1154, A Trip to Corellia (Part 2)
As he enjoyed the attentions of numerous beautiful women, Tang Xiao did not bring up anything too serious. He merely discussed some business matters with Madam Proxima and Dryden Vos.
These two crime bosses before him could now be considered part of the Fourth Civilization's peripheral forces. Whether they acknowledged it themselves or not, they were effectively working for the Fourth Civilization.
To bear the enormous costs of war, Tang Xiao's Fourth Civilization had truly stopped at nothing. It did everything. He commanded countless gangs that used prisoners and refugees produced by war for the slave trade, smuggled spice through several major occupied spice-producing regions, and took advantage of the chaotic Hutt Space to develop mercenary, bounty hunter, and arms-trading businesses.
The arms trade was naturally Yuri Orlov's business. Though he had left the Fourth Civilization, he was still working for it much of the time—he simply had more freedom now.
At its root, as an outsider trying to expand his arms business, the first problem he had to solve was supply. But where could he find a source that was both cheap and plentiful? In the end, only the Fourth Civilization's arms factories could meet his needs.
Most of the weapons replaced during each Fourth Civilization military rearmament, as well as secondhand weapons repaired after being damaged on the battlefield, flowed to Yuri Orlov. He then sold them throughout every corner of the Milky Way Galaxy—though that might not be entirely accurate, since his sales channels were still relatively limited. But his reach was indeed extensive.
In addition, Yuri Orlov used Madam Proxima and Dryden Vos's connections to obtain weapons and starships from the Corellian system, then sold them in the Outer Rim. After all, equipment acquired locally on Corellia could hardly