56: Chapter 56 The Canned Food Craze
Inside the command deck of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, the air pressure was so low it felt like water could be wrung out of it.
The chill in Nick Fury's single eye almost overflowed.
In the communication just hung up, Zheng Xian, the Director of the Shenmao Bureau, insisted that he had never seen a quinjet, only finding wreckage of an exploded plane in international waters, and knew nothing else.
"Director, what's the situation?" Hill spoke in a low voice.
Fury gritted his teeth and said, "That fellow Zheng Xian insists he hasn't seen any enemy aircraft; he only found explosion marks and a pile of debris on the sea surface."
Hill frowned. "Impossible, right? They are right near Canglan Military Port. How could they be completely unaware?"
"Zheng Xian is playing dumb." Fury slammed the communicator onto the console. "There's no way he doesn't know."
Hill's brow furrowed. "So what do we do now?"
"Investigate." A flash of ruthlessness crossed Fury's single eye. "Mobilize all intelligence networks in East Asia to find out the origin of that signal source. This matter must be prioritized."
Meanwhile, along the eastern coast where Canglan Military Port was located, a canned food frenzy sweeping the country was fermenting at a visible speed.
At first, everyone thought there was plenty of canned food to go around.
On the third day after the boarding slots were opened, major military regions directly transferred large batches of military canned food from their strategic reserves, stacking the warehouses at the military port to the brim.
In the meeting room, the big shots of the three military branches patted their chests and guaranteed to the Old Commander that let alone a few thousand people, even for tens of thousands, the canned food would definitely be sufficient.
Everyone felt that as long as they conducted a few days of rapid scientific research to grasp the core technical framework, they could take the data back to the rear for dismantling, and there would be no need for large numbers of people to stay long-term.
But reality slapped everyone hard in the face.
The more people who boarded, the more new technologies were unearthed.
Dismantling the rhino required armored troops, engine experts, and fire control engineers.
Studying ceramite required materials scientists and metallurgy experts.
Analyzing the Cogitator system required top talents in microelectronics, computers, and bioengineering.
Even the basic circuits of the spaceship required a brand-new team of electronic specialists to follow up.
A single sub-field required hundreds of people; the more fields were uncovered, the more the required manpower grew exponentially.
The Old Commander gritted his teeth and ordered, "Mobilize people from across the country. Research institutes, military enterprises, university laboratories—mobilize everyone who can be mobilized."
The manpower arrived, but the canned food ran out.
"How long can our canned food last?" the Army Commander asked the Logistics Director.
"At the current rate of consumption, half a month at most."
"Half a month?" The Army Commander exploded. "What is half a month enough for!"
He grabbed the phone and called major canning factories.
"Hello, Old Zhang, I'm taking your factory's entire production for this year."
"President Wang, we've been friends for years; you must save this batch of orders for me."
After making over a dozen calls, the Army Commander's face grew darker and darker.
Because he just discovered that the Navy and Air Force had actually struck first!
The Navy directly increased the price by 50%, locking down all annual orders from major canning factories in the south.
The Air Force was even more ruthless, contacting civil aviation to use transport planes to haul raw materials from the Northeast to the South overnight, letting northern canning factories run at full capacity to produce 'Special Boarding Rations.'
A familiar boss said with a troubled face, "Old Hua, it's not that we won't take the order, but the Navy and Air Force have already booked our entire capacity. We're working three shifts 24 hours a day now; we really can't squeeze out any more goods."
The Army Commander was furious. "Do they really think our Army has no resources? If the enterprises don't have it, we'll produce it ourselves!"
He directly mobilized the logistics military supply factories to temporarily convert production lines.
The logistics department produced canned food by day and transported it by night; their capacity and speed were not slower than private enterprises at all.
Three days later, the quantity of Army canned food surged.
The Navy and Air Force noticed something was wrong and sent people to investigate. The Army had actually opened its own production lines?
"Damn it, the Army is revolting!" the Navy Commander slammed the table and stood up. "Contact state-owned enterprises, contribute manpower and resources!"
"Contact car companies and have them pivot to help with production!"
"Not enough raw materials? See if there are unsold fruits and vegetables anywhere; turn them all into canned fruit! Anyway, Fu Haoran said as long as it's canned food, it's fine!"
In an instant, the nation's production capacity was pushed to its limit.
According to publicly released data, a certain major country's annual canned food production consistently accounts for 25% of the global total, about 8.6 million tons, with a historical peak of 13.95 million tons.
But that was only because the market only needed that much, not the limit of a certain industrial Cthulhu nation.
Now, the higher-ups had issued a death order, demanding full production capacity!
In just one month, the national monthly production of canned food soared directly to 10 million tons.
...
Fu Haoran looked at the data on the system panel, his lips curling up.
The money he 'borrowed' from Stark happened to come in handy, all used to subsidize the canning factories and raw material suppliers.
Stark's money—it would be a waste not to use it.
Anyway, Stark wasn't short on money; consider it a contribution to global food security.
It could both speed up the collection of canned food and earn a favor from the authorities, making it easier to request more permissions later.
As for whether Stark would feel the pinch?
Fu Haoran didn't care at all.
Consider it his sponsorship for the Hive City to meet the Tithe.
