【Sweet Rain Technique】

A deep gray Golden Elixir stage spell, consuming 300% of the primordial spirit, brings down a sweet rain in a specific area, making the land fertile and full of vitality for 3 hours. The effect of improving the geological conditions depends on the original conditions of the land.

In the state of Dao Fa Nature, this spell consumes 150% of the primordial spirit, and he now has 189% of the primordial spirit, which is completely enough.

With 39% of the primordial spirit left, he can still use a "Supporting the Body with the Mountain."

【Supporting the Body with the Mountain】

A light gray Jiedan stage spell, consuming 75% of the primordial spirit, makes the mountains and rivers more suitable for plant growth and animal survival.

The two spells together consume 188% of the primordial spirit, just enough.

"The Sound of the Phoenix" lasts for two days. If perfectly calculated, Lin Wen can recover 24 times, which means he can use the "Sweet Rain Technique" and "Supporting the Body with the Mountain" up to 24 times.

The range of the "Sweet Rain Technique" is not large, covering only about 30,000 hectares of land. 500,000 hectares of land require 17 uses of the "Sweet Rain Technique."

With 7 uses left, Lin Wen decided to use 6 of them on the most barren land to ensure that they are transformed into fertile soil.

The remaining 1 use is kept for full primordial spirit backup.

So, the next two days were spent in seclusion. To avoid hunger, Lin Wen carried two large pancakes and a bottle of water with him, so he wouldn't go hungry for two days.

After using the two spells, Lin Wen immediately meditated on the spot. After the primordial spirit was restored, he used the spells again, also observing which piece of land was the most barren, so that he could come back and cast the spells a second time.

Two days later, this vast and uninhabited wasteland had undergone a great change.

The land became fertile and soft, changing from a lifeless, gray state to a light black granular soil.

Earthworms, insects, grasshoppers, and even moles, field chickens, snakes, frogs, and clams, all became active on this land full of vitality.

In just two days, the wilderness turned into a thriving field.

Lin Wen walked through the fields and saw that on some of the land that had changed earlier, small grass and wildflowers were already growing.

A strong sense of achievement surged in his heart, as if in that moment, he had become an immortal, with a wave of his hand turning the desolate land into a thriving one.

From the other side of the field came a loud cheer. Lin Wen looked over and saw the cadres and people of the Democratic Party in the distance celebrating.

Chen Xingtai led the charge into the field and forcibly pulled out a mole that was digging a hole.

The mole struggled in his hands, making a "haha" sound. Chen Xingtai's face was full of joy as he shouted, "Sheriff Lin's life essence is truly effective. Let's hurry and cultivate the land!"

There was a burst of laughter from the crowd, and the butcher's voice was the loudest, rising to the sky, "Hahaha, I didn't know Sheriff Lin was so powerful."

"Yes, yes, how much 'essence' does such a large piece of land need?"

"Come, let me feed you a bite of Sheriff Lin's essence!"

The monkey grabbed a handful of soil and stuffed it into the old jar's mouth, then ran away in a puff of smoke, leaving the latter waving a shovel and chasing after him.

Unfortunately, it was a sordid man and a dwarf chasing each other in the field. If it were two handsome young men, there would be room for imagination.

Yun Qingshui ignored the vulgar words of these rough men and began to plan and assign tasks with Chen Xingtai.

Red Fox whispered something to Ye Ying, and the latter suddenly blushed and jumped away from the field.

On the other side, several female cadres gathered together and giggled, talking about something.

Further away, a large group of farmers carried hoes and farming tools, coming in groups. Even from this distance, their excited expressions were clearly visible.

Lin Wen felt a slight touch in his heart, a kind of inexplicable peace and joy. He didn't want to be discovered by the people of the Democratic Party, so he turned and left.

He returned to the edge of the field, mounted his beloved little motorcycle (which he got from Wang Bo'an), and returned to Huai Town.

The food crisis had not been resolved.

Even if the Democratic Party started planting now, generally, Chinese cabbage takes over 50 days to mature, radishes take 55 days, spinach and rapeseed take about 2 months, corn takes 3 months, and rice and wheat take about half a year.

Changshan County's current food inventory could not last for a month, and the purchase of food from outside was limited to 30 tons.

And Changshan County now has over 8 million people, requiring over 5,000 tons of food every day. If they saved a little, it could be compressed to 4,000 tons, and in a famine state, it could be compressed to 2,000 tons.

Any lower, and people would die.

Moreover, in the foreseeable future, as long as Lin Wen did not change his policies, refugees would still flock to Changshan County, and the population of Changshan County would continue to skyrocket at an extremely high rate, requiring even more food and supplies, not less.

Old Xie, Lei Tiantong, and Xiao Xiao had repeatedly raised this issue with Lin Wen. Qin Luoshuang did not say anything, but she had been trying to contact channels to purchase food.

