Necromancer, summoning 055? What the heck?

Chapter 268 Economic Transmission: Aerial Dance of Whirlwind Leaves and Heavenly Maidens Scattering Flowers
Elder Iona had considered many methods.

In her mind, the worst outcome would be nothing more than admitting defeat, withdrawing from Qingze City, and trying to hold onto Baishi.

Although this will be a deeply memorable defeat, I can console myself that at least there was some gain, and it's still a little better than hiding in the forest before.

But she didn't expect that the Lord of the Vast Ocean would offer a simple, direct, and extremely brutal solution.

Using pure, uninterrupted, and massive air transport, they forcefully broke through the blockade of enemy-occupied territory and delivered the necessary supplies to Qingze City.

This is something that is unimaginable and difficult to understand in the minds of elves.

The air force of the Star Continent is small in number but has immense tactical value, holding a significantly higher status than other military branches. Using the air force to transport supplies, especially in such a dangerous enemy-occupied area, is roughly equivalent to asking a Grand Druid to mine or cut down the Tree of Life for firewood.
It's not a question of whether it's easy or difficult to use; it's simply not even on our radar.

However, the Han Hai Territory is quite special.

First, their vehicles fly high.

The elves once tried to escort the [Nine Heavens Six] drones that took off from the White Stone Outpost field airfield under the guise of protection, but they soon found it to be pointless.

In the words of Safina, the leader of the Silvermoon Guard who was present at the time: "This is just a dwarf and a tree-man comparing sizes, which is purely 'self-humiliating'!"

By being able to evade the opponent's air force and magical interception, establishing an air transport line becomes basically feasible.

Second, their means of transportation fly fast.

This doesn't need much explanation. In the biological world, there are also some contradictory things: those who are fast will have limited strength, and those with strong defense will not be very agile!

Only those top-tier magical beasts that are born with a high rank, such as the legendary dragon race, can possibly achieve the desired all-around crushing effect.

Even though the dragon race is so powerful, they have been driven away by humans and are now hiding in the Dragon Canyon in the far north, struggling to survive despite hunger.

The transport vehicle of the Lord of the Vast Ocean is not only enormous, with a wingspan of sixty meters comparable to the giant magical artifacts of the Starry Continent, but it can also fly at a speed of over eight hundred kilometers per hour, which is simply unreasonable.

This is roughly equivalent to delivering goods by a giant dragon—unseen, unreachable, and unstoppable.

The elves are unaware that, if necessary, the Vast Ocean Territory can add another condition to it—it can't be defeated!

Third, their vehicles are tireless.

Even if you keep pouring life-giving water into a living organism, it will gradually tire and eventually give out.

But these giant steel birds can't do that. They only need to refuel to be fully recharged and soar into the sky again. This characteristic is truly beyond the realm of possibility.

Previously, the elves had seen two [Nine Heavens Six] aircraft regularly traveling between the Vast Ocean and White Stone City, which was somewhat understandable. Such "divine artifacts" are rare, which is in line with everyone's perception.

Now, with a wave of his hand, the lord has increased the number of these "divine artifacts" tenfold...

For a moment, Iona felt like her brain had crashed again.

Since fully cooperating with Hanhailing, I feel like I'm experiencing symptoms similar to Alzheimer's disease. I guess I'm getting old!

If you can't figure it out, then stop thinking about it and get started preparing.

The work pace suddenly accelerated.

The busiest place was White Stone City, because the bulk of the entire supply transportation, namely grain, needed to be sourced from there.

Thanks to the elves' bloodless capture of Whitestone City, the city's large granaries remained almost intact. Meanwhile, due to the collapse of human rule, control of the autumn harvest in the flood-free areas surrounding Whitestone City fell into the hands of the elves.

In order to completely control the grain supply, at the suggestion of the Vast Ocean Territory, the elves prohibited all free market grain trading. To sell, one had to sell to state-run grain merchants controlled by the elves, and to buy, one had to buy from external channels operated by the elves.

Then, the famous "grain coupon" system was launched. When buying grain, you could buy as much grain as you had the number of grain coupons. Without grain coupons, no matter how many silver coins you had, you couldn't exchange them for a single grain of rice.

Violating the rules? Just drag him out and behead him.

For the first time, the elves clearly realized that the "benevolence" and "cooperation" of the Vast Ocean Territory had a clear bottom line, which was "order".

They can provide jobs, food, and even shelter to people who abide by the order and obey management; but for those who dare to challenge or disrupt the order, their decisiveness and cruelty are even more brutal than those of orcs.

Next, the elves organized the centralized storage of grain in the occupied areas, ensuring that every grain was safely stored through a series of standardized procedures including harvesting, threshing, transportation, and packaging.

During this period, the refugees taken in by Whitestone City finally played a huge role. The abundant manpower allowed the elves to push forward any large-scale project almost effortlessly. Under the guidance of the technicians of the Vast Ocean Territory, they even rushed to build a roadway hundreds of kilometers long for the transportation of supplies.

