Munitions Empire

Citizens of the Tang Country like to call themselves Tang People. They love their country and also deeply adore their King, His Majesty Tang Mo, who brought them hope. When they heard that there were countries urging their deeply beloved King to proclaim himself Emperor, they were overjoyed and immediately stirred into excitement. Lately, the most frequent topic of discussion among workers and farmers has been the matter of their King proclaiming himself Emperor. Every one of them was excited, and many felt that living within the borders of the Great Tang Empire would surely be happier than living in the Tang Kingdom. Plane technology sales went very smoothly, bringing enormous wealth to the country. For a time, the Tang Kingdom seemed to have endless food, inexhaustible steel, and countless slaves. It wasn't just goblin slaves; many countries used slaves to make up the numbers, offsetting part of the payment for purchasing planes. That was a hundred million Gold Coins! If they were paid in gold, few countries could afford to fork out that much money all at once. Even if they could afford the sum, not every monarch would be willing to pay it. The cost of capturing slaves was very low. Just snatch up some displaced people and bankrupt freeholders, pin a crime on them, and that would be much cheaper than mining. As for Gold Coins, well — spending money would be out of the monarch's own pocket, but capturing slaves was practically a cost-free transaction for them. It was obvious which option offered more profit. So, in the recent few months, countless slaves from various countries were sent to the Tang Country, including many dwarves and elves. Goblins were still the majority, with a total of 400,000 goblin slaves sent to Linshui, then distributed across the Tang Country, to be used up as expendables. Even providing these goblin slaves with decent water and food, their mortality rate remained astonishingly high. Just around three months had passed, and the first batch of goblin slaves that arrived at Tongcheng were nearly all dead. Goblins did not see humans as people, and Tang People didn't see goblins as people either. The hatred between the two peoples had reached an irreconcilable point. The docks of Beiyuan City were filled with goblins treated like livestock, undertaking the most grueling physical labor, using their lives to rebuild the city they had destroyed. After such a long period of construction, the Beiyuan City, once full of rubble and ruins, had changed its appearance, its streets gradually becoming level, with some areas beginning to return to normal. The ones responsible for managing these goblin slaves were the elf and dwarf slaves, who reported directly to the Tang People. Only by relentlessly exploiting the goblins' labor could they maintain their own positions. In a sense, the rich and advanced Tang Kingdom was actually barbaric to an appalling degree: slavery still existed here, it was a slave society, heavily using slaves without concern for their well-being... Or perhaps, from a humanitarian standpoint, Tang Mo was no good either; he cruelly exploited those other than the Tang People to develop his country. Batches of gold were sent to the Tang Country, disembarking at Linshui, loaded onto trains and then escorted by the military to Chang'an. As the Tang Country continued to develop, storing gold in Dragon Island had obviously become less convenient. Thus Chang'an became the new gold reserve base, and a new financial center was being established. It seemed that cities like Brunas would no longer appear because Brunas was a special case. At the time, Tang Mo didn't have many places to develop, so everything had to be crammed into one city like Brunas. Now, Tang Mo had a vast country, so he didn't need to fit all functions into one city anymore. Therefore, even though Linshui was a city with a very excellent geographical environment, Tang Mo had no intention of making it the second Brunas. The financial functions of Brunas were placed in Chang'an by Tang Mo; Brunas's entertainment attribute was dispersed to many different cities. Similarly, the industrial attributes of Brunas were located in Tongcheng and Linshui and were also spread to Dragon Harbor and Dongwan. Linshui and Dongwan, along with Dragon Harbor, became extremely busy, with countless ships delivering various ores produced in the Eastern Continent to these ports. Sailboats were almost phased out by various countries; now, the white sails that could still be seen in the ports were almost all fishing boats setting sail to sea. All nations were building a large number of modern transport ships, both wooden and steel, but generally, they began to use steam power. These steamships improved the shipping efficiency of the Endless Sea route and also led to a qualitative leap in ship design for each country. Major nations with shipbuilding experience began to build their own navies, although they also purchased battleship blueprints from the Tang Country, using them as references to design their own flagship warships. Inside the port of Dragon Harbor, a transport ship laden with personnel docked at the pier, and the gangway was slowly lowered as a group of young