Munitions Empire

"What is it?" the mayor looked at the other impatiently and asked. He hated when someone interrupted his train of thought, especially when he was contemplating how to embezzle money.

"An officer wishes to see you..." The servant, knowing his master's habits, immediately explained.

"An officer?" both the mayor and the sheriff were surprised.

"The one who came last time, the one with Tang Mo, the officer from Northern Ridge..." the servant quickly added.

"Oh... let him in!" The mayor came to a realization and immediately ordered. He glanced at the sheriff and the tax officer, his eyes clearly conveying the message—it seemed that the visitor was worthwhile.

Sure enough, his speculation was confirmed. Tagg had indeed come to offer them benefits. Tang Mo was true to his word and delivered the promised benefits to them.

Tagg arrogantly handed the bribe to the three main officials of the small town, and this attitude further solidified the mayor's and sheriff's and tax officer's belief—Tang Mo was likely a man of Count Fisheo, and an important confidant at that.

Therefore, after the mayor and his colleagues received the second installment of bribe from Tagg, they put the matter of the school on hold.

After all, such matters were usually ignored if the common folk did not report it, and there were no accusations to field. They naturally wouldn't meddle needlessly—and even if someone did accuse, they would let it slide for sake of the Gold Coin and help Tang Mo take care of the fool who dared to accuse...

...

In the workshop, Tang Mo was assembling the first batch of K1 Quick Gun with Mathews and others. Currently, this was the flagship product of Tang Mo's arms workshop and the source of its income.

The smelting furnace, after resting for seven or eight days, finally started belching black smoke again, enlivened by the raw materials transported from Northern Ridge.

In fact, Tang Mo had not deceived Tagg; he truly planned to produce a batch of arms and send it to Lord Earl.

He was an arms dealer, and his ultimate goal was to supply Lord Earl with sufficient weapons and to establish a reputation for his weapons in future wars.

If he did not provide Lord Earl with weapons and set aside ample training time, the effectiveness of these weapons on the battlefield would decrease, and Tang Mo would suffer great losses.

Therefore, this time, Tang Mo planned to provide as many K1 Quick Guns as possible and transport these weapons to Northern Ridge.

And Tagg, returning with this batch of arms, would personally bring Tang Mo's demands back. As long as Earl Fisello was willing to continue providing support, Northern Ridge would receive a steady supply of arms.

Tang Mo was confident about Earl Fisello's continued backing, for he was very certain that, once Tagg brought the Revolver back to Northern Ridge, the Earl would definitely recognize its immense significance.

This was no joke—if the Earl truly had ambition, with Tang Mo's weapons, he could even surge out of Northern Ridge, vie for the Kingdom's throne, and claim the seat right beneath the King's posterior!

In fact, Tang Mo's plan was roughly the same—he would supply Lord Earl with enough military arms, enabling the Earl to aim for a higher political status.

And in return, Tang Mo would get his share of the benefits—becoming the new Earl, controlling vast lands, and turning into the "Shireck" of Leite Kingdom! A deal where both parties helped each other and grew together... Doesn't that sound tempting?

As for whether Earl Fisello would betray him, Tang Mo was also prepared. Before the Earl truly claimed that position, he would build his own military, arm it with more powerful weapons, and be ready for combat!

If Fisello turned out to be a good King, Tang Mo wouldn't mind following Shireck's path, staying behind the scenes to become the new arms syndicate and shadowy overseer of the world's order.

If Fisello turned out to be a greedy bastard, then Tang Mo wouldn't hesitate to teach him a severe lesson with his long guns and heavy artillery, letting him know that times have changed.

However, all these plans were still just plans... What Tang Mo needed to do at the moment was to ensure quality and complete the current production.

So, at this very moment, he was leaning over an assembly table, watching a worker nervously piece together the components.

He was careful to remind the worker in as gentle a voice as possible, "Alright, follow the production procedure! Hang the part in its designated spot! Pay attention to their positional relationships!"

The worker was also a bit nervous because this was his first time assembling such a weapon—he was more familiar with the structure of flintlock muskets, but these components had nothing to do with flintlocks.

This thing had a relatively complex firing mechanism in order to pierce the primer of the paper cartridge, and a long firing pin protruded from the front of the mechanism.

