One evening, Huang Cao had Kal'tsit and the other maids ring bells and call everyone to the front of his castle one by one for a general assembly.
Huang Cao stood atop the high city wall, a megaphone still in his hand.
Warfarin stood beside him like a lord's wife, utterly unrestrained. The two of them were even holding hands.
The territory's residents all wore relieved expressions when they saw this scene.
Ten years. The CP we'd been shipping had finally borne fruit.
My son can already wield a knife and cut people, and you two only just made your relationship official!
Kal'tsit sat nearby with a tea tray, silently watching someone's performance.
"My people, I imagine many of you saw the machinery I transported here from other countries several days ago. These machines will be the top priority for our territory in the future, so I need all of you to learn how to operate them proficiently."
"After all these years of study, you should also be able to recognize Sarkaz writing. Just follow the instructions in the manuals when operating the machinery. Do not do more, and do not do less."
"The food we've stored is enough to keep us alive for several years, but survival isn't merely about having ample food and clothing. It also comes with dangers from the outside world."
"A true territory should be strong and prosperous. We no longer lack food, so from now on, we must become even stronger."
"Create our weapons and use them to defend ourselves!"
"The land belongs to Eden!"
After a simple warm-up, Huang Cao reassigned the territory's residents to different jobs.
Thanks to the implementation of a basic education system, and because the latest batch of children born in the territory was now nearly eight years old,
their overall knowledge reserves were not particularly high, but in wartime, Sarkaz children of this age could already carry knives into battle.
Huang Cao had also conducted some investigations. Since most of his people were former mercenaries, they were somewhat liberal in how they educated their children.
Their ability to care for themselves was extremely strong, so they hardly needed much supervision.
Thus, Huang Cao planned to incorporate all the adults into his industrial program.
The workday would be eight hours, with two days off each week. Rest would be taken according to schedule, and a more-work-more-pay incentive system would be implemented.
If Theresia announced any holidays later on, Huang Cao would also be willing to give his people time off.
Of course, this only applied to wages. His territory currently could not afford additional expenses such as a social security system.
The basic wage was low, but the commission on every product was high. This was to prevent people from slacking off.
Unless they had a special reason, no one was allowed to leave work early.
In Huang Cao's vision, overtime naturally would not exist under normal circumstances. The only issue was that holidays would not be fixed, and people would take turns off to prevent the factories from shutting down midway.
As for abnormal circumstances, that naturally meant another war had begun. During wartime, everything would prioritize efficiency, and whether people worked overtime or not would be irrelevant.
There were, of course, overtime subsidies. However, since the current development was not intended to generate profit but to build up his armed forces, the subsidies were relatively small.
Benefits had to be kept at an appropriate level to maintain smooth operation. If all the money was spent, and not a penny remained to spend later, he and his people would be the ones to suffer.
Moreover, Huang Cao's policies for managing the territory were already considered top-tier across Terra's land.
The other feudal lords either treated people like animals or were merely humanlike.
What were benefits to these lords? They wanted that sort of thing too? Were they not getting enough lashes?
Thus, when the people beneath the castle heard about such excellent job opportunities and pay, they all loudly praised the lord's wisdom.
Huang Cao had never forgotten the principles behind founding Eden.
You should live comfortably, but I should always live more comfortably than you. There was no need to cling to every last bit of profit.
"So next, I will build the first High-speed Battleship for our territory—one capable of traveling across land. It will be crude at first, but I believe that before long, our fleet will surely become even stronger!"
What was a High-speed Battleship?
Kal'tsit was also somewhat dumbfounded when she heard those four words.
High-speed Battleships were products that would only appear in the future, weapons of war created by Terra's natives in accordance with their environment.
Thus, she had never encountered a High-speed Battleship, but she could guess roughly what it was from the literal meaning.
Moreover, a High-speed Battleship was not merely a specific object. It was also a tactical concept.
Kal'tsit knew many things that had happened in the past, but she did not know what would happen in the future.
Countries all over the world had already shown a tendency to develop Mobile Cities. However, no one had yet directed that tendency toward warfare.
It was only when Kal'tsit received the blueprints from Huang Cao that she understood these things were broadly similar to Mobile Cities.
The only differences were that they were faster and smaller.
Chapter 45: Lords of the Royal Courts, stop slacking off!
Huang Cao learned from Yaoshi that the Path of Abundance was a path that selflessly benefited others.
It was the culmination of kindness.
But the power of Abundance was not.
Power itself was not at fault. The ones truly at fault were those who used it.
Yaoshi had also told him about some of Yaoshi's own experiences. For example, beings who obtained Yaoshi's power would be called the Abundance's people by other intelligent life-forms in the universe.
Moreover, the vast majority of people became unrestrained after obtaining that power, which troubled Yaoshi greatly.
Thus, although Yaoshi had not directly made this clear to Huang Cao, he still believed that Yaoshi did not want him to use that power to do bad things.
This idea might well have been Huang Cao's wishful thinking, but he was still willing to follow the definition of Abundance.
Of course, that applied only under normal circumstances. Ultimately, it still depended on someone's self-awareness.
Clearly, someone was not being particularly self-aware at the moment.
After all, he had already begun building High-speed Battleships in preparation for ruthlessly purging traitors during the future civil war. It was impossible to say that this person had no ambition.
Huang Cao's abilities were highly suited to defending against large-scale legion warfare—or more precisely, to defensive warfare.
