The reserve warehouse refers to a kind of famine-preparation warehouse used in the Ming Dynasty to stabilize grain prices and store relief grains. Before that, it was usually called Changping warehouse. During the Longqing and Wanli years, due to the chaos and long-standing malpractices in the government, this system existed in name only. Afterwards, it was reorganized and continued to be used.
Cities are more vulnerable to crisis when faced with natural disasters due to their concentrated populations and economic models.
There is no problem for the small-scale peasant economy in rural areas to be self-sufficient in a short period of time. Each household will hoard some food to some extent, but this is not the case in cities. Who in the ordinary family will prepare a large amount of food? I usually only buy another bag of rice or flour when I'm almost finished.
Now that water, electricity and food are cut off, the basic living needs of hundreds of thousands of surviving citizens have become a big problem.
Even if it is calculated based on one kilogram, at least nearly one million kilograms of food must be consumed every day. It is difficult to intuitively understand the material requirements of this order. To put it concretely, this requires about two hundred light trucks to make two round trips. Only then can it be shipped.
Regarding Zhou Changfeng's question about whether the amount of grain stored in the reserve warehouse is enough, Lu Weizhong answered firmly.
"Nowadays, reselling grain without profit or water makes no money and is a serious crime. Who does it? Don't worry, Commander Zhou. When the warehouse was inspected last winter, there was more than 16 million catties, which is enough for one month's needs."
After driving around the surrounding streets several times, Zhou Changfeng finally gathered a group of soldiers, including militiamen, retired soldiers, reservists, reserve soldiers, etc., totaling more than thirty people.
Yu Zhang first proposed to dig up the ruins of the Caozhou Police Station in the hope of obtaining guns and ammunition. However, since the collapsed building was a double-story brick-concrete structure with piles of brick and tile debris, it would take a whole day and a night to dig just by manpower. .
So Zhou Changfeng gave up this plan and instead chose to dig out a store that sold guns. After a lot of effort, he finally found a dozen pistols, shotguns, and some bullets.
"It's not much, but it's enough. Let me reiterate again, deterrence comes first. Don't even think about killing people. That's impossible. And... there aren't enough bullets."
He divided this improvised team into four teams, leaving one team to guard the state government officials, while the remaining 20 or so people went straight to the reserve warehouse.
The Caozhou Preparatory Warehouse uses steel vertical silos to store grain. There are fifteen large vertical silos with a million kilogram level, 22 small vertical silos with a hundred thousand kilogram level, and two room-style silos. It can store up to eight Sixteen hundred tons of unshelled raw grain and one thousand tons of finished grain.
This place was also severely damaged due to the earthquake. The outer wall collapsed and the strong steel frame of the silo was twisted and deformed. At least half of the silo fell to the ground. Unhulled wheat grains and rice piled up on the ground to form a hill. , but was soaked by the rain.
The dozens of people who protect this place are also patchworked together, including guards, patrolmen, officials, etc. However, facing hundreds of victims, they are unable to do anything.
"Why haven't we released food yet? Our whole family has been hungry all day and all night!"
"The food is all soaked in water..."
"Give me an accurate message, when exactly will the grain be released?"
Questions came one after another from the crowd.
Many people have been here since noon yesterday. After a whole day and night of wind and rain, they are hungry and their emotions are aroused.
How can there be any reason to starve to death in front of food? What if we really rush in to get a few bags of food?
Facing the angry victims, a nervous housekeeper shouted at the top of his lungs: "The silos are filled with raw grains that haven't been shelled yet! Most of the edible grains have been suppressed in the warehouse. !”
"Then let's help. How long will it take for you to do it alone?!" someone asked loudly.
The atmosphere here is extremely tense. Once the critical point is passed, hundreds of victims will swarm in. How can a few dozen people stop them?
Fortunately, Zhou Changfeng and his party finally arrived at this time, and the guards, whose hearts were in their throats, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
After feeling relieved, some people, physically and mentally exhausted, sat down on the ground.
The haggard-looking housekeeper cupped his hands and said feebly: "What a timely rain... I almost lost control of the situation."
"It's hard for you." Zhou Changfeng also breathed a sigh of relief. He turned to face countless pairs of longing eyes, "Dear citizens, I am sent by the Navy. Now I am in charge of all matters in Caozhou. I hope you will cooperate and spend time together. difficult."
Immediately, voices came up and down from the crowd, but in fact they all revolved around one thing - everyone was hungry and wanted to have a full meal now!