To be honest, this was a compromise in design, since there wasn't a real rimfire cartridge, so they had to create this long firing pin, which, under the complexity of battlefield conditions, was highly susceptible to damage.

Soldiers had to be just as cautious when loading paper cartridge ammunition, so the increase in rate of fire was not significant.

However, for the flintlock gun, it was already the prototype of the modern rifle—an advancement that was epoch-making, progress that flintlock guns could not hope to catch up to.

In fact, if you disassembled a firearm, its internal structure was not too complicated. The pin-fire gun Tang Mo brought out was not any more difficult to manufacture than a flintlock. Any workshop capable of producing a flintlock could easily replicate it.

All it took was assembling a few specific parts, including springs, into a bolt action mechanism for the firing mechanism. The rest of the structure was actually very simple.

So, under Tang Mo's guidance, the worker quickly assembled those parts together to complete a firing mechanism.

Following Tang Mo's instructions, this worker did not move on to the next step of installation but instead handed the firing mechanism he had made to another worker next to him.

This was the assembly line method, with every worker only responsible for one step of the gun production process. There were actually many advantages to this arrangement, which was also a unique technological innovation by Tang Mo.

With such technical arrangements, each worker could specialize in one step of the production, minimizing the likelihood of mistakes and improving manufacturing efficiency.

Another reason Tang Mo favored this production method was its security system—each worker only knew about one phase of the new gun production, so none of them knew the complete process of the whole rifle if they were to go off on their own.

While it wasn't possible to keep things completely confidential, it could effectively delay the opponent's progress, buying Tang Mo some breathing room.

"Very good! Now, screw it tight, secure them... There, the internal structure of the K1 Quick Gun is complete! Pretty simple, right?" Finally, after a not-too-long wait under Tang Mo's supervision, the worker completed the entire procedure.

A complete firing mechanism was created and then passed to the next worker, who would be responsible for installing it and assembling the rest of the rifle.

With the addition of the front barrel, the entire rifle was put together to become a true K1 Quick Gun.

"Yes, I think all the workers should have mastered it." Parker nodded and assured Tang Mo, "The rest can be left to me, I will watch over them and let them familiarize themselves with the whole process."

"Good! Get started!" Tang Mo nodded his head and then stood aside, watching the workers assemble the already polished parts one by one according to the steps he had outlined.

This was his weapon workshop's first time producing the K1 Quick Gun on such a large scale. Previously, the prototypes were entirely handcrafted, with production cycles so long they were almost tear-inducing.

Now was different, for as the workers in front of him assembled their parts, in another workshop, two steam engines continued to work non-stop.

Over thirty apprentices were operating the machines, drilling barrel after barrel—by tonight, the workshop would have produced at least 50 high-quality barrels, almost perfectly identical!

These barrels were uniformly high quality, far more reliable than those drilled by workers using hydraulic windmills or purely by hand.

"Click!" Tang Mo cocked the bolt of an already-manufactured K1 Quick Gun to reveal its smooth bore and nodded in satisfaction.

Though still far from the advanced military hardware Tang Mo dealt with before his transmigration, this weapon was quite ahead of its time for this era.

"It's truly very beautiful!" Tang Mo said, smiling at the weapon in his hand while speaking to Parker and Mathews beside him.

"Indeed, after mechanical processing, this is more like a work of art compared to Shireck's flintlock guns," Mathews agreed.

Then, he continued to reflect on everything, "Compared to such results, it should be said that the entire process is even greater."

With that, he, along with Parker and Tang Mo, looked towards the other side where the finished K1 Quick Guns, identical except for the production numbers, were being packed into wooden crates one by one.

"I'm back! Everything is settled. They won't trouble you anymore and are willing to sell you some more land... Also..." Tagg was rambling as he walked into the factory, but when he saw the neatly stacked K1 Quick Guns in the wooden crates, he found himself at a loss for words.

He swallowed, his gaze fixed on the workers as they placed each freshly-made, rustproof-oiled gun into crates one after the other.

Then he glanced at the several large sealed boxes not far away and couldn't utter a word for a long moment.

"Exactly, you are completely right, those boxes contain the K1 Quick Guns you will take away," Tang Mo nodded.

Then everyone couldn't help but burst into laughter.