Chapter 1011, Army Building

Chapter 1011, Army Building

Spending Holy Terra's Gift Points was initially somewhat out of necessity.

After all, there are still some concerns. The place has a special status and a complex situation; it's not entirely under the control of the alliance. Although he can already use his Blessing Points to develop the area within the system, Gu Hang is worried that things might change or relapse later, causing his investment to go down the drain.

But given the current situation, Holy Terra's revival is inevitable. All Gu Hang can do is increase investment.

Whether it's direct investment of funds and resources, or the investment of Grace Points, the goal is to get the construction of Holy Terra going.

The better the reconstruction, the better the stability; the two complement each other.

As for the danger of getting out of control, that depends on the governance level of the new imperial government and whether it can keep things under control.

Currently, the situation is good.

The dismemberment of the local powerful clans on Holy Terra was quite successful.

On the one hand, it eliminated a hidden danger, or rather, it brought some hidden dangers to the surface and then ruthlessly suppressed them; on the other hand, it extended the control of the new imperial government to the grassroots level of Holy Terra.

Only after gaining power at the grassroots level can a variety of development strategies be truly implemented.

The Holy Terra was rebuilt—or rather, restored.

If it were to return to its former size, this one planet would be equivalent to the entire Pegasus Sector, the most prosperous region in the Alliance.

With a large population and a solid foundation, that's how it is.

This doesn't even include the Martian-forged world next door.

Meanwhile, the eight hundred worlds surrounding Holy Terra and Mars, belonging to the Solar System, also have a good foundation. Although some areas are in worse shape than Holy Terra due to decades of turmoil, they still have a solid foundation and a large population. With sufficient investment of resources and blessing points, this entire region can rapidly redevelop thanks to the influence of Holy Terra and Mars.

In fact, by now, it can already be considered to have achieved initial success. Although it is not yet time to recoup the investment, looking further ahead, the potential is gradually being realized. In three to five years, another powerful engine for imperial expeditions will be formed.

At this point, Gu Hang found his dedication to this place quite enjoyable.

……

Aside from the exchange of factory and school points and the enlightenment of talent, another major part of the consumption of grace points is also closely related to 'people'.

Military development.

The six expeditionary fronts, plus the central front stationed on the homeland and rapidly mobile via the Comoros, require not only massive investment of resources and funds to maintain, but also enormous personnel support.

The losses from war are one aspect, but the losses from war are even greater: the normal retirement of soldiers.

First, the Alliance's military laws are generally much more lenient towards soldiers compared to the former Imperial Star Forces. Unlike the old Empire, where soldiers were conscripted and, unless stationed locally, were never able to return home for the rest of their lives after going to war, the Alliance's laws are much more lenient.

This situation arose primarily because the empire acted inhumanely.

Secondly, there are also objective reasons.

Interstellar travel is both difficult and costly, and with frequent warfare, veterans are not easily discharged. Even wounded, disabled, or extremely old soldiers whose combat effectiveness is affected are preferred to be resettled locally or nearby. Only a very few lucky ones might encounter a ship transporting logistical supplies, returning to their hometowns when the ship is empty, and thus have the opportunity to go home.

The alliance, on the other hand, places great importance on the retirement benefits of veterans.

The Alliance's Dark Side Expeditions have been going on for over a hundred years. New recruits join at twenty, and by their thirties or forties, their physical strength is no longer what it used to be. However, they can still maintain a relatively strong fighting force thanks to their richer experience. But after fifty, the decline in physical strength is truly unbearable.

Apart from a small number of officers and generals who were promoted to command or management positions, in order to maintain the combat effectiveness of the troops, those who should be discharged had to be discharged even if they had no injuries or illnesses.

In fact, many soldiers in the Allied Army retire in their thirties or forties.

In fact, the alliance also prefers to accommodate residents locally or nearby, as this is more convenient and saves more costs.

However, unlike the old imperial army, the Alliance's resettlement of veterans did not rely on coercion, simply dumping people in the area since they couldn't leave anyway. The Alliance relied more on incentives and rewards for veteran resettlement.

Veterans of the alliance can receive corresponding retirement benefits based on their military merits, medals of honor, military rank, and military position level.

Those who choose to retire or transfer to civilian work in a nearby area will receive preferential treatment that is higher than the stipulated amount.

