Chapter 558 — The Civilian Direction

At the same time, the Pioneer's highly integrated power spine, magic energy wing panels, and onboard shield technology could be applied to ground bunkers, large vehicles, engineering facilities, and other types of warship.

He summoned Hetty and explained these plans to her. Hearing that the transport problem might soon be eased, Hetty—who had long fretted over the matter—breathed a sigh of relief. "That would be wonderful… If the power technology from the Pioneer is used on civilian ships, then at least in areas the rivers reach, more than half the transport problem can be solved."

But then her brow furrowed. "Yet that way, the new mechanical ships will quickly monopolize river transport, and the traditional shipowners will probably go bankrupt in short order… Most of them could never afford a magic-powered mechanical ship…"

Gao Yang looked at Hetty with some surprise.

"What is it?" Hetty asked, at a loss. She touched her face. "Is there something on my face?"

The chief steward of Cecil was puzzled; she distinctly remembered that she had not worn smoky eye makeup today… Could it be that she had forgotten to remove the makeup she had put on yesterday to wangle half a day off?

But Gao Yang knew what his eldest granddaughter was muttering about in her heart. He had simply been reminded of the beginning—of Hetty back then, and the blankness on her face when she first heard of the "labor reward" system and the concept of "personnel management."

In those days Hetty had understood nothing of commoners' lives. For all her upright and compassionate notions, she was at bottom still a noble daughter who had never left castle or manor, who imagined the hardships of the common folk through fantasy alone. Back then she had not even known why commoners could eat only two meals a day, or why they picked scraps thrown out of the castle to eat…

Today she could, at the first moment, consider what would become of the shipowners if they went bankrupt—though much of that was due to the nature of her work in the administrative office, it was still proof enough of how her way of thinking had changed.

"We will not sit by while shipowners go bankrupt en masse. Since we mean to bring warship technology into the civilian sector, we must bring it truly and thoroughly to the people, so that it serves them rather than ruining them," Gao Yang laughed. "I have three preliminary plans…"

At this he paused to think, then laid them out one by one: "First, open up channels for the sale and leasing of mechanical ships. When the time is ripe, we can even help capable private capital establish small shipyards, driving the cost of magic-powered mechanical ships down as quickly as possible to a level the people can accept, so that the larger shipowners and wealthy merchants can afford to buy and lease vessels, much as magic-powered cars have been commercialized;

"Second, for some shipowners, the administrative office will subsidize the modification of their old cargo ships, or let them trade in old cargo ships at value toward new ones. Those truly without the means may borrow interest-free to buy new ships—do not worry about the cost; once the new cargo ships start running the rivers, the economic benefit they bring will far exceed that little subsidy.

"Finally, the smaller shipowners can join together to form transport companies and pool their funds to buy ships, or they can change trades and enter the dock freight system, each with its own subsidy. New cities are being built everywhere now, and job openings will always exist. So long as the resettlement is handled well, there will always be a way out.

"As for overseeing the implementation of these plans… that will be up to you."

Watching Hetty take her notes with such an earnest, absorbed air, Gao Yang breathed a small sigh of relief inside.

The plan was sound, but once it was actually put into practice it would surely run into a great many problems. Industrialization was a fine thing, yet the shocks that came with the shift from agriculture to industry could never be avoided—just as alchemical potions had once bankrupted a great many alchemists, just as last year's magic-powered carriages had thrown the coach lines into a panic, so now the mechanical ships would surely batter the boat owners who made their living from the old river freighters.

Once, more than ninety percent of the Southern Region's land had lain under the control of other lords; the ruin of so many alchemists and apothecaries was something Gao Yang could ignore—he might even have welcomed it, for it weakened and unsettled those other domains. But now the whole of the Southern Region stood under the rule of the Cecil family, every soul in it a Cecil citizen, and the questions he had to weigh had grown far more numerous.

He could only fall back on his own knowledge and experience, to see these shocks through as smoothly as possible.

While Gao Yang and Hetty wrestled with how best to bring the new technologies into civilian use, another person on the bridge had likewise sunk into deep contemplation.

Beside the main control seat, Rebecca was gazing somewhat absently at the runes flickering on the platforms and the silver-white levers, while Tir at her side was carefully coiling herself up on the floor. The siren maiden was earnestly stuffing the tip of her tail into her 'snake ball' when she could not help glancing up at Rebecca: "Hey, what are you thinking about?"

Rebecca started out of her reverie. She looked at Tir, who was playing with her own tail, and her face fell: "You have already built your magic-powered ship, and my magic-energy train still blows up twice a day..."

—Ever since she had begun using the Origin Laboratory, and no longer feared the cost or the danger of explosions, the number of times this girl's experiments blew up had risen most markedly.

Tir tilted her head and said casually: "What is there to be so down about? I have had several hundred people studying this ship since last year—isn't it only natural that I got results before you did?"

"That may be so..." Rebecca still looked dejected. "But if the train problem isn't solved soon, the ore from the White Sand Hills will never get hauled back..."

Tir thought for a moment, then slowly shrank back into the ball she had woven from her own tail: "Then there is nothing I can do to help—we sirens have never been much good at building vehicles that run on land, and the engine-unit scheme for a magic warship certainly cannot be applied to your train."

Rebecca cast a helpless glance at Tir, who had now become a complete snake ball, and this marchioness of the Cecil family sank into a dejection more profound than any she had ever known...