The two of them seemed to have been poured with a basin of cold water, and their hearts became cold in an instant, and they shouted in disbelief: "How is this possible? Xiyang is very poor, but it is not as poor as being a soldier. It's just an exaggeration. Are you wrong, commander?"

Zhou Cheng directly took out the data that had been counted to prove: "This is the result I just counted by the two deputy county magistrates. The above conclusion was even more shocking than I said just now, and it scared me directly."

"What data?" Tang Yufeng and Yuan Shushan quickly took over the documents that Zhou Cheng took out.

Zhou Cheng handed over and introduced: "According to the investigation, there are more than 15,600 households in Xiyang, with a total population of more than 80,000, which is much more than the 70,000 people we estimated at the beginning. Many ordinary people were not from Xiyang, but fled to Xiyang because of the war. In addition, Xiyang is full of mountains, which is much safer than the plains outside the mountain. Then he slowly settled down, reclaimed wasteland in the mountains, and lived by planting mixed grains."

"Xiyang was already very poor, and thousands of people fled in at once. Coupled with the cruel exploitation and plundering of the Japanese and puppet troops over the past six months, the people are poorer than before."

"The data says: Among the 80,000 people in Xiyang, there are only 10,000 people who still have food to eat. They are basically landlords, gentry and some ordinary people with family backgrounds."

"The remaining 70,000 people have all lost food, of which 30,000 are slightly better. They can survive by relying on wild vegetables and miscellaneous grains to satisfy their hunger. The other 30,000 people have completely lost food, and they rely on borrowing loans from landlords and gentry to live."

"You should all know that for ordinary people, as soon as the loan is opened, the people who originally had land in their families will gradually pay the land out of high interest rates and become hired farmers. The hired farmers who have no land will become poorer and completely become vassals of those landlords and gentry."

"At this time, we posted a recruitment notice, and each recruit would give 50 kilograms of food to settle the house. For those people who have already started to live by borrowing, it is like a good thing that even a pie falls from the sky cannot be encountered."

"For the settlement of 50 kilograms of grain and to survive, everyone will definitely rush to join the National Salvation Army!"

The two of them were stunned when they took the data handed over by Zhou Cheng and started to read it. Each list contained statistics from a town, which was very detailed. When they looked at their faces, they became heavier.

At this time, Zhou Cheng continued to speak: "There are some statistics here, please check it out, right?"

"After looking at these data, I realized that Xiyang's situation was far worse than we thought. For our National Salvation Army, it was like receiving a hot potato!"

While speaking, Zhou Cheng took out a stack of documents from the table and handed them over, continuing to introduce: "These documents introduce in detail the amount of arable land in Xiyang: After statistics, there are less than 60,000 mu of land in Xiyang, and there is no distribution of one mu per person per mu. Moreover, 80,000 mu of land in the 60,000 mu of fertile land is in the hands of landlords and gentry, and the ordinary people have less than 15,000 mu of fertile land."

"The remaining 200,000 mu of land is all mountainous land, 50% of which are in the hands of landlords and gentry, and 50% are in the hands of ordinary people, which means that every ordinary person can only get two parts of fertile land and one and a half acres of slope land."

"It would be nice to harvest more than 200 kilograms of grain in this land. If you lose rent and grain tax, you can leave at most 150 kilograms of grain per ordinary person, and it is basically coarse grain!"

"This means that after the autumn harvest, the food in the hands of ordinary people is only enough for them to live for half a year. After half a year, they have to rely on wild vegetables to fill their hunger and live a life of stagnation."

Tang Yufeng suddenly made an excuse: "Captain, you just said that ordinary people can only harvest 150 kilograms of food on average after the autumn harvest. In addition to paying attention to their own food fields, ordinary people will also rent land for landlords and gentry, and reduce land rent or something. It is definitely no problem to harvest forty or fifty kilograms of miscellaneous grains per person. If they add up, each person will definitely have 200 kilograms of food!"

Zhou Cheng shook his head: "Lease the land of the landlords and gentry can indeed harvest some food, but don't forget that all our analysis just now have a prerequisite: that is, the weather in the defense zone is good, and the food in the ground has not been destroyed in the war..."

"These external factors will have an impact on grain production, so I reduced the per capita ration to 150 kilograms!"

Tang Yufeng frowned even deeper: "Captain, this is a big problem..."

"The villagers finally survived until the autumn harvest, but in the next six months, they had to rely on wild vegetables to fill their hunger. This is too hopeless!"

"There is another thing. The food the people harvest is not enough for their own food. How can we supply thousands of troops to our National Salvation Army?"

"The Japanese and puppet troops did not attach much importance to us before. We can also ensure that the troops have sufficient food through seizure and purchase."

"Now we have developed into a major concern for the Japanese army. They will definitely block us more severely than before. The two channels of purchase and seizure will be affected. If we cannot be self-sufficient in the defense zone, the troops will go hungry one day!"

Zhou Chengchang sighed and replied: "This is also a question I am worried about!"

"The villagers have limited food, so it is definitely impossible to provide us with military rations. What I am worried about now is what to do after everyone has no food in half a year?"

"As the Xiyang garrison, we can't watch the people go hungry, so we will definitely provide food to provide disaster relief at that time. This means that we will not only not receive a grain tax on Xiyang from Xiyang, but also have to take out a lot of food to support the local area in half a year, so that the villagers can last until the next autumn harvest!"

