Chapter 240 The Aftermath of the Fire

One night passed. The sun rose slowly from the hills in the east, and the warm sunshine shone on the earth, but Xingluo City was no longer the same as before.

The city did not wake up from sleep, but stayed up all night. There were charred buildings near the granary, and the streets were full of people who lost their homes and cried, and poor people who were frightened by the fire last night and looked around with horror.

The air was filled with smoke and burnt smell, making people breathless.

Although the breakfast restaurants were open as usual, the usual bustling crowds were no longer the same. People were frightened and exchanged information with each other, and the words that came out of their mouths were full of bad expectations for the future.

"So many granaries are on fire. Not long ago, I saw a carload of food being transported out of the city. Are we going to starve to death here?"

A citizen with a panicked face and deep dark circles under his eyes was talking about things on the street corner. He tightly grasped the cloth bag on his chest, which contained a little dry food he had rescued from the ruins last night.

"The situation may not be as bad as you said, but for now, it is always right to stock up more food."

A well-dressed citizen took over the conversation and talked about it. Although he still had a smile on his face, his eyes revealed uneasiness and worry.

"Look, it's only more than 60 days away from the autumn harvest. It's impossible that there is no food for two months?"

These citizens live in Xingluo City. Thanks to the city's income level and the magical grain production of this continent, these citizens have never experienced hunger since they were born.

An old man sighed and said.

"It's hard to say. There was a war a few months ago. How dare you conclude that there is enough food?"

The old man looked at the half-burned and charred granary in the distance, and seemed to recall the memories of the past.

"If you ask me, if you young people have any relatives in the countryside, you should go there quickly. The days to come will not be peaceful."

Another young man interrupted.

"Dad, you are a little too worried. Everyone has seen the governance of the Spirit Hall in recent days. They will definitely not let us starve."

The young people seemed to be full of confidence in the Spirit Hall and Mu Zhe's rule. After all, the planning from 01 did bring more jobs to the city, and the first salary these young people earned might be related to these.

"If you don't listen to the old man, you will suffer in the end. Young people should prepare more." The old man walked towards the market. He planned to put his ideas into practice and stock up more food.

Looking at the old man's back, everyone seemed to think that they should take action.

"Dad is right. It's better to be prepared. It's right to buy more food now. Even if you buy too much, won't you just eat more old food for a while? It won't be a problem."

The crowd went to the market in a group. At the same time, there were more than a few citizens who had the same idea as them.

They may have felt a sense of crisis, but it was more out of instinct and herd mentality. They didn't really realize what kind of difficulties and challenges they were facing.

Cha Zhenting did not sleep all night. His red eyes were full of bloodshot, dark circles, and a scruffy beard, all of which represented how much pressure the incident last night put on him.

"Julio Hansen, tell me how much food we have left and how long we can last." Cha Zhenting said while rubbing his eyebrows.

"My dear supervisor, stop deceiving yourself. The report from 01 is very clear. Why don't you take a look at it yourself?" Hansen sarcastically mocked the supervisor who had caused a big disaster.

He held a paper report in his hand, and the huge red font on it was particularly dazzling.

"Hansen, I just want to hear you say this data in person." Cha Zhenting buried his head in his hands. Exhaustion and guilt almost overwhelmed the newly appointed person in charge.

"The original grain reserves were 20,000 tons. Now after this fire, we only have 6,000 tons of grain left, and another 2,000 tons are within the range of rescue," Hansen said to the person in charge who was unwilling to face reality.

He threw the report on the table, making a dull sound.

"Optimistically speaking, if the optimal rationing is carried out normally, we can still hold on for about a month."

"Optimistically speaking, optimistically speaking, how can you say such a thing? I still have two months to get food, my friend!"

Cha Zhenting finally got his head out of the cover of his arms, and looked at Hansen with a pair of red eyes.

"If our person in charge had not drunk one or two more glasses that night, or paid more attention to 01's warning, these difficulties today would not have happened."

Hansen finally vented the anger that was brewing in his heart. As a deacon of the Spirit Hall, how could Julio Hansen not understand what these things meant? If it weren't for this unreliable person in charge, why would those people face such an embarrassing situation?

"Don't try to fool people with your damn tricks of 'not disclosing specific details for security reasons' or 'having dealt with the people involved in this incident'. This is your responsibility."

Cha Zhenting put his hands down to calm the agitated Spirit Hall deacon.

"I came to you just to ask how to deal with these things. We have already provided food support. Do we need to get the food back because of these circumstances?"

Cha Zhenting tried to speak in a calm tone, but there was a hint of trembling and helplessness in his voice.

"This is a way. If we recover the 10,000 tons of food shipped out, this food will be enough for us to use the most extreme method to survive these two months."

Hansen's expression remained unchanged and he replied coldly. There was a hint of sarcasm and disdain in his tone, and no one knew whether he was joking or really supporting this approach.

"What if we mobilize grain reserves from other provinces further away?"

Cha Zhenting asked another question. He seemed to be looking for a glimmer of hope, or stalling for time.

"My person in charge. Do you know that raising food recently has pushed the administrative staff below to their limits?"

Hansen instantly became serious when he heard these bastard words. He glared at Cha Zhenting with sharp eyes, as if asking him why he was so ignorant and irresponsible.

"It's a creative strategy to transfer food from more distant places, my lord!"

The deacon was pacing and waving his arms, his expression serious, veins bulging in his neck. He said in an exaggerated tone, obviously laughing at Zha Zhenting's ridiculous idea.

"And we can't drop all the grain from the provincial central granary. We have to disperse it to various transfer granaries for mobilization. How much manpower will this consume? There are also related security tasks. Our current manpower is far from enough!"

Hansen continued, using facts and figures to illustrate the scale of the problem.

"Do we really want to recover the grain that has been transferred? Is there no other way?"

"I hope the ingenuity of our person in charge can give us a better way, but this is the only thing we can do at this moment."

Hansen stared at Cha Zhenting with his eyes serious and his tone was serious.

"Don't forget, my boss, the market is about to open! Those panicked citizens are about to flood in, and they will buy a lot of food. Soon panic will spread throughout the city. Leave us some time Running out."

As he spoke, he looked away from the person in charge in front of him and looked at the floor-to-ceiling windows next to him. From there, he could see countless people slowly pouring into the markets in various cities.