Blackstone Code

Fire truck sirens blared all night long.

The first night of the blackout was really difficult.

The mayor looked out the window at the sky that was reddened by the firelight in several places, and sighed heavily.

The separation of federal power supply enterprises and power grid enterprises has indeed played an anti-monopoly role. Of course, this is what the authorities believe.

They hope that more companies will compete with each other, thus solving the fact that the market is monopolized by a certain company.

The result is that in each state, there will be one or two very large companies, and two, three, or three or five very small companies.

In the eyes of the people and the federal government, this is not a monopoly, but free market competition.

Small businesses are small because they lack core competitiveness.

Large companies are large because they have core competitiveness.

It sounds like that is the case, but it is not clear whether it is actually the case.

There are three power supply companies in the state, two thermal power companies and one small hydropower company.

The electricity supplied by small hydropower can only cover one city near the power plant, and the supporting small power grid only works in this one city.

One of the other two main thermal power companies provides power for residential use in most cities in the state, and the other company supplies power for industrial use throughout the state.

The two power grids are also relatively independent. After all, civilian electricity does not use too high voltage. Considering the construction of the power grid, industrial electricity and civilian electricity are separated.

The power plants are still working, but the civil power grid has experienced widespread failures due to lack of management and other reasons.

Emergency repair work is currently underway, but it is not optimistic.

The city was almost completely plunged into darkness.

This is also the reason why fires broke out in many places in the city tonight.

There are two ways for ordinary urban residents to keep warm.

The first is for those who have a little money, they will use the heat flow from the boiler for heating.

Houses like Lynch's have copper pipes in the floors and walls.

When the weather gets cold, the hot water in the boiler will flow into the copper tubes, and the heat in the copper tubes will spread out.

The temperature in the entire room will also be maintained at a relatively high temperature.

The overall effect of this heating method is very good, and the entire house can be warm. However, it has a small disadvantage, that is, the cost is relatively high.

The overall laying of copper pipes in the room and the cost of the oil-fired boiler, as well as the 24-hour combustion materials.

With the outbreak of the war, fuel prices in the Federation have been soaring. Not to mention several times, the at least increase has exceeded 50%.

Coupled with the heavy taxes currently implemented, not everyone can afford to burn a boiler for heating.

In other words, this blackout actually has no impact on the rich at all!

The other type is the currently more mainstream electric heater, which has been invented for many years.

After years of development and evolution, the technology is relatively mature.

To put it bluntly, it is a heater that heats the air in a room to a warm level through heating sheets and circulating air.

This method of heating is relatively common among people at the bottom of society.

Although the current electricity bills in the federation have increased a lot, overall they have not made people unable to afford electricity.

Moreover, as electricity supply is a social infrastructure, the federal government will also provide some subsidies to provide low-price electricity to the people.

Turning the electric heater to maximum for one night only costs one or two yuan for heating, which is a completely affordable cost for the vast majority of people at the bottom.

And these people have also become the most injured group of people in this blackout.

At this time, the temperature in the central region of the federation was already between minus 15 degrees to minus 20 degrees. At this time, the heating suddenly stopped, which was a nightmare for almost everyone living at the bottom of society.

Now is the time of year when the coldest starts to warm up, and the temperatures are terrifyingly low!

In the absence of heating conditions, people's demand for heating has increased infinitely.

Some families began to use fireplaces or burning firewood for heating, and this is the main reason for the current large-scale fires in the city.

The flame is ruthless. It will not tell people before it starts to erupt. If it is not extinguished or if you are not careful, it will cost people more lives.

It won't do that.

When people discover this problem, most of the time they can no longer control it!

Especially some old people, they may fall asleep while warming themselves by the fire, and then be swallowed up by the fire.

Fire trucks were scurrying all over the city, and there were burning buildings everywhere.

Some were just small single-family houses that were set alight, while others were buildings!

Invisibility, darkness, fire, cold air, all these things combine to become a knife, a murderous knife.

The mayor stayed up all night and waited until dawn the next day to start counting the losses caused by the fire in the city last night.

Hundreds of people lost their lives due to the fire, tens of millions of properties were burned to ashes, and hundreds more froze to death.

Especially the elderly, who have become the main affected group in this disaster.

Looking at the report in his hand, the mayor didn't smile at all. Who knows how many names there are that haven't been included in the statistics?

