Munitions Empire

Or maybe... have Old Li consider shooting himself six more times, and we’ll force Hirobumi Ito to cede Honshu Island as well?

Looking at the scene in front of him, which resembled a vegetable market, the "Treaty" content was just too concentrated, almost nearing 100%. It’s likely that after this war, the textbooks of Sheng Country will surely gain a new term similar to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society.

Just casually counting: Hmm, Dorne, Suthers, Leite, Songmu, Poplar, Ice Cold, Gales, and the Empire of Nanla... Exactly eight nations, triggering some special effect, Tang Mo’s guilt feeling +1, deterrence +1, unlocking the achievement "Scars of the Old Empire"?

As for the usual mocking, somehow, it seems that strange additions keep piling up...

Tang Mo shook his head, banishing these strange thoughts from his mind. After everyone had put forward their demands as previously agreed, he also put forward his thought, "After agreeing to these terms, to compensate Great Tang Group for all its losses, and the war... will be over."

He didn’t specify his conditions, but to the goblins’ ears, this phrase about compensating all losses of Great Tang Group seemed far too vague, enough to make one’s heart hang in suspense.

Soon, their judgment was confirmed, as the beautiful paper from Yulin was pressed in front of them. The goblins finally understood what it meant to be outrageously demanding.

To give an analogy, at this moment, they were like nervous young men asking for a bride’s hand in marriage. When the bride’s parents mentioned the dowry figure, their faces bore an expression of utter shock.

After harboring the thought of taking Zheng Country for himself and embarking on a path of domination, Tang Mo started to analyze the issue from another angle.

This time he fought alongside eight countries to declare war on Sheng Country, which for him was also an act of desperation.

His warships were too few to search all of Sheng Country’s vessels in the Endless Sea and attack them, so he had no choice but to utilize the navies of various countries to compensate for his lack of military strength.

However, looking at the issue from the perspective of maximizing benefits, although Great Tang Group emerged utterly victorious this time, the profits from the war were noticeably diluted by the involvement of various countries.

Therefore, even if Tang Mo had the capability to obliterate Sheng Country this time, he wouldn’t make his move under such circumstances.

What he wanted was to take Sheng Country for himself and turn it into his own territory, not to divide it among eight countries. That would not be in the interests of Great Tang Group.

"We can’t afford that kind of compensation! Mr. Tang, our country is very poor..." the head goblin envoy began to bargain.

The angle from which he approached was quite tricky, demonstrating the capabilities of Sheng Country’s diplomats—through years of war with Zheng Country, they had honed a quite skilled diplomatic team.

Competing over trade routes was pointless for Sheng Country, as they were unable to maintain a grip. Their navy had been severely damaged, their merchant ships captured or sunk, leaving them completely powerless to sustain their original scale of maritime trade. Thus, fighting over this was meaningless.

Opening up the market and ensuring the safety of merchants, Sheng Country was also willing to hold its nose and agree. They, too, wanted to learn advanced technology through trade and were more than eager for people willing to conduct business and open workshops.

Taxation was a tough nut to crack, so it was not advisable to start with it. Choosing the compensation as the entry point seemed just right.

"It’s okay, we can offer a loan. That is, to lend you money to repay the compensation owed to each country," Tang Mo’s sudden generosity bewildered the goblins.

However, the national envoys who had taken loans from Tang Mo instantly displayed a knowing smirk.

Taking money from Great Tang Group... isn’t that easy, lad! Borrowing money feels good for the moment, but repaying it is like a cremation ground! What? Won’t pay back? Well, buddy, you’ve got guts.

That’s something you could discuss with Poplar Kingdom. They have plenty of experience with this.

In an instant, the envoy from Poplar Kingdom felt several gazes directed at him. He felt particularly uncomfortable, with a sense of shame like thorns in his back: Why are you all looking at me? It’s not my debt! I’m warning you, it’s uncalled for to hit someone in the face! This is too much! Still looking?

