Munitions Empire

Chapter 29: Step 29 towards the future

In the past few days, Tang Mo had been contemplating and was ready to start the real production. He estimated that at this rate, he would arrange manpower in a few days to start making gun stocks and barrels with the dried wood—dragging it on indefinitely didn't fit his style.

He also took the time to accumulate some blueprints, planning to set up new machinery directly after the factory was built in the future.

Meanwhile, he was preparing to have Roger train the factory's own security while placing a large order for materials at Brunas Port. Once the next amount of money from Lord Earl arrived, he could deliver the goods directly to Lord Earl!

Thanks to Tang Mo's efforts, the whole workshop had already changed a lot—the largest warehouse in the factory had been transformed into a chemical plant.

The ventilation here was not very good, so Tang Mo had some workers breaking walls to make several windows for this warehouse.

There was no choice; he didn't have ventilation equipment— and even if he did, he couldn't afford to install it, and if he could afford it, there was no electricity... after all, he could only honestly use the most primitive methods to barely meet the requirements or standards.

Next to this warehouse was a passageway. After all, a warehouse must be fireproof and also theft-proof. Therefore, around this large warehouse, there were actually roads designed to stop the spread of possible fires and also to provide some theft protection.

On the other side of the road was another warehouse. This one was smaller and had thicker walls; it was originally used for storing gunpowder and other dangerous goods.

Now, this place had been emptied out and converted into a laboratory that Tang Mo used himself as his own personal space. It was usually locked, and only Tang Mo had the key.

Beside it still lay another passageway, with a water room on one side containing a well, a water tank for storage, and some large buckets for firefighting.

This area was filled with wooden barrels for water, and the ground was built higher to make it easier to transport water for extinguishing fires in case the gunpowder store caught fire.

Tang Mo walked through, passing the water room, to reach another two warehouses that were separated by only one wall and were not deliberately isolated. Their structures were wooden and clearly not meant for storing valuable goods.

Previously, these warehouses stored wood, leather, and other miscellaneous items from the workshop. But now, Tang Mo had transformed them into a school!

Now, all the goods were cleared out and moved to some newly built wooden huts with poorer quality further away. Those were barely cobbled-together buildings, almost useless except for storing miscellaneous items.

The hastily constructed wooden huts barely differed from pavilions; they were open on all sides, making them unfit for living, and once they were filled with junk, they resembled houses more.

At this moment, the space was neatly arranged with makeshift tables and benches, making it look like a rudimentary meeting room.

To fit as many tables and chairs as possible, the tables were obviously narrowed, and the chairs did not even bother with backrests. Most of the furniture that the workshop was producing was in demand here.

All in all, everything here was simple, so simple that this so-called school didn't yet have a teacher.

Nevertheless, Tang Mo had already started planning to recruit new students and get the school operating as soon as possible. He couldn't wait, for he needed many more people who could understand him, and whom he could utilize!

Tang Mo couldn't help but mock himself internally about how many capable students he would be able to recruit and continued walking forward.

In the corner was the most leisurely place in the entire weapon workshop—the shooting range, or rather, the weapon testing field.

From a distance, Tang Mo saw Wes with a revolver, repeatedly drawing the handgun from the holster on his waist and pretending to fire.

Standing to one side was Tagg, looking enviously at Wes practicing, without even wearing the flintlock pistol he hardly ever kept away from his side.

"I've seen the newcomers," Wes greeted with a smile and holstered his pistol as he saw Tang Mo approaching.

"How are they?" Tang Mo asked Wes directly, smiling back.

"Not bad," Wes replied. "I am your guard; I don't care about other things. It's good to have them around; it means I can relax a bit."

He always claimed to be Tang Mo's guard, seemingly having defined his own role. But Tang Mo felt that if there were better choices, he certainly wouldn't keep such a mysterious person by his side.

"I'm already making the second revolver; it should be ready in a few days," Tang Mo said, looking at Tagg, trying to console the poor child who had missed out on the toy.

