After Tang Mo hadughed enough, the Prime Minister finally spoke, "In fact, you are already very wealthy, Mr. Tang. Frankly speaking, you might even be richer than those big bosses of the Shireck Consortium."


    The Shireck Consortium is actually not owned by a single individual. Although most of the shares are held by a few wealthy families, the shares each of these families controls are quite limited.


    But Tang Mo is different. The Great Tang Group is wholly owned by him, which makes his wealth more concentrated. However, Tang Mo still doubted that he was wealthier than those individuals.


    So, Tang Mo shrugged his shoulders and defended himself, "I really don''t have much money. You''ve seen it,ying steel tracks is a huge expense."


    He was not lying; in fact, he really didn''t have much cash on hand—most of his ie had been reinvested in the construction of his factories.


    Now, he had many factories under construction simultaneously, which had severely depleted his funds to a rather dangerous extent.


    Currently, the Great Tang Group was constructing an oil refinery and a chemical nt on ck Dragon Ind, along with a pharmaceutical factory and arge power nt.


    All of these constructions required time and investment. In the Vicious Forest, the expansion of Tang Mo''s Factory No. 2 was also ongoing.


    The second phase of the railway construction project connecting Northern Ridge and Brunas was also underway. Tang Mo intended to make it a double-track railway line, facilitating both freight and passenger transport.


    In addition to the railway investments elsewhere in the kingdom, factory investments, and stakes in various projects, Tang Mo''s cash did not match his status and identity at all.


    In fact, the Prime Minister was aware of it. He didn''t need to investigate deliberately; a casual inquiry revealed that Tang Mo had recently invested at least one million Gold Coins in expansion and investments, which certainly strained his finances.


    Hence, he suggested to Tang Mo with a smile, "Mr. Tang is joking. If you''re willing to transfer the railway operation rights from Brunas to King City to His Majesty, the capital you could recover may be unimaginablyrge."


    Tang Mo was taken aback, realizing the King seemed prepared to expand his investment in the railway projects. He looked at the Prime Minister and casually asked, "It seems His Majesty has a lot of money at the moment?"


    Recently, all three kingdoms of the alliance were actively integrating their newly annexed territories, which involved resettling and managing thends and their poptions, consuming most of the efforts of the three kings.


    To assimte these newly upied territories quicker and to solidify their control over these regions, the various nations unanimously thought of Tang Mo''s railways.


    Now, with seven or eight railways being constructed at the same time, the countries were not overly eager to expand their military forces. Instead, they focused their efforts on the railway and telegraph systems.


    The countries invited Tang Mo to establish telegraph offices in many cities to cover these regions, enabling them to manage the areas with ease.


    And Tang Mo took the opportunity to expand his influence in these areas, while simultaneously extending his intelligencework.


    However, the expansion of the telegraph system also had another impact: the electromaic environment began to getplicated, forcing Tang Mo to allocate frequency bands for telegraphy and to start introducing more advanced telegraph machines to his troops.


    The Prime Minister did not hide the truth either, nodding and speaking frankly, "Indeed, because of your support, he has never been so wealthy."


    The tax reforms in Leite Kingdom might be even moreprehensive than those of Suthers, mainly because Tang Mo had provided the kingdom with new solutions and enough manpower support.


    Finance Minister Simon could now be considered one of the rising political stars within the kingdom, with performances that tremendously pleased Leite VII.


    Almost all of Simon''s suggestions were fully adopted by Leite VII, and talents rmended by Simon were quickly able to establish firm footing within the Leite Kingdom.


    In return, Simon constructed a very advanced economic system for the Leite Kingdom, and the kingdom''s tax efficiency had never been higher.


    Due to tax reduction and increased efficiency, the Leite Kingdom quickly subdued those new upied territories. By lowering taxes and appeasing the upied areas, the efficiency was truly high.


    With the support of graduates from the Great Tang military academy, Leite Kingdom was thriving, and Leite VII had already far surpassed his forefathers, bing the greatest monarch since the kingdom''s inception.


    Such achievements raised his prestige even more and also enhanced his control over the core areas of the kingdom to a new level.


    Tang Mo was not like Shireck; he almost never caused troubles. Although his pration into the entire kingdom had reached a terrifying extent, he rarely imposed his political influence on Leite Kingdom.


    His weapons were so advanced that he did not need to peddle them; the Leite military had already fully adopted and outfitted itself with weapons and equipment from the Great Tang Group.


    He didn''t need to utilize his umted political capital to implement the political systems he wanted within the kingdom because those systems were all more advanced and the Leite Kingdom''s higher echelons could not refuse these good policies.


