"What? You say that they were attacked by submarines? Shouichi Terauchi asked in surprise.

"Yes!" A helpless voice came from the other side of the phone. When the devil plane rushed to hear the news, it only saw a floating corpse, and more corpses had sunk to the cold bottom of the sea.

By the time the devil's rescue boat arrived, several hours had passed, delaying the best time for rescue. After a period of salvage and rescue, only three people survived in the entire troop transport fleet. Everyone else has been pronounced dead and missing.

Most of the devils froze to death or drowned. After all, the submarines of the vanguard army had limited ammunition and only sank lifeboats and large life-saving floats. When the radar warned the devil's plane that it was coming, all four submarines sank ahead of schedule.

They did not dare to delay too much and returned directly to the new submarine base in Penglai.

"Did they say which country's submarine they had?" At the same time, Kiyoshi Hasegawa was also asking. At this time, he was annoyed in his heart, the two Muyue-class destroyers that had just been transferred were all sunk, and he couldn't find out who the enemy was.

"After the rescue, only one was awake, and according to him, the four submarines did not have any signs. He is not in the Navy and is not familiar with it. ”

"Did you see anyone?"

"See! But the faces of those who were strafing with the machine guns were all covered with black oil paint, and the distance was long, and the sky was dark, so it was impossible to see clearly. ”

Hasegawa Kiyoshi couldn't help frowning when he heard this.

"Whose submarine is this? Four! Russians? American? He thought about it for a while, but he didn't expect that it was a Chinese, in the battle between Songhu and Jiangyin, if there were these submarines, I was afraid that the Imperial Navy would suffer a loss.

"It's near Yantai, who is it?" After he was puzzled, he had to put it aside for a while, "When those people are fully awake, go and identify the photos!" ”

At this time, Shouichi Terauchi thought more about the vanguard than him, but then he shook his head and vetoed it. Except for two or three small ports in the Weifang area, which were up to 100 tons, none of the territory occupied by the vanguard army could accommodate submarines. Besides, the vanguard army has not made much moves in the recent period, and has been busy with the construction of people's livelihood in the territory, and it looks like it intends to shrink and protect itself.

"Food!" He nodded slightly and smiled. According to intelligence analysis, there are already signs of food shortages on the territory of the vanguard army. When the time comes, as long as there is a food crisis for them, the various agents in the vanguard army can fan the flames and bring them down from the inside.

As soon as the Spring Festival passed, the vanguard army began to organize people to be busy with spring ploughing and began to vigorously develop agriculture in the base areas. Last year, due to the approach of the devils, a lot of land was abandoned for farming. Zhou Bai and others organized people to make use of the idle land, distributed seeds and rented farm tools for free, and led the people to be busy with spring ploughing.

Because of the solar terms, crops such as wheat and potatoes have passed the sowing period. The vanguard army organized people to replant spring wheat, corn, soybeans, sweet potatoes, peanuts and other food crops. These crops can also be sown after the beginning of spring to the sting, and the yield is not low. Especially sweet potatoes, as long as they are served well, they are high-yield life-saving food.

Zhou Bai and others estimated that even if there was a bumper harvest of summer grain, because there were many people on the ground and few lands, it was likely that there would still be a food shortage in the end. In this regard, Meng Xiang is not worried, when the summer grain is harvested, the vanguard army will not only be trapped in this place.

The vanguard army has accumulated a large amount of land in its hands by clearing Han Jian and some ownerless land. There were many large landlords in the Han Dynasty, but they took refuge in Yue himself for fear of running away and losing their property, and all of them were confiscated by the vanguard army. Dealt with more than 1,000 large and small Han annihilation. Coupled with the clearing of unclaimed land, there are more than 2.3 million mu of land accumulated in this way.

Meng Xiang turned all of these into the form of a vanguard army farm to settle the homeless. Although more than 2 million mu is not very much compared to the total number of 10 million mu in Shandong, the concentration of so much land can produce a leverage effect and regulate the price of grain on the ground.

