Munitions Empire

Chapter 87: Going to give gifts

"In just a few minutes, you spt ,000 Gold Coins, boss. Don't you have anything to say?" Wes leaned on the carriage, watching Tang Mo emerge from the tavern, ready to climb into the carriage.

By Tang Mo's side followed the old man, Li'ao, the former leader of the Silver Fox Tavern, who was now Tang Mo's butler.

For Tang Mo, Roger was more than just a butler, so in a way, Li'ao might become the real "butler" in Tang Mo's residce in the future.

"At least from now on, wh you come here for a drink, you won't have to pay," Tang Mo said as he got into the carriage.

"Ha! That is indeed good news!" Wes closed the door of the carriage after Li'ao had climbed in.

Sitting in the rocking carriage, Li'ao looked at Tang Mo in front of him and curiously asked, "Ar't you worried that we'll betray you after taking the money?"

"Why?" Tang Mo sat in the carriage, looking at the old man Li'ao who raised the question, "Why would you betray me?"

"You run an intelligce network and naturally want to serve a worthy master," Tang Mo said before Li'ao could reply, continuing, "You are full of hope for the future, and I can offer you a future like no one else can!"

"You've se it, I have a fleet, new weapons… you also know, I have a private army, and I'm training more talt… I have more ambition than all the nobility and royal families you know or have heard of!

My future has the pottial to be vast, and as long as you follow and support me… I can walk more steadily, more firmly," Tang Mo finished, looking at Li'ao, waiting for his response, "So, why should I worry, a smart man would betray me?"

Li'ao knew that this was not just Tang Mo convincing him; there were other implications in his words. Tang Mo was showcasing his power and the trd of his future developmt.

In his eyes, as Tang Mo said, it was important to serve a goal that had good, rising prospects.

He had no reason to betray Tang Mo, who had the manpower whever he needed it, the means, the financial power, the developmtal trd, and was also a fellow convict.

In some respects, Tang Mo truly possessed advantages other nobles did not: he had advanced industries, his own military, a large fortune, and was willing to develop his intelligce network—few in the tire Leite Kingdom possessed so many qualities.

And there wasn't a single noble willing to spd a large sum of money to control the Silver Fox Tavern. The rich nobles looked down on these muddy-legged people, and the poor ones couldn't afford them…

"So, as you said, I will serve you loyally, never to betray!" Li'ao showed a smile, his wrinkles unfolding like blooming flowers.

"Choose some people to go to the fleet and keep an eye out for me… You wouldn't want the ships carrying your hopes and dreams to be secretly stol away, or sunk, would you?" Tang Mo ordered with a smile, leaning in the carriage.

"I understand, I will look for people to join your fleet," Li'ao promptly replied, "Eighty m! All have gone to sea before."

"Make it a hundred," Tang Mo said and th closed his eyes, showing full trust in Li'ao, the newly joined intelligce chief of the Great Tang Group.

The composition of Tang Mo's newly established "Navy" was indeed a bit complicated at the momt; in reality, his navy was composed of four differt parts that were not very familiar with each other.

The largest proportion within the Navy was made up of Elf naval slaves, who had just be emancipated by Tang Mo, gained their idtities and become freem, their loyalty was passable and they knew best how to navigate and sail.

Yes, Tang Mo did not plan to keep these sailors as slaves; he promised everyone that as long as they served on his ships for five years, they would attain civilian status, receive a settlemt fee, and leave.

If they chose to stay, they would become salaried, bona fide sailors after five years, no longer slaves, joying more equal treatmt.

This decision st the slaves into raptures, so at least superficially, their loyalty to Tang Mo was off the charts.

Another part consisted of new recruits Tang Mo had transferred; about a hundred or so were spread across elev armed merchant ships, responsible for command and learning naval combat. Although they didn't understand sea warfare, their loyalty was the highest.

The third part comprised recruited sailors with average loyalty; they needed no instruction in navigation or ship handling but numbered the fewest, only over sevty, hastily assembled by Tang Mo for emergcies.

The fourth part came from the Silver Fox Tavern, rectly brought under Tang Mo's control. They were responsible for internal information managemt and supervision within the Navy, and also served as agts planted by Tang Mo in his fleet to act as supervisors and maintain balance.

With such a complex composition, Tang Mo had little expectation for the combat effectivess of the fleet. He hoped that through training, he could quickly mature this fleet to handle pottial maritime transport and trade.

Although he didn't necessarily need to seize control of maritime transportation, he couldn't just sit at home waiting for other customers to come knocking on his door. If he had his own fleet, th selling his weapons to more distant regions of influce would certainly be much more convit.

