Munitions Empire

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With Tang Mo's arrival, the construction speed on Dragon Island also began to accelerate crazily. The scale of Weigang had already become quite immense, and its dockyard was even finished, beginning mass production of the Liberty Ships that Tang Mo now needed most.

Currently, the Great Tang Group owned nine Brunas-class warships and three Wolf-class warships, making it the most powerful naval force in the world.

This was beyond doubt, as a single Wolf-class warship, in collaboration with three Brunas-class warships, had already annihilated Taren Kingdom, which used to dominate the southern part of the Endless Sea.

If Tang Mo were to assemble these twelve warships, he could almost take down any country's port, or completely destroy the maritime trade routes of any hostile nation.

However, not all the warships at Tang Mo's disposal belonged to him—in the twelve warships controlled by the Great Tang Group, one belonged to the Leite Kingdom, or, to be precise, the future Laines Empire.

Additionally, one had already been sold to the Dwarves of the Ice Cold Kingdom, and another to Dorne, which would serve as the flagship of the Dorne Kingdom's navy in the future.

At the same time, another warship was destined to be sold to the Songmu Kingdom, and another was likely to go to the Poplar Kingdom.

That is to say, of the nine Brunas-class ironclad warships at the Great Tang Group's disposal, only five were truly their own.

And the Great Tang Group didn't even plan to keep those five warships, as they had already planned to sell all of their Brunas-class warships.

The Laines Empire was interested in purchasing, and the Empire of Nanla was also preparing to buy the blueprints to construct more Brunas-class warships on their own.

Also expressing interest in purchasing was Dorne, now a major maritime power. This nation had seen an unimaginable lengthening of its coastline.

Previously, Dorne was a country by the sea, and one of its major ports, Hotwind Port, was permanently sold to the Great Tang Group.

Following the coastline south, Dorne actually bordered the Taren Kingdom, and now all those coastlines belong to the Kingdom of Dorne.

Most of the islands belonging to the Taren Kingdom had been permanently transferred to the Great Tang Group as the private domain of Tang Mo, the owner of the Great Tang Group.

However, the other land-based ports already belonged to Dorne, thus Dorne was in great need to establish a huge and powerful navy to protect its coastline.

Therefore, Dorne's envoys were always active, hoping that the Great Tang Group could sell them more warships to help Dorne build a modern and powerful naval force.

Truth be told, Tang Mo was also hoping to sell more ironclad warships, because selling navy ships, even on twenty-first-century Earth, was an extremely profitable business.

Haven't you seen how Russia sold an aircraft carrier to India for one dollar, then charged the latter three billion dollars in refurbishment fees?

Haven't you seen how Russia extorted Huaxia by selling a Modern-class destroyer, which wasn't very advanced, for a sky-high price of over one hundred million dollars?

Haven't you seen how the Beiyang Fleet overpaid for warships, and yet the sellers still showed an ugly reluctance to sell if they didn't wish to?...

In any case, the business of selling modern military ships is definitely profitable. And now, the Great Tang Group seemed to have entered a stage where they were relatively short on cash.

The investment in the aviation sector would definitely not pay off in the short term, and the idea of recouping the cost in the railway sector was almost a pipe dream.

Most of the reserve funds in the Great Tang Bank were untouchable, and Tang Mo also needed to ensure that the "Tang Bills," now the legal currency of the Laines Empire, continued to be stable.

Tang Mo's mines were expanding production, so for the time being he couldn't afford to sell raw materials for profit—he didn't have enough for his own use.

The shipbuilding industry was serving their own needs, producing Wolf-class warships that were not for sale, and the Liberty Ships, for the time being, could only be provided exclusively for their own fleet, so the shipbuilding business was also a "loss-making" project at the moment.

The production capacity for cars had been pushed to the max, and there was also a transition to manufacturing newer models with better performance, both trucks and cars. Plus, Tang Mo had set a very low price to popularize automobiles, so while the automobile project was profitable, the earnings were indeed not much.

Plus, with the recent cessation of war, the arms trade had to proceed routinely and steadily fulfill the orders. Therefore, the Great Tang Group had been continuously spending money, while the income-generating projects had been few.

As a result, Tang Mo could only place his hopes on his chemical plants. Medicine and fertilizers had become the life-saving means for supporting nearly half of his group.

In such an environment, the navy ships in Tang Mo's hands turned into money trees—as long as people were willing to spend, he didn't mind selling all those surplus Brunas-class warships!

The railway on Dragon Island had already connected Weigang with Dragon City, although there was only one line—for early railways, there was actually no need to build two tracks for going and returning. They only needed to construct parallel tracks at certain sections to allow two trains to pass each other.

