Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 129

Chapter 129, Food Crisis

After the reconstruction of the city was somewhat on track, the second problem that Ossena had to solve without stopping was the food crisis.

Not enough food.

Fuxing City is a commercial hub and a light industrial center. Now with the abandoned cave area of Weixing City, heavy industry is also developing rapidly.

But Fuxing City does not produce food.

Although there is a small farm such as Mantan Valley Manor around the city, the output of crops in one season of that farm is good to be 2,000 tons. The output for a whole year is only enough for the whole city to eat for ten days.

From Fuxing City to Weixing City, if we regard it as a whole, this is a city with a population of one million. According to the lower-level food quota, the daily food consumption must reach 500 tons; the food demand for a whole year is at least 180,000 tons, and it is not too much to prepare 200,000 tons.

When Gu Hang just took over the city, the food reserves of the entire city could only last about 15 days.

And now, a total of twelve days have passed, and the remaining food reserves are only about nine days.

The main reason for this is that during this period, it was not purely a matter of living off the mountain.

On the one hand, after the initial end of the war, the end of the blockade of the city, and the end of the storm, the grain trade has more or less recovered. The grain caravans that were originally on the way finally dared to pluck up the courage to enter the city, unload the goods they were carrying, and take some industrial products to leave.

On the other hand, there was assistance from Weixing City.

The two synthetic starch production lines in Weixing City are fully operational, and the combined daily output can reach 100 tons under the condition of working day and night. Except for the two districts of Weixing City that are left locally, all the others are transported to Fuxing City.

However, despite these two supplements, it is still not enough to make ends meet.

This is definitely not okay.

The synthetic starch production line cannot be relied on for the time being. Wu Jiarong’s research and development and mass production tasks are a bit heavy, and the local deployment and research and development of the synthetic starch production line are slow.

Even if she devotes all her energy to this aspect, I am afraid it will not solve the urgent problem.

Then we can only rely on the old method.

Fuxing City does not produce food. It has been able to survive for so long in the past because of foreign trade.

Of course, if it relies solely on foreign trade, the supply of food will certainly be very unstable.

It didn’t matter to Fuxing City in the past. If there was an unstable situation, it would happen. Anyway, the people in the inner city would not starve to death, and the people in the outer city would starve to death. It was no big deal.

Anyway, after a period of time, there would always be many refugees who came from nowhere to make up for the missing population.

But Fuxing City can’t do this now.

Ossena knew that the morale of the city residents was high now, which was based on Governor Gu’s political declaration. People now began to believe that the Governor could bring them a better life, which made them begin to support the Governor’s regime and burst out with great enthusiasm for production.

But if there was a situation of starvation, Gu Hang’s political declaration would fail not long after it was said, which would be a huge blow to the prestige of the new government.

Ossena would never allow such a thing to happen.

In the long run, finding a way to ensure that the new alliance regime can be self-sufficient in food is the fundamental way to solve the food security problem. But before that, the only way to solve the problem in the short term is to rely on foreign trade.

This work was originally in the hands of Wohan, the first alliance councillor who died at Gu Hang’s hands. He was the largest grain trader in Fuxing City in the past.

After his death, his grain trade channels were quickly divided up, and the one who took the largest share was none other than Bradford.

He was also a big businessman, but in the past, in order to avoid internal competition with Wohan, he did not get involved in the grain business. After Wohan’s death, he did not take it into consideration.

At that time, he cursed the governor’s tyranny in the alliance parliament and cried for Wohan’s death; on the other hand, he hurried to eat up the industry, fearing that he would eat less if he was slow.

With the failure of the war, he became a prisoner and thought that all the food he had eaten at that time was gone, but he did not expect that it could be used now.

Of course, even if he was not there, it did not mean that it was completely impossible. After all, it’s not like all the employees of the trading companies are dead.

It’s just that with the help of someone like him who knows a lot of people and has trade channels in various places outside Fuxing City, things will be much simpler.

