87: Chapter 87 Day Two...

"So you mean... you agreed to Gang Yishawa's proposal for a vow, even though it wasn't very formal, and you went through with it right then and there."

Fujian massaged her temples. For some reason, even though she felt this was unexpected, it somehow made perfect sense.

"Personally, I don't object, it's just... Commander, you don't need to be so... tense." She opened her eyes and looked at Li Ming, who resembled a golden-haired loser caught in the act, and couldn't help but feel a sudden urge to laugh. "I'm not the jealous type, why are you so afraid of me?"

"Who was the one who got jealous over a Destroyer before... Oops, my bad..." Li Ming had only gotten halfway through his retort when Fujian's hand was already resting on his side.

She really is jealous after all, Li Ming thought to himself.

Of course, she wasn't the kind of girl who was easily jealous, but even Z23 had judged that she probably wasn't very skilled at handling emotional matters either, otherwise things wouldn't have come to this.

"So, Commander..."

"We still have things to do today," Li Ming spoke up. "So, don't even think about straying too far from me today."

Although what Fujian wanted to say was completely different from what Li Ming was thinking, she still obeyed his words and let herself be dragged out of the room by him.

——————

Now that Royal Fortune had returned with the others, there was no need to rely on Dolphin for relaying messages back and forth. Instead, they could directly start holding meetings to assign tasks.

These two months were the final period Li Ming would be stationed overseeing the development of the port. At the same time, with three Industrial Zones operating simultaneously, although the consumption was high, the mining stations built on the other islands had also begun operations.

The core objective of this period of development was self-defense and long-range power projection.

Regarding Li Ming's safety, everyone wasn't particularly worried at the moment.

With the Hurricane Faction over there, even Sailing Ships were enough to ensure his safety, even if Queen Anne's Revenge's fleet and the Harmony Squad weren't present.

But just in case, Fujian still insisted on pushing forward with the renewal of the Army and the long-range Air Force.

Twelve votes in favor, one abstention.

Li Ming cast the abstention vote. It wasn't that he didn't understand the necessity, but he actually still wanted to use the surplus resources to continue increasing the number of Industrial Zones.

Now it seemed there was indeed a higher priority.

Although based on existing intelligence, the M4A4 could completely penetrate the mass-produced mech models of the Federation (Li Ming hadn't seen them, but he could infer they were similar to Walkers), overall, the Army's scale was too small. Only Coastal Defense Forces and Island Garrison units were retained, necessitating a new round of expansion.

The P-51 and P-47 could continue production due to their relatively superior performance, but the Type 3 Fighter and Type 2 Fighter, which Li Ming had always favored, had to have their production line priority reduced until they were completely replaced by new fighter production lines.

The more advanced the equipment, the more resources and time it consumes. Therefore, up to this point, even though Li Ming's research and development investment per period reached 40% of total expenditure, progress was still slow.

After all, there were too many things requiring research investment—not just the three branches of the military (navy, Army, Air Force), but also industrial technology and electronic technology. Basic physics and engineering also had to be researched almost from scratch.

All things considered, in this past year, Li Ming had only progressed from World War I to World War II... Well, actually, that's pretty fast.

Considering Li Ming's departure from the base and the absence of the highest leadership position, Li Ming proposed reinstating the Secretary Group system. Among Gang Yishawa, Golden Deer, Fujian, and Z23, at least two had to ensure command authority at or near the port area.

Regarding this arrangement, Royal Fortune raised an objection, but Li Ming silenced her with one question:

"Can you manage the accounts?"

Royal Fortune fell silent.

This motion passed unanimously, and there were no objections to reorganizing the feasibility of the rotation system: the Hurricane Faction's main focus of work was still on the mainland, so it was correct for them to be stationed there.

Thus, the Secretary Group for the first month would be Golden Deer and Fujian. As for Gang Yishawa's side... besides her, no one could manage affairs properly. Whether it was Saint Martin, Pearl, Lime, or the almost never-seen Fantasy, none possessed leadership ability. While having Li Ming lead directly wasn't impossible, but...

"From the Federation's perspective, scooping up a large group of veteran Sailing Ship Girls in the very first month, this Remnant kid is just too overpowered," Li Ming joked. "This will affect you all next. It's not that I don't want you to share responsibility with me, but mainly because your network of connections, Gang Yishawa, still requires some social finesse."

Naturally, Gang Yishawa had no objections to this and even threw him a flirtatious glance.

Finally, regarding deployments on the mainland.

First, the broad direction that needed the least discussion: find the others.

Li Ming hoped Gang Yishawa could do a few things for him: one was to purchase control rights for multiple Radio Frequency Bands. Li Ming felt the hope was slim, but it might come in handy.

Next was setting up Radio Stations on these frequency bands. Considering the other party might be unable to respond, continuously broadcasting some content might still be quite important.

Most importantly, due to the Federation's system, frequency bands had to be purchased separately in different regions. This was troublesome, and the budget might not even be sufficient. However, Gang Yishawa disregarded his hesitation and took on this task.

The Treasures in her treasury were so numerous she couldn't count them all, and she didn't even remember what she had stored...

Then there were matters related to trade, which Golden Deer needed to take over. Strictly speaking, finding companies run by the Ship Girl General Bureau or Ship Girls themselves would also be reliable enough, but having one's own Ship Girl keep an eye on things was best.

Maritime Trade Operations and the open Offshore Fisheries in the north were all issues requiring detailed consideration. Currently, only Golden Deer could handle this.

The FVS1001 "Admiral" class naturally couldn't sail to the Federation, so it would stay behind to consolidate regional defense.

For Local Commerce, Gang Yishawa should be able to help. Although Verres said Leica was also a good Ship Girl, Li Ming still didn't intend to trouble her. Favors were sometimes more precious than money.

The items Golden Deer brought back last round sold for a good price. From this, Li Ming could confirm that the Federation lacked Deep-sea Products—at the very least, they must lack those truly far away or unseen on the mainland. Otherwise, it would be hard to explain the situation where the other party had knowledge of them but there was a shortage on the market.

The overall deployment was roughly these points. The rest were matters requiring adaptability. Any plan, even with thorough preparations, could hardly keep up with changes. Li Ming understood this very well.

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