This implies better career transition positions, such as instructors, logistics officers, or officers in local planetary defense forces; or local transfers to police departments under the Ministry of Justice; or local security companies...

These are considered relevant positions. In addition, other government departments and corporate sectors also have a considerable number of good positions available for veterans.

The harsher the environment, the closer to the front line, and the more convenient the resettlement location, the better the conditions for veterans to be discharged.

If they really didn't want to be in a place with poor conditions or too close to the front line, they could take a few steps back and go to a more convenient place to be settled along the supply line of the transport ships, which would barely meet the preferential conditions of 'settling nearby'.

Of course, the number of veterans discharged from the Union each year is particularly high now—given the sheer size of the army. The government-affiliated positions alone cannot accommodate everyone. It's primarily officers at all levels who are resettled through this method.

But ordinary soldiers and non-commissioned officers actually fare relatively well. After their discharge, they often receive higher social ranks, which directly translates to a substantial monthly allowance. Even without a good job, their livelihood is generally secure.

Young and strong men without any special achievements or high ranks are often placed in technical colleges by the Alliance's veterans resettlement office through a special pathway. Those who excel become engineers, while those who don't become skilled workers.

Or perhaps the planet they're settling on doesn't have as many jobs; it's an agricultural planet, so they're allocated more land. The land on the Empire's agricultural planets is state-owned; the farmers are more like farm enterprises and agricultural workers leasing state-owned land. However, due to the differences between agriculture and industry, farms often obtain leases of ten, twenty, or even fifty years. The rent isn't expensive, taxes are paid, and crops must be sold at uniformly set prices.

In general, large-scale farms, large-scale mechanized production, and purchase quotas ensure that farm owners will not suffer losses unless they encounter extreme circumstances.

Being a small farmer who subcontracts land is even more comfortable than being a skilled worker or engineer.

If all else fails, they'll provide a large sum of demobilization pay, along with some employment and entrepreneurship guidance. It's not a scam; you can usually run a convenience store in a residential area, work in the food service industry, construction... basically, you can do whatever you want.

For those who genuinely do not wish to be resettled nearby, have families in their hometowns, or simply want to return to their hometowns for no other reason, the alliance also supports them. It wasn't very convenient before, but it's becoming increasingly easier to resolve.

The Alliance's shipbuilding industry has become increasingly developed.

This is both the direction set by the coalition government and the active implementation by local administrative leaders.

This is because the shipbuilding industry is large-scale, can accommodate a large number of workers, and is mostly composed of skilled workers and engineers; it is an ultimate industry. The introduction of a shipyard can often bring about a leapfrog improvement in the economic development of the entire planet.

It is characterized by its technology-intensive nature, high added value, strong growth potential, strong correlation with other industries, and significant driving force. As the core of the production chain, it can drive the development of a large number of related industries and create numerous high-level jobs.

The governors who introduced shipbuilding to their planet, star region, or even star system were often promoted. This was both a direct performance indicator for the Alliance and a reflection of the fact that developing a shipbuilding industry typically led to significant economic growth in the region. The latter was the core achievement of local governors.

Of course, this has also led to some problems. Some people are ambitious but lack practical skills, disregarding the actual conditions of their region and forcibly launching projects, causing some negative impacts.

If the project is successfully implemented, that would be good. Even if the local area does not have the basic industries to support shipbuilding, resulting in the need to purchase a large number of parts from outside, leading to extremely high production costs and losses, the relevant infrastructure can be improved. As long as some of it is improved, it will eventually be useful.

However, there are also cases where projects ultimately failed to materialize, resulting in enormous waste.

In either case, the relevant officials will be severely punished.

Regardless, the Alliance's shipbuilding industry developed at a very rapid pace. This included not only building warships, but also constructing much less technologically advanced merchant ships and transport vessels, which were highly valuable.

The core reason limiting interplanetary trade is the lack of ships.

With the Alliance and even the entire Empire being so large, there can never be too many starships.

Military forces need a large number of transport ships for supplies; trade requires a large number of ships; even the most ordinary interstellar flights for personnel exchanges are valuable.

Many of the so-called shipbuilding projects launched in various places are actually just building ships like the "Traveler".

