Munitions Empire

Although only a section of the dormitory had the experimental heating installed, these recruited workers and their families saw hope for life.

In the past, even in the Northern Ridge, their lives were dull, decadent, and hopeless. They never dared to dream that their days could get better and better, they just barely scraped by, living each day as it comes.

Now, they were ruthlessly exploited by Tang Mo, working over 12 hours a day on heavy tasks, yet they were surprised to find that their lives were filled with hope.

The small shops within Tang Mo's factory area were doing brisk business, where you could almost find anything that was sold in Brunas Market.

Even though the prices were slightly higher, they saved a considerable amount of time, which allowed them to enjoy their daily lives.

This could be clearly seen on the faces of the increasingly numerous pregnant women walking slowly along the small paths within the factory area, with big smiles on their faces.

For double income families working at Tang Mo's, their earnings in this era were already frighteningly high. Therefore, they did not mind raising their level of consumption a little, purchasing some necessities to improve their lives.

The woodworking workshop Tang Mo had previously set up for producing planks and gunstocks was still bustling with business. People placed orders here for furniture, and without affecting the production of firearms, it brought Tang Mo an additional income.

According to Tang Mo's own experience, capitalists of the twenty-first century would cry if they saw him now. He was almost like a slave owner, the kind who deserved to be overthrown by a revolution...

However, in this completely different world, he was seen as a good person by these workers, the kind who after death must have a divine position, be worshipped generation after generation, and could absorb the power of faith to become the world's main god.

In fact, the production workshop for sheet metal and pipes was not intended for the manufacturing of heating pipes; it was one of the supply workshops reserved for creating parts for steam train engines.

Nevertheless, people were still looking forward to it, waiting for Tang Mo to return to Brunas, bringing back the joys of victory, the promise of widespread heating, and more good news.

This was life, the life that a group of simple workers longed for.

"Tell me, how is the consolation work going for the few people who died in action?" Roger walked back to his desk, took a candy from the drawer, and handed it to Yulin.

The little girl, with her clean washed hands, took the candy and put it in her pocket, then said, "There aren't any children in my class who lost their fathers in action, but two have fathers who were injured."

Among the hunters who came from the Northern Ridge, not many had families. Some were bachelors, some had their families back in the Northern Ridge, and the number of casualties was already low, so the atmosphere of sorrow did not spread in the Great Tang Group.

On the contrary, nearly everyone was inspired by the joy of victory.

Yulin got a bit excited as she spoke about this, "I heard the distribution of the consolation money went very smoothly. The two children whose fathers were injured at home recently bought new shoes."

The private military of the Great Tang Group was well paid, which was an open secret. As long as one was willing to work for Master Tang Mo, the substantial benefits were well-known.

In regular training and drills, these private soldiers were getting subsidies like soft hands, and even more so during live hunts and combat exercises where they received double allowances.

They were full-time professionals with promotion opportunities; what made people even more envious was that they could also receive generous consolation money in case of injury or death.

Yes, envious of death! Human life wasn't worth much these days, and if one could exchange a wretched life for a substantial and assured consolation payment, many were actually willing.

"I heard each injured person got 10 Gold Coins... Without losing a single finger, they get 10 Gold Coins, they're overjoyed," said Yulin, still quite concerned about the Gold Coins coming from Tang Mo's pockets. She spoke as if the Gold Coins were her own.

Roger laughed heartily, lately the amount of Gold Coins that left his hands was simply too many, to the point that he became almost numb to it.

In the past, when he started a business with Tang Qi, he never dared to imagine that one day he would sit in an office and sign off on a 500 Gold Coin expense sheet without even looking up.

He was even on the cautious side, because over at Mathews' end, Tang Mo simply approved various experimental projects worth 7000 Gold Coins with a big wave of his hand.

In less than a year, who could have imagined the world changing this fast? Who could have imagined a war would break out so swiftly? Who could have imagined the war would end so quickly?

Who would have thought a small, inconspicuous harbor in Brunas would give birth to a Great Tang Group that surpassed any workshop in scale?

And who could have imagined that the new weapons produced by the group would beat an opponent using ten times as many Shireck Flintlock Guns?

