Shadow Empire

Chapter 231 Preparing for Action
You want my money.

I want your life.

Makes sense, right?
After the woman left, Erwin walked in from outside. "Is it solved?"

Lance nodded. It was Erwin who went to find the person. "Are there many people like this among the immigrants?"

Erwin nodded. "Quite a few. There must be dozens."

There are 200,000 legal immigrants and a large number of illegal immigrants. There will always be some who have health problems and cannot hold on for too long.

Although medical science is advancing by leaps and bounds every day and new miracle drugs are being born every day, the world seems to be cursed by a mysterious curse.

When people solve one incurable disease, a new one will appear. No matter how hard people try, it seems that there is always something that is constantly reducing the number of surviving humans.

It's like there's a special mechanism that screens, blocks, and prevents people from living a better life.

God says it's a tribulation, but it's more like a curse!
"Make a list of these people, look at their situations, and sort them out in order. When we need them, we can go find them."

These people are actually very pitiful. They came to the Federation with great difficulty by sneaking across the border or by exhausting their family property. They obtained or did not obtain legal survival, but they survived anyway.

But the good days did not last long before he was diagnosed with a terminal illness and his life began to countdown.

If you come alone, the situation may be a little better. After all, you come alone and leave alone, so there is no burden.

But for those who have already started a family here, they will feel reluctant to leave.

If they leave, what will happen to their families and children?
Maybe five thousand yuan can't provide them with a worry-free life, but at least it can make them not worry so much about the living conditions of their wives and children after they are gone.

Five thousand yuan, calculated at thirty yuan per month, even with inflation included, is enough for these widows and children to grow up without financial pressure.

After Erwin sat down, he mentioned another thing, "Bolton said that a lot of outsiders have come to the Empire District in the past two days. These outsiders are all concentrated near the nightclub."

"Maybe the people over there have mobilized manpower from other places, at least one or two hundred people!"

He mentioned Bolton, and Lance asked about Bolton's situation. After all, he killed Rob, and Bolton, his biological father, would definitely have some emotions and dissatisfaction, and he needed to know about these situations.

Erwin's expression was a little strange. "Morris arranged for someone to keep an eye on Bolton. When you were away, Bolton went to the hospital and asked the doctor..."

Lance became a little curious, "What did you ask?"

"He asked the doctor if he could still have children..." Erwin couldn't help laughing, "The doctor told him he was strong and could still have children."

Lance was also laughing, which was actually a good thing, "He is a very typical villain. When he feels that his bite can't hurt you, but you will break his legs instead, he will crawl at your feet meekly."

"But we can't let our guard down because once he thinks he can kill you, he'll pounce on you when you're not paying attention."

Erwin frowned, "Then why not kill him?"

Lance sighed softly, "This isn't so easy to do. He's done a lot of work for us, and he didn't stop us from punishing Rob. If we kill him now, what will the others think?"

"In fact, some people even think that we should forgive Rob, so we have to emphasize the discipline issue now, and getting rid of him without reason will cause some trouble."

"But don't worry, he's smart, he may have thought of this, so... he will get married again soon."

Alvin is indeed very smart and has a quick mind, but he has never been exposed to this kind of situation. He doesn't know what Lance means and can only look at him blankly.

Lance explained to him, "He knows that we no longer trust him. He is even afraid that if he loses his job and doesn't show up in front of people often, we will quietly kill him."

"So the best way is to give us another handle to hold on to."

"Marry a new wife, have some kids, right under our noses, and he'll have new concerns and things that can threaten him, and we can be at ease with him."

Hearing this, Erwin finally reacted. He found it a little unbelievable. "He can think of so much?"

Lance nodded. "When facing danger, people can unleash endless potential, potential that we can't even imagine."

He paused and said, "Let Bolton arrange people to keep an eye on those outsiders. What's the situation at the Hazardous Materials Administration?"

"They're still investigating." Erwin took out a cigarette, walked over to Lance, handed him one, and struck a match to light it for him.

"They are not just investigating us, the entire Jingang City is investigating, and they have also taken over a bar of the Red Dog Gang."

Lance showed some interest, "Tell me about it."

After the Brotherhood Gang was destroyed, the Red Dog Gang no longer cared about the "friendship" of Lance for driving them out of the Empire District, and began to develop rapidly. However, the strength of the Red Dog Gang itself was not very strong. In addition, after the Brotherhood Gang was destroyed, some former members of the Brotherhood Gang, or some street families that were suppressed and could not show up, began to develop rapidly.

