Chapter 54: Chapter 54, activate this girl for me

The situation in Revival City was tricky, and Gu Hang could guess a bit, but he couldn’t know too explicitly.

He also didn’t have the inclination to bother with it.

He was still squeezing every bit of progress out of the entire territory.

The replenishment work of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions continued, and Gu Hang planned to conscript another infantry battalion.

The new migrants were an important source of soldiers.

When he had a choice, Gu Hang always strived to avoid having soldiers from the same source within a single unit. But now, all the other groups under his command had been mobilized several times already, making it hard to draw more hands.

Therefore, Gu Hang simply took the three hundred newly conscripted soldiers, spent 3 points of grace for their initial training, then drew some veterans from the 2nd and 3rd Battalions and mixed them into the 4th Battalion.

By now, the total population under Gu Hang’s command had reached eight thousand, with one thousand one hundred soldiers.

The manpower gap was still large.

However, the preparations made by Hodgson and his grandson were gradually beginning to have an effect.

Apart from the over two thousand migrants who arrived with Lambert, every day migrants kept coming in trickles, drawn by the propaganda about the Governor’s Camp, bringing their families along for the migration.

This allowed Gu Hang’s forces to grow by a few dozen to a couple hundred people every day.

Though it was not quite quenching the thirst, having a steady supply of water was a good thing.

One by one, smelting furnaces were being produced by the Black Box Mother Machine and sent to the Abandoned Cave Society; carts of calcined lime, metal scrap, and metal ores were transported from Rubbish Town and delivered into the smelting factories.

The alloy steel fabricated at the Abandoned Cave Society was partly sent to Revival City to be sold through Dennison Henry’s channels, partly remained at the Abandoned Cave Society to be fashioned into armored vests, prioritized for the Governor’s newly conscripted soldiers, but also partly sold in Rubbish Town. Another part of the alloy steel entered the newly established G9 Gun Family workshops, being processed into various parts before being assembled again…

The G9 Gun Family had gradually begun mass production within Gu Hang’s territory, no longer relying solely on production from the Mother Machine as before.

The population of the Abandoned Cave Society had even surpassed that of the Governor’s Camp.

Heavy industry was like a black hole for population; it seemed as if no matter how many people were thrown into it, it could consume them all.

Here at the Governor’s Camp, however, the development of light industry was not as rapid. The textile factory and the synthetic starch factory had started operations. But the latter did not have enough machines, and the technicians who had come down from the starship had not yet cracked the way to manufacture the synthetic starch machines based on the current industrial foundation. Currently, only two production lines were operating.

The former, in theory, should have been able to absorb a lot of people, but according to the plan, the heavy industry of the Abandoned Cave Society had a higher priority when it came to recruiting workers, which meant that the textile factory here could only recruit female workers—even many of the female workers had gone to the Abandoned Cave Society.

Meanwhile, there was also a high demand for construction workers in both places.

Factories needed expansion, residences needed enlarging, and besides these, structures like shops, distribution centers, canteens, schools, and administrative bodies… all required construction. And the corresponding facilities needed more people to fill them.

Population, population, and still population.

The unemployment rate within Gu Hang’s forces was nearly zero.

This also meant that every citizen who arrived at the Governor’s Camp was warmly welcomed. The heads of factories, production lines, and departments were scrambling to recruit people. Men went to the factories, women to the textile mills, children were taken care of collectively, with educational institutions; even the elderly who could still walk were always given some work to free up another labor force…

At a time when the forces under him were running as if wound up by a spring, Gu Hang also welcomed the settlement of his second month after arriving at Rage Owl Star.

[Current Grace Points: 88]

[Monthly Fixed Income: 56]

[Governor’s Temporary Camp: 17/Terra month]

[Abandoned Cave Society: 39/Terra Month]

The fixed monthly income was distributed.

Previously, he had 36 points of grace left. After replenishing troops for the 2nd and 3rd camps and establishing the 4th camp, a total of four hundred new soldiers needed training, which cost 4 points of grace. With the 56 points issued this month, the total was now 88.

Here in the monthly income figure, the development speed was quantitatively compared. About half a month ago, this number was just over twenty, and now it had more than doubled.

This was already the limit under the current population size. To increase it further, a significant rise in population was necessary while still maintaining an extremely low unemployment rate and a relatively high production efficiency.

With this in mind, Gu Hang looked at the hundreds of thousands of impoverished people outside Revival City and felt it was a sheer waste of resources.

With this scale of population, what a terrifying figure it could be if everyone was utilized to their full potential?

To let them suffer outside the city from unemployment, hunger, and cold was an immense loss.

However, coming back to the development of his own power, Gu Hang felt that his thinking had expanded after meeting a certain individual.

That person was named Osenia.

It was after the battle in the alien woodland that he noticed her appear on the [Hero] interface, a person who could be awakened as a hero.

Initially, Gu Hang thought that this girl, who did not seem like a warrior at all, might possess some spiritual energy talent and could awaken as a spiritual energy wielder after being activated in the [Hero] interface.

Spiritual energy talent was one in a million among the human population. But after all, he had eight thousand people under his command; wouldn’t it be reasonable for one to emerge?

But after meeting her in person, Gu Hang was initially a bit disappointed.

The girl did not have the spiritual energy talent he had imagined.

As a spiritual energy master himself, he was able to make that judgment.

But after in-depth interaction, and even getting to know what the girl had done after joining the textile factory and becoming a management member, Gu Hang realized he might have picked up a treasure no less valuable than a spiritual energy wielder.

To put it plainly, there wasn’t anything too extraordinary. Osenia hadn’t improved any processes; she simply reorganized the entire factory’s work system according to her own ideas and trained a few deputies to implement and execute the system with her.

Accounting records, work plans, incentive policies, result assessments, execution efficiency… When all these things were put into practice, one after another, the management efficiency of the textile factory was tangibly improved. The inevitable chaos and rudimentary practices during the rapid development of his territory were effectively mitigated.

This made Gu Hang realize that maybe the limit hadn’t been reached. Even without an increase in population or equipment, the establishment and continuous reform of administrative management systems could still enhance productivity.

The relationship between the economic base and the superstructure?

Gu Hang pondered wildly in his head.

To be honest, these jobs, these systems and policies, if Gu Hang were to do them himself, of course, wouldn’t be bad. But he was the Governor, the ruler, with all matters of military, politics, and finance to consider. Getting bogged down in the details of every little thing was unrealistic.

It might still be manageable now, but in the future, as his power grew even larger, it would become increasingly impossible for him to do so.

He needed an efficient administrative system, bureaucrats, civil servants; these roles were essential.

And this girl seemed like a good choice. Her potential had even been recognized by the system.

With that, Gu Hang didn’t have many other hesitations.

System, activate this girl for me!