Who would have thought that the Vicious Forest, once plagued by bandits, would gradually become peaceful, to the point where travelers didn't even want to hire guards anymore?

Who could have guessed that those Ranger mercenaries, having lost their guard work, now had new employment, carrying their Shireck Flintlock Guns and singing songs of victory as they returned to Northern Ridge from the southern part of Suthers?

Who would have thought that the first railway sleeper of the human world's first railroad had been laid down before the war had fully ended?

And who could have imagined that a madman was about to pave a road with steel, a road that would tightly unite the human world?

Who would have thought that Suthers Kingdom, the instigator of the war, would be utterly defeated, so much so that they were left in utter disarray in the southern part of their Kingdom, with the sound of Shireck Flintlock Guns everywhere?

And who could have imagined that this terrible chaos was inspired by a stale joke about killing a man and a movie full of surprises?

Who... could have imagined... that the ones leaving behind this mess were a non-existent Northern Ridge Troops, with mere three hundred in number.

It must be said that Leite Kingdom's year 113 was truly spectacular.

...

"Crash!" A brand-new glass was smashed onto the floor, making a crisp sound. The King of Leite Kingdom, Leite VII, had a pale face, unable to conceal his resentment.

The ministers standing before him also had ghastly expressions, as they had just received a piece of news that embarrassed them to the utmost.

Suthers Kingdom had refused to negotiate with Leite Kingdom, choosing instead to make Earl Ronin Fisallo of Northern Ridge the object of their negotiations.

This was almost like a unilateral recognition of Earl Fisallo's independent diplomatic rights, nearly amounting to an acknowledgment that Northern Ridge as an independent nation.

Although they knew it was likely a scheme by Suthers to sow discord, Leite Kingdom's upper and lower echelons were still intensely provoked by this contempt and mockery, sharply stinging their already fragile pride.

What they didn't know was that Suthers Kingdom had no choice in the matter, as the southern part of their nation was in complete turmoil, and if they did not negotiate with Tang Mo soon, there might not be a need to negotiate at all.

In such a scenario, the natural course of action was to first set conditions, make promises, then get that damned Tang Mo and his damned "Brunas Three Hundred Brave Warriors" to quickly get lost.

The compensation was given to Northern Ridge, and the cease-fire agreement was also signed with the front-line generals of Northern Ridge, why then go to Leite Kingdom for negotiations and pay an additional expense?

Suthers, which had gone crazy with poverty and had been reduced to tears by defeat, was finally showing the cunning and deceptiveness of a nation once again.

They directly handed over the war reparations to Earl Fisello, who, out of spite, remained silent about the matter.

There was no choice... he had to remain silent, because his beloved daughter had already spent the reparations, and he couldn't even share some of it with his own King, even if he wanted to.

Due to a series of unfortunate events, the upper echelons of Leite Kingdom had to come to terms with the fact that their previous calculations might have angered the master of Wolf City...

The problem now was... what to do?

The Northern Ridge Legion, which Suthers' tens of thousands of troops couldn't defeat and could only beg for peace, was right there; which deity from Leite Kingdom dared to provoke them?

Fighting was definitely out of the question; sending more troops to be slaughtered was something only fools would do. Thus, even though he had just smashed a glass to vent, Leite VII soon regained his composure.

He glanced at his subordinates, asking somewhat awkwardly, "So, now, what do we do?"

Under normal circumstances, the generals would stay silent, looking down at their shoes or up at the sky—this was customary, so no one expected them to come up with any earth-shattering insights.

In fact, everyone feared that, at this moment, some foolhardy young blood would stand up and shout some lunacy about being willing to die for His Majesty, making the atmosphere unbearably awkward.

So, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Leite Kingdom quickly stood up and responded to his master's query, "Your Majesty, at this time... we must still maintain restraint."

This was a very tactfully formulated response, which essentially amounted to saying nothing at all. A king who could ask what to do was obviously already exercising restraint.

The Prime Minister knew it was his turn to step forward, so he quickly joined in the performance, suggesting, "We can send an envoy to console Earl Ronin Fisallo and hear what he thinks."

This was more or less the opinion the King wanted to hear.