Munitions Empire

Suthers Kingdom, King City.

A car sped along the not-so-smooth road, pamphlets fluttering out from the vehicle's windows. Passersby stopped and picked up a pamphlet, attentively reading the content.

The pamphlet, printed in colored ink, contained content that seemed to be unrelated to the general public.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The pamphlet announced that the Great Tang Group was planning to hold the first "World Industrial Expo" in Bruna in three months' time.

To be honest, many commoners in Suthers didn't even know what an exposition meant, fortunate the pamphlet provided an explanation.

The so-called World Industrial Expo was a super-gathering concerning industrial development. Anybody with advanced technology or innovative ideas related to technology was welcome to join the exposition.

Anyone, whether from textiles or mining, shipbuilding or any hodgepodge of industries, could attend the exhibition as long as they had new technology.

If someone showed interest, they could sell their ideas or products, promoting innovative developments and enabling newcomers in the field of industrial technology to quickly see financial returns.

The Great Tang Group would also present their latest technologies at the exposition, including telephone technology, more precise steam engines, newer models of automobiles, and models of ships.

Beyond new technologies and ideas, industrial processing innovations were also a key focus of the exposition.

Both individual workers and factories could participate in a technology competition, showcasing their precision-manufactured parts and pushing technology to become more precise and advanced.

If someone's craftsmanship or technological innovation, invention

At the end of the exposition, the Great Tang Group would judge the most revolutionary innovations and award the Great Tang Technology Gold Prize to the innovators.

This award, sponsored by the Great Tang Group, offered three levels; the third-class prize was unlimited, and anyone whose design or technology met the criteria could win. There were only ten second-class prizes, and only one first-class prize!

Do not underestimate this prize; the Great Tang Group had prepared a generous reward of 50 Gold Coins for each third-class winner, 500 Gold Coins for each second-class winner, and the first-class prize was a staggering 10,000 Gold Coins!

"What's this?" asked a passerby who had picked up another pamphlet, frowning and turning to their friend.

Even though various reforms had taken place in Suthers, the literacy rate was still very low, especially in King City of Suthers, where a considerable proportion of the population was illiterate.

The King of Suthers, having recognized this problem, emulated the Great Tang Group by establishing two schools in King City.

One was an elementary school to raise literacy rates; the other was an advanced school.

The advanced school even hired graduates from the Great Tang Group to teach various modern sciences, fully aligning with Great Tang.

Moreover, after paying 100,000 Gold Coins each year, the advanced school, also known as the Suthers Royal Academy, earned the right to send 30 graduates to the Great Tang Technology Institute for further study each year.

"Who knows... I can only understand the gist of it," another citizen of Suthers Kingdom admitted shyly and "boasted."

He was literate and spent one day each week learning reading and math at the kingdom's elementary school.

That was his capital because by studying at the elementary school, he even received a good job in the kingdom's administrative department!

"What does it say?" a young man who had also picked up a flyer asked curiously.

"It says that Bruna is going to host a big meeting with many people attending. Anyone with inventions can go too, and they might even win a cash prize in a competition," replied the literate clerk.

Meanwhile, on the streets of Bruna, an elderly newspaper vendor waved his papers and loudly proclaimed, "Get your papers! Get your papers! The first World Industrial Expo in history is about to commence!"

There was no choice, as the city's children were all attending school—Bruna, or to say, the Great Tang Group mandated that all children must receive education from the age of five.

Education for children aged 5 to 7 was preschool, from 7 to 13 was elementary, and from 13 to 16 was junior education... Tang Mo simply copied the school system from his previous life.

However, what was different was that the Great Tang Group was wealthy, so all the way up to high school, education was free and compulsory.

What's more, as long as the participating children could keep up, they wouldn't have to pay tuition fees all the way until postgraduate graduation, and they even received subsidies.

Children who couldn't keep up were sent to industrial technology schools to continue their education, and they had to master a skill before being placed in a relevant position.

One could say that this system, which resembled wartime protocols, meant that it was rare to see idle youth in the controlled territories of the Great Tang Group.

For this reason, jobs like selling newspapers were typically taken on by older individuals who couldn't keep up with the times. They could support themselves with such work and even contribute a little extra to household expenses.

The Great Tang Group had yet to introduce retirement insurance or similar systems, so elder care largely depended on the elderly themselves...

An old man who looked about seventy sat in front of a roadside stall, which displayed a variety of newspapers.

With the few teeth he had left, he called out loudly, "Come and have a look! The latest news! The Great Tang Group is organizing the World Industrial Expo!"

Now and then a woman would stop by, dig out some change, and buy a copy of the Great Tang Fashion newspaper.

"Bruna may become the center of the world! Hosting the most important industrial meeting in history!" Another newsstand at the corner of this street shouted the same message, manned by an old woman.

There were no fewer than fifteen different newspapers published in Bruna, most of them operated by the Great Tang Group themselves.

There were papers for workers, business papers, and news and horse racing betting papers. There was a variety to choose from, all quite popular.

Women preferred fashion newspapers while men mostly read news and business ones—each to their own, without bothering others.

With the advent of radio broadcasts, Bruna even built a huge radio tower, and the wealthy were gradually getting used to listening to the radio.

The emergence of radio stations had affected newspaper sales, much like the impact of the internet on the television industry.