Fast Track to Development

In Gu Hang's planning, he intended for Waste Mine Society to serve as the heavy industrial production center for his territory. Its location was advantageous, being relatively close to Trash Town—the future source of raw materials and energy—while also possessing its own mineral resource output.

The production line for Alloy Plasteel was located there, and later, once the merchant named Dennison Henry returned with the power generation units that utilized Thermal Ash Stone, Gu Hang would also establish a power plant in Waste Mine Society.

With the development of heavy and energy industries in Waste Mine Society, a labor force of only eight hundred people was certainly not enough. Gu Hang had been continuously transferring workers who were originally expanding the Governor's Camp and building the 'airport' over to Waste Mine Society to meet the manpower demands of the alloy plant there.

However, this labor pool always had a limit, and the Governor's Camp itself required personnel as well.

Production required people, and expanding the military required people; the demand for manpower under Gu Hang's command was currently very high. Absorbing population from the outside was inevitable, which was precisely why he had specifically requested Dennison Henry to find ways to promote their cause and bring people in.

Of course, the refugees recruited from outside Revival City were not necessarily qualified industrial workers.

And let alone the refugees, even the people of Waste Mine Society—the former slaves brought down from the starship—were not exactly qualified either.

Literacy was a major issue; while the illiterate might be able to handle manual labor, it was difficult for them to grow further into technical workers.

But this was a problem that could be solved. Gu Hang had already mandated the establishment of night school classes in Waste Mine Society, as well as in his own direct camp. The first step was literacy work, followed by basic skills training, experience summarization, and instruction.

Within Waste Mine Society, there were indeed many who were willing to learn and strive for progress.

There was no need to worry much about these people; as long as they were given an opportunity, they would put their all into pushing upward.

But not everyone had the drive for self-improvement.

Now that they could live on the surface, didn't have to worry about safety, could eat their fill, had clothing to keep warm, and heard that electricity and heating would be provided later... such treatment was enough to satisfy them completely.

The motivation for improvement was gone.

Gu Hang was certainly unwilling to see this.

If no one worked hard, how could he expand production, and how could he rebuild the world?

With this in mind, Gu Hang played a trump card: the work-point allocation system.

Work would be settled in work-points, and work-points would determine supplies and welfare rations. If they wanted to eat well, live well, dress well, and even allow their closest family members to live a good life together, they had to work hard.

Furthermore, regarding worker levels, he introduced classifications for technical positions. Through examination, those who became technical workers would receive a significantly higher work-point allocation than regular workers.

The requirement to become a technical worker was that one had to study hard.

Additionally, although attending school did not grant work-points, it provided a free dinner, which saved on rations and was a nice perk.

With both visible and tangible incentives for advancement, as well as concrete increases in food rations, the night schools established in Waste Mine Society and the Governor's Camp were widely welcomed.

On the other hand, teachers were not easy to come by. Currently, they could only rely on the few literate individuals among the servants brought down from the Quintet starship to serve as teachers; as for the so-called professional technical instruction, it was frankly just the experience and tips that a few quick-witted workers had formed during their work, summarized and disseminated.

With insufficient teaching staff, one could not expect to produce excellent students.

Gu Hang understood this himself; limited by conditions, he could only do as much as possible.

As for the work-points mentioned earlier, Gu Hang had originally considered whether to introduce a currency.

Commodity circulation in the wasteland was very chaotic. Currency did exist; The Alliance issued Revival Coin, and several other major powers also issued their own currencies. But these monetary systems were not only chaotic, but exchange was also troublesome, and some distant settlements might not even recognize a certain currency.

The most popular trading method in the wasteland remained the primitive barter system.

The forces under Gu Hang's command were not yet large enough; issuing his own currency would require great effort to promote, while using other currencies would make him vulnerable to being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of those larger entities.

Therefore, he simply decided not to issue currency for now, instead using 'work-points' for internal use only as an incentive tool.

Participating in production to earn work-points, and consuming work-points to obtain housing and rations, was already a prototype of currency under a simple planned economy.

Gu Hang did not intend to stick to a planned economy forever, but its proportion would certainly be significant. In Gu Hang's thinking, the method of concentrating power to accomplish major tasks was a very successful experience during the development stage.

If the goal of Waste Mine Society was to develop into a heavy industrial center, then Gu Hang's positioning for the Governor's Camp was that of a transportation hub and a light industrial center.

Transportation aside, the core work involved the connection with the great treasure vault in the sky, the Quintet. When Gu Hang chose the site for the camp, he looked for a place with flat terrain and no natural defenses precisely for this reason.

And the textile machines and related technology that Gu Hang requested Dennison Henry to purchase were part of the light industry he had planned.

In addition to textiles, there was also the food industry.

The synthetic starch manufacturing machine transported down from the Quintet had already begun operation under the guidance of the technicians who came down with the ship. At the same time, a new synthetic starch production line was being built, relying mainly on components that were also transported down from the starship.

The alloy plant in Waste Mine Society also received orders to produce qualified parts according to the technicians' requirements; for parts that had truly high requirements for craftsmanship and materials, Gu Hang would produce them using the Finished Product Black Box of Alloy Plasteel.

Of course, there were still some core components that his current industrial capabilities could not produce. The technician who came down from the starship was, under the Governor's request, attempting to overcome these technical hurdles to see if there was any way to achieve them.

There was still a lot of hope. The industrial foundation at the Governor's Camp started from zero, but it was developing rapidly, mainly due to the incredibly powerful "black technology" materials. Even if the Alloy Plasteel produced by Waste Mine Society was considered not good enough, the Alloy Plasteel produced directly from the Finished Product Black Box was the cream of the crop.

However, until the technology was fully mastered, the scale of the synthetic starch production line could not be further expanded.

Yet, despite this, the current production capacity alone was quite sufficient.

As long as there were enough raw materials, the production line could run at full capacity to ensure that everyone currently under Gu Hang's command could eat their fill, which was more than enough. There was even a considerable amount of excess capacity to store food or even export it for sale.

All of Gu Hang's many ideas were waiting for Dennison Henry to bring back the first batch of goods and the first batch of people before they could get on the right track.

The merchant from Trash Town did not keep him waiting too long and returned soon after.

Population and supplies were all 'swallowed' by the forces under Gu Hang's command.

With the two major industrial centers, along with the Mantan Valley Manor where agricultural planting and production were gradually recovering, the overall productivity of the Governor's forces began to move onto the fast track of rapid development.