Munitions Empire

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A stunningly beautiful maid pushed open a pair of grand double doors that were carved with the resplendent images of the Sun God in concert with the Moon.

Inside the opulent room was an astonishing floor-to-ceiling mirror, and on the opposite wall hung a massive painting of deities gazing down upon the mortal world.

Beyond a row of exquisite French windows lay the intricately carved railings of a balcony so spacious it could almost accommodate a galloping horse.

Upon the soft bed, the mistress of the room opened her eyes and moved a slender, bare arm away from her chest.

"Lady Sofia..." the maid placed her hands together in front of her abdomen, standing by the bed and bowing slightly, her tone full of concern, "You haven't had breakfast yet."

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"Mmm..." A languid voice came from the large bed, followed by a woman with an almost perfect figure sitting up naked.

She sleepily brushed her red curls, reminiscent of ocean waves, and glanced at the woman still lying beside her.

There were three women on the large bed, two of whom were still not awake.

Sofia twisted her neck and then nudged the woman beside her awake, "Up you get, my darlings..."

Then the maid who had come to wake her mistress stepped aside, retrieving an incredibly silky and loose nightgown from behind her to drape over Sofia.

With that, the redheaded Sofia dropped her arms, disregarding the two beautiful bedfellows behind her, and walked out of her exorbitantly luxurious bedroom barefoot "au naturel".

In the hallway echoed the graceful footsteps of the maid. As Sofia passed by her female guards, they knelt on one knee and greeted their mistress in tender voices, "Lady Sofia!"

The mistress' hand swept over the heads of the guards, then she proceeded through the almost echoingly exaggerated hallway to her office.

This was a domain of women, seemingly a kingdom for them, hence why a female mistress could dress so casually here. The women who could enter this castle were either beautiful or wealthy, and they shared another trait... not particularly fond of men.

Flame Castle, one of the most opulently intimidating castles in the world to date, belonged to the red-haired Duchess Sofia, who was also the richest woman in the world... without equal.

Her wealth was inherited from her mother, whose wealth, in turn, came from her grandmother. Her grandmother had many men, each wealthier than the last.

Sofia's grandmother was one of the founders of the Shireck Consortium. With her keen sense of opportunity, she multiplied her wealth many hundreds of times.

The Flame Castle was built by Sofia's mother, and at that time it did not have this nickname. But after Sofia inherited her mother's legacy, the castle was painted red to become what it is now.

Rumor had it that a section of the castle's outer wall was painted with blood—the blood from every vein of another Shireck Consortium shareholder who had assassinated Sofia's mother.

"My lady, we've just received a message that we've obtained a sample of the wireless telegraph device," the maid reported, once Sofia had seated herself at her desk.

"We claimed that the telegraph office's equipment was broken, so we stole the entire device... It's not large."

"What about losses?" Sofia examined her slender fingers, seemingly admiring a part of her near-perfect body bestowed by divine grace.

"A hidden corps in Dorne is completely done for, including the bribed officials, the assassins and moles we planted there; dozens of undercover contacts cultivated over many years, all eliminated," the maid's voice was steady, as if the loss was of little consequence.

"That's alright, they were bound to be lost sooner or later..." Sofia looked indifferent, "Tell me, why... does that organization called the Silver Fox Company, develop so quickly, so... impressively?"

"The opponent has a more professional system than ours, this is the conclusion drawn by our intelligence chief. They're more powerful than us and can easily trace the slightest clues to find those we've left with them," the maid replied coolly.

Sofia nodded, then asked another question, "Then, tell me... why has this organization called the Great Tang Group, risen so quickly in less than two years, to be so impeccable in these details?"

"That, I do not know," the maid hung her head slightly in shame, as if she had done something wrong.

Sofia had asked merely out of casual interest, not expecting her maid to answer a question that even she herself could not figure out.

This mysterious Great Tang Group from Leite Kingdom had managed to clear out most of the Shireck Consortium's assets within Leite Kingdom's borders in just under a year.

