Chapter 89: Busy Farming in the Last Days

Aug 20 2023

Not only salt, but there are also vacancies in various aspects of the S base. The fishery that Ji Cha has been wanting to expand also had to be put on hold because S city itself does not have such an industry and cannot find corresponding technical personnel. There are always many shortcomings when it comes to refined aquaculture.

C country is vast and rich in resources. In modern development, various cities have formed a network of mutual communication and support based on their own advantages, which is a huge social relationship network. Many big cities have huge advantages in economic development, but after the advent of the end times, they have become disconnected from the resource supply of surrounding towns. Coupled with densely populated areas and severe zombification, they have declined more rapidly than rural areas.

The originally close-knit network of relationships was severed by the advent of the end times, causing the previously interconnected regions to once again become independent islands. S city was nominally called a second-tier city before the apocalypse, but it cannot be compared with some truly second-tier cities. Its only advantage is probably that its geographic location is in the center of the province, and transportation is very convenient. Its development was mainly based on private small factories, but there were no particularly outstanding projects, and its natural resources were not abundant enough.

Ji Cha followed his subordinates and drove around several important production areas in the morning, recording various data, but he had not even seen half of the places by noon. Seeing that it was time for lunch, Ji Cha felt that this day was already too tight. He had planned to have a casual lunch and continue his inspection, but unexpectedly a guard came over.

“Director Ji, Captain Liang invites you to have lunch together,” the guard said.

Ji Cha lowered his head to record the data, “Tell him I’m too busy to go, he can have lunch by himself.”

“It’s not just Captain Liang,” the guard approached and said, “Several people from other bases came this morning, and they are having lunch together. Captain Liang specially asked me to find you. He probably has something to discuss with you.”

Ji Cha’s pen stopped, and he thought for a moment, “Alright, where are they having lunch?”

“You can follow me now, lunch is about to start. Captain Liang said we can eat in the office.”

The so-called office is actually the apartment where Liang Jincheng currently lives. There is a desk outside, and the bedroom where Ji Cha lives with him is inside.

It takes about ten minutes to ride a small electric scooter from the farm to the apartment. When Ji Cha got off the scooter, he glanced around and saw that the door of Liang Jincheng’s room was closed. In addition to the two guards who were usually there, there were also several unfamiliar people standing outside, dressed differently from those in the base. They were probably the people from outside the base.

The guard helped Ji Cha push open the door, and the smell of food immediately came out. Ji Cha stopped at the door and turned to ask the guard, “Have you guys eaten yet?”

The guards shook their heads.

“Well, then, take a few guests to the cafeteria for a meal,” said the host.

Although the words were spoken, and the reasoning should have been so, neither the guards nor the people outside the base made a move.

After thinking for a moment, Ji Cha understood. Both sides were afraid of some unforeseen circumstances inside the house, so they dared not leave. He said again, “Xiao Chen, go to the cafeteria and get some food.”

One of the guards agreed and hurried off.

Only then did Ji Cha step inside, and Liang Jincheng stood up and introduced the two people sitting inside the room, “This is Ji Cha, responsible for managing the farm in the base. Cha Cha, these are Ke Chenglei and Feng Xing, who come from the base in T City.”

“Hello, I’m Ji Cha.” Ji Cha greeted the two people and sat down next to Liang Jincheng.

It was unexpected for Ke Chenglei and Feng Xing to see that Liang Jincheng, who appeared serious and difficult to get along with, and clearly a master, could be so warm and friendly when he met Ji Cha, even calling him ‘Cha Cha’.

Ji Cha noticed their momentary shock and then realized what caused their reaction. Liang Jincheng had just called him ‘Cha Cha’.

But at this moment, Ji Cha felt a little shy and couldn’t say much on the surface, so he just slightly turned his head and looked at Liang Jincheng with the corner of his eye, indicating that he should be a little more restrained in front of outsiders.

There were simple dishes on the table, which were actually worse than what they usually ate. Ji Cha didn’t know if this was intentionally arranged by Liang Jincheng. However, even so, Ke Chenglei and Feng Xing’s surprise couldn’t be concealed. The development of the base in S City was far better than what they had expected.