After all, Tang Mo had begun producing smokeless gunpowder, and he was already having a few apprentices handcraft the world's first true "Left-Wheel Handgun" that used metal-cased cartridges.

With this kind of gun, he would have the first modern firearm in the world and would therefore have a complete and uncatchable overwhelming advantage over the old weaponry.

Once his men began to equip themselves with these small, rapid-fire handguns that could be quickly reloaded, opponents armed with flintlock guns would be completely unable to defend against them.

However, given Tang Mo's current resources, he was incapable of mass-producing such weapons—he lacked sufficient copper to produce the cartridge cases, and he did not have enough chemical reagents to produce smokeless powder.

All he could do was produce and equip on a small scale, incapable of withstanding the consumption of war, let alone rapidly replenishing supplies.

However, in small-scale local conflicts, these new weapons were already enough to establish an advantage for Tang Mo. What he now sought was not to equip troops en masse, but to arm himself first!

After exchanging a few idle words with Tagg and Wes, Tang Mo went on to inspect his domain. The workshop was his home, and he cherished everything in it dearly.

As he returned to the bustling factory along the path, he caught sight of Mathews's short but sturdy figure.

The second steam engine started to work, making the only factory in operation even noisier. The noise was already so loud that anyone wanting to speak had to shout at the top of their lungs.

The flywheels of the two steam engines rotated ceaselessly, filling the entire factory with energy. Mathews stood beside a rapidly spinning lathe, polishing an irregular part.

With this perpetual power source, polishing became an incredibly simple task. Mathews quickly finished a part in his hands, set it aside, and twisted his neck.

Then he saw Tang Mo standing beside him and broke into a wide smile, "This thing is just so useful, I'm liking it here more and more."

"You'll like it here even more." Tang Mo, thinking of the several drawings he had sketched in his rare moments of leisure, smilingly said to the old dwarf, "The matters of the school have recently gotten on track, so when you have time, you could go and teach the kids how to operate machinery."

"No problem, but for apprentices, it's better if the children are over ten years old. Younger ones lack concentration, and teaching them would be a waste of time," Mathews reminded Tang Mo.

"It's okay, just teach them. I can't send the younger ones out, so they'll have to listen to the lectures together," Tang Mo casually remarked, shaking his head without agreeing with Mathews's suggestion.

He was indeed desperate for talent and turned away no one. He was even willing to train girls because he knew that in the industries of the future, female workers and managers could play a very important role.

Lacking talent, he was unwilling to pass up any possibility. Since he could not immediately increase the number of personnel, using women in the same roles as men was clearly a good strategy for rapid expansion.

Mathews didn't argue and agreed with Tang Mo, "Alright! Since you insist, I have no objections."

"Also, I have some more work for you... to make some parts for me... I have a use for them," Tang Mo casually added as he was leaving.

"No problem." Mathews's eyes lit up, and he immediately agreed.

...

Soon, a strange storm began to brew within Tang's Weapons Workshop. A worker, while polishing a part in his hand, asked his colleague, "Did you hear? Our workshop has started a school for the kids..."

The colleague, without putting down his work or looking up, replied, "Of course I heard. I also heard that they haven't found a teacher yet, and temporarily it's our boss and a few old master craftsmen teaching..."

"That's not bad, sending the kids to learn some skills is good. Better than doing nothing at home," the inquiring worker blew on the part in his hand to remove the iron filings, and continued to ruminate.

He had a son who was just 13, the perfect age to learn, and sending him here to learn some skills for free was a great option.

The colleague who kept his head down tossed the polished trigger into a box of finished products and stretched out, "Yeah, who would have thought...our boss is even willing to teach kids stuff, it's really..."

"Exactly, and I heard it's for free... I wonder if that's true or not..." Another worker joined the conversation, visibly excited.

He had two children at home, both of whom were very bright. If they could learn something, they might well have a worry-free future.

In those times, it was rare to find a boss willing to provide benefits to his workers, let alone a lunatic like Tang Mo who was ready to provide education to all of his employees' children.

Upon hearing this news, almost all the workers became excited. They spread the word and began to figure out how to bring their children over.

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