Munitions Empire

Tang Mo was indeed manufacturing airships, because before airplanes were fully mature, airships could indeed do many things that airplanes couldn't.

For example... bombing!

The colossal airships completely surpass airplanes in terms of load capacity. The amount of bombs that today's airplanes can carry could startle you!

The Camel Fighter can carry a 45-kilogram Aerial Bomb—that's the total weight! That means, it could carry about two 20-kilogram bombs for a bombing mission. Even the large, three-engine biplanes can't compare in their carrying capacity to today's airships.

Beyond load capacity, the problem of range is also fatal. Airplanes are now essentially authentic protectors of airports, with hundreds of kilometers of combat radius, they are not viable as offensive weapons.

What's more, the Great Tang Group had some accumulation in the production of inert gases, which improved the safety issues of airships.

Moreover, there were no threats like Anti-Aircraft Guns at present, so airships could safely and efficiently carry bombs to bomb targets.

As the head of the Great Tang Group, and a transmigrator, Tang Mo did have a somewhat low-level wicked sense of humor.

He was very curious to know what expression the enemies of the Great Tang Group would have when they woke up one morning, opened their eyes, and saw dozens of airships covering the sky.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

If those airships were also painted with frightening shark mouths, wouldn't that be quite a sight?

Of course, Tang Mo wouldn't be crazy enough to paint hammers and sickles on the sides of the airships, but he could paint his own Dragon Spirit emblem, which would surely be no less imposing.

It just lacked a certain flavor, that sense of the Iron Curtain slowly falling, the unique BGM starting, the double-barreled Tanks crashing through the road signs...

Even the names Tang Mo gave to these airships—Kirov—baffled people. The senior executives of the Great Tang Group still didn't know what merit the name Kirov had to be used by Tang Mo to name a secret weapon.

Tang Mo wasn't afraid that airships would become completely obsolete with the emergence of airplanes; he could simply sell them afterwards.

This is the advantage of being a technological pioneer; as long as he didn't sell airplanes, airships would remain absolutely advanced aerial weapons, able to be sold at a good price.

As for the enemy developing bombing airships, Tang Mo wasn't afraid because he had already deployed Fighters on Dragon Island, which meant he already had a strong shield to defend against airships!

...

Setting aside Tang Mo's vague fantasies of initiating the Red Alert in an alternate world, in the far-off headquarters of Shireck, inside a luxuriously decorated conference room, a group of middle-level intelligence officers were holding a meeting to summarize intelligence.

The Shireck Consortium had never stopped collecting intelligence on the Great Tang Group, and had even expanded their efforts against them.

However, in the competition between the two, the newly risen intelligence department of the Great Tang Group had always outmatched Shireck's intelligence agencies.

Silver Fox had basically become the nightmare of Shireck's intelligence personnel, who tended to become emotionally unstable at the mere mention of this name.

Fear and hatred were interwoven; with respect and fear, fear and anger, anger and helplessness... In short, the name Silver Fox had become taboo.

Seeing his subordinates listless, a director who was chairing the meeting sighed after glancing at the redhead woman fixing her nails on the side and ordered, "Now let's begin the summary..."

Recently, Sofia's status within the Shireck Consortium had risen again, and many directors were now leaning towards this red-haired beauty.

After all, this woman had brought tangible profits to Shireck, as her spies had achieved unprecedented success in stealing technologies from the Great Tang Group.

While other spies were practically given no quarter by Silver Fox, Sofia's people had even managed to obtain the full production blueprints of Great Tang Group's T-model cars, and had additionally turned seven or eight engineers...

This was really turning into a fantastic tale—Sofia's company could now produce the T-model car, and had even made some modifications, enabling the Shireck Consortium to have its own car models.

More outrageous was that Sofia had also gotten her hands on Great Tang Group's ship design blueprints, cracking the secret of the propeller drive.

At the same time, the shipyards under Sofia's command had begun constructing new-type ships for the Shireck Consortium, although the new ship technology became Sofia's own exclusive technology. The other directors of the Shireck Consortium, despite their intense coveting, had no other choice.

After all, such independent technologies were common among them all; this was also a cooperative model of Shireck—each specialized in their own strength, and later would take dividends based on the shares, without easily interfering with each other's business operations.

It was just like how the fat director had mastered the production of new rifles and pistols, Sofia did not inquire about it either.

Because Sofia had recently brought many favorable developments to the Consortium, and her management skills had also been affirmed by everyone, with the support of most of the directors, she had now become Shireck's decision maker, obtaining control over most of the Consortium's power.

