After forcing Genorio to take a good rest and sleep, Lorist got up, took a bath and filled his stomach, and then he began to deal with the food shortage problem with renewed energy. Regarding the lack of food in Morente City, he had expected it a long time ago. This conclusion can be drawn from the fact that more than half of the more than 800 ships in the transport fleet organized by the Commercial Alliance transported food.
With a population of more than one million in Morente City, plus more than 200,000 laborers and poor people outside the city, and more than 400,000 business alliance armed forces on the front line of the Faliqiu Plain, the daily food consumption of these more than 1.7 million people must be is an astronomical number. The Mana Hill Plain was a famous granary in Galintia in the past, but it is now in ruins, and there has been no harvest in the past two years. More than half of the supply of coarse grains and meat in Morente City can only rely on the barren Cristo Hills, and the pressure on the food supply of the Commercial Alliance has always been great.
Tagle was ordered to come and reported another bad news to Lorist. Originally, the adjacent fortress city Thomas City was the military ration reserve base of more than 400,000 commercial alliance armed forces on the front line, but after being taken down, it was discovered that Thomas City had just delivered most of the military ration reserves to the front line ten days ago, enough for the front line business alliance The arming has been consumed for about a month, and now there is not much reserve military rations left in the warehouse in Thomas City, and it will only be enough for the residents of Morente City with a population of more than one million to consume for a day or two.
The business alliance's plan was to wait for the arrival of the transport fleet to fill the vacancy in the reserve with the grain, but they did not expect that the Armada fleet was wiped out, and the transport fleet became the Norton family's spoils of war. Although Lorist was prepared for the lack of food in Morente City, he did not expect it to be so serious. The whole city only had fifteen days of food reserves, and most of them were coarse grains, that is, potatoes and oats. There are very few fine grains.
After the surrender of the transport fleet, part of the food was unloaded to Cape Romani, as the daily food consumption of the 100,000 recruits and captives managed by Schwader to fill the reef area. The remaining food was transported to Shirowas Island by those private ships. Lorist took the empty ships that originally carried the 100,000 recruits recruited by the Business Alliance to the Port of Temenia, where they boarded the Rock Legion and the Guards Legion and landed in Morente City.
The problem now is that Morente City is short of food, Lorist has boats and no one, and Hilovas Island has food but no boats, so there is no way to transport food to Morente City. And the private ships that originally transported the grain happily purchased a large amount of goods and goods produced in the Norton family's territory after transporting the grain to Hilovas Island. They are currently sailing to the southern waters of the mainland. Already one step late.
And the North Sea Lightning Fleet, commanded by Semba Wood, is also heading towards Tibetan Gold Bay. They are here to escort the crew and sailors' families of the surrendered Armada to Hilovas Island, so that their families can be reunited... They were strictly following the established plan, but the lack of food in Morente City could make all the efforts of Lorist and the Norton family's armed forces come to naught.
Sambawood led the Thunderbolt Fleet to Zangjin Bay, transported the captives’ families to Hilovas Island, and brought the transport team there, and then brought back the grain stored on the island. Come on, it would take at least fifteen or six days to spend on sea transportation alone, and this time, to Lorist, is the most important key to the success of the whole plan.
In another two or three days, Lorist estimated that the commercial alliance armed forces on the front line would react and get the news of the fall of Morente City. If the high-level commanders who command the more than 400,000 commercial alliance armed forces are decisive, they will be able to reach the city of Morente in about ten days. Although Lorist had already arranged for the Flying Tiger Legion and the Chaser Legion to contain the commercial alliance's armed forces, after all, the commercial alliance's armed forces numbered more than 400,000, and if half of them were divided, the comprehensive defense facilities on the Mana Hill Plain would be enough to resist the attack. Stop the onslaught of the Flying Tiger Legion and the Chaser Legion in a short period of time.
Lorist's original plan was to resist the counterattack of the Merchant Alliance armed forces under the city of Morente. As long as it was delayed for seven or eight days, when the Flying Tiger Legion and the Chaser Legion arrived, there would be tigers in front and wolves in back, and they would disappear in the middle. How can there be no reason for the armed forces of the business alliance in the back road not to collapse? As long as they survive this hurdle, it will be a good day for the Norton family to have a good harvest.
But now Morente City is short of food, which almost pushes Lorist into the crater that is about to erupt. In the 24th district of the outer city, there are more than a million residents, and only two corps with nearly 24,000 troops are maintaining order. The suppression of several small riots can be regarded as a deterrent to these residents, and they are temporarily in peace. in the state of affairs. However, if a large-scale rebellion broke out due to lack of food, coupled with the situation of external enemies, Morente City is likely to fall back into the hands of the business alliance, and then there is nothing to say.
"Tager, how did you solve the food supply in the twenty-fourth district of the outer city?" Lorist asked.
"Your Highness, the business alliance basically provides a batch of grains to the grain stores in the twenty-fourth district of the outer city every half a month, most of which are coarse grains, and then every household can use their registered household books to go to the grain stores to buy them. To buy these grains at a fair price, each household has a ration, and if it exceeds the ration, it needs to pay more money.
