Currently, the cheapest way to occupy the air was to use hot air balloons. However, using hot air balloons to fight was obviously a joke.
Not to mention its poor load capacity, slow movement speed, and slow control method, these two points completely limited the military use of hot air balloons.
The only thing that could be used was the Heaven Breaker made by Klot.
However, the Heaven Breaker was obviously a half-finished product. In Tang En's mind, the best air control weapons were supersonic fighters and high-altitude bombers. The former was extremely fast and difficult to defend against, while the latter was thousands of meters in the air. Ordinary attacks could not affect them at all.
Not only that, but high-altitude bombers could also be derived from high-altitude transport planes. They could airdrop a large number of soldiers to the rear of the war zone for encirclement warfare. This kind of mobility was much faster than the current way of marching.
However, there were many technical limitations to realize these things. Only the mithril universal alloy could barely meet the requirements. Takeoff could be achieved by controlling the anti-gravity magic array, and power could be achieved by the wind-powered magic engine. Speaking of which, the wind-powered magic engine was inspired by the turbojet engine from the beginning. This could be considered as reusing the original function of the engine.
However, there were still many problems if he wanted to integrate these technologies.
The most important point was that in the supersonic state, ordinary pilots could not withstand the acceleration at all. Therefore, it had to be an Oracle, which was why there were very few of them.
Another point was how to fight in the supersonic state.
There were no computers or radars here, so it was impossible to lock on to the target from a long distance. When the enemy was seen, the two sides would have collided.
The control of the weapons also required a computer, or something similar to a computer.
Before this problem was solved, the plan for the fighter plane could only be temporarily put on hold. The improved gnome aircraft and helicopters were currently the best choice. They were fully manually controlled, and their speed was not slow or fast. They could fight in the field of vision, and they could also avoid conventional attacks very well.
Although Tang En also wanted to produce his own aircraft, it was very difficult to build an industrial production line from scratch. He did not have the energy or the need for that at the moment. He might as well cooperate with Klot and provide technical support to each other.
The requirements for a computer were higher, and it was impossible to completely restore it. He could only think of other ways.
Because there were too many things to consider, Tang En temporarily put this matter at the bottom of his priority list. After leaving the Magic Engineering Research Institute, he returned to the Lord's Mansion.
"… Mr. Gary, I've already told you before that this is blatant extortion! We will not agree to pay this bill! "
As soon as he passed by the study, Tang En heard Fiona's dissatisfied voice. After being stunned for a moment, he walked into the study and saw Fiona and Gary confronting each other. At this moment, Gary was not the president of the Star Diamond Bank, but the arms dealer with a cigar in his mouth.
"However, the honorable Madam Fiona, you have to admit that my men and weapons played a huge role in the process of resisting the monster horde. If it weren't for the fact that I recklessly consumed a large amount of precious goods, Ellington might have been completely destroyed by the monster horde."
Jia Lian blew out a thick smoke ring. Fiona frowned. Fortunately, it was just an ornament and only had a fruity smell. Otherwise, she would have kicked him out long ago.
"At that time, the situation was urgent, so I didn't discuss it with you. I only had one thought at that time: to protect Ellington at all costs!"
Gary said righteously. "I did it, so it's only right that I ask for compensation!"
"But we didn't buy those bombs from you at all! Those bombs were taken out by you and Master Klotto to compete with each other! "
This was actually what Fiona couldn't stand the most. It was clearly the result of the grudge between the goblins and the dwarves. Why did the Ellington Lord's Mansion have to pay the bill?
Klotto had received technical support from Tang En, so he didn't say anything. However, the thick-skinned Gary directly ran to the merchants to deliver the bill — this was the fourth time in half a month!
It seemed that he didn't intend to leave until there was a result this time.
Tang En couldn't help but ask, "What's going on? Sir Gary? "
"My Lord!"
Fiona and Gary spoke at the same time. Gary's face was immediately filled with a smile. "Thank the heavens, you finally appeared today."
Tang En had been busy recently and only had time to rest for the past two days. It was no wonder that Gary was so emotional.
"My Lord, Sir Gary has sent a bill."
"A bill?"
"Yes, it's a bill for the munitions used in resisting the beast tide."
The corner of Fiona's mouth twitched. She handed a bill to Tang En. "Take a look."
Tang En took the bill and scanned it. The corner of his mouth suddenly twitched. He couldn't help but say, "Sir Gary, your ability to loot a burning house has reached perfection."
"No, no, no, you're wrong. If I wanted to loot a burning house, I wouldn't have handed you the bill now."
