Munitions Empire

Although Suthers had already lost the strategic initiative, they wouldn’t be completely finished in a moment. The troops at the Northern Ridge had fought for several hours and didn’t fully pursue the collapsing Suthers troops.

After capturing about 300 prisoners, Earl Fisello rode his warhorse, inspecting the battlefield, and then he saw Tang Mo and others by a battery of cannons.

It was the first artillery position Tang Mo had attacked, with 10 new cannons in good condition and fully equipped.

Not only had Tang Mo seized these cannons, but he had also taken the horses that pulled the cannons and the carts that carried the shells.

Fisello dismounted in front of Tang Mo with Alice following behind him, eyeing the bloodied Tang Mo curiously and somewhat worriedly.

Approaching Tang Mo, Lord Earl didn’t waste words and directly spoke, "I’m truly surprised you could come; your cavalry has been a great help to us. Now that the enemy forces have been crushed, I will immediately lead my troops south to support your new training camp!"

"No need, Lord Earl," Tang Mo was forthright, sitting beside a cannon, rubbing the bloodstains from his clothes with his hands.

"What do you mean?" Fisello was taken aback by Tang Mo’s response, thinking Tang Mo was here to seek reinforcements, to hurry back to the support at the three-forked junction.

He had no idea that Tang Mo had already achieved a decisive victory at the three-forked junction and had even killed Suthers troops’ highest commanding officer.

Of course, he was also unaware that Tang Mo had captured almost 1200 prisoners there, and together with these, Tang Mo had taken about 1500 Suthers prisoners in this battle.

Seeing the somewhat astonished Fisello, Tang Mo waved to Alice behind Fisello and then continued explaining, "Before coming here, I had already defeated the Suthers troops marching north through the three-forked junction from the southeast."

"You defeated them? The reinforcements?" Fisello looked at Tang Mo in disbelief, unsure if what he said was true.

According to his estimations, there should have been at least an entire legion of enemy troops near the three-forked junction. Defeating 1500 men with only 500 was certainly no easy task.

Moreover, if there were other forces involved, Tang Mo would be facing an aggressive attack from nearly 3000 men. How could he possibly defeat an enemy force of 3000 with only 500 troops?

But Tang Mo’s answer was still resolute like he was talking about something very ordinary, "Yes, Lord Earl, it seems the opposing commander was named Tucci; I questioned the prisoners quickly for this information."

An officer standing beside Fisello scoffed and reminded, "Tucci is a famous general of Suthers! If he was commanding, it’s unlikely there would be a collapse…"

He meant to caution Tang Mo against boasting, but Tang Mo seemed not the least bit afraid of being exposed and simply continued, "I wouldn’t know about that, I only know that I killed him. The prisoners say that the news of Tucci’s death is accurate, and I also found Tucci’s ceremonial sword and battle flag."

The officer was even more surprised and exclaimed in disbelief, "Are you joking?"

"I’m not joking, General! I crushed the enemy forces ambushing me, about 4000 men. Tagg can vouch for me," Tang Mo said, not requiring the officer to believe him; instead, he looked towards the Earl and spoke.

"Tagg?" Fisello looked at Tagg trusting Tagg would not lie about such a matter.

Meeting Earl Fisello’s gaze, Tagg said, "Yes! Lord Earl, we led our troops and defeated the enemy forces attacking the three-forked junction, including a legion led by Viscount Romel, and two legions led by General Tucci, totaling 4500 men!"

"Impossible!" Fisello couldn’t help but exclaim upon hearing this number.

"There’s nothing impossible about it! I’ve fulfilled my promise, and I hope, Lord Earl, that you won’t go back on your word." Tang Mo was referring to his deserved "bonus" from the victory.

Then, he paused before asking, "May I inquire, Lord Earl, if you would be interested in doing some business?"

Earl Fisello had just come back to his senses from the shock when he heard Tang Mo’s question and reflexively asked, "What business?"

"I have about 1500 prisoners from Suthers Kingdom in my hands; does Lord Earl have any interest in buying them all?" Tang Mo asked as he caressingly touched the cold barrel of the cannon beside him.

"You know Northern Ridge is short of money," Lord Earl didn’t immediately refuse because for Northern Ridge, 1500 able-bodied youths were certainly an attractive asset.

"Soon! War reparations will bring a fortune to Northern Ridge." Tang Mo reminded the Earl, making him recall that he was already wealthy.

"You’re injured?" Finally, Alice had the chance to speak, looking at the dried blood on Tang Mo and asking with some concern.

