Munitions Empire-Chapter 893 - 816 bustling Fengjiang

Chapter 893: 816 bustling Fengjiang Chapter 893: 816 bustling Fengjiang Fengjiang City could be described as a snapshot of Tang Country’s construction during this period, the city was rebuilt by Tang Country, but governed jointly by Tang Country and Dahua.

Fengjiang City was named after the Fengjiang River because the city was originally built next to this river.

To better distinguish their management, Tang Country transformed the city to some extent during its reconstruction.

Nowadays, the entire city no longer relies on the river for its construction but spans across the entirety of Fengjiang, with city areas set up along both banks of the river.

Previously, the Dahua Empire had not designed it this way, mainly because their construction level was limited and they couldn’t build bridges long enough to maintain transportation between the two banks.

However, such a problem did not exist for Tang Country: upon constructing Fengjiang City, Tang Country built four major bridges across the river in one go.

For this reason, the Dahua Empire also recognized Tang Country’s full control over the old site of Fengjiang, adopting a feigned ignorance attitude toward the relocation of new Fengjiang City several kilometers toward Dahua.

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This was mainly because they could no longer insist on reconstructing Fengjiang at its original site due to the lack of a clear boundary, and they feared it would be difficult to manage.

Given the dominance of the Great Tang Empire, should any conflict arise, it would be unclear and unexplainable, and they could even risk losing control—yes, losing control!

Who would dare to exploit their official position and make money on Tang Country’s land by relying on Fengjiang? Should any issues truly arise, it seemed Tang Country could easily manipulate the situation, and half of Fengjiang City could end up belonging to them.

Having the river provided some level of security, making it less likely for Tang Country to rashly occupy Fengjiang City over trivial reasons.

With such a mindset, the new Fengjiang City was established, and Tang Country’s construction crew took less than half a year to shape the whole Fengjiang City properly.

The construction of the four dual-use bridges began first; the Fengjiang City side close to Tang Country first built a customs office and a train station, and then a continuous flow of materials arrived nearby, with skyscrapers starting to rise from the ground.

Before the materials arrived, Dahua’s captive laborers were digging various kinds of pits, some digging foundations, others digging pipelines. In short, the entire place was filled with large pits awaiting backfill and bustling scenes everywhere.

In order to accelerate the construction speed, Tang Country even funded and hired numerous laborers from Dahua to start digging on the opposite bank simultaneously.

Contractors sent their own engineers to dig pits according to Tang Country’s construction requirements, waiting for the railway bridge to be built, and then pouring various pipelines and reinforced concrete that had been built into these pre-dug pits.

Such construction greatly enhanced the speed of the building, and Fengjiang City quickly sprang up just as Brunas had years ago.

Because pipelines were pre-laid, the wiring of various kinds went very smoothly; power plants and water plants on both sides were quickly put into operation, and the entire city visibly plumped up before one’s eyes.

Merchants, having sensed the opportunities, started flocking to the city while some savvy ones began investing and buying properties in the city, their speed astonishing.

Even the statistics department on Tang Country’s side showed that the investment in Fengjiang City’s construction hadn’t yet run out when it began generating substantial profits.

The Great Tang Empire controlled the Fengjiang frontline, building river defense works along the embankment and even seriously installing two gun emplacements, deploying fully automated twin-mounted 380-caliber armored turrets.

Meanwhile, Dahua Empire, on the other hand, could only pay out of pocket to build the same defensive works, constructing four large permanent defense work groups in one go, each equipped with twin-mounted 380-caliber large cannons.

As a result… these cannons were ultimately ordered from Tang Country’s military factories, using the same model as those on Tang Country’s gun emplacements…

The newly built Fengjiang City boasted a prosperity not seen in other cities of the Dahua Empire, shining with bright lights and bustling nightlife like Brunas, already dazzling even before the port was fully open.

The city now appeared truly marvelous, and many officials from the Dahua Empire side saw endless business opportunities from such a start.

In the future, countless fortunes would be born here, as long as Tang goods entered Dahua through this route or from Dahua into Tang, countless opportunities for manipulation would exist.

Everyone was frantically pushing their trusted individuals here, all believing this place to be a massive, leaderless slice of fat.

With the emergence of skyscrapers and the linkage of railways, trade between Tang Country and the Dahua Empire naturally began.

The first batch headed to the Dahua Empire included goods unknown to them, even leaving customs officials puzzled about how to levy taxes on them.

