Munitions Empire-Chapter 646 - : 605 Supply Limit

Chapter 646: 605 Supply Limit

Sometimes, rapid development comes with a price. Environmental protection is indeed important, but for the sake of development speed, sometimes sacrifices have to be made.

The Great Tang Kingdom isn’t strong enough yet to be able to simply relocate heavily polluting factories to other countries. Even smelting plants and chemical plants, which are major polluters, are still in non-stop construction to this day.

Tang Mo wasn’t ignorant of the fact that cleaning up pollution afterward is more difficult and labor-intensive. But he simply had no way to ensure environmental protection measures while pushing for industrialization.

On one hand, he lacked the necessary technology, and on the other, he lacked sufficient talent.

In terms of technology, Tang Mo prioritized the development of urgently needed subfields. But as he was just one person, he had to make his own choices about which technologies to develop and which to temporarily give up.

Previously, Tang Mo’s choices in technology pertaining to thunder were not good enough, even though this was weapon technology, which he was very familiar with.

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But when it came to environmental protection technology, Tang Mo had not invested any effort into research. This led to such tasks falling to those below to “figure out on their own.”

The reality was that the Great Tang Group’s environmental protection technology research team consisted of a total of two people, and all their research was still in the theoretical stage.

Right now, the Tang Country was still madly raising literacy rates and training more professional talents, with no time to train specialists in environmental protection.

What he needed to ensure was sufficient food production and industrial capacity. And to achieve this goal he was already giving his all.

Most of the talents trained by all universities and high schools in the Great Tang Kingdom went into the military, and a smaller fraction became administrative management staff.

Add to that engineers, skilled technicians, high-end technical personnel, etc., a portion was divided away. Who didn’t need the remaining talent?

This wasn’t a world where college graduates were worthless, and master and doctorate degree holders were everywhere! This was an era where you could find work after 5 weeks of training and recognizing 500 characters!

What worried Tang Mo every day was that he needed to produce dozens of tanks and airplanes each day, and a warship or a freight ship every week.

The workers of the Great Tang Group worked non-stop every day and still couldn’t meet Tang Mo’s production needs, let alone spare hands to worry about the pollution issue.

All the capable people had already been distributed by the more important departments, leaving behind those who couldn’t recognize a single big character, and what they cared about most was how much food was left in their family’s rice barrel.

In this world, eighty percent of the common people didn’t even know what diabetes was, nor understood how terrifying cancer could be.

To them, going outside and being choked by smog to the point of coughing was not intolerable: Compared to hunger and poverty, smog was trivial!

Environmental protection? What a joke! Hadn’t Chang’an not yet become smog-filled? Wasn’t it true that the river water hadn’t killed anyone yet? Weren’t the colorful lands still capable of growing crops?

To the people of this era, environmental pollution was just an unfamiliar term. No one cared, no one paid attention.

Even though Tang Mo did indeed have concerns in this regard, it was just his worries alone. The vast majority of the world believed that there was nothing wrong with dumping polluted water directly into the river.

As for the increase of skin disease patients in a certain place and the emergence of strange illnesses, these were nothing more than normal occurrences.

Do you know how many beggars starved to death last year in this place? When people couldn’t even eat their fill and didn’t bathe once a year, who would care about carbon emissions?

My God, the white smoke curling up from those concrete chimneys every day wasn’t pollution; that was the hope for hundreds of poorly clad people struggling to survive!

Moreover, compared to the world Tang Mo was familiar with, this world was as pristine as a blank sheet of paper. The environmental pollution here was so minor that it hardly mattered.

All chemical factories of the Great Tang Group worked overtime day and night, yet they didn’t release as many toxic substances in a minute as a giant chemical enterprise from the future.

The workers of the Great Tang Kingdom built new factories frantically every day, but looking at the map, these factories scattered throughout the Kingdom were still sparse and pitiful.

In reality, aside from Chang’an and Tongcheng, the air quality in the other industrial cities of the Great Tang Kingdom was not bad. At least compared to the world Tang Mo knew, the air quality in these cities could be described as excellent.

After all, cities like Dragon City, Weigang, Fengshun, Dongwan, and Linshui were all coastal cities, where the sea breeze had long since carried away the emissions of smoke and dust to distant places.

Tang Mo did care about environmental protection; it’s just that he didn’t have time to deal with it yet.

The environmental protection actions of the Great Tang Group for now were still limited to planting trees: The group employed a large number of farmers to replenish saplings every day to maintain a basic scale of forests.

