Munitions Empire

"Chin up... a little higher, thank you," a man dressed in a formal suit, holding a palette in one hand and a brush in the other, squinted as he looked at the young man standing before him and spoke respectfully.

Tang Mo slightly raised his head, maintaining that proud posture, as if looking down upon all living beings. One hand was in his pocket, the other on his waist, displaying a contemptuous air.

He was having his first portrait painted in this world, and the artist at work was the most famous realist portrait painter from Dorne Kingdom. His works often sold for hundreds of Gold Coins each.

The painting that the artist was most proud of was titled Samantha, an imaginary portrait of a queen from the Elf Race.

Now, that painting hung in Tang Mo's collection room, and Tang Mo had driven its price up to 1000 Gold Coins.

Indeed, at an auction, the general manager of the Great Tang Entertainment Group, John, under Tang Mo's orders, and with the help of some "plants," bid the painting up to an unimaginatively high and shocking price. Exclusive tales from m v lem|p-yr

Now, the artist who had created the world's most expensive painting had his first task: to paint a portrait of Tang Mo.

The depiction of Tang Mo in the painting was very lifelike, and there was even a bit of beautification involved—though Tang Mo was already very handsome, he now looked even more brilliant.

"Master." Li'ao held a telegram in his hand, pushed open the room's door, and, paying no mind to the painter, went straight to Tang Mo, reporting, "A telegram from Xidos."

"Hmm?" Tang Mo did not change his pose, using only his voice to express his curiosity.

Xidos had just set up its telegraph service, and in that area, Great Tang Group had few serious businesses outside of brothels, gambling houses, and taverns. Normally, one would not expect anyone there to send a telegram.

Moreover, Li'ao had personally delivered the telegram, which made it seem like an extremely important piece of intelligence.

Li'ao directly explained, "The message is from Poplar Kingdom, and it is addressed to you, Master."

"For me?" Tang Mo was momentarily startled, then he signaled to the painter to pause his work and turned to Li'ao, commanding, "They spent 50 Gold Coins for the delivery?"

"Yes!" Li'ao replied with an odd expression.

When Tang Mo had initially set that fee, he had no intention of anyone actually sending him telegrams. He priced it exorbitantly to deter people from idly troubling him with telegrams after having had their fill.

Now, the telegraph system had not been operating long, yet many had already paid handsomely to send telegrams to Tang Mo.

These people included, but were not limited to, His Majesty the King of Leite Kingdom, the grand nobility in the southern part of the Kingdom, the ministers of Dorne Kingdom, the Prime Minister of Suthers Kingdom... and of course, the one who sent the most was a certain Lady Earl from Northern Ridge.

She treated the telegram service as if it were WeChat—such caprice. But after all, her telegrams were free, and not all telegrams were presented to Tang Mo.

After all, Tang Mo now had many affairs to deal with, and he certainly did not have the time to exchange messages with a girl.

Tang Mo reached out, and Li'ao handed over the telegram, which Tang Mo began to read. At the same time, Li'ao turned to the renowned painter standing before the canvas. Feeling Li'ao's gaze, the painter immediately bowed subtly in acknowledgment and then bowed out of the room.

This was the price he paid for becoming the most valuable painter in the world; after all, he had the power to choose, and he had chosen his current path.

Tang Mo ignored the painter's departure and looked down at the telegram: "Dear Mr. Tang, we hope you will immediately cease acts of war. A delegation from Poplar Kingdom will arrive at Brunas for talks as soon as possible. Please respond urgently upon receipt, many thanks."

Having read this long string of text, Tang Mo's face was covered in a smile: "Wow! That must have cost a pretty penny to send, huh?"

The content of the telegram was interesting; each word seemed laden with significance.

Firstly, the opening three words, "Dear Mr. Tang," suggested a respectful tone. The sender omitted their own name but pointedly did not delete the polite address, indicating a certain attitude.

The rest of the telegram spoke of serious matters. Tang Mo was too lazy to analyze it word by word—after all, Poplar Kingdom was not worth it.

"According to my calculations, this telegram should have incurred a fee of 100 Gold Coins. Messages to be delivered directly to the intelligence department are quite valuable," Li'ao chimed in after hearing Tang Mo's praise.

Tang Mo handed the telegram back to Li'ao and commanded, "Since it's so valuable, let's not let their money go to waste."

"What do you mean?" Li'ao was taken aback, awaiting Tang Mo's next order.

"Send a response to the Xidos telegraph office, tell them... I await with great anticipation in Brunas!" Tang Mo twisted his neck around, then turned to Wes who had been leaning against the wall in silence, "What do you think? Did he paint me handsomely?"

