The Land of Wind was a land of yellow sand everywhere. Only a few areas with oases could barely support human life; apart from that, all other places were forbidden zones for humans.
And the area where the vein of the Stone of Gelel was currently buried was also a no-man's-land rarely visited by people.
If Akatsuki Village hadn't been secretly investigating news about the Stone of Gelel over the years, probing everywhere in the Land of Wind, no one would have paid attention to this barren no-man's-land.
No one was willing, nor could they, live on such harsh land.
That meant, in the eyes of Sunagakure and the entire Land of Wind, the land where the vein of the Stone of Gelel was buried was currently a useless piece of wasteland—tasteless to eat, yet not a pity to discard.
In that case, just like dealing with the Land of Water last time, they could use the information gap to let Akatsuki Village obtain large swathes of bird poop islands rich in phosphate rock.
Speaking of which, it probably wouldn't be long before the Land of Water started making trouble with Akatsuki Village because of this matter.
Although the value of the bird poop islands was not comparable to the vein of the Stone of Gelel, it was definitely not small.
War, war... the First Great Ninja War would break out sooner or later.
However, Konoha also took benefits last time. A mere Kirigakure couldn't face the two major ninja villages, Akatsuki and Konoha, so there was no need to worry too much.
Even if a fight broke out, Konoha and Akatsuki Village could beat Kirigakure down.
In short...
As long as Akatsuki Village was willing to pay a small price in the upcoming Six Kage Summit, they could legally obtain ownership of the area where the vein of the Stone of Gelel was buried.
And before the news of the vein of the Stone of Gelel leaked out, Akatsuki Village could also earn a reputation for benevolence and righteousness in the ninja world.
As for the future, once the news of the vein of the Stone of Gelel leaked out.... that would be the Sage of Six Paths valuing Akatsuki Village's benevolence and righteousness, so he specially bestowed a gift upon Akatsuki Village.
No one could take away the vein of the Stone of Gelel that originally belonged to Akatsuki Village!
In this way, at least in terms of morality, Akatsuki Village would definitely have a firm footing. When the time came, they could even turn around and stand on the moral high ground to scold Sunagakure and the Land of Wind for being ungrateful. It was they who had a treasure land without knowing it, and finally shamelessly tried to snatch the land of their benefactor!
Of course...
Uchiha Makoto wasn't naive enough to think it would end there.
If a piece of paper agreement could really restrain the Five Great Nations and the Five Great Ninja Villages, the several Great Ninja Wars in the original plot wouldn't have broken out at all.
As long as the benefits were huge enough, the so-called non-aggression pact was actually just a piece of waste paper, too hard even to wipe one's butt with.
The benefits behind the vein of the Stone of Gelel were completely enough to make Sunagakure and the Land of Wind ignore previous agreements and forcefully send troops to seize this vein of the Stone of Gelel that already belonged to Akatsuki Village.
The most important thing was to solve the big trouble of Sunagakure.
And he also had to grasp the measure, not letting Sunagakure completely tear its face with Akatsuki Village.
Uchiha Makoto didn't want to fight guerrilla warfare in the desert with this group of poor ghosts from Sunagakure. They were barefoot and not afraid of wearing shoes, but Akatsuki Village had a big business and no time to fight a meaningless war of attrition with them.
This.... was indeed a very tricky matter.
Uchiha Makoto didn't come up with a particularly good solution for a moment.
Actually, if both sides could cooperate for a win-win situation...
Uchiha Makoto wasn't unwilling to share this vein of the Stone of Gelel with Sunagakure; he wasn't a person who liked to eat alone. (Sadness)
Cooperating with Sunagakure for a win-win situation and jointly developing the vein of the Stone of Gelel was naturally the best choice.... Uchiha Makoto didn't want to get involved in starting a war, which had extremely high investment costs.
After all, the next era would be the energy era.
In Uchiha Makoto's plan, in the future ninja world, chakra would no longer be exclusive to ninjas. With the popularization of ninjutsu applications in daily life, it would enter thousands of households in the ninja world.
That is to say, chakra would become the most basic energy source in the ninja world and be endowed with the value of a general equivalent.
Uchiha Makoto would incidentally use the energy revolution to bind Akatsuki Village's currency and chakra pricing, creating a ninja world version of the Bretton Woods system.
In this way, a currency tide could easily harvest the wealth of the entire ninja world, and Akatsuki Village could truly stand in an invincible position in the ninja world.
