Munitions Empire

Tang Mo knew that both Parker and Mathews had very sensible suggestions, yet he still felt there was no need to back down at this time.

As long as he maintained the current production status and continued to develop, he could ultimately hold out until the day the war ended.

Once everything returned to peace, or rather, to the interlude between wars, he would be able to absorb the surrounding resources at a faster pace and push the Great Tang Group to an even more dazzling pinnacle.

So, he began to explain, "Right now, every day, vehicles needing part repairs due to breakdowns are waiting for the parts we produce. And those enterprises waiting to purchase vehicles to compete in the transportation and logistics industry are also waiting for the finished vehicles we produce...

If we were to stop production now, then the painstakingly established transportation network would fall into paralysis. This... cannot possibly be what we want to see."

"The same applies to the ships! If we can't continue to expand our maritime transportation, we will reach a bottleneck, and the ensuing development will be stagnant for a long time!" He stood up as if he had made up his mind and said firmly, "So! We must grit our teeth and continue... all our production! We cannot stop!"

In fact, Tang Mo was well aware that halting some seemingly non-essential productions could seemingly bring many conveniences to himself.

But the subsequent problems would slow the development of Great Tang Group. In Tang Mo's view, the current difficulties were only temporary, and failing to expand production capacity swiftly was what would leave them in a reactive position and fall behind.

Was Great Tang Group lacking raw materials for production? Yes, it was! But not that much! At least for now, while Great Tang Group lacked raw materials, the mining resources it owned were very abundant.

Which meant, Tang Mo had iron mines, copper mines, and oil fields... He almost had all the resources he could wish for.

On the other hand, did Great Tang Group have production capability? The answer was also yes! Great Tang Group had advanced assembly line workshops, a large number of industrious workers, and a relatively complete management system.

These could also be converted into production capacity! If conditions allowed, Great Tang Group could double its capacity!

Unfortunately, due to the constraints of production materials, Tang Mo was unable to fully utilize the capacity of Great Tang Group, which was the biggest problem faced by Great Tang Group at the moment.

Could this problem be simply attributed to a lack of production materials for Great Tang Group? Obviously, it couldn't.

Then, could this problem be attributed to insufficient production capacity of Great Tang Group? Actually, it wasn't that simple either.

What Great Tang Group was lacking now was the ability to gather dispersed materials from various places and transform them into production materials!

That is to say, Great Tang Group's weakness was the lack of sufficient time to establish a traffic network, accumulate massive logistics and transportation capacities, and to have insufficient raw material rough processing capabilities.

You say Great Tang Group was short of funds? It actually controlled six real gold mines and had a large reserve of Gold Coins; in truth, Tang Mo was quite wealthy.

You say Great Tang Group was short of ores? That wasn't quite true either, as Great Tang Group had several large iron mines within the borders of the Leite Kingdom alone, and at the same time, in Dorne and Suthers, in Osa, there were many assets of iron and copper mines.

It's just that in a short time, these iron mines could not be transported to Brunas, could not be immediately turned into munitions, and could not be sent to the battlefield.

So, as long as Tang Mo kept building railroads, building roads, manufacturing vehicles, manufacturing ships, he would obtain more and more iron ore and accumulate more and more resources.

From the perspective of the game, this meant Tang Mo had a large number of troop-producing buildings and also occupied several gold mines, but couldn't immediately convert these occupied gold mines into troops due to lack of peasants.

Therefore, the best option to improve this situation wasn't to grit one's teeth and produce a small number of troops, even though doing so might yield a certain number of forces in the short term. From a long-term perspective, this approach was actually of poor return.

The correct choice was to produce a great number of peasants immediately; as long as they maintained equilibrium at the front lines, even if they temporarily fell into a disadvantageous position, with the follow-up resources gradually expanding, the advantage would be re-established...

Tang Mo did a simple analysis of his current situation: Dorne and the southern seas had just achieved two great victories, his troops were unstoppable, and the advantage was obviously significant.

The Leite Kingdom had also begun a counterattack, defeating the invading troops from the Kingdom of Germelin, so he also held an advantage on that front.

Although Suthers was beset with internal and external troubles, it was still possible to hold out. The Songmu Kingdom actually was relatively safe.

Even if the Poplar Kingdom completely collapsed and was recaptured by Shireck Corporation — he wouldn't suffer any fundamental loss.

It was just one Osa Port, no big deal.

