"Fulfillment or emptiness?" Ren Xiaosu frowned and said, "Our priority right now is the food shortage, so we don't have time to think about these questions."
Wang Yuexi said, "That's why I stopped Miss Zhou. It's not that I want to throw away the potatoes, but that I hope the Young Marshal will give the order to sell them at a fair price to stabilize the market and not give them away to the stronghold residents for free. Reaping without sowing will raise idlers. Not everyone is so ambitious. When they realize that they don't have to do any work to survive, many people will become completely dispirited. "
Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment and said, "If it were me, I wouldn't have to worry about food and clothing every day. I'd be able to do something more meaningful."
"Young Marshal, you're you. In this society, there will always be a group of people who become dispirited easily." Wang Yuexi said in a serious tone, "Why are there able-bodied beggars in the stronghold? In this difficult era, why are there still some young people who stay at home and wait for their parents to work to support them? There aren't many people who work hard and have self-control. Some people play cards and mahjong all night long. The only reason they can get up and leave the card table is because they still need to survive and work. If they can continue sitting at the card table without doing anything, they'll really be useless. It's good to keep playing, but it might be good to play for a month or two. But what about a year or two? "
Wang Yuexi continued, "Maybe I can joke and say that I can always be happy as long as I don't have to work. But is that really the case in reality? It's not. Young Marshal, I only hope that these potatoes can be sold at a fair price to stabilize the price of goods. I'm not saying that Miss Zhou's efforts are worthless. Moreover, it's only right to set up a threshold for relief in times of crisis. "
Ren Xiaosu nodded. "Mhm, we'll do as you say."
Let's not talk about whether Wang Yuexi's thinking was correct or not, and let's not talk about the long-term and short-term considerations. The fact that Wang Yuexi could stop Zhou Yingxue, the boss of the black market and the favorite of the Young Marshal, for his own thoughts showed that he was a man with principles and courage.
Moreover, the other party was not extreme. He only wanted to sell potatoes at a fair price. Ren Xiaosu had no reason to reject him.
He also agreed with Wang Yuexi's idea of setting up the threshold for relief. He had read a book before that a long time ago, someone would mix some sand into the rice given to relief victims. Was it deliberately to disgust the victims? That's not it. Those who were really hungry wouldn't care whether there was sand or not. On the contrary, those who weren't that hungry in the first place wouldn't take advantage of the sand when they saw it.
Recently, Ren Xiaosu had also learned of a story about Wang Yuexi. It was quite interesting.
There were a lot of outsiders in Stronghold 144 these days, and many of them were refugees and poor people from the Central Plains. As a result, many of them did not have the money to buy or rent a house and ended up living on the streets.
Then the Policy Research Office led by Wang Yuexi came up with a relief program. They built a batch of low-cost houses to be rented out to the refugees.
But when Wang Yuexi carried out the project, he specifically requested that the rented houses not be equipped with stand-alone toilets. There had to be one toilet shared by more than a dozen households, and it had to be squat toilets.
At the beginning, many people in the stronghold scolded Wang Yuexi and said Wang Yuexi was a scumbag who did not deserve to do such a thing.
Later, everyone realized those who scolded Wang Yuexi were just trying to take advantage of him. They might not even need a house themselves, but they wanted to occupy the rented houses that were subsidized by the stronghold's government.
At this time, the advantage of setting up public toilets instead of stand-alone toilets became apparent. That was because it was already good enough for those who were already sleeping on the streets to have a place to stay. Why would they care about whether the toilets were public or stand-alone?
As a matter of fact, Wang Yuexi did have his own methods when it came to governance.
At this moment, Wang Yuexi continued to say to Ren Xiaosu, "By the way, I also have a favor to ask of Young Marshal. I hope that Miss Zhou doesn't plant too many potatoes and winter melons, and that it must be kept a secret."
"Why is that?" Ren Xiaosu asked with a smile.
"Miss Zhou's methods are our trump card." Wang Yuexi explained, "These potatoes can ensure that the people in the Northwest won't starve to death. But if we plant them on a large scale and make everyone think that there's no need to farm in the Northwest anymore, I'm afraid it'll be a disaster. In the decades that Miss Zhou will be around, there might not be any accidents. But what if Miss Zhou is no longer around one day? "
Zhou Yingxue muttered in a low voice, "Why are you still cursing me? Who's going to be gone one day?"
She was particularly well-behaved in front of Ren Xiaosu and did not even dare to refute Wang Yuexi loudly. However, Zhou Yingxue was, after all, the current owner of the black market in the Northwest. Even with Ren Xiaosu around, Wang Yuexi knew very well how tough the other party was.
But Wang Yuexi did not back down. Instead, he continued to ask, "Young Marshal, to put it bluntly, if we really rely on Miss Zhou to provide food, what if one day she goes to the Wang Clan? This is just a hypothesis, but who can guarantee that in the future? At that time, the lives of everyone in the Northwest will be in the hands of Miss Zhou. Is this what you want to see, Young Marshal? "
Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, "Are you worried that Zhou Yingxue will betray the Northwest?"
Zhou Yingxue said from the side, "How could I betray my master?!"
"Young Marshal, you should understand what I mean." Wang Yuexi continued to insist, "When you told Wang Fugui that Yun Su couldn't interfere with the economic lifeline of the Northwest, you were also worried that Yun Su would become a new consortium when you were gone one day, right? Young Marshal, there will be a day when you, me, and Miss Zhou will all leave this place. So, since we want to prosper the Northwest now, we have to find the most suitable survival model and system for it, not find a savior. "
In fact, there was a high chance that Zhou Yingxue would not betray Ren Xiaosu. But everyone would grow old, get sick, and die eventually. If Zhou Yingxue were to pass away one day, at least the Potato Shooters would definitely not get close to them.
The Potato Shooters had become lowly crops in the hands of Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue. But if outsiders got close to them without permission, they would also pick up their dignity.
At that time, there would probably not be many people in this world who could obtain potatoes from the large Potato Shooters' fields.
Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, "That makes sense. We'll do as you say. Zhou Yingxue, don't make things difficult for him. You must follow the rules of the stronghold and hand over the potatoes that are being transported here to the stronghold."
Only then did Wang Yuexi heave a sigh of relief. To be honest, when he assumed that Zhou Yingxue would betray the Northwest, he was really worried that Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue would fly into a rage.
But he did not think his suggestion was wrong, nor was there anything wrong with what he said.
"Thank you, Young Marshal, for understanding my difficulties," Wang Yuexi said.
Ren Xiaosu patted him on the shoulder. "What are you thanking me for? I should be thanking you instead. With a person like Director Wang in the Northwest, it should flourish."
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