Munitions Empire

Eternal Winter City was the non-freezing port in the northern part given to Great Tang Group by the Dwarves as payment to settle debts.

This port is a natural ice-free harbor, arguably the best in the entire Dwarf Ice Cold Kingdom.

Though they were somewhat reluctant to part with it, the fact was that by the standards of Great Tang Group, this might be the only non-freezing port in the Ice Cold Kingdom territory that could be used immediately.
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Before the workers of Great Tang Group arrived, this place seemed to have a smaller scale than even the Osa Military Harbor which the Elves had ceded to Great Tang Group.

Or rather, comparing it to the Osa Port which was already undergoing thorough reconstruction by Great Tang Group was perhaps claiming too much credit.

The annual throughput here was very limited, which was an important criterion for Great Tang Group to determine the usefulness of a port.

However, once the people of Great Tang Group arrived, they began remodeling this somewhat chilly harbor.

Countless machines were delivered here, some were handed directly to the Dwarves, while others were kept at the port.

Compared to its previous desolation, the place was now bustling with prosperity; the local Dwarves started to call it "the humans' gold mine."

Just by securing a job here, these Dwarves could earn money they never dared to dream of before.

Although the wages seemed low and wouldn't recruit any workers in Brunas at the same level, for the Dwarves, what the humans offered was far too much…

Upon the Dwarves' request, part of the wages could be paid directly in alcohol, so a sizable brewery was built alongside the port.

The new brew was named Eternal Winter Ale; after the Dwarves got drunk and rambled on, this fine strong alcohol was referred to as "that brewery's alcohol from Eternal Winter," which eventually shortened to "Eternal Winter's."

Later on, somehow through repeated miscommunications, it started being referred to by a nickname similar to "vodka"... Hearing this name, Tang Mo felt even more that these large-bearded Dwarves were striding unhesitatingly down the path of hairevolution.

Of course, these Dwarves were still relatively normal now; they'd congregate here to put in their work, collect their wages, and then splurge their earned silver coins in the in-port bars.

In terms of strategic position, Winterless City was even more important for Great Tang Group than Osa, as this port could be said to be one of Great Tang Group's most crucial strategic points in the future.

Because of the collaboration with the Dwarves, Great Tang Group owned countless mines in the North, as well as an oil field.

These strategic materials, along with other strategic supplies purchased from the Dwarves, were almost all loaded onto ships here, to be transported overseas.

Should something go wrong here, at least two-thirds of Great Tang's gold mining output, half of its copper mines, and a quarter of its rare metals would not be able to reach Brunas and Dragon Island on time.

From any perspective, these losses were unacceptable to Great Tang Group, so the construction here was naturally elevated to a quite significant level of importance.

Throughout the year, a Brunas-class warship from Great Tang Group patrolled the nearby seas, and at the same time, Great Tang Group also stationed a 500-man "foreign legion" here for training.

This Troop was from the Orc race; after the successful restoration of the Gales Kingdom, they requested that Great Tang Group help train their military.

Tang Mo did not want to let a large number of Orc Troops into Brunas, so he sent them to Winterless City to undergo formal training.

This Troop used a rotation system; each unit would be stationed here for 60 days, quickly learning some drill maneuvers and the most basic tactical movements before being rotated out.

On one hand, time was indeed tight, so the training couldn't cover much, while on the other hand, the surrounding Dwarves didn't have a favorable impression of these Orcs.

In summary, amid busyness, Eternal Winter City embarked on its own path to rise, incorporating its steel factories, train stations, power plants, and other supporting facilities, including the ever-expanding brewery, into the production cycle of Great Tang Group.

Every early morning, the port saw departing sailboats, laden with raw iron ore or crudely refined iron and steel ingots, setting off to the open sea, disappearing over the horizon.

Every half an hour, one such ship would leave the port, which was nothing short of a management miracle for the then-backward Eternal Winter City.

Countless Dwarves worked here, including hired poor folk, slaves bought from Dwarf Nobility, and of course, prisoners temporarily pulled from jails to help fill numbers.

After all, as Great Tang Group was paying, the Dwarves would go out of their way to help fill the manpower gap for Great Tang Group.

Because of the cooperative relationship, there was a great deal of trust between both parties, resulting in substantial support from the Dwarves.

