Munitions Empire

Roger continued to ask with curiosity, "With the sharp decrease in population, how do they explain to the higher-ups?"

"According to the books, there hasn't been any sharp decrease in population! That's because the tax revenue hasn't changed at all!" Tang Mo spread his hands, quite proud of his bold move.

Hearing what Tang Mo said, Roger was even more astonished, "We helped them make up the tax shortfall? How much money would that take?"

"Not much, just over a million Gold Coins. Compared to bribing, this is just small change," Tang Mo said, even finding himself a bit fond of Zheng Country's tax system, full of loopholes, utterly inefficient, and very unreasonable, antiquated at its core.

Under this corrupt system, Zheng Country's tax revenue was extremely low, as lower officials had long kept the tax records at a very low level.

The tax evasion by the localities was directly subsidized by Great Tang Group in the form of project funds. Those pitiful taxes were mere pocket change for the entire interest chain and not worth mentioning at all.

This artificially formed, closed-loop massive system tore Zheng Country's rule apart and benefited everyone involved.

The criminals were not exiled but put to reform through labor locally, which amounted to a reduction in their sentences, and everyone was happy.

The commoners were shipped to Dongwan Island, where they had good food and drink and stable jobs to settle down in. Many also received land, naturally feeling grateful.

Zheng Country massively embarked on infrastructure development, creating more jobs and highlighting the local officials' "governing abilities", thereby allowing them to face inspections from above with more dignity.

Although they lost tax revenue from per capita taxes, the local officials' pockets bulged even more with the share from the infrastructure project funds given by Great Tang Group.

The tax revenue reported to the royal treasury rose steadily. With a semblance of prosperity and peace throughout the country, His Majesty the King was overjoyed, and so everyone was happy.

"Those officials really have the gall to ask for that..." In the end, Roger could only lament.

Nangong Hong, who was beside them, laughed and added, "Greed is a virtue! If they didn't ask, how could we have set up such a grand plan in advance?"

"Hahaha!" Everyone laughed along. After the laughter, they began discussing the establishment of an anti-corruption department and the issue of eliminating such phenomena.

Once the anti-corruption department was agreed upon, and Yulin was temporarily placed in charge, Roger continued, "Now, all we have left to do is wait. We wait for the construction of their roads to be completed, for chaos to start there, and then we can take their place."

On the other side, Galsa, who was temporarily managing education, spoke up, "The people from Zheng Country shipped to Dongwan Island are already undergoing education and training. They will become junior technical workers and later contribute to paving roads and construction."

Though he was young, he was a representative of the academic community, one of the "three prodigies" on par with Yulin. Temporarily filling in as the head of an education department was well within his capabilities.

However, as Tang Mo's capable assistant, his primary work was still in the lab, dealing with various instruments and equipment.

"In fact, people are already making an impact. We've nearly scoured all the brickmakers from Zheng Country's coasts to Dongwan Island. There's just no helping it; the demand for construction materials is simply too great right now, and bricks are the trickiest part of it," Yulin, who was also focusing on Dongwan Island, contributed to the conversation.

She pushed the documents to Roger, "We've built factory buildings for 3000 large-scale factories on Dongwan Island. These buildings are basically constructed at the same time, using bricks everywhere, consuming cement..."
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After finishing, she glanced at Tang Mo, "The cultivation of farmland is going smoothly, whether they are from Zheng Country, Qi, Chu, or Dahua; wherever they go, they're excellent at farming."

"Now on Dongwan Island, the areas along the planned railway and road lines are mostly farmland. Cities and villages nearby have newly built factories and workshops, and we're working hard to provide every village with electricity," said Parker, who was an official capable of shouldering responsibilities on his own now.

He provided an update on Dongwan Island's power supply situation, "Four large-scale thermal power plants are nearly complete. The equipment has been delivered and is starting to be commissioned. Power supplies for Dongwan City and Fengshun City will soon be normalized, and the spare generators can then be deployed to rural areas."

"We've built a large textile factory in the suburbs of Dongwan City and recruited 4000 female workers. Daily necessities and clothing there are gradually becoming self-sufficient," he said, since industrial matters were somewhat related to him, and so were factory issues.

