Luo Yunchong stayed at the Navy Hotel and did not go to Tan Renhao's house to make trouble. Tan Renhao was not too polite, and early the next morning, when the staff officer at the Navy Headquarters had just gone to work, Tan Renhao went to Gan Yongxing first.

"So early today?"

Hearing the voice, Tan Renhao immediately turned around, and Gan Yongxing was closing the door.

"I heard that Luo Yunchong arrived yesterday afternoon, did you invite him to dinner?"

"Of course, but I won't reimburse this money."

"It's okay for you to reimburse, this is a normal entertainment fee, and it should have been reimbursed, but you have to ask for an invoice, and if you don't have an invoice, I won't reimburse you." Gan Yongxing smiled and invited Tan Renhao to sit down, and then went to make two cups of tea, "Then you talked to Luo Yunchong, how did you talk?" ”

"I didn't ask directly, but it shouldn't be a problem."

Gan Yongxing put down the teacup, he was obviously dissatisfied with Tan Renhao's reply.

"Chief of Staff, there are some questions that cannot be asked directly, and besides, how many people now know about the establishment of the Air Force? If this matter can't be settled, then tell Luo Yunchong, will there be a bad result? ”

"It seems that you are quite thoughtful."

"I just mentioned it in general, judging from Luo Yunchong's attitude, he firmly supports the establishment of the Air Force. Of course, with his current identity and status, and he didn't know anything about Wei Boyu, he wouldn't consider himself as a candidate for the future commander of the Air Force. Tan Renhao observed Gan Yongxing's expression, and then said, "However, as long as he is given a chance and given enough status, then he will definitely become excellent, and he will definitely be the first commander of the Celebrity Qingshi Imperial Air Force." ”

Gan Yongxing pondered for a while. said: "Okay, I'll talk to the principal about this, where is Luo Yunchong now?" ”

"Probably to meet his old friends, he won't come here until about ten o'clock."

"Okay, I'll talk to the principal first, and then I'll talk to him." Gan Yongxing got up from the sofa, he was ready to deal with today's affairs.

"Chief of Staff. One more thing. ”

"What?" Gan Yongxing sat down again.

"Is there a famine in Europe right now?"

Gan Yongxing's gaze stayed on Tan Renhao's face for two seconds, and asked, "This is what Luo Yunchong told you?" ”

"Yes, I talked to him yesterday about it accidentally, and now the Empire is providing food aid to Europe, right?"

"Then you're asking, are we going to have a food crisis?"

Tan Renhao nodded, this is indeed the question he wants to ask.

"I also have a rough understanding of this, and the situation is not as serious as you think." Gan Yongxing took out a cigarette. "Of course, the empire has had a bumper grain harvest for three consecutive years, and now several major grain-producing areas are mechanized large-scale farming, ensuring grain production has always been the basic state policy of the empire, since last year. No, it should have been since the year before, and we have also opened up a few new grain producing areas in the Northwest Territories, and from this year, these grain producing areas will start to provide food for the Empire. For the specific situation, you can go to the data room to find relevant materials and take a look, anyway, I don't think there is anything to worry about, it should be that our enemies are worried about the food problem. ”

Tan Renhao didn't bother Gan Yongxing much anymore, after all, Gan Yongxing was the chief of the general staff of the Navy, not the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry of the Empire. He didn't know much about the food production of the Empire, but Tan Renhao didn't have much hope, at least the Imperial Navy Geography Library wouldn't collect too much information related to food production.

Indeed, after searching in the data room for more than an hour, Tan Renhao only found a few reports on grain production attached to the annual summary report of the imperial government, as well as hostile countries provided by some intelligence services. and information on the grain production of the Allies over the years. Tan Renhao could only go back to the office with these materials, because there was nothing else to do, and he could also spend some time on these things that had little to do with the navy.

