Munitions Empire

What does it feel like to be frustrated? Fitteral felt extremely, extremely frustrated! He had truly become afraid now, afraid of seeing Harry's young face.

Honestly speaking, he was much handsomer than Harry; after all, Tang Mo selected his managers for their talent, not their looks.

But every time Fitteral saw Harry, he was deeply stung by the self-confidence that radiated from the other's face. The gods had granted him a face to surpass Harry's, yet bestowed upon Harry an intelligence that surpassed his...

For a man in his forties, to be suppressed by an opponent younger than himself, it was a truly terrible feeling.

He felt insulted, or rather, the intelligence of the entire upper echelons of the Poplar Kingdom had been insulted... Who would send their negotiation bottom line to the opponent and then forward it to the negotiation representative?

As a result, the Poplar Kingdom did not just do that, but they did it brazenly and as a matter of course. He was now holding this telegram, bargaining with Harry, who already knew everything.

"You can't be so shameless! After knowing our bottom line, you refuse to give an inch, how can we still negotiate?" Fitteral shouted to Harry, filled with sorrow and anger.

He could no longer contain his emotions, because after the other party knew his bottom line, they were truly unyielding, even showing signs of wanting more.

Osa, as a military harbor, had excellent port conditions, but its location obviously was not as good as the civilian port, Nanshui. Therefore, as an economic port, it was not as valuable as Nanshui, nor did it have as good development prospects.

However, because Osa Port is located to the north of Nanshui, it is closer to the Orc territories, so it's not completely devoid of value.

Firstly, if relations with the Orc race could be established, Osa Port could serve as an outpost for contact with Orcs, and then its strategic value would definitely surpass that of Nanshui.

Moreover, if Tang Mo helped the Orc prince reclaim his Gales Kingdom, then Osa Port might not be so isolated.

Thus, the Great Tang Group did not struggle with the issue of whether or not to take Osa Port; the dispute lay in—how much exactly was Osa Port worth?

Fitteral insisted that territory was priceless, and ceding Osa should at least be compensated with over 12 million Gold Coins.

Harry's side, on the other hand, believed that as a military harbor, Osa had low economic value, and development required further investment, so it was not worth that much money, at most worth 3 million Gold Coins.

The two sides were deadlocked on this issue, each believing that the other was being unreasonable. However, it was quite obvious that the Poplar Kingdom, having already waited another five days, was the more anxious party.

They had already seen the envoy from the Songmu Kingdom in Brunas, and if the Songmu Kingdom were to reach an agreement with the Great Tang Group first, then the problem would become quite serious.

Therefore, Fitteral decided to take a step back, lowering the total value of Osa Port from the estimated 12 million Gold Coins to 10 million Gold Coins.

This step back was a concession of 2 million Gold Coins, and he had never thought that he could be so generous… To decide the fate of 2 million Gold Coins in a casual conversation, was truly a grand gesture.

Then, as if to mock him, Harry's side also conceded 2 million Gold Coins, directly offering a price of 4 million Gold Coins for Osa.

It seemed that everyone had reached a basic understanding—you give some, I give some, and a middle price of 7 million Gold Coins seemed quite fair.

After all, there was an eager envoy from the Songmu Kingdom waiting in the wings, and his own bottom line had been made crystal clear to the adversary.

So Fitteral finally gave up the struggle, resigned to his fate. The end result was that the Poplar Kingdom accepted all of Great Tang Group's demands.

The permanent sovereignty over Osa Port was priced at 7 million Gold Coins, including the 70,000 Elf inhabitants within the region and the subsequent obligation to supplement with 150,000 Orc slaves.

The nearby gold, copper, and iron mines, along with fields, mountains, and roads, all fell under the ownership of the Great Tang Group. The specific borders had been marked on the map by both parties and were not to be changed.

These mines were valued at 4 million Gold Coins and also belonged to Tang Mo. The remaining 3 million Gold Coins, of which 2.5 million would be compensated with timber, grain, livestock, slaves, silver, furs, textiles, and other resources.

Last, the Poplar Kingdom would directly repay 500,000 Gold Coins to the Great Tang Group, a debt to be paid off over two years.

In regards to the loss incurred when the Great Tang Group's Ironclad Warships bombarded Nanshui Osa, sinking dozens of warships from the Poplar Kingdom, cutting off the supply lines, and sinking hundreds of transport ships, the debt was written off, with neither party allowed to use this incident as a pretext for any future actions.

Similarly, Fitteral also secured some benefits for the Poplar Kingdom, such as the option to directly pay 300,000 Gold Coins to purchase 5 sets of telegraph equipment. Although the price was slightly higher than what other countries were paying, they were provided with immediate delivery.

What they did not know was that the telegraph machines required relatively few materials to build and had a short production cycle, so the Great Tang Group was able to offer nearly all of them from available stock.

Then, the Poplar Kingdom retained the priority purchasing rights for equipment, including lighting and electricity. They received written permission from the Great Tang Group, allowing them to continue producing and selling the K1 needle rifle.

