Munitions Empire

The demand for cars was huge, and the shortages in other areas were even greater.

What had happened to the light bulb factories in Brunas? They had reached the insane point of completely eliminating the quality inspection process.

The bulbs that were produced, regardless of whether they worked or not, were directly packed and shipped without even testing whether they lit up.

Those who bought the goods would take their purchases back, test them themselves, then simply report a number back stating how many were defective, and the factory would directly replace that many!

Even more, due to the need for overtime production, the factories were too lazy to verify the numbers, as long as the quantity was roughly correct, they would write it off!

Those purchasing light bulbs didn't dare to lie about the quantity, because nowadays there was no way to meet the demand for these items; if someone were caught committing fraud, they would never have the chance to buy more in the future.

You have to understand, nowadays, acquiring this item meant immediate profit; there was absolutely no worry about sales! As long as you had light bulbs in hand, they would sell!

To save on transportation costs, the merchants selling light bulbs even went so far as to rent a room in Brunas to test the light bulbs on the spot and then ship them to other regions.

They would immediately smash any defective ones they tested and accumulate the tails of the bulbs, sending them back to the factory to prove their innocence.

And yet, even with an annual production of several hundred thousand incandescent bulbs, it was still not enough to meet the buying quantity of the users.

So much so that Tang Mo had even directly authorized cities like Southwater and Hotwind to build their own light bulb factories, further expanding the production capacity of light bulbs.

Similarly, the production of railway tracks had been pushed to its limit, but it was still like trying to douse a fire with a cup of water.

In comparison to the global boom of railroad expansion, the speed at which the Great Tang Group increased its rail production was simply too slow.

The original tracks produced in Brunas had nearly doubled their capacity within a year, but still couldn't meet the actual demand.

As a result, the share of the Great Tang Group's tracks in the world's total railway kilometers dropped from over 30 percent to a laughably puny less than five percent!

Yes, you read that right; the number of factories in the world that could, and were currently producing rails, was indeed growing more and more.

In fact, aside from the railroad project on Dragon Island and the Buyu railroad which used tracks from the Brunas factory, other global rail projects hardly used tracks from the Great Tang Group anymore.

In most cases, local factories were either transitioning or had already started to produce rails of the same specification.

After all, the trains of this era weren't fast and the technical requirements for the tracks weren't high. At worst, the performance might not be great and they would need to be replaced more often, but their use wouldn't be hindered.

Under such circumstances, countries around the world were working hard to lay tracks since they were incredibly useful, regardless of whether it was wartime or peacetime.

They helped nations control their vast territories, assisted the military in transporting weapons and supplies, and facilitated the redistribution of goods and transportation of special products.

With railways, the economy would be invigorated, as basic construction itself spurs domestic demand, alongside the characteristic of railways promoting the flow of goods, making it a prime investment choice for the leadership of various nations.

After inspecting the railway from Brunas to Ice Crystal City, the Empire of Nanla immediately launched plans to build two main railway lines that traversed north to south and east to west.

The soon-to-be-formed Laines Empire was also expanding its own railway network on the basis of the rail network of the Great Tang Group.

Dorne and Suthers were both busy extending their own rails, and in some areas, they had already connected with the railway network of the Great Tang Group.

Even the Poplar Kingdom, which previously focused on maritime transport, and the islands of Taren, where Winterless City was located, had started building their own railways.

This drove the demand for rails to an unprecedentedly terrifying level, with the total mileage of railways under construction worldwide reaching a staggering 10,000 kilometers in the coming year!

What did this mean? It meant that in one year, this alternate world where Tang Mo resided had built a quarter of Huaxia's total railway length! And in 2021, which was last year, the total length of new rail constructed in all of Huaxia was just over 4,000 kilometers.

Although half of those 4,000+ kilometers comprised the technically more demanding high-speed rails, just in terms of quantity, this alternate world's adoration for railways was impressive and worth boasting about.

However, this was just the planned total length of railways to be laid, not the actual total length laid—apart from the railway construction on Dragon Island exceeding expectations, the laying of railways in other countries around the world was actually overdue. Find exclusive content at empire

One reason was the limitations of the terrain, with insufficient surveying proving a challenge during construction.

The other reason was the severe shortage of steel production capacity in various countries, preventing the supply of rails from meeting the needs of railway construction.

There was simply no other choice, as the foundations of everyone's finances were actually not that solid; thus, they could only bow to reality — plans cannot keep up with rapid changes, and those limited supplies of steel couldn't all be turned into rails laid on the ground!

