Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 766

Chapter 761, Finance and Development

The Spiderweb Realm suffered greatly from the war, with nearly every sector within it experiencing the devastation of war.

If there was any disaster more devastating than the war, it was the ensuing Zerg plague.

The Alliance performed relatively well on the southern front; the Pride Claw sector suffered relatively little damage and quickly recovered.

The Thorngrass sector, subsequently captured by the Alliance, saw less fighting, but the subsequent infestation was significant. Fortunately, it was contained early on. While still losing money, the population remains high, minimizing losses and enabling a return to profitability.

The other sectors, however, faced greater challenges. The three western sectors saw repeated battles between the Empire and the Ironclad. The four northern sectors experienced less intense fighting, but the Zerg plague was even more severe due to flawed strategies.

The worst-hit sector, of course, was the Princess sector,

as evidenced by the population.

The Dragon Eagle Star Region has a population of 1.2 trillion, and the Menghe Star Region has a population of 1 trillion, both of which are considered normal for ordinary star regions. The twelve star regions in the Spider Web Universe should be similar in size,

or even larger.

For example, before the war, the Imperial Princess Star Region should have had a population of over 3 trillion; the Alfonzo Universe should have had 2 trillion. The other star regions should all have populations above 1 trillion.

However, aside from the Alfonzo Star Region, which already has a large population, all the other star regions now have populations below 1 trillion. Even the Alfonzo Universe has a population of only 1.4 trillion.

The worst hit is the Imperial Princess Star Region, which should have been the center of the Spider Web Universe, but now has a population of only 257 billion.

Besides this sharp population decline, industries across the region have also been shattered.

These are all the effects of the war.

However, what’s destroyed is destroyed, and what’s drastically reduced is drastically reduced. If the Alliance wants, they can intensify the exploitation of the remaining people and use the remaining industries to forcibly drain the resources.

After all, the war was over, so there was always money to be made. If all else failed, if they couldn’t be fed, they could simply be fed, prevented from freezing to death or starvation, and then loaded onto ships and handed over to the Empire as blood tax. Wouldn’t that be the end of it?

But the Alliance didn’t do that. Instead, they squeezed out massive financial expenditures and poured them into these worlds.

Their goal was to quickly restore the vitality of the Spider Web Universe.

If they were to forcefully exploit it, the Alliance would have to seize the Spider Web Universe. Why?

Seizing those star regions meant they had a clean slate after the war, a place to paint on.

Of course, this approach was destined to bring hardship before sweetness.

The so-called hardship wasn’t just financial pressure; it also included the pressure of political governance.

The post-war reconstruction of the devastated planets certainly didn’t involve a counterattack from the original powers. Even if they still existed, their power was greatly reduced, and during the process of retaking and rebuilding the planets, they were supported and controlled by the Alliance, making them powerless.

But at the same time, the loss of those local powers meant the Alliance could no longer draw upon the wealth of the various forces that should have existed on the planet. Not only did they have to rebuild their own government system from scratch, but in many areas, they had to literally rebuild from scratch.

Fortunately, many planets still had the remnants of the “Zerg Control Offices” that had previously dealt with the Zerg infestation. Using them as a foundation, building a new administrative system would ease the challenge. During the fight against the parasitic infestation, some emergency reconstruction work was undertaken to utilize the planet’s manpower and resources. While there wasn’t enough time to develop more advanced production capacity for basic necessities like food, medicine, and munitions, it did provide a foundation.

And precisely because of this blank slate, after the “bitter” period, there was sweetness.

This is also why, after Ossena’s overview of the Alliance’s current situation, she focused on the Alliance’s development plan for the next two years.

This plan is divided into two parts. One is the Dragonhawk Sector.

This is the Alliance’s core region. Although it accounts for less than one-tenth of the population, it accounts for over 30% of the total output.

There are four sectors that generate revenue for the Alliance, but to be frank, Proud Claw, Menghe, and Alfonzo only generate a small amount. While some fiscal surplus is true, it doesn’t impact the overall situation. Only the Dragonhawk Sector,

with its 1.3 trillion fiscal surplus, practically single-handedly supports the entire Alliance. Not only does it shoulder the heavy burden of paying Imperial taxes, but it also relies almost entirely on the Dragonhawk Sector’s vast production capacity and fiscal surplus to support the Alliance’s massive military expenditures and the nine loss-making sectors.

Further development of the Dragonhawk Sector is inevitable.

In fact, the Dragon Eagle Star Region has been a pioneer in many of the Alliance’s major capacity upgrades, particularly the large-scale production and application of various advanced technologies produced by the Alliance Central Research Institute (the black-box factory led by Wu Jiarong).

From scientific research to shipbuilding, to the production of cutting-edge war weapons, the manufacture of advanced engineering machinery, and the development and production of advanced energy sources… the Dragon Eagle Star Region is uniquely qualified.

At the same time, some low-end industries have been relocated as far as possible while maintaining overall employment in the Dragon Eagle Star Region.

Honestly, these so-called low-end industries are actually the most efficient and profitable in the Dragon Eagle Star Region. Beyond its scale, the key is its comprehensive range of industries and well-established upstream and downstream supply chains, which offer significant cost and scale advantages.

However, industrial upgrading is inevitable. While the hungry outsiders need to benefit, even the so-called low-end industries that remain in the Dragon Eagle Star Region must undergo further upgrading.

Take the simplest raw material processing industries, for example. With more advanced engineering machinery and production lines, future operations, whether in metal smelting or the primary processing of chemical products, will reduce labor input and, in turn, improve efficiency.

The surplus manpower can be reinvested in the tertiary sector if it proves insufficient.

Increased output in the cultural, service, and luxury goods sectors will not only generate revenue but also improve the quality of life for residents of the Dragon Eagle Star Region, which relies on heavy industry and pillar industries.

Even in agriculture, the path to large-scale farms and efficient production is crucial. The latest agricultural genetics technologies and machinery can significantly increase the efficiency of both animal husbandry and crop production. The Alliance has even made the extravagant use of climate reconfiguration technology on several key agricultural worlds in the Jiangmeiyu Star Region.

Restoring a desolate planet through climate reconfiguration is costly and ineffective; however, using this technology to further optimize the climate of a planet already blessed with favorable natural conditions, making it more suitable for agricultural development, is much more cost-effective.

If the Dragon Eagle Star Region has more engineers, whether in bioengineering, mechanical engineering, or other fields, they can be dispatched to other star regions to provide technical poverty alleviation, which is also quite effective.

This approach can also alleviate some of the pressure on the increasingly crowded upward mobility channels within the Dragon Eagle Star Region.

In short, the Dragon Eagle Star Region is basically continuing along its past path, moving towards higher levels of sophistication and efficiency.

In the other thirteen star regions, the emphasis is on turning losses into profits as quickly as possible, and this must be done with the goal of “developing productivity” as the goal, with no illicit means allowed.

Alliance officials dispatched to various star regions, star zones, and even planets are each given clear targets and strict orders.

They will receive the full support of the Dragon Eagle Star Region and the Alliance, and their goal is to increase output!

(End of Chapter)