“`
For instance, they began to gradually accept the “advisory” influence of some officials dispatched from the Alliance’s various ministries and commissions. The official reason was to help these settlements build their homes and bring the Alliance’s advanced experience to them.
Dispatched officials would not directly lead and manage each settlement, but rather acted as consultants, providing reasonable suggestions to the leaders of the settlements.
That’s how it was said, but in reality…
In reality, it was indeed the case.
However, in this process, the Alliance’s influence naturally strengthened further.
Those who constantly listened to the advice of the Alliance’s dispatched officials and yearned for the Alliance’s system, what kind of strategy would they adopt when the Alliance’s troops arrived?
In other words, the Alliance’s long-standing food trade strategy and the export of its values brought strong political influence expansion. In the past six months, they had laid a great foundation in the Eastern Provinces.
In fact, if not for Governor Gu Hang’s urgent push, the Alliance might not even need military action; by simply fanning the flames at the right moment in the future, a revolution sweeping across the entire Eastern Provinces could easily annex the area, which covered millions of square kilometers and had a population of six million.
Military action, then, was a double-edged sword.
Indeed, it could speed up the process of bringing the entire Eastern Provinces under the Alliance’s rule, without waiting for that so-called “right moment.” But correspondingly, some who could potentially be persuaded might now end up standing on the opposite side of the Alliance.
It was of little consequence.
At present, the newly planned units of the Alliance Army had not yet completed their reorganization, and corresponding weapons and equipment were still in production. The Central Group Army that had set out now, had only seven divisions, amounting to over 70,000 people.
But they still reported victory after victory.
The Eastern Provinces were vast, and many urban ruins stood tall on desolate land, causing great geographical division. It was difficult for the various settlements to unite, and many places inherently lacked a strong will to resist.
As a result, faced with the actions of the Central Group Army, many simply submitted without a fight.
The Alliance had corresponding policies for this.
Those who did not resist were not considered enemies. Everyone from the populace to the original ruling class would receive relatively good treatment.
As for those who resisted…
They were vastly overestimating their own strength.
To put it plainly, even if the entire population of the Eastern Provinces, all six million people, gathered together, they could at most assemble a few hundred thousand soldiers; with their terrible arms and logistics, and the fact that the Alliance could immediately starve more than half of them by cutting off food supplies, they had no capacity to resist.
Not to mention, they couldn’t even unite.
Yan Fangxu’s forces made rapid progress in the east.
Often within a few hours, they would report having taken one or two settlements.
Later on, Yan Fangxu himself began to feel embarrassed by the constant stream of good news.
What’s there to boast about? Just station a regiment near a settlement, without firing a single shot, and they would surrender in three minutes; those with a bit more backbone might endure a couple of barrages from the regiment’s artillery and a few scare shots from the infantry whose actions were more about intimidation than assault, before surrendering in fifteen minutes.
If any dared to stubbornly resist to the end, they would be killed.
All the rebels would be wiped out, all leaders captured, and there was no need to send them back to Revival City for prosecution; they were executed on the spot. The local population, depending on the situation, would be distributed to other camps.
This could be described as swift and severe measures.
Even when only a regiment was deployed for an operation, it often took less than a day to finish the task.
In any case, no matter the situation, there were corresponding, well-established methods of handling it.
This set of strategies, which they had effortlessly applied when reclaiming the two million population of the Central Province, was nothing more than repeating it again on a larger scale in the more spread-out population of the Eastern Provinces.
Such victorious reports really didn’t seem to warrant being passed on any further.
Latterly, Yan Fangxu simply made a summary-style military report every week, and that was that.
…
Gu Hang was too lazy to look through Yan Fangxu’s various reports.
It was nothing new: today a city was taken, tomorrow a town, nothing interesting.
“`
To tell the truth, he had no doubts whatsoever that the Central Group Army could easily flatten the entire Eastern Provinces without a hitch.
The only thing to worry about was that nothing like a god or a devil should pop up from the east.
Just the local survivor forces alone posed no threat at all.
He was still fussing over how to spend his remaining favor points.
In areas such as Phoenix Newblood, the construction of the Tenth Special Warfare Brigade, and the expansion of the Alliance Army, Gu Hang had spent around five thousand five hundred points of favor.
He still had over twelve thousand points left in his hands.
And he planned to invest all these favor points into the construction of his territory in one go.
This was divided into two parts: technology and building enhancements.
First, about the building enhancements.
After the war settlement in Green Valley Region, Gu Hang found that three new types of buildings had appeared in the [Building] interface.
They were [Farm I], [National Church], and [Court of Justice].
Gu Hang guessed that the [Farm] buildings became available because, after he secured the Green Valley Region, the area dedicated to agricultural production had greatly increased, reaching a certain target built into the system, thereby unlocking the [Farm] buildings achievement.
The [Farm I] building, like the [Civilian Factory I] and [Military Factory I] he had already unlocked, spent one hundred points of favor on an existing and operational farm to increase its production to a certain extent.
Previously, he didn’t have the extra favor points to spend on these production-enhancing buildings, but now he had a considerable amount, so he could afford to use them.
After some thought, he did not exchange for any farm buildings.
It wasn’t necessary.
According to a rough report recently sent back from Beiqing Valley Province, it mentioned the production plan for the coming year.
Based on an optimistic estimate, in the next year, the total value of the food production in Beiqing Valley Region, including agricultural produce and synthetic starch, could reach around six million Tax Currency.
With the imports from Western Desert and some of the food production from the Central Provinces added together, the food would amount to a value of about three million Tax Currency.
This batch of food was sufficient to support a population of over eighteen million in comfort, which was at the Alliance E9 food supply level; with a bit of attention to food rationing and supply at the subsistence level, or Alliance E5 level, it would sustain over twenty-seven million people; and if one were to be a bit more draconian, at the starvation prevention level, or Alliance E3 level, that would be enough to feed forty-five million people.
Even if you added the six million from the entire Eastern Provinces, the total population of the Alliance would still be around twenty million.
It was more than enough.
Instead, industrial production, and military production in particular, always seemed insufficient.
The production in civilian factories mainly revolved around various consumer goods. These items, whether used to pay taxes where the empire also accepted them or used in interstellar trade, were in lesser demand. Trading them didn’t fetch high prices, and the tax value assessed by the empire also tended to be lower than their actual production value.
However, the opposite was true for weaponry; it was the hard currency of interstellar trade, a hot commodity in trade deals, and the empire gave full tax value for it.
In this situation, Gu Hang exchanged sixteen military factories and four civilian factories all at once.
The former were all applied to the various military industries in Weixing City.
The latter would be allocated to basic heavy industries like clay and plastic steel smelting, as well as metalworking.
Not to mention that the monthly production of the Wind Falcon in the Alliance had risen to ten units.
After swapping for these twenty enhancement cards for factories, the yearly industrial output of Weixing City was estimated to increase by about four hundred thousand Tax Currency.
And the cost was only two thousand favor points.
He still had ten thousand points left.
Gu Hang did not divert these ten thousand favor points elsewhere; instead, he used them all on the tech card lottery!
The thrilling moment of the draw had arrived, and Gu Hang was rubbing his hands together with eagerness!