What's more, whether Shireck Corporation could recapture Osa Port was still uncertain, as there were quite a few Orcs entrenched there, plus the fleet that could move north at any time — it was not certain if Shireck was willing to touch this trouble.

Upon analyzing the situation, it appeared that Great Tang Group was actually dominant on all fronts, or at least held absolute superiority in half of the regions.

In such a situation, continuing to expand one's own economic advantage and establish a better cycle is certainly the right choice.

That's why Tang Mo made up his mind and so firmly rejected Parker and Mathews' suggestions.

He didn't believe that Shireck would dare to endlessly fight against a Great Tang Group like this! On his side, there was a problem of material shortage, but what Shireck faced was not just a shortage of materials!

Shireck's overall size was indeed bigger than that of the Great Tang Group, but it couldn't mobilize all its forces to where they were needed in time.

So, in a specific area, Shireck's disadvantages were still very obvious. The challenges faced by the Great Tang Group were also present for Shireck, but in areas where the Great Tang Group had advantages, Shireck's disadvantages were even more pitiable.

Take the outcome of battles for example, the Great Tang Group, despite great difficulties, still came out victorious.

On Shireck's side, they had already lost control of many kingdoms, and as their defeats in war piled up, their control over other non-warring kingdoms would be greatly weakened.

In such a scenario, persisting in war was clearly not a wise choice, and Shireck's side would certainly choose to end the war with dignity!

Unless... the other side had meticulously calculated that in the end, the Great Tang Group would collapse first due to a lack of materials.

But Tang Mo knew that under such conditions, it was impossible for Shireck to accurately calculate the critical point of the Great Tang Group's material consumption.

Because that critical point was floating and constantly changing with the situation on the battlefield.

If the Great Tang Group were defeated at the front line, if the Leite Kingdom's troops collapsed like a landslide, and if the Dorne Kingdom also suffered heavy losses, then Shireck would indeed have the chance to wear down the Great Tang Group.

But such a scenario was too improbable. Tom believed that if he were in the decision-maker's position on Shireck's side, he would also not dare to blindly and arrogantly bet on such a sure-lose gamble.

On the contrary, Tang Mo felt that with such a great advantage, it would be an injustice to himself not to take the gamble.

He was even certain that the other party would soon send someone to find him, trying to end this now meaningless war.

However, he had also already thought of a strategy. He would delay his opponent, preventing them from discerning his bottom line, to gain benefits that could not be obtained through war.

For example, he wanted the Taren Kingdom and the Xilun Kingdom, the Poplar and the Rosewood Kingdoms, the Germelin and the Phalak Kingdoms...

That's right, he wanted the land of all 6 warring kingdoms! All of their populations! All of their mines!

At that moment, Tang Mo suddenly understood the thinking of those war gamblers—just one grand bet, and the spoils of war were irresistibly tempting.

If a single victory could solve all problems, then why not choose war? After all, before war began, everyone believed, based on the data on paper, that they had at least some chance of winning, didn't they?

"After all, we have the advantage in all battle zones! As long as we keep winning like this, we can once and for all resolve Shireck's troubles! Just this one time if we win, we will be able to sit at the same table with them," Tang Mo looked at his subordinates, clenched his fist, and encouraged them confidently.

"So, Master... If you have already decided, then... I have no objections," Mathews was the first to give up his insistence, looking at Tang Mo as he spoke.

Parker immediately voiced his support for Tang Mo's decision, "I'm with you, Master, you know I've always followed your lead."

"Then we'll continue to maintain production as you wish, Master," Harry didn't insist on his own opinion, he only needed to present his views; the actual operation was up to Tang Mo's decision.

After all, up until now, Tang Mo had never had any issues with decision-making, and the Great Tang Group had reached its current heights entirely under Tang Mo's command and operation.

"You've done well," Tang Mo praised his subordinates; he was pleased they could present their views and help him check for any oversights, the main reason he sought their opinions.

"Next time, provide more opinions to fill in the gaps for me," Tang Mo said. "In the future, you all will be figures who dominate a territory for the Great Tang Group... Everything... must be done better!"

"Yes, Master!" Mathews, Parker, and Harry answered in unison.

"And you? In the future, don't you want to dominate a territory and become a high official of the Great Tang Group?" After the three left, Tang Mo turned to Wes.

Wes shook his head, smiling as he answered, "Not for me... That would mean only living in one place, how boring. I want to be by your side, that's the way to see... the most interesting sights."