Almost at the same moment.
Sun Deyi Wandering Spacetime, was also listening to the report on this rescue operation.
"Our rescue teams estimate that they have directly or indirectly saved at least ten million people in North America within No. 6 Spacetime. Furthermore, the Navigator Space Station played a crucial role in this operation; its global communication connectivity was a fundamental condition for the coordinated success of this mission..."
"Hmm." Sun Deyi nodded calmly, "We saved a full ten million people. Judging from this data, our future partners didn't lose money; those supplies were definitely worth it."
The assistant paused briefly, then said, "According to the information transmitted back from No. 6 Spacetime, they probably won't become our partners anytime soon."
"The president has semi-publicly stated that they will only accept them into the Mutual Aid Society after they have paid off their debts this time."
Sun Deyi was slightly taken aback, then smiled and nodded.
"That's good... I was worried that once they joined, it would be difficult to collect debts from them, but now it seems we don't have to worry about that."
"Did any other messages come back from No. 6 Spacetime?"
That's all for now.
"Then reply to them and send condolences to all rescue teams and the Navigator Space Station in the name of the United Government. Also, I remember there were cases of sacrifice; make proper arrangements for their affairs after they were taken."
Everything is done according to the latest standards. Those with children or elderly relatives are sent to No. 2 Spacetime, and adults are transferred to safe positions. They are given ample support and follow-up benefits. We are different now than before..."
Sun Deyi was in a much better mood after assigning all the work.
Ever since he learned that Zhang Tianyuan had rejected Grant and the others' request to join the Mutual Aid Society, he knew that he would definitely get his investment back.
This means that if debt collection is needed in the future, headquarters will support them, at least to a limited extent.
With their strength and the support of headquarters, wouldn't it be a piece of cake for them to control a country in the early 21st century?
It's not that he's stingy or that he's fixated on this debt.
Their expenses for this rescue operation were simply too high.
The supplies and personnel sent to various countries were already a huge burden for them; much of the communication equipment delivered to the shelters was even salvaged from the site.
However, this is still barely manageable, and the supplies will be gradually returned after the operation. The main costs are basically borne by No. 6 Spacetime or No. 4 Spacetime. They only need to provide personnel and equipment, so everything is fine.
However, the subsequent North America relief efforts simply couldn't keep up.
They mobilized a massive force of over 150,000 people, including a large number of special vehicles for transportation, medical care, and other purposes. The number of special vehicles used in North America was more than three times that of all other countries combined.
It can be said Becker in this disaster relief effort, the northern region relied on these special vehicles for support.
With the addition of people from other countries, the two sides combined mobilized more than 500,000 people and a large number of special vehicles, which severely affected production and transportation throughout Eurasia and North America, and even brought some areas to a standstill.
In this situation, if he fails to receive the supplies promised by Becker and his team, the already turbulent public sentiment will likely become even more volatile...
Three more days passed.
The work on the Day After Tomorrow Spacetime's timeline has been basically clarified.
The things that Zhang Tianyuan needed to do gradually decreased. Although most people still had to stay in shelters, normal life was slowly returning.
Taking advantage of this lull, a debriefing meeting on the rescue operation was convened.
All the main members of the Mutual Aid Society branches gathered in the shelter in the Day After Tomorrow Spacetime.
The crew of No. 1 Spacetime included familiar faces like Instructor Yin and Wu Yisi. In addition, Bai Xu, who had been busy with logistics work in No. 1 Spacetime, also took some time out.
He played a crucial role in this rescue operation.
Without the coal he delivered, millions more people in the northern part of Becker would probably have frozen to death, although millions more might have died from coal burning as well.
But that's no longer important.
No. 2 Spacetime remained the most composed, with the smallest team ever participating. Apart from Tong Wenshi, Zhang Tianyuan only recognized Liu Chunshi.
Needless to say, No. 3 Spacetime, having almost single-handedly "taken over" this rescue operation, had the largest number of attendees at the meeting.
Behind Sun Deyi and Wang Lei sat more than twenty people, many of whom were heroes who played important roles in this rescue operation, and even some of them were...
Even Ke Jinjun from the game world has come over.
Ning Jihua's side from No. 4 Spacetime also brought a lot of people, but Zhang Tianyuan didn't recognize many of them. He only remembered seeing a few of them when "135" dropped a nuclear bomb on the monster.