In order to control the price of grain on the territory, the Pioneer Army issued regulations to crack down on grain price control. The regulations stipulate that the maximum increase in the price of grain in one day compared with the previous day cannot exceed 10% of the average price of the previous week, which can be regarded as leaving room for grain merchants to make profits, otherwise their reluctance to sell grain is even more troublesome. For this reason, he did not hesitate to arrest a few big grain merchants who were too greedy for too much price. and imposed heavy fines in accordance with the regulations, which directly caused several large grain merchants who were in prison to almost go bankrupt.

At this time, because of the free assistance of the vanguard army, although it was not full, at least it was not enough to starve. In this way, food prices did not fluctuate much. But the free aid also increased the food pressure on the vanguard army. Especially after playing the name of the vanguard army, more and more people came to defect.

The Fifth Division had already captured Yishui County at this time, and cooperated with the Tenth Division, which occupied Surabaya County, to block the passage for the vanguard army to purchase grain from the south.

"Our food is already very tight!" Zhou Bai reminded Meng Xiangdao, "Judging from the balance in our hands, it is not a big problem to be frugal in March, but it will definitely be very tense in April." In May, I was afraid that I would not be able to support it, and it collapsed before the summer grain harvest. ”

"There's no need to rush!" He had just won a naval battle, which made Meng Xiang feel very happy.

"I know that Lao Tang once proposed a plan to let the devils search around first, and then we will rob it, but we robbed the food, what will the people eat?" Zhou Bai vaguely knew a little bit of Tang Yaoshi's idea of letting the devil make a wedding dress for the vanguard army.

"Don't worry! We won't always grab food from the people in China! ”

At this time, it was normal for millions of people to die in China every year because of continuous natural disasters and ineffective rescue. This year, the large grain-producing areas along the coast have fallen into the hands of devils, and I am afraid that this grain shortage will be even worse. Therefore, Meng Xiang does not want to transport large-scale food from the country, at this time, the total amount of grain in the country is insufficient, and if the grain is transported on a large scale, there will definitely be a large area of hunger in the place.

As a result, Meng Xiang's eyes were aimed at foreign countries early.

The war in Europe has not yet begun, but it will not affect food prices too much.

For example, in the United States, food prices at this time are much lower than those in China.

The United States has always been a major exporter of grain, and in the recent economic crisis, in order to protect its own agricultural interests, it limited the production of a lot of land.

As crises continue everywhere and food prices rise, food production in the United States has slowly begun to pick up again.

There are also many regions that produce rice globally, such as neighboring Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand, which are also major exporters of rice at this time. In the thirties, Myanmar exported more than 3 million tons of rice.

Imports alone will not work. According to the vacant land on the ground, grain was grown, and a technology for the production of nitrogen fertilizer was negotiated with the Germans, and the equipment would be brought in.

The water conservancy project, which began last winter, is nearing completion. Several of Li Yizhi's students played a big role in this. If it is cultivated carefully, the problem of grain on the ground can be basically solved after the harvest of summer grain, and with the transportation of ocean-going transport submarines, it is enough to supply the shortage of grain.

The most critical thing is only a month before the summer grain harvest, and this can be solved by snatching food from the hands of the devils.

"We can also buy grain from abroad!" Meng Xiang said with a smile, when the time comes, he will directly exchange arms for food.

"What should I do if I can't bring in the food I bought?" Zhou Bai knew that Meng Xiang had the support of a big force behind him, and he was not worried about buying grain, but about transportation.

"Take the sea route, enter the port." Meng Xiang clicked on the map of Huaxia on the wall, but the place where his finger was pressed was the Jiaodong area.

By sea, although the distance is a little farther, the traffic is much more convenient. All you need is a port.

"Qingdao, Yantai, Weihai! It's all our port! Meng Xiang said categorically.

The 51 and others had already rushed to the Nanyang sub-base, and today they were going to trade the Scott destroyer with the Germans. As long as this business with the Germans is completed, the problem of shortage of funds in the ground will be greatly alleviated. When the time comes, the fortress artillery that is enough to cover several ports on the Jiaodong Peninsula will be enough to make the Devil's ships in China retreat.