people curiously inspected the huge cranes and the heaps of cargo filling the port, one after another descending from the vessel. They were so curious about everything here, because they had never seen such a bustling and massive harbor before. In the distance, the lines of oil pipelines cutting through the hills made the entire harbor look filled with a unique steampunk vibe. "This place really is so bustling!" one young person excitedly slapped his companion's back, urging him to look at the two brand-new Dongwan-class battleships docked at the Dragon Harbor pier. These two battleships had begun construction before the outbreak of the Tang-Chi war, and had not been able to participate, eventually being launched after the war had ended. From any angle, the performance indicators of these two warships actually could no longer be considered advanced, and it was estimated they would soon be sold, possibly to the Poplar Kingdom or the Dorne Empire. "Look, look at that battleship! It's so big!" young people exclaimed excitedly, attracted by the Dongwan-class battleships, pointing at the turret covered with tarpaulins and clicking their tongues in admiration. "Hey! Hey! Quick! Look over there! In the sky! In the sky!" another young person shouted as if he had discovered a new continent, his volume peaking once again. All the young people looked up, towards the sky. There, two B-17 Flying Fortress Bombers returning from patrol were lowering their altitude, preparing to land at the military airport near Dragon City. "Are we here to learn how to fly these? That's great..." They watched the two planes soaring in the sky, their eyes filled with envious gazes. Indeed, they were the pilots meticulously selected by the Shireck Consortium, brought to Dragon Island for training. They were to complete three months of learning here and then take the flying skills back to Shireck. This was part of the service, charged separately. Every pilot sent to Dragon Island for training required a substantial additional payment; although Shireck was troubled by the cost, they had to pay. Soon, the enormity and prosperity of Dragon City conquered these young men who came to learn airplane piloting skills. Sitting in the truck that had come to pick them up, they observed everything on the streets along the way: actually, they also had a secret mission, which was to record everything on Dragon Island and bring it back to Shireck. On the streets, one could see cyclists everywhere, and so many cars on the road that they couldn't speed up, with congested traffic and honking sounds everywhere. The shops lined the streets, their floor-to-ceiling glass windows showcasing mannequins dressed in fashionable attire. While the commerce here was not as prosperous as Brunas once was, it was still much better than other cities. Because the people here had high incomes, various entertainment venues could be seen on the streets. There were movie theaters and nightclubs, naturally including casinos and nightclubs, with the neon lights flickering even during the day. Just one look at these streets, and one knew Dragon City was not lacking electricity; those newly risen cities wouldn't dare to squander such precious energy! And when they arrived outside the city and saw the densely packed chimneys like a forest, they knew the level of industrialization on Dragon Island was quite high. Just one breath of the choking air was enough to guess that production was ongoing every day here, with a capacity so great it was frightening. By the time the truck, full of these young people learning to fly, arrived at the airport in the middle of the island, these young men finally witnessed what it meant to be rich and powerful. Single-seater biplanes were parked in a long row beside the runway, easily numbering in the hundreds. One must know Each of these finished aircraft, when sold to other countries, was incredibly expensive. Upon entering the airport gate, everyone saw the warning signs for "Attention: Landmines" planted on the adjacent open ground, and they also observed the carcasses of wild rabbits electrocuted on the barbed-wire fence. Then, the truck slowly stopped, and these rookies from Shireck, who had come from afar, met their instructors. At dinner time, they saw dwarves and elves who came to learn how to fly, and they also saw classmates from the Laines Empire and the Dorne Empire. The Great Tang Kingdom was fair to all, and after seeing the exquisite food in the canteen, these new Shireck pilots actually felt a little bit of value-for-money happiness. At least, the food here was worth the exorbitant tuition fees they had paid... After that, the nightmare for these future pilots began. They thought they would be able to touch the airplanes the next day, but what awaited them was endless running and various experiments to withstand dizziness. Although each one had been carefully selected, within three days, half were eliminated! The remaining half now understood why they had to eat so well; if they didn't eat and sleep well, they would have been tormented to death by the training curricula within three days. They also finally understood why they often saw various kinds vomit on the roadside of the base.