A Slave who became Emperor Chapter 49

Avanti city was spread across an area of eight thousand square kilometres . . it was the biggest city of Hindustan . . the whole city was planned and constructed . . it was in the shape of a triangle surrounded by a rectangle . . on the three corners of the inner triangle were the King's palace, the university of Avanti and the Trimurti temple . . they were surrounded by many gurukuls (residential schools), city library, city Hall, arena to practice fine arts like Drama and Dance, art galleries, etc . houses of the residents were on the outer square grid . . the city was constructed in the form of grids . . it was well planned and built .

The walls of the buildings were left blank so that artists could come and paint them with beautiful portraits, landscapes etc . . pottery, sculpture, were practised by almost everyone in the city . . there was not even a single illiterate in the entire city . . everyone had a basic knowledge of how to read and write and everyone was skilled in atleast one art . .

There were poets, sculptors, architects, writers, singers, actors, dancers etc . . apart from them there were scholars who wrote great books in science, literature, mathematics, law, economics and politics . . every family had an artist practising one fine art and a scholar excelling in one subject . .

The city flourished with extravagance . . there was no army protecting the city . . as Avanti was a city of learning . . they had no enemies . . . every emperor, King, empress, queen was a proud ex student of Avanti city . . . even people from other countries came to receive education here . . such was the glory of this city . .

But now . . all that glory is gone . . only abandoned buildings, open galleries . . isolated sculptures . . left over books met ones sight . . but luckily the construction of the city was robust . . the buildings, houses etc were standing up right . . the whole city was constructed using burnt bricks and mortar, the mortar used was of a special composition . . the skeletal structure of house was made using strong metallic pillars . . this enabled the city to still stand tall . .

People sent by Pinaka verified the city and made a detailed report . . the city exuded a noble aura . . they gathered their notes and left to report the same to Pinaka . . .

Meanwhile Badshah Khan was crossing the rough terrain of Hindukhush mountains . . . he successfully took back his money and belongings from the two remaining dacoits . . the rough journey lasted several nights and several days . .

The newlyweds were enjoying their married life . . they were blissfully happy . . the nights and days seemed like beautiful dreams for them . . spending their time together in each other's arms . . . Samyukta and Pinaka became two bodies . . and one soul . . their thoughts seemed to be well coordinated . . they felt exhausted and energised after each time they made love . . the intense passion kindled a warmth in each other's heart . . they belonged to each other completely . .

During one such beautiful evening when they were spending time together . . Samyukta said, 'Pinaka, I think we need to start our preparations for war

. . I need to go and March the army down . . but we need to choose a place to set up army barracks . . now that your Coronation and my Coronation got postponed until the great unification . . we need to make plans for facing Zaffar in the war . . I heard that he has a huge army . . . but we don't know how big his army is . . or what are the techniques they are trained in . . their style of war . . etc . . we need to plan out everything within a month . . then we can train everyone together . . only then we can stand and face the enemy . . '

Chapter end