Chapter 681: A Profitable Trade
Of course, when it came to exporting weapons, he faced the risk of Earth’s technology being leaked out.
Meng Chao could not guarantee that once the seemingly loyal puppet army would turn around and betray the Earthlings once they obtained the production line for the modified AK-47s.
However, after thinking about it repeatedly, he still thought that it was a necessary risk.
It was inevitable for Earth’s technology to leak out.
Dragon City came into contact with the races in the Other World, especially through war, which in itself was something that would guarantee frequent, in-depth contact. Plenty of Earthlings would definitely end up in the territory of the Other World races.
If they wanted to use gentle methods, the Other World races had plenty of exciting and tempting methods to lure them over, and these could make Earthlings feel like they were on cloud nine and would not even want to go home.
If they wanted to use aggressive methods, the Other World races also had brutal torture methods to make humans spill their secrets or could use mind attacks to read the information on the Earthlings’ cerebral cortex.
They were all carbon-based life forms, and none of them were idiots. Before long, the Other World races would decode and replicate the Earthlings’ secrets.
Based on what Meng Chao remembered, Dragon City had a lot of traitors who used Earth’s technology in exchange for high positions in the Other World or their magic as well as secret arts.
During his high school, his cla.s.s rep, Zuo Haoran, was one of them.
At the end of the day, even on Earth, no one had ever been able to do a technology blockade.
A civilization could only properly rise to power by using technology to continuously earn or s.n.a.t.c.h bountiful profit, then use it for further research so that the technology could keep on upgrading and allow them to stay ahead of the others.
As for whether the puppet army would betray them? Meng Chao felt that the key was not on the puppet army itself, but on whether Dragon City itself was strong enough.
All carbon-based life forms had traitorous seeds planted in their genes.
For the sake of survival, his previous life, Dragon City had repeatedly switched sides between the two main camps in the Other World. In the end, they made the wrong switch and suffered the consequences.
As the saying went, “when a tiger fell sick, it would be bullied by even dogs.” If they kept on becoming weaker, even the loyal puppet army who always knew how to repay their kindness would have other thoughts emerge in them.
However, if Dragon City continued to remain strong and march forward bravely, as well as win in all its battles, Meng Chao believed that the Other World races would eagerly become allies with them and become affiliated to the Earthlings.
If they were afraid of the affiliated races betraying them and performed a technology blockade because of it, they would stop forging ahead and be content where they were. This was a path that led straight to destruction.
Hence, not only did Meng Chao prepare individual weapons that were at the standard of Earth’s mid 20th century to the affiliated races, he also prepared a series of labor tools and machines suitable for the Other World races.
For example, to the dwarves, Earth’s automatic tunnel boring machines, excavating machines, underground mining machines, and other such things would s.n.a.t.c.h their livelihood away from them.
That was why the dwarves always regarded Earthlings with hostility and constantly caused trouble to Dragon City in his previous life.
Be that as it may, if they did not develop large automatic underground excavating machines but instead developed small motorized picks, motorized hammers, impact drills with crystals as the energy source, and other tools that were not highly automatized before selling them to the dwarves, they could allow the dwarves to bring forth their full natural talents.
From there, Dragon City might gain a new ally, or at least, reduce the chances of their interests clashing against each other and ending up as mortal enemies.
The second project Meng Chao invested in was plants that could be used as cash crops.
There were so many variations of life forms in Monster Mountain Range that the number was second to none everywhere else in the Other World.
Not only were there more than one million different types of animals living here, but there were also plenty of etherealized plants that took root above crystal mines with a lot of spirit energy. They absorbed the essence of the moon and sun, which increased their speed of evolution, allowing them to gain all sorts of shapes, and this brought about a lot of unbelievable benefits to the carbon-based intelligent life forms.
The diligent and bold Earthlings had long since started cultivating and modifying etherealized plants.
Their gene medicines and high-calorie nutritional fluid were not made solely of monster materials either. They were also made of the essence of etherealized plants.
Meng Chao’s university was the leader in this region.
After decades of research, Agricultural University’s etherealized plants course could already create its own sentry trees that could automatically carry out and obey human orders. They would even attack enemies on their own. They also created man-eating plants that could fire acid and poisonous fog. And these were just two of the many plants they created.
Meng Chao did not intend to venture into the high-end spectrum of this field.
He just used the technology from Agricultural University’s resource course and etherealized plants course, along with the cash crops he was familiar with based on his previous life to cultivate some tobacco.
Do not underestimate tobacco.
Since ancient times, tobacco had always been a profitable business that guaranteed great wealth for just a small investment.
During the brutal war that would last for a long time, tobacco was usually one of the few comfort items among gra.s.sroots units and commoners.
Based on the history on Earth, the more the world wars raged, the higher the sales of tobacco were.
The elderly and weak, who managed to survive in areas that were ravaged by the war, usually had a cigarette in their hands to get rid of their nervousness and gloominess in their hearts.
Of course, the nine mega corporations had long since dipped their claws into this traditional business and major source of income, even monopolizing it. A nouveau riche like Meng Chao could not easily get his claws into this business.
Despite that, he would still say the same thing, Meng Chao never thought about fighting against the nine mega corporations in the small market in Dragon City.
What he wanted was the boundless export market.