"It’s someone else’s blood, I’m fine," Tang Mo explained.

"That’s good," Alice said, relieved, then continued, "So, tell me, how much for these prisoners."

"Three Gold Coins per person isn’t expensive, right? 4500 Gold Coins..." Tang Mo stretched out a palm, "Including the officers, a round number of 5000! I want cash."

"What do you think, how much compensation can we be confident of getting this time?" Alice didn’t agree immediately but asked Tang Mo instead.

"A reasonable price would be around 200,000 Gold Coins." Tang Mo had actually calculated this earlier; it was roughly the amount that the Suthers Kingdom could afford to pay after their defeat.

Because of their defeat, the Suthers Kingdom had many affairs to handle, and to prevent the Leite Kingdom from becoming too powerful, they couldn’t completely destroy Suthers all at once.

Therefore, war reparations were complicated; more wasn’t always better. It also involved looking after many aspects and could essentially be seen as a business transaction.

"So how much can we actually get?" Alice wasn’t intimidated by the amount of 200,000 and continued to inquire from Tang Mo.

After careful thought, Tang Mo replied with a figure that even Count Fisheo found shocking, "About 300,000 Gold Coins, I guess."

"That much?" The Earl asked unconsciously.

"It’s not that much, because Suthers can’t pay it, so at least half of that amount is actually coughed up by the Shireck Consortium..." Tang Mo said nonchalantly.

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If one just looked at the amount of compensation, it didn’t seem high. Even a single sea trade venture by the Poplar Kingdom could yield a gross profit of several thousand Gold Coins.

John had just purchased goods worth over a hundred thousand from Tang Mo, making the possible war reparations seem less significant.

However, this was only part of the war profits. After the reparations, there would be a cession of territory, which was often the real big gain. So, 300,000 Gold Coins in reparations was actually not a small amount.

He paused for a moment and somewhat sheepishly added, "Of course, one-tenth of these reparations is mine."

"5000 Gold Coins don’t seem like much." Alice prepared to buy the prisoners of war to maximally increase Northern Ridge’s labor force: "I’ll make this deal."

She now had many expansions that needed manpower, with mines requiring more workers and vast tracts of land needing cultivation.

With these prisoners of war, she could at least solve her shortage of hands and rapidly boost Northern Ridge’s power relying on Tang Mo’s machinery.

"The talk just now reminded me, besides these prisoners of war, there are some seized military supplies, including flintlock guns, bullets, bayonets, and even war flags and swords..." Tang Mo continued to ask, "Good items for claiming credit, does Northern Ridge have any interest in buying some?"

"You can sell these, too?" Tang Mo’s words left some of Northern Ridge’s officers and even Alice a bit astonished.

"Of course, for example, that person just now, what’s his name, Tucci." Tang Mo spread his hands out, "Isn’t he a famous general? His sword, selling it for 2000 Gold Coins, isn’t expensive, right?"

In Tang Mo’s hands, this item was merely a toy, but in others’ hands, it would become an artifact to claim military credit.

Presumably, the exasperated King, upon seeing this sword, would be overjoyed, and granting a Baron’s title wouldn’t be too much, right?

Of course, the person who could do this had to be someone favored by His Majesty. Neither Tang Mo nor Fisheo could hope to gain such benefits through such means.

"These cannons..." Alice glanced at the cannons that Tang Mo was touching and asked curiously, "Aren’t you selling them?"

"I’ve been thinking about it, and since I am quite flush recently, I’ve decided to keep these cannons for myself," Tang Mo replied with a smile.

He had originally planned to sell these cannons but then decided to recast them into C64 breechloaders before selling them.

Right now, what he lacked was steel and the capacity to process this steel, not money. From the perspective of Gold Coins, he could already be considered quite wealthy.

The Earl had come back to reality from the joy of victory, looking at the distant Northern Ridge troops, he said to Tang Mo, "We can’t be careless now."

"Yes, I was just thinking about that myself," Tang Mo nodded in agreement, "We’ve now cut off Suthers’ supply line."

He looked at the Earl and presented his idea, "The Suthers troops will leave the vicinity of the King City, but not to retreat; instead, they plan to consolidate their forces to take us out before continuing their march south to attack."

"Your strategic analysis is quite accurate," the Earl complimented Tang Mo, then continued, "So before they can recover, we need to sever their supply line, leaving the Suthers Kingdom’s troops paralyzed in the heartland of the Leite Kingdom."

"This is also the choice to ensure Northern Ridge’s safety," he concluded.

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