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Shireck's private army met its end in Brunas, and after that battle, Shireck almost entirely lost its control over the Leite Kingdom.

Many of the spies they had in place were also lost, either exposed as double agents providing Shireck with false intelligence or completely out of contact, listed as missing persons without a trace.

In essence, the map of the Leite Kingdom that had been lit up was once again obscured by the fog of war. It wasn't until half a year ago that the Shireck Consortium began to slowly understand Great Tang Group, their now fully risen opponent.

This understanding was painful, the kind that left every shareholder of the Shireck Consortium heartbroken.

In order to acquire the technology for producing needle guns, primer caps, and steam engines, Shireck had to compromise with the Poplar Kingdom, forsaking all interests within the Poplar Kingdom's territory.

Then, as Shireck began its slow construction of steam engines and tried to learn from and catch up with Great Tang Group, it consecutively lost the markets of Leite, Suthers, Dorne, and other kingdoms.

Their arms products were driven back, losing the lead and advantage they held in almost every sector.

Flintlock rifles had long become an obsolete product, yet they still comprised a major portion of Shireck Consortium's arms business.

Just as Shireck frantically built steam engines and improved its production lines in an attempt to catch up with Great Tang Group's technological lead in weaponry, Great Tang Group astoundingly introduced the steam train.

Using steam engines as a power source and laying steel tracks entirely changed the traditional mode of transport, bringing a nation even closer together... this... truly came as a surprise to everyone.

In the subsequent maneuvers, the top brass at Shireck paid the price for their sluggish response, for they had become decadent and stagnant from over a century of controlling the world arms trade.

By the time Shireck realized they might have missed another weapons revolution, or rather, an industrial revolution, all they had left was to play catch-up through imitation.

And so, they began to replicate the railroads, using their vast production capacity to capture the markets that Great Tang Group couldn't handle.

Indeed, they were successful; they acquired orders from over a dozen countries, and even those who had lost their markets, like the Leite and Poplar kingdoms, purchased their rails to build their own railways.

And because they temporarily couldn't acquire a locomotive, Shireck had no choice but to honestly produce rails and carriages to expand their profits.

Before the Shireck Consortium fully grasped Tang Mo's technology for the railroad train, Tang Mo introduced an entirely new technology—the automobile.

Shireck had contemplated getting some automobiles to disassemble and study since, compared to train locomotives, cars couldn't be regulated and were much easier to transport and move around.

But discouragingly, the exterior of Tang Mo's automobiles appeared simple, while the construction of their engines and gearboxes was complex enough to induce despair.

With the processing precision of most of Shireck's factories, they were incapable of replicating such products, so they could only watch as Tang Mo ate away at the vast market bit by bit.

As a result, Shireck could only produce some automobile parts, earning a modest sum while helping Tang Mo swallow up the market.

However, in the past few months, Shireck wasn't entirely without merit. Taking advantage of their geographical location and head start, they fiercely acquired numerous oil fields in the countries they controlled.

Therefore, while Shireck may have been collapsing in the competition, this behemoth miraculously managed to significantly increase its total fixed assets.

Meanwhile, other products from Great Tang Group began to enter the view of the Shireck Consortium. nøvel.coɱ

Such as… the telegraph machine, and… the electric light…

All these devices relied on electrical energy to function, so as a person with a keen sense of smell, Sofia acutely realized that Great Tang Group's electric power system could be a significant direction for future technological development.

After all, generator technology was relatively easier to copy, so Shireck was also "copy-pasting" the electric power technology from Great Tang Group.

Only the progress in this area was slow, and other leaders at Shireck were focusing their attention on Tang Mo's breech-loading cannons, modern bolt-action rifles, and machine guns instead.

Luckily though, Shireck is still Shireck, and Sofia used some insiders and her accumulated connections over many years to somehow purchase several original generators produced by Great Tang Group.

Now, aside from those being disassembled for study and the few used in Shireck's top factories, Flame Castle has become one of the rare buildings in the world to utilize electricity.

It also became one of the few castles to be fitted with electric lighting, making it look even more splendid and magnificent.

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