Munitions Empire

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Tang Mo, who had returned to Dragon Island, was still very busy each day. With the continuous advancement of technology, he had to come up with more and better technologies to maintain Great Tang Group's lead in research and development.

Every day, he would write and sketch, copying down some technical parameters to distribute among the various R&D departments to inspire their thinking.

This was a virtuous cycle. Tang Mo couldn't always be a drafting tool, taking on the entire group's R&D and design work by himself.

Therefore, he had to cultivate new talent, to keep the R&D team's morale high and take on more work on his behalf, freeing him to focus on increasingly important strategic issues.

In the process of this technological transfer, Tang Mo more often played the role of a decision-maker, preventing his tech team from wasting time on the wrong paths.

In the meeting room, Tang Mo was listening to reports from various departments on the development progress of Dongwan Island. Lately, it seemed that almost all of Great Tang Group's discussions revolved around Dongwan Island.

There was no helping it, since Brunas and Jade City had merged seamlessly and were on the right track, with Harry watching over them, everything was running smoothly.

The other ports were the same; everyone was busy developing and had set their own development goals. As long as they followed the plan conscientiously, they could become prosperous lands in the future.

With Tang Mo personally overseeing Dragon Island, there were certainly no issues: as the R&D base and technological stronghold for Great Tang Group, its development naturally faced no problems.

One only needed to look at the giant shipyards that had been expanded several times, and the hulls at various stages of construction inside, to understand Dragon Island's status within Great Tang Group.

Although there were countless affairs to attend to in these places, they were all routine matters that did not require Tang Mo's constant attention.

Only Dongwan Island, which was still in its initial construction phase and served as a military foothold, required Tang Mo's personal intervention on various matters.

Roger had been left on Dragon Island by Tang Mo and had now returned to his original duties. He spoke up to give Tang Mo an update on the group's recent actions, "We have imported about 2 million tons of grain from allied nations, most of which are being gathered towards Dongwan Island."

He explained to Tang Mo why they would not continue to increase the grain purchase quantity, "This is already the limit we can purchase because increasing the volume further would endanger the reserves of the grain-selling countries, a risk they are unwilling to accept."

Although Great Tang Group exports fertilizers and improved seeds, which indeed increase farming efficiency and allowed allied nations to achieve bountiful grain harvests,

the issue of food security had just begun to be partly resolved, and many countries were only just emerging from a state of hunger, so there was a general wariness about exporting grain, which meant the volume of grain circulating in the trade sector was actually not that much.

In exporting grain to Great Tang Group, it was more about reverence and trust. The decision-makers of various countries were somewhat inclined to believe that Great Tang Group's grain purchases were not a strategic offensive.

"Due to our purchases, the price of grain has already begun to rise. The price we are offering is almost more than triple what the grain purchase price was at this time last year," Roger continued, mentioning another factor affecting the purchases.

This was also an almost insurmountable issue: persistent grain purchases would cause fluctuations in grain prices, and large-scale acquisitions like Tang Mo's would definitely lead to a continuous increase in grain prices.

The problem with price increases is that the amount of grain that can be purchased for the same price will decrease further, which, in effect, turns out to be a clear loss-making deal. The party spending the money will experience tremendous pressure.

Because the loss is certain, whoever issues such an order must pay for the extra cost incurred, and any individual or even an organization must make a reasonable explanation for why they would operate this way, even at a loss.

Many people do not understand why Huaxia often buys bonds from Lighthouse Country; the logic is quite simple: Huaxia pockets substantial profits each year, and spending this money on anything causes international trade prices for those goods to skyrocket.

This leads to a severe problem, given the magnitude of Huaxia, what it sells plummets, and what it buys soars. Thus, the price differences mean that the profits are essentially given back to other countries.

Attempting to purchase high-tech items, you find they are not for sale, rendering money ineffective. The things others want to sell, Huaxia does not want to buy, creating a deadlock.

The most rational behavior is to purchase foreign government bonds, earning some interest without the risk of significant losses... That's hundreds of billions of dollars at stake, and not even a slight risk can be taken.

For a nation, every decision must be stable, as this is the most rational choice.