The whole port area is in chaos.

The wars and struggles between gangs, after all, require a lot of money, and these gangs began to make money frantically.

For the current Jingang City, nothing can make money faster than selling smuggled liquor.

No one knows what's wrong with Bill from the Red Dog Gang. He actually wants to unify the port area, so recently they have been recruiting gang members and opening bars crazily.

Because it was so blatant, I don't know if it was reported by someone or an informant arranged by the Hazardous Materials Administration Bureau found the location, but the bar was shut down.

"There's probably over 5,000 yuan worth of liquor, and there's still a few thousand yuan left."

"Their profits are much higher than ours. For the same wine, their profits are nearly double ours."

Lance nodded. "There will be plenty of opportunities to raise the price later. Didn't Bill say anything?"

"What else can I say?" Erwin asked. "Besides losing his temper in the office, I can't think of anything else this sissy can do."

Under Lance's influence, everyone looked down on the Red Dog Gang.

"Have the bars here reopened?" Lance asked another question. The bars have not been open since Brinton and his team took over.

Many people were guessing what they were going to do, but Lance thought that they might be gathering alcohol, or... trying to get some free alcohol.

Erwin was not aware of this.

Lance chatted with him for a while and asked him to inform Bolton to keep a close eye on those outsiders and report any news in time.

Bolton was very serious and completed all the tasks assigned by Lance seriously, as if Rob was not his son at all.

While Lance was paying close attention to Brinton and his group, Brinton was also paying attention to Lance and his group.

The mayor's secretary has contacted him twice, asking him to deal with Lance and his gang as soon as possible.

He could feel the strong emotions in the secretary's voice when he conveyed these orders, and he also knew that such matters could not be delayed any further.

But the manpower is not yet complete, and weapons and other things need to be transported here. He can't go into a fight with Lance and his men empty-handed, right?
The city of Jingang City is very strange, including the arms dealers, they are unwilling to sell weapons to outsiders, which is something Brinton did not expect.

It's not that he hasn't done some work in other cities. When they got there, they found arms dealers who would sell them anything as long as they were paid.

But here, when they proposed to buy weapons in large quantities, the arms dealers directly refused the deal, saying that they did not want to interfere in their competition with the locals.

In the end, Brinton could only transfer a batch of weapons from other places. This also gave him a very general but absolutely in-depth understanding of the local situation - xenophobic enough!
Now that the personnel are in place and the weapons will arrive in the next few days, he can start thinking about how to deal with Lance.

"Lance and his family usually live in the New Bay Area. They bought several townhouses and renovated them..."

Someone put a photo taken from a distance on the table. In the photo, several houses were surrounded by a high wall. It was not easy to break in silently.

It is very difficult to destroy such a high wall. Once discovered by the people in the house, even if they open a gap, it is difficult to break in. Brinton rejected this plan after just one look. He had heard from the mayor that the New Bay Area was a focus of future development. If there was a fight in the New Bay Area, it would likely destroy the mayor's plan.

And as his men said, the high walls made attacking difficult.

You have to know that they are all gang members, not professional soldiers. For the attackers who are clearly at a disadvantage, if they want to capture the house, it means they will have to pay a higher price!

Brinton didn't want to lose a large number of manpower right at the beginning. The people here were very united and xenophobic, and it was difficult for him to recruit manpower here.

Even if these people are not xenophobic, he can still recruit some people. However, whether he dares to use these recruits and whether he can use them with confidence becomes a problem he needs to worry about.

"Find a way to lure them out." No doubt, Brinton had heard about the incident in which the Lance family was trapped in an alley and engaged in a gunfight with Camilla's gang.

I also heard about this obviously unequal battle and the incredible result. This is a resilient family, and it will cost a lot to take them down on offense.

"So I had this idea that we can't fight them where they have an advantage, we have to draw them out."

"We lay in ambush first, then wait for them to come over, and then attack them. It's like we set up an ambush circle and wait for them to come over."

“This way the advantage is on our side.”

The others talked about it at once, and finally the short man next to Brinton gave this idea great approval, "It's a good idea, I think we can try it."

"But we now have several new problems, such as how to lure them out, and how to determine which route they will take and how many people will come."

The guy who has been serving as Brinton's staff said, "The Lance family's main income currently comes from two aspects. One is their firm."

