Chapter 95: The Governor Shouldn’t Come in Vain, Right?
The reason for having Osena handle the city-wide screening wasn’t to make her investigate cases.
Her expertise was not suited for that.
In reality, Gu Hang hoped that she could distribute food throughout the city, ensuring the livelihood of the populace while also conveniently handling this task.
But Gu Hang didn’t have high hopes for this city-wide screening; it was merely a secondary task.
The main issue was the lack of effective screening methods.
Cultists weren’t going to admit their affiliations just because you asked them.
He had already told Osena that this matter was incidental, and the primary task remained ensuring the people’s livelihood.
The troops that entered the city with Gu Hang had already taken control of several food warehouses.
But it was at this moment that bad news arrived first:
The city’s food reserves were insufficient.
If considering the regular consumption of the city’s million population, there was only about fifteen days’ worth of supplies.
For a city that mainly relied on imported food, this level of food reserve was extremely dangerous. It seemed as if the previous Alliance government didn’t understand the importance of food security at all.
However, from another perspective, it kind of made sense.
After Osena took over the granaries, she calculated the food consumption for the outer city’s poor according to the same per capita standard as those in the Governor’s camp and the Wasteland Society; but before this, the Alliance authorities might never have calculated it that way.
They might have only considered the 100,000 people in the inner city as legitimate residents, while the poor in the outer city?
They were left to fend for themselves.
Of course, in reality, the food supply for the outer city residents must have still come from these granaries, otherwise, how could they survive?
Merely chewing on tree bark wouldn’t sustain 800,000 to 900,000 people.
However, the outer city residents didn’t consume nearly as much as the standard per capita consumption Osena calculated; for a population of 800,000 to 900,000, the daily food consumption might range from 300,000 to 500,000 people/day.
On average, they could only consume one-third to one-half of the food, so malnutrition was common.
And this average meant that some people in the outer city might have enough to eat, while others might go without food for two consecutive days.
This situation matched the actual conditions of the outer city in Revival City.
Osena, having survived in the outer city for several months, clearly understood that the outer city residents’ lives were indeed like this.
Given such a standard, the fifteen days’ worth of food might extend to thirty or forty days.
But Osena decided not to calculate it that way.
Osena would provide the population of the outer city of Revival City with standard portions of food.
Otherwise, if we were hungry before the Governor came, and we’re still hungry after he arrives… then what was the point of the Governor’s arrival?
At this stage, raising the ration to sufficient levels to ensure everyone is well-fed is an important step in establishing the Governor’s prestige.
Are the inner city residents indifferent to the new Governor?
Let them be indifferent if they wish.
Do they think it’s still the era of the old Alliance? Are only the inner city residents considered human?
During the long communication between Gu Hang and Osena, they had made it clear that the greatest wealth of Revival City lay in the hundreds of thousands of people in the outer city. As long as they wholeheartedly support the Governor, everything else is a paper tiger.
The elites can be overthrown, production resources can be confiscated, and Gu Hang doesn’t need their support to rule;
Inner city residents, who live relatively comfortable lives, whether or not they harbor resentment, just need to do their work honestly. If they dare to cause trouble, there are ways to deal with them;
The outer city, with its vast number of impoverished people, will see an improvement in living conditions.
They will lead better lives under the Governor’s benevolence and quickly return to the factories and workplaces, contributing to the Governor’s cause.
Of course, it’s not enough to just distribute food.
Or rather, providing food is the basis for solidifying the Governor’s rule, the price paid. On top of that price, how to steadily reap benefits is a greater challenge for Osena.
Osena was well aware that simply opening the granaries was not a testament to her abilities.
Anyone could do that.
She needed to ensure that while distributing food, the residents clearly understood that this was a favor from the Governor.
Only then could the true value of the food distribution be realized.
At the same time, she had to establish a principle from the start: no free meals.
She didn’t plan to define this batch of food as mere relief or welfare.
Whether Revival City is poor or wealthy depends on the perspective.
To say it’s wealthy means considering only the inner city residents, who are indeed quite affluent by wasteland standards.
Their wealth is built on the exploitation of the tens of thousands in the outer city, who are treated as less than human.
But now, Osena intended to treat the 800,000 to 900,000 outer city residents as humans, which added a significant burden.
By such standards, Revival City could no longer be considered wealthy.
The current reserves of Revival City could not support a high-welfare system.
Osena would provide the outer city residents with a life befitting normal human beings, but what she could offer was merely an opportunity, a platform.
If they wanted to truly improve their lives, it would still depend on their own hard work.
This might not be as immediately beneficial as directly handing out food, but Osena preferred to sacrifice a bit of the goodwill from such charity to ensure that Revival City’s finances remained relatively healthy.
Moreover, the outer city residents were surely not lacking in the willingness to work hard. Having lived in the outer city, Osena believed this wholeheartedly.
In this regard, Osena drafted a temporary system.
She would indiscriminately distribute food to the outer city residents, but only for a few days and only a third of the usual rations, enough to prevent starvation.
For more food, they needed to purchase it.
Government-run food distribution centers would sell food at fair prices, limited by a per capita rationing system.
There would be strict crackdowns on gang activities trying to hoard food by buying up other people’s quotas.
For an extended period, the food industry would become a government-run sector, with the Governor’s administration ensuring stable food prices. Private entities were temporarily barred from entering this industry.
As long as there were fair and stable food purchase channels, the basic livelihood of the outer city residents could be assured.
Of course, a considerable number of outer city residents had no savings. Recently, due to the war, they had no jobs, and without work, they had no income.
Osena had supplementary measures for this situation.
Next, all the factories, workshops, and stores that were brought back under control would absorb the labor force once they reopened.
They would settle daily ‘food coupons,’ which could be directly exchanged for food.
Osena had considered implementing a labor points system but decided against it for now.
Her current administrative team consisted of just a dozen clerks, insufficient to implement a labor points system to replace the existing currency system.
Such a change would be highly disruptive and would require much stronger administrative capabilities and grassroots control to be feasible.
In fact, even just distributing food and promoting the resumption of work and production was beyond what she and her dozen subordinates could handle.
Fortunately, the military would be there to assist her.