In this world, there is a castle with a flaming red exterior wall that is very famous. The person who lives in the castle is also so valuable that people dare not mention her name easily.
Yes, this castle is the Flame Castle. The woman who lives in this castle, named Sophia, is the actual controller of the Cyric Consortium.
The luxurious decoration makes this historic castle look full of modern charm inside.
The enlarged window lost its former defensive role as a bunker, in exchange for better lighting and a more gorgeous appearance.
The rooms have been replaced with expensive electric lights, and some rooms even use expensive fluorescent lamps, which are expensive.
In a room filled with priceless sofas and artworks, there are actually several telephones placed on the coffee table. A lamp with an eagle carved on it is placed next to these telephones, and two pens can be inserted into the base.
Sofia sat on the sofa and threw aside the telegram about the Ice Kingdom. She sneered, and her beautiful face became even more charming: "As soon as I saw that the limelight was not right, I planned to run away."
Recently, as the war situation continues to worsen, various countries on the Eastern Continent have actually begun to think about withdrawing from the war.
Originally, everyone wanted to defeat the Tang State and divide the Tang State's heritage, but the direction of the war seemed to be significantly different from what they expected.
At the beginning, all countries felt that a huge combined fleet could easily gain control of the sea and cut off Tang's maritime transportation lines. In the end, they forced Tang to sign a city-wide alliance and honestly donate their advanced technology.
What made them depressed was that the fact was that the Tang army was invincible on the battlefield, easily defeated the Dahua Empire, and gained the advantage in land warfare.
On the damn sea, the Tang Army's new weapons submarine sank millions of tons of Alliance transport ships, forcing the Alliance fleet, which should have been at an advantage, to hide in the northern part of the Endless Sea and not dare to show up.
The naval fleet of the Reins Empire suffered heavy losses, and ships from many countries did not dare to return home. The entire naval battle was completely different from what was expected before the war.
When everyone thinks they can win, it is one thing to invest something to participate in the carve-up feast after future victory. It is another thing to suffer failure and involve yourself in the failure of possibly losing.
Now, seeing that the sea battle cannot be won and the land war is about to be lost, many countries that want to take advantage of the situation have begun to study the matter of withdrawing from the alliance.
Even many countries did not deliberately avoid Cyric's side. They used this to express their dissatisfaction with the Cyric Consortium's repeated mistakes in decision-making - you see, people are like this sometimes. It is obviously their own decision. They have many ideas, and the lobbying of the Cyric Consortium is only a secondary reason, but when the matter comes they will still put all the blame on Cyric.
Of course, Cyric was not unjust. After all, it was indeed them who were causing trouble, and this alliance was indeed brought together by them.
Sophia knew a month ago that the ministers of the Ice Empire began to advise their emperor to send envoys as soon as possible to shake hands with the Tang State and break away from the alliance to withdraw from this protracted but no-win war.
Half a month ago, the Susas Empire and the Dorne Empire also had some voices opposing the continuation of the war.
More and more countries are considering the feasibility of withdrawing from this so-called alliance and approaching Tang State to negotiate unilateral peace. This kind of thing has begun to make Cyric feel uneasy, and it also makes Sophia feel dangerous.
Cyric has never been a place where people can do whatever they want. There are many shareholders and directors here, and these directors all represent more complex and large interest groups.
On this point, Cyric is completely different from Datang Group. Datang Group has always been a company that only belongs to Tang Mo, so the forces that have invested in Cyric regard Datang Group as a thorn in their side.
This is the same reason why so many empires are unwilling to let the Tang Kingdom develop and grow: the Tang Kingdom is an anomaly at the national level. Its system, its soul, its mode of operation, and its speed of progress all make it incompatible with other countries. .
Similarly, Datang Group is completely different from other corporate consortiums. Its expansion and development methods cannot be copied by other companies. The rise of Tang Mo has directly made traditional businessmen and wealthy people extremely nervous.
Tang Mo and everything about him are changing the rules of this world and re-formulating a new system. If we fail to keep up with this step, those old empires, kingdoms, and old corporate conglomerates will be swept into the garbage dump of history and turned into decaying dust.
Before this change came, some people chose to use the mantis as a chariot and chose to destroy the Tang Dynasty and the Datang Group. For example, Sophia.