It is possible that some elderly people living alone will not find out that the person is dead until their body starts to smell, or their family members notice something unusual and come to visit!

A conservative estimate is that thousands of people left overnight!

This is only the situation in one city, what about other cities?

What about the entire state?

The mayor handed the materials to the secretary and asked her to send them to the state government. As for the rest...

Hope everything gets better soon.

At this time, in the state government, the governor and his staff also looked helpless.

Feedback from various places on the disaster situation is shocking.

"There are still two cities with no statistics. From what we have obtained so far, more than 26,000 people were killed, and the property lost may have exceeded one billion."

The governor clutched a pipe in his hand and acted as if he hadn't heard.

He has to thank his governor for his smooth re-election this year, but it may not be easy to be re-elected.

His rivals would use the catastrophe as a reason to attack him and launch a vehement attack on him.

And he can't deny these accusations!

It did happen during his tenure. Tens of thousands of people died in fires and colds. People will not consider understanding that this incident actually has nothing to do with him. People will just angrily ask him to get out of office!

Where will you go in two years?

"...What to do next?"

After a while, he was startled by the staff's words and came back to his senses. He took a drag on his pipe.

The tobacco leaves in the pipe made a slight crackling sound as they were burned by the flames. Then he blew out a puff of thick smoke with a hint of mockery on his face.

"What else can be done?"

"After the data is collected and sent to the Presidential Office, this will be a headache for them!"

"As for us, let's start the disaster relief process."

A little after nine in the morning, the damage caused by the blackout was laid out in front of Mr. Trueman.

He was calm, but there was anger brewing inside him.

Nearly 30,000 people were killed, of which 30% to 40% were due to fires.

Many families who do not have the ability to use open flames for heating use open flames for heating in order to avoid freezing to death, resulting in fires.

Not every home has a fireplace, so think about where homes without fireplaces need to stay warm.

A kitchen with a smoke alarm?

Or in a small bathroom?

Perhaps a more spacious living room or bedroom would be a good choice.

In addition to those who were burned to death, many died of poisoning and suffocation from burning residues...

And there are still many victims who have not yet been found.

The property lost and the casualties all resulted from a major power outage!

He looked at the document in his hand, his eyes a little hollow, as if he was focused elsewhere, at least not on the document in front of him.

After a while, something changed in his demeanor. He picked up the phone and dialed the number of the former president.

"I want to meet with the current head of Jerry \u0026 Dyce Group and have him come to my office, the office of the president."

The former president was having breakfast.

Although he only served one term, his term was a little longer, a full six years.

In six years, he actually didn't accomplish much, but he didn't do anything wrong either, plus there were some political games and concessions behind the scenes.

His life was actually pretty good after retirement!

Hearing Mr. Trueman's request, he did not refuse, but he did not agree immediately, "Is it because of the blackout?"

He heard that a nearby state suddenly had a power outage yesterday, although the Army sent some generators there.

Those generators can only maintain the power supply to some government agencies in the city. Want to use military generators to solve the city's power supply problem?

That's a joke!

And the problem is with the power grid, not the power supply company!

Now it appears the problems from the first day of the blackout have erupted.

Mr. Trueman responded positively, "Yeah, you don't want to know how serious this is."

The former president sighed softly, "Have you already thought about it?"

"The people you're going to face, and everything you're going to have to deal with."

He knew Mr. Trueman was dissatisfied with these consortiums, and the paid vacation incident gave him a deep-seated dislike for consortiums and big capitalists.

It’s okay if there was no collision between the two parties before.

Now there's a collision, and the results are bound to be bad.

Mr. Trueman's tone did not change much, "My father told me when I was a child that if you make a mistake, you must admit it and accept punishment. No one is exempt."

The former president could only sigh again, "I understand, I will contact them, come to your office, right?"

"Yes!"

The former president shook his head after hanging up the phone. Many people privately said that he had no opinion.

In fact, he himself knows very well that in this capital-controlled country, there is no need for the president to be too assertive.

Now that many policies promoted by Mr. Trueman can be implemented, it is not because of the compromise of capital, but because of the war!

As soon as the war ends, he will usher in a counterattack by the power of capital!

The more he does now, the more fierce the counterattack of capital will be in the future!