Munitions Empire

Failiar with the faint scent of gunpowder on the battlefield, Tang Mo breathed in the fresh air and basked in the bright sunshine.

He had returned, bringing with him over two hundred soldiers and the ashes of those who had died in the invasion of the southern part of Suthers Kingdom, back to the place from where he had set off.

Everything here had changed dramatically, to the point that even Tang Mo himself had trouble recognizing the place.

When he saw that the walls of his factory had been extended along the road for a kilometer, such that one would have to take a long detour to enter the factory grounds without going through the main gate, he knew that the old men left to watch over the place hadn’t been slacking off.

"Seeing you is truly delightful, my master," Li’ao extended his arm and greeted Tang Mo with an enthusiastic hug as he returned home.

"Thank you!" Tang Mo hugged him, then embraced Roger, who had been standing there smiling silently, "I’m back, Uncle Roger."

"Glad you’re back! Glad you’re back!" Roger embraced Tang Mo as well and then, looking at the new recruits waiting for Tang Mo’s order to disband, raised his voice in encouragement, "You’ve all done well! You have brought back victory and glory!"

Tang Mo turned around to face the soldiers, dressed neatly in their winter uniforms and standing tall and proud like pines, a smile filled his face.

He loudly said to the soldiers, "From today onwards, you are no longer the Northern Ridge new recruits. Now, you are the security and protection troops of the Great Tang Group."

Everyone was quiet, quietly listening to Tang Mo’s speech. Tang Mo didn’t ramble, but got straight to the point, "You will soon be expanded into a regiment, which is a special organization within the Great Tang Group’s troops, completely different from the previous legions."

He briefly explained the future organization and structure of the troops, "In fact, the entire regiment will have under its command three combined battalions, each with three infantry companies and one field artillery company directly under it, and in the future, they will also add a communications, support, and logistics transport company."

Then he shifted the topic to talk about rewards, "Gentlemen, you will all become the backbone of this force, and everyone will be promoted. I hope... each one of you will cherish this hard-earned opportunity."

"Long live the Great Tang Group!" Hearing this, everyone’s spirits clearly lifted a great deal as they cheered loudly in unison, "Long live!"

"Alright! That’s all I have to say! Go take a bath! You stink!" Tang Mo ordered them to disband, "Dismissed!"

"Oh!" All the soldiers immediately cheered, and instead of scattering, they formed orderly lines, singing as they entered the factory gates.

The workers and their families crowded on both sides of the road, clapping for these heroes. Unable to find flowers due to the season, they had to resort to cheering to welcome these heroes.

Seeing their own children or men, the women who had stayed behind wept for joy. Among them, there were also inevitably lonely figures who could not find their family members.

"Find a good place for the heroes’ ashes; it will be our martyrs’ cemetery from now on, understand?" Tang Mo glanced at Redman standing beside him and instructed.

"Yes, sir!" Redman saluted immediately, then headed towards a carriage not far behind him.

"We’ve lost almost 20 excellent soldiers, the finest of the first recruits! In the future, they could have been division commanders, even army commanders..." Tang Mo muttered in anguish, his anger visible to all.

He handed his gloves to the apprentice Galsa who had come to greet him, then looked at the somewhat nervous Parker and said to him and Mathews and others, "I’ve brought back a large number of orders from Northern Ridge, and you’ll all be busy in the coming days."

"Orders? New weaponry orders?" Mathews was very interested and asked, "How many?"

"Lord Earl hopes to arm the soldiers of two additional legions, so he’s planning on having us produce a full set of weapons for one legion first," Tang Mo answered, "This includes the corresponding C64 field guns, 10 guns for one legion! Plus filling the previous shortages, a total of 24 cannons."

Mathews knew full well how valuable the C64 howitzers were. Lord Earl was making a purchase of 30 cannons in one go, which certainly meant spending a significant sum of money.

Because of the advance nature of these cannons, even if Tang Mo priced them at 300 Gold Coins each, it probably wouldn’t be unreasonable. That amounted to a whopping 10,000 Gold Coins for 30 cannons!

So, Mathews made a joke, looking at the long line of carts behind him and smilingly asked, "My word! Don’t tell me that these carts are filled with Gold Coins."

"Huh? You knew? Impossible, right?" Tang Mo feigned surprise as he looked at Mathews.

Mathews’ face immediately changed as he looked back and forth between the carts and Tang Mo, "Don’t tell me you’ve been robbing the Suthers Kingdom?"

