Munitions Empire

On an afternoon that was not particularly bright, with dark clouds rolling in the sky outside, Tang Mo turned on the desk lamp and felt the intense heat radiating from the light bulb.

Under the light, he unfolded the third letter that Roger had sent back from Black Dragon Island, wearing a faint smile on his face. He liked such peaceful afternoons, enjoyed looking down at the familiar handwriting, witnessing joy leap onto the paper.

Tang Mo,

I have received the register and medals you mailed. I never dreamed that I, such an inconsequential old man, could one day become a baron of the Leite Kingdom.

As you said, a title is indeed something you can obtain if you truly desire it... I was excited for several days. Really, I suddenly wanted to visit my mother’s grave to tell her about her son becoming a baron.

But I know there are more important things for me to do. I must help you look after this island, this island brimming with riches!

Honestly, now that I am a baron, I think you should seriously consider your own title.

In fact, a viscount doesn’t suit you at all; you should be the fourth earl of the Leite Kingdom, to become genuine nobility!

You are the most energetic and far-sighted young person I’ve ever met. Your investment in Black Dragon Island will definitely become the most profitable one.

Now, we have built a small town here. The workers love the process of creating a new homeland from scratch.

Frankly speaking, living in this paradise-like place, carefree and untroubled, as if the rest of the world doesn’t concern us at all, is a joy.

The rangers have discovered the island’s third coastline. This island is truly huge, astonishingly so.

To call this island a continent wouldn’t be an exaggeration—it’s unknown exactly how wide it is from east to west, but it spans at least 190 kilometers from north to south.

And according to our explorations, the east-west length of the island is at least 210 kilometers, if not more.

There are mountains and rivers on the island, and many animals. We’ve found tigers here, and some beautiful birds, too.

We can now produce tools and equipment on our own, and the women have even cultivated about 30 acres of arable land next to the town.

If we include the seemingly endless fruit and game on the island, we could even achieve short-term self-sufficiency in food...

However, according to your plans, the population here will grow larger, so we won’t stop our efforts to store food.

We have built a granary in the town and developed a livestock farming base. The pigs and sheep brought from Brunas adapted well to life here, and the hens are laying eggs smoothly.

Each morning, when I open my eyes and the windows of my room, I can see our sailboats cruising on the far sea.

This place is simply paradise, Tang Mo. You should come here, to be the master of this little island.

We’ve reinforced the docks with concrete, and you might not believe it, but the size of the docks here is now comparable to those in Brunas.

Because we have plenty of concrete, and even more timber and stone. There’s a decent supply of stone here, enough to last us a while at least.

We use the explosives we brought to quarry stone, and then build the docks in this natural harbor. Now, our docks can even accommodate ironclad warships, and we have found another larger and better port location nearby.

It’s not far from here and could even be connected to this place to develop together. But we cannot afford to divide our workforce currently, so we can only develop this initial port for now.

As you instructed, we’ve given this place a new name, called Dragon City, and it is now entirely yours.

Dragon City now has five factories: one for stone production, another for machinery and machine tools, one for maintaining steam engines, another for refining oil, and the last one for making munitions.

They are located in the four corners of the town, managed by specialized personnel. I often visit those places to check on the construction progress, and things are going well.

We can now produce our own bricks and use them to build houses. Many houses here are made of stone and brick, which is good against the wind.

We don’t know how cold the winters are here, but judging from the vegetation, it seems likely to be similar to Brunas.

Just to be safe, I hope you can send some cotton clothing, stoves, and some thicker tents, in case we run into problems during the winter.

We have managed to refine a bit of oil according to your requirements, and the product is precisely as you specified.

Although I know this stuff can burn intensely, I still can’t figure out its larger uses.

But since you think it’s useful, I’ll make sure to expand the factory here until it meets your needs.

The population here has already exceeded 6,000 people, feeding so many is indeed not an easy task.

If it weren’t for you dispatching dozens of students from the school to help, I really wouldn’t have been able to manage such a town.

It wasn’t until I got to work that I found out, coordinating a small town and getting it functioning isn’t an easy thing at all.

Even though you had already organized the division of labor before I arrived, putting it into practice still had me a bit flustered.

Fortunately, you left Luff here. That really was a huge help to me. He’s in charge of the military, security, and training work here, which really gives me great peace of mind.

The troops here have also been expanded somewhat, with a total military strength now reaching 6 companies and two battalions. Although we still only have one battalion’s worth of heavy artillery, the other battalion as mountain light infantry is actually already capable of basic combat.

We’ve stockpiled at least two base numbers of bullets. While that’s not enough to face a war, it does offer some assurance for basic self-defense.

Moreover, our security can actually be guaranteed, after all, there’s an ironclad warship stationed on the sea surface—our invincible guarantee!

Despite having the support of an ironclad warship, the most worrying thing about living on the island is still the war that might erupt at any moment.

This is still no man’s land; we’ve only found some surveying marks. We haven’t seen other humans in our explorations, so we can’t judge if someone will come back.

If suddenly a country takes an interest in this island, I think it’s possible that they would go to war with us for such a vast territory.

Even by the smallest estimates, this place is a bit larger than the entire Northern Ridge. No one would give up such an island lightly, so I believe that war will ultimately break out.

Not someone else’s war, but our own!

Our war with one or several unknown powers! I think we should be prepared for this! I don’t think we should let others snatch away this beautiful place from our hands for nothing.

Even if someday we are left with nothing but this island, it would have been worth it. So, I, Roger, am willing to fight for this island!

For this, I hope you too will prepare for battle, expand the military, and at least we should deploy 3,000 troops on this island! And we should cultivate a large area of farmland here, as well as build at least dozens of factories!

Of course, these are just my personal thoughts; maybe you have a better plan. In any case, I’ll follow your lead.

How’s that little witch Yulin doing? Is she still acting like she’s the strongest in the school? Hahaha... Just thinking about it makes me happy.

Dino seems to be a kid of few words, but he definitely admires you the most; you can tell just by the way he looks at you, he literally sees you as his father.

Oh, and isn’t Galsa’s father also on Black Dragon Island? He was bragging about his son to me just yesterday, and his pride made me a little jealous, hahaha.

If you write back, please pass on a few words to Galsa’s dad too; it will make him even happier. You know, when he’s happy, he does a lot more work every day.

Are those new recruits still proving useful? I actually really miss working by your side.

This will be the last time I address you by your name, as after all, the Great Tang Group can only have one voice, it has only one master, and you, Tang Mo, are its only master.

So, please accept my loyalty, let me be your subordinate. Even though I am your father’s partner, my contributions simply don’t match everything you’ve created.

Do not make it difficult for me, just let me sincerely call you my master, you... or I should say, Your Honor, your dull but loyal subordinate, Roger.

Respectfully,

Clutching the letter in his hand, Tang Mo’s smile deepened a bit. He looked over Roger’s handwriting again and then placed the letter on the table.

His uncle, who was not really his uncle, sure was a lovely person. He picked up the pen, thought for a long time, but wrote nothing.

The development plan for Black Dragon Island is going very smoothly; he has already obtained several dozen barrels of gasoline, and if he needed, he could also get diesel and other petroleum products.

Regardless, he can now make himself a small car, flashy and fast... an extremely, extremely cool... little car.

There are just too many things that don’t exist in this world. When will he be able to get himself a smartphone? It would be so much more convenient then...

With these thoughts, Tang Mo once again picked up the pen and wrote a line of powerful characters on the paper: "Dear Uncle Roger..."

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Owe everyone two more chapters

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