Overall Planning

I thought it would just be an ordinary lesson, an ordinary glimpse into a hidden world.

However, it unexpectedly stirred True Knowledge Dao Charm, as if he had sensed something special, but he couldn't figure it out.

"Why...?" A question arose in Li Qi's mind.

Was it because of this grotto-heaven? He couldn't quite explain why he felt this way.

A situation similar to encountering a second ray of true knowledge means that true knowledge has perceived something very important.

But this time there was only a slight reaction, not as intense as last time.

Well then, maybe I should take it more seriously.

The teacher said that if I didn't pass this lesson, I wouldn't need to come back, so I definitely have to pass.

Put aside those strange feelings for now, focus on the exam, and we'll talk about it after the exam.

Then, Li Qi looked at the number of people recorded in the cave.

Five thousand regular soldiers, ten thousand auxiliary soldiers, and thirty thousand civilian laborers.

Fortunately, they are all integers.

But... are these soldiers all alive?

What's going on here?

Li Qi turned his gaze to his soldiers, and he could sense that these people had vibrant lives and souls.

However... they are not Human Race, but some kind of humanoid race.

Its body was covered in scales, faintly revealing some...

Dragon Qi?

It's hard to say about Li Qi.

It's completely different from the aura of a true dragon, but it has a similar feel to it.

What kind of nonsense is Human Path? What is this all about?

Upon closer inspection, these soldiers, besides having scales on their bodies, also had vertical pupils in their eyes, and were all about ten feet tall, making them extremely robust.

All regular soldiers are of the ninth rank, but there seem to be no junior officers, only one who is similar to Deputy General, but is also of the ninth rank.

This Deputy General stronger than the others, but not quite at the eighth rank.

The rest of the auxiliary soldiers all possessed cultivation, and each hundred men were led by a centurion, who was a ninth-rank officer.

The remaining laborers had all practiced rudimentary Cultivation Method, and some of them were able to reach the level of auxiliary soldiers. Each of them was estimated to have a strength of over six or seven hundred jin.

As soon as Li Qi landed on the ground, he saw the soldiers immediately kneel down on one knee. "Greetings, General!"

The voice is lively and expressive, and one can sense the presence of the soul.

It is indeed a living person.

It seems that they are 'people' who live in this grotto-heaven... existing solely for the students of the Imperial Academy to learn military strategy.

Li Qi felt somewhat uncomfortable.

He has experienced both the strength of Human Path and the benefits of being a member of Human Path.

But I just can't get used to this kind of thing.

All these conveniences and strengths are built on a large amount of consumables, just like fuel.

It is the continuous burning of these fuels that keeps the massive machine of Human Path running.

The same applies to the Demon Beast, and also to these soldiers of unknown race before us.

This is the fundamental logic of Human Path.

All things in the world exist for human beings. Human beings not only dominate all things, but also represent the value of all things in the world. Human beings are the essence and core of the world.

Nature is created by humans; it is a product of human activity. The objective world belongs to humankind. If anything does not belong to us now, it will certainly belong to us in the future.

Mineral veins formed underground are naturally meant to be mined.

Wild boars, wild cattle, wild sheep, and the like are meant to be domesticated. If that's not possible, then they should be domesticated to the point where they can be domesticated.

Animal fur grows to provide human clothing, not to keep them warm.

Everything that cannot be used by people is useless.

This is Human Path.

Even Li Qi himself has some of these characteristics.

Only after practicing Shaman Path did he realize something. "Milk is supposed to be drunk by cows."

Previously, Li Qi had always subconsciously thought that milk was something people should drink, something that was placed in supermarkets waiting for people to buy, used for things like calcium supplementation, sleep aid, and face masks.

I never thought that milk is actually food for calves and should be given to newborn calves.

This subtle influence on ideas is the way the Tao arranges the world.

No matter what, Li Qi found it difficult to accept this worldview of Human Path, but unfortunately there was nothing he could do; it wasn't something he could decide based on his own likes or dislikes.

According to the Shaman Path view, milk has its own place, namely, "food for calves," so there is no need to break its natural place.

This disruption doesn't mean that humans can no longer drink it, but rather that the milk, originally intended for calves, has been completely transformed for human consumption.

This behavior fundamentally changes the position of something and completely alters its meaning of existence. Shaman Path believes that this will disrupt the already perfect world and is a destruction of 'nature'.