Currently, she could buy about 200 tons of affordable food and about 100 tons of high-priced food every day.

But for Changshan County, it was still a drop in the bucket.

So, in order to solve the current food problem, Lin Wen needed to obtain enough food to support three months, until the Democratic Party's second major harvest. Then, there should be no problem.

Lin Wen asked about the spells, but whether it was "Guidance of the Immortal" or "Asking the Way from Heaven," the consumption was relatively high. He decided to first understand the situation.

Arriving at the county government office, he originally wanted to find Qin Luoshuang, but he found out that they were in a meeting.

Lin Wen was naturally a "meeting death star," and was about to slip away when the sharp-eyed Qin Luoshuang spotted him and dragged him back.

"Lin Wen, can you come back and attend the meeting? I can never find you when we have a meeting. I don't know how you can be a sheriff like this."

Lin Wen was extremely unhappy, "Why are you talking to me like I'm your dad?"

"You, can you be serious?"Qin Luoshuang was so angry that her face turned red. She had never expected to encounter such a sheriff. She had regarded him as the savior of the human empire's punishers, but it turned out that he was a real oddball.

"If you want to be someone's father so badly, then go have your own kids!"

Lin Wen glanced at her and said, "That's impossible. Stop dreaming."

"You!" Qin Luoshuang was so furious that she felt like her lungs were about to explode. She hated Lin Wen's attitude the most. He always managed to ignite her temper in unexpected ways, causing her, who rarely got angry, to explode with emotions frequently.

"Cough, cough, cough!" Fortunately, Xiao Xiao interrupted them with a series of coughs. "You two, one is the sheriff, and the other is the terrifying director of the Security Bureau. It's not appropriate to have a dispute in public... um, please be mindful of the impact."

Qin Luoshuang glared fiercely at Xiao Xiao and sat back down, feeling sulky.

Yun Zhixing secretly gave Lin Wen a thumbs-up from the side. He didn't dare to provoke the young lady or face the female host in this manner. Only the role model Sheriff Lin could do such a thing.

Sighing, Lin Wen thought to himself that since he was already here, he might as well sit down.

Find the original at "pawread dot com".

Glancing around, he saw Qin Luoshuang, Xiao Xiao, Old Xie, and Lei Tiantong among the attendees, as well as many town mayors, most of whom he didn't know. Compared to when he first arrived, there was a completely new group of people.

However, he did spot a familiar face - Little Li, who used to run errands in Changle Town and was now the deputy mayor of the new town.

Little Li gave him a sunny smile and raised two thumbs, mouthing, "The Lin-Li duo is reunited!"

Lin Wen smiled in response.

The person currently speaking at the meeting was a slightly familiar red-haired woman. She had a cute, slightly childish round face, big, expressive eyes, and was quite young.

She was thrilled to see Sheriff Lin, but she finished speaking before turning her attention to him.

"...In any case, the situation in the new town is not good. The enthusiasm for disaster relief is dissipating, and the atmosphere of labor and cooperation is disappearing. The town's moral standards are deteriorating, leading to incidents of theft that were previously unheard of."

As she spoke, tears welled up in her eyes.

"I really don't want our hard-earned new town to go bad. I don't want the men who laughed and worked together with us to become strangers. I don't want the best time of my life to become a regret only existing in memories. But I don't know what to do. I'm such an incompetent mayor."

She looked at Lin Wen, tears streaming down her face.

"Sheriff Lin! Please help me! I really don't know what to do."

She broke down in tears on the podium, and it was Little Li who went over to help her down.

At this moment, Lin Wen finally dug her out from the depths of his memory. It turned out that she was Ji Fuxiao, the civil affairs officer who had been in charge of his publicity work during the disaster relief period.

After the new town was established, due to her familiarity with disaster relief affairs, she was promoted to the position of mayor of the new town.

But she never expected that the vibrant new town would change. Why did this happen?

Next, various town mayors took turns to speak, describing the problems they had encountered.

Most of these issues were not administrative, but rather social and economic in nature, so they didn't bother the overwhelmed Zhao Minggong and Yang Shaohu with countless other matters, but came to the county government hall seeking help.

The main officials from the Security Bureau, Development and Reform Commission, and Finance Department, who were responsible for dealing with these matters, also attended the meeting.

Originally, it was their responsibility to resolve these issues, but with Sheriff Lin's presence, it naturally became his responsibility as the chief official.

However, Lin Wen was not good at handling these administrative issues, so he decided to address the issue of food first.

After everyone had finished speaking, he took the stage and carefully inquired about the food situation in Changshan County and the surrounding areas from Qin Luoshuang and the others, who were relevant officials.

Xiao Xiao from the Development and Reform Commission was the first to answer Lin Wen's question.

