At the current stage, with Solins City having fallen and the goblins successfully brought under control, Li De now needed to shift his focus back to building up Dawn City.
In his vision, the second wave of Dawn City's construction would be several times larger in scale than the first.
The Dawn Mage Tower, livestock farms, running water system, Southern District expansion, all of these were results from the first phase of construction, and their impact had been significant.
There would be even more to build in the second phase.
Another issue Li De had to consider was that the calendar was already approaching the Months of Deep Winter, and the weather was gradually turning cold.
But with the sudden influx of a large population, he had no choice but to find a way to put that excess labor force to use. He couldn't just feed these residents for free.
Initiating large-scale construction at this time would undoubtedly unleash the potential of the population, mobilizing idle labor and turning it into wealth-generating power.
He had previously delayed this construction because of the ongoing raids for population, and his concerns that the beastmen army's ultimate target might be Green City. Li De had no interest in farming when it looked like even his base might get wiped out.
However, after the campaign in Solins City, the possibility of the beastmen attacking Green City had drastically diminished.
This wasn't baseless speculation, it was a judgment based on the beastmen army's actual strength, combined with the intelligence passed to him by Craig, who acted as an insider. His conclusion: the beastmen were almost certainly not going to launch a war against Green City.
The beastmen army had indeed harbored ambitions toward Green City.
But with the undead assault in the north growing ever more severe, the beastmen prince had shifted his focus away from Green City.
Because… he had received a warning.
This was crucial intelligence Craig had passed on to Li De. But due to the level 16 wolfman's unclear position, it was impossible to determine who had delivered that warning to the beastmen prince.
Upon hearing this news, Li De finally breathed a sigh of relief. Even though Green City was nearly impregnable, you could never be too careful. The fact that the enemy had backed off was the best outcome.
As for the reason behind the warning? It likely had to do with the northern undead.
Undead were the natural enemy of all living beings, beastmen included. If the Nolan Empire failed to repel the undead, the beastmen would suffer as well.
Clearly, at this critical juncture, it wasn't impossible for some higher power, whether from the Beastmen Empire or the Nolan Empire, to have stepped in to warn the beastmen prince not to go too far.
The beastmen prince had simply wanted to build his prestige to secure the throne; there was no need for him to fight humanity to the death. After all, the truth was that they couldn't win, there was a massive gap in national strength.
The beastmen's current bluster was only made possible by the undead tying up most of the empire's military forces. If those forces were freed, the combined strength of just three southern provinces would be enough to repel half the Beastmen Empire's army.
Since the beastmen had shifted their objective, Li De no longer cared where they went on their rampage. Green City held too much of his foundation, he couldn't afford to lose it. As for the rest of the human cities? He had no interest in them.
This world had never been peaceful. There were no saviors. If you wanted to survive, the only one you could rely on was yourself.
"Harrison, order the Construction Department to begin building a new school in the new district.
Use the newly acquired residents from the raids as construction workers. The initial blueprint must accommodate at least 3,000 students attending classes simultaneously, and leave room for future expansion up to 20,000.
Designate the area surrounding the school as a separate administrative zone, call it the Education Department. Select scholars with deep knowledge and outstanding abilities to staff it."
Once he pulled his wandering thoughts back, Li De didn't hesitate and issued the order directly.
Education, no matter the era or the setting, was always of paramount importance.
In Glory, 95% of commoners were illiterate. They spent their entire lives doing the lowest-tier labor.
The ignorance of the masses benefited the ruling class, but it severely hindered productivity and societal progress.
Li De wouldn't allow himself to be shackled by such outdated systems.
He held absolute dominion over this city. No one could challenge his authority on this land.
The most crucial point was, no matter how much the residents of Dawn City progressed, the most outstanding among them would ultimately become vampires.
The ones who benefited most from promoting education would always be the vampire bloodline.
Once a wave of exceptional talent emerged, they would all be absorbed into the bloodline and become insiders.
It was the same logic as the large-scale cultivation of mages through the Mage Tower.
These commoners were the foundation and nourishment of the vampires. The stronger they became, the stronger the vampires would be.
One could say that, although Li De's system had its flaws, it was currently the most suitable one for Dawn City, because the ultimate goal for every resident was to become a vampire.
This naturally formed a pyramid structure. Vampires stood at the top. The talented climbed upward, and when they reached the summit, they became vampires.
As for those who didn't make it but had still undergone professional training, they would be scattered across the city, contributing their talents to its development.
As for whether these educated residents would develop rebellious thoughts after gaining knowledge, Li De had only one response: overthinking it.
The most basic education in Dawn City would always be loyalty education. Every individual would be indoctrinated to be loyal to Li De, loyal to Dawn City.
As the absolute dictator, Li De held control over the city's voice.
What many didn't understand was that controlling public discourse meant something profound, whoever monopolized discourse held the power to define truth.
If he said demons were kind, then the truth was that demons were kind.
If he said the world should be destroyed, and that they ought to help destroy it, then that became the truth.
This is the power of holding absolute control over public discourse, the power to define truth itself.
Such authority once existed in Earth's Middle Ages, in the hands of the European Church. Those churchmen burned Copernicus alive for proposing heliocentrism, while the Church firmly insisted that geocentrism was the one true truth. As a result, the man was deemed a heretic by the very institution that held the authority to interpret truth.
And countless commoners frenziedly supported it, screaming to burn him with their own hands.
[T/N: Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance polymath who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at its center.]