Promotion to Second Lieutenant · Surplus Funds

"Attention, march, double-time, barracks inspection, and folding blankets—what use are these things?" Hina asked curiously as she flipped through the Recruit Training Regulations Yang Yunzhi had spent an afternoon compiling.

"Where do you think the difference lies between soldiers and ordinary people? Is it simply that soldiers wear uniforms and can fight better?"

"Of course not!" Hina thought for a moment, then said, "Soldiers act in accordance with the Navy Code, and we uphold the ideals of justice. Ordinary people do not care about that!"

"I think our soldiers should possess more distinctive qualities, such as bearing!" Yang Yunzhi pointed at the Recruit Training Regulations in Hina's hands. "And these things can train recruits to develop a bearing completely different from that of ordinary civilians!"

Hina nodded. Rules such as standing at attention, marching, forming pairs with two people and ranks with three people could indeed discipline a person's bearing quite effectively.

But then, "What about folding blankets? Why do they have to be folded into squares?"

"It is to cultivate a soldier's obedience!" Yang Yunzhi explained. "If they learn to fold blankets after joining the military, they will know not to compromise when carrying out orders!"

In truth, Yang Yunzhi himself had never served in the military. He had merely watched quite a few military dramas, and had also undergone two months of military training in high school and college, so he knew about these training routines.

As for what practical use folding blankets had, he truly had no idea. He had copied that answer from the internet.

Hina became curious. "Where did you get these things? Did that school of yours teach this too?"

"These are all my own thoughts!" Yang Yunzhi considered it, then replied.

Was this world not allowed to have geniuses? Was a person not allowed to have thoughts of their own?

Hina smiled and did not press further. She merely patted the documents in her hands. "I will test the effects of this training later!"

"However!"

"However what?"

With a curl of her lips, Hina did not answer. She simply turned and left.

Yang Yunzhi was rather speechless at that attitude. However what? At least say it!

Then, he finally found out what that "however" meant the next day.

"Here!"

"What is this?"

"Your second lieutenant insignia!" As Hina spoke, she handed Yang Yunzhi several more documents.

Yang Yunzhi opened them and found logistics supply requisition forms, Base 36 external procurement forms, ship repair reimbursement forms, and firearms repair and maintenance forms.

"What are these?"

"The work an adjutant is supposed to do!" Hina curled her lips. "Since you have already been promoted to second lieutenant, it is about time you took on an adjutant's duties!"

Now Yang Yunzhi understood what Hina had meant by "however."

She was planning to assign him more work!

But Yang Yunzhi knew this was not Hina making things difficult for him. It really was an adjutant's job.

An adjutant was a position with distinct One Piece World characteristics. Since many Navy officers excelled at combat but were not skilled in politics or clerical work, the profession of adjutant arose accordingly.

Originally, adjutants were responsible for commanding warships after their commanding officers entered battle. Since many Navy generals liked to lead from the front, once they charged ahead, someone still had to direct things in the rear. That was the adjutant's work.

But later on, Navy commanding officers assigned more and more duties to their adjutants, and the authority of Navy adjutants gradually grew greater and greater.

To the point that, in many cases, Navy commanding officers only handled troop training and combat, leaving everything else to their adjutants.

In other words, the commanding officer handled military affairs, while the adjutant handled politics, economics, culture, and a whole range of other matters.

From this perspective, an adjutant's duties were somewhat like those of a political commissar in his previous life.

However, the guiding principle of the Communist Party's army in his previous life was that the Party commanded the gun, so political commissars ranked above military commanders.

But within the Navy system, the commanding officer stood above the adjutant.

So adjutants and political commissars were merely similar in their authority; fundamentally, they were not the same.

Still, if an adjutant truly turned himself into a political commissar, it was not impossible, provided he encountered a commanding officer willing to listen.

Although his workload had increased, Yang Yunzhi still handled it with ease.

Because he had the Personal AI. Little Bean possessed unparalleled talent in supply allocation, fund accounting, and fund utilization. Bringing Little Bean into clerical work like this was practically a dimensionality-reduction strike.

He also discovered a problem: the funds Navy Headquarters allocated to Navy bases seemed to contain a great deal of surplus.

Of course, it could not really be called surplus. In fact, after paying the salaries of rank-and-file Marines, repairing weapons, purchasing supplies, and maintaining ships, there was not much left.

But that was only the case in the hands of other adjutants.

They were merely ordinary people, with limited knowledge and limited calculating ability.

Yang Yunzhi, however, was a transmigrator and had a Personal AI. He could forcibly carve out a portion of surplus from roughly the same amount of funding.

His method of extracting surplus was simple. First, he could work on supply purchases.

Ordinary Navy bases purchased most of their daily supplies from outside. Although the Navy caught its own fish, vegetables, fruits, rice, flour, and other staples still had to be bought. And people in this world had large appetites, so supply consumption was naturally enormous.

But Yang Yunzhi could have nearby Glazed Town grow vegetables and grain, then supply the base locally.

Direct sales from the countryside cost less, were safer, and saved a considerable amount in shipping. Once supplies were purchased locally, expenditures would naturally decrease.

Second, he could work on weapons.

Navy weapons, such as firearms, knives, and swords, were generally issued by the Navy. But because technological development was uneven, weapons in some places had already surpassed those used by the Navy. Under those circumstances, the local Navy needed to purchase weapons itself.

To address this situation, the Navy had specifically introduced a weapon self-purchase fund policy, providing financial support for Navy units that needed to buy weapons.

Unfortunately, many good policies became distorted as they were implemented over time.

After this policy was put into effect, many Navy bases that did not need to purchase weapons also applied for weapon self-purchase funds. And perhaps because they had connections in high places, or for all sorts of other reasons, those funds always managed to get approved.

Eventually, this portion of funding no longer even required approval and instead became part of the standard funding for Navy bases.

West Blue was full of mafia groups, so there was naturally little motivation to develop technology. The Navy's technology was more than enough to dominate locally, which meant this portion of funding was naturally unnecessary.

Yang Yunzhi could put this portion of funding to use as well.

As for what he planned to do with all the funds he saved?

Naturally, it was not for embezzlement or corruption. Yang Yunzhi intended to divide it into two portions.

One portion would be used for the rank-and-file Marines, increasing their allowances and death benefits so they could fight bravely without worries.

As for the other portion, he planned to use it on the Military Intelligence Office.

Everyone knew how expensive intelligence work was. It was practically a bottomless pit—no amount of money would ever be enough.

Fortunately, Yang Yunzhi was not trying to do everything at once. Whatever money he had, he would do that much with it.