In addition, the Support Team No. 0, a direct affiliate of the Mutual Aid Society, also sent a representative, the main figure of whom was Mako Mori.
Seeing this, Zhang Tianyuan smiled at the group, then turned his gaze to another direction and clapped rhythmically. "Before the meeting officially gets down to business, let's welcome our new friends."
Following his gaze, the other representatives joined in with enthusiastic applause to show their welcome.
Zhang Tianyuan was looking at none other than Tan Mingda and Zhong Ruijin, behind whom sat the newly formed core members of the branch.
For example, Wei Ding had just returned to the Finch Spacetime from the Day After Tomorrow Spacetime a few days ago, was sitting behind Elder Tan with an excited expression.
Strictly speaking, this is the first time that the two branch associations from different time periods have attended a meeting of the Mutual Aid Society.
"Thank you everyone, thank you so much..."
The two men took turns standing up to express their gratitude, and then the applause gradually subsided.
Zhang Tianyuan returned to his position.
"From today onwards, our Mutual Aid Society officially has six branches, which is something to be happy about."
"However, we also face challenges now."
His gaze turned to Elder Zhong. "A few days ago, I sat in on a meeting about the production recovery work in No. 6 Spacetime. The most troublesome issue for everyone was agricultural production."
As everyone knows, in this timeline, most of the Northern Hemisphere is covered by ice and snow. After the snow melts, there may be floods and other disasters, and the climate is unstable. Under these circumstances, restoring agriculture is virtually impossible.
All the representatives at the meeting agreed that they knew the situation in the Day After Tomorrow Spacetime.
This timeline is indeed unsuitable for farming for the foreseeable future, but it's unclear how long this "foreseeable future" will last.
"Being unable to farm means that No. 6 Spacetime will have to rely on its reserves for food, but no matter how much food is stored, it will eventually run out."
"Thinking about this, I continued to investigate the food reserves in various timelines and found that the situation was not optimistic at all..."
Zhang Tianyuan distributed the grain storage reports submitted from various timelines over the past few days. The reports had already been briefly summarized, and everyone could read them in just a few minutes.
Based on the conclusions drawn, at present, all time periods and spaces face the possibility of food shortages.
Needless to say, the timeline of "2012" was quite different. Although they made extensive preparations several years in advance for the relocation, the food production on the other side was severely affected.
Not to mention, Elder Zhou later donated a large amount of food to No. 3 Spacetime.
The Legend Spacetime is currently in a recovery period, with virtually no food production capacity and large tracts of arable land lying fallow.
As for the Wandering Spacetime, since it attracted residents from outside the underground city, the United Government has had to support billions more people. If it weren't for the support from No. 1 Spacetime and other time-spaces, it would have collapsed long ago.
As for the remaining timelines, the Day After Tomorrow Spacetime needs no further explanation.
Needless to say, in the Finch Spacetime, agriculture in the building has no possibility of continuing to develop, at least not at present. Moreover, when the sun is blocked in the future, let alone farming, even grass will not grow.
On the contrary, in the Pacific Rim Spacetime, having just driven away the monsters, they are preparing for a full recovery, and everything seems to be thriving, whether in agriculture or industry.
However, it takes time for grain to grow from planting to harvest.
No matter how resourceful Ning Jihua is, he can't conjure food out of thin air. Moreover, the Pacific Rim Spacetime just released a large amount of supplies to support the migration operation in the Day After Tomorrow Spacetime.
In general, the current situation is that food supplies are scarce in all timelines.
If it weren't for the fact that everything is under strict control, grain prices would probably have skyrocketed by now. But even so, the current situation has inevitably had an impact on various times and places.
Although on the surface it may just appear that the civilians have received more military rations and frozen meat, this is indeed a sign of a food shortage.
If we were to roughly calculate the current population of each timeline...
The three timelines in the film 2012, Wandering Spacetime *, and Pacific Rim Spacetime * all have a population of around 7 billion, fluctuating by no more than 500 million.
After deducting casualties in North America, the Day After Tomorrow Spacetime has approximately 6 billion inhabitants. The Finch Spacetime has fewer inhabitants, but it is estimated that it still has about 1.5 to 2 billion inhabitants.
There are hundreds of millions of people, but more than half of them are from China.
