Chapter 12 To no avail
"My plan? What plan can I have? I'm just trying to survive." Purficott briefly talked about her plan, although she was doing her best for it. But the tone still inevitably revealed the smell of a broken pot: "It took one year to build an airship that can cross the ocean, and during this year, we went to the New World for an inspection to confirm that it was suitable to build a shelter. Location.
Then I took Grandpa Foster and my laboratory to the New World in the second year, and built the shelter before the ground was completely frozen in the third year. I guess it will last as long as I can. !”
Perficott’s attitude is actually not difficult to understand. There is really not much resistance a person can do to face such a world-destroying disaster.
Even if Purficott really builds a shelter in the New World, she still has no idea how long it can last.
After all, this is not a naturally occurring disaster, nor does it mean that it will stop when the ambient temperature drops to dozens of degrees below zero.
Instead, the temperature will continue to drop for three hundred years, and the catastrophe will not end until the core of the planet freezes and cools down, and the entire planet becomes silent.
As a time traveler, Purficott is confident in himself, but does he want to prevent such a planet-level catastrophe? She is not a savior.
In fact, so far, the entire Victoria Empire has only been prepared to respond to the global cooling and extreme cold weather that will occur in the next ten years.
The only thing they know about this catastrophe that freezes the entire planet is that there is some reason that caused this catastrophe, and that the planet will fall into death in three hundred years.
Beyond that they know nothing.
How can we make adequate response or even prevent this catastrophe?
Only by surviving first can we have enough time to find a way to prevent this catastrophe.
Listening to Purficott’s plan, Princess Anne couldn’t help showing some sadness and anxiety. She couldn’t help but frown and asked Purficott: “Little Purficott, why did you choose the New World? ? Isn’t the mainland of the empire as good as the New World?”
Faced with this question, Purficott showed a sneer on his face, and then asked: “Aunt Anne, do you know that there is a fire in Langton City every winter? How many people will freeze to death because of the cold? ”
"I'm not sure, but I remember that the Langton Police Department is responsible for transporting the corpses that die on the streets out of the city every day. They should have statistics, right?" Princess Anne was stumped by Purficott's question.
Although she did care about ordinary people and knew that poor people would inevitably freeze to death in Langton every winter, but she really didn't know the specific number when asked.
In fact, being able to know that there is a police station responsible for cleaning up corpses every day is already a sign that the princess cares about people's livelihood.
However, Purficott has done special research on this issue. She said in an almost cold tone: "The number of people was 1,457 the year before last, and 1,876 last year, and these were only statistics from the police department. Between the beginning of winter and the beginning of spring, the number of people who froze to death on the streets directly due to the cold
If you include those who can still be buried in slums and other places, as well as those who suffer from illnesses caused by the cold, it is recorded. For people who died from other causes, the number will exceed 30,000. "This is such a shocking number that Princess Anne knocked over the tea cup in her hand.
Brown tea stains infested the white tablecloth, forming ugly stains, just like these stinging figures tore apart the superficial prosperity of the empire.
“Is this number...accurate?” Princess Anne’s voice could not help but tremble.
“When I discovered that there was a connection between this disaster and the cooling, I contacted Langton Royal University and asked them to send students to conduct surveys and statistics. There may be some errors in the numbers, but generally You can't go wrong with it." Purficott held up the overturned tea cup, but ignored the stains on the tablecloth. He just said cruelly to Princess Anne: "Auntie Anne, the official statistics of Langton City last year. The population is 2.31 million, and the actual number may be around 2.5 million to 2.7 million. How many people do you think can survive this disaster? How many people can the crisis response committee save?"
With the invention of the steam engine, productivity has been greatly improved, and the resulting industrial production has led to the need for more labor in cities.
So in a few decades, the population of Langton City increased sharply from 1.2 million to 2.3 million today, supported by the rapid development of industry.
The size of the city has expanded several times, but the corresponding municipal construction and livelihood facilities have not kept up. The large population has brought not only labor but also complex social problems.
"If you can't save it, why don't you just die without saving it?" Princess Anne understood what Perfectcott meant, but she couldn't sit back and watch those people just be given up.
“Saving them may mean that more people will die.” Although Purficott was equally intolerable, she always maintained an almost cold and cruel reason: “The empire itself is small. The island must rely on constant blood transfusions from the huge overseas colonies to maintain the current luxurious living standards in the empire. The city of Langton alone needs to import millions of tons of grain, vegetables and meat products every year to feed Langton! Citizen's Stomach!
When the temperature drops to the point where the ocean freezes, what will the Empire do to maintain the transportation of supplies? Not to mention your plan to build rail tracks on the ice, or the boring land cruiser project of the War Department? Turn it out and change it into a cargo ship!”
"Where's your airship? Didn't you say it's a ship that can fly? If you build them in large numbers, how about using them to transport supplies?" Princess Anne's thinking was very quick, and she immediately thought of what Perficott was doing now. research.
However, Purficott shook his head and denied: "It's not feasible, not to mention the high cost of airships. Even if mass manufacturing reduces the cost and you really have enough airships, As the temperature drops, crops cannot grow at all, and the colonies cannot produce enough food to sustain the empire's consumption as they did in the past. They will not even be able to feed themselves
And even if food is not considered. Question, what to do about heating? Most of the buildings in Langton are unable to withstand the extreme cold weather of minus 40 degrees Celsius.
How do you plan to protect two million people from the cold? ? The empire has no relevant technical reserves in this regard!"
"Perfect, since you can raise these questions, it means you should have solutions, right?" Princess Anne changed. asked Perficott in a rather formal manner.
"Yes, but it's of no use." Purficott nodded affirmatively, and then gave a negative answer.
(End of this chapter)