Munitions Empire

At the same time, Tang Mo also planned to build a small cement plant there to produce cement locally—provided that the raw materials could be found on the island.

Roger's good news was indeed plentiful. On one hand, he had confirmed that Black Dragon Island indeed had oil, and according to the geologists he took along, the reserves should be substantial.

In addition, the scouts from the troops Roger brought along made a rudimentary exploration of the island. Within a single day, they did not reach the other end of the island.

This proved that the island was actually very large, almost large enough to support tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. They also found some large animals on the island, which further proved the island's ample size.

The vast forests on the island provided an abundant source of timber for logging, and the mountains on the other side could supply stone resources.

Plus, with oil production on the island, it could be said to be a very, very valuable treasure land. Had it not been for the seasonal monsoons making navigation difficult, other countries might have developed it long ago.

While checking the island, the Rangers also discovered traces of activities from other countries. They found surveying poles at the peaks of the mountains, along with some discarded rags and broken bottles and the like.

Roger was not in a hurry to expand on the island. According to the plan given by Tang Mo, he steadily expanded the base there.

On one hand, he worked hard to build a port in hopes of linking the island with Brunas in the future, facilitating transportation.

On the other hand, he was also desperately constructing a defensive system around their landing site. He ordered his troops to establish defensive positions on the nearby high ground, deploying his only three companies around the base.

When exploring the island, he only sent a few dozen Rangers to operate separately, and he strictly ordered them not to fire on suspicious targets first. Should they encounter other races or the forces of other countries operating there, they were to return immediately and report their findings.

Under his command, the Rangers did not explore the entire island openly. Instead, they methodically searched regions they suspected to be inhabited.

Eventually, after Roger's repeated verifications, the security troops of the Great Tang Group exterminated a group of pirates on the island, wiping out more than 200 pirates and rescuing seven or eight women who had just been brought to the island.

Unfortunately, in the end only three of those women survived; the rest found opportunities to commit suicide or died of depression.

Meanwhile, as Tang Mo's factory produced the first batch of fertilizers, ready to be transported to Northern Ridge for agricultural experiments, Bernard returned to Brunas with the fleet.

His return brought not only the fleet back but also brought oil from Black Dragon Island to Tang Mo! This excited Tang Mo tremendously, and with these resources, he could continue his "inventions and creations."

Therefore, these days, he had been cooped up in the basement, not showing his face for days on end.

As time went on, the Brunas-Northern Ridge railway and the trains of the Great Tang Group thoroughly enamoured the surrounding nations.

Wealthy individuals even traveled thousands of miles to Brunas just to see the trains for themselves and to experience firsthand what it felt like to ride the magical trains described by the traveling bards.

They all felt their journey was worthwhile—they brought their experiences back to their countries, and also gave the monarchs of these countries a new tool to consolidate their rule!

People flocked to Tang Mo to talk business, all wanting one of two things: either the firearms and cannons of the Great Tang Group or Tang Mo's railroad tracks and trains.

However, in this world, there were no patent laws, and even if there were, they certainly wouldn't prevent the determined from copying and imitating.

So, as Tang Mo developed Black Dragon Island, almost all of the old products of the Great Tang Group were replicated or replaced.

Orders for Great Tang Group's K1 Quick Guns began to decline because outside the Leite Kingdom, Shireck's pinfire guns were cheaper and production was gradually increasing. Coupled with Shireck's terrifying influence, these kingdoms naturally gave priority to purchasing Shireck's pinfire guns.

Similarly, with the introduction of primers and percussion caps, it wasn't impossible to replicate grenades, so Tang Mo's C64 field guns also began to have imitations.

Shireck had no shame. They desperately replicated every military product of Tang Mo, even producing them with the same caliber standards specified by Tang Mo.

Therefore, driven by the technological competition between Shireck and the Great Tang Group, the surrounding kingdoms gradually began to rearm with new weapons.

Suthers Kingdom purchased 10,000 of Great Tang Group's K1 pinfire guns, Dorne Kingdom purchased 7,000 K1 pinfire guns, and Leite Kingdom, along with Northern Ridge, together replaced their arsenals with 7,500 Great Tang K1 pinfire guns and 4,500 Great Tang K3 rifles.

Beyond these three nations, Poplar Kingdom purchased 15,000 various pinfire rifles from the Augustin Family, and other Shireck-controlled countries also reequipped with over 40,000 pinfire rifles in total.