Nature, in this context, does not refer to flowers and grass, but rather to all things in the universe throughout history.

Upon realizing this difference once again, Li Qi even felt that his own inner world was somewhat sluggish.

The conflict between humans and sorcerers is starting to intensify.

He closed his eyes and silently recited the maxim. "The source of the Great Way is truly profound. Nothing is left unreceived, nothing is unreceived, nothing is beyond measure. It is boundless in its vastness and infinitesimally detailed. Therefore, it is said that when one understands the One, all things are accomplished..."

He was trying to reconcile the two sides using the principles of Daoism.

Existence is its own justification; nothing is left unreceived, nothing is unaffected, nothing is beyond its reach. Humans and shamans are merely different choices... The Great Dao cannot be spoken of; all of this is contained within the Great Dao, and in essence, there is no conflict...

While trying to calm the turmoil within him, Li Qi said to those around him, "Please rise, everyone. Tell me the details. I think you all know something."

All the soldiers stood up.

The Deputy General in the lead stepped forward and bowed to Li Qi: "General, we have come here to obey your orders, but the supplies and provisions... still need your preparation."

"Yes, I know the number of you. But how much do you eat? How much food do you need per day?" Li Qi nodded and then asked.

The Deputy General was probably not visiting for the first time. Upon hearing Li Qi's question, he immediately presented a silk scroll.

Li Qi took it and found that it was written very clearly.

To maintain sufficient combat effectiveness, 5,000 regular soldiers need 10 catties of fine grain, 2 catties of meat, and half an ounce of salt per person per day.

If training is required, not only meat is needed, but also enough spiritual food to replenish internal energy.

To maintain an elite force, at the very least, it needs to be drilled every three days. If it's just to keep it in place so that its combat effectiveness doesn't drop too much, then it needs to be drilled every Ten Suns.

In wartime, with the massive consumption of internal energy, the soldiers might need spiritual items to replenish their internal energy, potentially reaching a level where each person consumes at least ten strands of internal energy per day.

Ten thousand auxiliary troops would require half the number needed, but if training is required, it would also increase the consumption, and the situation would be similar in wartime.

As long as the laborers are not hungry, two or three catties of grain a day is enough. However, if the laborers need to do heavy work or travel long distances, they need to eat more, sometimes even double that amount.

But meat and spiritual items can be omitted for them.

However, if they are not fed before they start working, there may be non-combat casualties.

In addition to these, there is a great deal of data, too much to list.

For example, the load a laborer can carry, their movement speed, and so on.

If there are too few laborers sent out to transport grain and too much grain, the speed will be slower, and the slower speed will take more time, which is equivalent to consuming more grain.

But if we add more people, we'll need to eat even more. What's the optimal solution?

To maintain combat effectiveness, should we conduct drills every three days or every Ten Suns?

Looking at it this way, the pre-battle preparations and logistics for a military march are indeed a technical task.

This is not just simple arithmetic, but a comprehensive optimization of algorithms.

How to find the optimal solution is an important lesson for Military School!

It's not about simply asking you to solve one difficult problem, but rather combining many difficult problems into one practical problem, and then asking you to find the optimal solution.

Even if it's not the optimal solution, it must at least meet the minimum standard to ensure that "the country is not impoverished even when the army is mobilized," thus leading to "the army wins but the country loses."

After reviewing the documents, Li Qi pondered for a moment, then looked at his Deputy General and said, "I've looked at the consumption figures, but where should we allocate these supplies? Where will the resources come from?"

The Deputy General immediately presented another silk scroll to Li Qi, saying, "General, this is Fengshui Map of our country, which contains information on our specialties, taxes, and granaries. However, we hope that you will manage it with moderation. If you impose too much taxation on a certain area, it may incite a popular uprising, which would be counterproductive."

Upon hearing this, Li Qi took the silk scroll from the other party's hand and looked at it again.

However, they discovered that a map was drawn on it, depicting a country divided into more than a dozen states, each with different specialties and populations. In critical moments, it could also conscript men, but doing so would inevitably cause social unrest.

Li Qi discovered that the population here was unusually small.

The population of more than a dozen states combined is less than one million, meaning each state has only tens of thousands of people.

Upon closer inspection, Li Qi discovered that the scale was quite outrageous.

This grotto is quite large.

The area spans only six or seven hundred miles, Li Qi can make a round trip in just a few hours. The so-called 'state' is actually not much different from a county town in Baiyue, and it doesn't even qualify as a country.

