Munitions Empire

Dragon Island, where Tang Mo nodded in acknowledgement of his own thoughts during a small meeting with Nangong Hong and Roger, "I am indeed relocating the new industries deep into the heartland of the Kingdom."

"Compared to Brunas with almost no strategic depth and Jade City, Linshui and Tongcheng are obviously more suitable for increasing my investment," he did not hide, "Brunas is no longer a focus area for my business in the future, of this I am quite certain."

Roger was a little unhappy, for Brunas was once the core industrial zone of the Great Tang Group and also carried his most bitter and glorious memories.

Having always fought for Brunas, Roger had deep feelings for the place. He also regarded it as his foundation, as well as the foundation of the Great Tang Group.

Now that Tang Mo was giving up this foundation to shift the focal point to Dragon Island and places like Linshui, this made Roger very uncomfortable.

Today’s Roger was not only the Prime Minister but also represented the interests of many who had risen to wealth from Brunas with Tang Mo in the early days.

They were very worried that Tang Mo, after returning to Tang Country, was gradually abandoning the old system and relying on those black-eyed, black-haired fellow tribesmen who came later.

Tang Mo also knew Roger’s thoughts, and it wasn’t a time when he could feed himself without worrying about his family. Around him, a whole group of people had their own ideas.

On one side, Roger was deeply concerned about the future of Brunas, while on the other, Nangong Hong was feeling clear and refreshed.

In his eyes, as long as Tang Mo was willing to shift his focus, then he and the forces newly joined to the Great Tang Kingdom represented by him had hope.

"The strategic depth of Brunas is indeed a problem," Tang Mo explained to Roger, "There’s no more room for expansion there, so it’s unsafe to place important facilities there."

Although he now relied on the more talented Nangong Hong, it didn’t mean he trusted Nangong Hong. In fact, the people Tang Mo trusted most in his group were still the old folks brought out from Brunas.

Therefore, when making decisions unfavorable to Brunas, Tang Mo would explain his intentions to Roger to reassure him.

"The chaos within the trade alliance this time has exposed many problems. For example, our old friend Leines I clearly has some ideas of his own," Tang Mo pointed to his temple, "Obviously, he is considering breaking away from our influence."

"The Laines Empire is just a microcosm, actually Dorne, Suthers, these nations are all beginning to try to shake off our influence," Tang Mo said, spreading his hands helplessly, "When there was only Shireck before, they had no choice but to endure. Now that we’re here, they’re ready to hold onto their old lover Shireck to weaken our influence."

"Sounds infuriating, doesn’t it?" Tang Mo said, laughing himself, "But no matter, they can’t get rid of us so easily."

Tang Mo was confident about this; if anyone planned to make a move on Brunas, he would definitely receive news in advance. No matter how well they hid, they couldn’t escape his surveillance.

But Brunas’s strategic depth was really too small, with no room to maneuver. Therefore, Tang Mo couldn’t continue to invest in such a place.

Moreover, compared to his own territory, this place was after all just a "leased land," belonging to the Great Tang Group rather than the Great Tang Kingdom, so there were loopholes in the greater scheme of things.

There was no choice before, Tang Mo could only develop in Brunas. Now that he had his own territory and better options, Tang Mo certainly could not continue to yearn for Brunas.

So, looking at Roger, he voiced his own concerns, "The problem is, too deep an entanglement isn’t a good thing either. It’s possible that our ’old friends’ might inadvertently set their sights on us."

"Many countries have applied for loans from us," he said, lighting a cigarette for himself, "If they don’t want to repay the money, or even want to gain more benefits... Attacking Brunas seems to be a rather good choice for them."

The unexpected alliance between the Laines Empire and the Gobur Kingdom in this chaos was in itself like a warning bell for Tang Mo.

The nations surrounding Brunas had already begun attempts to break free from the control of the Great Tang Group.

For instance, Suthers attacked its neighbor to expand its territory, Dorne Kingdom declared war on Gobur, and the Laines Empire allied with Gobur—all of these actions had not been consulted with Tang Mo. R̃ÅŊꝊＢÊṨ

This uncontrollability forced Tang Mo to consider the safety of Brunas, so he took the opportunity to reduce his investment there.

After all, wherever the new equipment is placed, it might as well be in safer places like Linshui Port or Tongcheng.

After all, with Dongwan Port providing cover from outside and the vast inland as support, Linshui Port’s geographical advantage was clearly much better than Brunas.