While waging war abroad, the Dwarves mobilized 200,000 people, braving the severe cold to construct a railway between Kings City and Eternal Winter City.

At the same time, another 50,000 were constructing a massive military factory in the suburbs of the Dwarven Kings City, a factory that would be capable of producing a variety of weapons, including rifles and machine guns, in the future.

Beside this military factory, 30,000 people were ceaselessly building an automobile plant. Massive factory buildings were rising from the ground, a marvel of the Ice Cold Kingdom.

Meanwhile, outside Eternal Winter City, several large factories were also under construction, including a textile mill, a generator factory, and a large chemical plant.

Although both parties had signed a contract, and the Great Tang Group had nearly packaged and sold all of its heavy industry technology to the Dwarves, there were still light industry and other technologies that the Great Tang Group was allowed to produce and sell within the Ice Cold Kingdom according to the contract.

Thus, the Great Tang Group could operate in pharmaceuticals and fertilizers, among other products, with a special license and only required to pay half the usual tax.

There was no alternative, as the Great Tang Group was the Ice Cold Kingdom's most favored trade partner. This status was somewhat similar to most favored nation status, although it was unfortunately one-sided.

In any case, in Eternal Winter City, everything revolved around building a port large enough to ensure a continuous flow of materials such as gold, copper, iron, rare metals, oil, etc., to Dragon Island.

Early this morning, the Dwarf sailors working at the dock, along with some Dwarf laborers, couldn't help but drop what they were doing.

They all looked up to see a towering Ironclad Warship belching plumes of black smoke as it slowly docked.

They had seen smoke-belching ships before; the Brunas-class Ironclad Warship often came to the port to coal up, always billowing black smoke when it set off.

But the ship before them was obviously much, much larger than the Brunas-class warship! These sailors couldn't discern the differences between these steel behemoths.

So they were stunned, thinking that the Great Tang Group, which ruled these waters, had come up with some sort of brand-new warship.

However, they soon realized that it was a transport ship, a supermassive one at that—one that could take the place of an entire fleet... a formidable transport ship.

The newly erected crane lifted car after car, transferring them to the dock to be unloaded.

All morning, the crane worked nonstop; due to an error, it even dropped an expensive sedan on the ground, turning it into a pile of scrap metal.

Everyone was shocked because they witnessed with their own eyes that the belly of this great vessel, which had come from afar, contained no fewer than 100 automobiles! And it seemed there were still many more cars inside the ship yet to be lifted out!

This loading capacity was nearly 20 to 50 times that of a sailing ship! After all, a sailing ship could only carry about five cars at a time.

Because a sailing ship had only a narrow cargo hold hatch, automobiles could hardly fit inside the ship's body. Consequently, for any larger cargo, they had to be placed on the ship's deck, which severely affected the sailing ship's cargo capacity.

"My god! That's an unbelievable capacity!" exclaimed a Dwarf, rubbing his eyes as if he had drunk too much and was still not sober.

After unloading 100 cars of various models, the crane started to lift machine tools to the dock.

This time, the workers were even more careful, with the leading dignitaries even declaring that damaging one machine would incur a fine of 500 Gold Coins!

Many of these machines were already familiar to the Dwarves; the city's outskirts housed the power plant, and right next to it, the telegraph office, was filled with such remarkable machinery.

With these fascinating devices, Eternal Winter City could swiftly contact Kings City and even command the Ironclad Warships stationed outside the harbor.

"Such a ship could almost replace a whole fleet... no wonder we started expanding the dock a month ago..." mused a Dwarf noble, watching the free-sailing ship, "We thought we wouldn't need such a large dock... Turns out, it was all for this behemoth!"

"It looks like sea trade is going to be dominated by the Great Tang Group from now on," another Dwarf noble sighed. He was involved in maritime trade himself, which was why he stood at the dock at this time.

"Hahaha!" The first noble laughed heartily, "Don't worry, there surely can't be that many of these huge ships..."

Before he could finish, he saw another ship, identical to the first, slowly approaching another dock in the distance...

"Damn it..." he swore involuntarily. In his opinion, even though the Great Tang Group was powerful, surely it couldn't afford to construct so many massive steel vessels at once.

The maritime trader beside him shook his head, "Sigh... you've obviously never dealt with the folks from the Great Tang Group... If they set their sights on that path, they would crush anyone in their way to dust..."