So.... if Akatsuki Village cooperated with Sunagakure, Uchiha Makoto was willing from the bottom of his heart.
Of course.
Although cooperation for a win-win situation was cooperation for a win-win situation, and Uchiha Makoto indeed didn't like to eat alone, he always ate a lot.
Leaving the vein of the Stone of Gelel in the hands of this group of poor ghosts from Sunagakure was simply a reckless waste of god's gifts. They neither had the ability to initiate a chakra revolution nor sufficient capability to develop this vein of the Stone of Gelel.
It could be said that Sunagakure guarding a mountain of gold couldn't maximize its utility at all; this was simply a reckless waste of god's gifts!
Only a ninja village like Akatsuki Village had the ability to fully excavate the potential of the Stone of Gelel.
Then it was reasonable and fair for Akatsuki Village to take the lion's share!
However, this kind of thing was just Uchiha Makoto's wishful thinking.
Putting himself in Sunagakure's shoes to consider... Sunagakure would not tolerate Akatsuki Village laying a finger on the vein of the Stone of Gelel. Let alone letting Akatsuki Village take the lion's share, even having covetous thoughts was a sin.
Just as Uchiha Makoto was racking his brains for a solution.
A knock sounded on the office door.
"Come in."
Subsequently, an Akatsuki Anbu ninja walked into the office; he came to notify Uchiha Makoto of a meeting.
"Lord Hikarikage, the personnel for the Agricultural Association meeting you ordered to be convened have all arrived."
"Understood, I'll come in a moment."
Ninjas gathered intelligence far faster than the pests of the Land of Fire, even in the agricultural field they were best at.
For some unspeakable reasons, the pests would even conceal the news. So Uchiha Makoto took the initiative to convene the Agricultural Association meeting to prepare for this grain production reduction crisis across the entire ninja world in advance.
However, this reminded Uchiha Makoto.
This natural disaster this year came just at the right time.
It was foreseeable that in the coming whole year, grain production across the entire ninja world would inevitably decrease.
However, countries with fertile land, such as the Land of Fire, the Land of Rice Fields, the Land of Rivers, and the Land of Grass, could certainly persist relying on grain reserves from previous years. Naturally, they could survive this crisis.... although people would probably still starve to death.
But for those countries with barren land that couldn't be farmed, it wouldn't just be simply starving people to death.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to describe it as starving corpses everywhere.
And the Land of Wind was full of yellow sand everywhere; the country's grain relied almost entirely on imports. It could be said that the Land of Wind was the number one grain importer in the ninja world!
Based on this, Uchiha Makoto soon had a rough plan in mind, and then he walked towards the meeting room.
In the meeting room, a group of people were already waiting.
These people were either rich or noble.
After all, the Land of Fire was generally still an agricultural country. Those who could deal in grain and control grain trade and prices in a region within an agricultural country naturally wouldn't be small characters.
They were either generational nobles or local tycoons, with high officials of the Land of Fire or even the Daimyō of the Land of Fire standing behind them, acting as their white gloves.
However, despite this, everyone in the room was waiting quietly.
There was no helping it.
In the current Land of Fire, if an ordinary person offended the Daimyō, they might still have a chance to survive by running to another country.
But if they offended Uchiha Makoto, even if they ran to another country, to the ends of the earth, Akatsuki Village ninjas could always catch them.
The last family that publicly offended the Hikarikage had already encountered rogue ninjas and died out overnight, without even a chance to run.
It was even heard that the assassination of the Land of Fire's Cabinet Elder's whole family was also committed by rogues, inexplicably familiar... but this was a topic that couldn't even be discussed.
Of course, prestige alone couldn't make this group of people bow their heads and obey orders like this; they were mostly here for profit.
The agricultural revolution launched by Akatsuki Village had already shown its first signs.
Whether it was the high-quality seeds produced by Akatsuki Village or the chemical fertilizers that could greatly increase production, they were currently in short supply in the Land of Fire, and only members participating in the Agricultural Association were qualified to buy them.
—Grain has always been very important.
If people don't eat, they will starve to death.
Especially in the ninja world, a chaotic world with war as its background color, grain is absolutely hard currency.
Even if Uchiha Makoto was kind-hearted and trying to deliberately control domestic grain prices so that more ordinary people could eat, this group of people in the room could still earn a lot of money.
At worst, earn a little less in the domestic grain industry, and then raise the grain price when exporting grain abroad.
