The First Order

Chapter 1021: Contract responsibility system

“Military expansion is not a trivial matter.” Ren Xiaosu explained to P5092, “It still needs to go through a formal approval process by Commander Zhang.”

However, the Great Hoodwinker said from nearby, “Commander Zhang has said that you’ll be in charge of things in Stronghold 144 and its territories. He won’t interfere with your decisions. Even if you submit documents for approval, they’ll be rejected and sent right back. Right now, you basically have the power to act as you please.”

“Does Stronghold 144 have the budget for military expansion?” Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhang Xiaoman.

“Of course. After the trade routes opened, although the tax rates were very low, Stronghold 144 has become the richest stronghold in the Northwest,” Zhang Xiaoman replied. “In terms of our local regional finances, we have more money than we can spend.”

“More than we can spend or do you just not know what to spend it on? Otherwise, the food shortage issue should’ve been resolved already. I’ve walked around the market recently and noticed that the food prices are increasing almost daily. This is a very bad sign. P5092, you can just take charge of the military expansion plans. The rest of us still have to resolve the major problem of the food shortage first,” Ren Xiaosu said calmly.

Feeling wronged, Zhang Xiaoman complained, “It’s not that we didn’t try, but we faced way too many difficulties. If the Wang Consortium were willing to export food to us, we wouldn’t have so many problems. I’ve already sent people to the Qing Consortium to see if they can help us in any way.”

“Even if there’s difficulties, we still have to handle them.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Be it the Qing Consortium or the Wang Consortium, they’re all outsiders. Food is everyone’s lifeline, and that’s true for the Northwest as well. How can we rely on outsiders for something like that? Zhou Yingxue, I’m assigning you to grow potatoes starting tomorrow. We have to resolve the food shortage first so that no one will panic.”

Zhou Yingxue’s expression immediately turned bitter. She knew she would definitely be asked to grow potatoes if the food shortage needed to be resolved.

If Zhou Yingxue were the one who planted the Potato Shooter, not only would the potatoes be bigger, but the Potato Shooter could also produce up to a 100 potatoes per day. With this crop, it could at least assure that the people in the Northwest would not have to starve to death.

“However, we can’t just rely on potatoes to resolve the food shortage. We can’t possibly make everyone eat potatoes all the time.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Tell me, what’re the difficulties you’ve encountered regarding the food crisis?”

Zhang Xiaoman said, “We took over the Zong Consortium’s strongholds not long ago. But we realized that we have to start from scratch just to survey the new land.”

“What’s so difficult about drawing a map?” Ren Xiaosu frowned. “There’s so many skilled people within the troops who can do that. Send your 6th Combat Brigade to survey the terrain. We have to get this done quickly. Wang Yun, you’ll lead the team for this purpose. I want to see results within half a month.”

“Alright, Future Commander,” Wang Yun said with a nod.

“What other difficulties were there?” Ren Xiaosu asked again.

Zhang Xiaoman said, “We also have issues with the irrigation infrastructure and the terrain. As the soil erosion here is quite severe, a lot of places are unsuitable for farming. Of course, there’s also some good plots of land. But it’ll be quite difficult to construct irrigation canals through them since it’ll require too much manpower and resources.”

“When will Ji Zi’ang get here?” Ren Xiaosu said, “Don’t post him to the inspection board for now. Have him lead a team to improve the irrigation works first. Great Hoodwinker, did you encounter any other earth-type supernatural beings when you were in the Central Plains? Poach them for our Prosperous Northwest.”

“No, there aren’t any left in the Central Plains, but there’s still one here in the Northwest.” The Great Hoodwinker said, “It’s just that he’s unwilling to join the Northwest Army, so we can’t force him.”

Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “When did you become easy to talk to?”

“Ahem, it’s not that I’m easy to talk to but this is our Northwest’s policy. We don’t force others to join us,” the Great Hoodwinker said.