As for the Legend Spacetime...
It can be disregarded.
Therefore, based on this calculation, the population that needs to be supported across all timelines is at least 28 billion.
But with current productivity levels, can we really support so many people?
The answer is naturally no.
Frankly speaking, apart from the Pacific Rim Spacetime, all other spacetimes are currently in a state of financial ruin, and one wrong move could leave them without food.
After reviewing the entire evaluation report, the six branch presidents, including Elder Zhou, all looked very solemn.
They weren't unaware of the problem before, but they didn't expect it to deteriorate so severely in such a short time.
A crucial point here is that the various branches are separated by time and space, and they don't know much about each other's situations, making it virtually impossible for them to know about each other's food situation.
Besides, they're always busy with this or that, and unexpected situations like those in No. 6 Spacetime happen from time to time. Even if they realize the problem, it's hard for them to get over it in a short time.
Zhang Tianyuan tapped the table, drawing everyone's attention back. "The importance of the food issue is self-evident, and the chairpersons should understand this better than I do. This is an issue we must resolve as soon as possible."
Elder Zhou nodded. "That's right. Our current food reserves are facing a crisis. If another emergency like the one in No. 6 Spacetime were to occur, the situation could start to deteriorate."
Everyone else agreed with this view.
If another No. 6 Spacetime were to appear, they wouldn't have enough food to provide support.
Ning Jihua said, "The simplest way to solve the food problem is to cultivate more land. I think the problems we face now are twofold: first, we have no land to cultivate, and second, we have no one to cultivate it."
In most timelines, there's nowhere to farm, but in the Legend Spacetime, countless arable lands lie abandoned, completely uncultivated.
Tong Wenshi said, "We have been actively promoting land leasing matters recently, and we expect to begin reclaiming the North America plains soon."
Elder Zhou added, "We have reached a cooperation agreement with President Tong. We will be responsible for the plains in the Northern Hemisphere, except for Africa."
A portion of this will actually be developed by the Wandering Spacetime, which is Sun Deyi's diplomatic achievement.
However, compared to the areas that Elder Zhou and his team were responsible for, the places that Wandering Spacetime were responsible for could only be considered a large farm.
"What about the Southern Hemisphere and parts of Africa?"
"We have already arranged for a large influx of people from No. 1 Spacetime into the Africa region, where they can carry out agricultural modernization."
"However, we do have vacant land there, quite a lot of it. Originally, I planned to wait until Economic and Trade Organization developed, and then naturally bring people into these areas."
"Since the situation is urgent, we can't delay any longer."
Tong Wenshi simply took out a map he carried with him and pointed to the various regions, explaining, "Although there is also population migration to South America, it's mainly for various mineral resources. We can try to develop this area. There's also Australia, but currently only mining-related populations have settled there..."
The various association presidents gathered together to listen to the current situation of each continent in No. 2 Spacetime, while Elder Zhou occasionally chimed in with his own words.
Having already been relocated there for some time, he also knew quite a bit about the situation in No. 2 Spacetime.
After Tong Wenshi, everyone reached a consensus.
"These lands must be put to use as soon as possible; every second they remain vacant is a waste of resources!"
Sun Deyi smacked his lips, feeling rather uneasy.
Zhong Ruijin and Tan Mingda never expected that when they had no land to cultivate, the Mutual Aid Society Association would actually "hold" such a promising spacetime.
If all the farmland in No. 2 Spacetime could be utilized, along with No. 4 Spacetime, solving the food and clothing problem for 28 billion people would definitely not be a problem.
The various branches are showing unprecedented enthusiasm for solving the problem of insufficient utilization of arable land in No. 2 Spacetime.
Zhang Tianyuan also agreed with this.
But who will be responsible for developing these farmlands?
No. 1 Spacetime is out of the question. Although they have enough manpower, they still need to prepare for the post-disaster recovery, and booking the entire Northern Hemisphere is already their limit.
Wandering Spacetime...
Forget it, I wouldn't trust anyone.
That leaves us with only three timelines: the Pacific Rim Spacetime, Finch, and the Day After Tomorrow.
Facing the eager gazes of the crowd, Zhang Tianyuan slowly turned to Ning Jihua: " President Ning, please take charge of arranging the vacant farmland in No. 2 Spacetime."