Munitions Empire

Chapter 458 445 Big Purchase

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Tang Mo, who had returned to Dragon Island, was still very busy each day. With the continuous advancement of technology, he had to come up with more and better technologies to maintain Great Tang Group's lead in research and development.

Every day, he would write and sketch, copying down some technical parameters to distribute among the various R&D departments to inspire their thinking.

This was a virtuous cycle. Tang Mo couldn't always be a drafting tool, taking on the entire group's R&D and design work by himself.

Therefore, he had to cultivate new talent, to keep the R&D team's morale high and take on more work on his behalf, freeing him to focus on increasingly important strategic issues.

In the process of this technological transfer, Tang Mo more often played the role of a decision-maker, preventing his tech team from wasting time on the wrong paths.

In the meeting room, Tang Mo was listening to reports from various departments on the development progress of Dongwan Island. Lately, it seemed that almost all of Great Tang Group's discussions revolved around Dongwan Island.

There was no helping it, since Brunas and Jade City had merged seamlessly and were on the right track, with Harry watching over them, everything was running smoothly.

The other ports were the same; everyone was busy developing and had set their own development goals. As long as they followed the plan conscientiously, they could become prosperous lands in the future.

With Tang Mo personally overseeing Dragon Island, there were certainly no issues: as the R&D base and technological stronghold for Great Tang Group, its development naturally faced no problems.

One only needed to look at the giant shipyards that had been expanded several times, and the hulls at various stages of construction inside, to understand Dragon Island's status within Great Tang Group.

Although there were countless affairs to attend to in these places, they were all routine matters that did not require Tang Mo's constant attention.

Only Dongwan Island, which was still in its initial construction phase and served as a military foothold, required Tang Mo's personal intervention on various matters.

Roger had been left on Dragon Island by Tang Mo and had now returned to his original duties. He spoke up to give Tang Mo an update on the group's recent actions, "We have imported about 2 million tons of grain from allied nations, most of which are being gathered towards Dongwan Island."

He explained to Tang Mo why they would not continue to increase the grain purchase quantity, "This is already the limit we can purchase because increasing the volume further would endanger the reserves of the grain-selling countries, a risk they are unwilling to accept."

Although Great Tang Group exports fertilizers and improved seeds, which indeed increase farming efficiency and allowed allied nations to achieve bountiful grain harvests,

the issue of food security had just begun to be partly resolved, and many countries were only just emerging from a state of hunger, so there was a general wariness about exporting grain, which meant the volume of grain circulating in the trade sector was actually not that much.

In exporting grain to Great Tang Group, it was more about reverence and trust. The decision-makers of various countries were somewhat inclined to believe that Great Tang Group's grain purchases were not a strategic offensive.

Before Luff could speak, Li'ao replied to Roger's concern: "You don't have to worry about that, because we will soon distribute more qualified talents to all areas in need of labor."

"Better ones?" Roger, not very familiar with intelligence work, asked, looking towards Li'ao.

Li'ao nodded proudly: "Exactly, we've bribed many city lords and officials in Zheng Country. They'll turn a blind eye to our transportation plan."

Indeed, he could be proud of his subordinates. The dandelion's work in Zheng Country could indeed be said to be one of the largest, most invested, and fastest-acting spy operations in world history.

"You mean the entire region will ignore this large-scale transportation... activity?" Roger asked incredulously because for any country, the population is actually wealth, an indispensable hard resource.

Li'ao continued with a smile: "Yes, they will use criminals for local infrastructure projects, then send the law-abiding as criminals directly to Dongwan Island."

Hearing Li'ao's words, Roger finally eased his mind and sighed with relief, "It seems like our people are doing well over there."

Tang Mo teased Li'ao for his eagerness in intelligence activities: "Indeed, they spent 30 million Gold Coins in less than 25 days and then came asking me for another 10 million."

This operation was basically a "money-splashing campaign" with no sophistication involved, just starting with insatiably corrupt officials as breakthrough points, dragging a series of such officials into the mire, and then, when the scandal broke out, even larger officials who could not enforce the law against a group resigned to accept it.

Turning the giving of money into a done deal, if 10,000 Gold Coins didn't work, offer 50,000. If 50,000 didn't suffice, then give 100,000! Keep increasing until the person nods in agreement or someone else nods for him!

Don't underestimate the power of this tactic because it has proven to be simple, crude, yet surprisingly effective. Just think, if the United States used its annual defense budget for bribes, how many people would maintain their principled stance?

Even if someone remained utterly loyal, but let's face it, if this were actually happening, you can be sure the country would send someone to 'convince' you to betray and take the money...

"My God... Really?" When Roger heard Tang Mo casually mention a bribe of 40 million Gold Coins, he felt utterly stupefied.

He even thought that negotiating directly with the King of Zheng Country might even get them a discount.

Tang Mo chuckled and said to Roger, "Really, many cities in Zheng Country are now defenseless against us. The local officials will completely ignore our actions, including renovating ports, laying roads, and shipping all the able-bodied locals overseas. All things considered, this money was well spent."

By defining the nature of the expenses for Li'ao, he also avoided embarrassing Li'ao. Li'ao looked at Tang Mo gratefully, truth be told, he had been quite nervous about using such a large sum of money.

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More to come later, in about 20 minutes.