories spent setting up new production lines and wasting resources, even if it was only a fraction of the overall budget, which meant the longer the railway tracks in Europe would become.

The seven engineers were initially overwhelmed when his majesty came directly to their booth and asked them to explain about the car, but as Akshay Purohit, a more experienced engineer, took the lead in starting to explain, they loosened up their tense nerves and started to speak normally.

’13.5 horsepower, 58 Kanda meter peak torque, a top speed of over 43 kilometres per hour, an operational range of 400 kilometres, a maximum payload capacity of over 500 kilograms, and a curb weight of 758 kilograms,’ he read quietly. It was not too bad.

The truck was capable of carrying half a squadron along with all their gear and equipment if it was used purely for troop movement. In terms of supplies, each truck could almost carry enough grain to feed an entire battalion. If it were loaded with medical supplies instead, he would not be surprised if it could stock enough medicine for several battalions, perhaps even a whole brigade.

"It’s a pity it cannot be used to transport all the troops," he let out a sigh. For a brief moment, the thought of biting the bullet and investing regardless crossed his mind, but he quickly crushed the idea as fast as it appeared. To transport a million troops, he would still need over 200,000 trucks. Even if, thanks to nationalisation, the cost of manufacturing remained relatively low, with each truck costing at least 100,000 varha, the total expenditure would exceed 20 billion varha. There was simply no way he was going to spend that kind of money. But honestly, he had already anticipated such a limitation.

After all, an engine producing only 13.5 horsepower was simply too weak to handle the transport of hundreds of men at a time. If the Europeans had not cracked locomotive technology, he might have waited for the next iteration of the Dvidhara engine, hoping it would cross the 20-horsepower mark, or perhaps even reach 30 horsepower. At that level, it might barely manage to pull several tons.

But there was no use wishing for something that could never happen.

"The military will have to make do with equipping these trucks only to the special forces, I guess," he murmured. Then he looked at the engineers and asked, "So far it looks good, but is there anything else? I’ve heard that you have made many smart decisions to make the vehicle extremely practical for the needs of the military."

"Yes, your Majesty, please observe," Arjun Vaidya stepped forward with eagerness, opened the front door and pointed at its hinges.

"For any emergency situation, we have made the doors capable of being released quickly. Each door is held by a single interior bar latch on a sleeve-over-pin hinge. Once the bar is pressed inward and the door is pushed, the entire door comes off from the vehicle in one motion."

He had the mechanic demonstrate, and the mechanic did the entire action under 5 seconds.

"Impressive," Vijay praised, really impressed.

"And you put back the door in the same way, I assume?"

"Exactly, your majesty."

To be continued...