Right now, the nine mega corporations and the Red Dragon Army were already claiming their territories and occupying the places with the most spirit energy, the most fertile land, and the spots that were the most suited to have all sorts of crops and cash crops planted in them.
However, they had a limit to their expansion speed, and Monster Mountain Range was long. There were also plenty of corners that were barren.
Forget Meng Chao, even normal citizens who could easily get a barren piece of land far away from Dragon City. As long as they were not afraid of monsters bothering them, were confident that they could protect it, could patiently cultivate the land, and were not afraid of suffering losses, then they would be fine.
Meng Chao was definitely not going to plant crops that required meticulous care.
What he chose were tobacco that could withstand drought, the cold, and could grow strong without much spirit energy, just like weeds.
Naturally, once the tobacco was refined, the taste it had when it was used for smoking would also be like that of weed.
In any case, Dragon Citizens who had smoked quality tobacco before would definitely not admit that the stupid stuff Meng Chao cultivated, which tasted like chili powder, was actually tobacco.
Tobacco like that would definitely not sell if it was marketed in Dragon City.
But Meng Chao did not care.
He even thought that the tobacco was not spicy, low-grade, and heady enough!
Compared to taste, he only cared about two things.
Was the tobacco cheap enough, and could he produce a lot of them?
Meng Chao believed that once the tobacco that tasted like t.u.r.d was brought to the market, it would definitely sell like hotcakes.
Of course, the Earthlings would not be buying them.
Instead, the dwarves, orcs, barbarians, and all sorts of giants would buy them.
It must be said that in his previous life, tobacco had always been Dragon City’s. .h.i.t export product.
Those dwarves and orcs smoked like they were steam engines. They just kept up smoking packet after packet and could not stop.
Since the consumption rate was so high, the price naturally could not be too high, and quality was no longer important. As long as the kick was great, packed a great punch, and was addictive enough, that was enough.
There were no laws forbidding smoking in the Other World.
So, Meng Chao was definitely going to use everything at his disposal to satisfy the urgent need for the Other World races to have a good life.
Next, since smoking was never going to be separated from alcohol and he was going to venture into the tobacco business, he was definitely not going to miss out on the brewery business.
If one method worked in a certain area, the same method would work in all other related areas. Meng Chao still did not intend to venture into the middle- and high-end market that was targeted for Earthlings.
Instead, he thought of ways to lower the cost of production while creating the cheapest, fiercest alcohol with high alcohol content.
To minimize the cost of production, he even used Blue Home to find some old Russians who lived on Earth in that particularly cold country in the past. These people used all sorts of residue from industrial raw materials to create their own alcohol when they lacked proper spirit.
How should he put it, the “spirit” that was made with this particular formula was basically rubbing alcohol that had been used to soak foul stuff.
On Earth, there was a type of alcohol called Shao Daozi, and when translated, it would be called Burning Knife. The moment someone drank it, they would feel as if a sharp blade had cut their throats.
What Meng Chao brewed was not that sort of alcohol, but something he called Burning Hammer. The moment someone drank it, they would feel like a warhammer had crushed their skulls, and their brains would turn to mush.
Earthlings were definitely not going to be able to handle this stuff.
However, Meng Chao felt that Burning Hammer was definitely going to sell among dwarves, orcs, and the Other World races who lived in high lat.i.tudes and were cold.
Thousands of miles north of Dragon City were the ice barbarians and ice giants. Alcohol was practically their lives.
Unfortunately for them, the brewery technology in the Other World was just awful, and the beer they made was as bland as water. It could not satisfy the needs of the ice barbarians and ice giants at all.
Burning Hammer was a spirit with high alcoholic content made from the ancient brewery methods on Earth. They were definitely going to be entranced by it and be addicted to it.
Plus, the giants had an average height of more than five meters. Their alcohol tolerance was at least ten times that of Earthlings!
This trade was definitely going to work.
Besides, the ice barbarians and ice giants were the best berserkers.
Their natural talent was something similar to the Tyrant Mammoth’s Rampaging War Song. While they drank, they sang, and while howling, they could turn into the most terrifying killing machines. Hence, they had always been the tyrants and nightmares of the Other World’s northern territory.
In addition, countries always attacked those near them while allying themselves with those distant from them, so since the races a.s.sociated with ice controlled a territory that was far away from Monster Mountain Range, for a period of time, both sides would not touch each other.
They could even help Dragon City exert pressure from the north on the powerful forces of power at the center of the Other World, where the most fertile lands were.
They were natural allies.
Burning Hammer was the gift Meng Chao carefully prepared for the ice barbarians and ice giants.
Also, Meng Chao also prepared to plant some cash crops that would not have a high yield and were quite costly but would produce amazing effects during crucial moments.
There was an etherealized plant known as Snake Vine, and they had slight hemostatic effects.
However, planting them en ma.s.se was quite difficult, and since the hemostatic effects were not obvious, no one had noticed its market value as of now.
But Meng Chao knew that the greatest effect of Snake Vine was not its hemostatic properties.
Instead, after extracting the Snake Vine Enzyme and adding around a dozen monster materials to it, he could make the best sunscreen there ever was.
Dragon Citizens did not have high requirements for sunscreen, but it was a different case for some Other World races, namely the dark elves and vampires.