Munitions Empire

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"Extra! Extra! Seven days, fifteen cities captured! General Strauss wins a major victory in the south! Our military sweeps through the northern part of Chu Country!" The rain had stopped in the streets of Tongcheng, and an old man selling newspapers called out incessantly with his hoarse voice.

The streets here no longer held much standing water, and many cleaners were using huge brooms made of bamboo to tidy up the mud that had solidified on the asphalt roads.

Cars sped through the streets and alleys, signaling that the city had once again sprung back to life. Workers bustled everywhere, and neon signs flickered all around.

Even though the war was still ongoing, life inside Tang Country was actually very peaceful. In people's conversations, there might be more talk about the flood than the war.

Since the troops were winning one victory after another, driving the invading enemy out, everyone was quite at ease, convinced that they would surely win the ultimate victory.

"Give me a copy," a well-dressed man rolled down his car window and handed a banknote to the old newspaper seller.

The old man knew a big sale had come his way, immediately grinning from ear to ear as he pulled out a newspaper from the pouch slung across his chest, handed it over, and offered a stream of auspicious phrases while bowing and scraping: "Your Excellency may your wealth flow in abundance! May you enjoy boundless prosperity! Here is your change, may you have a smooth ride and achieve success with ease!"

With the popularization of radios and an increasing number of loudspeakers, newspaper sales were not what they used to be. So, if vendors didn't take initiative, they couldn't earn more income.

Therefore, while selling newspapers, they also brought along a wet cloth to wipe down the dust on car hoods, while calling out a few well-wishes, which had become many newspaper vendors' basic skills.

At first, it was one or two people doing this, but once others caught on to the trick, it became common practice.

Meanwhile, seeing a fellow vendor already doing brisk business and occupying the other side of the street, another old newspaper seller called out with even more gusto: "Great victory! Great victory! Our army has taken the major town of Ningjiang from Chu Country! A hundred thousand troops of Chu Country have turned tail and surrendered at the very sight of our forces!"

Due to the Great Tang Child Protection Law, it was impossible for any school-age children to be out selling newspapers on the street since all of them had to attend mandatory national education.

Instead, there were some illiterate old people; it might be a bit too much to expect these old men and women to operate machinery as workers, so they made the most of what they could by doing odd jobs.

Generally, the younger old men were the ones sweeping miscellaneous debris from the streets, while the old women would help in public areas.

All in all, under the management of the Tang Kingdom, you would hardly see anyone idle. Everyone here had to work, and everyone could find a suitable place for themselves.

Of course, everyone having work meant that everyone had food to eat. This was unimaginable in the past. According to the experience of how states operated previously, it was simply impossible for a kingdom to ensure everyone could eat their fill.

This was where the Tang Kingdom stood out: Its operation model was entirely different from that of kingdoms and empires of the past, with each part seeming more advanced, exuding a sense of overwhelming superiority over other nations.

There were simply too many ways to make money within the kingdom, the 'cake' was just too big, so vast that the nobility and merchants who previously lived off exploiting the common people couldn't be bothered to struggle with the public for profits. They only needed to casually set up a company or build a factory, follow behind the Great Tang Group to get some benefits, and that was enough for them to live a life of glory and riches.

It truly is no joke, it's an era where you can make money doing almost anything. Paper, candy, salt, socks... whatever you produce can be sold out in an instant.

It's an era where everything is in shortage—people lack clothing, food, entertainment, and hope.

So whatever you're selling, even if it's just a newspaper filled with hope, it can be sold clean out! Not a single one left!

In the villages, even though most people couldn't read, there would still be government officials or some young interns willing to read the newspapers for everyone, to disseminate some of the policies issued by the state, and talk about the great construction projects.

Thus, even in little villages far from the coastline, the common people knew that at the distant, only-heard-of Linshui Port, another enormous cargo ship exceeding twenty thousand tons had been built, even using the latest shipping standards.

Two farmers could discuss after dinner whether the plastic products produced in Pingning would pollute the nearby soil and potentially affect the local spring plowing and sowing.

The third newspaper vendor began to wave his newspapers and also started to shout, "The imperial Dahua troops in Xicong have their territory squeezed, hundreds of thousands of invading forces are lacking clothes and food, their future hanging by a thread!"

