Inside the most luxurious office of the Great Tang Group, Tang Mo was sitting in his own seat, listening to Luff report the latest situation of the military.
On the huge map hanging on the wall, Luff was pushing willow leaf-shaped magnets representing the approximate locations of the warships.
This map was exquisitely made, with an iron sheet as the backing board, and all the labels on the map were created with magnets.
This design made it crystal clear at a glance what forces one had at their disposal, with the only flaw being the map pasted on the iron board was prone to wear and tear and needed to be replaced from time to time.
At this moment, the deployment of all warships of the Great Tang Group was indicated by magnets on the map, clear and unmistakable.
Luff opened his mouth to introduce, "Brunas 1 is on its way back to Brunas, Bruna 2 and Bruna 3 are heading north to Osa Military Harbor, Bruna 4 is at Dragon Island, Bruna 5 is on its way to Dragon Island, and Bruna 6 is stationed in Bruna Harbor."
Such a deployment also showed that Tang Mo had never sent his fleet's main force to attack the Poplar Kingdom. Two-thirds of his warships were either deployed at Black Dragon Island or in Brunas, with one ship on its way back to Brunas.
Meanwhile, Tang Mo was building two new Wolf-class cruisers, and another Brunas-class warship was being built slowly.
This Brunas-class warship was meant to be sold off, after all with the more advanced Wolf-class cruisers available, who would want the outdated Brunas-class ironclad warships?
For purchasing this new type of warship, the Leite Kingdom offered a price of 230,000 Gold Coins—this might be the most expensive warship in the history of this world.
However, its record would soon be broken, because the Wolf-class warships that Tang Mo was building, if sold, would obviously fetch an even more terrifying price.
After introducing the whereabouts of the six warships, Luff continued with the construction situation of the land forces, "For ground troops, among our two regiments, one is dispersed along the line from Brunas to Northern Ridge, and the other is deployed on Dragon Island."
Recently, the Great Tang Group had no plans for ground warfare; the main role of its two regiments was to ensure the security of their own factories.
Thus, although these troops were equipped with the most advanced weapons, their scale had not expanded too much, which satisfied the upper and lower echelons of the Leite Kingdom very much.
After all, the existence of a powerful armed force inside the country that one cannot control would indeed make a monarch sleepless at night.
However, since this armed force had always maintained restraint and didn't frequently exhibit aggressiveness, Leite VII was very satisfied.
Pointing to go stone-sized hematite magnets on the map, Luff said, "Among them, one battalion of Regiment 1 is in Brunas, one battalion is in Factory 2, and one battalion is training in the Vicious Forest. They rotate regularly..."
Because "Black Dragon Island" didn't sound very nice, and the black dragon didn't quite fit Tang Mo's golden dragon emblem, the Great Tang Group decided to rename Black Dragon Island to Dragon Island, and the first city on Dragon Island was also named Dragon City.
Harry nodded slightly and continued to report, "Yes, but they are willing to sign a huge order at the same time."
He then listed off their purchase list as if on a carousel, "First, they are willing to purchase 40 C80 cannons, along with matching transport carts, ammunition carts, and 1500 shells."
"Similarly, they are also willing to purchase 4000 K1 Quick Guns, 500 new Left-Wheel Handguns, and 1000 K2 lever-action rifles. This includes the corresponding equipment, ammunition, and related training..." Clearly, these "scraps" also represented the other party's sincerity.
"Is there more?" Tang Mo knew full well that their sincerity wasn't limited to these.
As expected, Harry continued, "Additionally, they wish to build 3 bullet factories within their borders, a production line for K1 rifles, and a production line for C80 cannons..."
And obviously, the other side's sincerity didn't stop there, they were even willing to allow Tang Mo to set up his own intelligence network in their country, "Of course, during negotiations they emphasized the telegraph machine, hoping we can set telegraph stations in their major cities, at least 10 of them."
"10 machine guns, 100,000 bullets..." Finally, after Harry finished speaking, he looked toward Tang Mo and named the other party's price, "They are willing to pay 1.3 million Gold Coins for these..."
Of course, this offer included some extra "protection money." That money was probably to ensure the benefits of continuing their expansion after purchasing advanced weapons from Tang Mo.
Tang Mo nodded slightly, the other party's price was obviously well-calculated and quite reasonable. However, he still decided to bargain with them, "It's a fair price. But our profit margin is too low."
"I think so too," Harry immediately agreed.
Tang Mo lit a cigarette, held it between his fingers, exhaled a puff of smoke, and ordered, "Then give them a quote of 2 million."
"Right." Harry wrote down Tang Mo's demand in his notebook and then, as if remembering something else, began to speak.
"Hmm?" Tang Mo and several others around him looked toward Harry, waiting for him to continue.
Indeed, Harry brought up another request from the other party, "Along with the special envoy came representatives from Dorne's civil business associations. They hope to raise funds on their own to purchase rails and trains to build a railroad for their own use in the southern part of Dorne."
"What's the price?" Tang Mo asked offhandedly.
"Our quote for the entire railway is 1.7 million Gold Coins. They hope to push the price down to 1.1 million Gold Coins, and there's a significant disparity between the two parties," Harry immediately stated the price proposed by them.
Tang Mo thought for a moment and reduced the price by 100,000 Gold Coins, "1 million Gold Coins! Give it to them! Also, sell them the technology for producing the rails, but I want one third of the equity in that railway!"
"Yes!" Harry nodded respectfully, indicating he had no more to say.