With only tens of thousands of people in a state, and a total population of barely a million, how could such a celestial realm cultivate so many ninth-rank cultivators?

Li Qi's focus was different from others. He didn't immediately look at things like local specialties, supplies, and money; instead, he paid attention to the population ratio.

This is only a ninth-grade grotto-heaven, meaning that the strongest beings that can be born here are only at the ninth grade.

Therefore, among those regular soldiers, there wasn't a single one of the eighth rank.

However... there are five or six thousand ninth-rank individuals.

In other words, assuming this is all the nine ranks of this grotto-heaven, then there would be roughly one ninth-rank person among 20,000 people.

For a Ninth Rank World, what a terrifying ratio of ninth ranks this is!

Even in the entire world, those who reach the ninth rank are one in a thousand. In Ninth Rank World, it would be good if there were even one in a single world.

Back in the Earth Oil Realm, with a population of over 100 million, there were only two Rank 9 cultivators, and both of them practiced Evil Method Human Path.

This isn't right. What has Human Path done in this world?

Li Qi frowned and asked, "How many people of your skill level are there in your hometown?"

The Deputy General was slightly surprised to hear this.

No general has ever asked such a question before.

However, his long-standing obedience led him to immediately reply, "We have already reached the entry-level, so we are naturally the strongest among the strong, one in ten thousand."

"However, the rest of the people are all to guard their hometowns. If the general were to forcibly conscript them into the army, it would probably leave the rear vulnerable and increase the logistical burden."

The Deputy General spoke cautiously, fearing that the newly arrived general was planning to forcibly conscript others.

Generals have done this before.

Li Qi ignored all of that and silently stroked his chin, lost in thought.

The ninth rank is one in ten thousand, meaning that out of a million people in this country, there are ten thousand ninth-rank officials!

Are you kidding me!

In the major cities of the world, even a ninth-rank official is only one in a thousand.

What merit or ability does this Ninth Rank World possess?!

There must be something fishy going on here, or are these just actors? Were they actually all brought in from outside?

It doesn't seem like it.

The eyes and gazes of these people were those of natives.

"Perform your Cultivation Method for me," Li Qi said, raising his head as he pondered Deputy General words.

"General... time is of the essence. We only have one Chen to make a plan... if the plan is not in place, I'm afraid—" the Deputy General said anxiously.

"I've made plans. I'll have you practice the Cultivation Method," Li Qi emphasized again.

The Deputy General had no choice but to practice the Cultivation Method.

I just hope this general isn't too unreliable.

If things are unreliable... then this country may not escape the Calamity of Soldiers.

As he began practicing the Cultivation Method, Li Qi also began his own deductions.

What are we deducing?

It's the objective function, of course!

Isn't this just a problem involving multiple objective functions?

First, draw a function graph. Then, solve the optimal solution for each single-objective problem. Use the optimal solutions of all single-objective problems as the expected value. Finally, find the point in the feasible region that is closest to the expected solution as the optimal solution for the multi-objective optimization problem.

It looks complicated, with many variables and numerous factors to suppress, but in practice, there's only one thing to do:

From multiple objectives, select "procure supplies and provisions without affecting stability" as the primary objective based on its importance, and then transform the other objectives into constraints.

Then, the multi-objective optimization problem can be transformed into a single-objective problem.

As long as you set sufficiently reasonable and relatively important target weight coefficients, and then substitute them into the multi-objective function, the problem will be easily solved.

As I've already mentioned, this kind of test involves counting techniques.

Well, I'm sorry, but Li Qi's math foundation is actually quite good.

While watching the Deputy General practice his Cultivation Method, he also derived the calculation function to see how to find the optimal solution for collecting military provisions.

A Chen?

More than enough.

On the other side of the desk, Li Lieqi leading a group of soldiers who looked like barbarians, eager to get started.

She was very skilled at procuring military provisions. In fact, her family had sent her to the Ninth Rank World to lead troops in battle and experience military life firsthand, so that she could gain experience.

Raising military provisions and arranging supplies were no challenge for her.

She quickly and skillfully arranged and deployed tasks, and had already begun to boost morale:

"According to you, the people of the South cultivate the five grains and harvest them in autumn," Li Lieqi declared loudly.

"Then we northerners should also go south to harvest according to the seasons! They are the grains we grow!"