Especially after the countries of the future world all developed High-speed Battleships, his abilities would become even more prominent.
As long as a High-speed Battleship dared to enter Huang Cao's territory, he could make vines grow from the ground it passed over and flip all those enormous machines over in one go.
Once the High-speed Battleships were overturned, all the elite units aboard them would instantly become infantry, sitting ducks for the enemy.
A so-called High-speed Battleship was nothing more than an otherworldly version of naval warfare. The difference was that its ship traveled across the ground.
Once it was stuck and unable to move, it became a sitting duck on land.
Why did Huang Cao want to build High-speed Battleships? Naturally, it was because he lacked the ability to launch attacks proactively. Even if he won, he might not be able to manage the aftermath.
Thus, while building the ships, he also wanted to train a group of high-quality workers and establish his own defensive system.
Kal'tsit did not understand much about military affairs. Although the technological achievements Huang Cao presented were advanced, they were not completely without precedent.
At least for now, this technology was not beyond the era.
This child probably obtained it from Victoria. He has quite a bit of military foresight, Kal'tsit thought.
However, as time passed and Huang Cao's territory carried out its industrial program in full swing,
in another place thousands of miles away, a tiny accident occurred among Sarkaz's highest echelons.
This accident involved the siblings Theresia and Teresis.
In the cold and lonely Demon King's Palace, Theresia held a national development plan in her hands.
Drawing on everything she had learned in her life, she summarized a series of policies beneficial to national development.
But all these methods had one major prerequisite: a stable international environment.
Leithanian, their neighbor, was watching them like a tiger stalking its prey, sending troops to harass the border every so often.
This had caused Kazdel's military spending to remain high. Even though selling land earlier had brought in a huge amount of money, the cost of war far exceeded Theresia's imagination.
Even the King of the Scavengers could not help sighing:
After fighting one battle, he discovered he could no longer afford to eat anything.
It was already the age of artillery. Long-range strikes were nothing new, though their accuracy was somewhat concerning.
If accuracy was lacking, make up for it with area of effect~
If I can't increase the range, can't I increase the power?
For artillery shells, increasing their power without considering accuracy was much easier than increasing their range.
After one round of magical bombardment, not even corpses would remain.
Moreover, the bombarded land needed to recover, which required another sum of money.
All Leithanian had to do was march its army around once, and all of Kazdel had to go on full alert.
The resources consumed by the two sides were completely disproportionate. Everyone knew the story of the wolf coming, but Theresia could not gamble on whether the wolf would actually come.
"What are all these? Could a human being really have written this?"
Compared to that, the development proposals submitted by the Lords of the Royal Courts were even more heart-stopping.
Theresia felt a pain in her chest whenever she saw them, and she nearly fainted on the spot.
The development plans submitted by the various Lords of the Royal Courts were exceptionally concise—so concise that they contained only a few words.
Below were the preliminary development plans suggested by each Royal Court.
Blood Demon Royal Court, Dukare: Let them roam free. I can't be bothered to manage them. Life will find its own way.
Scavenger Royal Court, Nizere: Raise an army and seize King Aslan's bird throne.
Shapeshifter Collective, Shapeshifter: Whatever you do, I'll do too. So can I have all of it?
Banshee Royal Court Lord, Lamian: ...
That's right. Even now, her best friend had not submitted a development plan.
The only savior who was still on the same wavelength as her had gone silent. Theresia instantly felt somewhat depressed.
As for the other Lords of the Royal Courts, there was no need to mention them. Their bloodlines had already died out, and there was no one left to find.
Besides, some Lords of the Royal Courts simply did not want to return.
Even after Theresia sent them invitations, those people were unwilling to return to Kazdel.
Especially the Lich. He had certainly received the invitation, but he simply refused to come back.
Faced with this situation, Theresia and Teresis were completely helpless.
"I hope the next meeting can be held normally. At the very least, it would be nice if my colleagues could say a few more words to each other."
Theresia felt exhausted, yet she did not even know what she had been busy with.
The first half of these siblings' lives had been spent in war. Even after gaining the Black Crown's recognition, they could not shoulder the entire country's burden all at once.
There was no internal strife to speak of, but external troubles certainly existed.
That was why she wanted to convene a Royal Court council, making this group of old fellows put their brains to work. After the war, they could not keep slacking off.
As for why she wanted to bring Huang Cao along, it was naturally to display her magnanimity and fill out the numbers.
No matter how a Royal Court meeting was held, only a few people would attend. There was practically nothing to discuss, and the room could easily fall silent.
Interestingly, in order to cover for Huang Cao, Lamian had subtly revealed a tiny bit of information to Theresia.
This was not tattling, but a way to hide things better. Otherwise, an abrupt piece of information would more easily arouse suspicion.
Thus, theoretically speaking, Theresia knew that the piece of land she had sold was currently being managed by a young man.
However, the affairs of the border were usually like a pressure cooker, leaving her no time to concern herself with anything else.
Now, it was only because too many matters had piled up that she had no choice but to find an outlet and deal with them.
In fact, regarding the development plans mentioned above,
if this Pink-haired Demon King were willing to send Huang Cao a letter, he would still be willing to contribute some of his wisdom.
It might not be much, but it would at least be somewhat better than the proposals of the others.
Please support me with some votes—I'm begging you! Thank you, everyone!
Chapter 46: Lamian's Greetings
Before you continue