This greatly reduced the consumption of steel for tracks, saved the time for laying them out, but also indeed reduced the transportation efficiency.

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So, the second railway on Dragon Island has already begun construction, and two parallel railways can perfectly enhance transport capacity.
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At the same time, Dragon City has also started building a university, a comprehensive one, with a more complete scale and larger size.

Tang Mo aims to cultivate more professional talent here, because as technology advances, he will need more and more people with modern skills.

Without the support of one hundred thousand technicians, engineers, and scholars, he could probably never develop an atomic bomb on his own in this lifetime.

And by himself, he couldn't possibly create high-tech toys like stealth aircraft, super carriers, artificial satellites, and space stations...

So, he needs more subordinates, more technical talent, more high-level workers, more grassroots support.

He needs the whole world to modernize, so he can make more money relying on technology. If the world stays at its current stage, even if he managed to develop anti-aircraft missiles, who would he sell them to?

Naturally, Dragon City University will have to be built, and so will Weigang University. Schools must also be built in Hotwind Port and Osa to select and train more local talent.

Even if these talents do not end up working for the Great Tang Group, once they scatter, they will drive the progress and development of the whole world. In the future, they will become an invisible force propelling the world onto the fast track of development.

Meanwhile, to support the growing population, the infrastructure on Dragon Island is also being expanded and innovated. Larger generator sets are being constructed, and more electricity will enable Dragon Island to develop even faster.

Compared to Brunas, Dragon Island actually has certain advantages in development. It is a city built from scratch on level land; everything has been constructed according to plan, saving the effort required for renovation.

Everything here changes with each passing day. The development here is more than twice as fast as in Brunas. The most important factor restricting development here is population, and Tang Mo is working hard to transport more people to Dragon Island.

Ships fully loaded with people set out to sea every day from Osa, Hotwind, Winterless City, Eternal Winter City, including Brunas.

Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, and Humans... groups of people hoping to strike it rich are all trying every possible way to get on a ship headed for Dragon Island.

Sometimes, an entire shipload of criminals from Zheng Country would be directly cut off and then find another ship to send them to Dragon Island.

In short, although the population is mixed, it has already grown considerably on Dragon Island, swelling from the original hundred and some thousand to an astonishing two hundred and fifty thousand or more recently.

"Dorne is willing to pay 1.5 million Gold Coins, 500,000 in cash, and 1 million in repayable loans to purchase the Brunas No. 2 Warship... They agree to our delaying delivery," Roger, now back at Tang Mo's side, took over these reporting duties.

Harry has been overseeing work in Brunas recently, and Luff, as Chief of Staff, happened to join him on Dragon Island. Surprisingly, the most reliable Tagg became the stabilizing force and was sent back to Brunas to oversee military affairs.

Tang Mo stood by the window, gazing at the forest sea outside, and without turning his head, he asked, "With this one included, that would make it three Brunas-class warships they have bought, right?"

"Yes," Roger nodded, then looked down at the report, "The Laines side wants to buy two... Next month, according to the previous contract, we will hand over Brunas No. 7 to them. They hope we can deliver Brunas No. 1 at the same time."

"Give it to them! No problem. In two more months, more Wolf-class cruisers will be ready to launch. We have already overcome our most difficult period," Tang Mo contemplated for a moment and then decided to fulfill the other party's request.

After all, war is unlikely to break out soon, and even if someone dared to challenge the Great Tang Group's naval supremacy with a few Brunas-class ironclads, Tang Mo's three Wolf-class warships are more than enough to teach them a lesson.

"We're trying to transport Gold to Dragon Island, but for fear of losing it in a shipwreck, we can only manage about five tons at a time," Roger continued his report.

Since the core of the Great Tang Group has moved to Dragon Island, it seems that the most important treasury should also be moved to the safer Dragon Island.

Tang Mo plans to turn Dragon Island into the world's only financial center. In the future, global trade can be completed right on Dragon Island.

Thus, constructing a world central bank here to gather all the Gold in the world has become a necessary preparation.

Tang Mo, still fixing his gaze on the distant jungle, said to Roger, "That's fine, being a bit cautious is never a bad thing."

"Following your order, we're preparing to send a fleet to Zheng Country, and Lord Li'ao wants to go back for a visit," Roger broached another matter.

"It's fine for him to return in his finery, but this time, let's not let him go," Tang Mo considered and gave his opinion, "Tell him, not to worry... Wait for the next time. I'll accompany him back, on the Wolf No. 1... to go back."

Roger was taken aback, then smiled, "Understood."