Munitions Empire

Within Flame Castle, in a luxurious hall, a woman with fiery red hair was shouting at a group of her subordinates.

Her voice was hoarse and strained, revealing her fear, her weakness, and a shred of unsettling despair.

The woman paced back and forth in front of her seat, her long, straight legs occasionally flashing from underneath her skirt, pale enough to make people drool.

In every aspect, she was a seductive beauty. It was just unfortunate that everyone knew she was way out of their league.

In the past, this woman was incredibly powerful, and even in distant lands, few dared to speak her name.

When people mentioned her in conversations, they would obscurely refer to her as "Her Excellency," but now, she was furiously powerless concerning her own safety.

Before the outbreak of the war, she had received a telegram from Chang'an. The sender of the telegram was a man whom many women would dream of offering themselves to.

A King under thirty years of age, a King with untold wealth, commanding the strongest military in the world! Perhaps soon, this man would become an Emperor before hitting thirty.

This man was different from other Emperors; he was in his twenties, not someone who merely inherited an empire.

If given the chance, she would still want to meet Tang Mo. She was quite curious about what he looked like, as it was said that his handsomeness made many women flock to him in droves.

It was just a pity that His Majesty, the King of Tang Country, was unwilling to be photographed… But I digress. His Majesty sent her a telegram during the outbreak of the war, a telegram filled with threatening implications.

The telegram was short, simply indicating that this time, they wouldn't let things slide easily. Although it didn't seem useful at the time, as the war progressed, that seemingly harmless threat began to loom over her like the Sword of Damocles.

Of course, she didn't know about the Sword of Damocles, but that didn't lessen her sense of empathy.

That's why there was a meeting today, similar to this one. The meeting's content wasn't substantial, and in Tang Country, such meetings could not even be called effective.

This type of meeting only involved continuous shouting by the person who convened it, with most people merely spectators, listeners who feigned deafness and had no sense of participation.

The woman paced around, walking back and forth while using her pleasant voice to vent her dissatisfaction, "They haven't even used those parachutists falling from the sky! Hundreds of planes haven't joined the fight! Those are not the junk we produced! They're genuine metal-skinned planes!"

She was dissatisfied with her subordinates' incompetence and the Shireck Consortium's overall poor performance throughout the war.

The Consortium used its influence to unite so many empires, yet all those empires failed to secure victory.

This truly exceeded Shireck's previous experience in stirring up trouble. In the past, if Shireck wanted to determine a country's fate, bribing a few Ministers might have done the trick.

At worst, as long as they really tapped into Shireck's influence, wars would erupt, and the outcome between a few kingdoms would be easily decided.

But now, the scale and the form of war had entirely surpassed Shireck's control. A war could no longer be decided by the life and death of just a few thousand people; the participating troops easily surpassed a million!

What determined the outcome of the war weren't even the troops on the front lines, but the smokestacks puffing in the rear, the vast farmlands that couldn't be seen at a glance, and the neon lights flickering in the streets and alleys!

When the annual revenue of one single street of debauchery exceeds the annual tax income of an entire kingdom, how could the scale of the war not become terrifying?

In the past, if launching a large-scale war involving thousands over a few thousand Gold Coins was considered logical, then now, mobilizing millions for the sake of a few billion Gold Coins... What's so surprising about that?

Watching the most influential Shireck figure pacing back and forth, one of the responsibles lowered their head and explained, "My lord, we understand, but the Dahua Empire has already put forth its best effort. To this day, hundreds of thousands are still struggling within the encirclement, and it's still uncertain whether Hidden Sword Gorge can be held."

The woman flicked her head, and her red hair bounced in response, "At this point, the Navy remains inactive! Dare you say you've done your best?"

A military advisor immediately stepped out, bowed, and continued to explain, "The joint Navy fleet is still hiding in the north of Shèng Country, which isn't a shipping route, so almost no ships pass through there! If the fleet acts rashly, then our only hope of turning the tables will be lost!"

To them, the woman standing before them was nothing more than a merchant, a wealthy outsider to the realm of power. She knew nothing and was merely venting her own emotions.

Yet she was the leader, this woman who knew nothing. She interrupted the explanation and continued to roar, "That is not a hope of turning the tables! War! This is war! A war we must win!"