Great Tang Group is now quite similar to Huaxia: their industrialization is the most thorough, the scale of their trade is immense, and even the slightest disturbance causes seismic shocks to other nations, so everyone treads carefully.

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Tang Mo wanted to procure grain for Dongwan Island, and the price of grain skyrocketed immediately. This was just the beginning. If the Great Tang Group continued to import grain, the price would become even higher and more uncontrollable.

Therefore, Roger suggested that they should temporarily stop buying grain and wait for the price to drop next year when there would be a larger grain surplus. Then they could purchase another round to keep the price at a reasonable, slightly expensive level.

"The good news is that we don't have to provide the standard amount of grain for slaves; we usually only ensure a single meal per day for the goblin slaves..." Roger concluded with feigned ease.

The Great Tang Group had never treated goblin slaves as "citizens" and thus naturally skimped on them to maintain basic operations elsewhere.

"Dino is worried that the death of goblins will affect the development progress of Dongwan Island. We've been a bit too hasty. The construction on Dongwan Island is rapid, but it's built on the deaths of slaves," Tang Mo said with some concern, looking towards Luff on the other side.

Since the military was required to suppress and oversee them, the goblin slaves were under the jurisdiction of the military in the system. The use, allocation, and casualty statistics of these slaves were all summarized in the Staff Department under Commander Luff. Find more adventures on empire

Luff nodded slightly and began to talk about the slave situation: "In the past month, we've lost 40,000 goblin slaves, most of whom died of illness due to excessive labor, some were abused, and others due to non-standard construction safety."

"I don't mean I sympathize with these bastards. My concern is if the number of slaves continues to decline, it will affect the infrastructure construction on Dongwan Island in the future," Roger continued.

Before Luff could speak, Li'ao replied to Roger's concern: "You don't have to worry about that, because we will soon distribute more qualified talents to all areas in need of labor."

"Better ones?" Roger, not very familiar with intelligence work, asked, looking towards Li'ao.

Li'ao nodded proudly: "Exactly, we've bribed many city lords and officials in Zheng Country. They'll turn a blind eye to our transportation plan."

Indeed, he could be proud of his subordinates. The dandelion's work in Zheng Country could indeed be said to be one of the largest, most invested, and fastest-acting spy operations in world history.

"You mean the entire region will ignore this large-scale transportation... activity?" Roger asked incredulously because for any country, the population is actually wealth, an indispensable hard resource.

Li'ao continued with a smile: "Yes, they will use criminals for local infrastructure projects, then send the law-abiding as criminals directly to Dongwan Island."

Hearing Li'ao's words, Roger finally eased his mind and sighed with relief, "It seems like our people are doing well over there."

Tang Mo teased Li'ao for his eagerness in intelligence activities: "Indeed, they spent 30 million Gold Coins in less than 25 days and then came asking me for another 10 million."

This operation was basically a "money-splashing campaign" with no sophistication involved, just starting with insatiably corrupt officials as breakthrough points, dragging a series of such officials into the mire, and then, when the scandal broke out, even larger officials who could not enforce the law against a group resigned to accept it.

Turning the giving of money into a done deal, if 10,000 Gold Coins didn't work, offer 50,000. If 50,000 didn't suffice, then give 100,000! Keep increasing until the person nods in agreement or someone else nods for him!

Don't underestimate the power of this tactic because it has proven to be simple, crude, yet surprisingly effective. Just think, if the United States used its annual defense budget for bribes, how many people would maintain their principled stance?

Even if someone remained utterly loyal, but let's face it, if this were actually happening, you can be sure the country would send someone to 'convince' you to betray and take the money...

"My God... Really?" When Roger heard Tang Mo casually mention a bribe of 40 million Gold Coins, he felt utterly stupefied.

He even thought that negotiating directly with the King of Zheng Country might even get them a discount.

Tang Mo chuckled and said to Roger, "Really, many cities in Zheng Country are now defenseless against us. The local officials will completely ignore our actions, including renovating ports, laying roads, and shipping all the able-bodied locals overseas. All things considered, this money was well spent."

By defining the nature of the expenses for Li'ao, he also avoided embarrassing Li'ao. Li'ao looked at Tang Mo gratefully, truth be told, he had been quite nervous about using such a large sum of money.

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More to come later, in about 20 minutes.