Munitions Empire

Brunas, inside Tang Mo’s office, Li’ao was reporting the latest news from Dragon Island to him, "The enemy seems to be a battalion of troops, without heavy artillery; most of their naval warships have already been annihilated."

After interrogating several captives, Warship Brunas No. 4 had confirmed the scale of the enemy’s landing forces as well as the landing point. At this very moment, it was aggressively heading towards the beach where the Taren Kingdom’s pioneering troops had landed.

Tang Mo didn’t say a word. As he listened to Li’ao’s report, he weighed in his mind exactly how to handle the aftermath of this war.

Dealing with the war against the Taren Kingdom was simple. All his warships needed to do was to sail to the offshore waters of the Taren Kingdom. If the enemy had any sense, they would surely surrender.

No matter what he demanded, the enemy would kneel down and grudgingly accept it, for he was the king of the seas in this world, the supreme overlord of the Endless Sea.

He only needed to deploy half of the warships he controlled to make those nations, which boasted about their own powerful navies, cower in a corner, quaking with fear.

So, what he was now pondering was how to prevent such things from happening. The strategic position of Dragon Island didn’t even need to be mentioned. Tang Mo felt that the main reason for this crisis was still due to his insufficient control over Dragon Island.

The population on Dragon Island was too small for him to firmly control the entire island, which gave others the opportunity to exploit this weakness and also severely threatened his oil supply security.

Li’ao, who hadn’t waited for Tang Mo to start speaking, could only continue, "According to the intelligence provided, the commander of the Taren Kingdom’s forces is named Housen, a ruthless officer."

There was a clear indication of who owed the debt; they now knew that the person who shot and killed the patrol team captain was this fellow named Housen.

"Capture him, put him on trial, and then hang him... to avenge our fallen comrades," Tang Mo finally gave his directive.

Li’ao nodded slightly and then continued, "It’s uncertain how many soldiers the enemy left behind to guard their landing point, so it’s unlikely that their force is a full 500 men-strong. It probably only amounts to around 480."

The captives had spilled all the intelligence they knew without any hesitation. Having witnessed the power of the Great Tang Group’s warships, they had abandoned any hope of luck.

All they were thinking about now was how to quickly use their advantage of being captured first to get on good terms with these formidable adversaries, hoping to snag a job managing the captives or becoming an intermediary, thus avoiding hardship during their captivity.

"Brunas No. 4 has completely annihilated the enemy’s fleet and is now heading at full speed to their landing point. They have sent a message asking whether to take prisoners, including ships." Not waiting for Tang Mo to respond, Li’ao continued to inquire.

Tang Mo thought for a few seconds, then issued his command, "Tell them to be cautious, and under the condition that the warship suffers no damage, capture both the ships and the people! We need to start conserving, learning to be thrifty..."

"Understood," Li’ao once again nodded gently.

Then he carried on, "Reportedly, the Taren Kingdom’s landing point still has one warship and ten transport ships. They have brought approximately 500 craftsmen and around 700 immigrants."

Having just been thinking about the population issue on Dragon Island, Tang Mo didn’t hesitate this time and right away had a suggestion for the disposition of the craftsmen: "After capturing them, find them some work... but nothing too easy!"

Li’ao immediately replied, "It has already been taken care of. All captives will be organized and put to work building a sufficiently grand castle on the island for you."

"Are you kidding me?" Tang Mo was taken aback as he looked at Li’ao with an expression filled with disbelief.

"It’s everyone’s decision," Li’ao began to explain, "Although everyone thinks it should be kept secret, as your intelligence chief it is my duty to report everything I know to you."

"We’ve reached the point where we can squander manpower like this?" Tang Mo didn’t think it was wise to waste over a thousand laborers on such a thing during a time when manpower was in urgent demand.

Up until now, he had been living in the office building of the factory and merely occasionally visiting Brunas City; he didn’t even have a proper home of his own.

He had always utilized every penny to keep the Great Tang Group functioning at the highest speed possible, which was the secret to his present success.

Seeing Tang Mo somewhat displeased, Li’ao hastened to defend everyone’s decision, "Actually, we can’t truly trust these craftsmen, since they’re people from the Taren Kingdom. So, we can’t allow them access to our core secrets."

"Then the periphery...?" Tang Mo felt that it was still better to make proper use of these captives, having them do more important work in line with his own plans.

