Gu Hang stayed on Korolya III for two days. On the first day, he mingled with the investigation team, wrote reports, drank tea, and had chats with Grand Mage Zhang Guang’en and the like.
On the second day, he met with a few investors and signed several investment agreements regarding the Rage Owl Star Port.
The investments were generally not large; those able to make a decision so swiftly were honestly not the big spenders. Their gestures were more like backing Gu Hang the individual. The common investment amounts were only around a hundred thousand Tax Currency, at most two hundred thousand.
Altogether, the investors contributed roughly seven hundred thousand Tax Currency.
This, of course, was far from enough for building a large-scale Starport, and Rage Owl Star needed much more than this seven hundred thousand Tax Currency.
Despite this, Gu Hang accepted all offers without exception.
Why refuse money?
He included it all as shares in the Starport, to be distributed as dividends accordingly.
Moreover, Gu Hang didn’t use this batch of money for himself; instead, he immediately signed another agreement with the Gu Commercial Firm. Along with some previous savings from the alliance and one million Tax Currency contributed by his mother, this money became the investment from the Gu Commercial Firm into the Rage Owl Star Port.
In total, this amounted to two million Tax Currency.
The Gu Commercial Firm then began to leverage its connections, reserving the schedule for a construction starship from a Sect of Mechanics’ Foundry World two Star Sectors away. They would arrive at Rage Owl Star in one year and begin construction.
In another year, the Rage Owl Star Port would be built up to a scale capable of docking large vessels and supporting a substantial population and throughputs of material goods.
All in all, including the costs of hiring labor, materials, and inflight industrial components, the total cost of Rage Owl Star Port was projected to be around five hundred million Tax Currency.
Even though much of the materials and groundwork would be extracted, smelted, and produced by the alliance themselves, and although the alliance’s own space construction machinery would undertake a significant portion of the work, the actual cash or equivalent material costs incurred would still be around two hundred million Tax Currency.
This was a massive investment, exceeding the current financial capacity of Rage Owl Star.
Miss Wang Qi had expressed her concerns to Gu Hang, but he didn’t listen.
It was indeed a bit extreme, but he believed it was a necessary investment.
Otherwise, relying solely on the slow construction by the alliance itself, it would take five to ten years to develop the Starport to the same scale.
The losses incurred in that period would not just be time spent on Starport construction but also the prime opportunity for the development of Rage Owl Star.
He would rather spend two hundred million to seize this opportunity.
As for how to raise this money, Gu Hang wasn’t too worried.
A down payment of two million had been spent, and the construction schedule for the starship was set, which itself reflected Gu Hang’s determination. This resolve could directly resonate with other investors.
Gu Hang was no swindler; firstly, he had a planet vouching for him, secondly, the Gu Commercial Firm stood behind him, and thirdly, he had recently become a notable figure in the Tianma Star Sector’s political sphere. He believed he could attract a considerable number of investors.
For many wealthy individuals, investing in the construction of a Starport on a planet with promising development potential was quite valuable.
Gu Hang aimed to raise fifty million Tax Currency when the Sect of Mechanics’ construction ship arrived in one year and then exceed one hundred and fifty million within two years.
This would suffice to cover the costs for these two phases of the project.
What if he couldn’t raise enough funds?
Then the Gu Commercial Firm would cover the shortfall.
The Gu Commercial Firm was affluent.
Although the money didn’t all belong to Gu Hang, or even entirely to the Gu Family, it didn’t matter; Gu Hang was the Family Head, and his mother was the actual controller. They could fully use the Gu Commercial Firm’s name to invest in the Rage Owl Star Port. Whatever the shortfall, they would cover it with shares, converting it into fixed assets for the Gu Commercial Firm.
Of course, this would definitely cause discontent within the firm and attract opposition. After all, the firm had always emphasized, aside from investing in starships, not partaking in other heavy assets investments unless necessary, and investing in a Starport clearly broke this tradition.
But on one hand, Gu Hang believed his mother could resolve these issues; on the other hand, even if it caused some disruption, in comparison to the construction of Rage Owl Star, it was an acceptable trade-off.
“`
If it really had a significant impact on the family business, his mother would assess it and wouldn’t agree thoughtlessly.
…
After signing that pile of agreements on the investment and construction of the starport, Gu Hang hurriedly boarded a shuttle and returned to Rage Owl Star.
Upon his return, he continued his busy life traveling around the planet for a while, finally making a complete tour of all the important regions of the world and meeting all the key figures in the alliance.
Once he finally had some free time, Gu Hang began to plan how to spend the over fifty thousand favor points he had on hand.
Unquestionably, the spending of favor points was the greatest tool in enhancing the strength of the alliance.
Drawing for technology, of course, was a major part of it.
However, before he started drawing, Gu Hang set aside a portion of favor points for other purposes.
He resolved the other matters first, and whatever favor points remained, he would use for the drawing.
And what were these so-called other matters?
Broadly, they were in three areas: construction, talent, and military.
Let’s start with construction.
He exchanged for 13 civilian factories and 27 military factories, costing a total of four thousand favor points, all of which he allocated to the various factories in Weixing City.
The forty factory exchange items essentially covered the entire area of Weixing City.
The number of factories in Weixing City, of course, wasn’t just limited to these. However, the exchange items for [military factories] and [civilian factories] had a covering effect. Smaller-scale factories could cluster together and share an exchange item, all benefiting from the boost.
Conversely, if the factory was too large, it might require multiple exchange items to cover it in order to truly enhance the factory’s production efficiency.
These four thousand favor points and forty factory exchange items, according to the description text in the [construction] interface, basically ensured that the entire Weixing City area’s production capabilities were upgraded by a [moderate extent].
In the past, Gu Hang had also exchanged factory options and allocated them to some military factories. After a detailed inquiry and comparative study, he could roughly estimate that this so-called ‘moderate extent’ of enhancement was about 15%.
This was quite impressive.
It meant that without changes in worker skill, quantity, technology, or management structures, production capacity increased by 15%, which was certainly a very good effect.
Specifically, in Weixing City, the annual output had already reached ten million tax currency. A 15% increase in production capacity represented an additional output of three million tax currency worth of industrial products each year, most of which were military or heavy industrial products.
Why three million?
Because the factories that Gu Hang boosted, of course, weren’t ‘generously’ chosen. Some low-value ones, such as bullet production lines and textile factories, weren’t really necessary. Instead, lines like the Lion Tank, armored vehicles, Wind Falcon, and steelmaking… these larger scale, higher value-added. A 15% increase in their production capacity brought about a far greater increase in output value than a uniform enhancement.
And remember, this was every year, not a one-off deal.
Extend the timeline, and those growth rates could be enjoyed long-term.
Besides that, Gu Hang also strengthened the alliance’s education system.
He could see in the [construction] interface that the three academies he had previously established, the Loyal Heir Academy, Comprehensive Academy, and Technical Academy, all had advanced upgrade options available.
The price for each was five hundred favor points.
Gu Hang never begrudged investments in education; increasing the quality of the populace was of significant importance to the construction of the alliance. Besides, he now had an abundance of resources, and a total investment of one thousand five hundred favor points was entirely affordable.
After completing these enhancements and upgrades, Gu Hang also saw a new building listed in the construction menu:
[Mage Academy].
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