Dragon City's soccer team won the game!
This news failed to brighten Tang Mo's mood, because the team slaughtered 4 to 0 by Dragon City was the newly established Great Tang State team…
Indeed, the Great Tang Kingdom soccer team lost, and their defeat was thorough, leaving Tang Mo feeling utterly humiliated.
Among the eleven players on the field, three were star foreign aids from Brunas, but even so, the Great Tang State team failed to show any performance worth comforting for the fans.
They were sleepwalking through the entire game, with botched passes, clumsy ball control, and hardly a few shots of quality until the very end.
What truly exasperated Tang Mo was that the Dragon City team wasn't even that strong—seen as easy prey by the Bailu team, only to be bloodily crushed in the league.
All in all, Tang Mo felt soccer was going nowhere; the teams he sold came to life under new ownership, fiercely fashionable, while every team he held was a hopeless underdog…
No matter how hard Tang Mo tried, the teams he valued most seemed beyond help—he just kept losing no matter how he played. Tang Mo was so frustrated he cried out, "Geneva, refund me!"
Another piece of disheartening news was that most of the vassal states of both the Dahua Empire and the Great Tang Kingdom had acknowledged the fact that Tang Country had replaced Zheng Country.
One after another, they established diplomatic relations with Tang Country, sent ambassadors, and clarified borders—the price was that Tang Country gave enough face to the Dahua Empire, sending a diplomatic mission to the Imperial City of the Dahua Empire, where they paid homage and apologized in front of envoys from various countries.
Face was saved, so the Dahua Empire indeed gave Tang Mo substantial benefits: in addition to waiving two years of tributes, the tribute list for the Great Tang Empire was cut by more than half. Furthermore, it agreed to Tang Country's request for reciprocal trade, providing the Great Tang Kingdom with opportunities for nearby trade.
Yet, even so, the undeniable fact that the Great Tang Kingdom was politically inferior to the Dahua Empire was a sore point for Tang Mo.
Still, to avoid immediate warfare, Tang Mo ultimately chose to compromise, winning at least a year of peaceful development time, which was most critical for him.
It wasn't all bad news; the second Brunas car race was convened, and Great Tang Group's race car continued to dominate, winning the championship again.
However, the lead this time was not as clear-cut as it was in the first race. The engineers from the Ice Cold and Gobur teams had thoroughly digested the engine technology and each made their improvements, clearly achieving a series of results.
Experience tales at My Virtual Library Empire
This wasn't surprising at all; if, after acquiring the technology and design concepts, they still had no thoughts of their own, then being eliminated by the times was inevitable.
Clearly, whether it was the Shireck Consortium or the Dwarfs, neither were idlers with no ambition—they all had their ideas and kept moving forward.
Another piece of good news was that the 2nd World Industrial Expo was still held in Brunas' Crystal Palace. This time, countries again sent delegations, and many new technologies emerged.
Because the relationship between Shireck and Great Tang Group had eased, Shireck directly sent their own delegation, which was a major highlight of the expo.
Shireck Consortium unveiled their own airship bombers, larger and with more bomb capacity, which were clearly improved versions of Great Tang Group's design—the patent had been sold to them by Great Tang Group, exclusively licensed.
At the same time, they also showcased their machine guns—actually Maxim guns, with technology purchased from Great Tang Group.
However, they also had their unique products—the Shireck semi-automatic pistol (Mauser C96) and the Shireck Model 1 rifle (Commission Rifle).
In addition, they brought a new model of cruiser designed by Shireck, which performed well, drawing interest from various navies.
As it was specifically designed to counter Great Tang Group's downgraded destroyer, it had advantages in both firepower and armor, leading many navies to consider digging deep into their pockets to purchase some.
But there was no way around it, the true maritime dominator, the Jade City-class battleship, was still a non-selling item of the Great Tang Kingdom—even money couldn't buy it.
The only available options were Shireck's cruisers, along with Great Tang Group's ironclad warships and destroyers.
Yet at the expo, Harry revealed information that the Wolf-class cruisers might be available for purchase soon, causing many countries ready to pay for Shireck's cruisers to hold off on their purchasing hands.
It seemed waiting a few days might present better options… After all, the waiters never lose. A few more days and perhaps it would really be worth the wait.
Over the past six months, the Great Tang Kingdom had witnessed astonishingly rapid development in all areas; Tang Mo's arrival seemed to have activated some skill inherent to the Chinese race.
Who would have thought that countless refugees from Chu Country and Qi Country, content with two meals a day, would tirelessly build over 4,000 factories of various sizes, achieving self-sufficiency in cement for the Great Tang Kingdom in just three months?
Meanwhile, it was these diligent citizens who managed to construct a basic road network that spanned the entire country at a rate of 300 meters per hour—an astonishing feat nearing half the road-building speed of the new China!