The moment he said that, Wang Yun and the others looked at the Great Hoodwinker in silence. They thought to themselves, ‘That’s what you’ve been doing all this while in the Central Plains, so why would you deny it now that you’ve returned to the Northwest?’

Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said, “Can we get the people of Stronghold 144 to participate in the land recultivation efforts as well?”

“No one here has any enthusiasm for that.” Zhang Xiaoman said, “It’s not just our Northwest that has this problem; all the consortiums face the same issue. Although we can hire refugees and stronghold residents for farming, they actually aren’t very enthusiastic about it. In fact, this is the main cause of the food crisis. Now that the trade routes have opened, everyone is running their own business. But farming is different. As they don’t own the land, the crops they grow don’t belong to them either. So they’re only drawing a salary. That’s why so many refugees went to the uninhabited land in the valley to cultivate the land by themselves. If we want to encourage them, we must enact land reform first. However, we can’t sell the land and let the people privatize it either. If that happens, it can also become a potential problem if people start buying and selling their property privately and not use it for farming.”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and suddenly asked, “Have y’all ever heard of the contract responsibility system[1]? This solution is somewhat suitable for the problem we’re facing in our vision of the Prosperous Northwest.”

…

Actually, Ren Xiaosu also did not know anything about managing a stronghold, and Zhang Xiaoman and the others were suddenly forced to start learning as well. As such, they could only take things one step at a time and learn on the job.

After agreeing on the meeting time tomorrow, Ren Xiaosu walked them to the door.

Very quickly, all the vehicles that had suddenly rushed here to see Ren Xiaosu drove off, and the old military neighborhood on Anning East Road returned to its usual calm.

But after the convoy of vehicles left, all the residents in the old military neighborhood came out of their houses and looked curiously at Ren Xiaosu. They wanted to see just what the legendary future commander looked like.

Hu Xiaobai and Wang Yuexi stood at the entrance of their house and hesitated about whether to go up to talk to Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “Mr. Wang, Mrs. Hu, is there anything I can help you with?”

Hu Xiaobai said in embarrassment, “Erm… Future Commander, I’m sorry. I’ve misunderstood you recently…”

“It’s alright.” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “After all, I’ve really been a little lazy these days.”

“How could that be?” Hu Xiaobai quickly corrected him, “Future Commander, you were just traveling incognito to get the lay of the land and find out what the people’s concerns are. I understand, I totally understand!”

Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. As expected, the way everyone looked at you would depend on your status.

Honestly, he had really come here to lead a peaceful life and do nothing at all. But in the end, everyone misunderstood that he was here to find out about the people’s concerns.

Then Ren Xiaosu said to Wang Yuexi, “We’ll be holding a meeting regarding the food crisis tomorrow. You should represent the Policy Research Office and attend it.”

Wang Yuexi was stunned. Then he hurriedly nodded in excitement. “OK, OK! No problem!”

After that, Ren Xiaosu returned to his house. Hu Xiaobai wondered, “What did Future Commander mean by that? Is he going to place you in an important role?”

Wang Yuexi thought to himself that maybe the future commander was very satisfied with the comprehensive services he had set up in the administrative center?

But he still had to restrain himself. “I doubt I’m good enough to be placed in an important role, so don’t go around talking to others yet. Who knows how that might sound by the time it reaches the future commander’s ears?”

Back in the house, Ren Xiaosu smiled at Yang Xiaojin and said, “Sorry, it looks like we can’t continue living this quiet life anymore.”

News of the future commander living in seclusion on Anning East Road had already spread throughout Stronghold 144.

Their neighbors, as well as the stall owners at the market, were all extremely excited. They went about telling all their relatives and friends about the story of the future commander’s incognito travels with great enthusiasm.

[1] A practice in China, first adopted in agriculture in 1979 and officially established in 1982, by which households are held responsible for the profits and losses of an enterprise. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_responsibility_system