Dongwan Island was developing various types of factories for civilian products, diverse and varied; Parker had a lot of experience in this area, as did many of the workers on Dongwan Island.

From scratch, Great Tang Group had built Dragon Island, turning it into a new industrial base. Tasked with a similar job once again, they were experienced and efficient.

Indeed, building up Dongwan Island, with its population and slaves, was much simpler than constructing a city on the desolate Dragon Island.

"There's also some good news. Since the natives on Dongwan Island have always had a hard life, their dependency on salt and oil is much less than we estimated," he added, with the bitterness of poverty, "As a result, we saved some transport capacity, brought in more equipment, and sped up the production on the island."

Most of those seated had experienced hardship and poverty, so they naturally understood the living conditions of the poor.

They might not eat anything cooked with oil in a year, might not see a piece of meat for months, and might not have a spoonful of salt in seven or eight meals.

This is the life of the poor, the stark reality. It is precisely because of this that when these impoverished people saw new clothes, an adequate supply of food, and luxuries they dared not dream of, they felt genuine gratitude.

"Now the people there have grown accustomed to calling themselves Tang People, and their quality of life has indeed improved. We are figuring out ways to get everyone to learn cultural lessons, especially the local women who are married to our officers," Luff added.

These were real and inspiring changes, each one uplifting.

"Moreover, the local nobility, gentry, and merchants have completely compromised. Their productivity was too primitive and their economic competitiveness too low, so they have been utterly defeated by us," Luff said with disdain and a cold laugh when talking about the local elite, "Without economic support or military power, they are now weaker than during the Shenguo occupation."

"Their influence is also declining. In the past, they would use small favors to sway public opinion, but now, very few people are willing to follow their arrangements. In fact, after we executed some troublemakers as examples, the rest are more than willing to cooperate with us," he concluded before turning to Yulin.

Yulin continued the topic, "According to Dino's report, the local population has recovered to around 300,000, of which about 50,000 are immigrants from Zheng Country, and some are our support personnel. Of course, slaves don't count, these goblins are not planned to be replenished in our scheme...Also, we haven't included the military numbers."

"Although the progress is very gratifying, money is indeed being spent like water," Tang Mo nodded, affirming all the work being done.

"We began importing metals and grain from around the world. The spending is tremendous because this further raised the trade prices of these goods," he continued, "Simply put, we spent almost all of our income from the war against Shenguo without saving a penny."

"Even so, we had to dig into our pocket to cover some shortfalls." After saying this, he laughed at himself and spread his hands, "By this account, Dongwan Island is now more expensive than many kingdoms."

"It is indeed valuable! And it should be! In the near future, it will become another production base to support our next move!" After saying this, he did not wait for others to speak but continued.

Looking at the dockyard designs freshly brought back from Dongwan Island spread on the table, he addressed those present, "Imagine, more and larger dockyards there, building more ships, our production capacity will further increase, and soon we will offset the expenditures from maritime transport."

Having said what he wanted, Tang Mo leaned back in his chair and looked at his trusted aides, "Sounds good, doesn't it?"

"Let's hope everything goes smoothly," Roger said with a smile, and the others nodded in agreement.

"How's the delivery of airships going? We're selling ships too slowly, it's getting complaints about our production speed, and we can't have more problems with the airships," Tang Mo looked to Luff.

Luff immediately reported on the delivery of the airships, "All the Kirov Airships that have flown to Dongwan Island have been sold. Shenguo bought ten, and the remaining twenty will be ready to fly to Eternal Winter Port to deliver to the Dwarves once they're prepared."

Since airships were a secret weapon, always managed by the military, Tang Mo could only ask Luff about the delivery of airships.

Well-acquainted with his duties, Luff spoke without hesitation, continuing, "The airships stationed in Brunas will be delivered to Suthers, while those on Dragon Island were sold directly to Dorne and Nanla..."

"Then, as per your instructions, we've passed the relevant technology to Shireck. Sofia is very interested in airship technology," he said and then saw everyone present showing a faintly amused smile.

Well, after everyone became aware of the existence of airplanes, who would still care about airships? Handing this over to Shireck... that's a rather "big pit."

I wonder how long it will take for Shireck to fill this pit before stepping into the next big one?

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Today is a break, will continue with updates tomorrow depending on the situation.