Roger, now a smoker himself, saw Tang Mo light up a cigarette and knew he could follow suit, so he quickly lit one for himself.

"Then why don’t we strengthen the defenses around Brunas? Great Tang’s military is invincible; they couldn’t possibly break through our defense line!" Amidst a brief silence broken only by the crisp sound of a lighter, the questioning Roger, cigarette alight, asked in bewilderment.

"Because the strategic depth isn’t sufficient! If I assemble a large army to try to hold Brunas, the process of reinforcement would essentially be a threat to all neighboring countries! By amassing our troops on the border, everyone would see us as a threat," Tang Mo continued to explain.

Previously, Tang Mo had followed Nangong Hong’s advice and expanded westward, taking into account the dissolution of hostilities from neighboring powers. Great Tang Group was too large, too threatening, easily arousing the suspicion of surrounding forces.

If Great Tang Kingdom now sends troops to the territories under Great Tang Group’s control unabashedly, it would be like removing the fig leaf and blatantly mixing the seemingly separate Great Tang Group and Great Tang Kingdom again.

This would be unfavorable for both Great Tang Group and Great Tang Kingdom, and it wasn’t certain to bring any advantage.

Worried that Roger might not grasp this, Tang Mo further explained to him, "Of course, we could disregard what others think and arrange our defense line on our own. But in reality, because of the distance, our defense line is too close to Jade City itself!"

"Just using heavy artillery, the enemy could threaten the industrial zone of Jade City. If they break through our defense line, we would have no chance to reorganize," Tang Mo stated, cigarette in hand, spreading his hands in resignation.

Roger seemed reluctant to give up on Brunas, a bustling city that had been built up. He wanted to continue the fight: "But no one will break through our defense line..."

"War will be prolonged! Prime Minister! By then we will have to keep funneling troops continuously into the trenches for attrition, which is clearly not what we want to see," Nangong Hong interjected, unable to watch any longer, and continued explaining on behalf of Tang Mo.

He somewhat despised Roger’s stubbornness and felt Roger was far inferior to himself in talent. However, Roger was Tang Mo’s confidant, seemingly irreplaceable in his position.

So even though he somewhat scorned Roger, he still patiently tried to convince him.

Tang Mo added, "Moreover, war would shatter our industrial investments and the loss of factories would directly affect our war potential, weakening our production capacity."

"You know how many new weapons we have..." Roger still believed that with Great Tang Group’s advanced weaponry, defending Brunas shouldn’t be a big problem.

However, Tang Mo was somewhat embarrassed because it was the very advanced weaponry he had developed that completely reduced the strategic depth between Jade City and Brunas to negligible.

If it were just the infantry, the distance between Jade City and Brunas could be considered very vast, and the strategic depth ample.

But then Tang Mo introduced tanks, train guns, automobiles, and airborne dirigibles and airplanes, which suddenly made the strategic depth between Jade City and Brunas a joke.

Therefore, Tang Mo could only continue with a resigned explanation, "Yes, I am aware of that. It is precisely because we foresaw the nature of future warfare that we put more emphasis on strategic depth. Without sufficient strategic depth, the enemy’s bombers could potentially obliterate us overnight."

Roger also knew that Great Tang Group couldn’t indefinitely refrain from selling airplanes as weapons. Once everyone had airplanes, the distance between Jade City and Brunas would indeed be trivial. Find your next adventure on

The range of airplanes taking off from within the Laines Empire would completely cover Brunas. For a Brunas littered with industrial zones, there really wasn’t much time to react.

Only to hear Tang Mo continue at this point, "Our anti-aircraft guns can intercept the enemy’s dirigibles, but what if the enemy had airplanes? Would we have enough time to respond then? In an hour, maybe two, the enemy’s airplanes could reach Brunas. By that time, would our factories still be safe?"

Seeing Roger not responding, Tang Mo further questioned him, "Even if we know the enemy’s airplanes are about to strike, do we have time to launch our own airplanes for interception?"

"This..." Roger, in fact, had understood Tang Mo’s reasoning, but his hesitance stemmed from his emotional attachment to Brunas.

Seeing Roger wavering, Tang Mo reminded him, "Roger, we are now the rulers of a nation; we should see issues from the perspective of the entire country, not let our emotions for Brunas blind us."

"Your Grace, I understand," at last, Roger conceded to Tang Mo’s choices, bowing his head and suppressing his personal emotions for Brunas: "I will depart for Chang’an at once!"

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