The base in T City was located in a coastal area and had always been mainly focused on fishing. However, there were relatively few areas suitable for agricultural planting, and there were fewer people who relied on agriculture for a living, not to mention various livestock breeding industries. After the apocalypse, although the development of the base in T City was not bad, it was far from being comparable to the base in S City. At least when Ke Chenglei and Feng Xing entered the base in S City, they were completely moved by the planned buildings inside the base and the spirit of the ordinary civilians.

Their original intention was to come and understand the development of the surrounding areas. Before coming to S City, they had also visited several small bases, thinking that the base in T City was developing well. Unexpectedly, they had underestimated it.

The T city base is lacking many things, and the most urgent issue is the shortage of staple food. Since Ke Chenglei and Feng Xing have the opportunity to sit down and chat with the highest commander of the S city base, they naturally won’t miss this chance to bring up the issue.

Ji Cha is also familiar with the T city base. Based on his experience from the end times in his past life, he knows that the T city base is a highly competitive one. However, at that time, the communication between the S and T bases was several years later than now. By then, the T city base had already cooperated with other bases to solve the food problem, and S City base lost many advantages when they contacted them later.

Not only does the T city base not lack salt, but there are also many metal resources in the surrounding mountainous areas. The various equipment of the original mining site is readily available and it shouldn’t be too difficult to resume operations. If they can cooperate with the T base now, not only can they gain greater profits for their own base while they lack bargaining power, they can also pay a smaller cost.

At the same time, Ji Cha also thought of a problem he has been recently struggling with, the lack of fish farming technicians. S City base doesn’t have many specialized fish farmers, but T City base has many. If they can reach a cooperation agreement, they can temporarily send some skilled personnel over, solving Ji Cha’s problem.

“Under the premise of solving our own base’s food problem, we can provide a part of the food production,” Ji Cha knows very well how much food the farm can produce. Currently, the internal food production of the base has reached a stage where they don’t have to worry about it, and he is also planning to develop other planting areas. It’s not difficult to “export” a part of it in the future.

“But it’s not just salt. I hope you can provide some personnel for technology exchange. It can promote the progress and development of both bases. Also, I know that T City base has abundant metal resources, and I also hope that we can achieve sustainable cooperation in this aspect.”

Ke Chenglei and Feng Xing didn’t expect Liang Jincheng to be silent and Ji Cha to speak first.

“Everything else is easy to talk about, but the metal mining area, to be honest,” Ke Chenglei said, “We haven’t resumed work in this area yet, and we are still mainly developing the base’s foundation.”

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

This is easy to understand. After all, if they haven’t completely solved their food and clothing needs, no one will have the energy to care about anything else. Moreover, the T base has only five thousand people, far less than the more than twenty thousand people in the S base, making it difficult to allocate manpower to manage the mining site.

“This is not a problem,” Liang Jincheng said, “We can provide food on our side, and the two bases can cooperate in mining metal ores and distribute the mined minerals later.”

This is also a solution.

Compared with various minerals that cannot be seen at present, food is the top priority for the T base. Ke Chenglei and Feng Xing almost agreed without hesitation.

Feng Xing thought of the technical personnel mentioned by Ji Cha just now and asked, “I don’t know what kind of technical personnel Director Ji mentioned just now?”

“I hope to borrow some technical personnel who are knowledgeable about fishery breeding from your base. At the same time, if you have any needs, you can also request the technical personnel you need. If our base can provide assistance, we will definitely try our best to support it.” Ji Cha said.

As for borrowing technical personnel, T city currently doesn’t have much to borrow from S city. After all, even the most needed agricultural technical personnel are basically useless there because they don’t have the innate planting conditions.

S city and T city are about four hours away by car. Although the distance is not far, the journey is dangerous because there is a four-way intersection in the middle with a considerable number of zombies.

Now that the basic agreement has been reached, both sides have also agreed to control and deal with the zombies on this road, at least not to let them affect the transportation of resources on both sides.

Ji Cha remembered that before the end of the world, he had watched many TV movies of the same theme, and even many European and American games had the end of the world as their background. As far as games are concerned, the biggest difference between C country players and foreign players is that even in the end-of-world environment, even if the basic theme of the game is to trust no one, they can still trust each other and form alliances with unity and bloodline trust in the competitive and killing environment.

The base that has been isolated on an island is now beginning to connect with the outside world and develop together by learning from each other’s strengths and making up for each other’s weaknesses.

Even in the end of the world, sooner or later, people will see the light of hope rekindled