The authorities saw this and thought, boy, not only can we get interstellar technology for free, but we can also use this opportunity to revitalize domestic unsold agricultural products and solve the problem of idle capacity in food factories; it's killing several birds with one stone.
So what are we waiting for?
Not enough raw materials?
Purchase from the Russians.
No precedent for grain canned food?
Just turn rice balls into canned food.
Fruits can't be sold?
Military trucks would directly lead a convoy over, haul the fruit, and leave.
A call was placed to the Indian Embassy in China: "I heard you have an overabundance of softshell turtles and catfish? Sell them to us cheaper, the more the better, we'll send people to pick them up."
Connecting with the Aussies: "Rabbits, kangaroos—as many as you have within this month, first come first served. You don't have enough manpower? We'll send transport ships to pick them up."
Even contacted the Eagle Sauce Department of Commerce: "We know your beef hormones can't be lowered; we won't quibble this time. Within a month, ship as much as you can, we want it all."
For a certain industrial Cthulhu, as long as there are enough raw materials, production capacity is never an issue.
In an instant, truckload after truckload of canned fruit, canned fish, canned meat, and canned synthetic meat were hauled toward Canglan Port.
However, before everyone could catch their breath, the Academy of Sciences exploded again.
The Academicians found new things on the spaceship—besides technology, there were various materials never before seen on Blue Star.
ceramite, plastiform, gene enhancement agents, radiation protection coatings, cryo-hibernation pod prototypes, unknown cosmic elements...
The Academy of Sciences submitted an application overnight: "We want to exchange canned food for these materials!"
The Old Commander was stunned: "Didn't you just apply for a batch of canned food?"
"Not enough!" The Old Academician slammed the table. "These things can make Blue Star's technology leap ahead by a hundred years!"
"ceramite samples, gene agents, cosmic elements—we can't let any of them go! If there's not enough canned food, we'll take the lead in finding food factories to produce it ourselves!"
The Old Commander rubbed his temples.
This was already the third time the canned food quota had been increased.
He waved his hand helplessly: "Fine, fine, fine. As long as you can find the canned food, in principle, it's all supported."
Thus, production capacity was pushed to the limit once again.
The production lines of major canning factories didn't stop for 24 hours, workers worked three shifts, and machines ran continuously.
Even enterprises making snacks and drinks temporarily changed their production lines and ran at full throttle to make canned food.
...
Three days later.
On the docks of Canglan Military Port, canned food containers were piled up like mountains.
The Old Commander stood in front of the command room window, looking at those containers stretching for several kilometers, his mouth twitching:
"These people... have they moved the entire country's canned food here?"
The Old Commander was both angry and amused, but he didn't object.
Top-tier technology that couldn't be bought for hundreds of billions in previous years was now exchanged for tens of thousands of tons of canned food; this deal was a massive profit.
Inside the bridge.
Lucifer stood before the viewport, her emerald eyes scanning the containers stretching across the dock.
"I didn't expect these mortal civilizations to have such powerful resource coordination capabilities." She spoke slowly, "To be able to twist scattered individuals into a single rope within fifteen days and mobilize the entire civilization's industrial capacity to the extreme... it has indeed exceeded my expectations."
She turned to look at Fu Haoran: "You, as Governor, have found quite an interesting partner."
Fu Haoran didn't reply, staring at the numbers constantly ticking on the system panel, his smile never stopping.
[Tithe Gap: 100 million tons of high-quality canned food (112% completed)]
[Faction Contribution: +8500]
[Current Worldline Divergence: 57.3%]
[PS: You actually changed the world in this way? Young man, where is your ambition? Where is your great cause? Have some shame!]
He closed the panel.
The food gap of the Hive City and the food tax of the Imperial Tithe were now all resolved.
The two-month limit was soon to end, with less than 15 days left until the end of the War of the Heavens.
"It's time to go out and talk to the Russians about one last big business deal."
...
Over the Pacific Ocean.
Inside the command deck of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Nick Fury stared at the image of the destroyed quinjet wreckage on the screen, his single eye filled with cold killing intent.
Two quinjets, both soaking in the sea.
The opponent used only one gunboat.
Four minutes, zero damage.
"Director." Hill pushed the door and entered. "Notice of an emergency meeting of the Security Council. Disruptive alien technology has appeared in the East. They demand that we must act; we absolutely cannot let the technology fall into the hands of the East."
Fury stood up and looked out the viewport at the churning clouds.
"Two things."
He turned to look at Hill: "First, have Black Widow lead a team to scout for intelligence in Canglan. Be sure to get clues about the alien technology behind the canned food."
"Second, contact the Avengers. Everyone enters first-level combat readiness. Once the weakness of that ship is found, act immediately."
Hill frowned: "Director, that is in the territorial waters of the East after all..."
"The Security Council's bottom line is that interstellar technology must never be monopolized by the great Eastern power." Fury interrupted her. "If it really comes to that, we won't hesitate to have a direct confrontation."
For Fury, who had participated in the Vietnam War, he was never afraid of war.
Fury paused and added, "In addition, find out all intelligence and weaknesses of that warship. I want to know where it came from and where it is going."
"We must prepare for the worst. If necessary, have those three aircraft carriers take off ahead of schedule."