#177 - Chapter 177 Preparing to Expand Staff

Noon.

In the chief's office of Green Source Base.

Qin Jin sat in his chair, a cup of coffee on his left, and some documents in his right hand, which he was carefully reviewing.

These were important plans he had drawn up based on future conditions.

They concerned the rapid development of the base in the future.

He read them through again, felt there were no problems, and put them down.

Then he dialed the base's cadre channel and announced:

"At 2 p.m. in the conference room on the second floor, I have important things to announce. All personnel who receive this message must attend!"

He turned off the intercom, and those who heard it would naturally not be absent.

The mess left by the corpse fog was cleaned up in the morning, and the outside of the base returned to normal, with only the walls and interception belts to be repaired slowly.

No one was arranged to go out to find supplies today. Everyone had hardly slept yesterday. After the meeting in the afternoon, most of the personnel could take turns to rest and replenish their energy.

If there were no accidents, they would need to be busy again starting tomorrow.

Time passed quickly.

Two o'clock in the afternoon arrived.

In the conference room of the office building.

Five combat captains: Li Bowen, Zhong Yu, Zhang Tiankai, Chen Junchi, and Liu Wenhao.

Father Qin Guosheng, uncle Qin Guoqiang, maternal uncle Zhang Qiang, Zhong Yu's father Zhong Jianguo, mother Zhang Li, cousin Luo Dandan, Wang Yang, Zhao Ling, Tang Jinming, Dong Hui, and Yuan Mu.

Plus Qin Jin himself.

A total of 17 people.

These were also the higher-ups of Green Source Base at present.

Sitting in the main seat, Qin Jin went straight to the point.

"Everyone here can be considered cadres of our Green Source now. Today I called you here to announce some things."

"As you all know, our base has not expanded its manpower on a large scale. Before, repairing the walls, searching for supplies, and defending the base have all been in a state of manpower shortage."

"As for the reason?"

"You should have seen it last night. The more people there are, the more zombies will be attracted when the purple mist comes out. So I have not been thinking about expanding before. As for why I want to expand now, of course, there are some other reasons."

The people below looked at each other, and some showed expressions of understanding.

"I was wondering why last night's purple mist was so similar to that night of the mutations!"

Seeing that everyone had accepted it, Qin Jin did not explain why he knew about the relationship between the number of people and zombie attraction, and continued:

"The development of our base is inseparable from the population, but there is a very important problem."

He paused, saw that everyone had refocused their attention, and said:

"Food."

"Without food, we can't support more people, and there's no point in talking about development."

"Don't think that we have searched back a lot of food supplies recently, but have you ever thought about what will happen when the population rises to 200, 500, or even thousands?"

"How many years will that food last?"

Many people lowered their heads and thought in silence. Some of these problems had been thought about by some, but never by others.

Some of them had complained before about why the boss didn't bring more survivors into the base to help share the various tasks such as repairing the walls and finding supplies.

"Perhaps some people think that we can easily grow food in the future, right?"

"Professor Yuan, please tell everyone about your recent research."

Qin Jin said, passing the topic to Yuan Mu.

As the captain of the base's agricultural department, Yuan Mu was naturally prepared to answer the chief's question.

"I have recently specifically inspected and studied the soil inside and outside our base and found a very serious problem."

"Probably due to the impact of that acid rain, all of them are weakly acidic! And it's not ordinary acidity. I don't know what else is mixed in, which has caused the originally fertile land to become hardened."

"Even some crops suitable for acidic soil, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, and peanuts, cannot grow normally in this soil. Even if they are forced to be planted, the yield may be very small, or even nothing!"

"That is to say, the land outside is not good for growing food now."

Yuan Mu solemnly pushed the thick glasses on the bridge of his nose, looked around, saw everyone's surprised eyes, and continued:

"Qin always asked me to think about how to restore the fertility of those soils. To be honest, I am ashamed that I have not found a way yet."

Seeing Yuan Mu sit back in his seat, Qin Jin immediately took back the topic.

"Now everyone knows that the food problem that humans will face in the future will become more and more serious! It would not be an exaggeration to say that the future is a wasteland world! The food we have on hand will become extremely precious!"

"Of course, everyone doesn't need to worry too much. The planting soil in our base's greenhouse and underground floor has not been affected, and can be used for planting in the future."

"So there will be a question of quantity here."

"We must find out the grain yield that can be grown in the future, and then subtract the consumption of our personnel. The surplus is the number of new personnel we can continue to add."

Seeing everyone's faces ease a little, Qin Jin shrugged his shoulders, leaned back in his chair, crossed his fingers in front of his chest, changed to a more comfortable posture, and continued:

"I have already asked Professor Yuan to start trial planting of wheat, corn, potatoes and other staple foods suitable for the winter season in the greenhouse some time ago. After the spring of next year, rice will continue to be planted."

"We have about 10 acres of greenhouse planting area on the ground, of which 5 acres are now used for planting some low fruit trees and vegetables, and the other 5 acres are specially used for planting staple foods."

"There may be many people who have not been there yet. Our base also has a 15-acre planting area on the first floor underground, which can be started at any time."

"That is to say, we have more than 20 acres of land for planting staple foods."

"According to the normal minimum yield of 800 kilograms of rice per mu in the south, two crops a year, we can harvest about 32 tons of coarse grains a year!"

"There is no problem in supporting the current people in our base, and the excess can be used to recruit people."

Qin Jin said a lot in one breath, with a lot of information.

At the same time, it was the first time that everyone below understood what kind of self-sufficiency their base now possessed.

Only Qin Jin knew these things best from the beginning of the base's construction.

The people present can be regarded as his companions whose fate is connected in the future, so he plans to share it with them.

"Everyone doesn't need to worry about the lack of sunlight in the winter greenhouse and underground. We have already found many energy-saving plant lights, so that even underground, crops can get the light they need."

"In addition to solar energy, we currently have coal and fuel power generation to supplement electricity. After next year, I will find a way to completely solve the electricity problem."

Qin Jin picked up a bottle of mineral water from the table, unscrewed it and took a sip to moisten his throat, and then said again:

"Now that the food is finished, let's go back to the issue of manpower."

(End of this chapter)