Munitions Empire

On that bright morning, it took only two breaths for his 500 private troops to be crushed into pieces by the 300 infantry commanded by a young man.

He hadn't even managed to stop the opponent from advancing for a single second before he was utterly routed amidst the drumbeats that seemed to hammer at his heart.

He didn't dare to look back at the miserable state of his own troops and was dragged away by the reins by several of his confidants, fleeing towards King City.

Later he heard that his territory had been turned upside down by that man, even his manor had been burned to ashes.

To this day, he was filled with fear, fear of that sunny morning, fear of that terrifying, urgent, unique drumbeat.

"Isn't this Tang Mo the bastard who previously led his troops across the Ice Crystal River, and headed north?" Finally, an officer snapped to his senses, recalling the name that, half a year ago, had made the entire Suthers Kingdom hate to the bone and fear as if he were a tiger.

Once, this name cast a shadow over the entire King City, with the soldiers stationed there losing their courage at the mere mention of his name, fleeing in droves before even seeing his banner.

In order to have this name leave in peace, even the King on the throne of Suthers had scraped together 63,100 Gold Coins just to buy his promise not to continue heading north.

Yes, not even daring to rally the troops to resist, the King of Suthers could only pay for peace.

For all of Suthers' nobility, the young man who launched a new era of zero-cost conquest, committing arson and plundering without doing any evil, was simply no different from a devil.

But in the minds of the Suthers officers, though they were reluctant to admit it, that name actually stood alongside the War God.

Even in their arrogance, they knew they would not dare to lead just 300 men into enemy territory. All the more so, relying on those 300 men, that young man had fought with ever-increasing momentum, traveled a thousand miles in a day, and created an awe-inspiring assault, carving out a world... of his own!

He left with countless Gold Coins, laughing, and the grand Suthers Kingdom didn't have a single person who dared to block his path.

Even when he agreed not to continue northward but to head south with the large amount of plundered Gold Coins, the feeling from top to bottom in Suthers was not one of shame, but a sigh of relief...

A Suthers general, not realizing he was speaking incoherently, swallowed his saliva before he could barely calm himself down, pointing at the letter, three parts fearful and with a voice trying to sound fierce, shouted, "He, he he he... He is too arrogant!"

Finally, a Suthers officer had enough of the oppressive atmosphere. He mustered up his courage, feeling that he should be more fiery and valiant as that would befit the image others had of him.

Therefore, he clenched his fists, mustered up his energy, and shouted loudly, "I cannot coexist with this thief under the heavens! I must kill him!"

Sure enough, the people around him immediately cast admiring glances at his "gallant bravery." It seemed that if there were some ladies around at that moment, they might be willing to offer themselves to him.

Some officers also became excited, echoing enthusiastically, "That's right! Kill him!"

"..." Watching the atmosphere run wild beyond his control, Romel truly felt like he wanted to shoot that show-off bastard dead.

"..." The officer who had just taken the lead in showing off also felt he might have overdone it and started to shut his mouth, pretending to be inconspicuous.

"Come on, the command is yours, go on then!" Romel, eying the somewhat embarrassed officer, finally couldn't help but kick him while he was down.

He took off his Longsword and handed it to the other man, "Serve the Kingdom faithfully! You lead the troops across the river! Don't hesitate!"

The officer's face immediately turned red. He looked left and right, and after realizing no one would save him, he finally chickened out, "This... cough cough! I'm suddenly feeling a bit unwell, this villain doesn't need me to act personally, sending one commander is more than enough!"

You see, sometimes it's just that simple to recognize oneself. When facing a tiger, people talk about sliding tackles behind a screen, but face to face, they discuss how much insurance will cover...

Seeing those officers who were still a bit agitated, Romel questioned them with a clenched jaw, "What's the matter? Does anyone else think they want to go? Just cross the river and be the vanguard, how about it?"

The atmosphere suddenly quieted down, and all the excited sentiments instantly cooled into silence.

"Since... none of you has the guts..." As Romel was speaking, for some reason, he felt an inexplicable sense of pleasure: "Then all of you shut up!"

