Chapter 129, Food Crisis
After the urban reconstruction work was somewhat on track, the second problem that Ossena immediately worked to solve was the food crisis.
Not enough to eat.
Fuxing City is a commercial hub and a light industrial center. Now with the Weixing City abandoned cave area, heavy industry is also developing rapidly.
But Fuxing City does not produce grain.
Although there is a small farm called Mantan Valley Manor near the city, the farm's crop output in one season is only good at 2,000 tons. The annual output is only enough to feed the entire city for ten days.
From Fuxing City to Weixing City, if considered as one, 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 the whole year is at least 180,000 tons, and 200,000 tons is not too much.
When Gu Hang just took over the city, the food reserves in the entire city could only last about fifteen days.
Up to now, a total of twelve days have passed, and the remaining food reserves are only about nine days.
The reason for this is mainly that during this period we were not simply living off our savings.
On the one hand, after the initial end of the war, the blockade of the city and the storm, the grain trade was more or less restored. The grain caravans that were on their way finally dared to enter the city, unloaded the goods they were carrying, and took some industrial products with them.
On the other hand, there was assistance from Weixing City.
The two synthetic starch production lines in Weixing City were fully operational, working day and night, with a combined daily output of 100 tons. Except for the local supply to the two districts of Weixing City, the rest was transported to Fuxing City.
However, despite these two supplements, the income is still not enough to cover the expenses.
This is definitely not a good idea.
The synthetic starch production line cannot be relied upon for the time being. Wu Jiarong's tasks of research and development and mass production are a bit heavy, and the local deployment and research and development of the synthetic starch production line are progressing slowly.
Even if she put all her energy into this, it might not solve the urgent problem.
Then we can only rely on the old methods.
Fuxing City does not produce grain. The reason it has been able to exist for so long is of course because of foreign trade.
Of course, if we rely solely on foreign trade, the supply of food will certainly be unstable.
It didn’t matter for the previous Fuxing City. If there was an unstable situation, then let it 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 while, there will always be a lot of refugees who come from nowhere to make up for the missing population.
But this is not the case with Fuxing City 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 people were to starve, Gu Hang’s political manifesto would fail shortly after it was made, which would be a huge blow to the prestige of the new government.
Ossena would never allow this to happen.
In the long run, finding a way to ensure that the new coalition regime can be self-sufficient in food is the fundamental way to solve the food security problem. But before that, the only short-term solution to the problem is to rely on foreign trade.
This job originally belonged to 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 originally a big businessman, but in the past he didn't get involved in the grain business in order to avoid internal competition with Wo Han. After Wo Han's death, he didn't care about it anymore.
At that time, on the one hand, he cursed the governor's tyranny in the Alliance Parliament and cried for Wohan's death; on the other hand, he hurriedly took up the property, fearing that he would miss out if he was a step slower.
With the failure of the war, he became a prisoner and thought that everything he had eaten at that time was gone. Unexpectedly, he could still use it now.
Of course, even without him, it doesn't mean that it's impossible to do it. After all, it's not like all the employees of the business firms who run the business are dead.
However, things would be much simpler if he had the help of someone like him who knew a lot of people and had trade channels in various places outside Fuxing City.
At this moment, he was telling Ossena about the specific situation of the grain trade in Renaissance City:
"…The food imports of Fuxing City can be summarized into two major arteries and a bunch of capillaries." Bradford carefully told Ossena about his experience and understanding.
"There are two major arteries, one to the west and one to the south. The southern one leads to the Qinggu area. I heard that you, Ms. Ossena, were born there. You should be familiar with that area."
"Yeah." Ossena nodded slightly.
She was indeed familiar with it. She was the daughter of a plantation owner with tens of thousands of people, and she had been helping her father manage the estate and do the accounting for several years.
Qinggu area is more than 400 kilometers south of Fuxing City. There is no clear boundary, but the climate will become better and better as you go south.
It was one of the few places on the Angry Owl with a good climate. Waste energy storms rarely occurred, 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.
Plantations, one after another, were spread over 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 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 arteries support the main food consumption of Renaissance City. Last year, Wohan mentioned in the work report of the Alliance Parliament that Renaissance City imported a total of 400,000 tons of food from these two places throughout the year."
"The so-called capillaries refer to the 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 the area is not as large and concentrated as that in Qinggu, there are still some. Mantan River Valley Manor is one of them. There are also some caves with special environments that can densely grow some fungi. There are farms in some places... There are many types and different yields. They mainly feed almost all the settlements within this range, and the excess output will be brought to Fuxing City to sell."