This was also why she could attend such an intelligence briefing.

One intelligence chief began the report, "As of June, which is two months ago... The steel transported from Southwater Port to Dragon Island exceeded 3,000 tons, which is almost the maximum shipping capacity of Hotwind Port."

Southwater Port is currently still under the management of the Poplar Kingdom, so it was easy for Shireck's spies to obtain intelligence there.

However, after discussing several peripheral small ports, when it came to ports controlled by the Great Tang Group, the reporter's discomfort was obvious, "We can't get the exact figures for Osa Port, we can only estimate a rough quantity, at least 19,000 tons and under normal conditions, no less than 25,000 tons."

There was no choice, because of Silver Fox's interference, they could only infer a rough estimate from fringe intelligence data.

The person in charge of Hotwind Port had no option but to grit his teeth and put forward an extremely inaccurate number, "We can't investigate the quantity for Hotwind Port either. Those damn Silver Fox people are very experienced, and our agents simply have no way to start. The data here is also an estimate, roughly between 20,000 tons and 40,000 tons."

As expected, this caused dissatisfaction from the intelligence department chief, "Are you joking? 20,000 tons? To 40,000 tons? You call this estimation? I could give such vague figures sitting at home."

The person in charge of Hotwind Port helplessly defended himself, "What can I do? The number of ships transporting goods keeps increasing, and our assessment of carrying capacity is getting less and less accurate."

Recently, whenever it involved intelligence summaries related to the Great Tang Group, there were always such disputes and justifications.

On one hand, the frontline intelligence work was becoming increasingly difficult to execute, with a shortage of field espionage personnel who couldn't be replaced quickly enough, and on the other hand, the higher-ups wanted even more intelligence on the Great Tang Group.

In comparison, the difficulties of this task kept intensifying.

Thinking of the spy wars between both sides, someone clenched their teeth in anger, "We had never encountered such a situation before! We've never faced an opponent like this... Those damned Silver Fox people..."

Another person added their complaints, "Bribing officials is almost impossible, their income ledgers are transparent, the Silver Fox people will investigate, and large bribes simply cannot be hidden."

"Offering small amounts of money and they don't care for it, who would betray the flourishing Great Tang Group for a few dozen Gold Coins?" Immediately, there were agreeing voices on the other side.

The complaining chief grew increasingly sentimental as he spoke, "Even if there are those greedy for money, daring to take the bribe, the information they provide is incomplete, merely guesswork. Worse, there's also the chance they're baiting us; our people go to get the data and end up caught on the spot."

"We've lost more personnel in the past two years than in the previous ten years combined... especially in operations against the Great Tang Group..." another person chimed in agreement.

Sitting at the head of the table, the instigator, the red-haired Sofia, was still idly filing her beautiful nails, not uttering a word, as if all this had nothing to do with her.

After all, her people had suffered no loss; those sent to Brunas were well-fed and entertained daily, gambling, watching horse races, and their main task was to bring back Brunas's most fashionable clothing, jewelry, and accessories to Flame Castle.

And according to the cooperation between both parties, the Great Tang Group would from time to time proactively provide her with technology and intelligence, enabling her to steadily hold her position as the head of the Shireck Consortium, which was more than enough.

"We can only try our luck with the newcomers now. The old hands know the situation too well to dare to go that way; even if they go, they won't act, and some even disappear entirely." Someone nearby couldn't help but sigh.

Another person joined the complaining, "Disappearances are the least of it... Some have outright defected. Do you remember Black Hawk?"

"Black Hawk? What happened?" Sofia's nail filing paused, knowing that Black Hawk was a double agent controlled by the Great Tang Group, she was quite sensitive to this, so she was somewhat alert.

That person immediately explained, "He sent dozens of telegrams filled with nonsense and false news. Had it not been for other undercover agents sending us real information, we'd still have been kept in the dark..."

"Even someone as experienced as him has defected?" Sofia feigned disbelief, while thinking to herself that she should send a telegram to remind Tang Mo, to caution him about this double agent on their side...

"Exactly..." Several intelligence chiefs didn't dare suspect Sofia's sincerity, nor did they have the guts to do so.

"Let's discuss serious matters!" The intelligence department head, with a somewhat embarrassed face, coughed to return everyone's attention to the matter at hand.

"Apologies." The people below immediately ended the topic with chagrin, "Sorry."

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Getting vaccinated really made me uncomfortable, and the update is delayed again, sorry. If I feel better tomorrow, I'll make up for it =. =! Dragon Spirit seems to be caught in a never-ending cycle of owing and catching up on updates... how miserable.