Some people are willing to learn and make some compromises in exchange for more benefits, so that they can continue to develop along with the historical trend. For example, Marquis Egret.
After the Cyric Consortium experienced its last failure, the internal voices actually began to split. Some people believe that everyone is in business and does whatever business they want. As long as Datang Group can give them some ways to make money, there is no need for Cyric to pursue Datang Group to death.
Although these voices were not mainstream, Sophia, who controlled more than one-third of Cyric's power, easily suppressed these discordant proposals. But after all, some people think so, and naturally some people continue to think so.
You know, Sofia was the first to make changes back then, sending her maid Jenny to contact Tang Mo, and secretly tricked several major competitors into taking the position.
Since she was secretly cooperating with the Datang Group, she would naturally guard against anyone imitating her, secretly colluding with the Datang Group, and finally getting rid of her.
Looking at the telegram in front of her, Sophia angrily pulled out a snow-white cigarette from the shiny iron clip box with her delicate hands.
This kind of cigarette is very thin. It is launched by Datang Group. It is a brand name cigarette specially for female aristocrats. The brand is called Rose.
Rose cigarettes were very popular among female aristocrats as soon as they were launched. They regarded this kind of thing as an important symbol that their status was equal to that of men.
Therefore, the more successful, wealthy and widowed female aristocrats are, the more they like to light such a cigarette at parties to show their status and taste.
Of course, there is another important reason, which is to reflect their wealth: such a cigarette can allow an ordinary family to buy food for a month.
Sophia held the cigarette in her hand, lit it with that beautiful and equally valuable lighter, and blew out a mouthful of white mist.
In the billowing white smoke, her eyes were a little blurred. Because just yesterday, many of Cyric's shareholders, that is, the directors, formally expressed their dissatisfaction with her.
Everyone uses their connections and connections to spend real money and silver, but for what purpose? Not just to make money?
If there is a lot of money to be made, then the leader is a good person, a guiding light for everyone, and a good captain of this giant commercial ship sailing to the sea.
But if you can't make money, then everyone has to talk about it. If it doesn't work, try someone else. There's no need to hang yourself from a crooked tree.
What these directors mean is that if Cyric loses this war again, then Sophia must at least hand over the position of chairman and Cyric's authority.
Although in terms of shares, Sophia still holds one-third of the entire consortium's shares, the combined shares held by other shareholders are enough to remove her and launch various challenges against her.
Sometimes things are just like this. When you ring the bell to go public, there are countless investment companies willing to pay you, euphemistically calling it financing, or, to put it nicely, they are optimistic about your development direction.
But if your company's stocks continue to lose money, then many people will sell your stocks and cash out, and they are not willing to pay attention to your pleading. No matter how you present your company's future prospects, they will not stay and watch. You glance.
Cyric was an arms company that influenced the world at that time. It provided artillery, battleships, muskets and bayonets to almost all countries in the world. It can be said to be the most influential "private enterprise".
This company even has its own private armed forces in many countries, and has greater power than the king in many countries.
But that's all in the past tense.
Nowadays, the situation of the Cyric Consortium is actually very bad: in the process of negotiations with various countries, too many officials of the Cyric faction have been exposed, and all the remaining prestige and popularity that Cyric has accumulated have been wiped out. Squander it all.
You know, lobbying many countries to make similar decisions at the same time is not an easy task. Even in Cyric's heyday, a certain price had to be paid and some benefits exchanged.
Everything needs to be compensated with the benefits obtained in subsequent actions. The important reason why these countries are willing to give Cyric face is to have soup and benefits to follow Cyric.
But in the past ten years, the countries that followed Cyric were either destroyed or suffered continuous defeats and suffered heavy losses. Under such a situation, there are very few countries that are willing to follow Cyric for nothing.
Now everyone's attitude is: Whatever you want us to do, we can consider it. It's not impossible to kill loved ones, relatives and friends, but... we have to pay more.
The exchange of interests was diverse. In order to persuade so many countries to follow him and fight against the Tang Group and the Tang State, the price Cyric had to pay was also varied and strange.
Sometimes, Cyric would take the initiative to hand over some officials from various countries who had been bribed by him and whose loyalty was somewhat questionable.