Everyone shrunk their necks and started to change the subject. A military officer asked a colleague in a low voice, "Wasn't there intelligence saying that Tang Mo was just a merchant from Brunas before?"

The officer by his side suddenly remembered something, his brows furrowed with disbelief, "Right! How did he end up at Northern Ridge to make trouble for us again?"

In the past half a year, the intelligence personnel of Suthers had not been idle, as they had also investigated the changes at Northern Ridge.

For one thing, they knew Northern Ridge's troops were equipped with more advanced weapons, and the person in charge of Shireck Consortium within Suthers territory had even been reassigned as punishment because of this matter.

Having investigated back and forth, they finally learned that the young man who had led troops into Suthers and left a shadow over the kingdom wasn't a military leader from Northern Ridge but rather a businessman temporarily acting as an officer. This businessman had his own industry in Brunas and, under normal circumstances, would not come to Northern Ridge.

It was precisely because of this investigative report that the hasty military expedition had occurred. Suthers believed that Tang Mo might not necessarily involve himself in this muddy situation.

Amidst a babble of voices, one officer seemed to suddenly realize something and asked with great indignation, "Is Shireck's intelligence inaccurate?"

"When has their intelligence ever been accurate?" another officer immediately echoed in response.

The atmosphere, which had just been somewhat awkward, became lively again amid a chorus of condemnations against the Shireck Consortium.

Then, the master of deduction came online, with one officer exercising his imagination, slapping his thigh as if struck by a revelation, "They want us to fight to the death against Tang Mo, so they can benefit from the situation behind our backs!"

Once they had grasped this link, everyone suddenly felt as if they had seen the light—they seemed to have found a very substantial reason not to cross the river and head south.

A few officers nodded in agreement with their colleague's speculation, resolute not to be used by others, "We can't fall for this trick!"

"Right! We won't be anyone else's cannon fodder!" With this stance, everyone became excited again, shouting louder and more righteously than they had when calling for advancing south.

"To avoid misunderstandings with the other side, we should... retreat a distance and then report the current situation to His Majesty the King," suggested Romel's confidant in a hushed voice.

Upon hearing this, Romel's eyes lit up—indeed, it seemed like a good idea to leave this thorny issue for the King to ponder over.

So he immediately nodded, adopting the suggestion, "Order the troops to pull back 30 kilometers! Then set up camp! Send a knight immediately to deliver the news here back to King City!"

...

One day later, news of Suthers' retreat reached Ice Crystal City, and the Northern Ridge officers, who had not witnessed Tang Mo's rampage through Suthers territory, looked incredulously at Tang Mo who was busy with paperwork.

Curiosity got the better of one officer who asked, "Sir, did you... did you just write them a letter?"

"Yes, I just wrote them a letter," Tang Mo replied without lifting his head, having just signed a document and set it aside.

Still disbelieving, the officer persisted, "And then they retreated?"

"Yes, then they retreated," Tang Mo nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Are they stupid?" the officer blurted out, causing Wes, who was standing beside Tang Mo, to nearly burst into laughter.

Tang Mo set down his paperwork and looked up, "Perhaps."

"What did you write in the letter?" Finally, unable to contain his curiosity, an aide of a former Earl asked.

"I greeted them, introduced myself, and then asked them to get ready..." Tang Mo answered truthfully, while Wes, who knew the full story, nearly laughed out loud again.

He knew that to the officers of Suthers, these contents were tantamount to a demon from hell sharpening his blade while issuing threats.

Unfortunately, the Northern Ridge officers didn't know, so they were still completely baffled, "That's it?"

"That's it," Tang Mo affirmed with seriousness.

"Sir, the commander of the Suthers troops, Romel, has sent a reply," at that moment, an officer pushed open the door to the office, bringing in a beautiful envelope.

"Read," Tang Mo gestured for someone to read the reply from Suthers aloud, curious about what the other party had to say.

But as the reader went through the letter, they struggled to suppress their laughter, "Respected Mr. Tang Mo, our army's southward movement was just a routine border change and bore no provocative intentions. Please don't misunderstand! Our troops have now retreated to express goodwill... Earl Romel... respectfully yours..."