Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 422 Pre-war meeting
Castel, in the newly built conference room of the cathedral.

The main part of the church was completed during the Deep Sea War, but to say that it was finished would be too hasty.

At that time, the entire church was almost a bare shell, with a simple concrete floor and walls that were only painted with a layer of white plaster.

The female demons often complained that their scales had been scratched.

The situation is now basically stable, and the cathedral has undergone some renovations, including laying a layer of floor tiles and dividing the space, such as the meeting room.

Previously, Hughes had always preferred to hold as few meetings as possible and to discuss matters directly in his office. However, there were simply too many people present today, and his small office was no longer enough to accommodate everyone, so he came to this newly built conference room.

Today's meeting is a pre-war conference for the entire Castells.

Several clerks hurriedly carried in several boxes of documents, which they then sorted and handed to the people sitting around the long table.

Almost all the heads of Castel's important departments came: Gaia, who was in charge of the military factory production; Richard, who was in charge of weapons development and the establishment of the medical system; Tata, who was in charge of the shipyard; Nini, who was in charge of agricultural production; and Finier, who was in charge of the newspaper (the official newspaper).

The reason for insisting on labeling something as "official" is that unofficial newspapers, which theoretically do not exist, have an influence several orders of magnitude greater than official newspapers.

These are mainly production departments. Ash is the overall commander of combat operations, with Elwin as her deputy. As for Alexei, he now leads the church affairs of Imperial Truth.

Church affairs may sound simple, but they basically encompass everything except religion, including coordinating research personnel, logistics and management of the friars, the allocation of technical priests and combat priests, and the formulation of various plans and programs.

Even the political commissar system was under his direct jurisdiction; he was, in a sense, the head of Castells' bureaucratic system.

These were the key personnel, most of whom brought their deputies, and some even brought clerks to take notes. There were quite a few people in the room.

Hughes sat at the head of the long table, looking at the people lined up on both sides and felt a sense of déjà vu for a moment—why did it look so much like the hall of the Golden Throne?
He subtly shifted his position, making sure he could still move, before finally letting out a sigh of relief.

The meeting hadn't started yet, and the people in the room were talking quietly. Tata and Ken were gesturing with blueprints, Alexei and Gaia were arguing heatedly, and Ash was staring blankly at the flowers on the table.

Nini and Finier are playing rock-paper-scissors—and I must say, it's quite a sight to see twelve hands playing rock-paper-scissors at the same time.

Nora and Chloe were whispering to each other at the table.

Looking at the noisy conference room, Hughes was momentarily dazed. Mortals, the extraordinary, the living, the dead, the church, and alien races were all sitting in the same room having a meeting. Sunlight fell through the stained glass of the dome, vaguely reflecting the shadow of the heavy machine gun on the roof.

Bending down to dodge a flying holy book, Gaia and Alexei had switched from a verbal duel to a physical one, while Nini and Finier began free-fighting, their fists raining down like water.

How heartwarming.

"Guess who I am?"

Monica.

"??? How did you know!"

Hughes removed the six hands that were covering his face and sighed.

Let's get this meeting started.

"Uh, I'll say it."

The conference room was filled with noise, and Hughes's voice was instantly drowned out. Bang! Bang! Bang!
The room fell silent, and everyone looked at Hughes at the head of the table, tapping a shoe on the table: "Quiet! The meeting begins!"

After saying that, he pointed at Alexei and said, "You start by reporting on the progress of the expeditionary force's recruitment."

Alexei straightened his ripped collar and calmly picked up a crumpled report:
"My lord, the first phase of recruitment for the expeditionary force has been completed, with a total of 1,350 people recruited, including 20 combat journalist groups, four medical teams, and several logistics teams."

"So many?" Monica asked, somewhat surprised.

Castel has a total population of about nine thousand. If all of these thousand-plus people were combatants, that would be a terrifying conscription ratio.

In reality, these personnel were quite diverse, and not all of them were to go to the battlefield; rather, they were to participate in the construction of the Blood Harbor.

Alexei put the document aside:
“Castel is an island, making it very difficult to project troops directly to the mainland. The lord and the prince have held several consultations and decided to build a complete set of infrastructure in Blood Harbor.”

Zoe chimed in, "We've started literacy classes at Bloodport, and we've also begun construction on a new dock and several freight railways. These are all preliminary preparations for the Great Expedition, and they're what the Expeditionary Force is currently working on."

Seeing that no one asked any more questions, Alexei continued:

"Most of these people were drawn from the Guardians of the Church, and a small number came from various factories. They had all completed advanced training courses, and many of them had teaching experience, as required by Miss Zoe."

"Yes, we are in dire need of teachers in Blood Harbor."

Hughes frowned and looked at the person in charge of managing the various factories: "Will this affect production on the island?"

The group whispered among themselves for a moment: "The impact won't be significant. The expeditionary force only transferred workers from non-critical sectors, and our current production capacity is already excessive."

Hughes rubbed his temples, feeling a bit of a headache. Overcapacity was an old problem, and he already knew about it before.

Castells' industrial allocation was extremely irrational, with almost all of the productive capacity invested in heavy industry and the military industry.

There was no other way. During the Deep Sea War, Castells was about to sink and desperately needed these supplies. Production had to be increased.

Now, these industries have become a burden.

Hughes had originally planned to shut down a portion of it, but the recent Bloodharbor rebellion and the upcoming expedition to the North made him change his mind.

“We’ll discuss that later. Zoe, let’s talk about Bloodharbor first.”

The expeditionary force is mainly under Alexei's command, but this is just the beginning. Blood Harbor is setting up literacy classes and selecting factory sites.

Zoe had previously managed schools and was familiar with the situation in Bloodharbor, so Hughes simply let her run the literacy classes.

"The literacy classes at Blood Harbor have already started. This is the first session, and because we are providing free meals, the enthusiasm for enrollment is very high."

She flipped through the documents in her hand: "A total of 3,452 people signed up for this batch, and more than 2,800 of them still came to class three days later."

After she finished speaking, she raised her head: "Young and middle-aged people account for about 40% of them, and these people can become industrial workers in the future!"

(End of this chapter)