"I truly don't understand. Haven't you already... created a decent... what's it called? Right, a camera! Haven't you already made a camera?

Why go through the trouble of having a portrait painted?" Wes failed to comprehend Tang Mo's perplexing actions.

The Great Tang Group had produced a camera just a few weeks ago; although it was black-and-white, the device was indeed thrilling.

For the first time, it captured people's appearances, recording a moment in a way that seemed almost eternal.

The Great Tang Group used this modern method of recording to produce identification cards for all high-level members of the Great Tang Group, and soon similar identity cards would be issued to the workers as well.

With this thing, the management of the factory can be improved, many potential infiltrations can be prevented, and in short, it is a very effective management tool.

Of course, because production capacity has not increased and photographic film cannot be mass produced yet, this thing is still in a strictly confidential stage.

Now, most of the Great Tang Group's production capacity is piled up at the shipyard, with the remaining capacity mostly placed in the manufacture of automobiles, trains, and railway tracks, while less is put into the manufacture of firearms.

However, armament is still its main business, it's just that these "weapons" are no longer limited to guns and ammunition, but also include the people who use guns and ammunition.

The most renowned aspect of the Great Tang Group now is not some sort of messy K1 or K2K3 rifles, but the talent from the Tang Military Academy.

These talents are truly the treasures of the nation's rise. Everyone who knows the foundation of the Tang Military Academy longs to obtain a graduate.

It is known that the Dorne Kingdom rose in the southern part of the continent and became one of the members of the Triple Alliance simply by obtaining one of its trainees.

Similarly, the Leite Kingdom, having obtained dozens of academy graduates, now has a national power that has surpassed Dorne and Suthers, which were originally on par with it, becoming the strongest presence in the Triple Alliance.

Of course, no one knows whether the young man who led the tax reform in the Suthers Kingdom was a graduate from the Tang Military Academy, but rumors say he comes from the Leite Kingdom, and it's highly likely he's a graduate from the academy.

On the other hand, he also outputs culture and art frantically. In the future, these will be the sharpest, most terrifying, and most formidable weapons, capable of destroying the enemy without bloodshed and completely occupying those invisible territories.

"I understand! Then I will take my leave." Seeing that Tang Mo didn't intend to dwell on the telegrams sent by the envoys from the Poplar Kingdom, Li'ao prepared to exit the room.

"Send a telegram to Brunas 2 and 3, tell them to return to base," Tang Mo looked at Li'ao and continued to issue the command.

After pondering for a moment, Li'ao asked a question, "So, is the action against the Poplar Kingdom..."

"Only on hold," Tang Mo clarified directly, "After all, they have almost depleted their supplies, so send Brunas 4 and 5 to Southwater to take over the tasks from 2 and 3."

"Understood! Your instructions are clear!" Li'ao, having grasped Tang Mo's intent, bowed slightly and then turned to head towards the door.

Tang Mo meant to give a respite to the Southwater Port of Poplar Kingdom's special envoy during the transition of the ships, to save the envoy's face a bit.

He was only interested in money and had no intention of completely annihilating the Poplar Kingdom, so there was no need to be thoroughly ruthless.

As long as they realized the gap in weaponry and paid their debt of 14 million Gold Coins honestly, everything else would be easy to settle, right?

"Painting is art! Do you understand art? Photography is merely capturing images," Tang Mo felt that elevating photography to the artistic heights of painting was not an easy feat. He was now making up for his lack of noble heritage; how could he not have a portrait of himself at home?

Though he didn't plan to be as cliche as those so-called gentlemen and nobles, there were still things he truly liked. For instance, fine wine, paintings, yachts, and luxury cars.

After all, he wasn't averse to things from his past life in the West; he just despised those spiteful and arrogant peers from the West.

"I don't understand art." Wes snorted disdainfully, with a look of contempt.

Tang Mo burst into hearty laughter: "Neither do I."

Once he finished laughing, he gave instructions to Wes, "Invite the master in! I still have time; let him continue painting for a while."

"Oh, by the way," as Wes was halfway out, Tang Mo seemed to remember something and asked, "How's your driving practice going?"

"No problem at all, I'm very talented," Wes boasted, "I really like your... what's it called?"

"Rolls-Royce!" Tang Mo, unwilling to bother with naming, directly applied the name of a famous car from his past life to his own vehicle, calling it Rolls-Royce.

"Rolls-Royce! That's right! Rolls-Royce! I really like that car! It's big, and it looks so cool to drive!" Wes laughed as he mimicked the action of turning a steering wheel to Tang Mo.

Then he turned back, opened the door, and gestured for the waiting painter to enter and continue his... creation.

The painter nodded gratefully to Wes and then nervously began a new round of... artistic work.