Munitions Empire

The other was an old man with a head of white hair, a beard, long facial hair, and a face covered with wrinkles.

He was hunched over, leaning on a cane that looked quite ordinary, followed by a burly man, whom Wes had told Tang Mo was known as the bartender.

Due to his frailty and hunched back, the old man seemed to be about the same height as Mathews; however, the two old men had a completely different presence.

Dwarf Mathews was strong. Though short, his build was broadly solid. But the old man before him just seemed to exude a sense of pure and straightforward frailty—the kind you'd associate with someone in their twilight years.

An old man isn't anything unusual, but what was special about this old man was that he was somebody just like Tang Mo, with a pair of black eyes—the same kind of person as he was.

He saw the surprise in Tang Mo's eyes and with a smile said, "Really, I didn't expect that Tang Qi's child would grow up so much in the blink of an eye."

The man next to him, who acted like a bodyguard, helped him walk over to Tang Mo. The old man sized up Tang Mo from head to toe.

"What's the matter? Curious? Curious how a sinner ends up here, becoming the head of the Silver Fox Tavern?" The old man brought up the topic Tang Mo was interested in but offered no explanation.

The old man simply gestured with his hand toward the factory buildings behind Tang Mo and asked, "Won't you invite me inside to sit down?"

Tang Mo was seeing another "Chinese person" for the first time in this world, so it took him a moment to adjust his emotions.

He smiled, made a welcoming gesture, and chuckled as he replied, "Of course, please come in! I have yet to ask for the gentleman's name."

"Hahaha! This old man is named Li'ao," the white-haired, bearded old man laughed as he said, "I'm also a sinner, nothing much to speak of, just running a tavern in Brunas."

Tang Mo actually knew that the ocean next to Brunas was named the Endless Sea, and naturally, there were many countries on the other side of this sea.

And sinners were those exiled by an ancient kingdom on the other side of the Endless Sea.

These sinners, having committed crimes in that kingdom, were thus exiled and became homeless wanderers.

Most sinners were directly cast away on an island, left to fend for themselves, which is why many would try everything to escape the islands, fleeing to other countries to scrape by.

The mortality rate of sinners was extremely high, with over ninety percent dying from hunger and cold. Only a few survived the escape and ended up in other places, such as the Leite Kingdom.

In this world, it was only the sinners who had names in a pattern familiar to Tang Mo, and such names weren't particularly strange even in a country like Leite Kingdom.

After all, there were dwarves here, as well as the occasional elf or orc passing through; names, surnames, even appearances, no matter how odd, didn't attract too much attention.

"Mr. Li'ao has come to see me, do you have some business?" After the initial surprise, Tang Mo began to seek regaining the initiative of the meeting. He did not want to be led by the nose by an old man and end up conceding the dominance of the cooperation.

The old man named Li'ao had a smile on his face, glancing at the noise in the nearby factory and, answering a question with a question, he mused, "Tang Qi's workshop has grown so big under your hands, really... Quite impressive."

"Um... You didn't come here just for a tour, did you?" Tang Mo led the way to his own office and invited the two men in.

The office was clearly well-kept; the messy blueprints on Tang Mo's desk had been organized and put away, leaving only some of Aunt Cui Xi's specialty dishes on the table.

Two bottles of newly purchased beer were placed upright on the table, clearly showing the modest standards of the evening meal.

Clearly, Li'ao, who had followed Tang Mo into the room, didn't mind the less than thorough hospitality.

He waved his hand with a chuckle and said to Tang Mo, "Of course not, I'm here for cooperation. I find you, young man, quite interesting, and at least, I think your actions are very good."

"If we're talking about cooperation, what does the elder think we can cooperate on?" Tang Mo walked back to his chair, plopped down into it, and assumed a comfortable position.

Just before he went out to welcome the old man and his group, he had inspected his factory; he was so busy he almost forgot about the dinner engagement.

A brand-new workshop had been put into operation, with hundreds of workers starting work there. Tang Mo's factory had begun mass-producing paper-encased cartridges, and the supply of ammunition to Northern Ridge was no longer a concern, at least for the moment.

"You could pay me a sum of money each month, and I would provide you with many... the kind of news you're interested in. Whatever kind, as long as you find it interesting," the old man named Li'ao pointed to himself as he spoke.