As the saying goes, the people live on food. Grain production has always been the basic production activity of the country, and whether it is in peacetime or wartime, grain production must be given top priority. Perhaps for some countries, it is necessary to rely on imports to meet domestic food needs, but for the empire such a vast land. Countries with a low burden on the population and good natural conditions. Food self-sufficiency would certainly have to be guaranteed, and even consideration would have to be given to providing the Allies with sufficient food in times of war.

Before the First Global War, with the advent of automobiles, a variety of agricultural machinery also appeared in the fields, and from the twenty years before the outbreak of the First Global War to the end of the First Global War, there was a huge transformation in the way food was produced within the empire, and the catalyst was war. Because of the needs of the war, a large number of peasants joined the army, or entered the factory, turned into workers, and in order to ensure that food production could meet domestic needs, the empire tried to establish the first batch of state-owned farms during the first global war, through mechanized large-scale production to improve production efficiency and reduce the proportion of agricultural population. This did have a significant effect, but after the war, nationalization contradicted the free market economy of the empire, and a large amount of state-owned assets were sold to reduce the burden and size of the government, and on the other hand, the proceeds from the sale of state-owned assets could be used to pay off the national debt owed during the war. It was at this time that the peasants of the empire began to embrace mechanized agricultural production, and large farms appeared in all corners of the empire.

During the economic crisis, many farmers eventually went bankrupt because they could not sell the food crops they produced, which triggered a new wave of land acquisitions. Although Prime Minister Xue Xiyue came to power, several laws were introduced to protect agriculture, but this did not prevent mergers between farms. By the time the war broke out, large-scale farms were no longer common, and there were more super-large, even super-farms with a station of hundreds of square kilometers.

To a large extent, this great change in agricultural production bankrupted many peasants, and eventually migrated to the cities, where peasants and even landlords became workers and capitalists. This may seem cruel, but it is an inevitable path of development, and large-scale mechanized agricultural production minimizes the need for labor and greatly improves agricultural production efficiency. More peasants who were bound to the land were liberated and invested in more efficient industrial production. In fact, during the war, the empire was able to rapidly expand its industrial production, thanks in large part to the large number of peasants who flowed into the cities and became industrial laborers, and the imperial army was able to collect so many troops. Bankrupt farmers also play a role.

After the outbreak of the war, the importance of agricultural production increased again, and after the introduction of the wartime rationing system, agricultural products, especially grain, animal husbandry products, poultry eggs. Dairy products and other food products no longer enter the market circulation channels, and are purchased and distributed by the imperial government. On the one hand, it protects the interests of the farmer, so that the farmer can maximize the production without worrying about the product that cannot be sold. At the same time, it also ensured that the empire had an adequate food supply. and the implementation of a wartime control system through the supply of food.

However, in the first two years of the war, a huge problem arose, that is, before the outbreak of the war, the empire's grain production was only basically equal to domestic demand, and the production capacity margin was not large, and during the war, the number of strategic grain reserves must be expanded to cope with natural and man-made disasters. Therefore, the imperial government introduced two policies at the end of 23, one is that the common people who participate in food production can be exempted from military service, that is. No conscription is made from the agricultural population in order to ensure that there is enough labour to engage in agricultural production. Another policy is that from the 24th year, the imperial government will uniformly issue grain subsidies, which is also the first time in the history of the empire to issue grain subsidies, and stimulate the production enthusiasm of farm dwellers through grain subsidies. to increase food production.

Both of these policies have yielded quite good results, with the wheat harvest in '23 increasing by about 15 percent compared to '22, and by the autumn harvest of '24, the output of rice, maize, beans and other important grains has increased by more than 10 percent. From 24 onwards, the empire also expanded the amount of wasteland, especially suitable for farmland, and gave it to the common people who were willing to participate in food production, almost free of charge. At the same time, it also provides the necessary production tools, seeds. Fertilizer and other production facilities and materials to ensure that production can be rapidly expanded. The most effective way is to subsidize high grain on newly reclaimed wasteland.