Do you want to go to war or what? Assholes!

"We might not be able to pay it back... not even the interest..." The Sheng Country envoy seemed a bit defeatist now.

In fact, they really had no money left. They had nearly spent all their savings to purchase a large quantity of weapons and equipment from Shireck, which enabled them to achieve a significant victory in the war with Zheng Country.

But before they could enjoy the spoils of victory, they were attacked by the Great Tang Group. Not to mention Dongwan Island being taken, the collapse of maritime trade was the most severe loss for Shireck.

"We’ve found mass graves on Dongwan Island. The accounts of the Goblins of Shireck slaughtering civilians still need to be settled," Tang Mo dropped the issue of the loan and brought up the massacre all of a sudden.

Looking at the three Goblins whose expressions were somewhat unnatural, he paused before continuing, "You’ll have to compensate us with an equivalent number of slaves. You’re not going to tell me you don’t even have people, are you?"

While talking, he picked up the compensation list from the Great Tang Group, "Let’s talk about the money later, let’s discuss the matter of slaves now."

"We... we’ve just finished a war, our population, our population is not abundant," replied the leading Goblin with a bitter look.

In fact, this was an even more difficult issue for them: for nations of this era, population was sometimes equated with wealth. Taking their population was almost no different from dividing their wealth.

Tang Mo smiled. This negotiation today had allowed him to experience all of the old issues once again. The other party was very much like Principal Chang. What was that comment about him? Principal Chang had a strange temperament, if you wanted a little from him, he wouldn’t even give you a bit. But what if you took something big from him?

He wouldn’t care about the small things anymore. Find your next adventure on empire

Now, Tang Mo was preparing to take the big things, to remind these Goblins that they were still meat on the chopping board.

"Since you’re so poor, we’ll just have to look for valuable things ourselves." Tang Mo picked at his ear and showed an impatient look, "Gentlemen, it seems that Shireck wants to keep the war going..."

"Wait a minute! Just wait! We’ll compensate! We... we will..." The Shireck envoy immediately softened; Shireck really couldn’t keep going anymore.

If the war ended, they could still recover, develop, and recuperate. At the very least, they could bully Zheng Country and gain some benefits.

But if the war continued and their maritime trade remained crippled, then Shireck would truly be finished. Although they wouldn’t collapse directly due to a lack of food like the Taren Kingdom, it wouldn’t be much better.

Thus, the Goblins envoys, who had begun to throw in the towel, in principle agreed to the Great Tang Group’s demands for compensation in slaves.

As for the number, they still had to bargain—Great Tang Group wanted 300,000, and Shireck was willing to give 100,000. After much negotiation, the final number settled on was 200,000...

Afterwards, because Shireck had no gold coins to compensate other countries, they started borrowing from the Great Tang Group, pledging simple collateral: selling some more slaves to the Great Tang Group. A robust slave for 10 Gold Coins, a fair price.

Then Shireck negotiated the total amount of compensation with the other countries, ultimately bringing the price down to 300,000 Gold Coins per country. Thus, the total amount of compensation Shireck had to pay was 2.7 million Gold Coins.

In the end, Shireck had no choice but to offer up another 100,000 slaves, barely fulfilling the requirement of compensating each of the nine nations and powers 300,000 Gold Coins.

Then the two parties began to discuss the issue of trade tariffs. Shireck clearly did not want to give up this significant income; after intense disputes, they managed to keep fifty percent.

The Great Tang Group got ten percent of Shireck’s tariffs, and the other eight countries each got five percent, which was a satisfactory outcome for everyone.

The rest was relatively simple. After signing the agreement honestly, Shireck, as the last of the old four dominant naval powers in the Endless Sea, handed over the control of the western Endless Sea.

Although they still maintained their navy and their fleet was still formidable, everyone knew that the Endless Sea now had only one overlord.

And the Great Tang Group got everything they wanted before the war had started!

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Not feeling well today, only 4,000 words. Here is one update... Apologies.

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