"If we don't put in all our effort! Waiting to lose this war! Then Tang Country will rise! Tang Mo, that bastard, will destroy everything!" Sofia couldn't bear it, she truly couldn't bear to lose this fate-determining war without giving it her all.

But she wasn't the emperor of the world, and she couldn't make all the empires engaged in the war throw themselves into the conflict without reservation.

The fleets of battleships that were the pride of various empires absolutely would not execute Sofia's commands at any cost. Especially those orders where the outcome of victory or defeat was uncertain!

Before the advent of the submarine force of the Great Tang Kingdom, these battleships fitted with anti-aircraft guns and a large number of cruisers were bold enough to challenge the dragons and tigers of Dragon Island.

But now everyone was worried, concerned that Tang Country had deployed a large number of submarines at Dragon Island, and that the fleet would suffer heavy losses if it approached.

Who would dare to give such an order? Who would dare to carry out such an order? If these costly battleships were to sink... wouldn't the naval development that various nations had striven for over the last two years become a joke?

"My lord, if I may speak frankly, Tang Country has already risen!" A director sitting to the side sighed and inserted his comment at this moment.

These directors were not Sofia's subordinates; they stood with Sofia out of pressure or interest only.

Each director was once a terrifyingly wealthy force, but now they were increasingly finding, with desperation, that even if they, their fathers, and their ancestors were tied together, they could not match Tang Mo in the speed of amassing wealth.

In just a short decade, Tang Mo had gone from an unknown successor of a small blacksmith shop to a godly tycoon who built palaces out of gold...

What was despairing was that this rich bastard was now engaging in flipping the table: he was destroying the foundation of all nations, attempting to establish an entirely new social order!

Sofia slammed the table in frustration and emphasized to that director, "That's why we must destroy him! Kill Tang Mo! Ruin Tang Country! Only like this can the world continue to exist!"

"The northern plains of Chu Country have changed hands, and the southern oil fields of Dahua have also been occupied by Tang Country, intact. Although it's just a claim from Tang Country, the accurate news will soon come back," the military advisor reluctantly continued, standing by the map and explaining the situation on the battlefield for everyone.

Most of the people sitting here were actually merchants. They were skilled at bribery or selling weapons, but they didn't understand war, and they failed to grasp the changes that were happening.

They couldn't really be blamed, for in the past, they only needed to push things to the point of war, and the rest was no longer their concern.

They had their own specialties; their concerns were to whom they should sell arms, without a need to consider the question of who would win or lose.

After all, from their perspective, it didn't matter who won because the victor would also buy their weapons, so it was irrelevant.

But now things were different. There wasn't just the Shireck Consortium selling weapons in this world. What frightened and despaired them was that this new arms dealer seemed to have weaponry that was even more advanced than Shireck's.

"If everything Tang Country is declaring to the outside world is true, then the Dahua Empire has in fact already lost this war..." He said this while gesturing on the map.

After he finished speaking, it seemed that he noticed the unfriendly looks from the directors, including Sofia, so he added, "What we can hope for now is only the Qin Army, but whether they can withstand the attack from Tang Country is something no one knows."

"What I want is not to withstand Tang Country's attack! What I want is a counterattack! A counterattack! To take back the southern oil fields and win the victory in this war!" Hearing this advisor's words, Sofia got even more angry, raising her voice loudly as she scolded.

"Unlikely, Lady Sofia, very unlikely. More than ten war advisors in contact with us, including those who graduated from the Great Tang Military Academy, all believe that this war is already over," someone said helplessly.

On the other side, someone shook their head, "If we could have dispatched troops from Chu Country before its defeat to cut off Tang Army's incursion into the southern oil fields, there might have been a glimmer of hope for turning defeat into victory. But now Chu Country's northern plains are lost, and the bridgehead for the attack is in Tang Country's hands."

"Besides, Chu Country really doesn't have the ability to counterattack Tang Army. Although there are hundreds of thousands of troops in the south of Chu Country, these troops coming out of the mountains probably wouldn't be enough for Strauss to kill," the advisor standing by the map took the opportunity of the crowd to quickly voice his own opinion.

Hearing these words, Sofia became even more infuriated, clenching her teeth so firmly that rage seeped through them, "Strauss... Redman... Tagg... Why, why does Tang Country have so many famous generals? So many?"