Therefore, in recent years, officials bribed by the Cyric Consortium and officials related to the Cyric Consortium have been dismissed one after another. They either went home to raise their children, or were imprisoned without success.
Emperors of various countries have consolidated their imperial power and recruited a large number of young people, injecting fresh blood into the courts of their respective countries.
At the same time, Cyric had to spend his savings to provide military assistance to so many countries. This is also part of cooperation and reflects the selfish motives of all countries.
It's hard to say whether this is good news. With Cyric's helpless compromise, technology began to spread crazily, and the industrial strength and technology accumulation of various countries have made great progress.
To put it bluntly, technology has spread, everyone has some capital, and they can develop some weapons and equipment on their own without relying on Cyric.
Dahua's Type 1 fighter jets and Type 2 tanks, the Frost Empire's Frost Tanks, and the battleships secretly built by the Mirage Kingdom are all the result of the proliferation of these technologies.
Because of the industrial foundation of Beiling and Bunas, the Susas Empire and the Lines Empire were at the forefront of industrialization. The industrial zones in these two empires were built by the Datang Group, and were naturally much better than those knock-offs.
Both countries have now developed their own tanks and aircraft, and their performance is surprisingly good.
The record player didn't know when it stopped. The record that had just been played kept spinning. The stylus had detached from the outermost ring, and no one was dialing it back onto the record.
Glancing through the smoke at the huge lily-like speaker of the record player imported from the Tang Dynasty, Sophia took a deep, bitter drag on the cigarette.
This thing was also produced in the Tang Dynasty! Everything she likes and spends money to pursue: those beautiful shoes, those luxurious cars, those bright light bulbs, the cigarette in her hand, the record player on the wall... all of these are imported from the Tang Dynasty.
She hated Tang Mo so much, hated the business empire that Tang Mo had built by himself, but almost filled her conference room and bedroom with products produced by Tang.
For Sophia, this was a huge irony.
"Asshole!" She yelled and wanted to kick over the coffee table in front of her with her foot, but it didn't move at all because the coffee table was made of real materials and was very heavy.
There are guards and servants on standby outside the door, but they will only come in when they hear Sophia press the bell on the coffee table - the door of this room is really thick, and the sound insulation effect is really good. This was also Sophia's need. She didn't want the sounds she made in the room to be heard by people outside the door.
The recent troubles made her not even see her female companions for a long time. Whenever she thought of these, she would become even more irritable.
When she thought that she was likely to be liquidated after the war, she felt that the Emperor of the Great China Empire, Zhao Kai, was a waste. Chu and Qin were also waste, as were the Mirage, the Ice Empire, and Susas. The Empire and the Laens Empire are all trash!
Those Cyric directors are all short-sighted trash! These people are all incompetent people who drove her to a dead end!
Unknowingly, she remembered the telegram Tang Mo sent her on the day the war started. I remembered the sentence on the telegram: This time, it won’t work to just introduce a scapegoat!
When I read this sentence before, it seemed like a curse of Tang Mo's incompetence.
But now, these words. It was floating in front of her eyes, like a ghost, lingering.
Is it really like what that damn guy said, that this time she has to pay the price for what she did?
hateful! Does he still want to kill me? Sophia thought viciously in her head. She looked at her warm, white and flawless hands holding the cigarette.
She wore a bright gemstone ring on her finger, and every nail was carefully trimmed, and all the curvatures were perfect.
As a woman, she has almost everything that is enviable: her hair is thick and naturally fiery red, like a bursting flame, fiery and full of vitality.
Her neck was slender, and it was a natural necklace-wearing neck. Every time she flipped her hair to reveal this coveted neck, the men, without exception, could not help but swallow their saliva.
Wherever you look, you can see her towering breasts. She has received aristocratic education since she was a child and has developed a good figure. She is proficient in dancing and has a graceful body. She is a being that even women will be moved by when they see her.
Those slender legs that drove countless men crazy and envied countless women would haunt Sophia even if she touched them.
What makes it even more unfair is that she is smarter than many people. She has been running a huge business empire since she was a child. She is wiser than her peers and better than many business wizards.
