Chapter 26: Long-term Plans
During the return to the camp, nothing out of the ordinary happened.
However, the Governor kept a stern expression on his face, making others hesitant to approach him.
Gu Hang’s attendant, Zhang Chao, was already waiting outside the Governor’s camp.
He had received prior notification from Gu Hang and had made preparations for receiving supplies within the camp.
Gu Hang was short of capable hands, so he intended to train Zhang Chao.
This young man did not seem suited for soldiering, but handling some clerical and administrative tasks should not be a problem.
Even if it were a problem, there was no other choice.
Gu Hang’s literate subordinates were few, and he had no better candidate.
Moreover, Zhang Chao was doing quite well.
Although they had no time to build a large enough warehouse, they had cleared out some prefab houses for storing supplies.
Items that did not require special storage conditions, unaffected by wind and rain, were temporarily placed on an open ground with large tarpaulins covering them.
Afterward, Zhang Chao busied himself with inventorying the supplies and arranging their distribution, including how much to send to the Wasteland Society.
Seeing this, Gu Hang felt reassured, and his expression softened.
The frustration from the two consecutive empty draws had mostly dissipated by now.
Technology draws always required spending Grace Points.
The odds were there, and missing out was unavoidable. He just hoped for better luck next time.
Retreating into his room, Gu Hang took out paper and pen to plan his next steps.
For now, he did not intend to immediately manifest the G9 Rifle Series Black Box obtained from the technology draw.
Based on his previous experience with the Alloy and Plastic Steel Black Box, these items were likely not small in size and could not be stored back once manifested.
Zhang Chao was already arranging for people to dig bunkers.
Gu Hang intended to create a core secret base within the camp to serve as the future ‘research’ center, which required strong confidentiality.
He would avoid revealing the Black Box whenever possible.
The technology draw was just a minor episode; what to do next was the key.
The supplies obtained from Revival City, or rather extorted, alleviated the material shortage in the camp, especially the food shortage. His current territory could not yet achieve food self-sufficiency.
Although the Manban River Valley Manor could produce food, the harvest would not be ready until the autumn months.
In the meantime, these supplies would help them get by.
That is, provided the population he needed to support did not further increase.
But that was impossible.
Gu Hang’s next goal was to expand the population.
The Alloy and Plastic Steel production line needed to be expanded, the G9 Rifle Series production line required workers, construction projects needed laborers, and future technological draws might establish other production lines, all of which demanded manpower.
Where would the people come from?
This problem was easy to solve.
Fury Owl Planet was clearly a wasteland planet with a sparse population, incomparable to the hive worlds with populations in the tens of billions, yet people were exceptionally cheap.
Nomadic survivor tribes, destitute poor people living day-to-day around Revival City… these were the sources for Gu Hang to absorb his population.
However, he couldn’t indiscriminately absorb everyone.
When people came, Gu Hang also had to provide them with jobs, food, and other consumables.
In short, he needed to be able to support them and enable them to generate even greater value.
This required more resources and greater production capacity.
In the immediate term, the first step was to sell his current most important product within his territory, and the future most important product—Alloy and Plastic Steel.
Selling it would be the first step towards expanding production capacity.
With this in mind, Gu Hang’s gaze turned again to Revival City.
It wasn’t that he had to fleece the same sheep repeatedly; it was mainly because it was so close, his identity was suitable, and it was very convenient to exploit.
Moreover, he had long considered Revival City to be in his pocket.
What’s yours is mine, so what’s wrong with using it first?
Ultimately, he was determined to control that city.
He only had two years; he couldn’t possibly build up sufficient financial and material resources from scratch to pay the planetary tax in two years’ time.
Setting up an outpost elsewhere was essentially another route to attempt controlling the entire planet.
To fully control Revival City, directly going into the city to play political games with the local powers was a dead end.
However, if he commanded his own force and then took over Revival City and even the administrative power of the entire Alliance government, that would be a different scenario.
In the near future, when he was ready to take over, it would be the time when he was confident he could cleanse the power hierarchy of Revival City and use the city’s strength to his advantage.
Such power could not rely solely on the deterrence of the “Quintet” in the sky.
Mutual destruction was a dead end for Gu Hang himself, and the council members in Revival City were well aware of this.
Nuclear deterrence alone was insufficient.
If Gu Hang demanded a hundred tons of supplies, they would comply; but if he called for a great purge, threatening their lives, they would resist Gu Hang under the threat of orbital bombardment, even if it meant dying together.
He needed a truly usable, conventional force to support his endeavors.
“Still, I need to expand the army,” Gu Hang concluded.
Expansion was easy.
He picked two hundred people from the slaves brought down from the starship.
A hundred of them were equipped with the remaining G7 ‘Assaulter’ rifles, and the other hundred made do with a mix of local firearms.
Systematically spending two Grace Points, he managed to form another light infantry battalion alongside the hundred men from the Wasteland Society.
The task of drafting new soldiers from the three thousand servants was given to Yan Fangxu.
Captain Yan was numb to the process.
He knew that his Governor would once again demonstrate the ability to train a force in a matter of days that would normally take a year or two to prepare.
He was utterly baffled and could only conclude that this was the Governor’s capability, that the Governor was a military training genius.
Although this explanation was far-fetched, he could not think of any other.
Of course, even though he knew that under the Governor’s command, even the poorest of troops could look decent after a few days of training, when selecting soldiers, he still diligently chose the best two hundred from among the three thousand servants.
After distributing the equipment and weapons, Gu Hang casually spent two Grace Points on the “Troop Cards” to arrange a training package for the soldiers. Then, he did not interfere much, only making appearances daily as if to oversee the process.
Soon, new information emerged.
【2nd Infantry Battalion: Light Infantry, Overall Rating -, Not Upgradable】
【Number: 300 Personnel】
【Equipment: T5, Training: T5, Experience: -】
The commander of this unit was Pobov from the Wasteland Society, who had been promoted to battalion commander.