At this moment, he was telling Ossena about the specific situation of Fuxing City’s grain trade:

“… Fuxing City’s grain imports can be summarized into two major arteries and a bunch of capillaries.” Bradford was carefully telling Ossena about his experience and understanding.

“Two major arteries, one west and one south. The southern one leads to the Qinggu area. I heard that Ms. Ossena was born there, so you should be more familiar with that area.”

“Yes.” Ossena nodded slightly.

She was indeed familiar with it. She was the daughter of a plantation owner with a scale of 10,000 people. She had been helping her father manage the estate and do the accounting for a few years.

The Qinggu area is more than 400 kilometers south of Fuxing City. There is no clear boundary line, but the climate will get better and better as you go south.

That was one of the few places on the Angry Owl with a good climate. The frequency of waste energy storms was very low, and there was a large area of arable land. If you wanted to see a vast expanse of fertile land on the Angry Owl, you could only go to the Qinggu area.

One plantation after another was spread across that land.

“The one to the west leads to the desert. You may not be familiar with that place. Although it is covered with yellow sand, there are dotted oases. Many people living in the western desert area have found planting factories left over from the pre-war era underground in the oases. The restored factories can carry out high-density three-dimensional cultivation, and can obtain very high yields without a large area.”

“These two major arteries support the main food consumption of Fuxing City. Last year, Wohan mentioned in the work report of the Alliance Parliament that Fuxing City imported a total of 400,000 tons of food from these two places throughout the year.”

“The so-called capillaries refer to various small and medium-sized settlements with food production capacity in the area radiating 500 kilometers around Fuxing City. Within this range, there are some arable lands. Although they are not as large and concentrated as those in Qinggu, there are still some, such as the Mantan River Valley Manor; there are also some caves with special environments, where some fungi can be densely grown; there are farms in some places… There are many types, and the yields vary. They mainly feed almost all the settlements within this range, and the surplus output will be brought to Fuxing City for sale.”

“Let’s take last year as an example. Through these capillaries, Fuxing City purchased a total of 100,000 tons of various foods.”

“The total amount is roughly estimated to be 500,000 tons. In fact, Renaissance City does not consume that much. 70% of the food is distributed to various places outside Renaissance City. After all, Renaissance City is the largest trade hub on the entire planet.”

Ossena’s expression was solemn: “In other words, what we have to do is not only to ensure our own food security, but we must also try our best to let the food circulate throughout the wasteland with Renaissance City as the hub.”

“Yes.” Bradford sighed, “If we can’t do it, maybe people in Renaissance City won’t starve to death, but many settlements in the entire wasteland that don’t have food production capacity may suffer a catastrophic disaster.”

Ossena said: “Moreover, something happened in the Qinggu area this year. The monster tide, which was much larger than in previous years, destroyed many plantations; there were many displaced people, and many of them became looters, further making the situation chaotic…”

“Yes.” Bradford said, “The chaos in the Qinggu area has reduced the amount of food imports we obtained from there this year by more than 30%, and if the situation is not alleviated, this import volume may collapse.”

The discussion about Qinggu was something Ossena had personally experienced.

It had been several months since they fled Qinggu, but according to the latest intelligence, the situation there had not improved. There was still a steady stream of refugees from Qinggu, crossing hundreds of kilometers and wandering to Fuxing City.

For every refugee who managed to reach Fuxing City alive, there were perhaps two or three who died on the road.

Thinking of this, Ossena almost felt that she couldn’t stand it.

But she could only endure it. She

knew that they didn’t have the ability to cross hundreds of kilometers to the south and save those who were suffering along the way.

She could only take care of Fuxing City first.

Gathering her thoughts, she said, “We must resume grain trade and import as soon as possible. I will set up a Grain Trade Bureau under the framework of the Ministry of Commerce. I have sent people to take inventory of all those who have worked in the grain trade in the past, and they will be transferred to the Grain Trade Bureau immediately.”

