War not only caused injuries, poverty, and a series of other problems, but it also bred groups of thieves, terrorists, and various organizations.
In the universe, the biggest problem was piracy. However, the issues caused by pirate groups also led to many mercenary groups receiving a pile of escort commissions.
When the Tianyi Mercenary Group was first established, no merchants came knocking on their door. Instead, they had to go out seeking commissions. At that time, only small merchants entrusted them with escorting goods, and the profits earned were very slim.
Later, after more than a year of completing numerous escort missions, their reputation gradually grew. Many larger-scale merchants began proactively approaching them to request cargo escort commissions.
More than a year ago, Long Fei developed the Jim MS, which became the standard equipment for the Tianyi Mercenary Group, significantly enhancing their combat capabilities.
Over the past year, they had never failed a mission, and they had even wiped out pirate groups that came to raid them.
This led to more and more merchants learning about the strength of the Tianyi Mercenary Group, flooding their commission task box with requests.
Currently, the Tianyi Mercenary Group only had three escort frigates, which left them overwhelmed with commissions. This was why Li Jiaming decided to request expansion from the boss.
Long Fei looked at Sakeqi.
Sakeqi handed the tablet to Long Fei.
Long Fei examined the report data on the tablet.
"President Sakeqi, the Mikaang Kingdom and several other nations have requested to purchase Jim MS from us, each with different quotes. Although Mikaang Kingdom asked us to sell to them at a price close to cost, the conditions they offered are very generous."
"Yes, Boss. In addition to halving the taxes they collect from us for 20 years, they are permanently gifting us three abandoned asteroid facilities near our factory for free. They are also directly giving us 50 tons of black base energy stones, along with some materials needed for construction. Their only condition is that we sell them eight Jim MS units per month, for a period of two years."
"That would total 192 Jim MS units sold to them."
"Yes, Boss."
"How many Jim units can our factory produce in a month?"
"With the currently available production lines, if the factory operates 24 hours without stopping, we can indeed produce 8 units. If we free up the production lines for tanks and fighters and focus entirely on Jim production, we could produce 18 units per month."
"How long will it take to complete the current orders for tanks and fighters?"
"If we stop taking new orders now, it would still take us at least a month to finish the orders we have on hand."
"We'll accept Mikaang Kingdom's conditions. From now on, stop accepting orders for tanks and fighters. Then, use the freed-up production lines to take orders from other countries for Jim MS production."
"Understood, Boss. I'll go handle the work right away."
"Mm, go ahead."
Sakeqi saluted Long Fei and then left the office.
"Boss, may I expand the scale of the mercenary group?"
"You may. Currently, how many more warships can our factory accommodate? Let's say escort frigates—how many more can we fit?"
Li Jiaming thought for a moment and replied, "We can fit two more at present."
"For the manufacturing area allocated to you in the factory, first build two more escort frigates and produce Jim MS. Also, recruit people to join our mercenary group. Then, once I acquire those three abandoned asteroid facilities, one of them will be handed over to you. You can convert it into a mercenary group base—that way, it'll be easier for you to expand your scale."
"Understood, Boss."
After Li Jiaming left the office, Long Fei began handling the immediate work. Although he had successfully developed the RX-78 Gundam, its derivative models, follow-up units, and other Gundams still needed to be handled by Long Fei himself.
Strictly speaking, if one didn't count the personnel of the Tianyi Mercenary Group, the Tianyi Arms Manufacturing Company—from the president down to the miscellaneous workers and cooks—had no more than 40 employees in total.
The reason the factory had so few people was mainly because Long Fei used the MD system—an intelligent automation system—to operate it. Whether manufacturing MS, fighters, warships, or individual soldier weapons for mercenaries, as long as the instructions were set, the work could proceed directly.
This saved a lot of manpower. The employees responsible for manufacturing only handled some detailed tasks.
Among the conditions offered by the Mikaang Kingdom, the gifting of the abandoned asteroid facilities and the tax reduction for Long Fei didn't particularly excite him. It was the 50 tons of black base energy stones that truly moved him.
In the early days, the electricity needed for his factory came from solar panels and some fuel generators, making operations very inconvenient. At that time, running the factory with the MD system was extremely power-intensive.
The reason Long Fei's factory faced such circumstances back then was mainly due to his limited funds, and black base energy stones being extremely expensive.
Now, he used black base energy stones to power his factory because his company's funds were more sufficient, allowing him to purchase them.
One ton of black base energy stones could keep his current factory running at full capacity without rest for a year, and the price for one ton reached 100 million yuan.
Moreover, black base energy stones were only suitable for household or factory electricity uses—not for military applications.
As a result, ordinary enterprise factories generally wouldn't adopt black base energy stones unless they operated for long periods or nearly without rest.
At lunchtime, Long Fei went to the cafeteria to eat.
Li Xiucheng sat across from him.
"Long Fei, that RX-78 Gundam MS you developed—are you going to pilot it yourself, or hand it over to one of our mercenary group members?" Li Xiucheng's expression was full of anticipation for Long Fei's answer. He most hoped that Long Fei would give that MS to him.
Li Xiucheng believed that, in terms of MS piloting skills within the mercenary group, he was the most outstanding. Though he hadn't reached ace pilot level, he at least possessed elite pilot strength.
"I have no plans to hand that Gundam over to anyone. For now, I'll be the one piloting it."
"Alright." Li Xiucheng couldn't hide his disappointment, but upon second thought, he felt relieved. His genius old friend's MS piloting skills surpassed his own—to the point that, among all the mercenary group members, there truly wasn't anyone whose MS piloting skills exceeded his.
It was only natural that the best MS went to the best MS pilot.
In the following days, besides handling work, Long Fei also arranged some matters.
After the third escort frigate completed its commissioned mission and returned to the factory for maintenance, the first escort frigate had already accepted a new commission and was preparing to depart.
At this time, Long Fei arranged for himself and the RX-78 Gundam to board the first escort frigate. Li Xiucheng was also one of the members departing for the mission.
Long Fei took this action not only to test the Gundam's real combat capabilities but also to get some fresh air for himself. He had been staying in the factory for several months without going out, so he wanted to take the opportunity to relax a bit.
Li Xiucheng and two other colleagues were in the hangar making final adjustments to their personal Jim MS units.
Long Fei, meanwhile, was resting in a room specially arranged for him.
The entire escort frigate had fewer than 30 personnel on board. Besides the frigate being equipped with the MD system for automatic piloting, the control room—aside from the captain—only had two members responsible for announcements and radar monitoring. Whether launching missiles or providing barrage cover, the captain directly issued commands to the MD system.
The escort frigate also had some automated robots for repairs, and logistics involved automated engineering vehicles. Most of the maintenance personnel's work consisted of issuing instructions to these machines, with some details handled and inspected by the maintainers themselves.
The escort frigate was a completely new design that Long Fei had created by selecting from various frigate models across many Mobile Suit series and then applying a series of modifications.
The name of the escort frigate designed and developed by Long Fei was [Lepanto-class Escort Frigate], and its performance currently surpasses that of escort frigates from various countries.
A single Lepanto-class Escort Frigate could only carry 4 MS units.