Unless the devils mobilize their combined fleet to attack, when the time comes, it will be a big deal to destroy the coast. However, the food problem was solved ahead of schedule. At that time, the Air Force of the Vanguard Army will definitely make the devils remember.

Meng Xiang didn't just think about buying food. Relying only on buying grain cannot solve the fundamental problem of grain in China, and land is the most fundamental solution. Except for some undeveloped land, most of the land in the country has owners, and the total amount is still much less than the population in demand. For this reason, Meng Xiang's eyes were aimed at foreign lands early.

Meng Xiang always remembers the 1.8 billion mu red line in later generations. At this time, China's land supported four or five billion people, and as long as fertilizer and water conservancy could keep up, food and clothing could be basically solved under the condition that it was not very even. But as the population increases, and even with the expansion of cities, land is bound to be insufficient. The high housing prices in later generations made Meng Xiang remember deeply, although there was artificial speculation, but the shortage of land resources is also the key.

I had no choice but to look out.

It is not possible to simply buy grain, the grain consumed by the Chinese population is a huge number, even if most of it relies on self-production, a small part of the import is a quantity that makes countless people red. At this time, the international grain was still controlled by European and American countries, and it was accidentally stuck.

Comparatively speaking, it is much more cost-effective to buy land and organize people to grow food.

The land in North America is now vast and sparsely populated, and the United States now has a lot of cheap land. There are also many Chinese in the United States, but due to the [***] trend in the United States, the Chinese who have always liked to buy land do not dare to invest a lot of money in land. If there is a bad wind direction, it may be a chicken and an egg. Justice fairness in the United States is mostly for white people.

And Meng Xiang doesn't have to worry too much about this, the spies can directly appear as white people, and even the language can be directly their local colloquialisms. They came forward to organize the purchase as natives, and a lot of trouble was spared.

The United States can set aside 3 billion mu of arable land alone, and the number will remain at 26.7 billion mu in later generations, but it is enough to make her the world's largest grain exporter. This is also related to her geographical conditions, but unlike Huaxia, most of the land is alpine wasteland, and arable land is scarce.

Just like India, although the land area of India is less than one-third of China's, most of it can be cultivated, but the cultivated land area far exceeds that of China, with as many as 2.5 billion mu. Therefore, it is absolutely not enough for China to rely only on the current domestic land for arable land and grain. Later generations of Chinese people only saw the great achievement of feeding a population of more than one billion, but they did not notice the huge hidden dangers behind it.

In the event of a large-scale natural disaster, the Great Famine may return.

The first work of the political axe in later generations is the issue of agriculture and agriculture, and it is also aimed at the surname.

Therefore, it is unreliable to buy grain, and it is most affordable to occupy land.

Now that Meng Xiang has come back and has the weapon of the base, the land area in this world will no longer be the same as it used to be. Some places are more cost-effective to occupy directly, so some grain-producing countries are not within the scope of Mengxiang's land purchase. It's okay to buy some food once in a while.

The areas where the land is bought are those that may not be well controlled in the future, such as the Americas.

The conditions of agriculture in the United States are suitable in all aspects, and it can be invested now, and after the start of the European war in the near future, the grain will rise sharply and it will be possible to make a lot of money.

Canada, Argentina and Brazil were all major producers in later generations, and at this time, there was a lot of wasteland that was not developed, and the land price was super cheap. Although Meng Xiang is now short of money, the demand for arms in South America, which is also short of money, is even stronger, and not many people should refuse to exchange arms directly for land.

As for Europe, the land of the future war, it is simply not suitable for investing in land. Africa is also not suitable, and many investments are not suitable for future strategic investments, but not for the present, unless they are based to follow. As long as the base arrives, you don't need to buy it, and you can support the puppet.

"Arms are sold all over the world, and land must be bought all over the world. I want to buy arable land, I also want to buy land for mineral resources, and I want to be the world's largest landlord. ”