Zhou Changfeng took a loudspeaker made of rolled aluminum and shouted: "It's so noisy, how can I send it? Then there must be no chaos? Everyone should line up in order!"
However, the overjoyed crowd became even more chaotic, because they all wanted to be the first, so they scrambled to get to the front row.
There was pushing, yelling, and even fists, and the scene suddenly became chaotic.
"boom!"
Helpless, Zhou Changfeng fired a shot into the air, and then regained control of the situation.
Then he handed over the management of this place to Luo Fu and went straight inside.
Scenes like the swaying vertical silos and collapsed room-style silos made him worried, "It's all raw grain, no finished grain?"
The housekeeper shook his head first and then nodded, "Yes, there are, but they are all under the warehouse. We have been busy for most of the day and only moved out about three hundred bags."
Vertical silos store raw grain, and room-type warehouses store bagged finished grains. However, the collapsed warehouse buried tens of thousands of finished grains.
A total of 1,000 tons of finished grains were stored in the two warehouses, which could feed the entire city's victims for three or four days.
After thinking for a moment, Zhou Changfeng ordered: "We have to maintain order. It is up to the common people to clean up the debris. Go recruit 300 young men and tell them that if they come to help, they can get double the amount."
Someone followed the order and left, and not long after, bursts of shouts came from the crowd outside.
Hundreds of victims who signed up rushed to pull at the ruins and wield shovels, trying to dig out the precious food underneath as quickly as possible.
In order to appease people's hearts, Luo Fu also asked many of the victims waiting outside at Zhou Changfeng's request and tried his best to comfort them.
It is no lie that there is strength in numbers. By the time of Shenshi, the remains of one of the warehouses had been cleared to pieces, and thousands of bags of fifty kilograms of rice were rushed out one after another.
Although everyone was exhausted, everyone was overjoyed to be able to regain a large bag of food after such a natural disaster. It was a sense of security.
At this moment, these foods are no longer just something that can fill the stomach, but also a good medicine to comfort people's hearts.
Zhou Changfeng looked at the victims queuing up to receive food with a calm expression. He knew that this was only temporary, because there were only one thousand tons of finished food. Excluding the food that was soaked by rain, damaged and stained with mud, only 800 tons of food could be eaten. Provide three or four days of supplies to the victims in Caozhou City.
The remaining several thousand tons of raw grain still need to go through the shelling process, which is difficult to solve at the moment.
The hoarding combination of a small amount of finished grains and a large amount of raw grains cannot be said to be wrong, because the raw grains are not shelled, so they are insect-proof, mildew-proof, and durable for storage.
Finished grain can only be stored for one year, while raw grain can be stored for four years.
This hoarding combination in the reserve warehouse was originally planned to cope with famine times when the grain harvest was poor. The finished grain could be eaten for several days. This time was enough for people to send the raw grain to the workshop for shelling.
Unfortunately, the unexpected earthquake turned most of the houses into rubble.
When Zhou Changfeng returned to the state government, people were building sheds with the materials they could collect. Dining and sleeping in the open must be avoided as much as possible.
In the past few hours, Yu Zhang led some people to patrol half a circle on the three main roads in the city. He reported in a deep voice: "The situation in the city is very bad. The places where rice stores and grain stores are located have been spontaneously organized. The local bullies have taken over, and they sit on the ground and raise the price, starting from ten pounds per pound of rice."
As he spoke, he sighed again and said angrily: "Besides this, there are countless illegal acts. Previously, people kept coming for help and complaints along the way. They stole, robbed, bought and sold by force, and even committed murder. And those who molest women of the people..."
"I understand." The hungry Zhou Changfeng placed a steamed bun on the bonfire to roast. "Next, we will continue to expand the scope and organize the lone patrol officers and other reservists to patrol the city and punish the villains severely. Stabilize public security as quickly as possible."
If the young people who take advantage of the situation are allowed to remain unpunished, people will be in panic, and everything will only get worse.
In fact, there are only two goals that need to be achieved now to allow the Caozhou disaster victims to hold on until the large forces arrive at the minimum cost. One is to ensure that food is distributed in place, and the other is to maintain stability and prevent chaos.
But this is easier said than done?
In the past few decades, there has never been a large-scale war that affected a wide range. It can be said that the recent generations of the Ming Dynasty lacked crisis awareness, especially the young people of the Ming Dynasty today. Their understanding of disasters and plagues is very shallow, and their understanding of human nature is very shallow. The cognitive upper limit of ugliness is limited to local ruffians and bullies who run rampant.