"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 estimated amount is 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. "That is to say, what we have to do is not only to ensure our own food security, but we also have to try our best to make food circulate throughout the wasteland with Renaissance City as the hub."
"Yes." Bradford sighed, "If this cannot be done, perhaps people in Renaissance City will not starve to death, but many settlements in the entire wasteland that have no food production capacity may suffer a catastrophic disaster."
Ossena said, "Besides, something happened in the Qinggu area this year. A much larger wave of monsters than in previous years destroyed many plantations. There were many displaced people, many of whom became looters, further making the situation chaotic..."
"Yes," Bradford said. "The chaos in Qinggu has caused our food imports from there to drop by more than 30% this year. If the situation is not alleviated, this import volume may drop drastically."
The discussions about the Qinggu region were all things Ossena had experienced personally.
It has been several months since they fled the Qinggu area, but according to the latest intelligence, the situation there has not improved. There is still a steady stream of refugees from the Qinggu area, crossing a distance of 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.
Ossena could hardly bear the thought.
But she could only endure it.
She knew that they did not yet have the ability to travel hundreds of kilometers south and save the suffering people along the way.
She could only take care of Fuxing City first.
Gathering her thoughts, she said, "We must resume grain trade and imports 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 experience in grain trade 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 here."
"Well, I can appoint you as a special adviser to the Food 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, our 'capillaries' blood supply can be mostly restored; within a month, our 'Western Desert Arteries' can start blood transfusion again. Can you do it?"
Bradford was a little disappointed to hear that he was just a special advisor.
I'm afraid that consultant is not a formal position.
When he heard the term "Grain Trade Bureau" before, he had hoped that he would have the opportunity to become a director, even if it was just a temporary position.
Having a formal position seemed to mean that he could initially integrate into the new government system. The rest was nothing more than his ability and performance.
Food trade is, of course, the most important part of Fuxing City's many business categories. If he does a good job in this area and solves the food crisis, will he really have a chance to become the Minister of Commerce in the future?
After all, Ms. Ossena can't always take on all the work of multiple departments.
But now, he still feels a little disappointed that the position of consultant is just an insignificant one that can be cancelled at any time.
But he quickly pulled himself together.
As a criminal, if you have a chance to serve and cleanse your sins, you should cherish it and do your best.
Putting these thoughts aside, he began to think carefully and did not speak for a long time.
Ossena also waited patiently.
Bradford finally spoke: "I will do my best to fulfill your request. I will work hard to restore the relevant trade routes. However, this whole thing cannot be accomplished solely by my efforts. After the trade channels are established, we will need to consume 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 bring up, 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 Union Coin. In foreign trade, we will recognize the value of the Union Coin for a long time to come. In foreign trade, we can still accept trade settlement in Union Coin."
"I feel much more relieved with your words."
It's normal for him to have such concerns.
If the Alliance Coin is completely abolished, the target of "plunder" will not only be the residents of the inner city, but also all the external forces that used to trade with Fuxing City. In the past, in order to facilitate trade, many forces have reserved a certain amount of Alliance Coins.
If all of them were abolished at once, it would mean that the money they had earned from selling grain or other commodities would be worthless.
This is unacceptable to many forces.
If Fuxing 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 is obviously not possible.
That would destroy the trade credit of Renaissance City and offend other highly independent settlements.
"Go ahead and do it," Ossena said. "I will do my best to prepare the other trading items."
…
Ossena is not actually worried about the issues Bradford mentioned.
Let’s not talk about currency, just continue to recognize the alliance currency in foreign trade.
Of course, it is impossible to buy food with Alliance Coins without paying anything else. People also have to buy things with Alliance Coins.
Ossena is confident about the relevant trading items.
There are a lot of things that can be sold in Fuxing City.
Fuxing City has strong industrial production capabilities, including textiles, electrical appliances, some metal tools and even generators that use hot limestone, not to mention these.
In addition, there are a large variety of goods in the warehouse of Fuxing City.
A trade hub does not just trade in grain.
After those powerful people were caught in one fell swoop, many channel merchants like Bradford also saw their goods fall into the hands of the current government.
These are all goods that can be traded.
What's more, Fuxing City now has two particularly valuable commodities for sale:
Arms and medicines.
(End of this chapter)
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