Munitions Empire

"Mr. Tang," three goblins stood before Tang Mo, their heads bowed as they greeted him with a respectful tone, "we have caused you trouble."

Tang Mo did not like this tone at all; it reminded him of some sleazy figures with small mustaches above their lips, speaking with a habit of using inverted sentence structure.

Although he knew this image was unintentionally created by movies, and real-life well-off ’basin chickens’ did not actually have such speaking habits, he still felt an aversion to anything resembling those ’basin chickens’.

Unfortunately, such resentment was a sort of national habit, and it should be respected by principle, shouldn’t it?

Upon hearing the familiar and somewhat annoying phrase "We have caused you trouble," Tang Mo involuntarily frowned and interrupted the other party, "If apologies were useful, then why would I bother making cannons?"

"Pfft…" Wes beside him couldn’t help it and almost laughed aloud. He liked that saying; he believed that Great Tang Group did not need to apologize, that they would solve problems with cannons if wronged.

From another perspective, Great Tang Group never suffered wrongs lightly; if you spit at me, I’ll bombard your entire family—an even exchange, fair to everyone, right?

The ones standing here were certainly not good people.

"We have come with sincerity," one of the goblins, with an oddly half-green skin, continued to explain humbly, "We know we were wrong."

In reality, they knew that Great Tang Group’s attack on Dongwan Island occurred before the Shen Kingdom had attacked Great Tang Group’s fleet.

But now... the truth behind the outbreak of the war was no longer important; what mattered was ending the war and extracting the Shen Kingdom from the current perilous situation.

Hence, the consensus among the Shen Kingdom’s higher-ups was to take the blame upon themselves, making themselves out to be at fault while absolutely not mentioning Dongwan Island, and allow Great Tang Group to name their price.

This attitude of bowing down, admitting fault, and bracing for punishment was the sincerity shown by the Shen Kingdom. Debating who held the moral high ground was simply too naive at this point. Now it was about who had the bigger fist!

"So what?" Tang Mo spread his hands and asked with a sneer.

If he had the capacity to annihilate the Shen Kingdom, he certainly would have taken advantage of this opportunity to consume them completely. But he lacked that kind of long-range projection power, so for now, he had to compromise.

That was also why he had agreed to meet with these three goblin envoys, because he likewise needed peace. If he had not agreed, how could the Shen Kingdom’s ships have reached Brunas? They would have been sunk!

Now, he was just posturing, imposing pressure on the other party. In actuality, he was more than willing to accept a peace treaty, one that would be advantageous for Great Tang Group.

"We are willing to offer compensation to Great Tang Group," the leading goblin bowed once more, his sincere attitude seemingly moving heaven and earth.

Mere appearances could suggest that these goblins were full of sincerity, but they were oblivious to the fact that the more they acted this way, the more repulsive they seemed to Tang Mo.

In Tang Mo’s eyes, this was the quintessential craftsman spirit, strikingly similar to that of a certain nationality he was familiar with—according to a popular meme he knew, the resemblance was close to seventy percent.

"This is a war to reclaim justice! Envoy of the Shen Kingdom! The righteous side has won, and now that you have admitted your errors... it’s time to ask whether the righteous side has forgiven you yet," Tang Mo looked towards the envoys of various countries sitting aside.

Then, with a smile, he addressed these eager envoys, "Well, let’s hear it. How can we forgive... these little darlings from the Shen Kingdom?"

The Shen people were frail, short, and cunningly fierce; a Shen deputy envoy clenched his fists upon hearing Tang Mo’s voice filled with mockery as he called them "little darlings."

On any ordinary day, being called "little darling" might have provoked him to murder. But now, he simply did not have the guts to act out of line in such a setting.

Setting aside the major situation that Shen Kingdom couldn’t withstand, even at this moment, he was unsure if he could beat the man and woman standing behind Tang Mo with his bare hands.

Meanwhile, envoys from various countries knew it was now their turn to set their price—this was a privilege they deserved for joining the battle and a part of the victorious celebration.

"Open the Shen Kingdom’s market and exempt all imported goods from commercial taxes for each country!" blurted an envoy from the Dorne Kingdom, voicing his primary interest. Your next chapter is on empire

"Compensate us for our war costs, at least 500,000 Gold Coins for each Kingdom!" added an envoy from the Leite Kingdom, right beside the Dorne representative.

"Hand over all trade routes to guarantee safe passage for each country in the Endless Sea to the west!" said the Poplar Kingdom representative, his voice carrying the scent of the sea.

"Guarantee absolute safety for the merchants of each Kingdom within the Shen Kingdom!" followed the envoy from the Songmu Kingdom.

Names of various Chinese cities followed by the word "treaty" sprang up in Tang Mo’s mind like scraps of paper, as if he himself were sitting beside that humiliating negotiation table in Nanjing or Tianjin of the past.

Only this time, they were on the winning side... Indeed, with the roles reversed, the feeling was immediately different.

Tang Mo even wickedly thought: What if, sitting in Yamaguchi Prefecture back then, they negotiated the cession of Okinawa... would writing a novel about Li being assassinated while attempting to extort Kyoto be a bestseller?

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