Not only these grains, but even meat, wine, cloth, leather, and some daily necessities have been purchased in a fixed amount. As long as the price is within this fixed amount, the price is very low, but if it exceeds this order, you will need to pay several times the money. Now there are some dealers who specialize in reselling these quantitative orders in Morente City, and it is said that their monthly income is several Jinford..." Tager opened a folder and reported.
Wait, Lorist is a little dizzy. Why does this thing sound so familiar? This seems to be the planned distribution during the time when the planned economy was implemented in the previous life, right? I remember when I was young, my grandpa and grandma always brought a lot of cloth coupons, food coupons, meat coupons and so on when they went shopping. Once I was greedy and took a cloth coupon and exchanged it for malt gum candy, but my grandpa found out and beat me up. I remember that grandpa said that he was greedy for candy. Grandpa is not to blame. He beat you because you took it without telling. That is theft and must be taught!
The businessmen of these business alliances really don't know what they are thinking, and they have come up with the distribution system of the planned economy. Lorist asked curiously: "Have the residents of Morente City not protested against this? And how are the food stores that distribute these supplies managed?"
Tagle shook his head: "Your Highness, the residents of Morente City are easily incited. The slogan of the business alliance is all for the front line. They think that as long as they defeat the invaders of the Antinac Kingdom, everything will return to the original state." It seems that the purpose of suffering now is to live a happier life in the future. Besides, although the grains on the ration list are coarse grains, they are cheaper. There are also fine grains, but the price is a bit expensive. Many families prefer to eat coarse grains instead of The fine grain rations are sold to earn some extra money.
In the past few days, I sent people into the twenty-fourth district of the outer city to investigate, and found nothing else, but the investigation of these bits and pieces is very clear. According to those investigators, the cheapest food in Morente City now is potatoes and dried salted fish. The potatoes come from the Cristo Hills, and the dried salted fish was caught by the fishermen of Morente City in the Tibetan Gold Bay a few years ago. No one ate it before, but now it has become the main dish for the residents of the twenty-fourth district of the outer city.
Our family has occupied the city of Morente with armed forces, and now the potatoes and meat from the Cristo Hills are no longer available. After Mr. Berunek led a Panshi Corps to occupy the storage base outside the east gate, he found that there were not many potatoes and coarse grains in reserve. After statistics, they could only supply the residents of the twenty-fourth district of the outer city normally for ten days. , unless the order of each household is reduced, it can be maintained for fourteen or five days. On the contrary, there are a lot of dried salted fish, but this thing can't fill my stomach.
All quantitative material sales are under the responsibility of the various chambers of commerce in the business alliance. For example, coarse grains, fine grains and meat are in charge of the Ford Chamber of Commerce. Cloth and leather are the old business of the Peterson Chamber of Commerce. Luxury condiments such as honey and spices belong to the Mayflower Chamber of Commerce, and the Liward Chamber of Commerce takes care of the distribution of other living materials. , the Chicod Chamber of Commerce is for seafood, and the Double-headed Dragon Chamber of Commerce is for various rare ingredients, which are exclusively purchased by the rich and nobles.
In short, there is a sharp divide between the rich and the poor in Morente City now. Those who are rich and powerful can buy whatever they want, while those who have no money and power can only rely on order allocation to purchase these things to barely support their families. Among other things, even the beef and mutton that everyone in our family territory can afford is sold at sky-high prices here, at least ten times higher than ours. I heard that in the twenty-fourth district of the outer city, there are people who organized a rat-catching team to catch rats and sell them for meat...
It is worth noting that, Your Highness, after we captured Morente City, the shops of the various chambers of commerce in the twenty-fourth district of the outer city are now all closed. In the past, the residents of the twenty-fourth district of the outer city used to purchase the necessary food and daily necessities in one go in the first few days after the order was distributed. It is less than three or four days before the next order distribution, and those shops are still closed, so the residents in the twenty-fourth district of the outer city are faintly agitated, they are worried that they will not be able to buy food and daily necessities in the future Supplies…”
Lorist touched his chin and walked back and forth. After listening to Tagle's report, the situation was a bit grim. The most urgent task is to appease the residents of the twenty-fourth district of the outer city. Stability maintenance is the most important thing now. At the critical moment of the battle, a rebellion broke out in Morente City, and all previous efforts would be wasted.
"Let Torin, Berunek, and Jedes come to see me immediately, and send people to order El and Ovekis to transfer all the supplies from Thomas City and Gipsy City back to Morente City as soon as possible. .” Lorist gave two orders, and several guards left in a hurry.
"Tager, send a letter of eagle message, asking Baron Shredder and Director Speer of the family territory to organize a transport fleet as soon as possible to transport the nearly one million Warcraft furs stored in the family territory and all the living supplies in the territory's backlog. The goods are being transferred to Shirowas Island, waiting for my next order, and at the same time, let Baron Shredder and Director Speer bring a group of capable civilian officials to Morant City as soon as possible."
"Yes, Your Highness, I'll do it right away," Tager replied.
"Wait, Tagle, you send someone to inform the social organizations in Morente City that are in charge of managing the twenty-fourth district of the outer city, and invite them to participate in a symposium in my name, and the time is set at nine o'clock tomorrow morning .” Lorist stopped Tagle.
