After Tang Mo had laughed 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, laying steel tracks is a huge expense."
He was not lying; in fact, he really didn't have much cash on hand—most of his income 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 plant on Black Dragon Island, along with a pharmaceutical factory and a large power plant.
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 unimaginably large."
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 the lands and their populations, consuming most of the efforts of the three kings.
To assimilate these newly occupied 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 intelligence network.
However, the expansion of the telegraph system also had another impact: the electromagnetic environment began to get complicated, 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 more comprehensive 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 recommended 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 occupied territories. By lowering taxes and appeasing the occupied 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, becoming 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 penetration 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 accumulated 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 very comfortable 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 not lay another railway, connecting King City with the new occupied 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 the lack 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 accepted every order, showing an attitude that he would take in as much as was available.
Recently the steel purchase quota of the Poplar Kingdom had started to diminish, as the lingering effects of having had many merchant ships sunk were starting to become apparent.
Tang Mo nodded and answered the Prime Minister's question, "The new factory has been completed 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 very large. 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 become 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 explained to the Prime Minister, "Actually, the Poplar Kingdom, which has been maintaining an expansionist posture recently, owes me a large amount of money."
The Prime Minister immediately clarified 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 Poplar 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 Poplar 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 Plains.
Tang Mo looked towards the warship anchored at the side and said to the Prime Minister, "There's absolutely no need for that, my ironclad warships have already blockaded Poplar Kingdom's Southwater Port."
It was then that the Prime Minister realized that Tang Mo had already gone to war with the Poplar Kingdom. He looked at the cold, formidable warship and confidently made his assessment, "They must be very uncomfortable."
"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 declare war on the Poplar Kingdom."
Unknowingly, Tang Mo already had the power to decide on such an important national decision as declaring 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 uncontrollable extent."
The Prime Minister also breathed a sigh of relief because actually, declaring 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 declare war, the Prime Minister visibly relaxed 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.