Starting from the Planetary Governor

Chapter 1076: Chapter 585: Spend all the Grace Points_3

Although they were all small-to-medium-sized ships, even a single escort ship would cost hundreds of millions in tax credits. Fifty ships would amount to a truly substantial sum.

On the ground forces side, there were six Star Realm Army Corps, totaling approximately forty million soldiers, who were gradually sent to the front lines to serve as forces Gu Hang could command.

Once the war was over, these forces had to be returned. Gu Hang had no intention of exploiting allied troops, nor did he harbor cruel thoughts about sacrificing them in the brutal war on purpose.

There was no need for that. They were merely complementary forces that didn’t impact the grand strategy, and Gu Hang didn’t want to tarnish his own reputation.

Still, these troops served as solid reinforcements.

The Empire’s war support wasn’t limited to waiving the Imperial Tax—for precision’s sake, it would be more accurate to say the Imperial Tax was allocated specifically to the Iron Armor War effort.

Additionally, the Empire directly provided ’funds.’

The latest sum, paid on behalf of the Eastern Cosmic Realm Government but actually sourced from two or three neighboring domains as mandated by the Central Empire, amounted to a staggering 150 billion.

The transfer occurred after the Alfonso Sect joined the war effort.

No matter the circumstances, 150 billion was an astronomically large figure.

Gu Hang had no intention of using that money simply as tax certificates. Such paperwork was meaningless to him since he didn’t need to offset taxes. However, these ’certificates’ could be used locally in neighboring star systems—and even entire domains—to purchase all the resources the Alliance needed.

Shells, energy, weapons, provisions… even externally-built ships!

There were items that couldn’t be bought even with money, yet now they could be acquired at standard rates.

Gu Hang directly purchased a Retribution-class Battleship from the neighboring Solitary Mountain Domain, from the Duanchen Sect, at a price of 60 billion.

The production cost of such a vessel alone was 50 billion. Factoring in equipped sailors, the fuel to transport it here, and a fully stocked arsenal… 60 billion essentially broke even with no profits to be made.

What’s more, the Solitary Mountain Domain—a region consisting of seven star systems—was already plagued by severe Green Skin outbreaks. That the Duanchen Sect managed to offer such a battleship for sale to Gu Hang, rather than allocating it to their own domain’s defense, was already a show of great consideration.

This favor wasn’t meant for the Alliance; after all, there was no rapport between the two sides. It was purely thanks to the influence of the Central Empire.

The funds came from the Central Empire, and the purchasing authority also stemmed from there.

Having Holy Terra as a powerful backer brought undeniable advantages.

That worked perfectly for him.

Gu Hang had always been a loyal subject of the Empire!

In conclusion, without the Imperial Tax’s localized reallocation, without the Empire’s external economic support, the Alliance’s war machine could never have maintained such full-throttle operations as it did now.

But this arrangement wasn’t sustainable in the long term.

One must rely on their own strength.

After much deliberation, Gu Hang decided to hold off on experimenting with the lottery function for now.

Out of the remaining ten million Gift Points, he poured almost all of it into boosting productivity.

This was primarily achieved through two methods.

First, he funded the construction of numerous academy buildings, concentrated in areas like Dragonhawk and even the Meng River Star System.

While he exchanged some Comprehensive Academies, Loyal Heir Academies, and Military Academies, the majority were Technical Academies.

By enhancing the education and training efficiency in this regard, the number of engineers and skilled technical workers in the Alliance would increase significantly in the future.

The combined population of the two star systems exceeded tens of trillions. If professional skill levels across the workforce were meaningfully elevated, human resources could be fully tapped and utilized, leading to a considerable uplift in overall productivity.

The exchange cost for a single academy was 1,000 Gift Points.

Gu Hang exchanged a total of 3,000 academies.

For example, on Flying Wing Star, where there were already thousands of universities, he allocated Gift Points to directly enhance the role of 500 of these universities as an educational hub for the planet.

He also assigned 100 academies to Korolya and populated the densely-inhabited Nest Capital World, where such additions were highly warranted; Rage Owl Star received 100 as well, greatly boosting the supply of shipbuilding talent on the spot.

Other worlds received coverage too. Gu Hang wanted to ensure that the 774 worlds across the two star systems he regarded as his territory each had at least one academy. On those with larger populations or more industrial activity, he allocated even more.

This consumed three million Gift Points.

The remaining nine million Gift Points were entirely invested in exchanges for factories.

Whether civilian or military factories, when overlaid onto existing facilities, these new ones served to boost operational efficiency significantly—a more straightforward yet highly effective approach.

Gu Hang exchanged for 50,000 factories, nearly covering every planet and industry sector in the region.

Food processing, materials handling, construction, consumer goods production, civilian engineering machinery—none of these civilian sectors could be neglected. Even from a purely military standpoint, they formed the backbone of the war industry.

But much of the investment was focused on the arms industry.

Especially the production of various components related to shipbuilding, like the shipyard assembly plants in starports. For those, spending 100 Gift Points on Level 1 factories simply wouldn’t suffice.

Gu Hang opted for Level 5 factories directly!

The cost of factory upgrades increased by one decimal place with each level of advancement.

However, Level 5 factories could nearly double operational efficiency.

Of course, this represented a dramatic improvement in equipment and personnel productivity but didn’t literally cut shipbuilding time in half. Instead, advantages manifested in the number of ships being built simultaneously, reduced resource and energy consumption, and fewer personnel required.

Achieving a 50% increase in shipbuilding speed through resource and manpower savings alone was already a tremendous benefit.

At 1 million Gift Points per factory, Gu Hang didn’t hesitate to allocate them to the two major shipbuilding hubs on Rage Owl Star and Flying Wing Star.

In addition, Gu Hang committed 100,000 Gift Points to equip Level 4 factories for the Yunluo shipbuilding facility and the Gelangya shipyard in the Meng River Star Domain.

Blueprints for the Holy Grail-class vessels were distributed to these sites as well. Even if the Alliance had to scrape resources painfully, establishing production lines for two more Holy Grail-class battleships at these sites was non-negotiable.

Thus, from military to economic investments, Gu Hang’s 30 million Gift Points, freshly acquired and barely warmed, had been entirely spent down to the last point.

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