Tang Yufeng frowned and suggested: "Why take advantage of the attacks of the Japanese behind by the Eighth Route Army to block our blockade line, take the opportunity to buy some grain reserves for emergencies."

"No matter how difficult it is, since our National Salvation Army has occupied Xiyang, we cannot let the people of Xiyang go hungry and starve to death without food!"

Zhou Cheng nodded in agreement: "Yes, if our national-savior army wants to survive behind enemy lines, we must reserve enough food for emergencies. Deputy Commander Tang, how much money do we have in hand?"

Tang Yufeng thought about the report: "The war zone just rewarded us five thousand oceans, and seized more than 4,500 oceans and small yellow croakers and gold and silver jewelry worth three thousand oceans from the traitors in the city. The regiment headquarters originally had nearly 3,000 oceans and activity funds, and there were a total of 13,000 oceans and 3,000 oceans and small yellow croakers and gold and silver jewelry worth three thousand oceans! "

Zhou Cheng thought for a moment and made a decision: "Get half of the ocean out to buy food!"

"We buy rice, white flour, millet, mixed grains, as long as it is edible, the more the better."

"The autumn harvest is imminent, and there must be many landlords and traitors in the area occupied by the Japanese. Although these stored grains are not as good as the new grain collected after the autumn harvest, as long as there is no problem in storage, it can also fill your stomach and the price is cheap. I can find a way to buy them all for me."

"Also, this time we seized a large number of 79-caliber pneumatic guns. Although we can't use them ourselves, we can sell them to other anti-Japanese armed forces around us for food."

"Political Commissar, please count it. According to the 20% discount on the market price, we will replace all the extra 79-caliber weapons and ammunition in our hands with food!"

Tang Yufeng thought for a while and replied: "Captain, what should I do if it is the Eighth Route Army to ask about buying grain?"

"The Eighth Route Army in the surrounding area has been injected with chicken blood during this period, attacking Japanese devils everywhere and killing traitors. They must have seized a lot of food in their hands. They are definitely willing to use the food to buy the weapons and ammunition in our hands."

When Tang Yufeng mentioned the three words "Eighth Route Army", Yuan Shushan became energetic and opposed without hesitation: "You can't sell it to the Eighth Route Army!"

"The war zone has repeatedly emphasized that we cannot get too close to the Eighth Route Army, nor can we support the Eighth Route Army's weapons and ammunition to prevent them from being able to get rid of them. Therefore, I firmly oppose selling weapons to the Eighth Route Army."

"If you really do this, I will definitely report to the war zone..."

Zhou Cheng's temper is coming, the people in the defense zone have no food to eat, and the troops are about to go hungry, and Yuan Shushan is still talking about these messy rules.

He pointed to Yuan Shushan's nose and cursed: "Deputy Commander Yuan, are you still a member of our National Salvation Army? If you don't change food from the Eighth Route Army, do you want to watch the villagers in the defense zone starve to death because they have no food, and the soldiers fight with the Japanese on hungry stomachs to fight bayonets?"

Yuan Shushan was confused by Zhou Cheng's words. He did not expect the regiment commander's reaction to be so great that he pushed himself to the opposition side of the National Salvation Army as soon as he spoke.

But he had no choice. This was the only way he could restrict Zhou Cheng. If he didn't bite his teeth and occasionally pose in the regiment to prove his existence, his presence in the National Salvation Army would gradually drop to zero. It won't take long for everyone to forget that the National Salvation Army and his deputy regiment commander were also his.

Facing Zhou Cheng's angry eyes, he acted as if he was not afraid of boiling water, and replied with a tough bullet: "Captain, I also want to consider more for the national rescue army, but we are soldiers, and soldiers are obedient to obey orders, so the orders given to us by the war zone must be implemented!"

Tang Yufeng stood beside him with a look of embarrassment, not knowing how to answer the conversation.

Just then, Zhou Cheng suddenly smiled: "Very good, then we will execute the war zone order!"

"I remember Deputy Commander Yuan, you just said: The war zone is not allowed to get too close to the Eighth Route Army, nor is it allowed to support the Eighth Route Army, so as to prevent them from getting rid of their tails. Then we will strictly implement the war zone orders, not get too close to them, nor support their weapons and ammunition."

"However, the war zone does not allow us to trade with the Eighth Route Army!"

"We gave the Eighth Route Army weapons and ammunition, and they gave us food. This is a very fair deal. There is no such thing as supporting the Eighth Route Army, so there is no reason for the war zone to punish us because of this."

"If even trading war zones are not allowed, then let the war zones provide us with food and military expenses. At that time, I guarantee that no bullet will fall into the hands of the Eighth Route Army."

Tang Yufeng's eyes lit up and said, "Captain, you are very right. If we do not support the Eighth Route Army, we will not violate the war zone orders."

"Apart from the Japanese and puppet troops around, no matter what their identity is, as long as we give food, we sell weapons and ammunition, and we take what we need. It is very fair. If there is no way, whoever takes advantage will suffer. The idea of ​​supporting the Eighth Route Army will not be valid."

"I'll go and count the 79-caliber weapons and supporting ammunition we have in stock now, and then release the news that we want to exchange weapons for food."

Zhou Cheng thought about it and replied: "We all want goats, chickens and pigs, especially goats. The more the goats, the better, but they must be alive."

"In addition to the weapons and ammunition of 79 caliber, among the other weapons and ammunition we seized, as long as we can't use anything we can sell them for food!"
Chapter completed!