Chapter 22: Numerous Difficulties

Having witnessed Tang Mo's negotiation tactics, Tagg thought he must be wary of this man full of cunning and deceit, or as the trendy phrase goes, a "heart"-less fellow.

This sly businessman had, from the beginning to the end, never revealed his true intentions, and eventually acquired a vast expanse of urgently needed land at an extremely low price.

In the process, the businessman shamelessly demonstrated his bribery skills—after gifting the mayor 100 Gold Coins, he secretly handed the sheriff and the tax officer 30 Gold Coins each, making both of them readily agree to the deal.

Then, after covertly offering another 50 Gold Coins in bribes to the mayor, His Honor "accidentally" misaligned a boundary on the map, giving Tang Mo a large piece of unclaimed land!

The result was that, in addition to the 260 Gold Coins he paid in bribes, Tang Mo spent only 860 Gold Coins to purchase a large tract of land.

Although these lands were wastelands, unsuitable for farming, for Tang Mo, who urgently needed land for expanding his factories, the sheer size of the newly acquired property enabled him to nearly do whatever he wished.

Sitting in his carriage, holding the land deed that indicated the acreage in his trembling hands, Tang Mo was still slightly shaking.

Indeed, he had not anticipated such arbitrariness in the handling of land in this world, that he had actually managed to obtain such an immense plot of land at such a bargain price.

Moreover, this land was adjacent to the sea; if Tang Mo wished, he could even build his own private port.

Furthermore, the remaining lands near the Vicious Forest were even farther from the town and would be even cheaper—once Tang Mo completed the arms deal with the Earl, his profits would sufficiently support his acquisition of these unclaimed lands.

With this land as support, his factory now had room to expand, and once connected to the Vicious Forest, he could even conduct business as a trading merchant, directly logging from the Vicious Forest... The advantages were numerous.

In short, his development was now on the fast track; if all went smoothly, he could soon become the largest weapons manufacturer in the Leite Kingdom.

But that was only if everything went smoothly... in fact, Tang Mo's expansion was not going smoothly, because while the computer in his head could look up information, it couldn't help him come up with a sensible development plan.

After spending his limited funds on a vast expanse of land, Tang Mo encountered a series of problems. Among them, the most significant was a shortage of workers.

His development was too rapid, having swallowed too many resources he couldn't immediately utilize—those familiar with real-time strategy games understand this well: you've saved up a lot of Gold Coins, only to realize you have too few people, and you're short on corresponding lumber and oil, so your pile of Gold Coins can't be converted into the troops you want...

When Tang Mo returned to his office, he convened all the slightly capable subordinates under him: Old Roger, Parker, Dwarf Mathews, Tagg, and Wes.

After taking a sip of water, Roger's nearly smoking throat finally felt much better, and he continued speaking, "Additionally, the wood you had us stockpile is almost used up, and what's left is the air-dried wood... That's meant for producing the K1 Quick Gun, so it can't be repurposed."

"If you redirect some people to gather more wood, then we'll have even fewer hands for building houses. We need more people..." Roger expressed his worries, reminding Tang Mo of all the difficulties that were imminent.

As one of Tang Mo's elders, he truly did not want to see Tang Mo, in a situation where everything seemed to be going well, mismanage the business his father had left him.

So without waiting for Tang Mo to say anything, Roger continued, "A more serious problem is that we're currently building plank houses within our own workshop grounds, which are leveled, so they can be used directly."

Tang Mo knew that this kind of expansion was irrational. If he were a genuine businessman, the most appropriate thing for him to do now would be to allocate his income reasonably and ensure the safety of the cash flow as much as possible.

But Tang Mo also knew he was not a true businessman. He preferred to take risks, to expand rapidly, to break free from the current passive state of relying on others.

Compared to the madmen he was familiar with from later generations, who started fundraising after making a few PowerPoint presentations, dared to seek bank loans of millions with a couple of hundred thousand on hand, and who, upon securing loans, dared to seek financing, and with financing success dared to borrow even more money, and then with more money began working toward going public, his current development could indeed be described as conservative.

In fact, Tang Mo really had considered the issue of subsequent development, and he had his own set of solutions.

The first step was to establish his factory and then sell the weapons to the other nobility of the Leite Kingdom.

As long as Northern Ridge secured a victory in the imminent war and showcased its might, he would never lack customers. Those nobles, unless they were fools, would certainly choose Tang Mo's weapons!

Even if they were fools, as news of the war spread further and further, more distant places, more distant countries, would become supporters of the weapons he produced.

Soon, the outdated weapons produced by the Shireck Conglomerate would be phased out, and he would take their place, becoming the new world's arms supplier!

Of course, this was just his strategic plan. In practice, he had many details to fill in and perfect, and it certainly wouldn't be so simple.

Roger wasn't aware of Tang Mo's plan. He was just deeply concerned about the current situation, so he kept talking incessantly to Tang Mo about the upcoming difficulties, "But if we use up these leveled lands, we'll need even more manpower and much more time to level the uncultivated land outside, and that's going to be even more problematic."

Mathews, who was sitting beside him, was clearly also dissatisfied with the situation, his demeanor one of wanting to speak but holding back. According to him, Tang Mo should let the workers do what workers are supposed to do. As for expanding the factory, Mathews thought Tang Mo could wait to hire proper construction workers later.

"We can't afford to hire people to level the land now, because according to our accounts, our profits aren't much. To be precise, like before, we don't even have enough money for next month's wages for the workers!" He paused at this point because he knew he had already said enough, and Tang Mo should have realized the seriousness of the problem by now.