Gary waved his hand very seriously. "If I really wanted to sell it at the highest price, I would've secretly destroyed the stability of the city wall at the critical moment of the beast tide. Then, when the beast tide was about to break through the city wall, I would've taken out this bill. I believe that you would've been willing to pay under those circumstances."
Tang En smiled bitterly. No wonder people said that munitions merchants were blacker than ink. Many wars were secretly promoted by munitions merchants. Now it seemed that this was indeed the case.
"But your bill is too outrageous. Look at the price of this magic iron bomb. The last time you sold it to me, it was 5,000 gold coins per bomb. Now it has risen to 10,000 gold coins?"
"The price of goods rises and falls according to the urgency of the market," Gary said matter-of-factly.
"I think that when the beast tide comes, my products will be needed. It's normal for the price to double, isn't it?"
Tang En was speechless.
"You're still saying that you're not looting a burning house?!"
Fiona was very angry. "No matter what, this bill of more than 50 million gold coins is too outrageous! Do you really know the concept of 50 million gold coins? The entire Irus Empire's annual tax revenue is only 20 million gold coins! "
"Is it a lot? It's really not a lot! "
Gary shook his head and said, "Just the expensive magic iron bombs, when we were fighting against those powerful magic beasts, we used more than 2,000 of them. That's more than 20 million gold coins. The rest of the bombs with various functions, such as paralysis bombs, smoke bombs, flash bombs, and other special bombs, added up to 50 million gold coins is really not a lot! Or do you think that the munitions we used are not worth the gold coins? "
"That's enough."
Tang En sensed something. With a flick of his finger, the bill was burned to ashes. He said indifferently, "Tell me your true intentions."
Fiona was startled. "My true intentions?"
Tang En smiled. "He specially took out a bill that we can't afford. You don't really think that he wants to collect the bill, do you?"
"Sir Lord is really smart."
Gary applauded, then quickly put away the cigar. He took out another document and said, "Please take a look."
"What is this? Are you trying to take advantage of this to blackmail me and take over Ellington? "
Tang En said as he opened the document. After quickly skimming through it, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. "Are you serious?"
Gary proudly said, "Of course, this plan has been signed by the great leader!"
Tang En noticed that there was a name at the back of the document that was signed with a complicated handwriting.
Liviz Goldtooth.
The leader of the goblins, the owner of Enclave Risk Control Company.
This document … No, it should be called a contract. Tang En frowned.
It was not what he had imagined. The goblins intended to use this bill to control Ellington. The contents of the contract had nothing to do with Ellington's sovereignty. On the contrary, the terms of the contract were all for cooperation with Ellington.
Liviz … No, it should be the Star Diamond Bank. They would provide financial support to Ellington, but the requirements were that the Star Diamond Bank would receive technical support and raw materials for the asphalt roads. The Star Diamond Bank would work with Ellington to develop and build the asphalt roads between the various cities and towns of Prandal. At the same time, when the service was implemented later on, the profits would be split eighty to twenty. The Star Diamond Bank would get eighty percent, and Ellington would get twenty percent.
What made Tang En frown was not that the Star Diamond Bank wanted to provide funds to build the roads, but the profit sharing.
He knew a long time ago that the construction of the road was not something that could be done with Ellington's funds alone. It required the support of the country and a large amount of funds. However, before he could discuss it with Victor and the others, the Star Diamond Bank smelled the scent of profit and took the initiative to approach.
The goblins were indeed business geniuses.
"If you want to invest in the construction of the roads, I welcome it."
Tang En nodded and continued, "But there are two points that I disagree with. First, the cooperation with the Star Diamond Bank is currently limited to the Irus Empire. We won't talk about cooperation with other countries for the time being. Also, we need another partner in the Irus Empire. I need King Victor's support."
Calian frowned slightly. After a while, he reluctantly nodded and said, "Okay, but I believe that you will still come to us in the future if you want to cooperate with other countries."
Tang En smiled and did not say anything.
If it was the Irus Empire, it would be easy to get policy support from Victor due to his unconditional trust. However, it was different for other countries. The first step was the most difficult. It was very difficult to find a partner in the beginning. With the goblins' strong financial resources and foresight, they could see the benefits. Thus, they dared to cooperate, while the rulers of other countries did not dare to take the risk.
However, once the roads in the Ilrus Empire were completed, everyone would see the huge benefits hidden in it. Most likely, people would flock to cooperate with the Ilrus Empire. At that time, it would be much easier to discuss policy support and cooperation with the rulers of other countries.
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