Torrin is the father of Tok, the deputy commander of the North Sea Fleet. Because he is old, he is only responsible for the logistics of the North Sea Fleet. This time Lorist asked him to lead a dozen or so large armed warships equipped with bronze cannons to block the mouth of the Gold Hidden Bay. He accomplished this task very well.
Torrin was the first to arrive, followed by Jedes, and the last was Berunek from the storage base outside the East Gate. Seeing them coming, Lorist straightforwardly introduced to them the difficulties the family's armed forces were facing and the current situation, and then began to order.
"Uncle Torin, you go to the fleet area, let Pachico cooperate with you, recruit a group of crew and sailors from the surrendered Armada, and drive the remaining transport ships to Hilovas Island, and let Pachico transfer a battalion Responsible for the escort, take as many transport ships as you can, and you must set off before tomorrow afternoon. I will give you 12 days to transport the food from Shirowas Island.
In addition, I will write you a warrant. If you encounter Semba Wood's North Sea Fleet on the road, let him not have to come to the Golden Bay, but turn around and go back to Shirowas Island to complete this food transportation mission. Do you understand? "The first thing Lorist ordered was Torin, and he could feel at ease earlier by delivering the food from Hilovas Island earlier.
This time Lorist regretted that he had just sent the surrendered sailors and sailors of the Fourth Squadron and their relatives to Hilovas Island the day before yesterday. Now those sailors and sailors who are still in the fleet area either have no family members or have relatives who died under the attack of the North Sea Fleet. They are labeled as unreliable elements. It can be said that it is very risky to let Thorin lead the transport fleet on this trip.
"Yes, Your Highness, please don't worry, I will come back with food." Torin said, time is precious, he left and went to the fleet area immediately.
"Jedes, immediately seal off the business district and start searching the material warehouses of all chambers of commerce. All the property found will be transported to the inner city, and the remaining materials will be sealed up and submitted in a list, waiting for my next order."
"Yes, Your Highness," Jades stood to attention and saluted.
"Berunete, you take a battalion to the Cristo Hills, not to collect grain, but to purchase, whether it is potatoes or other coarse grains, all purchased at half the market price. If the farmers there transport the grain by themselves If you arrive in Morente City, we will buy at double the price, and we will also purchase the cattle, sheep and livestock at double the market price. Also, I only give you three days, you don’t need to go deep into the Cristo Hills area , you just need to spread the news of our purchase, understand?"
"Understood, my lord, I'll do it right away," said Berunek.
The next day, Lorist met the leaders of the invited community organizations in a large conference room, among them was Ledos, El's former brother, whom he knew. It's just that they haven't seen each other for more than ten years, and Ledos's eyes are very strange, and he didn't say hello to Lorist. After all, the fortunes of the two parties have changed greatly. After El insisted on following Lorist, Ledos became the leader of the society. More than ten years later, Ledos was still the leader of the society, but Lorist had changed from a black iron mercenary to a well-known swordsman in the mainland, the Grand Duke of the Northland of the Kingdom of Antinac.
"Gentlemen, our Norton family occupied Morente City for peace, not to plunder wealth." Lorist said cheekily, regardless of whether these people here believe it or not. After talking for a long time about the reason why he forced the business alliance to sign a peace agreement to occupy Morente City in order to achieve a permanent peace between the two countries, Lorist finally revealed his purpose.
"We, the Norton family, promise not to plunder all the residents of the twenty-fourth district of the outer city, as long as they do not engage in any act of resistance or rebellion. As I said just now, what we are against is only those who take the innocent Morun for their own ambitions. The residents of the special city were involved in the chambers of commerce involved in this bloody war, so even if we want to confiscate only the supplies of those chambers of commerce, the residents of the 24th district of the outer city will not be affected.
Please be quiet, everyone. I know what everyone wants to say. Indeed, all the living materials and food distribution of the residents of the twenty-fourth district of the outer city are in the hands of each chamber of commerce. The residents of Techeng are in trouble and unable to make a living. However, in order to express our sincerity in pursuing peace, we will not ignore these millions of residents. All the materials of the Chamber of Commerce must be confiscated, but the confiscated living materials and food will be sold at a low price or distributed to all outer cities for free. Residents of District 24...
Gentlemen, in the past, you were only responsible for the public security, sanitation, taxation and other miscellaneous affairs in various communities, while the transactions of living materials and food were in the hands of major chambers of commerce. Now that there is no chamber of commerce, I hope that you can take on the heavy responsibility of solving problems for the residents of the 24th district of the outer city, and assist us in distributing or selling these living materials and food to the residents in their respective communities, so as to maintain the stability of the 24th district of the outer city. peace and stability…”
The corner of Lorist's mouth curled into an arc: "There is another piece of good news. Three days later, we will distribute a batch of free food to all residents of the twenty-fourth district of the outer city. Each person can get ten catties of potatoes and one catty of dried salted fish, whether they are adults or children. At the same time, we will also take out the living materials confiscated by various chambers of commerce and sell them to all residents at very low prices, and The sales of these materials will be left to you.”
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