For the next few days, Jiang Ye's daily routine settled.
Mornings were spent teaching classes for a few hours.
Afternoons were dedicated to handling work in his dormitory.
Evenings saw waves of students, like an unending tide, entering Jiang Ye's dorm to discuss matters related to seeking his patronage.
Jiang Ye stored the gift boxes from the students in his refrigerator, filling it to the brim.
He specifically cross-referenced the gifts with the class roster and was shocked to discover that students from both classes had come to present him with gifts, albeit in varying quantities and forms.
Most of the gifts were related to the development of their respective planets.
For instance, some offered land, houses, and shares. As long as their planets prospered, these gifts would become increasingly valuable.
Through these gifts, the students hoped Jiang Ye would actively assist in their planets' development.
This was truly a win-win, or even a multi-win, situation.
The planets of the students in Class One were mostly impoverished, in disarray, and in dire need of rebuilding. Thus, Jiang Ye's assistance was straightforward. A slight relaxation of commercial restrictions, allowing companies from Jiang Ye Xing, Birong Xing, and Liuxing to establish headquarters there, or a small investment of capital into their planets, could bring about significant changes.
Moreover, investments in such planets yielded the highest returns. When a planet had nothing, securing market access could lead to incredibly lucrative profits once its economy developed.
The planets of Class Two students presented a different scenario. One-third were in a growth phase, one-third in decline, and the remaining third were developing steadily, with social states almost frozen, exhibiting minor fluctuations in various data points annually, remaining tranquil.
Furthermore, the students in Class Two had different requests than those in Class One; the majority sought military protection.
This aspect intrigued Jiang Ye, as at least a dozen Class Two students requested Jiang Ye to dispatch garrisons to their planets.
After thoroughly reviewing the data for the students' various planets, Jiang Ye understood the underlying issues.
Many planets lacked their own military forces, or their armies were very small. For example, the planet Hongtu of a Class Two student had an army of only twenty thousand soldiers, yet its total population was 12 billion. This translated to roughly one soldier for every six million people, whose primary duty was to combat terrorists, rendering them completely incapable of external combat.
When these planets first began their development, to save costs and accelerate economic growth, many opted for military protection from the Galactic Empire, paying only a minimal annual military fee.
This development strategy alleviated the burden on these planets, making their initial stages easier and thus enabling them to quickly become affluent.
However, their reliance on the military proved to be both their strength and their downfall.
These affluent planets, with their populations and economies reaching their limits, lacked the capacity for outward military expansion.
The Galactic Empire was aggressively expanding, and other planets were vying for territory outside the Milky Way, growing into more powerful and prosperous entities. Yet, these affluent planets were confined to their homelands, unable to move.
Currently, these affluent planets seemed to have only three options:
To begin cultivating their own armies, to hire alien armies, or to maintain the status quo obediently.
Cultivating an army was not as simple as speaking; it required substantial financial resources and time. By the time these planets established their own armies, the Galactic Empire's current expansion phase might already be over, and they would miss out on any significant gains.
Maintaining the status quo obediently was even more frustrating. Their neighboring planets were expanding and becoming more prosperous. Although direct warfare might not occur, these neighbors could later engage in economic warfare, making the outcome unpredictable and potentially leading to the loss of their current economic standing.
Therefore, the most viable path remaining was to hire alien armies.
Jiang Ye had become the target.
The reason was easily understandable: Jiang Ye was an expert in expansion, possessing numerous planets, a large population, a formidable army, and extremely rich combat experience.
Jiang Ye estimated that the Class Two students were thinking: If they could secure the teacher's garrisons and obtain a certain degree of command authority, they might be able to borrow troops for expansion. Simultaneously, they could use this opportunity to cultivate their own planetary armies, with an easy training route by emulating the teacher's forces. Perhaps they could even poach some personnel from the teacher's troops, hiring some officers with high salaries.
Jiang Ye's temporary stance was to accept all arms orders and discuss the matter of garrisons later.
This was too significant an issue for him to decide immediately.
Moreover, in the coming years, it was foreseeable that there would be numerous occasions requiring the deployment of troops, and he could not rashly weaken his army's strength.
After five consecutive days of teaching.
On Saturday evening, Cen Zi knocked and entered Jiang Ye's dormitory again.
"Brother-in-law, our planet's data is ready," Cen Zi said, carrying two boxes.
"Good, put them down. I'll look them over as soon as possible," Jiang Ye replied, busy behind the coffee table.
"Brother-in-law, you continue with your work. After you're done, I'd like to chat with you for a while," Cen Zi said, closing the door and sitting obediently on the nearby sofa.
Only then did Jiang Ye look up, put down the documents in his hands, and turn to Cen Zi. "Is there something you want to discuss?"
"I want to highlight the key points of this data and ask for your guidance on some issues," Cen Zi said with a sincere expression.
Jiang Ye tidied the documents on the table. "Go ahead. Ask whatever questions you have. How can I keep my sister-in-law waiting?"
Cen Zi's face lit up. She immediately picked up the boxes and moved them in front of Jiang Ye, opening them with a click to reveal a thick stack of documents.
"The issue that is currently causing me the most distress is the deformed individuals," Cen Zi stated.
"Deformed individuals?" Jiang Ye frowned.
"For the past decade, the Zerg have been at war with our Salu Planet. Most of the time, we could repel the enemy at light-years away, but there were a few instances where the Zerg managed to get very close to Salu Planet," Cen Zi said, pulling out a document and placing it on top. "These attacking Zerg, in a frenzy, unleashed a large number of nuclear and biological weapons onto Salu Planet. At its worst, nuclear radiation and biochemical contamination spread to 50% of the planet's cities."
Jiang Ye flipped through the topmost document.
The document itemized the areas severely affected by nuclear attacks.
Over thirty cities were almost leveled, resulting in over a hundred million direct deaths.
Several pictures of the city ruins were included, showing black ash everywhere, smoke obscuring everything like fog, and carbonized human traces on the walls.
The situation in the suburbs and rural areas was even more horrific. Giant craters were like scars on the planet's surface, wild dogs, elk, and monkeys, bleeding profusely, lay dead beneath burning trees. Combine harvesters and RVs, crushed by the blast waves, lay in sand piles, appearing fragile like toys. There were also dark, amorphous shapes, suspected to be human corpses, protruding from windows.
More detailed pictures displayed over a hundred types of mutated creatures resulting from nuclear radiation. Most mutated species had died, such as piles of dead crows, their bloody black feathers layered densely, seemingly forming some enormous monster.
A small minority of mutated creatures were still barely surviving, roaming in the nuclear blast zones.