Chapter 148 Inventorying the Grain

He Caiwei thought for a moment, and was then taken to see the grain bureau warehouse in Pengcheng, because there was indeed not much left.

It has been 60 years since then, and this is the second year of drought in the North. Due to the drought, not even half a cartload of grain has been transported from the North this year. Apart from what was used to pay off debts, there is hardly anything left. It is difficult to even feed ourselves, let alone send it out.

"Well, I don't know how much I can buy, but I can ask around. By the way, what's the market price for rice per kilogram right now?" He Caiwei wasn't familiar with the local market, so she decided to ask first.

"The price of unhulled rice used to be only 10 cents a pound, but now it's risen to 1.5 yuan, a 15-fold increase. People here don't eat much flour, so wheat isn't as expensive as rice. Unhulled wheat is only 1 yuan a pound, but you can't even buy it there. Corn on the cob is over 1 yuan a pound." Why is rice so expensive? Mainly because southerners eat rice more often. Noodles, steamed buns, and mantou are only eaten occasionally. Cornmeal buns are even rarer. When southerners make cornmeal, they mostly make corn bread, and very few people make those cornmeal buns.

"Wow, that's so expensive... These workers' wages can't even cover food expenses in a month?" He Caiwei did the math and realized that these people's wages were outrageous.

But even if I let her sell it very cheaply, that's not possible; that's just how the market is now.

"Okay, I'll ask if I can get you a few hundred tons, but I can't give it to you all at once, since we don't really have that much stock. I can place an order for you first, and then have it delivered. I'll try to get the lowest price down to one yuan. I probably can't lower the price for the other two types, since they're already selling for three or four yuan in the north. People in the north don't eat rice very often, so the price of rice can be negotiated." He Caiwei thought this price was already very high, but what she didn't know was that Director Zhang was completely dumbfounded; he could actually bargain!

Moreover, his little niece is amazing; she cut the price by a third, saving them a lot of money. And she just asked for several hundred tons, which is an astronomical figure for him.

You have to understand that because of the shortage of supplies, all the rice husks are ground up and put into the cooking. People also buy corn on the cob and grind up the cob as well, and put it in the cooking. When supplies are scarce, even a blade of grass can be considered food.

Although they weren't quite at their wits' end, he was really on the verge of collapse. Most of the meal replacements sent over from above were made from ground tree bark, and the resulting broth was bitter, astringent, and black in color, making it truly inedible.

Most of the factories here don't provide enough food for their workers, so they don't have the strength to produce anything.

"No matter how much, as long as you can get the food, I can eat it..." Director Zhang was really excited. Sure enough, the Lu family's daughter was very capable.

“There’s a lot of rice, some wheat, some corn on the cob, and some sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are 50 cents a pound now. Is that price acceptable? If so, I’ll have someone get more.” He Caiwei remembered that sweet potatoes and potatoes could also fill her stomach.

"Sure, sure, Weiwei, how much have you brought over? No matter how much, as long as you ship it over, I'll pay you right away." Director Zhang excitedly shook his niece's hand. Many of the products they produce here are sent to big cities like Shanghai and Shanghai for sale, but it's really difficult to buy grain from outside.

"Give me the keys to those two empty warehouses at the Grain Bureau. I'll have someone fill them up in the next couple of days." He Caiwei was calculating how much stuff she still had in her storage space. To cope with the drought, she had planted a lot of rice, wheat, corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes.

He planted more than 100 acres of anything that could fill his stomach. I know that crops that take months to mature outside can be grown in just a few days inside the space, and the yield is several times higher than outside.

"Alright, alright, let's go, let's go to the office to get it. We have people patrolling all the warehouses here, and I have the keys. I've told people not to go to those two warehouses these next few days. You can let them put their things away in peace, and we won't go there if there's any disturbance." Actually, the grain bureau wasn't originally under Director Zhang's jurisdiction. It was the later director of the grain bureau who ran away with the money because he couldn't collect any grain.

Because they couldn't find a suitable person, the higher-ups directly appointed Director Zhang as the concurrent director of the Grain Bureau. Director Zhang didn't really want to do it, since there was no grain available. What use would being the director of the Grain Bureau be if there was no grain?

But Director Zhang, who was wholeheartedly devoted to the people, still thought that he should collect as much as he could, because he couldn't let people starve to death. But after taking over the responsibility of the grain bureau, he truly understood why the director of the grain bureau was so fast. Collecting grain was really too difficult.

He's been holding on for a year now. If it weren't for his good brother Lu Zhiheng bringing him food from time to time, he would have really collapsed.

He overheard that his niece could get food, but he couldn't find her because she hadn't returned. He had asked Lao Lu several times, but no one knew when she would come back. He really couldn't hold on any longer. He was thinking that if his niece didn't come back soon, he would have to go on an official business to the capital to look for her and see if she could help him.

He Caiwei said goodbye to Director Zhang and went straight home. She prepared some food for her mother and then went to her room. She told her mother that she wouldn't be coming out for lunch and whispered something to her mother before her mother agreed to let her skip lunch.

When Lu Zhiheng and the others returned for lunch, they found that their eldest daughter was not coming out to eat. They were initially puzzled, but when they heard that their daughter was helping Director Zhang to contact suppliers for grain, they all fell silent.

They all knew that Pengcheng really needed food right now, and they were worried about the shortage of supplies and food shortages.

After returning to her own space, He Caiwei began to take stock of the goods in her space, most of which she had obtained from her scumbag father.

She had brought back far too much food, and since she never ate any of it, it had just been taking up space in her spatial storage. Now was the perfect opportunity to get rid of it all.

She harvested corn four times, totaling about 200 tons. The rice she had stored before was also about 200 tons. Of course, this wasn't just from her scumbag father; some of it was planted in his space and then put there.