When Dahua Empire’s border tax officials saw the luxury bags, clothes, and exquisite jewelry and jewels piled up on the train, they were utterly speechless.

On the train, Tang Country “merchants” responsible for the cargo carelessly grabbed a handful from the mountainous piles of goods and stuffed it into the hands of the Dahua Empire tax officials, who immediately felt the beauty of their job.

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Their daughters had long been waiting for such a necklace, wearing it to a banquet would greatly satisfy their vanity.

Their wives had long desired such a dress, for only the highest women of society had heard of the fashion worn early on in other countries.

They themselves had long wanted a timepiece that shimmered with light, the watches from Tang Country were more than just accurate, they symbolized status and wealth!

The intelligence department of Tang Country paved their way with the wealth collected from various countries, in turn, injecting this money back into these nations as dirty funds, smoothing out connections everywhere, creating a path that was nearly unobstructed.

If a ring couldn’t solve a problem, then smash them with a necklace; if a necklace couldn’t fix it, smash them with a car!

For those who didn’t want money, send them artworks from the Eastern Continent, famous paintings, calligraphy, gold and silver vessels, even exquisite porcelain from the Great Tang Empire.

For those still difficult to sway, send beauties! Exotic Cat-girls, or how about versatile and aristocratic jazz ladies, or hot female celebrities, or beautiful and successful businesswomen?

For officials themselves that are impregnable, target their children: free scholarships, cornerstone social events, shares in profitable companies, even helping to write famous poems and academic papers.

Like to be famous? Then directly shoot them into movie fame, where investors and promoters help these kids become stars adored by thousands.

Like power? Gather a bunch of rich and official second generations, who call you lord, young master, or big brother every day, capable of providing whatever you want, embodying the power to command the wind and rain.

Under such a comprehensive and all-dimensional offensive, how could anyone resist temptation and remain virtuous in this torrent?

This is the power of capital, unscrupulously strategizing an individual, corrupting a group, eroding a circle, destroying a country, almost as easy as flipping one’s hand.

…

The Tang Empire built four railways connecting to the Dahua Empire. These lines stretched from Fengjiang all the way east to Linshui.

This was tantamount to transversing the entirety of Great Tang’s eastern and western territories, complemented with a railway from Beiyuan City down south to the borders of Chu Country, forming a complete railway network of the Tang Empire.

Spreading from these two main arteries were countless railways, covering the cities of the Tang Empire like a spider web.

They played a critical role, along with the road network, acting like veins, supporting the giant that was the Tang Empire, filling it with strength.

On the Dahua Empire side, they were also diligently constructing an east-west railway due to its immense economic value.

By sending Qin Country’s oil to Tang Country, the Dahua Empire could continuously collect these tolls, virtually gaining a railway for free.

Moreover, this railway could also send the excess oil from the Dahua Empire to Tang Country, as the latter seemed to have an insatiable appetite for oil.

This was truly a bizarre phenomenon: while other countries seemed to need oil, overall, everyone had a “limit”; once their needs were fulfilled, they no longer had much means to handle surplus oil production.

However, the Tang Empire was entirely different; it was like a bottomless pit, capable of consuming any amount of oil produced by other countries. Their thirst for oil seemed endless.

Indeed, the Tang Country had a higher demand for oil than other countries: besides being refined into gasoline, Tang Country also had a plethora of chemical plants, waiting to extract all sorts of things from oil.

Even the remnants of oil and coal products like asphalt were vital raw materials for modern infrastructure.

The upstream industry of the asphalt sector includes petrochemicals, coal, modifiers, and emulsifiers, while the downstream includes highway construction, waterproof building materials, airport construction, and municipal road construction.

In the complete petrochemical industry chain, the front-end products of oil asphalt are ethers, alkanes, hydrocarbons, benzene, and other major categories, and oil asphalt, obtained through coking processes at the end of crude oil processing, can be used to produce petroleum rubber.

These items were all essential to modern industry, well-known plastics, and various other hi-tech materials, all extending from the oil product chain.

Materials used in clothes, lighter helmets for the military, more malleable equipment casings, even transparent plexiglass … these were all things that the Tang Group was fervently producing.

As a partial substitute for metals, plastics were pivotal, so crucial that no integrated industrial product could circumvent this material.

Plastics were necessary in cars, ships, airplanes, and even extensively used in firearms.