I Became a Witch and Started an Industrial Revolution Chapter 78

At the same time, Mitia also reorganized the conscription system.

First was the establishment of the “Mitia Youth Corps,” providing military training for teenagers, stipulating that generally before entering society and employment, youths must participate in at least one year of training.

It was purely military management, emphasizing physical training, and used eliminated old-style rifles for new recruit drills.

With such experience, even if suddenly conscripted in the future, these youths could quickly adapt to the situation.

Middle-aged men and women also had to undergo a second round of militarized retraining, and only after passing the assessment could they be granted formal job positions.

With these two forms of organization, it could be said that the Ceres people had already completed basic recruit training before formally enlisting, allowing the military to administer higher-intensity training shortly after enlistment.

At the same time, a compulsory conscription system was implemented.

Adult men who turned 18 in that year’s autumn were required to undergo a draft physical examination and enlist for service.

After completing two years of service and being discharged, they were placed into the reserves.

Unless under special circumstances, they would not be forcibly conscripted a second time, but could voluntarily apply to remain in service.

Of course, there were also voluntary soldiers, who enjoyed higher priority for promotion.

To ensure that this system could be smoothly implemented, Mitia divided the nation’s fourteen states numerically into 14 defense zones, with each defense zone’s military headquarters responsible for conscription matters within its jurisdiction.

Each defense zone also had a dedicated Training and Conscription Division, responsible solely for the recruitment and training process.

Militarized training before adulthood, service after adulthood, reserves after discharge, with defense zones having dedicated responsibility.

Once fully enforced, this meant that every citizen of the Ceres Federation over the age of 15 was essentially a potential soldier who had completed basic military training.

Once the nation reached the dangerous moment of issuing a mobilization order, the mobilization capacity of Ceres would become extremely terrifying.

Because of their training foundation, the time required for retraining them into qualified soldiers would be greatly shortened, and the quality of the soldiers would completely crush the surrounding countries.

Although this system was extremely harsh, Mitia had no choice.

Once industrialization began, it could not be stopped.

Sooner or later, the surrounding countries would enter an overcapacity economic crisis—this was inevitable.

Mitia continuously maintained the industrial gap and the advantage of foresight, pressing down on the merchants and nobles of the surrounding kingdoms.

By selling finished products at high prices and buying raw resources at low prices, she plundered the wealth of other kingdoms in large quantities.

In the short term, as their domestic markets were still in the early stages of development, they might not notice the problem.

But over time, as their living space was squeezed by the Ceres Chamber of Commerce, they would surely not be able to survive.

By then, there would only be two paths: either closing trade channels with Ceres, or resorting to even more ruthless exploitation.

Yet with Ceres companies continuously exporting all kinds of industrial products, building factories, and investing in territories within their countries, even the closing of trade routes might not gain domestic approval.

If they wanted to maintain stability at home, they would inevitably have to vent pressure outward, suppressing domestic contradictions through plunder or cost transfer.

But her Ceres Federation system was incompatible with the surrounding kingdoms.

The one most likely to be attacked was her.

If she did not prepare for war now, was she supposed to wait until death was at her doorstep?

Apart from fundamentally optimizing soldier sources and reforming the army, massive infrastructure construction was also underway at high speed—cement roads in towns, asphalt highways connecting entire states, and even more state-level railway lines.

Building infrastructure required astronomical funds and vast labor.

The national treasury of Ceres could not possibly support the simultaneous high-speed development of more than a dozen states.

Therefore, Mitia specially convened a joint meeting with all the governors.

After returning to their state capitals, each governor summoned all the companies, enterprises, and town officials under their jurisdiction to the state capital for a banquet.

The governors’ purpose was very simple: money!

But it was not about robbing and plundering merchants’ wealth, rather it was through bidding on regional construction projects and the issuance of state bonds.

Regional bidding, as the name suggested, was to divide a section of road in a village, town, or city and let others contribute funds and labor to build it.

Once completed, the road could be named after the investor or their chamber of commerce.

Meanwhile, certain facilities within that regional area, such as newly built shops and malls, would be given purchase or rental priority.

For enterprises wanting to stand out in homogenized competition, investing in road construction to get their brand name recognized, or securing prime locations for commercial districts, either way, it was an extremely profitable deal.

At the same time, she opened up the option to purchase chamber of commerce memberships with tax reduction benefits, allowing private enterprises to form regional joint chambers that could independently expand outward, seeking business opportunities and markets under the chamber’s name.

State bond issuance was even simpler—borrowing money in the name of the state.

As long as urban construction projects could be realized, the newly built road systems would undoubtedly optimize and strengthen cargo transport efficiency, timeliness, and capacity.

Meanwhile, the concentrated construction of infrastructure would also lead to population clustering in certain regions, thereby boosting and enhancing the commercial value of surrounding areas.

Under favorable conditions, the value of state bonds would only rise and never fall, making them highly lucrative investments.

With this money, the state governments could then build commercial real estate or residential housing in designated areas, later relying on rent to secure considerable revenue.

The construction of local hospitals and schools, as well as infrastructure in low-value rural areas, was the responsibility of the state governments, while the federal central government issued the targets and tasks.

Mitia would not allow land to be bought or sold, nor would she allow private enterprises to enter real estate.

This domain was entirely entrusted to the state governments, who were to establish construction enterprises to build housing.

Safety and quality issues of the houses would be directly accountable, while rental revenue would be split, with 30% going to the central government.

At the same time, the Taxation and Security Bureau established the Urban Construction Regulatory Committee and the Banking Regulatory Committee.

Each state was to establish local banks responsible for savings and state bond issuance, while the Federal Central Bank alone retained the right to print paper currency and collect nationwide taxes.

Most national taxes and fees would be used as federal welfare reserves, with a small portion directed toward non-profitable road and rail transport construction.

Interstate transportation systems could establish toll stations to recoup costs, so in theory, they would not lose money.

The federal capital only needed to coordinate expenditure proportions between both sides’ state governments.

However, Mitia specifically referred to 【non-profitable】 roads, meaning those that could never recover their costs, even requiring loss-bearing construction.

Within Ceres lived countless small and medium towns and various races scattered throughout mountains and forests, where such infrastructure construction was almost entirely unprofitable.

Overall, Mitia had essentially shifted national infrastructure construction away from central fiscal burden.

Instead, she explained the future expected returns of local state and city projects to private chambers of commerce, letting them provide the funds.

Regional chambers of commerce invested in building road systems, gaining partial naming rights and priority in industrial and commercial bidding.

Local governments relied on the massive commercial prospects of these future road systems and industrial-commercial development to issue state bonds to the private sector for fundraising.

The funds raised were then used to develop supporting housing facilities and commercial centers.

The construction of various infrastructure projects in turn created massive demand for supporting materials, machinery, and labor, which in turn created a large number of jobs.

Centered around this, countless civilians worked, lived, and developed locally, driving regional industrial-commercial growth and consumption, thereby forming a complete cycle.