And this is no better than the later generations with advanced information technology, including video, audio, pictures and texts. At present, the channels for ordinary people to obtain external information are basically limited to newspapers, radio and word of mouth. Occasionally, the specific circumstances of disasters in other places are difficult to leave a deep impression on people.
"Hey! Come here and hand over your bag of rice."
"Where did it come from? Oh? The government released food?"
"Don't be ignorant, put the rice on the ground, get out of here!"
"Run? Watch where you run!"
Although the young men who had received rice at the reserve warehouse were sleepy and exhausted, they still carried the rice bags and hurried on, hoping to bring the food to their families who had been waiting for a long time as soon as possible.
However, in this situation, wouldn't carrying around a bag of rice be equivalent to walking around Gotham City while playing with gold bars in your hand?
Facing the rogue road bullies armed with sticks, knives and axes, some gave in and left in embarrassment; some refused to obey and were beaten; some begged to keep a little, but were beaten with fists and kicks.
There were hundreds or even thousands of these temporary gangs of bullies, because fighting for territory and supplies would inevitably lead to disputes, and they soon started fighting with each other.
The one with more people is better than the one with fewer people, the one with guns is better than the one without guns, the one with many guns is better than the one with few guns.
In this way, the big fish eats the small fish, and the small fish eats the shrimp. The huge Caozhou is full of gunfire, fighting, and yelling.
Ordinary citizens huddled under the ruins, waiting anxiously for rescue who did not know when it would arrive.
Some courageous young adults had to try to protect their families. They also organized themselves and collected all available things such as steel bars, wooden sticks, iron pipes, fire tongs, etc., and anxiously guarded against possible bandits.
"Okay, then you should set off now. If you don't have enough manpower, recruit people to see how many units can be restored."
"As for you... Luo Fu, you can lead the team and see how many trucks are available, including those that can be repaired in a short time."
After a short half-day of patrolling and greetings, several teams summoned nearly a hundred patrol police, militiamen, and reserve personnel. Zhou Changfeng simply organized them and sent them out to attack the wanton bandits and restore order as soon as possible.
In order to improve efficiency, temporary institutions such as the command office, medical office, and supplies office were established. The patchwork team was further subdivided. Different functions were identified by different colors of cloth tied to the right arm. They are distinguished by strips, with red responsible for maintaining public security, green for medical care, and blue for material management.
Even though most of the people didn't recognize each other and couldn't even pronounce their names, the makeshift organization still managed to operate in a decent manner.
The top priority now is to restore the function of the grain workshop. Thousands of tons of raw grain cannot keep up with the consumption rate by manpower.
In addition, hospitals are also a top priority. As for power plants and water plants, we can't take care of them. They can't be repaired simply by relying on the resources that can be collected from the disaster area.
The next day, that is, on the morning of August 3, two Air Force Type 30 small liaison aircraft landed one after another under the guidance of people. The ground was simply leveled and barely allowed them to land safely.
The cabin door opened, and Zhou Changfeng and his party were surprised by the figures that jumped out of it - they thought they were here to deliver important orders, but they didn't expect that they were several reporters.
Zhou Changfeng, whose hair was full of black lines, couldn't help but complained in a low voice: "Playing the piano randomly! Doctors, technicians, military officers, who should be sent in? But journalists!"
The four reporters, three men and one woman, looked around as soon as they arrived. A young man wearing round glasses walked forward quickly and asked impatiently: "Sir, how is the situation in Caozhou now?"
Just as Zhou Changfeng was about to speak, a series of gunshots as dense as firecrackers came from behind. It was probably the security team exchanging fire with the bandit gang.
Now he was cursing his mother in his heart, but he still replied without changing his face: "As you heard, it's not good. It's a mess here and it's not a good place to join in the fun."
This statement couldn't be more obvious, and several reporters were embarrassed. The round-faced female reporter couldn't help but said angrily: "Sir, what is the situation after such a natural disaster? Everyone in the Ming Dynasty is concerned about it. We are not here to enjoy the mountains and rivers! "
To Zhou Changfeng, such words are tantamount to nonsense. People who lack personal experience of harsh environments always have beautiful illusions, but they often cannot persist day and night.
"Oh, then I hope you can endure the hardships here and don't add any exaggeration when writing articles."
Recommend a book from a friend in the book club, and those who are interested can take a look.
(End of chapter)
