Chapter 364 Funding Issues
After Roland and Hela had a brief exchange, Hela returned to Roland's side, and their relationship quickly returned to normal.

Roland could roughly guess what was going on with Hela.

Although in Roland's opinion, Hela was just overthinking and had an inexplicable inferiority complex.

Although Hela's background is indeed a bit worse, Roland's background is similar to Hela's.

Moreover, Hela’s strength is not bad either.

Roland's training of Hela was also based on the standards of an elite transcendent, rather than a quick training program for military transcendents.

With Hila's talent and hard work, whether in actual combat power or knowledge reserves, Hila is now in no way inferior to the extraordinary people of the same age and level.

In the war council, Hela could be said to be second only to Roland.

Whether it is a mid-level transcendent like Odin who was absorbed from the border faction, or Julius, Tula, and the Primarch who are military transcendents who have emerged in recent years, they are far inferior to Hela.

Although Hela has only appeared as Roland's follower and the leader of the spellcaster team in recent years and has not had any outstanding performance most of the time, Hela is still very strong. If they fight to the death, no extraordinary person in the committee can survive Hela's hands.

Based on Roland's understanding of Hela, with Hela's current ability, she would basically win against ordinary mid-level transcendents. Even if she fought against ordinary high-level transcendents, she could fight for more than ten rounds, but she would definitely not be able to win.

As for knowledge reserves, Hela has followed Roland for more than ten years and is very familiar with various extraordinary knowledge. In addition to the positive and negative energy in which she specializes, Hela has some understanding of other types of spells, and also performs well in runes, alchemy, and strange machines.

Moreover, after following Roland into Donnar, in order to relieve Roland's pressure, Hela also trained her administrative and military abilities. After the training, Hela's administrative and military abilities were not bad, and she also had her own opinions on various issues of the committee.

Therefore, Hela is a very excellent mid-level spellcaster who has made considerable achievements in all aspects and there is no need for her to feel inferior.

In addition, Roland and Hela have been together since the North and have been with each other for nearly twenty years. They still have feelings for each other. Even Roland, after so many years of getting along, cares about and values ​​Hela.

Although Roland is not very interested in love due to his personality, if he must find a partner, the only person he can accept is probably Hela.

However, even though he thought so, Roland did not speak his thoughts out loud. After all, it would be a bit too humble to say it directly.

Moreover, based on Roland's understanding of Hela, if Roland directly played the game straight, given Hela's current inferiority complex, she would most likely not accept it.

Hela probably thought that she, a mid-level spellcaster, was not worthy of Roland, although Roland did not think there was any question of whether he was worthy or not.

Therefore, Roland's idea was to wait until Hela was promoted to a higher level before talking to her.

Although Roland might already be a legend by then, according to the recorded history of this world, the legends who had partners were basically just high-level spellcasters, and there has never been a record of two legends together.

With this precedent, Hela would not feel unworthy after becoming a high-level spellcaster.

If Hela still had some feelings for Roland at that time, Roland would be ready to take the initiative. Of course, if Hela had feelings for other people, Roland would choose to respect and bless her.

After Hela ended her meditation and lost control and regained her composure, she also reviewed the process of Roland coming to her room to comfort her. Therefore, she was also keenly aware of some of the thoughts that Roland had actively revealed.

After noticing some of Roland's thoughts, although Hela knew that Roland would not reject her if she took the initiative now, just as Roland guessed, Hela did not directly confess to Roland, but just returned to her previous state.

The two of them basically knew what each other was thinking, but they tacitly agreed not to mention it, and just like before, they continued to act as if nothing had happened.

In short, the problems between the two of them came to an end.

After Roland took advantage of the short free time in the new year to solve the problem of Hela, the political and military affairs that Roland needed to deal with increased.

Although the War Council easily annexed the entire United Army and became the only regime in Donnar, the annexation of the United Army also brought many problems to the War Council.

You know, the United Army was once the only regime in East Nar, controlling all territories in East Nar that were not controlled by the Green Tide, including the former rebels, which were only relatively autonomous but still part of the United Army.

After Roland's coup, which overthrew the rebels and established the War Council, the War Council simply took over all of the rebels' territories. Even though the War Council marched eastward for the sake of its war preparedness plan and recovered all the land from its original territory to the northern wall, the total territory of the War Council was still smaller than that of the United Nations.

Moreover, due to the war preparedness plan, among the territories of the War Council, only the former rebel territory is the real core area, and the newly recovered eastern territory does not even have a civilian population and exists only as a battlefield.

After the war between Roland and Kan'ozu ended, although the core territory in the west was not damaged much, the territory in the east was severely damaged and it took a lot of effort to clean up.

Therefore, before taking action against the United Nations, only the core area of ​​the land controlled by the War Council was functioning normally, while the remaining half of the territory, that is, the eastern territory, could be completely ignored.

Therefore, the War Council's annexation of the United Army can be said to have tripled or even quadrupled the amount of land it controlled.

In terms of population, although it was constantly exploited by Eleanor, the United Army was once the most powerful force in Donnar.

A large number of refugees chose to flee to the United Army rather than the Committee. Combined with the population used from Sinnar, the United Army's population was much larger than that of the Committee.

Therefore, after swallowing up the United Nations Army, the size of the War Council could be said to have increased several times.

However, overexpansion and rapid growth in size also gave rise to a large number of administrative and military problems.

In the former United Army's territory, now controlled by the War Council, order and stability are maintained through strict military and material control.

Once the War Committee withdraws troops and supplies, order in the occupied areas will instantly collapse. After all, high-pressure military rule is not a serious solution. The occupied areas still need to be cored and incorporated into the War Committee.

