Chapter 1545: Chapter 1462: Some Starve While Others Feast

Wearing patched clothes, the man carried an empty rice sack to the doorstep of the rice shop. His complexion was poor, seemingly having not rested well for quite a long time.

He was a laborer, recently working continuously in Winterless City. Mainly engaged in clearing the ruins hit by aerial bombs, and filling the large potholes on the road with collapsed building debris.

The situation in Winterless City has indeed become extremely dire lately, because a bomb struck the sewage pipeline, now a nauseating stench permeates over half the city.

Years ago, before the Great Tang Group left here, they had partially constructed the sewage system. Later, after the Great Tang Group left, Winterless City, as Dorne’s largest port, indeed adopted the high standards of the Great Tang Group and built many underground facilities.

Many of these facilities have been in use for over a decade now, and some are still functional. However, the bombing by the Great Tang Empire damaged part of these, causing the entire city operation to collapse.

The sewage problem is only a small issue among many others. Winterless City’s biggest problem recently has actually been the skyrocketing prices.

Rice has now risen to more than five times its previous cost, and the local populace, living on meager wages, can barely survive now.

“Boss, I’m buying 2 gold coins’ worth of rice.” The man took out two gleaming coins from his pocket and handed them to the clerk behind the counter.

After the clerk inspected them, he put the coins into the drawer, then carefully scooped a ladle of rice from a jar behind him, emptied it into the man’s rice sack and weighed it carefully.

“Boss, I gave you two gold coins.” The man glanced at the pitiful amount of rice, thinking the clerk had made a mistake, and reminded him.

The clerk handed the sack back to the man, disdainfully saying, “Yes, it is two gold coins! Nowadays, these two gold coins only buy this much rice.”

“What? This, this is only two pounds, isn’t it? The savings from my home amounted to this much, how did it only exchange for this little rice?” The man immediately became agitated upon hearing this, his hand clutching the sack trembled uncontrollably.

“We can’t do anything about it! That’s the going rate now! If you have money, you better hurry and buy; let me tell you, prices will rise again tomorrow.” The clerk pointed to the wooden sign behind him that displayed the rice price, kindly reminding.

It turns out that the price, which had just risen to five times yesterday, has now increased to twenty times today! Yes! Overnight, it became four times more expensive than the previous day!

“Twenty times the rice price? Won’t the officials do something about it?” Seeing the wildly inflated price of rice, the man’s face twisted entirely.

He worked so hard in the city, moving bricks and rubble all day long, yet earning less than 10 silver coins. But now, it only buys one ounce of rice. In other words, now the money he earns daily is not even enough to support himself.

Moreover, he has a family to feed: Tang bombers damaged the textile factory, his wife is a textile worker, who now has been sent home on leave, and salary issuance has been suspended.

The ruthless textile factory owner said that wages can only be recalculated after the machines in the factory are repaired and production resumes, but when will that be?

Know that the Tang People didn’t just damage the textile factory, they also bombed the power plant; waiting for the restoration of electricity and the resumption of textile production possibly means waiting until this time next year.

The little money he earns, along with the few gold coins saved over the past few years, have been steadily withdrawn these past months to buy food, and those recent two gold coins were actually their last bit of property.

But now… it’s roughly only enough for them to eat for two more days.

“Boss! Please have mercy! Give a bit more… We really have no money left.” The man almost knelt to the clerk at the counter.

Unfortunately, no matter how humble he became, no one would take pity and give him more food: currently in the city, even Nobility can hardly afford meat anymore. With a shortage of supplies, and paralyzed transportation, if prices don’t rise, it would indeed be a ghostly sight.

While the man was begging bitterly, another man in even more tattered clothes came to buy rice. He had even less money, and as a result the clerk gave him only two ounces of raw rice.

That man also began begging, and eventually actually knelt down and started kowtowing, yet even after he kowtowed until his forehead bled, no one gave him an extra portion.

The first man clutched the rice sack in his hands tightly, fearing others would snatch it away, he staggered out of the predatory rice shop, clutching the family’s last hope, hastily returning back to his rented room.

The room was nearly in the suburbs, though the rent was cheap. Moreover, he’s lived here for over five years, familiar with the landlord, and occasionally able to delay payment of rent, somewhat convenient.

Upon returning home, he saw the old man next door sitting at the alley entrance crying crazily. Turns out the old man’s wife had just starved to death, and this old man hadn’t eaten properly for several days either.

The man didn’t linger, didn’t even give his neighbor a glance, just brought the only grain back home. His wife, upon hearing that rice prices had risen again, secretly hid to the side wiping tears, and the man’s mother sat on the bed, sighing incessantly.

The entire city is filled with an air of desolation, people hurriedly passing the round bomb craters filled with broken bricks and rubble, walking beside the ruins of collapsed buildings, hardly exchanging any words.

Everyone is trying their best to hoard food, although the Lord’s Mansion has issued related notices, promising that a large amount of food supplies would arrive soon, prohibiting any form of hoarding and profiteering.

But actually, Nobility are still hoarding food on a large scale, and the common people are still going hungry. In the end, the City Lord personally arrested dozens of commoners buying grains, finding over 20 pounds of rice in their homes, confirming their crime of hoarding.

After beheading these troublemakers publicly, the Lord of the City once again assured the people that grain would soon be transported, asking everyone to remain calm.

Regrettably, the City Lord’s guarantee was of no use, although indeed some grain was transported to Winterless City, most of this grain was allocated to the Military.

The Military dared not lack supplies, though the civilians within Winterless City could endure hunger a while longer. After all, with the Military nearby, there won’t be fear of these troublemakers rebelling, isn’t that right?

Moreover, not everyone is starving, the Nobility within the city still have food to eat, and some factories are even distributing meat and vegetables as rewards—the large factory producing radar outside the city is just like this.

That’s right, Pan Yiping can provide meat and ample food for his workers. After all, he is a favorite of the Military; it’s impossible for him to be short on supplies…