Chapter 482 Franklin’s Little Trouble
“Mr. Franklin, we may be in trouble.”
A slightly anxious voice came into Franklin’s ears. He put down the terminal in his hand and raised his head. He looked at the person with bloodshot eyes.
The dirt and scars on the face cannot hide the youthful look in the eyes. The combat uniform that is obviously one size larger on the body also makes the body thinner, and the combat coat that covers most of the body is The bones make the visitor look a bit uncoordinated.
It's like this outfit shouldn't be on her.
This is Franklin's assistant, Anna Eleanor, who is also his schoolmate at the Federal University of Political Science and Economics.
Before the large-scale armed rebellion in the Rubian system began, the daughter of a high-ranking federal official who had always had a good impression of Franklin chose to follow Franklin's footsteps and came to the Rubian system for an internship, despite her family's strong opposition.
After the outbreak of a large-scale armed rebellion, she assisted Franklin in completing a series of impossible 'feats', pulling the initially weak team to its current size and becoming his most trusted person. one.
"Miss Eleanor, I have told you many times, just call me Franklin."
After seeing that the person coming was Eleanor, her expression originally changed because she was looking at the summary of the recent situation. The serious Franklin rarely relaxed, and there was a hint of softness in his tone of voice.
"How about that? As the leader of this team, you must have enough authority, so I have to pay attention to every detail."
Eleanor's tone was still serious, obviously firm. Firmly grasping her position as Franklin's assistant, she did not forget why she came to Franklin, and then said:
"Patron, Onge, Mitara, Huey, Taran In the fifteen large cities we currently control, plus the Ptolemaic City where we are now, the logistics departments of the temporary city halls of each city have issued warnings that the reserves of supplies are too low, the most important of which is food reserves. The problem is approaching the red line.
According to reports from the logistics department, after the repair of the last protein synthesis factory and hydroponic tower in the city failed, we lost all means of food production, even Even the most basic protein energy bars cannot be produced. After the food collected on the market is used up, emergency reserve warehouses have been opened in various places, so during this period our food reserves have been in a state of 'only in but no out'."
Listening to Eleanor's report, Franklin's expression returned to seriousness: "Close to the red line? How long can it last?"
“Each city’s emergency reserve and population are different, so the time it can last is also different. The longer one can last for half a month, while the short one can only last seven or eight days.”
“How could it be? So fast"
Franklin couldn't help clenching his fists, and an unprecedented sense of powerlessness came over him. He never thought that in this era of oversupply of supplies, there would be a 'food crisis' 'This is a problem that mankind claimed to have completely solved a hundred years ago.
The existence of automated farms, protein synthesis factories, and hydroponic towers was originally intended to prevent food shortages in human colonies established on alien planets. Later, it became a part of human urban design and planning. 'tradition'.
Even later, in order to further optimize the living environment and completely distinguish the city's residential areas and industrial areas, various factories, including large food processing plants, were moved to the outskirts of the city or behind satellite cities.
Major cities will still retain the two most basic facilities, protein synthesis factories and hydroponic towers, to ensure that there are no problems with the food supply within the city in critical situations.
After Franklin organized a team in an almost legendary way with his personal ability, and gradually controlled sixteen cities, including Ptolemaic City, the protein synthesis factories and water in these cities Infrastructure such as peta towers also played an extremely critical role.
Especially after another 'warlord' who has risen recently has gradually taken control of the industrial areas around these cities, making it impossible for Franklin and others to obtain various materials from these places, these infrastructures have greatly improved. This ensures that the food supply in the city is not affected.
It can be said that if it were not for the existence of these infrastructures, even if Franklin has now assembled such a large team and has become a dominant force on Lubion 5, he will not be able to support basic supplies every minute. crashed due to problems. But now, this thorny issue is truly on the table, waiting for him to solve it.
Franklin and his people knew that this food crisis was man-made. Ever since the first protein synthesis factory and hydroponic tower were professionally exploded, they knew that they were being targeted.
But no one expected that the other party was planning to push them to a dead end from the beginning.
Due to the maintenance of the main expressways between cities and the rigid requirements of the peripheral defense line, Franklin and his staff had to use the remaining mobile forces after allocating their only forces. There are only a few bits left.
In this case, these precious troops also need to be assigned to protect the sewage treatment plants and water recycling plants in various cities. After all, compared to food, clean water sources are a higher priority for human survival. higher.
The people who were targeting Franklin obviously thought of this, and then began to attack protein synthesis factories and hydroponic towers in various cities unscrupulously.
The professional-level infiltration and blasting methods not only proved that the opponent was once a military or even an elite force, but also made Franklin face an increasingly serious food crisis.
To this day, after losing the last food production facility, the food crisis has become the biggest trouble at present
Franklin naturally considered taking down the food processing plants around the city, but the occupation The 'warlords' who have identified these areas clearly have an armed force that is not comparable to the stragglers they have encountered before.
After attempts to attack from all directions failed, Franklin ordered a halt to the offensive of garrison troops in various cities, and instead shifted to a full defensive posture.
Despite its strength advantage, the armed forces, which mainly consist of ordinary police, armed police and the first wave of counter-insurgency forces, are still difficult to break through the defense line obviously built by the elite main force.
The two sides were in a stalemate for a while. It was difficult for Franklin's side to capture the area controlled by the other side, and the other side was unable to break through Franklin's well-formed defense line with superior strength - a problem of weak combat literacy of the troops reflected in the offensive battle. , the impact in the defensive battle is obviously not that great.
But such a stalemate was obviously extremely detrimental to Franklin, especially after the food shortage problem broke out, and a variety of other derivative problems also followed.
The 'warlord' who used such means to besiege Franklin was also full of patience and just watched quietly, waiting for the day when the city's defenses would collapse on their own.
"This It seems that this is the problem that General Lampard has given us." Eleanor frowned and said, "In this way, we can achieve 'conquering the enemy without fighting', waiting for us to have food problems. They fell apart and even had to bow to him. "
The 'General Lampard' in Eleanor's mouth was the name of the warlord, but Franklin and she had always believed that the other party was not a real general.
After all, the generals of the Rubian system garrison are currently hiding in space cities or starports, and they dare not approach the orbit of Rubian 5, let alone go down to the ground.
So they guessed that he should be a grassroots commander, but after the team continued to expand, he was called a 'general'. ’
“Although I don’t want to admit it, I have to say that he did it.”
Franklin shook his head, and the whole person was entangled in this thorny issue.
(End of this chapter)