With this combination of measures, the price and quantity of food in the entire Elf-controlled area were completely locked down, and no matter how others tried to stir things up, they couldn't make a ripple.

For the humans in the territory, the lack of stored food inevitably led to initial panic.

There is a famous argument in the economics of Blue Star: when there is a 10% food shortage, the price of food will not only rise by 10%, but will continue to rise until the poorest 10% of the population can no longer afford food and starve to death.

In reality, it's definitely not just 10% who will starve to death. Once food prices skyrocket, power and capital will intervene, and in the end, the most likely scenario is that all the wealth of the lower and middle classes in society will be plundered, and 30%, 50%, or even more people will starve to death!

However, this panic had no negative effect in Whitestone City.

The elves wield absolute power, and any act of speculation, hoarding, or inciting the masses will only be met with the iron fist of the Silvermoon Forest.

The system designed by Hanhailing ensures the basic logic that "you can survive by working honestly".

As long as ordinary people worked, they were guaranteed to receive food coupons. And as long as they had food coupons, they were guaranteed to be able to buy food in government-run stores. Once this correspondence was fully established over a period of time, social sentiment quickly stabilized.

In the starry world, people wouldn't dare cause trouble if they weren't well-fed, let alone now that everyone can at least have enough to eat.

However, Elder Aiona instinctively felt that something was not right, but she couldn't figure it out for the time being.

What's the problem?
Well, in the solution proposed by Hanhailing, there is a seemingly insignificant backdoor.

During the transaction process, due to the limited number of elf administrators, the Vast Ocean Territory suggested greatly simplifying the grain purchasing process. No extra coins are needed; grain coupons are all that's required. In other words, you can't buy grain with money, but you can with grain coupons.

What will this lead to? Without a doubt, as the only commodity coupons available in the entire market that can be exchanged for food, they will almost unsurprisingly become the most valuable currency, bar none.

In other words, at least in Whitestone City and the surrounding area, the elves have effectively issued currency. With just a slight adjustment in the future, it will be almost a matter of course for credit currencies like grain coupons to replace value currencies like gold and silver.

Then, grain coupons were specially printed to prevent counterfeiting, using a special printer and ink from Dongxia.

Yes, this means that the right to issue currency in this area is in the hands of the Vast Ocean Territory.

If everyone gets along harmoniously, then this will be a perfect example of solving real-world problems through systems; if everyone doesn't get along well...

With a flick of his finger, Na Han Hai Ling could instantly obliterate the market and economic order of the Elf-controlled area.

Of course, things are going quite well for now, so let's not bring up the unpleasant things for the time being. According to Lord Chen Mo's plan, once Han Hai Territory has food, it's the same as Qing Ze City having food. However, feeding two cities with one city and so many refugees is ultimately a very difficult task.

When the elders of the elves raised this question, the Vast Ocean Territory gave a reply without hesitation.

"What about the elves' own food reserves? Use them to tide us over! As long as we get through this difficult period, we can purchase food from various places and transport it over later!"

Thus, the elven reserves, which had remained untouched since the start of the war, were forced to open their doors, and the elven people began to transport their food and supplies, which had been hidden for countless generations, out of the Silvermoon Forest in batches.

However, it wouldn't be accurate to say that the elves gained nothing. Lord Chen Mo stated that all expenses related to the refugees would be borne by the Vast Ocean.

After the food issue was resolved, other small-batch supplies followed naturally, and all parties held a final meeting.

"The last step that needs to be connected is the parachute recovery!"

There are two ways to transport goods to Qingze City: airdrop and air transport.

Airdrops are relatively safe because drones don't need to land. Even if they fly at a higher altitude, it's still quite easy to drop them over such a large city area, and the enemy can't really affect them.

Air transport involves landing directly at the airport in Qingze City, unloading the cargo, and then returning to the airport. However, this means that the drone needs to enter low-altitude airspace twice during landing and takeoff, which presents a possibility of being attacked.

If the other side is determined to use a large number of air troops to force a trade, the loss of drones is not a big deal, but the loss of Chen Mo's altar's transport capacity would be a huge loss.

So after much deliberation, Han Hai Ling decided to use airdrops, which would require a large number of parachutes. Moreover, these were parachutes for heavy supplies, which would be too costly to transport from Earth. Han Hai Ling's local production technology was not up to standard, so only two hundred parachutes were prepared for the first batch.

"The process is as follows: after the airdrop is completed, Qingze City needs to pack and store the parachutes according to the regulations as soon as possible. Then, the gryphons will take over and send them into the sky. We will arrange for one of the [Nine Heavens Six] aircraft to descend to the altitude. The Elven Air Force needs to complete the aerial transport and send the parachute packs into the cabin."

"During this process, we need to be on high alert for enemy air strikes at all times..."

Isera raised her hand.

Now that the elves have learned to raise their hands to signal and speak on command, Ysera asked under Chen Mo's questioning gaze, "Why use a parachute?"

"You'll break it if you don't use an umbrella!"