With a substantial amount of money, Tang Mo evidtly started to throw his weight a financially. His first move was to gobble up the Silver Fox Tavern tirely with ,000 Gold Coins and 30 Revolvers.

The behind-the-sces boss of the Silver Fox Tavern, Li'ao, became another one of Tang Mo's stewards. The bartder who worked exclusively for Li'ao was still called a bartder, but now stationed at the Silver Fox Tavern, he became Tang Mo's dedicated head of intelligce.

Purchasing the Silver Fox Tavern for ,000 Gold Coins clearly offered great value for money; if it wer't for the fact that Tang Mo had struck up a connection with the Elves and had put together a fleet, Li'ao wouldn't have sold the Silver Fox Tavern to Tang Mo at such a cheap price.

It was esstially a half-sale gift, equating to an investmt. Both parties were full of expectations for this collaboration, so they quickly reached an agreemt.

Li'ao was interested in Tang Mo's future developmt trd, hoping that Tang Mo could fulfill his wish to erase his status as a criminal. In turn, Tang Mo urgtly needed Li'ao's intelligce network and took care of some of Li'ao's minor troubles as a courtesy.

Tang Mo was responsible for sustaining the Silver Fox Tavern and its underg intelligce network, while the Silver Fox Tavern provided Tang Mo with all kinds of intelligce. As each took what they needed, Tang Mo also established an intelligce network ctered in Brunas, radiating to the suring areas.

Having gained control of this vast intelligce network, Tang Mo quickly reaped the befits—the very next day, he got the information he wanted.

This information was about how to handle the first batch of 700 Shireck Flintlock Guns that Alice had brought him.

What? Upgrade these weapons? Don't be ridiculous, Tang Mo wouldn't ev consider such a thing. What he lacked now was time and production capacity, neither of which could be wasted on refurbishing these outdated Shireck Flintlock Guns.

If he had hundreds of idle workers, th, of course, upgrading these weapons to sell for money would be a better choice.

But nearly all of his workers were busy with important tasks: some were producing steam gines and railway tracks, others were making K Quick Guns and Revolvers, and still others were expanding his factory.

And the factories he had built with great effort were also occupied by a large number of machines, ready to produce ev more advanced equipmt.

He still owed Northern Ridge steam gines, owed them needle guns, owed them revolvers... he still had to build more workshops for weapon production in advance...

In such a situation, how could he possibly afford to waste precious production capacity on remodeling these Shireck Flintlock Guns? In his eyes, these were almost as good as garbage.

Where would he find the time to build a production line specifically for refurbishing these weapons? Th waste valuable workers on these meaningless tasks? He would rather have the workers improve their education, learning mathematics or other subjects...

Ev if Tang Mo spt money on upgrading these weapons to expand the production line of needle guns, he could earn a larger profit.

Besides, the cost of refurbishing flintlock guns is higher than one might expect. It would require cutting op the rear of the barrel and producing special parts to convert the rear d of the guns into a particular form.

Ev after such a makeover, these flintlock guns would be only just serviceable and would not be in the same league as the K Quick Gun. For Shireck, remodeling might be an option, but for Tang Mo, that option never existed.

Because Tang Mo knew that by the time the battle for Northern Ridge was over, these weapons could be less useful than firesticks; thrown by the roadside, no one would give them a second glance.

In Tang Mo's eyes, these weapons only needed to be preserved in small numbers, hung on the walls of a museum for posterity to admire and remember.

Therefore, he wanted to dispose of these weapons as quickly as possible to recover his funds, rather than waste time refurbishing them.

The outcome was actually quite simple, just as Tang Mo had anticipated—inside any decaying kingdom, amidst peaceful indolce, embezzling provisions and selling off stockpiled supplies are very common affairs.

The case in Brunas was no differt. The Sheriff here might have already sold almost all the City Defse Forces' weapons and equipmt purchased for the armory twty years ago.

And those nobles and officials didn't care the slightest about how many guns were left in the city's defse force of a small hinterland town.

As long as the commoners didn't dare revolt, as long as the City Defse Forces still had their Longswords to bully the weak and disabled, and as long as there were a few doz muskets for show, those lofty fools wouldn't care whether the armory was sufficitly stocked.

"It seems it's time to give gifts again," Tang Mo chuckled after receiving a message from a member of the City Defse Forces, looking at the trusted aides following him, "Come, let's prest the Solon Sheriff with a gerous gift!"