Chapter 129: Unifying by Declaration
Pharmaceuticals were a hard currency on the wastelands, with few places having the necessary production capacity.
Currently, the Alliance’s First Pharmaceutical Factory in Weixing City had successfully gone into production. Reportedly, it could produce over a hundred types of various medicines and medical supplies.
However, it wasn’t necessary to bring all those varieties into full production at the moment. Certain medicines, like those for treating stomach problems, skin diseases, or osteoporosis…
These things weren’t exactly useless, but at least for now, they weren’t urgent.
Fast-acting hemostatics, antibiotics, painkillers, and external wound medicine… these were much more important and in high demand on the wastelands.
As for weapons…
The weapons intended for sale weren’t the newly produced ones.
Gu Hang’s Tycoon Brigade hadn’t even completed its reorganization yet, so how could there be any extra armaments to sell to others?
However, it was precisely because he was establishing a Heavy Synthesis Brigade that many of the weapons left by the Alliance Legion had become stockpiled goods.
Osena planned to sell these items in batches.
But they couldn’t be sold recklessly.
Selling weapons was a sensitive matter.
In her vision, apart from securing enough food supplies for Revival City through this trade, there was an equally important point: it should serve a reasonable political purpose.
Currently, Osena highly valued the issue of stability in the Qing Valley Region.
This wasn’t solely due to her personal feelings but was also for Revival City’s food security.
The Qing Valley Region had always been an important trade partner for Revival City, being the thicker of the two major food arteries. If that region descended into prolonged chaos, it would have a significant impact on Revival City as well.
Choosing suitable trade partners, finding the lawful estate owners in the Qing Valley, selling them arms, and arming them was the best choice.
Osena hoped that the armed plantations could maintain food production order, continuously supplying Revival City with food, and resist, even counterattack, the looters arising from the chaos. Ideally, they might even unite to quell the monster tides that had plagued the Qing Valley Region for months.
She was determined to handle this matter herself, with Bradford assisting by providing contacts and channels.
However, the act of selling weapons was slightly outside Osena’s authority. She was in charge of the civil administration, commerce, and production departments, but had no decision-making power over armaments.
She found Gu Hang.
If she couldn’t handle it, the big boss could.
After listening carefully to Osena’s report, Gu Hang approved her plan.
…
Half a month later.
The food crisis in Revival City had been alleviated to some extent.
Bradford had demonstrated his capability. In the work of restoring food imports, the first phase of tasks had been relatively smoothly completed. The “capillaries” resumed supplying Revival City, with food trade and transportation from nearby food-producing areas around Revival City beginning to recover.
Within half a month, a total of 10,000 tons of food had been imported.
Endless oxen carts and car convoys became a more common sight outside Revival City once again.
Of course, this was partly due to the food transportation backlog caused by the war and blockade, resulting in many food supplies being stalled in various locations. Now that Revival City had reopened trade routes, those food supplies were no longer hoarded; they were quickly brought in, exchanged for other essential goods.
Subsequently, trade volume might decline, but it was estimated to stabilize at around five to ten thousand tons per month.
Simply relying on capillary supplies wouldn’t fully resolve the food crisis in Revival City. The local food output couldn’t entirely meet the city’s consumption needs.
However, during this half-month period, Bradford also reconnected with an old contact running the Western Desert route, and a transport convoy from the Western Desert was already on its way.
With the current food stock holding up, that convoy carrying over 50,000 tons of food was expected to arrive in Revival City in a month. Meanwhile, Osena had also contacted Gu Hang’s agent in Garbage Town, Denison Henry, to purchase a large quantity of Hot Ash Stones.
The Western Desert had a high demand for Hot Ash Stones as a fuel source, as it was their primary import after selling food. The underground farms from the pre-war era consumed a lot of water and electric energy.
The water supply came from local oases, but the energy had to be imported in large quantities.
In this area, Osena had a new idea.
Couldn’t they build an electric grid to the Western Desert?
What they needed was essentially energy. They brought in Hot Ash Stones only to generate electricity.
So, building a high-voltage power grid to directly supply electricity would have far lower transportation costs than using ox carts or cars to haul Hot Ash Stones.
Moreover, supplying power directly would also be cheaper.
Ms. Wu Jiarong had already set up a reactor power plant around Weixing City. Osena even appeared at the activation ceremony.
Once it connected to the grid, nearly all the Hot Ash Stone generators shut down.
They weren’t needed anymore; a single reactor power plant was enough to supply the production and living needs of both Revival City and Weixing City, totaling a population of one million.
There was even a surplus.
Abundant and cheap energy brought about significant changes.
While Hot Ash Stones weren’t eliminated, they could now be fully allocated as fuel for vehicles. The mass-produced Iron Ox trucks could run freely without competing for fuel with power plants. The extra energy could be used for what seemed like luxuries on the wastelands, like air conditioning.
Revival City’s air conditioner factory had expanded its capacity. Osena planned to have a batch of air conditioners ready on Alliance store shelves before the weather turned to summer.
While it might be out of reach for Outer City residents, they would still have hope. With food and shelter guaranteed, they could save up work points to buy one. For those in the Inner City who actively integrated into the existing system, if they reached a high rank and earned bonuses—like the staff members who worked hard in the Food Trade Bureau—they could afford an air conditioner and enjoy a cool summer.
Even if there were electricity quotas, surpassing the rank allocation was affordable by spending work points, as electricity was now cheap.
In fact, the entire city would feel the same way. Even if they couldn’t afford an air conditioner, they could buy lights or other appliances and use them freely.
These were all tangible improvements in quality of life.