"I know, but can't we use the Void Dance Leaf?"

"?"

Well, Chen Mo still knows too little about the Starry World and is too ignorant about this niche professional field.

The various air forces on the Starry Continent, as relatively rare elite units, each have their own crash prevention plans.

Humans use scrolls called Featherfall Scrolls, elves use special enchanted leaf blades called Void Dance Leaf, and orcs rely mainly on their thick skin to withstand attacks.

However, under normal circumstances, such items are not used on the battlefield.

Firstly, because professional pilots have strong enough impact resistance and can use various methods to cushion their impact before landing. However, most air combat actually takes place at a height of a few hundred meters, or at most a thousand meters. Falling from such a height is just routine for air knights, so they generally don't need this thing.

Secondly, in extreme situations where they fall from a great height, air riders generally do not use this device at high altitudes.

Deploying a parachute at high altitude and slowly descending is tantamount to offering yourself up as a target for the enemy.

As a result, the use of these special props has become extremely niche. High in the air, the mount loses its ability to fly, the rider is conscious, and it has to be in a safe zone!
For a small place like Han Hai Ling, which has no air force establishment and no air force generals, how would they know such inside information?
"Um? What about the 'Whirling Leaf'? Are there enough of it?"

In the video, Lord Chen Mo's expression was not good. Everyone else remained silent, but Elder Ysera answered with a forced smile, "It should be enough. This is produced every year, at least several thousand pieces a year, but we hardly need it. We've stored up so many over the past few hundred years that we've lost count. If needed, we can even accelerate production..."

"Send me a batch first, by air! Um, I need to test it out and see... see how it works with our drone airdrop."

The elves didn't have time to go back and retrieve them, so they searched the air force personnel in White Stone City and immediately loaded them into the transport plane. [Nine Heavens Six] flew straight to the Vast Ocean without stopping.

The experimental results were mixed.

First of all, this thing is only the size of a leaf and is easy to use. Just press the petiole on the vein and input a little bit of psionic energy to activate it.

The "Sky Dance Leaf" provides very stable buoyancy in the air, and its stability is even much stronger than that of a parachute, because without such a large parachute, it is less affected by wind in the air.

However, its weakness is that if the falling speed is too fast, reaching 40 meters per second, the blades will shatter instantly when "Air Dance Leaf" is used.

It's too late to stop it!

In other words, the method of free-landing on Earth and then deploying the parachute at the right time is not very effective.

No wonder the Sky Knights of the Starry Continent don't like to use them, preferring to trust their own physical abilities.

But it doesn't matter, this thing is still of great value in Chen Mo's eyes.

He tossed a message to the elf: "You guys estimate the price of these leaves. If it's reasonable, I'll take both the current inventory and the future production!"

With the official notification finally issued by the Han Hai Territory, the airdrop operation codenamed "Celestial Maiden" to Qingze City has officially commenced.

In an instant, robust transport lines began to roll, from the sea to the land and then to the sky.

From Xuanshui City to Hanhai City, a large amount of oil is transported by land and then by sea, landing at Emerald Bay and arriving at this high-precision refinery. Here, through a series of processes to remove impurities and improve the oil's quality, it is transformed into aviation fuel suitable for flight.

These oil products were sent to the airport in Han Hai Ling, and together with the water purification facilities, vitamin tablets, medicines and other special materials piled up there, they were loaded onto a transport plane, took off, and sent to the field airfield at Baishi Outpost.

In White Stone City, things were in a frenzy. Massive amounts of food and supplies were being packed and loaded into the aircraft. With a deafening roar, transport planes took off one after another, climbing directly from the Dark Forest region to an altitude of 15,000 meters before heading straight for Qingze City.

The first transport plane arrived over Qingze City. After confirming that the environment was safe, the command center instructed it to descend slightly. Then, with the activation of an automatic command, the war tree sapling in the cabin unfurled more than a dozen branches, and at the same time activated the swirling leaves on the supply package.

The transport plane opened its belly, the conveyor belt rolled, and all the supplies were thrown out.

Following closely behind were the second and the third aircraft.

After dropping off their supplies, these planes immediately returned to the Baishi Forward Field Airfield, where they refueled, loaded cargo, and took off again as quickly as possible.

The plan of the Vast Ocean Territory is to transport as many supplies as possible to Qingze City before the Stream Moon Federation can react.

Meanwhile, the field airfield also sent back planes fully loaded with "Sky Dance Leaf" aircraft bound for the Han Hai Territory, preparing to return to refuel and take off again.

At this moment, the elves and humans in Qingze City gazed at the sky for a long time, watching as small black dots suddenly appeared in the sky, like dandelion seeds carrying hope, swept up by the autumn wind, and slowly drifted down towards Qingze City steadily and gracefully.

A high-ranking elven sky knight swiftly flew by, intercepting a huge supply crate in mid-air, then swooped down and slammed the crate heavily onto the crowded plaza.

Large amounts of grain splattered from the shattered crates, erupting into a deafening roar of cheers.

(End of this chapter)