This was, in fact, much better than the powerful nations during the industrial revolution in Tang Mo’s previous life—at least Tang Mo’s side had taken some actions and didn’t play dumb until the very last moment.

However, due to the lack of technology and personnel, the Great Tang Kingdom could only stay at the awkward stage of “the pot calling the kettle black” when it came to environmental pollution.

“Let’s go!” With that, the middle-aged man pointed ahead and, with his young apprentice and assistant in tow, walked out of the airport and stood under the bus stop sign outside.

There was no helping it; among all the departments of the Great Tang Group, only the Environmental Improvement Project Department was not allocated a car, which spoke volumes about the attitude towards environmental protection.

Although they would one day regret this, for now, the lack of emphasis on environmental problems was a fact.

The two of them stood miserably under the bus stop sign, watching car after car pass by in front of their eyes.

Some cars were sent by government departments to pick up people, others belonged to drivers who received telegrams to pick up friends or bosses. By the time the two of them boarded a public bus and arrived in Linshui City, shaking all the way, they were so hungry their stomachs were howling.

Moreover, the best time of the morning had passed, and they had no choice but to reveal their identities, stay here for one night, and investigate the seafood market early the next day.

“Environment? Protection? How stupid do you have to be to raise two fools like you?” The old lady in charge of the hostel looked at them with disdain after hearing their identities, “You’ve probably had a few days of full meals, now you’re full and bursting with fanciful ideas…”

Five days after the Air Force struck and destroyed Shireck’s airship troops, the Tang Army intelligence department finally confirmed the scale of the invasion by Shireck’s naval fleet.

Shireck’s own fleet had about five cruisers and around 20 destroyers. Plus the ten cruisers and ten destroyers from Gobur, they formed the sneak attack fleet this time.

In fact, the Laines Empire, Ice Cold Empire, Dorne Empire, and Poplar Kingdom did not send their own fleets to mingle in this murky water.

They feared Tang Mo’s fleet attacking their rich ports: Their main profits this time hinged on plundering the territories of the Great Tang Group.

Imagine, if ports like Winterless City, Hotwind Port, Brunas, Osa, Nan Shui, and Eternal Winter City were smashed by warships of the Great Tang Group, what would become of the Endless Sea.

However, since Shireck had the idea of attacking Dragon Island, they would not worry about the Great Tang Kingdom’s retaliation, so they dragged Gobur’s navy along and fiercely set their sights on Dragon Island.

With 15 cruisers and 30 destroyers, Shireck mobilized nearly its entire naval estate for this outing.

It was a pity that they did not know the Tang Kingdom’s naval forces had sailed south to Dragon Island, lurking nearby, ready and waiting for Shireck’s sneak attack fleet!

And this fleet of the Great Tang Kingdom’s navy had 3 battleships, 15 cruisers, and 20 destroyers.

Just speaking of combat power on paper, the Tang Country’s navy clearly had the upper hand, and their three battleships could easily destroy Shireck’s sneak attack fleet.

As for why Shireck didn’t have any battleships, that was because they had sold all the battleships they built to the Shen Country’s navy…

“Dorne’s fleet has been found… Adding to the previously confirmed fleets of the Laines Empire and the Ice Cold Empire… Most of the fleets’ positions have now been confirmed,” Li’ao reported to Tang Mo with confidence about the intelligence department’s findings.

“We still haven’t received a message from our people hiding in Gobur,” he added immediately.

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Tang Mo nodded slightly without saying a word, then looked directly at the head of the Air Force following the nod.

Ever since wireless navigation was successful, the Air Force stationed on Dragon Island had commenced daily patrolling and search operations. With squads led by experienced old instructors—four planes in a formation—they kept a continuous watch over the waters near Dragon Island.

This was not part of previous Air Force training, but now, in order to carry out maritime strike missions, all Air Force pilots had been trained in maritime search and attack.

“Your Majesty! We have not found the fleet yet… However, based on fuel calculations, they should be appearing soon,” the Air Force liaison officer assured, chin up.

Once again, Tang Mo nodded: The enemy fleet was not nuclear-powered, so it naturally had a limit to how long it could operate. The longer the delay, the closer Shireck’s sneak attack fleet was to reaching its supply limit.

“Continue to monitor the airspace near Dragon Island! As soon as the enemy fleet is spotted, report to me immediately!” He casually ordered.

Recently, his spirits were high since his Minister of Finance had gone back to Chang’an for work. So, he had been sleeping well at night, at least unburdened by the need to contribute public funds.

“Yes, Your Majesty!” The Air Force liaison officer stood at attention and saluted in response.