    This way of interaction made Leite VII veryfortable and allowed him to pursue his political ambitions boldly and confidently.


    Of course, Tang Mo was not willing to part with his own railway operation rights, so he suggested, "Since His Majesty is so wealthy, why noty another railway, connecting King City with the new upied territories?"


    When Tang Mo asked this, the Prime Minister realized that Tang Mo''s capability to produce iron rails must have increased, so he asked curiously, "You can produce more iron rails now?"


    The production capacity for iron rails had always been insufficient, partly due to the scarcity of raw materials and also due to theck of steel factories.


    To solve this problem, Tang Mo had constructed a new steel factory in Northern Ridge, using local resources to expand the production scale of iron rails.


    However, this meant that Northern Ridge could no longer supply Brunas with iron ingots to full capacity, so Tang Mo had to begin using sea transport routes like the Elves, frantically purchasing iron ore and iron ingots from other regions.


    With Shireck also recently purchasing steel, the price of steel had nearly doubled. Yet Tang Mo still epted every order, showing an attitude that he would take in as much as was avable.


    Recently the steel purchase quota of the Por Kingdom had started to diminish, as the lingering effects of having had many merchant ships sunk were starting to be apparent.


    Tang Mo nodded and answered the Prime Minister''s question, "The new factory has beenpleted in Northern Ridge, and Countess Alice can now provide the Kingdom with 70 kilometers of iron rails every month."


    Because the demand was huge, the size of the factory was also veryrge. The whole of Leite Kingdom had begun to get used to referring to more efficient production units as factories.


    After all, the terms workshop and workhouse no longer reflected the advanced nature of production at Tang Mo''s Great Tang Group.


    Upon hearing this, the Prime Minister immediately expressed his sentiment, "I can now confirm that those who know you be richer and richer."


    In fact, the family of the Prime Minister also owned shares in some of the textile factories built by Tang Mo, creating considerable wealth for the Prime Minister''s family every month.


    These days, the Prime Minister''s household could not do without Tang Mo''s monthly provisions, so without realizing it, the Prime Minister was under Tang Mo''s influence and tended to make decisions that were more favorable to Tang Mo.


    After thinking for a while, Tang Mo gave a reply that surprised the Prime Minister, "Not entirely."


    "Hmm?" The Prime Minister looked at Tang Mo with curiosity, showing a gossiping expression.


    Tang Mo, who had no intention of hiding anything, immediately exined to the Prime Minister, "Actually, the Por Kingdom, which has been maintaining an expansionist posture recently, owes me arge amount of money."


    The Prime Minister immediately rified his position, siding with Tang Mo, "Does the Leite Kingdom need to exert some pressure? If necessary, we can change our diplomatic policy towards the Por Kingdom."


    Leite Kingdom''s recent expansion had given him a lot of confidence, and with Tang Mo''s technological support, the Prime Minister did not believe that the Por Kingdom could rival Leite Kingdom.


    Even though the former had also been showing strength recently, expanding, and even defeated the Gales Kingdom, swallowing up the Sena ins.


    Tang Mo looked towards the warship anchored at the side and said to the Prime Minister, "There''s absolutely no need for that, my irond warships have already blockaded Por Kingdom''s Southwater Port."


    It was then that the Prime Minister realized that Tang Mo had already gone to war with the Por Kingdom. He looked at the cold, formidable warship and confidently made his assessment, "They must be very ufortable."


    "Yes, and my next step is to smash their Osa Port, what do you think, Prime Minister?" Tang Mo asked with a smile.


    He was so casual as if attacking a Kingdom''s port were a very simple matter.


    The Prime Minister was silent, and after about a dozen seconds, he spoke up. He promised Tang Mo very solemnly, "If necessary, the Leite Kingdom is willing to dere war on the Por Kingdom."


    Unknowingly, Tang Mo already had the power to decide on such an important national decision as dering war on another kingdom.


    Tang Mo was not proud; he refused the Prime Minister''s offer with thanks, "Thank you, but things will certainly not develop to such an uncontroble extent."


    The Prime Minister also breathed a sigh of relief because actually, dering war on a strong, non-neighboring country was indeed a great pressure for him.


    After confirming that Tang Mo did not need the Leite Kingdom''s support to dere war, the Prime Minister visibly rxed quite a bit and asked in a gossiping manner, "I want to know, how much do they owe you?"


    Tang Mo casually replied with an imprecise number, "Not much, about 14 million Gold Coins. I didn''t ask my finance minister; it might be a bit more..."


    The Prime Minister was stunned, and it took him a while to confirm that the number he had heard was real and substantial.


    Then, after a few seconds, he realized just how terrifying that number was.


    "Pfft..." He couldn''t help it.