Through a series of policies, by the end of 24 years, the empire's grain production had actually exceeded the empire's domestic food demand by about 40%. In other words, during the war, the living standards of the Imperial people, especially the level of diet and nutrition, not only did not decrease, but also increased, which was definitely the most effective way to ensure the morale and fighting spirit of the Imperial soldiers and civilians. This also allowed the Empire to have enough food to supply to its allies in the event of a food crisis.

And from 25 onwards, as a large amount of wasteland was reclaimed for farmland, especially when some grain-producing areas in the northwest began to produce food, the food problem of the empire was almost non-existent. As can be seen from the government's 26-year report, the empire's total grain production in 26 years reached 1.2 billion tons, while the United States' grain production in the same year was 870 million tons. Obviously, in terms of agricultural production, the empire far surpassed the United States.

In the same year, the empire consumed 780 million tons of grain, Germany 240 million tons, Persia 170 million tons, and the Allies 290 million tons. In other words, the food produced by the empire could feed almost all the countries of the Allied bloc, and if the food production of other countries is counted, the food produced by the Confederate bloc in 26 was actually a surplus, and a large surplus. Famine should never have been a problem!

Seeing these statistical reports, Tan Renhao was a little confused, even if he had to feed nearly 300 million people in several occupied areas at that time, the people in these occupied areas only needed basic food guarantees at most, and this was only about a quarter of the food ration of the empire, counting the surplus grain of the Allied bloc, there should not be a food crisis at all, let alone a famine. But the problem is that the famine did appear, so how to say it, Luo Yunchong wouldn't joke about such a big thing. What, then, led to the famine? After thinking about it for a long time, Tan Renhao only thought of two possible causes of famine, one was an objective problem, and the other was a man-made problem.

The objective problem is the imbalance of grain production, that is, the imbalance in the distribution of grain production areas, the imbalance in the grain output of various countries, and the imbalance in the grain output of various regions, which eventually leads to a large amount of grain surplus in the empire, while the Persian Empire only barely maintains self-sufficiency, and Germany has to take care of many occupation areas, and the grain it produces is far from enough to meet the demand. In addition, the problems in the transportation link will also lead to famine, after all, the capacity of transportation is limited, and during the war, most of the transportation capacity is used to transport weapons and ammunition, so it is difficult to transport food on a large scale, as a result, the empire hoarded a large number of strategic reserves, and Germany's strategic reserve granaries are almost bottoming out.

The human factor is that some politicians use food as a strategic card to play and obtain benefits through food. To be precise, it was the Reich that wanted to soften Germany, which had not been submissive until now, on the issue of food! Perhaps the German soldiers were not afraid of bloodshed and sacrifice on the battlefield, at least as far as Tan Renhao knew, the courage and quality of the German soldiers on the battlefield were not inferior to the imperial soldiers. But the problem is that even if the German soldiers are no longer afraid of death, they cannot go to war hungry, they cannot let their relatives be starved to death in the rear, and the German government cannot watch the country fall into famine, and finally cause civil riots and even rebellions because of famine.

Thinking of these two factors, Tan Renhao suddenly realized that this is indeed a very vicious move, but what does this have to do with the navy? It is not up to the Navy to decide what cargo these ships should carry and what cargo they should carry. Of course, Tan Renhao also believes that the prime minister is a sensible and very smart person, and food can be used as a political card to play, but before the enemy is defeated, it is not a good thing to pinch the neck of the allies, at least the prime minister will not play with fire in this matter. Judging from the fact that the empire has begun to provide food aid to the West, at least the prime minister also wants to send away all the old grain that has accumulated in the granary of the empire's strategic reserves, so as not to become moldy and spoiled, and use it to fatten the rats in the granary.

Understanding the food problem, Tan Renhao is just looking for something to do for himself, but it won't be long before he can't be idle, and Nie Renfeng and Gan Yongxing won't let him do nothing all day long.