Meanwhile, new breechloading cannons like the C64 started becoming popular, and coupled with new types of grenades, the firepower of artillery finally began to move beyond that of rifles.

But these massive behemoths, often weighing a ton, weren't something everyone could afford to play with, so they became toys for the great powers as soon as they appeared.

The Leite Kingdom, from top to bottom, only purchased 70 C64 retractable field artillery pieces, and that includes the cannons used on the fortifications of King City.

Despite successful tax reforms, the Suthers Kingdom, severely weakened, was only able to scrape together enough funds to purchase 60 cannons.

Even so, they were only able to muster such numbers with gritted teeth and the support of the Great Tang Group, as they were determined to expand northwards.

In contrast, the armaments of Northern Ridge were frighteningly abundant—nowadays, all three of its legions have been re-equipped with C80 retractable howitzers, boasting an astonishing 120mm caliber, which made them immensely more powerful than any nearby forces.

After all, in this era, caliber is justice, and artillery is truth… Northern Ridge truly epitomized a comrade where justice and truth coexisted.

As the times develop and weapons progress, those countries that acquired better weapons are also starting to get restless, preparing to launch their expansion plans into the surrounding less advanced regions.

And those relatively backward regions, unwilling to be left behind, began seeking out sources of new weapons and starting their own procurement plans.

A new arms race had begun, and before the arms buildup escalated, some countries had already reaped the benefits.

The Northern Ridge of the Leite Kingdom won the war, securing territories south of the Crystal River and a hefty indemnity.

Relying on new weaponry, the Poplar Kingdom also captured the victory in the Battle of Senna, annexing almost all the territory of its neighboring country.

Stimulated by such successful cases, the countries that were slow to catch on began to go into a frenzy.

They started pouring more Gold Coins into the arms procurement craze, not knowing who would have the last laugh.

Interestingly enough, besides weaponry, Shireck also crazily began to imitate on the railway front, which wasn't too technologically sophisticated.

They first developed two types of locomotives, whose performance was truly dreadful, but because of Shireck's wealth, these substandard, poor-performing trains were almost given away to those countries eager to invest in railway development.

Ironically, when Shireck set their railway standards, they followed Tang Mo's railway standards to the letter—they didn't even have the courage to change the standards.

That's because nearly all their customers had one criterion: if Shireck couldn't ensure their trains perform better than those of the Great Tang Group, then the railway gauge standards must ensure compatibility!

Thus, in order to secure project investments, Shireck had to begrudgingly accept this requirement, pinching their noses.

Ultimately, even Shireck had to admit that Tang Mo's train designs were the most rational and efficient. All of their previous experimental train designs were essentially rubbish and entirely obsolete.

With no other choice, Shireck had to return to the old path of copying the Great Tang Group. With their immense capital and no need to pay patent fees, they were utterly unscrupulous.

These unscrupulous merchants eventually launched a train model that was almost identical to the Great Tang Group's locomotives and named it the Shireck Type 2 train.

However, almost everyone knew that in terms of both quality and performance, Shireck's trains were no match for the Great Tang Group's—Shireck's quality was about two-thirds of the latter, and its malfunction rate was consistently high.

Of course, this would be a tale for another time. Now, if one wanted to buy a locomotive, there were only two choices: go to the Great Tang Group for the best locomotives or go to Shireck for experimental junk...

Regardless, the Great Tang Group's influence in the surrounding Kingdoms was growing day by day. Many Kingdoms had also begun to get accustomed to hedging their bets between the Great Tang Group and the Shireck Corporation.

While Tang Mo might accept such fence-sitting, Shireck would definitely not see it as a good thing. It indicated that Shireck's influence within these Kingdoms was waning, while the Great Tang Group's influence within these Kingdoms was sharply rising.

This rise was irreversible, and so the losses for Shireck were tangible. However, their losses were not too apparent, for when it came to military procurement, these countries still chose Shireck, after all, Shireck's name was a formidable brand on this continent.

But Shireck's losses weren't just that—they had to discard the production of their most abundant product, the flintlock weapon technology, consigning it to the rubbish heap.

They also had to deal with the workers who had been replaced by steam engines, which was another substantial financial burden...

So, for the past six months, the Shireck Consortium had a very hard time, a very uncomfortable time...

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Dragon Spirit is taking a day off, so just two updates for today. Slow catch-up updates will start tomorrow... feeling too uncomfortable, sorry.