Chapter 1 The Difficult Negotiations
After the first round of negotiations fell into a stalemate, Su Han directly had his company leak the news to other foreign sellers.
Upon hearing the news, sellers from other countries also came to negotiate. After all, they might accept the conditions that the Mining Cart Country had refused.
The situation of negotiating with several parties at once immediately made the Mining Cart Country anxious.
While they were haggling, Su Han directly contacted Li Chengfu.
"Minister, can you adjust some grain for me? Those foreigners want to use grain for trade."
"Deputy Minister, grain is already under the unified management of Dragon Country. We cannot manage this grain! Furthermore, using grain for settlement is too much of a loss for our Dragon Country."
"It's not a one-to-one settlement. At most, only one-thousandth of the share can be used for settlement. Also, I heard that today the experts have determined that dinosaur meat from the dinosaur world is also edible. Everything in the other world is managed by our Otherworld Development Department. So, can't we exchange dinosaur meat and food that can be used in the dinosaur world?"
"Deputy Minister, that would be a bit difficult. Even if we sent out a large army, we wouldn't be able to harvest that much dinosaur meat."
"I'm not saying we need to deliver it immediately. We can sign an IOU first. We get the grain now, and we can return it later, right?"
"Then I'll go and ask. I'll see if they agree."
So, Li Chengfu first asked his superiors. His superiors agreed to Li Chengfu's method. However, the exchange of grain still needed Li Chengfu to personally ask the people managing grain in Dragon Country.
To show his sincerity, Li Chengfu went directly to the office of the person in charge of grain in Dragon Country.
Since Li Chengfu was in the same city, he arrived there quickly.
Upon arrival, the person in charge of grain in Dragon Country listened to Li Chengfu's proposal and immediately opened his mouth, demanding a one-to-two ratio for meat and staple food.
Li Chengfu naturally refused. After a round of haggling, they agreed on a one-to-five ratio between meat and staple food. This meant that for every five thousand catties of staple food Li Chengfu obtained, he would have to pay one thousand catties of dinosaur meat later.
This plan was definitely a bit of a loss for the Otherworld Development Department. But to speed up the construction of the other world, a small loss was acceptable.
After the discussion, the person in charge of grain in Dragon Country also imposed a limit on the exchange of staple food. After all, staple food was tangible and immediately available, whereas dinosaur meat would only be available gradually. Under Li Chengfu's persistent efforts, the person in charge of grain in Dragon Country released about one-twentieth of the reserve grain, approximately ten million tons.
Meanwhile, after half a day of haggling by Su Han's trading company, it was agreed that 0.085% would be settled with grain.
This ratio was even lower than the one-thousandth set by Su Han.
Taking iron ore as an example, the current price of grain was one hundred times that of iron ore.
This meant that ten million tons of grain, plus corresponding money, could purchase 11.7647 billion tons of iron ore. It was important to note that before the Blight, Dragon Country imported only 1.17 billion tons of iron ore annually, which was ten times less. However, this quota was not just for iron ore, but also for various other ores like copper, aluminum, and so on!
Thus, Dragon Country wanted to speed up the development of the dinosaur world, and the Mining Cart Country wanted to obtain grain quickly. Both sides accelerated their pace. After the negotiations, the foreign countries, fearing that Dragon Country would go back on its word, immediately flew to Dragon Country to sign the contracts. Within just three days, the contracts were signed.
After the contracts were signed, both sides began to ship in batches.
When the Lighthouse Country saw this situation, they naturally would not let Dragon Country have it easy.
Immediately after both sides signed the contracts, the Lighthouse Country released the details of their transaction.
Furthermore, the Lighthouse Country also deployed a large number of online trolls on Dragon Country's internet.
At present, Dragon Country's grain had become a rationing system, so suddenly selling ten million tons of grain abroad immediately stirred up emotions among a large number of netizens in Dragon Country.
First, the Lighthouse Country started the narrative.
"Look at this news. Our Dragon Country is using ten million tons of grain to trade with other countries, and they're only getting useless minerals. What use do these ores have now?"
"Right now, no scientist on the entire Blue Star can solve the Blight. If this continues, humanity will perish in the future. Grain is the most important thing. Now it's being used to exchange for useless ores."
"..."
After a period of instigation, the netizens of Dragon Country also became furious.
"I'm still hungry today. Dragon Country is trading out ten million tons of grain. Even one ton of this grain would be a lot for me."
"They don't have enough food themselves, yet they're trading with foreign countries! It's outrageous."
"We still have so many starving people, and they're selling grain abroad!"
"..."
All sorts of comments were fermenting online.
The relevant departments of Dragon Country, following instructions from above, did not make any statements.
However, several spies and public intellectuals emerged at this time, and Dragon Country took the opportunity to arrest a large number of spies and public intellectuals.
After a large number of online spies and public intellectuals were arrested, there was significantly less instigation online. The remaining netizens also became rational.
At this point, the relevant departments of Dragon Country issued several statements, and the online space gradually calmed down.
The main message of the statements issued by the relevant departments of Dragon Country was that Dragon Country was exploring new types of food and asked everyone not to worry about the food supply.
Of course, people trusted Dragon Country. After all, only Dragon Country still had some allocated grain every day. Other countries had already seen cases of people starving to death.
More details could not be revealed by Dragon Country at the moment. After all, they could not directly announce that there was a portal connecting to another world within Dragon Country.
After finishing these matters,
Su Han finally felt at ease and began to stroll on the streets of Modu.
At this time, even in Modu, the streets were sparsely populated. Over ninety percent of companies had ceased operations or gone bankrupt. The companies and enterprises still operating were mainly in transportation and energy sectors, and so on. After all, even the current grain still needed to be transported. And the grain transported to various places and distributed to everyone still needed energy to be cooked.
Su Han saw the few pedestrians on the street, all of whom looked listless. The term "sallow complexion" was suitable to describe them.