Sent away the messenger who came to demand weapons, Chris knew he should urgently develop his own weapon equipment.

He had spent a long time accumulating his industrial foundation, and now it was time to assess his strength.

So, on the tenth day after the messenger left, Chris convened a general meeting to discuss the next stage of development.

At the meeting, Chris first inquired about the issue of education from Gullo because he knew very well that to systematically develop industry, the reserve of talent had to be emphasized.

The previous model, where individuals like Chris personally worked overtime to handcraft weapon equipment, could not support large-scale warfare.

In response to Collins' question, Gullo adjusted his glasses and said, "According to the development needs, we have built 30 primary schools and 9 secondary schools. Using the typography technology you provided, we produced a large number of textbooks distributed free to all students."

"In just one year, we can cultivate many talents, and by then, factories will have enough skilled personnel." As he spoke, Gullo handed a report to Chris. "We have purchased a large number of teenagers from nearby areas, trained them, and they are ready to use."

"Money is indeed whimsical..." Hearing that even the population in this world could be acquired with coins, expanding as if cheating, Chris felt that having money was truly a very pleasant thing.

In reality, there were still many problems to solve with money. To support its industrialization process, the city of Seris acquired large quantities of industrial raw materials from the surrounding three regions but barely exported anything valuable.

Gullo imported large quantities of cotton and stone from the Arant Empire. Cotton supported textile industry and some explosives production, while stone was used exclusively for the infrastructure of the entire Airenhill Principality.

According to Chris's request, crushed stone was stockpiled for future use in laying the foundation of railways, and the whole stones were used in the construction of factory buildings. Almost at any cost, numerous factories sprung up, many even without machinery, standing empty in their designated spaces.

Such construction without seeking immediate returns was common near Seris City, but there were also profitable projects. For example, the two newly built cement plants were the busiest factories at present. Manual cement production continued day and night, yet the produced cement was never enough.

Everything purchased was used in the construction of Airenhill; nothing was wasted. The products of the cement plant and stone were used in constructing buildings. Minerals were smelted into metal. The quality of life for the common people in the entire principality was visibly improving at a rapid pace. The hundreds of thousands of coins brought by Desail were also disappearing at a visible speed.

"I am desperately procuring food." Dean, exhausted and almost collapsing, reported, "Our population has expanded at least twice in the past two months. The reserved food is definitely not enough, so we must prepare in advance."

His report fully demonstrated how money was disappearing. Food procurement was undoubtedly a major focus. To feed the growing population, food had to be purchased to ensure sufficiency. This was not a one-time transaction because the population of Airenhill Principality would undoubtedly be even larger next year.

Because of the need for more people, there was a need to gather the population, and to gather the population, there was a need to provide sufficient food. It was almost a vicious cycle. Most of the time, to encourage civilians in the surrounding areas to immigrate to Airenhill, Chris would order subsidies for all residents.

Now that he had enough manpower and plenty of military resources, the pressure had shifted to Dean for managing the population and civil affairs. This middle-aged man was extremely busy now, with barely enough time to sleep.

The situation in Stride was not much better: "I just returned from the Higgs Kingdom yesterday... The price of oil there... Uh, no, petroleum has increased by fifty percent. The biggest problem is that the production volume is not that large. We have money, but we can't buy much stock."

Although alchemy was used in this era, in most cases, petroleum was only used as a weapon in defending cities. Therefore, the production volume was low, and the demand was not high. Chris was now consuming petroleum on a large scale and planning to stockpile more, which was a bit difficult.

Mr. Stride, bald-headed, had almost bought all the petroleum within the Higgs Kingdom, but it was still not enough to meet Chris's demands—even not enough by a long shot.

Due to the large quantities of both purchasing and selling products, the current situation in Airenhill was that prices of goods were plummeting and skyrocketing. To speed up development, Airlanshire Principality could only reluctantly accept this frustrating situation.

"The construction speed of the factories is very fast! After all, Airlanshire's expenses are mostly concentrated on the industry I'm in charge of." Smith, now the best engineer in Seris City, spoke up.