The bartender beside him pulled out a chair for him, and then stood behind the old man Li'ao.

Although Tang Mo seemed to be developing rapidly at the moment, he was actually so poor he might as well use poverty as pants—even though Northern Ridge was very satisfied with his steam equipment, the goods he could get in the short term would probably be limited to the various items abundantly produced by Northern Ridge.

Some were food, the supplies stockpiled by Northern Ridge, intentionally depressed in price; others were ores mined from Northern Ridge, the quantities of which were only set to increase!

Regrettably, while both commodities were valuable, they really weren't shiny coins, the Gold Coins coveted by all.

Therefore, Tang Mo had no choice but to momentarily forget about Gold Coins, and changed the subject, "That sounds great, but, old sir... did you come here just to do a trade? If that's the case, there's no need for you to come personally, I could simply have Wes pay for the information at your tavern."

Negotiations were his forte. It was all about blustering and finding a way to bring the other party into his rhythm; that was victory, wasn't it?

"You're right, my personal visit isn't just to clinch a deal. As you know, information in the hands of someone who understands its importance is truly valuable. I'm here to verify if you are such a person..." The old man remained even-tempered as he explained to Tang Mo.

Tang Mo, seeing that the other party had sidestepped the Gold Coin transaction for now, quickly agreed, "Actually, I place a high value on all kinds of information."

He pointed at himself and began boasting with the airs of a go-between: "However, I am a businessman, an honest businessman involved in producing and selling products; I don't have much time to pay attention to some very important information."

"Then, let us provide you with this service, as long as you can afford the corresponding price," Li'ao steered the topic back to the matter of price.

He couldn't help it; while he had other considerations, his professional habit made him more concerned about the profit aspect.

Tang Mo declared with apparent magnanimity, as though he had abundant funds: "I've said it before, it's a good proposal, and as long as the compensation is suitable, I have no issue with it."

"So, how much do you plan to offer?" Li'ao asked eagerly upon hearing Tang Mo speak like this.

Upon the question from Li'ao, Tang Mo began his performance: "In fact, remuneration can be divided into many aspects, can't it? It might be beneficial for both you and me if we avoid using Gold Coins."

"We lack for nothing..." Li'ao furrowed his brow, unsure what Tang Mo planned to pay with.

"Don't be so sure; the things I can provide might enable you to work much more efficiently in many situations," Tang Mo boasted.

In fact, he did have many things that organizations concerned with intelligence gathering would adore: the telegraph machine was one of them!

Tang Mo was currently working on his own power generation system, and once operational, it would light up many paths on the technology tree.

One aspect was technologies like electroplating, and the other was the corresponding application of radio waves. Given that the blueprints and technology were all complete with Tang Mo, he would soon be able to produce wireless radio equipment.

With such a device, the speed of information transmission would increase exponentially. When information became timely, it also became more valuable.

Unfortunately, Tang Mo's telegraph was still in the database of the supercomputer in his mind; he hadn't even managed to produce a light bulb yet, let alone a wireless telegraph.

Therefore, Tang Mo had no way to use the telegraph to bamboozle Li'ao in front of him; he had to think of something else.

In the blink of an eye, Tang Mo had already brainstormed a whole mess of things, like telegraph tampers, C4 explosives, and more, but he couldn't produce any of them at present.

He surely couldn't act like an insurance salesman, brandishing a few PPT charts and start boldly envisioning the future, could he?

Across the table, the old man Li'ao wasn't much interested in Tang Mo's ideas but politely voiced his curiosity: "Oh?"

"You see, we are producing new weapons, better than the ones provided by Shireck Consortium," Tang Mo was ready to bring out the Revolver, his "flagship product" currently in hand.

However, Li'ao seemed uninterested: "Although we sometimes need weapons, most of the time, we're just gathering intelligence and don't require so many weapons..."

"What about food?" Tang Mo asked again.

"What do we need food for? To distribute as rations to our informants?" Li'ao frowned.

"I also have salt, backpacks made of leather... even pots and pans, kitchen knives... shovels and bayonets..." Tang Mo rattled off a list of his Consortium's products in one breath.

Li'ao's expression turned incredibly vivid: "Are you joking? What use do you think I have for this jumble of items? To hand them out as benefits to my subordinates?"

Tang Mo feigned shock in response, "What's wrong with that? Isn't improving employee benefits something you should consider?"