Munitions Empire

Redman disembarked from the ship, his face pale, standing on the docks of Linshui Port. Frankly speaking, in comparison to Brunas's docks, everything here seemed too backward. Explore more stories at My Virtual Library Empire

However, with the establishment of the Great Tang Kingdom, he, as a military leader of this kingdom, had no choice but to focus his efforts where he was truly needed.

Previously, the land of Jade City in Brunas's Northern Ridge was nearly the largest controlled sector of the Great Tang Group, so he, a general renowned far and wide, had to be stationed in Brunas for extended periods of time.

But now, the Great Tang Kingdom possessed vast territories and even more people in need of protection, so the "War God of Great Tang" also had to move his base.

Accompanying his arrival were over five hundred faculty members and over a thousand military officers transferred from Brunas, along with one hundred thousand sets of corresponding textbooks.

The Great Tang Kingdom hoped to construct Tongcheng, Linshui, and others into true industrial centers. This would no longer be someone else's turf but genuinely and entirely their own!

Here, they could appoint officials without any procedures, didn't have to pay taxes to others each year, and no longer had to fear that adversaries might find an excuse to reclaim the land at any time.

Of course, with the combat power of the Great Tang Kingdom, there really weren't many countries bold enough to openly cause trouble.

Yet, for a steady supply of goods and verbal support and recognition from other countries, the Great Tang Kingdom still completed a very detailed and comprehensive disentanglement from the Great Tang Group.

Now, legally speaking, the legitimate territory of the Great Tang Kingdom included Dragon Island and all the lands of the former Zheng Country. The remaining areas still belonged to the Great Tang Group, which operated them as special economic zones under its management, with their territorial sovereignty officially remaining part of various countries.

However, the Great Tang Group still maintained corresponding control over these territories, merely having to pay taxes annually.

The cranes just assembled and put into use were unloading cargo from the freighters, and the stockpile of goods in Linshui City was mountainous, reaching a point that was almost terrifying.

All ports and cities under the Great Tang Kingdom were reciprocating to Zheng Country, and all industrial machinery controlled by Tang Mo had switched into full gear, producing everything possible at a frantic pace.

Even so, the production capacity was still insufficient, prompting the Great Tang Group to start, for the first time since its establishment, a large-scale continuous procurement of materials from every available region, including industrial products.

Delightfully, the Great Tang Group even publicly purchased 20,000 automobiles from the Ice Cold Kingdom and Gobur Kingdom, a huge order that finally made the trade deficits of several countries look less embarrassing.

Previously, their method for maintaining economic operations was primarily through exporting a massive amount of ores and selling various raw materials to cover the costs of purchasing equipment from the Great Tang Group.

The cranes were lifting machinery from Dragon Island onto the docks, and despite about half a year of preparatory groundwork, Linshui Port's throughput capacity was still no match for Brunas's.

But Tang Mo was already adjusting his deployments. According to the plans of the Great Tang Kingdom, Linshui was eventually going to surpass Brunas. This was no longer news within the Group.

Therefore, the Great Tang Group was furiously shifting its production capacity to Tang Country. To accelerate the transition, they even sold some of their industries directly to businessmen of Tang Country.

Although they were once deceived by the Zheng Country royal family, the Great Tang Kingdom indeed returned the industries to these businessmen.

After regaining ownership of their businesses, these merchants reaped dividends during the reconstruction of Tang Country and thus were willing to continue investing in relevant industries.

As a result, cement factories and glass factories were springing up throughout Tang Country, with infrastructure-related industries flourishing.

It had reached a point where virtually anyone could find a job. Everywhere was hiring, seeking suitable management personnel, and it was incredibly easy to improve one's standard of living.

This was Tang Country now, the place furiously absorbing labor from its surroundings. Right in Linshui, Tang Mo built 500 six-story residential buildings in one breath, and they had recently begun completion.

Each of these buildings could accommodate 144 families, with each unit having a floor area of over 70 square meters. Thanks to prior design experience, all the layouts were special versions with a small dining area and three bedrooms, optimizing functionality.

With the experience of immigration to Dragon Island, now almost all of Tang Mo's personnel had begun to purchase their properties in Linshui, Tongcheng, and the old King City of Zheng Country.

Everyone knew that these places were bound to rival or even surpass Brunas in the future. Buying property here would yield returns that were tenfold or even a hundredfold.

Interestingly, it wasn't just the people under Tang Mo who were acquiring properties; wealthy tycoons, politicians, and even royal families from other countries were also eagerly spending money, buying their personal properties within Tang Country.