How to integrate and core the vast occupied area is the most important administrative issue for the committee. Since Roland did not intend to claim that the War Committee was the successor of the United Army or the Central Kingdom, and Roland did not absorb the feudal nobles within the United Army, the local forces in the entire occupied area were swept away by Roland during the war.

Therefore, the committee had to rely on a system of administrative officials to rule the vast occupied area.

However, the United Army has too much land and population. Even if the War Council tries its best to increase the expansion speed of the administrative system, it will take nearly two years for the War Council to complete the integration of the vast territory and population.

However, this is the most brainless solution that only expands the administrative system without considering other factors.

In fact, the Administration submitted several different solutions to this problem.

The first plan: Following the plan when the War Committee was first established, the Central Bank Province and the Committee Provinces were re-established in the occupied areas. Administrative pressure was alleviated through the autonomy of the Committee Provinces, and the Committee Provinces were gradually changed into the Central Bank Provinces in the future.

This plan is low-cost and low-pressure, but it will take a longer time and there is also the possibility of the growth of local forces.

The second plan: imitate and combine the plans that the Central Kingdom had implemented before, implement village-community rule, establish villages in various parts of the occupied areas, and send knights to manage them. The towns are under the charge of the administrative system, and the legions are stationed to ensure control over the villages. The knights will be assessed later, and those who pass the assessment will be incorporated into the administrative system. Those who fail will be forced to redeem themselves through a policy of forced redemption to regain control of the villages.

This set of plans is similar to the previous one. However, compared with the previous one, this set of plans can only foster some scattered village and community autonomy.

The third plan: merge villages and towns, give up control of part of the occupied territory, centrally manage the population of the joint army, force villages to merge, thereby reducing the number of ruled villages and towns, and reduce the shortage of officials through semi-military control.

This plan is quick to take effect and has a strong effect. However, its disadvantage is that it is costly to merge villages and towns. Relocating the population, building new homes, and reclaiming wasteland all require a large amount of resources. Moreover, the semi-military control method will tie up a large number of the committee's soldiers in the occupied areas, and the garrison will also be a considerable expense.

In addition, the concentration of population also means that some of the land developed by the coalition forces may have to be abandoned and left to waste. This also means that the hematopoietic capacity of the occupied areas will decline, and the core areas will need more blood transfusions for one or two years.

The third plan is good in every way except that it is expensive. It is extremely expensive and requires a huge amount of resources to support.

Looking at the three plans submitted by the Administration Department, Roland was silently thinking about which one to choose.

To be honest, Roland himself was more inclined to the third plan, but looking at the rough list of resources provided by the administrative department, Roland hesitated.

If the third plan is adopted, half of the wealth looted from the nobles within the coalition army may have to be invested. Moreover, this is only the cost of core integration. Subsequent construction and development will also require a large amount of resources.

Whatever the core area has now, we should also have it here.

The cobblestone roads need to be repaired, various large-scale public works and water conservancy projects need to be repaired, backward towns and villages need to be renovated and expanded, and some basic welfare such as literacy, low-cost machinery, and communication networks need to be provided. This adds up to a huge expense.

Even if all the wealth from the nobles of the Allied Forces was spent, it might not be enough. At most, it could only support development for one or two years.

Thinking of this, Roland felt even more helpless.

When the battle against the Allied Forces just ended at the end of the New Year, Roland felt that the harvest from the war provided by the administrative department and the military department was not small. Now, Roland felt that the nobles of the Allied Forces were a bunch of poor people, and this little wealth was not enough for the committee to spend.

However, even so, Roland was more inclined to the third plan. The first and second plans had too many hidden dangers. The former would nourish local forces, while the latter might pollute the administrative system. Moreover, there were not so many knights for Roland to send out.

In addition, the most important point is that both plans will turn vast rural areas into unobservable black areas. Who knows what the rural areas will become after autonomy.

Based on what Roland had seen in this world, he had no doubt that once these rural areas became autonomous, they would become the worst kind of rottenness possible.

Roland did not choose to peacefully merge with the coalition army, but instead used force to annex it. This had already caused suffering to the ordinary people, and they had suffered another three months of war. Roland was not willing to make the ordinary people suffer again.

Roland rubbed his head, and saw Hela beside him out of the corner of his eye, and asked.

“Hela, which of these three options do you think is better?”

Hela poured Roland a cup of liquid wisdom, walked slowly to his side, and placed the liquid wisdom on the table. Then, she took the plan Roland handed over and silently read it.

Roland picked up the liquid of wisdom, drank a few sips slowly, and thought silently.

Now the War Committee is in a state of disrepair and resources are needed everywhere. The Rare Equipment Industrial Zone, the Botanical Garden, and the Boneyard all need resources for expansion and development. Moreover, the popularization of rare equipment, the expansion of the Extraordinary Academy, and the popularization of basic education also require a large amount of resources.

In addition, the countless scars left on Donnar by the War Council in its fight against the Green Tide also require resources to repair. Ordinary dead lands, polluted dead lands, and black soil all require a large amount of resources to deal with.

With the annexation of the Union Army, the border wall is also in the hands of the committee, and the repair project of the border wall will be a considerable expense.

Moreover, after establishing diplomatic relations with other forces, it is necessary to send envoys. As a way of maintaining the committee's reputation abroad, diplomatic expenses must be spent and cannot be saved.

In addition, although the United Army was captured by the Committee, there are still bandits left in the occupied area, and the border between the Committee and the Green Tide has become longer.

Sending troops to eliminate bandits and garrison on the border will be a considerable expense.

Damn, why does it feel like there’s a shortage of money everywhere?

　I have prepared an Easter egg map, which is still under review.

　　It's just a casual drawing, just take a look at it.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)