Luo Tianyan.
Captain Luo took out his flashlight, flicked the switch, but found that the batteries were already dead. He turned around to look at his teammates.
Sensing Captain Luo's actions, his quick-witted teammate tested his own flashlight and, finding it still had power, handed it over to the captain.
Captain Luo took it, said nothing, and went straight into the cave entrance.
As soon as he entered, Captain Luo saw that rocks had collapsed at the front.
Rock debris and dust were everywhere, and in the light, for a mont, the beam couldn't reach any further.
Covering his nose and mouth, Captain Luo slowly walked further in.
Xiao Liu and the others followed suit.
The deeper they went, the clearer they could see the scene ahead.
The ceiling was about two stories high, around seven ters.
From one glance at the cave's roof, it was evident that it was naturally ford, rugged and uneven.
Ahead were rows of cylindrical steel granaries, neatly lined up, creating an impressive sight.
And on these steel cylinders were inscribed red characters: Ergency Food Storage!
Seeing these words, Captain Luo excitedly exclaid, "We've finally found it! We've finally found it! We've finally found it!"
He said it three tis, indicating his sheer excitent as he rushed toward one of the grain storage units.
Circling around a granary, he found a handle switch at the bottom with a protruding funnel, presumably for the distribution of grain.
The switch was installed at a logical height, about one ter off the ground.
Captain Luo called to his teammates, "Bring over a bag."
A teammate stepped forward and handed Captain Luo a large travel backpack.
The backpack was empty. Captain Luo opened it up, had his teammates hold the bag open, and then turned on the granary's switch.
Pressing the switch, and perhaps due to being untouched for a long ti, it didn't budge under Captain Luo's pressure. He frowned and then applied more force, his whole body's weight upon the switch.
The switch slowly slid down.
And then.
Whoosh~
The granary released a flow of rice as if it were water, pouring into the backpack.
Within seconds, the bag was full, and rice was about to overflow.
Captain Luo hurriedly pulled the switch up, but it required more effort than opening it, and he struggled to move it.
At that mont, other teammates stepped forward to help.
At last, with everyone's concerted efforts, they managed to close the granary's handle.
The torrent of falling rice abruptly stopped.
Due to the delay of a few seconds, there was now a small pile of rice on the ground.
Captain Luo reached into the rice, grabbed a handful, and picked out a few grains.
He rubbed them between his hands, peeling away the husks to reveal the white rice grains.
After carefully inspecting a few grains of rice to ensure there were no issues, he tasted the peeled grains in his mouth.
The remaining rice in his hand was placed back in the backpack.
Turning around, he instructed the others, "Check the other granaries too, to see if the grains inside are fine."
Then, looking at the rice that had fallen to the ground due to the delayed closing of the switch, he said to Xiao Liu, "Pick up this rice later, don't let it go to waste."
Captain Luo then circled the steel granary and suddenly, he noticed a line written on it: Granary No. 1: 50 tons.
50 tons!
Looking at the granary that would take seven or eight people to hug, Captain Luo estimated that the number was accurate.
50 tons of rice could yield about 65,000 pounds after husking.
65,000 pounds could feed an adult one pound of rice per day for a year.
That ant enough for 178 people to eat for a year.
Captain Luo counted the tonnes and found there were twenty such granaries at this place.
If each granary was filled with 50 tons, there would be a total of 1000 tons of rice here.
Enough for 3561 people to eat for a year.
The thought nearly made Captain Luo leap for joy.
These grains would be a crisis solution for their base.
In this post-apocalyptic world, 1000 tons of rice was an enormous wealth.
"Captain, there's no problem with the other granaries, each is loaded with 50 tons," reported a teammate after checking.
Hearing this, Captain Luo felt as if a load had been lifted from his shoulders.
Then, with a tinge of sadness, he thought of the difficulties faced along the way, losing more than a dozen teammates, but they finally made it here, found the granaries.
They had not let down the trust of Ye Lao and the others.
Their base was in dire need of food, with all hope resting on them.
Now, however, there was a new challenge: they hadn't prepared for this scenario, and with their current manpower, it would be difficult to transport all the food back imdiately.
They were only seventeen people.
After so thought, Captain Luo said to his teammates, "Didn't we find several heavy-duty trucks on the road? Go bring those trucks here. We'll find a way to transport the grains back."
Their original mission was only to locate the grain reserves and report back to the base.
Then, more people would be sent to transport the grains.
But now, Captain Luo and his team had been out for a long ti, exceeding the ti agreed upon with Ye Lao.
They hadn't contacted Ye Lao in a while, and with the base being hundreds of kiloters away, across a province, it was a long distance.
To avoid potential problems, Captain Luo still wanted to transport so of the rice back.
If they had super heavy-duty trucks, they could load several dozen tons on each truck and take away a considerable amount.
But at that mont, they couldn't find enough heavy-duty trucks nearby.
After hearing Captain Luo's plan, a teammate responded, "Alright, I'll go get the trucks."
With that, he and five other teammates headed outside.
On their way here, they had considered how they would transport the grains back if they found them.
Therefore, they had paid attention to the trucks they encountered and hid them in a secluded spot.
Since it wasn't certain that Luo Tianyan's team would find food, driving those conspicuous and troubleso heavy trucks seed unwise.
They opted for a lighter approach and didn't bring the trucks over.
...
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