Chapter 254: Chapter 173: Population, Production, Trade_3
This was why Gu Hang insisted that Yan Fangxu speed up his actions and quickly deploy more troops to resolve the issue: if it were delayed any longer, famine would arise.
However, to solve this problem, Bradford had personally made a trip to the Western Desert and had only just returned recently.
He brought back a new large order; the Western Desert’s food trade with Revival City could be doubled in scale.
The price that Revival City had to pay for this was a large amount of consumer goods. Revival City’s excess output was enough to cover this part.
In addition to this, there was another big deal, which was finding a large order for Weixing City’s automobile industry through Bradford’s efforts.
The Iron Bull RN-100 truck was favored by numerous caravans. With its excellent load capacity, off-road performance, durability, and fuel flexibility… such trucks were highly sought after in the wastelands.
Bradford sold five hundred Iron Bull trucks to Western Desert businessmen in one go, to be paid for with food.
According to interstellar standards, the subsequent grain orders to be delivered were valued at over twenty thousand Tax Currency, which could basically satisfy the annual needs of the new alliance’s population of 2.4 million; the five hundred Iron Bull trucks were roughly a month’s production for Weixing City, and if used to pay taxes, their total value would be about five thousand Tax Currency— the Imperial Taxation Department might not even want trucks with such a level of technology.
Earning four times the amount, the Western Desert businessmen were still ecstatic.
These trucks were much cheaper than the cargo vehicles produced by Blackbird Heavy Industries in the west.
This deal was a win-win: the alliance found a market for the automotive industry and purchased a large amount of food; the Western Desert businessmen who got the trucks would use them to transport grain to the alliance, greatly improving transportation efficiency.
If this isn’t a win-win, what is?
Winning twice, till it’s dizzying.
Of course, this deal wasn’t completed in one fell swoop.
The Western Desert had that much grain, but lacked the capability to transport it all at once; it would take time to collect from various plantations and to cover the over thousand kilometers of distance.
Moreover, the delivery of the Iron Bull trucks wasn’t immediate. Although Weixing City could burst produce five hundred trucks in a month, Revival City’s transport logistics also needed Iron Bulls; the military’s logistical transport needs Iron Bulls; the army’s motorization also similarly requires Iron Bulls.
Even so, the production capacity of five hundred was still not enough, and the subsequent production department might focus its next burst capacity on Iron Bull trucks, striving to increase this important type of transport truck to a monthly output of a thousand.
Beyond food trade, Bradford recently solved another major problem: the import of industrial raw materials.
In terms of raw materials, the capacity of Ruin Mine’s ores had long been insufficient.
Rubbish Town, due to the cessation of war, had only just resumed excavation work at Ruin Mine, and production had not yet picked up.
The gap in raw materials restricted industrial district production.
However, related commercial trade work was gradually expanding, and the sources of raw materials were no longer limited to the vicinity.
To the east of the high tower ruins, all the way to the sea, an area of about six thousand kilometers long, was the Pacific Rage Owl Star’s major urban cluster region before the war. Super-cities like the high tower ruins were broadly distributed across the eastern territories.
But in this vast area, the surviving population might be only about five million. They were scattered across various ruins, struggling to survive amid mutant creatures and Low Energy Storms. They had hardly any industry, mainly relying on scavenging and trading with caravans for food and necessities.
In other words, that six thousand kilometers stretch from east to west, and three thousand kilometers from north to south, of the former urban cluster area, was essentially one enormous, highly dispersed Rubbish Town.
Regardless of the ecology of that place, at least the new alliance had now established commercial trade relations with the Eastern Provinces.
Consumer goods and resale of food were traditional items in the raw material trade between Revival City and the Eastern Provinces, and now, there was an additional dumping of industrial goods.
Among them, the two main flagship products were, one, the Iron Bull truck; and two, military equipment.
The Eastern Provinces, much like a giant Rubbish Town, weren’t just an appellation; the ecosystem was very similar too. The food capability was very low, mainly relying on imports from the Green Valley Region; the primary output was raw materials scavenged from the pre-war ruins and some primary processing and basic industry.
The main force behind ‘scavenging’ was, of course, the many adventurers.
The G9 series of individual equipment was much stronger than those primitive guns.
Just so happened, the current production line of G9 had plenty of surplus capacity, which was perfect to sell to them.
As for whether these guns might become an obstacle to the new alliance’s expansion into the Eastern Provinces in the future…
It had to be admitted, there was that possibility.
But the obstacle wasn’t significant.
If it came to large-scale warfare, the value of individual equipment wasn’t so great. Tanks, artillery, air forces, these sources of firepower were more critical.
And speaking of arms trade, the current G9 individual equipment wasn’t just being sold eastward; the Green Valley Region to the south was also an important sales point.
On one hand, although the Green Valley Region suffered from war, reducing its food capacity significantly, there was still some left.
On the other hand, the main reason for trading arms for food was the situation in the Green Valley Region.
Disasters like the mutant creature tide, in the relatively favorable natural conditions of the Green Valley Region, would have typically subsided by this time of year, but this year, they seemed to be growing worse instead.