"The food market in the town is basically normal. Due to the low prices of our vegetables and the high prices of meat, a large number of merchants are importing meat from outside the area. Most of them are individual traders, restaurant owners, or barbecue shop owners. These transactions can bypass the empire's blockade. On average, about 500 tons are imported daily."

"I have already banned the export of food, and the export of vegetables is facing transportation and storage issues. Although the prices are low, the transportation and storage costs eat into the profits."

"We have a stock of about 100,000 tons of food, which can support us for 20 days at the current consumption rate. If we use the standard for famine, it can last for 50 days, but that would affect the stability of Changshan County."

Lin Wen asked, "The empire has no control over private transactions."

Xiao Xiao corrected him, "It's small-scale transactions. The Empire's Ministry of Commerce does not pay attention to transactions below 0.1 tons."

Lin Wen had a sudden idea, "What if we send out a large number of buyers to purchase in 0.1-ton quantities?"

Xiao Xiao helplessly replied, "We are already doing that, but to meet all the demand, we would need fifty thousand buyers. Not to mention whether it's feasible, such large-scale purchases would attract too much attention and could easily be detected by the Empire."

"What should we do then?"

Xiao Xiao thought for a moment and said, "We can rely on market regulation. I will continue to raise the prices of meat and staple foods in Changshan County. As long as there is profit to be made, various merchants will find ways to bring food into Changshan County."

"I will implement a dual-price system to ensure that the price of food for the people doesn't rise too much."

Old Xie was now less averse to spending money, "We can afford it completely, Sheriff Lin! Our finances can handle it now."

As he spoke, he had a big smile on his face.

"The flying sword workshop is simply a money tree! The tools we produce are in high demand, and there's even fighting over them outside! And that 'Tianba' guy is also thriving, making quite a bit of income."

Lei Tiantong nodded from the side, indicating that Old Xie's words were reliable.Qin Luoshuang immediately added, "If we can spend more money, I can find some international channels, and we could secure a few hundred more tons of food."

After some discussion, everyone calculated that the daily food purchase might reach over two thousand tons. Although it was still far from enough, it was considered a safety net, at least offering some peace of mind.

Next, they addressed the issue of the new town, a settlement of 300,000 people. Lin Wen had invested a great deal of effort, but he was not a sociologist, had no actual experience in governance, and had no desire to accumulate such experience.

So, he directly posed a question to the "Immortal's Guidance."

"How to deal with the new town's issue?"

Cost: 560%

Not feasible.

The cost was too high.

Not enough information.

Lin Wen looked towards Qin Luoshuang, "Summarize it for us."

When it came to work discussions, Qin Luoshuang never threw tantrums. After careful thought, she said:

"It's a matter of work and income. The new town has been built, but there are no industries. After they finished furnishing and modifying their new homes, they suddenly found themselves with nothing to do."

"After the new town was established, we stopped the aid. They have no jobs, no income, and no land to farm nearby. They can only rely on small handicrafts and odd jobs to get by. The fact that 300,000 unemployed people have only started to show problems now is quite commendable."

Lin Wen asked, "What did they do before?"

Ji Fuxiao wiped away her tears and answered, "Most of them were farmers growing cotton, tobacco, and tea. After the Eastern Dam collapsed, all their industries were gone."

Lin Wen also inquired with other small town mayors. Most of them were scattered in the central region, facing problems similar to those of the new town—they hadn't enjoyed the benefits of Changshan County's development.

Lin Wen smiled.

He didn't need to ask to know how to handle this problem.

It seemed it was time to establish a socialist-style mega-factory.

So, he changed his question.

"What kind of mega-factory should I build to effectively solve their problems?"

Cost: 110%

Acceptable.

55% of his spiritual essence vanished, leaving him with 134% remaining.

"Food Processing Plant"

Food Processing Plant?

The new town had no land to farm, so where would the food come from?

Lin Wen wore a contemplative expression, and everyone looked at him with hopeful eyes. They knew that once "Sheriff Lin in Thought" finished his contemplation, he would always come up with an unconventional yet highly effective solution.

After pondering for a long while, Lin Wen still felt something was amiss, unable to find the purpose of a food processing plant.

If it was to process food from Shangxi Town, but the harvest there had already ended, and the next one wouldn't be for at least two months.

Moreover, vegetable processing wasn't the best choice. If it could be consumed locally, selling locally was the optimal option.

If it was to process purchased food, wouldn't that be redundant? Couldn't other types of factories work? Why did it have to be a food processing plant?

There must be a blind spot he was missing.

Lost in thought, Lin Wen muttered to himself, "Where is there food near the new town?"

Everyone exchanged puzzled looks, only Ji Fuxiao whispered, "Sometimes they go fishing in the Tian River, but the current is too strong…"

Like a bolt of lightning striking through Lin Wen's mind, he suddenly jumped up.

"Ahahaha!"

"I've got it!"