The orbit of the moon.

The "Suihuo" space industrial base, which was built less than a month ago, has already entered full capacity at this moment, and this space city with a diameter of more than 30 kilometers can accommodate up to 3 million people and 20 times the number of intelligent robots.

Its purpose is to build the Empire's new generation of star fleets, from the most core mothership to standard battleships, cruisers, assault ships, etc., and they are all new models with warp speed jump capabilities.

Now that other intelligent races beyond the solar system have been discovered, human civilization must be prepared and have the power to protect itself, so building a strong military has become the highest strategic plan of the empire.

Inside the base, a ten-meter-sized saucer-shaped suspended sightseeing platform drifted to the ground, and Qin Feng and the new emperor Qin Shuangyun stood against the railing, inspecting the huge dockyard workshop below.

Ten star carriers with the same shape and a body length of more than 1,500 meters have been formed, with a slender hull that is thick and solid, a compact modular bridge structure, a long-range radar, an intelligent combat command center, and a nuclear fusion energy unit have all been installed.

Due to the technological progress in the field of artificial intelligence, most of the heavy and dangerous work tasks are completed by intelligent robots, and human engineers and technicians are basically only responsible for command and coordination control, which makes the engineering efficiency improve by leaps and bounds, and significantly reduce the risk and manufacturing cost.

After a comprehensive technological transformation and upgrading, the imperial military manufacturing industry has the ability to start building the core warships of this latest design in batches, and from the initial cutting and processing to the ground performance test after completion, it can be completed inside the base, and finally leave the base for a test flight.

Given the technological level of the Overworld, it is unthinkable to complete such a grand project at present, and it is impossible to hope for it in a hundred years.

"Your Majesty, the internal instruments and equipment of this batch of motherships have reached 73%, and it is expected that in another half a year, they will be able to leave the base for delivery and testing."

Lin Xihan beside him said: "And in addition to these ten motherships, there are hundreds of warships of different types and specifications under construction inside the base, and their construction period is much shorter, plus the engineering orders that are being executed in other industrial bases, it is expected that after half a year, the military department of the empire will receive more than five hundred new warships." ”

This is the military expansion plan drawn up by Qin Feng before his abdication, and the number of warships currently owned by the empire is only more than 10,000, of which the new warships with the ability to warp and jump are only 3,000. Therefore, in the next three years, the size of the Empire's space fleet will be expanded to 50,000 ships, and all of them will be upgraded warships; It will continue to expand to 200,000 ships in the next 10 years.

The size of the Imperial Guard will remain about one-fifth of the Imperial fleet, and the performance of its warships and supporting weapons and equipment will be more advanced, which is the foundation of the Imperial Throne.

The establishment of the fleet will also be reformed, and in the future, the size of an integrated fleet will be 1,000 ships, with a 60,000-strong evolutionary legion, and the ability level of ordinary soldiers will be above level 12.

As for the Evolutionary Legion belonging to the royal family, the ability level of ordinary soldiers will not be lower than level fourteen, the officers above the deputy regiment level are all level sixteen, and the legion commander is at least a strong person above level twenty, and is equipped with various weapons and equipment suitable for high-level evolutionaries.

Evolutionaries with a level of more than twenty-four (equivalent to demigods in the current Xingmeng world) can be allowed to join the Worship Elder Regiment, which only obeys the orders of the royal family, as well as the Polestar Warrior Regiment, which is directly under the military headquarters, and exists as a strategic force of the empire, usually enjoying the highest level of resource treatment in the empire, and when facing wars with other intelligent civilizations, they will also shed their last drop of blood to protect the fire inheritance of human civilization.

Such a level of military strength is the configuration that a second-level interstellar civilization at the peak level should have, and if the empire is promoted to a third-level civilization in the future, the quality and scale of the required military power need to be further improved.

In addition to the fleet, the number of large space military fortresses near the major planets in the solar system, and even the natural wormholes in the Oort cloud, will be tripled, the size of a single base will also be expanded, there will be regular fleet patrols and guards, and all military units will be connected through a quantum communication command network.

The star field on the other side of the wormhole does not have the conditions for large-scale development for the time being, and can only set up an early warning base, and a few planets that produce rare mineral resources can send fleets to be stationed there.

Fortunately, the empire is not short of money, with the strategic advantage of the two realms of trade, which is almost open, the empire's treasury has always been abundant, not only large-scale expansion of the army without pressure, in industrial manufacturing, genetic drugs, precision instruments, outer planet development and transformation and many other fields can invest massive resources, promoting the empire's scientific and technological level to improve day by day.

Lin Xihan thought for a while and said: "It is easy to improve the military strength, but the number of people is not so easy to increase, according to the standard given by His Majesty, the size of the mature second-level interstellar civilization group must reach at least 100 billion to be qualified; If it is a third-level civilization, the number of clansmen needed will not be at the trillion level, which is really a headache. ”

Qin Feng sighed: "I can't rush this for the time being, so I can only wait patiently." ”

If the territory is large enough, there must be a corresponding number of people to occupy and develop, otherwise it can only be idle there, unable to be converted and realized into corresponding strength.

In addition to a series of hard indicators such as military strength, economy, science and technology, and international influence, the necessary population size is also an indispensable condition.

If the situation of a large number of people in the country is not improved for a long time, it will inevitably threaten the international status of this great power, and this will trigger a series of negative chain reactions.

Qin Shuangyun frowned and said: "I'm more worried about the environment inside the solar system, there are not many planets suitable for transforming into human settlements, and when the population size reaches a certain level in the future, the focus of development will have to be shifted to other star domains." ”

Qin Feng bowed his head slightly: "This problem does exist, and it cannot be avoided, but for the sake of the future situation of human civilization, this is an indispensable price." ”

With the earth's resources and environment, the ultimate carrying capacity will not exceed 10 billion people, and the moon will be capped at the capacity of one billion people, and the remaining planets such as Mars, Venus, Europa, and Titan will not add up to more than 20 billion people, and the total number of people that can be accommodated in those giant space bases and spaceports will not exceed one billion.

This is the limit of the resources and environment in the solar system, and the population that can be accommodated, if the empire can persistently build a sufficient number of giant space cities near the orbits of major planets, and resettle another 10 billion or 20 billion people. If you want to develop again, you can only go to other star fields to enclose and select ecological planets with suitable environments for large-scale migration.

In other words, when the empire has a population of 100 billion, it may be that the national capital has already moved to other star fields, and the industrial and technological centers of gravity have to be moved out, and the status of the solar system will inevitably be marginalized, and even become a dispensable role in the empire's territory.

Lin Xihan said: "The arrival of this day is still far away, even if the population of the empire doubles in twenty years, it will not be necessary to consider this issue after fifty, as for the solar system, it will not be bad to exist as a strategic reserve base for human civilization at that time." ”

Qin Feng had no objection to this, there was another reason why he didn't say it, just with the advantage of trade between the two realms, it was impossible for the solar system to be marginalized in the future, even if the empire grew to the point of owning the entire galaxy, it was also very necessary for some resources from the other world, so this worry didn't make much sense.