In addition to her excellence, she also has money... in the true sense of the word. If there wasn't a rising star named Tang Mo in this world, her wealth could definitely make her the richest man in the world.
How could she, who was so outstanding, die so willingly? He could bear to let himself die?
A stinky man, doesn’t he just want himself? Sophia narrowed her eyes. At this moment, she felt that she had guessed Tang Mo's intention.
Yes, she felt that the telegram sent by Tang Mo was to use the safest and simplest way to end the competition between the Tang Kingdom and Cyric.
Obviously, if Tang Mo marries her, Sophia, he can take one-third of Sirik's shares in one fell swoop and gain the full support of her, Sophia's director.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt that he had guessed the truth. Sophia's face blushed slightly, and then she quickly suppressed it again.
She repeatedly warned herself that she, Sophia, did not like men. Even if he was the strongest man in the world, she would not... at least not surrender easily.
For a moment, she seemed to understand why the maid Jenny stayed in the Tang Kingdom and why she married a man named Harry.
But in an instant, she became rebellious and furious: she wanted to succeed, she wanted to be beautiful! There was no way she could get together with her enemies, never!
Just as she was sitting on the sofa, thinking wildly, the door was knocked by someone outside. Sofia ordered the people outside to come in. She knew that if anyone disturbed her at this time, it must be something very important.
A maid came in, presented a telegram with both hands, and handed it to Sophia respectfully: "Sir, this is a telegram from Chang'an of the Tang Dynasty."
"I know... get down!" Sofia felt her cheeks were a little hot, and she even wanted to throw the telegram into the trash can.
Perhaps the hardest decisions for her to make are these types of personal relationship decisions. In business, she would not be so nervous and flustered at all.
what to do? At this moment, Sophia was really afraid of the message in her hand, which was a love letter sent to her by Tang Mo.
If it was really this kind of content, Sophia didn't know whether she should refuse or agree.
For a competitive businesswoman, she felt that she should admit defeat. Since she lost the war, she should pay the due price. That makes sense, doesn't it?
If Tang Mo really made this request, she would most likely be able to satisfy Tang Mo's bad intentions: she could also use this relationship to in turn threaten Cyric's competitors, get more Tang technology, and revive Cyric. , gain the initiative.
She was very confident in her body. She had an alluring face, and no man would not be interested in her face.
At this time, she didn't think much about her liking for women. For someone like her, doing some disgusting things was nothing more than a trade-off between interests. Just treat it like a dog bite! Subconsciously, Sophia convinced herself this way.
After thinking for so long, the maids who were waiting to send the telegram went out and closed the door. Sophia did not even open the telegram from Chang'an of Tang Dynasty.
She held the folded paper in her hand, as if she had grasped the future, as if she had regained Cyric's authority.
The telegram sent to me...sent to me... Sofia, who had already started planning how to ask for relevant technology for weapons such as the Butcher fighter jet and the Flying Fortress bomber after spending the night with Tang Mo, finally looked down at the telegram in her hand.
Uneasily, she pressed the half cigarette in her other hand into the ashtray on the coffee table, and nervously opened the folded letter.
There was still a short sentence in it, but it was not what Sophia was thinking about: "Have you decided whether to use poison or a pistol?"
Sofia closed the message and opened it again... She didn't believe what her eyes saw.
Finally, she confirmed that the contents of the telegram had nothing to do with Hua Qian Yue Xia.
There is no ambiguity or pornography in this telegram. Every corner is full of coldness and ruthlessness.
"Have you decided whether to use poison or a pistol?" Sophia read this passage again. She seemed to see a young man standing in front of her decently, and placing an emerald green vial on the table in a very gentlemanly manner. next to the pistol.
All the attempts to resist and welcome before, all the self-confidence born of women, were all in vain at this moment. She even began to wonder if she liked women and Tang Mo liked men...
After staring at the telegram in her hand for a long time, Sophia finally came to her senses: The man far away in Chang'an was not one of those vulgar trash men. It seemed a bit too much to want to write lightly and let the other party forget it. Whimsical.
So, Sofia, who looked ugly, pressed the bell on the coffee table, and the door was immediately pushed open. The servant guarding outside walked into the room, lowered her head and asked, "What are your orders? Sir."
"Prepare the car! I want to go out!"
