A wave of good-natured laughter rippled through the room.

With the rapid expansion of the Administrative Office, the average age of officials had also dropped again and again. The implementation of the assessment system meant that the younger generation demonstrated a natural advantage in learning knowledge and accepting new things—completing elementary education at twenty and becoming a junior clerk, with promotion to department cadre or even core official by twenty-five, was not an impossible feat.

In fact, there were many young faces in the Castle Conference Hall.

Watching those new generation officials with slightly flushed faces, bashfully lowering their heads, Roland couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth.

Although this group was not as experienced and composed as the older generation in handling affairs, their own vitality and tenacity could bring unparalleled dynamism to the entire organization, which was the most needed quality of a new regime.

"In short, increasing the population of Neverwinter City as much as possible is the goal you all need to strive for next—including the planning and construction of housing and supporting facilities, all must keep up. Doubling is not the end, and I don't set an end. You just need to know that the more this number is, the better—so your own 'struggle' is also part of it." He concluded after the laughter subsided, "Considering it sounds smoother with round numbers, let's tentatively call it the 'Million Plan'."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

The officials all placed their hands on their chests.

The following decrees were all supplements or extensions of the Million Plan, such as the exploration of resources in the Fertile Plains; the construction of new full-time schools and vocational schools to further formalize the popularization of education; the transformation of medical staff from military training to civilian recruitment, and the establishment of small clinics in new communities to share the pressure of the only medical institute. At the same time, the Ministry of Education added a new subject: medicine, selecting experienced personnel from the battlefield first aid team for semi-self-taught training, and the textbooks were related textbooks collected from the Dream World... and so on.

Expanding a city with a population of 200,000 to a city with a population of 400,000 or even a million is not just a simple change in numbers. The expansion of residential areas requires more infrastructure to operate effectively; otherwise, domestic sewage and excrement alone could ruin the livable environment that had been painstakingly created. The high concentration of population placed higher demands on hygiene and epidemic prevention. Even with Lily's ability, how to monitor and predict was a problem that needed exploration.

The importance of education goes without saying—without widespread literacy education, the population would only be a burden, not a boost to industrialized mass production.

This was also why he clarified that this meeting was just a framework. Building a city of a million people could not be decided in one or two meetings. Finding a path suitable for Graycastle required the Administrative Office to constantly explore and practice.

While everyone was thrilled with the plan to create the largest city in history, Barov suddenly asked with hesitation, "Your Majesty, do you plan to send all these people into factories?"

Roland nodded, "Or construction teams, the First Army, research institutes... anywhere that needs people will do."

"But that is likely to put the Administrative Office in a financial predicament." The chief steward hesitated, "Currently, the main income of the Administrative Office comes from the sale of Chaos Drinks, perfume, steam engines, and other goods. You also know that the latter is achieved through the Joint Chamber of Commerce. Payments are settled roughly every three to six months, while the salaries of the people are paid monthly, amounting to about ten thousand gold dragons. Now the former is much larger than the latter, so there is no need to worry about the amount of capital in reserve, but after the number of people doubles, the situation will be different..."

"Are you worried that in case of an accident in the return of payments, and it is delayed for a few months, Neverwinter City will not be able to pay salaries?" Roland raised his eyebrows, intrigued. As expected of someone who had been an assistant under the Minister of Finance for many years, to be able to associate economic problems so quickly from the population plan. This reaction really made him feel happy.

"That's right." Barov said while writing and drawing in his notebook, "Moreover, salaries will continue to increase with the increase of seniority, and this part of the expenditure will only increase. However, the total output of Chaos Drinks is so much, coupled with the Million Plan, it will greatly hit the purchasing power of Eternal Winter and Wolfheart. Future income will inevitably decline a lot. With the two coming and going, the funds reserved by the Administrative Office may be little left. I have roughly estimated that for every 100,000 increase in population per year, the risk will increase by 30% unless you can find a new source of income..."

Nightingale's eyes lit up when she heard this, and she leaned over and whispered in his ear, "My former territory has an unmined gold mine."

Roland was a little dumbfounded for a moment, "I'm not that poor yet."

"What does it matter? You need to use it."

"Ahem... Don't worry, I won't be polite when I really need it... but not now." He replied in a low voice as well, then looked at Barov, "In fact, I had planned this for a long time, and it can solve the problem you are worried about once and for all."

"Once and... for all?" The old chief steward was stunned.

"That's right, you also see that the problem is caused by income not keeping up with expenditure. If you can have unlimited income, doesn't this problem equal to not existing?"

After all, there is no faster way to get rich than printing money.

When productivity develops to a certain level, the contradiction of precious metal currency will inevitably appear—limited by the level of mining and smelting, its output generally remains at a stable level. After the rapid development of production technology, it is likely to create commodities that are much higher than the total value of currency in a short period of time. When all the precious metal currencies added together cannot keep up with the output of commodities, its payment system will disintegrate on its own.

Credit money does not have this limitation.

The integral banknotes issued to the witches before were an experiment—and the results proved that even if ordinary paper is used, as long as it is matched with Cloud's ink, Anna's carved templates, and anti-counterfeiting marks made of rubber worm mucus, there is basically no possibility of counterfeiting.

Otherwise, the Chaos Drinks in the castle convenience store would have been snatched up long ago.

After excluding this point, Neverwinter City is already equipped with the foundation for issuing credit currency.

He had planned to talk to Barov in detail after he had sorted out the basic regulations such as currency style, denomination, and exchange rules after a while, but since the other party raised this issue now, he didn't mind revealing a bit of information first.

As Roland was preparing to briefly explain his ideas to the puzzled ministers, the conference room door was suddenly pushed open, and Phyllis walked over quickly.

"Your Majesty, there is a new discovery in the front-line intelligence. Pasha hopes that you and your subordinates can go to the underground hall immediately."

"So urgent?"

"Yes," Phyllis frowned, "We have deciphered the letters written by the Demon Slayer... No, the Great Demon, Ursrook, to another Great Demon!"