There were plenty of countries lacking grain in the ninja world!
For example, the Land of Rain next door where it rained all the time, and the Land of Wind with deserts everywhere.
These countries were waiting for grain with open mouths every year.
Now Uchiha Makoto held a killing knife in one hand and an opportunity to make money in the other. It could be said that whoever offended Akatsuki Village or Lord Hikarikage now would be kicked out of this agricultural revolution, and might not even be able to save their lives.
Sometimes Akatsuki Village didn't even need to take action.
Because there were plenty of people in the Land of Fire who would hit those guys who didn't understand the times while they were down, just to curry favor with Akatsuki Village.
"Gentlemen, long time no see."
"Lord Hikarikage, long time no see."
"Lord Hikarikage."
"....."
After Uchiha Makoto sat down in the main seat, a gentle smile appeared on his face.
After a round of pleasantries, Uchiha Makoto picked up the teapot and began to pour tea. The room instantly became silent, waiting for Uchiha Makoto to speak.
And Uchiha Makoto didn't intend to waste time rambling, so he got straight to the point.
"According to reliable intelligence, due to the cold wave this year, grain production across the entire ninja world will decrease. Inferring from the grain production of previous years, it will probably decrease by about twenty percent. If the cold wave continues to spread, the situation might become even worse."
Hearing Uchiha Makoto say this, the eyes of everyone in the room lit up.
This news was indeed terrible for ordinary people, but for them, it could even be said to be a good thing.
It wasn't like they couldn't afford to eat.
All along, the Land of Fire had been the main grain-producing country in the ninja world. Last year, due to the agricultural revolution launched by Akatsuki Village, many places in the Land of Fire already had a bumper harvest. Even if grain production decreased this year, it wouldn't affect the Land of Fire too much.
But the Land of Fire was a special case.
Currently, the agricultural revolution only benefited the Land of Fire.
The overall grain production of the ninja world would still decrease, but once the grain production of the ninja world decreased, it meant that everyone present could hoard goods to corner the market, take the opportunity to hype up grain prices, and sell at astronomical prices in the ninja world.
This was a good opportunity to wield the sickle in the ninja world.
"So to ensure the grain security of the Land of Fire, we must make preparations in time. We should hoard grain now for emergencies."
"Not only that, we also need to purchase grain across the entire ninja world, ensuring the grain security of the Land of Fire at multiple levels, in multiple aspects, and through multiple paths."
"Most importantly, we also need to find a suitable opportunity to ban grain exports nationwide."
Uchiha Makoto continued speaking.
His goal was simple.
Hoarding grain was necessary, and not only that, but also purchasing enough grain wantonly across the entire ninja world for emergencies.
Of course.... the most important was the last point, banning grain exports nationwide.
Soon, the nobles and tycoons in the room began to get restless.
They could completely accept the first two orders.
Whether it was hoarding grain or purchasing grain in the ninja world, even if Uchiha Makoto didn't say it, they would take the initiative to do it.
Even if Lord Hikarikage was kind-hearted and wanted them to bleed, opening granaries at low prices or even for free to relieve those "lowly people," they could barely accept it.
At least they could earn a good reputation.
But there was a premise.... the money they lost must be made up elsewhere.
The Land of Fire had always been the largest production country in the ninja world. With grain in hand, as long as the gentlemen present joined hands and raised the grain price when exporting, they could also make a big profit.
But now Lord Hikarikage even banned them from exporting grain abroad!
Then what was the use of hoarding so much grain in their hands and purchasing grain in the ninja world?
Was it all to benefit those "lowly people," or wait for it to rot in the granaries?
However, before these voices of opposition could rise, Uchiha Makoto continued to speak.
"But at that time, I allow smuggling."
Smuggling?
Why didn't I think of this idea?
For a moment, the nobles and tycoons in the room were suddenly enlightened.
They all had to admire Uchiha Makoto's wisdom!
Yeah, they could clearly use this food crisis to create food crises in the ninja world for several consecutive years, why rush for a moment?
As long as they worked together, they could completely artificially control the value of grain!
With the Land of Fire nominally banning exports, the grain price could be kept high, but privately opening a hole.... winning big!
It was simply a genius idea.
No wonder Uchiha Makoto could be the Hikarikage at such a young age!
"Lord Hikarikage, brilliant idea!"
"Lord Hikarikage, brilliant idea!"
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