Under the premise of not invading the Songmu Kingdom, the Great Tang Group also promised to sell military arms worth 300,000 Gold Coins to the Poplar Kingdom.

These arms included the provision of one Ironclad Warship within three years, 40 C64 field howitzer with breech-recoil, 200 T-model cars, and 10 Maxim heavy machine guns.

Interestingly, this purchase allowed the Poplar Kingdom to borrow from the Great Tang Group on credit, with a repayment period of 5 years.

If the debt was not repaid on time, the Poplar Kingdom would pay back 30 million Gold Coins, and the Great Tang Group retained all rights to demand repayment of the debt.

That day, Fitteral signed the "Poplar-Great Tang Repayment Treaty" with the Great Tang Group in Brunas, as well as the "Poplar Kingdom Military Arms Purchase Memorandum."

In the afternoon, a special envoy from the Songmu Kingdom signed the "Poplar-Songmu Friendship and Non-Aggression Treaty" with the Poplar Kingdom's envoy Fitteral, in Brunas.

Before dinner, the Leite Kingdom, Suthers Kingdom, Dorne Kingdom, along with the Poplar Kingdom and Songmu Kingdom, signed the "Five-Nation Maritime Tariff Exemption Friendly Trade Agreement."

The Great Tang Group formally extended its influence to the Northern Continent and acquired tax exemption privileges for all its products in the Poplar Kingdom and Songmu Kingdom.

Furthermore, any external warlike acts that attempted to disrupt the five nations' maritime trade routes required these countries to dispatch warships together to ensure the safety of the maritime routes and declare war against the hostile forces.

Of course... Since the Suthers Kingdom had no maritime forces, they only joined the treaty to make up the numbers...

During the banquet, all parties also exchanged ideas on the construction of infrastructure such as railways. The Poplar Kingdom wanted to build a railway from South Water to the King's City, while other nations also hoped to expand their own railway projects.

Now, many countries are constructing their own railways, all built to the track width standards designed by Tang Mo.

These railways are connecting cities one by one, but for now, they are so short on the map that they are almost negligible.

The only truly substantial railway project completed so far is the railway from Brunas, passing through Wolf City and reaching Ice Crystal City. Moreover, this railway is not yet connected with others and won't be until the railway between Leite Royal City and Brunas is finished, joining them up.

Of course, since Tang Mo was busily constructing his own navy warships, the progress of this railway was very slow and even not as fast as the Wolf City to Ice Crystal City section that Tang Mo had built.

The banquet, of course, went off splendidly, with everyone in high spirits. Then, right after dinner, the Songmu Kingdom's envoy eagerly signed the "Songmu Kingdom Military Arms Purchase Agreement" with the Great Tang Group.

The contents were straightforward: the Songmu Kingdom, paying in cash, purchased 1,000 T-model cars, 20 Maxim heavy machine guns, 9,000 needle rifles, 50 C64 field cannons, 10 C80 heavy field cannons, and hired 30 personnel including instructors, commanders, and staff officers from the Great Tang Group.

At the same time, they also intended to purchase 2 Ironclad Warships from the Great Tang Group. Until the delivery of these warships, the maritime forces of the Great Tang Group were to ensure the security of Songmu Kingdom's ports and trade routes.

Meanwhile, because the ban was lifted, the Great Tang Group would provide 30 sets of telegraph equipment to Suthers, 50 sets to Leite, and 25 sets to Dorne.

Owing to special relations, the Great Tang Group would also supply Northern Ridge's troops with 5 sets of pedal-powered portable telegraph machines, equipping five of Northern Ridge's infantry regiments.

The Great Tang Group's maritime shipping fleet had grown to an unprecedented scale, including ships exchanged for debts by nations such as Dorne.

Now, the Tang Group had 240 ships at its command, the majority of which were old sailing ships designed for transport, with only a very small number of warships. Discover hidden stories at m,v l'e|m-p| y r

These warships were used for training, tasked with helping the Great Tang Group train its navy commanders, and were deployed only on the safest escort missions.

The merchant and transport ships handled transportation between Dragon Island and Brunas, as well as commercial trade with other locations.

Now, the Great Tang Group's transport fleet also had to fill the maritime trade route between the Leite Kingdom and the Poplar Kingdom, because Tang Mo had sunk too many of Poplar Kingdom's transport ships.

More interestingly, the Osa Military Harbor, which Poplar Kingdom ceded to Tang Mo, actually had shipbuilding capabilities. Though it couldn't match South Water, it was a naval shipbuilding base for the Poplar Kingdom.

The ships built here were first-class sail warships; however, the Great Tang Group no longer valued such sail warships.

Therefore, after the treaty was signed, the Great Tang Group planned to take control of Osa immediately and then have it shift to constructing merchant ships to make up for the lost transport capacity.

In short, the debt issue of 14 million Gold Coins owed by the Augustin Clan was finally resolved at this moment, and Tang Mo had acquired his first gold mine.