"You know about that too?" Tang Mo put on the same surprised expression and chuckled as he teased the old Dwarf.

"Hahahaha!" Wes couldn’t help but burst into laughter, slapping the shoulder of Tagg, who stood straight and still while he laughed.

"Alright, gentlemen! Now I want to discuss a very important issue with all of you... how to quickly spend the money in your hands!" Tang Mo struck a boastful pose, then strutted off towards his factory.

A day later, the whole of Brunas Port went crazy.

Yes, Tang Mo, who had been missing for nearly two months, suddenly sent people to Brunas in December and began to purchase a variety of things on a large scale.

He was spending money like it was dirt, not haggling at all for the things he wanted; he just threw money at them, plunging the entirety of Brunas into an unusual frenzy of celebration.

Tang Mo also purchased a large tract of land, putting his name on almost all the wasteland north of Brunas.

Thanks to the victory at Northern Ridge and the friendship of Sheriff Solon, the whole process went exceptionally smoothly. Tang Mo didn’t even spend a penny to make the Vicious Forest his own property as well.

After that, Tang Mo also obtained the legal right to build a port on his own land, and all of this together had cost him only 1,300 Gold Coins.

So, Tang Mo spent another large sum of money to buy the only chemical workshop in Brunas, acquiring everything including the people and the land beneath it.

Then he bought the inn next to the Silver Fox Tavern, including its affiliated carriage service. As a result, those idlers at the Silver Fox Tavern now had another place to manage.

After that, Tang Mo bought the restaurant, the liquor store next to the restaurant, and finally even the brothel next to the liquor store.

He spent freely—buying shares in the cement workshop, the brick kiln, the textile and clothing store, the salt flats, the ranch... even the dock laborers became his workers.

The result of this round of purchases was that he was pleasantly surprised to have spent just half of his Gold Coins.

Everyone knew Tang Mo was wealthy, but no one knew exactly how wealthy he was. They only saw him sending people daily to purchase all kinds of assorted goods and never saw him short of money.

He paid all of next year’s taxes and even gave the mayor an extra 100 Gold Coins in a bribe—a level of bribery that was usually reserved for courting the Nobility, but Tang Mo had given it to a mayor.

Therefore, the mayor was almost ready to give his office to Tang Mo. The town guards were ordered to yield three steps to Mr. Tang Mo’s people, and the tale of Sheriff himself personally helping Tang Mo into his carriage became the talk of the town.

The fact that a merchant could enjoy treatment nearly equivalent to Nobility made all residents of Brunas realize that there might indeed be a new Emperor in town, one who had absolute control.

The cold winter dissipated the clouds of war, and the Leite Kingdom’s victory over the Suthers Kingdom became the hot topic of conversation over meals and tea throughout the winter.

During this winter, the people of Brunas Town unexpectedly discovered that the weather seemed warmer than before.

They didn’t know it was because a huge factory had been built on the edge of their city, burning coal every day.

People of this world didn’t realize that the temperature of a city is much higher than in the suburbs, simply because they had no experience with this phenomenon.

All they knew was that from a distance, they could see countless huge chimneys puffing out black smoke day and night.

As soon as the white snow ceased, a light layer of coal ash covered it, making all of Brunas look dirty. Experience the best on _emp _yr.

But the people here were all beaming with happiness—the workers were receiving hefty salaries, which in turn stimulated Brunas’s economy. Everyone went to town to spend money, and almost everyone in town earned higher incomes.

It was simple—stimulating domestic demand had enlivened the economic cycle on a small scale. By now, Brunas had become a vine clinging to Tang Mo’s factory; it’s just that people hadn’t realized it yet.

To Tang Mo’s frustration, at the second month’s end, his workers’ spending in Brunas had stimulated the local economic growth, and about one-third of the money he had spent rolled back into his pocket as profit.

In front of Roger and others’ stunned gazes, Tang Mo, braving the heavy snow, loaded another batch of parts onto the carriage, to be sent off to Northern Ridge, which urgently needed this equipment.

"Alright, if nothing unexpected happens, the payment from Northern Ridge should arrive soon. We’re going to have 10,000 Gold Coins on the books..." Tang Mo touched his nose with his hand, boastfully glanced back at his confidants, unable to hide his smile, "Are you numb yet? This feeling of making money faster than you can spend it..."

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