It was no joke, looking at the current housing prices in Brunas, even a fool knew that following the real estate development team of the Great Tang Group was an investment with guaranteed profits!

So a shocking scene ensued: the land prices in the old King City of Zheng Country, which were still in the process of wall demolition, continued to hit new highs, and even the houses damaged by artillery fire were being sold at five times their original price.

What was laughable was that even at five times the original price, buyers didn't even bother to haggle, signing contracts and paying with Gold Coin without a second thought…

Amidst the bustling noise, the aide helped Redman open the door of his vehicle, which was the latest model of field officer car produced by the Great Tang Group, painted in a dirt green that looked somewhat rustic at first glance.

Indeed, Tang Mo, having lost interest in the finer details of paintwork, simply resorted to using the most common green military paint of the 60s from Huaxia Country.

Hence, if one were not to consider the performance of these military equipments but only judge by the appearance and color, the milky white and bright red civilian cars produced by Gobur seemed a bit more pleasing to the eye.

As the car of a high-ranking officer, the performance of this off-road vehicle was indeed greatly enhanced. It had better off-road capabilities, more horsepower, and was somewhat faster.

The main reason a sedan wasn't arranged to pick up Redman, was mainly due to the fact that Linshui City was undergoing frantic construction.

In some areas, buildings were being erected, roads had been dug up for sewer pipe installation, electrical wires were being laid out in other areas, and some places were having their roads levelled.

In a nutshell, the passability of regular cars in these conditions was quite problematic, which is why Tagg had dispatched a military off-road vehicle to fetch Redman.

Once out of Linshui City, or rather on the city outskirts, road conditions were somewhat better, and there were noticeably more vehicles on the road.

Mainly various horse-drawn carriages mixed with colorful automobiles, many of which were the low-riding agricultural vehicles from the Ice Cold Kingdom, and quite a few Brunas-produced People's Type 2 as well.

There were no traffic lights on the roads yet, but there were already City Defense Forces converted into traffic police, frantically directing traffic at intersections.

The closer they got to the edge of the city, the more stall vendors could be seen through the car windows, surrounding the construction sites and ceaselessly shouting about their wares.

The shouting outside was inaudible in the noisy car, as the soundproofing of the military off-road vehicle was practically a disaster.

In order to supply more equipment to more troops, the factories of the Great Tang Group instinctively ignored almost every detail.

This led to the current situation where, aside from the Great Tang Group's top-end Rolls-Royce product line, Tang Mo had almost no luxury car brands at his disposal.

Meanwhile, Ice Cold Automobile, Gobur Automobile, and the rising star Nanla Automobile all had their own nobility series, thus producing many "name brands."

Tang Mo's plate was spread too wide, so wide that he could no longer micromanage all of his sub-projects. Therefore, he could only roughly harvest a vast field of "leeks" and regretfully let go of some areas he couldn't attend to, allowing others to have a sip of the broth.

Upon reaching Tagg's military camp, Redman immediately regained his bearings as he observed the increasingly chaotic and volume of strange equipment, as well as the generator trucks providing power for these devices, he knew he had definitely arrived at the right place.

"Hey! Redman!" As soon as Tagg saw Redman, he stepped forward laughing and embraced him, and Redman warmly responded to his old friend Tagg, who had also witnessed the rise of the Great Tang Group.

"The ride wasn't too comfortable, was it?" As an army general, Tagg naturally understood Redman's discomfort very well.

Indeed, Redman immediately nodded, "I still feel like I'm swaying! It seems His Majesty has a point in establishing the Marine Corps. Not everything can be handled by the Army."

Tagg laughed and said, "Now the Navy is starting to do the Army's work. Does this mean we in the Army have to start doing the Navy's job?"

"Hahaha! We can't, we can't!" Redman waved his hand dismissively, "I'm here this time to set up an Armored Division. I've brought all the framework over."

"I'm too old to keep up with you young folks' pace, so all I can do is make sure to keep the home front secure for you," said Tagg, leading Redman into his tent. He pointed to a wireless radio antenna being tested across the way and began, "Back when I fought in wars, we relied on messengers, but now, I can communicate with every company commander at any time."

"Hahaha!" Redman laughed even more exaggeratedly, taking the Zheng Country specialty tea that Tagg handed him without drinking it, boasting, "Just wait! Soon you'll be able to contact every platoon, then every squad!"

"Are you kidding me? How could I possibly manage that?" Tagg retorted in surprise.

"Tank platoons! Every tank will be equipped with more advanced radios! Even though it's not possible yet, very soon... we will be able to do it." Redman said confidently.