Above his head, a huge chimney belched thick smoke while on the other side of the yard wall was actually a massive steel factory.

Trains loaded with iron ore would pass through the streets of Tongcheng, and whenever a train crossed, striped black and yellow barriers would descend at the street's edge, stopping pedestrians and vehicles alike.

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Then the long train would thunder through the divided streets, pulling its deafeningly loud whistle, as car after car swept past people's eyes, never pausing for what seemed like an age.

The signal lights on the side kept flashing a red glow, and the bell-like alert sounds tirelessly clanged on and on, continuing long after the train had departed before they finally ceased.

The vast factories were a maze of pipes, some of which even stretched across the streets overhead like overpasses.

The shiny metal pipes, fastened together at intervals with rivets and screws, if you looked closely, even had wild cats or birds perching on them.

As hygiene conditions improved, the number of rats throughout the city even diminished greatly. However, pollution still persisted, with crevices in the streets filled with coal ash and the remnants of combustion that caused incessant coughing.

A pale-yellow shirt would turn black at the collar and cuffs in just one day, and if the wind blew the wrong way, the backdraft from the city's smelters would scorch people's airways, making every breath exquisitely painful.

This was no exaggeration; on the contrary, it signified the prosperity and greatness of Tongcheng. This colossal industrial city sustained more than three million tirelessly working laborers.

Due to its expansive terrain, Tongcheng covered an even larger area than Brunas and its growth was even more exaggerated.

After all, with more heritage and experience, cities like Tongcheng had already far surpassed the production capabilities of the past city of hope, Brunas.

The whole city seemed ablaze, the presence of factories drastically altering the way of life for its people.

Living off the land and the waters, families that relied on the factories naturally enjoyed various degrees of benefits: in the winter, the air near their homes was warm, and many bizarre things shockingly cheap.

Like scalding hot water: near the factories, there were often many affordable public bathhouses, which had become a cultural phenomenon, also economizing the cost for people to stay clean.

Truckloads of industrial waste hot water could be bought for very little, with steamy water trucks filling up the tanks in the bathhouses, then freely used by the bathing enthusiasts.

Another benefit was sawdust, the waste wood cuttings from the factories, abundant and of little use, could be bought for a small amount of money to burn at home.

Compared to firewood, sawdust burned quickly, flaring out before long. But it was cheap and ignited easily, and so it was often used as kindling for starting fires.

Sometimes, mixed with coal slag that children gathered near the factory gates during their free time, if used sparingly it could last for days, saving quite a fortune...

Another advantage of industrial areas was convenient electricity, as factories required power, urban areas began to see more developed electrical infrastructures.

Following a series of developments, the electricity system in Tongcheng had become quite comprehensive, with power reaching every household and streetlights massively widespread throughout the city.

In other nations' cities, such a thing would still be considered a luxury. But in the Great Tang Kingdom, it was no longer something out of the ordinary.

Whether it was Chang'an, Linshui, Tongcheng, or Dragon Harbor, these cities were all lit up by electric lights, and many places had even started using brighter and more advanced "fluorescent tubes."

Amidst the cries of newspaper sellers, a bustling day in Tongcheng began. Vendors pushing their breakfast carts lifted the lids of steaming bamboo steamers, shouting out to start selling their food, with cars gradually increasing on the streets, and the horns becoming incessant in the traffic jams.

The shop assistants in businesses about to open were unloading wooden boards plastered with discount notices from their display windows and leaning them against the door.

In a recently opened tailor shop, the proprietress splashed wastewater from washing up onto the sewer cover at the door. Above the sign, a middle-aged woman hung out the bedsheets to dry, and on the rooftops above, the glowing billboard that had twinkled all night still showed the pretty lady with her bright smile, holding a cigarette case from Tongcheng's tobacco factory.

Off to work, throngs of cyclists blocked the intersections, the excited voices of acquaintances greeting each other contributed to the extraordinary clamor on the streets.

The loudspeakers inside the factory walls started playing music full of electrical interference, marking the start of Tongcheng's day and the day of countless workers.

No one could sense the shadow of war in such a life, everyone relished the unprecedented existence they were living, and it was from this lifestyle that they saw something called hope.

(Many things in this chapter were experienced by Dragon Spirit, familiar yet heartwarming)