Metal exports have always been an important source of foreign exchange for various countries. Those countries with already significant steel production capacities now rely on these exports to purchase modernized weaponry from the Great Tang Group and the Shireck Consortium — how could they possibly use it all to make railroad tracks?

Besides these projects, some industries of the Great Tang Group were also shrinking, such as the general textile industry, which Tang Mo was consciously exiting.

Previously, with the expansion of the Great Tang Group, a significant number of shares in textile workshops around Brunas had been acquired, as well as in enterprises for daily necessities like salt, all intricately linked to the Great Tang Group.

Now, in order to recoup funds, the Great Tang Group was selling off its shares in these civilian light industries and food factories.

Of course, there were buyers, such as the Marquis of Bailu, who had always had a good relationship with Tang Mo, and the royal family of Laines, among others — they were all wealthy and ambitious about controlling civilian enterprises.

The two sides hit it off, and the Great Tang Group officially withdrew from these enterprises, relinquishing control of this part of the industry as much as possible.

This greatly soothed the emotions of other nobles and royal family members, deepened mutual trust, and eased conflicts between all parties.

Meanwhile, allowing nobles to take stakes in the luxury goods sector also endeared people to the group, while simultaneously ensuring their more selfless support for the development of these industries, killing two birds with one stone.

It must be said that in these areas of livelihood, creating a major consensus environment where everyone can make money is essential to better earning prospects; therefore, in this regard, the Great Tang Group was strategically retreating to advance.

While many industries were beginning to strategically retreat, not all of the Great Tang Group's production capacities were marking time or shrinking — at least the increase in shipbuilding capacity of the Great Tang Group was quite frightening.

The Great Tang Group now launches a liberty ship every week. Their progress in marine transportation is clear for all to see.

The arrival of new massive ships has suddenly transported volumes of cargo that previously would have been impossible for an entire fleet, highlighting the importance of the Endless Sea overnight.

It was only at this point that everyone realized the Great Tang Group had virtually taken control of all the major ports around the Endless Sea.

Brunas, Heatwave, Osa, Winterless City, Eternal Winter City... These ports have allowed the Great Tang Group to control nearly all maritime activities along the East Coast of the Endless Sea.

While ports such as Southwater Port in the Poplar Kingdom still existed, due to outdated infrastructure, they had already fallen behind the new modern ports of the Great Tang Group.

Over time, this gap would only widen, until it became insurmountable, and then ports like Southwater would be phased out, turned into small harbors, fishing villages…

This was inevitable as the ports controlled by the Great Tang Group could provide technical support for new ships in terms of technology, with more comprehensive and professional services for ship repair, maintenance, and loading, details that ports like Southwater could not keep up with.

Plus, with the convenience of future railway transportation, the follow-up of matching facilities, and the complementary layout of surrounding industries, Southwater's competitiveness would be completely nullified.

People run ships for the sake of profit, right? It's profitable to transport 1,000 cars from Brunas to Osa and then bring back 20,000 rails from Osa, isn't it?

Transporting 1,000 cars from Brunas to Southwater only to find you can't even gather up a shipload of apples, tomatoes, and potatoes — wouldn't that be a ruinous loss?

Thus, "non-Great Tang" ports like Southwater were doomed to be eliminated in the future, a fact clear to all.

Unless these countries emulated the Great Tang Group by constructing their own ports, increasing investment, and bringing in talent… but the cost of doing so was just too high.

Take the Poplar Kingdom for example; in fact, the King of the Poplar Kingdom had already abandoned the Leibart Family-controlled Southwater Port and signed a contract with the Great Tang Group to build a railway from Osa directly to King City.

Most other countries had a similar mindset — giving up their own ports and instead seeking cooperation with the Great Tang Group, treating the ports built with Great Tang investment as their own.

To support these ports, the Great Tang Group was furiously expanding its transport fleet. The maritime transport of the Great Tang is now a behemoth with more than 400 sailing ships and over 30 liberty ships.

Sometimes, to speed up transportation, the Great Tang Group would even use a Wolf-class cruiser to transport some important goods. Its cruising speed is, after all, much faster than a liberty ship.

However, such goods are generally rare and very expensive — such as pricey medicines or certain precious and urgently needed rare metals.

The scale of this fleet is now slowly changing, with new liberty ships being launched each week to replace old sailing ships, rapidly enhancing the Great Tang Group's transport capacity.

Clearly, this impacted many people's interests… a lot of people.

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Two updates today, making some adjustments. Will continue to add more updates tomorrow, heh heh.