“They will each perform their duties and be divided into three working groups according to the three major directions we discussed today. They will try their best to contact sellers and buyers who have had grain trade experience with Fuxing City and restore the scale of grain trade as much as possible.”

“Mr. Bradford, I need your help.”

Bradford was happy in his heart, but his face remained serious: “This is exactly why I came.”

“Well, I can appoint you as a special consultant to the Grain Trade Bureau. I need you to be responsible for the recovery of the two trade routes, the ‘capillaries’ and the ‘Western Desert Arteries’. I hope that within two weeks, most of our ‘capillaries’ blood supply can be restored; within a month, our ‘Western Desert Arteries’ can start to re-transfuse blood. Can you do it?”

Hearing that it was just a special consultant, Bradford was a little disappointed.

Consultants are probably not a formal position.

When he heard the term “Grain Trade Bureau” before, he had expected that he would have the opportunity to become the director, even if it was just a temporary position.

Having a formal position seemed to mean that he could initially integrate into the system of the new government. The rest was nothing more than speaking with ability and performance.

Grain trade was, of course, the most important part of the many commercial categories in Fuxing City. If he did a good job in this area and solved the food crisis, would he really have the opportunity to become the Minister of Commerce in the future?

After all, Ms. Ossena couldn’t always take on the work of multiple departments.

And now, he was still a little disappointed that he was just a consultant, a position that was dispensable and could be cancelled at any time.

But he soon cheered up again.

As a guilty person, if he had the opportunity to serve and wash away his sins, he should cherish it and do his best.

Putting aside these thoughts, he began to think carefully and didn’t speak for a long time.

Ossena also waited patiently.

Bradford finally spoke: “I will do my best to fulfill your request. I will try to restore the relevant trade routes. However, this whole thing cannot be accomplished by my efforts alone. After the trade channels are established, we will have to eat such a large amount of food, and we will also need enough goods for trading.”

He paused. There was a topic he didn’t really want to mention, but he finally decided not to mention it: “Alliance Coin…”

Ossena raised her hand to stop him from continuing.

“That’s out of the question. But you can rest assured that we are not going to completely abolish the Alliance Coin. In foreign trade, we will recognize the value of the Alliance Coin for a long time in the future. In foreign trade, we can still accept trade settlement in Alliance Coin.”

“I feel much more relieved with your words.”

It is normal for him to have such concerns.

If the Alliance Coin is completely abolished, the objects of “plunder” will not only be the residents of the inner city, but all the forces that have traded with Fuxing City in the past. In the past, in order to facilitate trade, many forces have reserved a certain amount of Alliance Coin.

If all of them were abolished at once, it would mean that the money they used to sell for food or other goods would be worthless.

This is unacceptable to many forces.

If Renaissance City could completely achieve internal circulation and not rely on the outside, then it would be fine. But now, even basic food needs need to rely on foreign trade, so this thing obviously cannot be done.

That would destroy Renaissance City’s trade credit and offend other settlements with high independence.

“Go ahead and do it.” Ossena said, “I will do my best to prepare other trading goods.”

…

Ossena is not actually worried about the problem mentioned by Bradford.

Not to mention currency, just continue to recognize Alliance Coin in foreign trade.

Of course, it is impossible to buy food purely with Alliance Coin without paying anything else. People also have to buy things with Alliance Coin.

Ossena is confident about the relevant trading items.

Renaissance City has a lot of things to sell.

Renaissance City has a strong industrial production capacity, textiles, electrical appliances, some metal tools and even generators using hot limestone, these are not mentioned.

In addition, there are a large number of various commodities in the warehouse of Renaissance City.

The trade center is not just for food trade.

After those powerful people were caught, many channel merchants like Bradford, their goods also fell into the hands of the current government.

These are all goods that can be used for trading.

What’s more, Renaissance City now has two particularly valuable commodities that can be sold:

arms and medicines.

(End of this chapter)