With the reactor power plant connected and electricity prices dropping, Gu Hang’s two cities had become lively, almost like cities that never slept.
Later, as various electric products entered mass production and reached every household, the energy-rich cityscape would become increasingly common.
When electricity consumption increased and power demand rose, what would they do if it wasn’t enough?
They could just build another reactor power plant.
Excess electricity could certainly be sold as a commodity.
Selling electricity to the Western Desert was a good idea, and they currently had the technology to build power transmission networks.
However, building a high-voltage power grid to span a thousand kilometers was challenging, with the biggest issue being maintenance difficulties.
The route was fraught with dangers. Monsters might not be too problematic since they had a strong tendency to attack humans but generally ignored human constructions.
However, the raiders along the way were unpredictable.
Destroying the transmission grid might not benefit them directly, but they could use it for blackmail and extortion.
Osena had mentioned this idea to Gu Hang during one of her reports.
Gu Hang had laughed and told her to put it in the long-term plan.
“When I’ve cleared the route, we’ll be able to build our high-voltage transmission grid all the way through.”
…
Clearing the route westward for thousands of kilometers from Revival City seemed like a distant goal, but it wasn’t as far-fetched as it appeared.
With just one battalion, Pobov had advanced over 200 kilometers with Weixing City at the center within a few days.
Before the ceremony conferring his rank, Pobov had received the Governor’s orders to carry out this task once his unit was ready.
His unit was the first to reach full capacity in the Extinguished Wind Brigade. Within half a month, not only had his troops been fully manned, but all heavy equipment and vehicles were essentially in place.
But before all the equipment arrived, he had already begun his campaign impatiently.
Some tiny settlements, hiding deep with only dozens or hundreds of people, were left alone; but any settlements with over a thousand people, especially those registered with the Alliance as “members of the Alliance,” were dealt with accordingly.
At that scale, it was impossible to flee.
Most of the settlements required no combat to reclaim.
They had long identified as members of the Alliance. In the past, the Alliance had no interest, ability, or other reasons to administer them directly.
These places responded differently when faced with the Governor, who now commanded Revival City and required them to submit to direct control.
Some welcomed it readily, often settlements like Wasteland Society, impoverished and barely surviving.
Others accepted reluctantly but had no choice. With trailers towing artillery lined up, intimidating armored vehicles and tanks displayed, and well-armed soldiers in uniform clearly showing an elite force…
How could they resist?
A single synthetic battalion under Major Pobov had over 800 troops, possibly outnumbering the total population of some of these small camps, which might not even have a handful of guns.
All they could do was send envoys to negotiate with Pobov, beads of cold sweat on their brows.
But there wasn’t much to discuss: it was a simple, single demand—surrender all weapons unconditionally and submit to rule.
Next, civil officials accompanying Pobov’s army would enter the newly seized survivor camps.
They would proceed with two tasks.
First, they would
promote the policies of Revival City within the camp. Political commissars from each company of the 1st Battalion would mobilize progressive-minded soldiers to assist the civil administration officials with this work.
The general idea was that joining Revival City meant fair compensation for labor, where individuals could be assigned a rank based on work capability and type. With rank came a basic provision for food, medical care, and housing improvement.
This approach stabilized most camps with poor living conditions.
While most residents wouldn’t readily believe it, if resistance wasn’t an option, they might as well accept it.
Their second task was to assess the camp’s conditions and resources to determine if the survivor camp should be retained.
Camps without significant or locally dependent production wouldn’t need to remain. The population would be relocated to Weixing City to supplement various industrial output.
Within half a month, four camps with a combined population of nearly 7,000 were abandoned.
Other camps with locally dependent resources, primarily agricultural, were kept.
Three such camps remained, one being an underground camp, where the unique environment allowed the cultivation of a certain fungus. Relying on this fungus, they sustained a population of over 3,000 and even had some left for export.
However, not all of this underground camp’s population would be kept. Expanding the mushroom cultivation industry didn’t require so many people; two-thirds of the population would be relocated, with the remaining becoming mushroom workers and managers, assigned ranks and supplied with resources from the city. Meanwhile, the entire mushroom industry would transition to state-run public ownership.
The other two plantation camps with over a thousand people each followed a similar approach.
Apart from agricultural workers, mushroom workers, and managers, a batch of weapons would be delivered to these camps. Weapons would be distributed to form militia organizations, giving the remaining population the means to defend themselves.
In his half-month campaign, Pobov added over 10,000 people to Weixing City’s population and seized three village-level food production bases.
Though it was a military campaign, they faced virtually no resistance throughout.
This was certainly good news.
Having no battles was slightly disappointing for Pobov. He recalled the words he overheard on the plane with the Governor en route to Revival City. This was his opportunity to distinguish himself as the future Brigade Commander of the Extinguished Wind Brigade, assigned by the Governor himself to earn merit.
Though his campaign yielded rich rewards, it was ultimately due to the Governor’s influence and the Alliance’s legitimate authority. To claim it as his own achievement seemed boastful.
Without firing a shot, he achieved success through simple proclamations. What did this have to do with Pobov?
But he couldn’t engage in the unscrupulous act of creating conflict to falsely claim credit. The Brigade’s commissar and company commissars kept a close eye on him. Rumor had it that a military court was under construction in Revival City, and he had no desire to be its first guest.
His own conscience wouldn’t allow him to do such a thing.
However, it wouldn’t always go so smoothly.
A task force from the Civil Administration and Immigration Bureau sent a distress signal and then lost contact.
Before they lost contact, they had been working in San Chi Town on matters related to population migration.