Holding a report on industrial progress, he said to Chris, "We have built ten blast furnaces and started smelting steel with a new timing mechanism, increasing efficiency by dozens of times. The qualification rate of the steel is satisfactory, and there is no problem in producing the new 75mm caliber infantry cannons."

"However, there are some unsatisfactory aspects." He pointed to a line in the document and complained to Chris, "The quantity of copper is seriously insufficient. We have already smelted a million copper coins, but we still can't keep up with the consumption of copper."

An ample supply of copper could be said to be the calcium of modern industry. Early industrial problems that could not be solved in large quantities were resolved using copper's excellent metal properties. This metal also had incredible conductivity, making it the preferred choice for wires and telephone lines.

"The issue with copper can only be resolved by increasing procurement." Chris, feeling a bit frustrated, said, "Also, find a way to use iron as an alternative."

During World War II, Germany also faced a severe copper shortage. When desperate, the Germans could only manufacture bullet casings from iron. Although iron-made casings were inferior in ballistic performance to copper ones, having bullets was still better than not having any, right?

So, without coming up with a better solution, Chris could only temporarily reduce usage requirements and have factories start mass-producing iron bullet casings. After all, occasional jams would be understood by frontline soldiers—they would rather have something than nothing.

Glancing at Warglon, Chris raised his hand to signal that there was no need to introduce the military training situation. Because he had visited it yesterday, the situation in the military camp was not ideal either. "I'll talk to you separately about your issues!"

"Yes!" Warglon reluctantly gave up on revealing his shortcomings, and the funds recently invested in military training were not small. However, the talent within the military was extremely scarce. Despite his efforts, he could only barely maintain training.

Because Airenhill's current focus was not on the military, no one insisted on Warglon reporting on it. Soon, the discussion moved past him, and Gullo continued to talk about the crucial education issue.

Making a society progress towards industrialization was not an easy task. In practical terms, it was much more complicated than Chris had imagined, despite having numerous books and knowledge to guide specific actions.

Now, the surrounding regions of the original Seris, including the southern Arant and

the northern Stronghold, as well as the western Higgs Kingdom, had all benefited from the crazy development of Airenhill Principality against the rules. They earned a large number of coins from Airlanshire, making the border areas temporarily prosperous.

But who could have thought that Airenhill, which had already shouldered too many unreasonable contradictions from the beginning, had decided to use a war to shift all domestic contradictions, open up markets, and complete a gorgeous transformation!

As long as defeated nations paid for their development, this illogical leap in development was justified. Airenhill could eliminate troubles invisibly and gain a brief development opportunity.

Of course, if development continued like this, Airenhill would still have to expand outward and attack the next neighboring country—just like a glutton, it wouldn't stop until it ate up all the neighboring countries.

"The next thing we need to do is to quickly establish an arsenal, no matter what means! We must prepare for war!" Chris looked at his trusted men and said.

He crossed his hands in front of his chest, carefully considering the decision at this moment. "Continuing like this, we will only end up in collapse."

"Yes, I just did a calculation. If we cannot obtain a lump sum of 300,000 coins within six months, we will be insolvent... We may have to declare bankruptcy." Desail, more sensitive in this regard, had reminded Chris before the meeting to pay attention to the issue of insufficient funds.

If internal digestion was slow, developing other new industries, the Airenhill Principality itself could consume its own industrial achievements. But that would only slow down the development rate and waste precious time.

Including Chris and Desail, as well as Dean and others, they were all clear that there seemed to be a more irresponsible, or better, choice—war!

The logic was simple: if war could be won, why not use it to solve problems? Looking at it from the perspective of being able to win, war brought tempting benefits!

As long as the war could be won, Airenhill could expand its territorial area, have more population, offset some of its debts, and also relieve some pressure on the border direction...

All these factors were very tempting. For the first time, Chris felt the emotions of those war enthusiasts: this kind of calculated gambling that could roughly determine the outcome was irresistibly tempting.

Different from others, Chris had a lot at stake, and the chances of winning were enormous. Whether Desail or Chris, they didn't even think about losing the war—actually, they didn't need to think about it, because they would definitely not survive to see the end of a lost war.