Even smaller, smaller spaceships that can only carry a few dozen people.

But these very spaceships supported a great many interplanetary journeys.

The alliance's official Starliner company made large-scale purchases and then opened one fixed route after another for the transfer of supplies and personnel.

Veterans who want to go home can return to the rear in empty supply ships and then use the interstellar transport system that the Alliance has developed to date to return to their hometowns.

It may take a long time, not only during the flight but also during layovers. But for many veterans who long to return to their roots, the wait is worthwhile.

When they return to their hometowns, they are often treated like heroes.

Their experiences, including those of veterans who did not return to their hometowns but chose to settle nearby, whose lives were greatly changed and who, if not wealthy, at least lived a relatively comfortable life in another world, inspire generation after generation of new recruits to enter the Alliance's recruitment office, dreaming of winning honors.

And they are also the last major group that Gu Hang will spend a lot of grace points on over a long period of time.

Soldier training.

He doesn't aim to train every soldier directly using T5 or T4 level training functions. Soldiers usually serve in the Planetary Defense Force for one or two years, while the former Alliance Army and the current Imperial Army only recruit new soldiers from the Planetary Defense Force.

At this stage, the proportion reaching T5 level is actually between 20% and 40%. The exact percentage depends on the local military development of the planet, which is also one of the key performance indicators for the Alliance's planetary governors.

Some special planets can even raise this ratio to over 80% through training by the Planetary Defense Force, and even have T4-level or higher soldiers. For example, the homeworld of the Death Legion, Krieg, which is now under Alliance control; or the Jungle Legion that came from the Death World of Katachon.

The Alliance respected the traditions of these special units, establishing them as independent armies and integrating them into various branches of the military. They were often used as elite forces.

The Imperial Army, after selecting the best recruits from the ordinary planetary defense forces, will subject these recruits to a year-long, more intensive training program.

After completing the army's training courses, the concentration of T5-level soldiers can reach over 60%.

Based on this, Gu Hang used his Blessing Points to recruit about 20% of the soldiers, bringing the proportion of soldiers at T5 level or above in the entire force to over 80%, thus completing the formation of an Alliance Army reserve force.

Sometimes, they would join the front lines as entirely new units; but in most cases, the soldiers would be transported to the front lines by boat, to existing division-level units that had just been withdrawn from the front.

Those front-line troops have often just finished fighting and are resting. Soldiers who have been killed in action, wounded, or retired due to age have just left, and new recruits who have completed their training will fill their places.

After a period of rest, and after replenishing their personnel and equipment, they will return to the battlefield.

Many divisions have a history of several decades or even hundreds of years, accumulating countless glories.

The front lines of the covert expeditions have thus sustained wars for over a century. The entire process is well-established and relatively healthy, ensuring veterans' benefits, thereby guaranteeing the quality of recruitment and maintaining the combat effectiveness of frontline troops.

Throughout this entire process, Gu Hang spends hundreds of millions of grace points every month on training grounds redeemed from the [Building] interface and on training new recruits directly using grace points in the [Training] interface.

This is enough to exchange for training slots for hundreds of billions of new recruits. According to the Alliance's training methods, that would be more than 50 billion new recruits to supplement the front lines.

Of course, there aren't actually that many.

After all, the Alliance has long since moved beyond the stage of prioritizing quantity over quality. The army is developing towards becoming increasingly elite, not only in terms of better weaponry and equipment, but also in terms of the quality of its recruits, which now requires a large number of T4-level or higher soldiers.

Then the price wouldn't be enough to exchange one hundred points for a single point, but only for ten points, or even just one.

Gu Hang spends 100 million grace points every month, but in reality, the alliance only sends about 10 billion troops to the front lines each year, including the army and navy, which is roughly enough to maintain the size of the seven army groups.

The total size of the seven army groups was less than 80 billion, and the total number of soldiers killed or discharged during expeditions each year was roughly 10 billion. The specific proportions depended on the situation of the war that year. In times of great devastation, the majority of soldiers were killed or wounded and discharged; in times of relative peace, the majority of soldiers were discharged normally. The changes were quite significant and could not be generalized.

Apart from a few elderly senior officers and generals who are qualified to undergo life-extending surgery, the entire expeditionary force will be completely replaced every 13 years or so.

(End of this chapter)