Chapter 33: Chapter 33, The Fast Track to Development
In Gu Hang’s plan, he intended for the Abandoned Cave Society to serve as the heavy industrial production center of his territories. It was well located, being closer to future raw material and energy sources in Rubbish Town and already possessed some mineral resource output.
The production line for alloy steel was there, and once the merchant named Dennison Henry brought back the heat-generating limestone power unit, Gu Hang planned to set up a power plant in the Abandoned Cave Society.
However, with the heavy industry and energy industry of the Abandoned Cave Society developing, a workforce of merely eight hundred would certainly not suffice. Gu Hang had been continuously sending workers from the Governor’s Camp, who were originally expanding the camp and building an ‘airport’, to the Abandoned Cave Society to meet the labor needs of the alloy factory there.
But this labor pool had its limits, and the Governor’s Camp needed people as well.
Production required people, expansion of the army required people, and right now, Gu Hang’s demand for labor was very high. It was inevitable to absorb population from outside, which was precisely why he had made a special request to Dennison Henry to find ways to promote and bring in people.
Of course, those refugees recruited from outside Revival City might not necessarily be qualified industrial workers.
Let alone the refugees, even the people from the Abandoned Cave Society and the former slaves brought down from the starship were not really qualified.
Illiteracy was a significant issue; illiterates could perhaps toil, but it would be hard for them to grow into skilled technicians.
However, this was a solvable problem. Gu Hang had already requested the creation of night school classes in the Abandoned Cave Society, including his own direct camp, starting with literacy work before moving on to some basic skills training, experience summary, and sharing.
Inside the Abandoned Cave Society, there were indeed many who were willing to learn and eager to advance.
These people did not need much worrying over; as long as they were given the opportunity, they would be keen to strive upwards.
But not everyone had such a drive to improve themselves.
Now that they could live above ground, security concerns were no longer an issue, they could eat their fill, have clothes to keep warm, and they heard that soon there would be electricity and heating… Such treatment was enough to make them quite content.
Freed from the motivation to improve.
Gu Hang was certainly not pleased with this.
If no one strives to work hard, how am I to expand production and rebuild the world?
To address this, Gu Hang introduced a strategy: a work point distribution system.
Work resolved into work points, which determined material and welfare allocation. If you wanted to eat well, live well, and dress well, even allowing your closest kin to also lead a good life, then you needed to work diligently.
Moreover, several technical job categories were introduced at the worker level. Becoming a skilled technician through assessments meant earning more work points than an ordinary worker.
The requirement to become a skilled technician was to study diligently.
Also, although attending school did not grant work points, it did provide a free evening meal, which spared one from spending their allocation and saving money in the process.
With tangible upward motivation and a real increase in food allocation, night schools launched in the Abandoned Cave Society and Governor’s Camp were widely welcomed.
On the other hand, finding teachers was not easy. For now, they could only use a few literate individuals among the servants brought down from the “Quintet” Starship to act as teachers; as for so-called professional technical training, it mostly comprised some experience and tips formed by a handful of sharp-minded workers during their labor, which were summarized and disseminated.
With an inadequate teaching force, expecting to educate exceptional students was unrealistic.
Gu Hang understood this point; given the circumstances, all he could do was to make the best of the situation.
As for the work points mentioned earlier, Gu Hang did initially consider whether to introduce a currency.
In the wasteland, the circulation of goods was extremely chaotic. Currency existed; the Alliance had issued the Revival Currency, and several major forces had also issued their own. However, these currency systems were not only disorganized, but the exchange between them was also cumbersome, and some remote settlements might not even recognize certain currencies.
The most popular method of trade on the wasteland still involved the very primitive barter trade.
The scale of Gu Hang’s power was still too small to issue his own currency without exerting great effort to promote it, and using others’ currencies could easily overwhelm the internal system with their volume.
Thus, he simply decided not to implement a currency and instead created an ‘work points’ system for internal use only, to serve as a motivational tool.
Earn work points by participating in production; consume work points to obtain housing and rations; this became a simple prototype of a currency under a planned economy.
Gu Hang did not plan to stick with a planned economy forever, but it would certainly constitute a major component. Concentrating efforts to accomplish big projects was, in Gu Hang’s view, a very successful experience during development stages.
If the goal of the Abandoned Cave Society was to develop towards an industrial hub, the role Gu Hang envisioned for the Governor’s Camp was as a transport hub and a center for light industry.
Transportation requires no further explanation, with its core task being the connection with the great treasure trove in the sky, the “Quintet.” When Gu Hang chose the location for the camp, he picked a flat terrain with no natural defenses, primarily for this purpose.
The textile machinery and related technologies that Gu Hang requested Dennison Henry to purchase were part of the light industry that Gu Hang had planned.
Apart from textiles, there was also the food industry.
The synthetic starch manufacturing machines brought down from the “Quintet” had already begun operating under the guidance of technicians who came down with the ship. Additionally, a new synthetic starch production line was being constructed, mainly relying on various parts that had also been brought down from the starship.
The alloy factory at the Abandoned Cave Society had also received orders to manufacture qualified components as per the technicians’ requirements; for parts with high demands on processes and materials, Gu Hang would produce them using Black Boxes of finished alloy plastic steel.
Of course, there were still some core components that the current industrial capabilities under his power couldn’t produce. The technician who had come down from the starship was, at the Governor’s request, trying to figure out a way to master this technology.
There was a good chance of success. The industrial base at the Governor’s Camp started from scratch but had developed quickly, mainly thanks to some incredibly powerful materials and technology. Even if the alloy plastic steel produced by the Abandoned Cave Society was not satisfactory, the premium alloy plastic steel produced directly from the finished Black Boxes was of outstanding quality.
However, the scale of the synthetic starch production line could not be further expanded until the technology had been mastered.
Even so, the current production capacity was more than enough.
As long as there were sufficient raw materials and the production line was running at full capacity, there would be more than enough food to ensure that everyone under Gu Hang’s command was well fed. In fact, there was significant excess capacity to stockpile food, or even sell it for export.
All these various plans of Gu Hang were waiting for Dennison Henry to bring back the first batch of goods and people before they could truly get underway.
The merchant from Rubbish Town did not keep him waiting too long and soon returned.
The inflow of people and resources was ‘devoured’ by the power under Gu Hang’s command.
With the two major industrial centers, along with the Mantan River Valley Manor already gradually restoring agricultural production, the overall productive power of the Governor’s power began to embark on a rapidly developing fast track.