Munitions Empire

Glass was no longer a luxury in Brunas, at least not in the office buildings of the Great Tang Group, where glass windows had become standard.

Standing in front of a glass window, a decently dressed man overlooked the parking lot below and saw a sleek black car parked steadily in its spot.

The car door was pushed open, and a group of men in black with sunglasses emerged from the vehicle, then walked into the building carrying briefcases.

The man behind the glass window sighed, then walked over to his desk and glanced at the family portrait placed on it.

The child in the photo was laughing innocently and joyfully, while the woman looked blessed, with a dignified smile on her face.

This was a very typical Brunas official's family, high income, high social status, wielding considerable power and managing vast social resources, able to determine the ownership of tens of thousands of Gold Coins with a single approval of a document.

Many businessmen and wealthy individuals were willing to cozy up to them, wining and dining them, and gift-giving were common tactics, not to mention the endless schemes like seduction.

In this gilded den, in this most prosperous and extravagant place in the world, where temptations lurked everywhere, every breath was a gamble, a test.

And he himself... had ultimately made the wrong choice.

Someone had already knocked on the door, and the man managed a bitter smile, instructing in the way he was most accustomed and most natural, "Come in."

Although he felt prepared, the moment he spoke, he could still hear an uncontrollable tremor in his voice.

The secretary awkwardly opened the door, then stepped aside. Four men in black entered, dressed in crisp suits with black ties, the collar of their shirts adorned with a Dragon Emblem badge.

"Long live His Majesty the King!" the four men proclaimed, their voices solemn. Experience more on My Virtual Library Empire

"..." The man in the office didn't speak, instead standing there in fear, unsure of what to do.

"This is an arrest warrant." The leader of the men in black pulled out a prepared document from his briefcase and showed it to the office's occupant, "Please come with us."

"..." The man remained silent, thinking he was brave, a true man. He thought he had prepared for today when he took that money.

But when the moment came, he realized he wasn't ready at all, he didn't even have the courage to speak, and now he lacked the nerve to even step forward and walk on his own.

The Great Tang Kingdom Economic Issues Investigation Bureau, a direct subsidiary of Yulin's Economic Crime Investigation Bureau, was Great Tang Group's daunting anti-corruption investigation and sanction authority.

Bribing others and clearing paths with money, bribing and corrupting opponents are all too familiar for the Great Tang Group, which was as vigilant as it was generous with its bribes.

They were generous with outsiders, but ruthless with their own. No one was not wary of this department, because no one knew who belonged to it...

Apparently accustomed to the cowardice of the accused, the leading man in black put away the arrest warrant and gestured to his subordinates with a nod of his chin.

Two men immediately stepped forward, one on each side, and took hold of the man whose legs had gone weak, dragging him out of the office.

"Your new manager will arrive in two hours' time, and I hope you'll actively cooperate with his work," the man in black said to the secretary at the door as they left.

"Yes!" The secretary shivered slightly, then raised his chin high, "Long live His Majesty the King!"

"Long live His Majesty the King!" The man in black nodded his acknowledgment and followed his colleagues out of the office.

...

Corruption is ever-present, and only through continuous and relentless strict inspection can the probability of corruption be decreased to a tolerable range.

Tang Mo understood that "where water flows, a channel will form," but he understood another adage more deeply—"A dike is destroyed by an ant hole!"

His intelligence department was extravagantly spending countless Gold Coins to clear paths, corrupting many opponents, leading numerous enemies to their own downfall, and he was well aware of this.

That's why he feared others doing the same to him! That's why he dreaded that one day his own subordinates would betray him! Hence, the economic investigation department has always been one of the most efficient departments in the Great Tang Group.

As the Great Tang Kingdom and the Great Tang Group developed, corruption issues began to increase gradually, which was consistent with the norm. Relying solely on education and goodwill to prevent the problem of officials' corruption and decay was not enough.

On one hand, Tang Mo gave officials salary increases, dangling the carrot, and on the other hand, he also wielded the stick of punishment, so that these officials would remain in awe.

The bad news was, despite this, there were still those fearless enough to try, tempted by those who wished to take shortcuts.

All these people were trained by the Great Tang Group with great effort and time, each of them invaluable. Yet, they ended up being squandered, dealt with accordingly.

The bad news was, due to the protection of a knowledge gap, most officials and commanders who graduated from higher education institutions established by the Great Tang Group were proud, ambitious, and held political aspirations, looking down on the "old nobility and old gentry."