Cave Refuge

Hearing Mr. Thompson's question, Thomas chuckled, "You don't understand, this is not just because I am spiteful. No matter how indifferent those old fellows act, they've been itching to dig since they heard me talk about it. Even if I didn't get people to dig today, they would have done it in a couple of days."

Mr. Thompson pondered over Thomas's words and realized he was right.

As the flood receded, most survivors lost their stable source of food - fishing. Without any accidents, life in Pengcheng would resemble past famine periods.

To avoid hunger, the vast majority of survivors must either leave their hometowns to find food elsewhere or exhaust every means to obtain edible goods.

Although the current weather and environment are relatively comfortable, after surviving two natural disasters, apart from a small number of people establishing small plantations across various mountain ranges, greenery is rarely seen.

Even with adequate temperature and available seeds in Pengcheng now, the period before the harvest is incredibly challenging.

If Thomas wasn't lying and there really was a War Reserve Warehouse beneath People's Square, getting through this starving period before the grain ripens would be much simpler.

Seed supply need not be worried about. Not to mention the plantations on the mountains, even until now there are people in the government who are specifically tasked with seed preservation.

Despite experiencing two disasters, The Cold Catastrophe and the flood, the Pengcheng Government's livestock base still breeds various kinds of stock breed as backup.

With several strong laborers, the digging efficiency significantly improved compared to the old guys.

Thanks to the laborers taking turns to work, less than an hour later, shouts echoed from the pit: "We've reached the bottom! It's so hard we can't dig any further!"

Upon hearing this, everyone curiously peeked into the pit. However, the pit could only accommodate two to three people. Without anyone coming out, it was hard to see anything from the pit's opening.

While it was hard to see anything from the pit's opening, it was still swarmed by a dense crowd. Suddenly, someone at the front shouted, "Stop pushing! I will fall in if you continue!"

It was only when this shout was heard that the crowd relaxed a bit.

People's Square was originally the oldest and largest leisure square in West City District. Even before the disaster, there were quite a few people who came here in the evenings for leisure activities. Now that the water and electricity have been cut off, night-time entertainment activities in Pengcheng have basically disappeared, leading to more people coming over in the evening to pass the time.

Initially, the sight of a few young men digging caught the attention of some idle spectators. Now that they've heard that something has been found at the bottom of the pit, without even knowing what it was, the idle crowd forcibly jostled to peer into the pit, disregarding the protests of those resting nearby.

As the number of onlookers increased, there were incidents where people standing near the pit got pushed in.

After confirming that something was indeed struck down below, except for Thomas, several people waved, and many others appeared out of nowhere to clear away the individuals in the flower bed, and then set up a cordon around the flower bed.

This entire process, from start to finish, only took a few minutes. Thomas looked at a stunned Mr. Thompson and said mockingly, "See? I told you those old fellas have been itching to do this."

Look, I only notified you last night to start digging today. Now, they're all prepared. They would certainly have arranged for people to dig tonight if I hadn't."

"Their little schemes won't fool me. They wanted to provoke me into acting first, not realizing that I'm merely going with the flow."

Thomas's words left Mr. Thompson quite puzzled. Despite his abundant social experience, as common citizens, he had little understanding of the ways of the official circles.

The existence of the War Reserve Warehouse in Pengcheng is not a secret. There is not just one beneath the People's Square. Excluding the one beneath the People's Square, there are three War Reserve Warehouses in the urban area of Pengcheng, with the one beneath the People's Square being the smallest.

However, even this smallest War Reserve Warehouse contains enough supplies to sustain half a million people for a year.

And there are only about ten million people in Pengcheng, out of which only about three million are permanent residents in the urban area, while only about four hundred thousand are in West District.

But since West District was part of the old city with a dense population, a War Reserve Warehouse was constructed there during the initial planning.

The two other War Reserve Warehouses are located beneath Pengville Plaza in the City Center, and near Wan Zhai Port in the North District.

Although the East District and South District lack War Reserve Warehouses, they house the Granary.

Conveniently, the four districts of Pengcheng have a total of five covered and well-exposed storage areas. With the two noticeable granaries having been emptied, and to prevent unforeseen circumstances, the West City District Command Post was unwilling to relocate from the nearby offices in People's Square.

The War Reserve Warehouse at Wan Zhai Port doesn't store much food and primarily contains machinery for warfare and resumption of production. Although it's a large warehouse, nobody knows whether the items inside can still be used.

Without a doubt, the War Reserve Warehouse beneath Pengville Plaza in the City Center has been occupied by the government's decision-makers. Like the West City District Command Post, the decision-makers had already moved their office area over there during the initial peak of the flood.

At that time, they wanted to open up the War Reserve Warehouse and take out the resources inside.

However, who would have thought that the water level would suddenly drop by over thirty meters. Ordinary people couldn't even dive to the bottom, not to mention digging a pit. As a result, the War Reserve Warehouse remained untouched until now.

The distance between Pengville Plaza and People's Square is actually not that far. Therefore, the West City District Command Post was concerned that the government's decision-making layer would take control of the War Reserve Warehouse at People's Square, causing them to be unwilling to relocate their office area.

After all, everyone knew how well the survivors near the granary had fared during the Cold Catastrophe. Even though not everyone saw it firsthand, the truth was apparent in how these survivors had actually gained weight during the disaster.

Actually, Thomas deliberately brought up this matter last night, and the others do understand this. Even the clueless Mr. Thompson had already heard about the existence of the War Reserve Warehouse beneath People's Square from his son.

A group of middle-aged and elderly people are all putting on a show, and they all believe they've done a decent job of it.

Their goal for this charade is to open the War Reserve Warehouse before directives from higher authorities arrive, and then keep the resources within it under their control.

No one wants to break away from the organization, but everyone wants to make their lives a little more comfortable. For the sake of making this show more convincing, the old men had pretended to spill the beans while making their wagers.