Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest-Chapter 354 - 27: Think Tank (Content Replaced)

Since the beginning of this year, Roman’s busiest task has been arranging the new population.

The population he governs has surpassed the two hundred thousand mark.

In a matter of just two or three months, tens of thousands of people have suddenly surged in, which can easily lead to chaotic governance consequences.

The labor force is also divided into effective and ineffective labor.

Incomplete governance is equivalent to no governance at all.

Labor that cannot be utilized is ineffective labor, wasting food even when eating; even if you replace relief with work, you must organize them to get to work.

Theoretically, the Black Iron King has hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of labor forces, but he struggles to requisition food.

Roman’s side is slightly better, yet it still demands vigilance.

Fertile City was still a new city last year, with limited administrative power—all residential areas are generally in the adaptation stage—adapting to new rules and adapting to new labor modes.

Their previous way of life was easily overturned by Roman, greatly increasing production efficiency as a result.

Roman believes this is how it should be.

Without boosting productivity, how can there be rapid development?

But others don’t think so; they see Fertile City as a never-before-experienced, groundbreaking, strange, and unknown new world.

Everything needs to start over; every action must be regulated, such as eating, excreting, living, and working.

They feel their life experiences were all in vain as if survival skills have no use here.

Turning the new population into labor is extremely challenging.

Because their labor efficiency might not be that high either.

Imagine being at home eating hotpot and singing, only to be suddenly hijacked and thrown into a strange world; anyone would have grievances, and public discontent means low morale.

In such cases, Roman has to let the military supervise them to work.

Yes, supervise.

This is also why the military can only assist in production, not direct it.

When lacking livestock, the military can act like oxen and horses but cannot always be used as such.

A newly enlisted soldier requires six months of training to stand with a decent military posture.

Saying "attention" results in attention being exactly that, no ambiguity!

But if you let them farm for a month...

That’s a disaster; the fruits of military training cannot be reduced to zero, but at least halved.

In other words, soldiers in this era are single-threaded.

The quality of recruits is already poor, how can they maintain strong combat power if making them work all day?

Demanding military discipline and combat power, yet also shouldering heavy labor, and also having them play roles in agricultural guidance and construction teams...somewhat imposes on them.

Let’s not mention ten thousand new recruits, but most of those seven thousand veterans have only received two years of training and cannot grasp more skill knowledge.

In two years, recognizing a few hundred characters is remarkable.

So, Roman plans to select a group of actively progressive, flexible soldiers.

He calls them the Intelligence System.

In Roman’s view, every civilization has a different definition of the Intelligence System.

It can include advisors, consultants, policy implementation, public management, intellectual reserves, etc.—the master’s assistant of the county officer also fits the characteristics of the Intelligence System, hence it can also be called a master.

But its definition for Roman is simple.

Resource library, knowledge library, intelligence library, production library.

Every Intelligence System must have explicit political ideology and knowledge reserves for production and construction.

They must master knowledge in agriculture, architecture, breeding, manufacturing, bridge building, road paving, etc. proficiently, each one a living repository of knowledge.

Learning such knowledge would take at least dozens of years.

Yet Roman cannot wait that long.

In some matters, the use of extraordinary power is essential.

The ideological awareness and combat proficiency of the Intelligence System must comprehensively exceed that of ordinary soldiers, or they won’t possess a leading position.

Moreover, the first batch of the Intelligence System cannot come from the army’s original Squad Leaders and Squadron Leaders, who are Angel Envoys.

In other words, Angel Envoys serving as officers cannot serve as the Intelligence System anymore.

The Intelligence System and officer system are different.

"I need to recruit new Angel Envoys!" Roman thought silently.

The ninth recruitment didn’t consist of many, only three hundred people in total.

Roman first summoned this batch of selected reserve Intelligence System candidates.

They were carefully selected from thousands, having the best academic performance, superior physical fitness, meritorious achievements on the battlefield, and high loyalty.

However, military loyalty being high means competition is fierce for spots, leaving the unlucky unable to become Angel Envoys.

Gwivelle helped him increase the rate of drawing cards.

Generally speaking, as long as she pointed to someone, Roman could nearly guarantee he could recruit them next draw.

After the ninth recruitment ended, Roman first used over a thousand gemstone crystals to enlighten their minds.

Undeniably, this is a potential spiritual influence.

However, the influenced Angel Envoys can also resist this influence through their own will.

For instance, Roman indoctrinating a hardworking Angel Envoy with laziness; it’s hard to make him lazy because he’s accustomed to being hardworking, and his subconscious will resist these thoughts of inactivity.

Similarly, instilling proactive thoughts into a lazy Angel Envoy is not done in one stroke.

This requires a long and prolonged transformation process.

But if the Angel Envoys embrace this ideology voluntarily, that’s another matter.

This ninth batch of Angel Envoys themselves are reserves for the Intelligence System, and in any case, there’s no reason to resist Roman’s spiritual enhancement.

What followed was a frightening scene.

They underwent vast changes in merely half a month.

Firstly, their literacy greatly improved—from a few hundred words to a few thousand words.

They also gained foundational understanding of new farming knowledge, though not yet as skilled as specialized agricultural instructors, but improvement would follow.

More importantly, their ideological awareness was no longer chaotic or obscure.

It was as if they peeked a ray of light breaking through the darkness in a long-lasting night. From then on, they would pursue it relentlessly.

Positivity, advancement, exploration, learning—are the fundamental ideas Roman instilled in them.

Those who don’t understand progress are destined for elimination.

Roman integrated the nascent Intelligence System into the military.

This is a power not to be underestimated.

In the long run, the role of the Intelligence System far exceeds that of any Commander or Chief Captain.

Because they provide unified thought, firm faith, and set an exemplary function.

Roman grants them the same rank with the Squad Leaders. freewebnøvel.coɱ

Squad Leaders obey the Chief Captains, and Chief Captains obey the Commanders and Deputy Commanders; military power is layered successively.

The Intelligence System, however, belongs to another framework.

All their discussions and actions are implemented based on Heavenly Destiny, equivalent to the extensions of Roman’s will.

And the effects of the Intelligence System are immediate.

They themselves hail from the military, now carrying the mission back into the army.

The Intelligence System and all the Squad Leaders and Chief Captains conducted exchanges, quickly clarifying positions mutually.

During wartime, the rights of Squad Leaders outweigh the Intelligence System.

During development periods, the rights of the Intelligence System outweigh the Squad Leaders.

For example, Squad Leaders are responsible for attacking the Nobles’ territories, while the Intelligence System is responsible for governing and managing the conquered lands.