Chapter 96: Chapter 95, The Governor Can’t Come for Nothing, Right?
The reason for having Osenia handle the city-wide screening wasn’t to have the girl investigate cases.
That wasn’t her specialty.
In reality, Gu Hang hoped that she could distribute grain throughout Revival City to ensure the welfare of the citizens, and, by the way, take care of this matter as well.
But with this city-wide screening, Gu Hang didn’t hold much hope; it was just something done incidentally.
Mainly because there wasn’t a particularly effective method of screening.
Cult members wouldn’t admit to it if you simply asked them whether they were part of it or not.
He had also told Osenia that this task was to be done conveniently, and the main focus should remain on ensuring people’s livelihoods.
The army that had entered the city with Gu Hang had already taken control of several grain warehouses.
However, it was at this time that bad news arrived:
The city’s grain reserves were not plentiful.
If one considered regular consumption for a population of a million people in the city, there was roughly only a fifteen-day supply.
For a city that primarily relied on imported grain for trade, such a level of grain reserve was dangerously low, as if the previous Alliance Government had no understanding of the importance of food security.
But from another perspective, it made sense.
After taking over the grain warehouses, Osenia had included the poor of the outer city in her calculations of consumption at the same per capita standard as at the Governor’s Camp and Abandoned Cave Society; but before this, the Alliance authorities might never have counted it like that. They probably only saw the hundred thousand people within the inner city as proper citizens; the poor in the outer city? They were left to fend for themselves.
Of course, the supply of food for the outer city residents definitely came from these warehouses—how else would they survive? They certainly couldn’t live on tree bark for eight or nine hundred thousand people.
It’s just that the outer city residents didn’t consume as much as the standard per capita consumption calculated by Osenia. Eight hundred thousand to nine hundred thousand people might only consume the equivalent of three hundred thousand to five hundred thousand people/day/grain consumption.
On average, they could only eat one-third to one-half of the food daily, so malnutrition was normal. And since this is an average, it means that some residents of the outer city could eat their fill while others might go without food for two days in a row.
This situation aligned with the actual conditions in the outer city of Revival City. Having survived in the outer city for a few months, Osenia was very clear about how the residents lived there.
By such standards, a fifteen-day supply of food could be stretched to reserves lasting thirty to forty days.
But Osenia decided not to calculate it this way.
She would provide the outer city population of Revival City with a standard portion of food.
Otherwise, if we were hungry before the Governor arrived and remained hungry after he came… then what was the Governor’s visit for?
During this current phase, increasing the ration distribution to ensure everyone could eat enough was an important step in establishing loyalty to the Governor.
The inner city residents are indifferent to the new Governor?
Let them be indifferent. Do they really think it’s still the era of the Alliance? When only the inner city residents counted as people?
In the long conversation between Gu Hang and Osenia, they had made it clear that the greatest treasure of Revival City lay in the hundreds of thousands of residents in the outer city. As long as they wholeheartedly supported the Governor, everything else would be a paper tiger.
The elite could be overthrown, their production materials confiscated. Gu Hang didn’t need their support to rule;
The relatively well-off inner city residents, no matter if they harbored resentments, just needed to behave and work diligently. If they dared cause trouble, there were ways to deal with them;
The vast number of impoverished people in the outer city would see an improvement in their living conditions. They would live better lives under the Governor’s kindness and quickly return to the factories and their jobs, glowing with dedication for the Governor’s cause.
Of course, distributing only food would not suffice. Or rather, the distribution of food is the foundation of solidifying the rule of the Governor, the price paid; beyond that cost, how to steadily reap rewards is where the real challenge lies for Osenia.
Osenia was well aware that simply opening the granaries was no proof of her abilities.
As if anyone couldn’t do the same.
Along with providing food, she had to make it clear to the residents that this was a favor from the Governor. Only then would the true value of distributing the grain be realized.
At the same time, she had to anchor a principle from the outset: she couldn’t allow people to live on handouts.
She didn’t plan to define this batch of food as mere relief or welfare.
Whether Revival City was seen as impoverished or wealthy depended on the perspective. To say it was wealthy would mean considering only the Inner City people. Indeed, by the standards of this wasteland, they were quite well-off. Their wealth, however, was built upon the exploitation of the tens of thousands of people in the Outer City who were treated as if they were less than human.
But now, Osenia intended to treat the eight or nine hundred thousand people in the Outer City as human beings, which immediately added a significant burden.
By such a standard, it was impossible to consider the city wealthy.
The reserves of Revival City now could not support high welfare.
Osenia would provide the Outer City residents with the opportunity for a normal life, but what she could offer was just the opportunity and platform. If they wished to live decently, it would still depend on their own hard work.
Of course, this wouldn’t be as generous as directly distributing food, but Osenia would rather sacrifice a bit of the benefit of bestowing favors to ensure that Revival City’s finances were on a relatively healthy path.
Moreover, there was no doubt in her mind that the Outer City residents were willing to work hard. Having lived in the Outer City herself, Osenia firmly believed this.
In regard to this, Osenia had roughly established a temporary system.
She would indiscriminately distribute food to the residents outside the city but only enough for a few days, and just one-third of their ration to ensure no one would starve to death.
For those who wanted more, they would have to purchase it.
The government grain sale outlets that were set up would sell grain at an affordable price, and purchases would be limited to a certain quantity per person. The government would strictly crackdown on any gang activities involving buying up grain using others’ quotas for hoarding.
For a considerable time to come, the grain industry would become a state-run industry, and the Governor’s Government would go all out to ensure the stability of grain prices. Private individuals were not to intrude into this industry for the time being.
As long as the Outer City residents had access to a stable and affordable grain supply, their basic needs would be ensured.
Of course, a considerable number of Outer City residents had no savings at all. Recently, due to the war, they were unemployed and had no means of livelihood.
Osenia also had corresponding measures.
Following the regaining of control over the factories, workshops, and shops, as they reopened, they would absorb the unemployed. Wages would be settled daily in the form of “grain tickets,” which could be directly exchanged for food.
Osenia considered introducing a work-point system but decided against promoting it in Revival City for the time being.
With just a handful of administrators on hand, she was in no position to implement a work-point system to replace the existing currency system.
Such upheaval would require a stronger administrative capacity and grassroots control to carry out.
In fact, even just distributing grain and promoting the resumption of work and production, she and her dozen subordinates were not up to the task.
Fortunately, the military would be there to assist her.
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Adding one more update!