Li’ao smiled as he explained to Tang Mo, "The pioneering work on the periphery is hard to manage, and we fear they might escape... So we just decided to have them build the castle instead."

After all, overseeing a group of people working on a mountaintop compared to letting them work in the forest was a very different matter, requiring a notably different number of guards.

"..." Tang Mo fell silent, as he found the reasoning of Li’ao made sense, leaving him temporarily unable to rebut.

Even Tang Mo himself hadn’t noticed that, from start to finish, his and Li’ao’s discussion had centered on the matter of the more than a thousand captive craftsmen. As for those 500 soldiers, it seemed as if they had ceased to exist.

Li’ao then added, "Of course, they don’t know they are constructing a castle. We’ve only had them working on the outer walls. We feel that it’s safer if our own people handle the specifics of the interior work."

"..." Seeing his subordinate had thought everything through so thoroughly, Tang Mo didn’t know what to say.

When the subject came up, Li’ao seemed to have much to say, "We found inspiration in your sketches. In fact, we were planning to present it to you as a gift once the castle was fully completed."

"A gift?" Tang Mo was taken aback, then puzzled by the word.

"Yes, a present from all of us to you. All the executives of the Great Tang Group chipped in... so, it’s our gift to you. Thank you for your care all this time," Li’ao explained.

Tang Mo paused again, then he remembered a quick sketch he had drawn during a leisure moment, a sketch of Neuschwanstein Castle.

So, he roughly understood what his own castle must now look like, "Wait, you said you found inspiration in my drawings? You mean, that Neuschwanstein Castle?" Continue reading on m|v-l’e m,p| y- r

Li’ao nodded, then told Tang Mo that they had even settled on a name for his castle, "Yes, but... we all felt that the name ’Swan Castle’ didn’t sound quite right, so after a show of hands, we decided to name it... ’Dragon’s Den’..."

"..." Tang Mo suddenly felt as if a small mustache were sprouting below his nose... What was with this overwhelming sense of San Dezi? Should he also have something like a grand building, with something like a basement?

While he was internally critiquing the name of his own castle, the soldiers of the Great Tang Group’s security forces on Dragon Island had already chambered a round, readying their guns as they saw the enemy approaching.

The machine gunners worked the bolts, producing a pleasant clacking sound, then aimed their dark barrels at the gathering enemy forces in the distance.

Meanwhile, Housen had sent out scouting troops; seven or eight soldiers spread out, apparently attempting to probe the strength of the defenses, slowly creeping towards the Great Tang Group’s security forces and the factory behind them.

The next second, a sudden gunshot rang out, and the Ranger troops commenced an attack. A Taren soldier, advancing with his gun, fell as the shot sounded, and the others couldn’t help but instinctively shrink their necks.

Quickly, a second shot followed, and another Taren soldier, who had yet to locate the enemy, screamed and fell.

The remaining few soldiers hurriedly fled in disarray, stumbling back to their own lines.

Housen was uncertain whether the enemy was resorting to such tactics because they were outnumbered or to disrupt his attack plan with a sniper shot. But he also knew he had to act quickly; if he allowed the enemy to stabilize their position, the forces he brought might very well be insufficient.

Thus, he drew the sword from his waist, pointed it forward, and gave the loud command to attack, "Advance, all troops! Take this workshop!"

Following his command, the troops by his side began to move forward. Marching in step, they advanced across the charred black wasteland, accompanied by the somewhat frail sound of drums.

On the other side of the forest, a disheveled Sailor climbed to higher ground, stumbling, and saw his own troops advancing toward the front.

He sat down heavily, gasping for air. Desperately watching the distant forces, he knew it was all too late.

Because the attack had begun, and he could not deliver the news in time—that their Navy fleet had been utterly defeated—to the commanding officer Housen at the front.

Even if he now shouted at the top of his lungs, he might not be able to convey the message accurately to the allies on the battlefield.

So, all he could do was watch desperately as his own troops neared the distant building. Seconds later, he heard intense gunfire.

Amidst the gunshots, the fluttering brown and golden helm flag rapidly fell, and the soldiers marching in step fell like crops in a field, row by row, mowed down by an invisible scythe.

Instant chaos ensued, and the Sailor, who had finally found his way out of the forest, closed his eyes in despair.

At that same moment on the battlefield, Housen was completely petrified by the overwhelming power of the opponent. Standing there motionless, he let bullets fly past him, unable to utter a single word.

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