"It's not easy for us to do this because when the workers get off work, they also get off work. When the workers are not off work, there are too many people there, and it's during the day."

"As for the other part, it's their bar."

"If we could find one of their bars, they would definitely try to come over and see what's going on."

"The Dangerous Goods Administration has already taken over two of their bars, so their income should have dropped significantly, so they will pay more attention to the remaining bars."

This was a statement of obvious wisdom, and Brinton was confident in his own end, and what he said made sense. He continued to play his role of not using his brain very much. "So how do we find these bars?"

The aide smiled, a confident smile, as if he had seen the ending, "We don't know, but the drunkards do!"

Alcoholics, no matter what era or social and cultural background, have surprisingly similar characteristics.

People who are not familiar with them may not be able to distinguish who is an alcoholic and who is not an alcoholic from the crowd, but those who are familiar with alcoholics can do it easily.

Brinton's order was issued, and soon the Viper Gang members began to take action.

In the morning, outside a roadside bakery, as the weather has warmed up, many bakeries have placed tables and chairs outside.

This makes some elderly people very happy. They like to sit in the open air and eat bread, drink coffee and chat with others.

For many elderly people who have lost their working capacity, this is the only way for them to live with their children without annoying them if they continue to live with them.

As for the elderly who live alone or do not live with their children, they can relieve their loneliness in this way.

Three to five elderly people sit at a table, or two or three tables of ten elderly people sit together. They can chat about everything related to their lives or the country.

From whether the President is an alien to why people's wages haven't increased, there is nothing they can't talk about.

These people are even more political than politicians, and they will argue endlessly over their different positions, which has become part of the slow-paced life in big cities.

Of course, not all areas are like this. In places like the port area, the bay area, the city center, and the Starlight District, the pace of life is very fast. In addition to the dazed old people sitting at the intersection, there are also some homeless people wandering the streets.

Sometimes middle-aged people join them. Those who are frustrated in life or work also need an environment to release some negative emotions. This place is a good choice.

"...The president is talking about the issue of illegal immigration, and the recent increase in illegal immigration has forced him to pay attention to the promises he made during the election."

"These politicians are always like this, they are like those funny young people who will say anything and promise anything when they want to have sex with you."

"Once they pull up their pants, every word you say will only annoy him!"

An old man said something profound while holding a piece of bread, and everyone else burst into laughter.

Another old man joked, "First you have to make young people like your butt!"

The first old man immediately became unhappy, and his voice became louder, "I was speaking metaphorically, damn it, are you fucking senile?"

The two old men started arguing, which was very common here, and the others just watched them with a smile.

After their argument was almost over, they continued talking about the subsequent topic.

In fact, it is not just the President who has been talking about the issue of illegal immigration recently. Some local officials have also been discussing this.

"Do you know William who has been particularly active here recently?" someone asked.

Someone else answered, "Until, a kid from the Federal Party, he must want to run for the Imperial District Congressman, so he comes here so often and promises a lot of things."

The old man curled his lips and said, "As for whether it can be fulfilled in the future, I don't have any hope at all."

"The politicians here are even more shameless than the nobles of the empire!"

"At least the nobles know that if they don't keep their promises, people will laugh at them for not having the upbringing of nobles, but the politicians here will be proud of it because they have successfully deceived the people again!"

These people burst into laughter again; this is their life.

When everyone at each table started chatting among themselves, a middle-aged man who looked to be in his early thirties bought a piece of bread and sat in an empty seat.

A piece of dry bread, twenty-five cents, a quarter pound, with a hard, browned surface is a favorite of some people.

He followed the old man's example, picked up a small piece, put it in his mouth and chewed it.

The old people were a little embarrassed. They were all familiar with each other, but suddenly a stranger appeared.

But these are the tables and chairs of the bakery. People who buy bread from the bakery are entitled to sit here.

While eating, the middle-aged man suddenly sighed, which made the old people frown.

They don't like people sighing early in the morning, and the older they get, the more so.

"If you have something on your mind, you might as well talk to us. We are not talkative people. No one else will know except us."

The middle-aged man was hesitant to talk, which made the old men excited. It is always a desire deep in human nature to explore other people's privacy.

"We have all been through a lot. Our experience and wisdom may be able to help you find the exit from the maze of life, kid!"

The middle-aged man began to explain why he sighed. He talked about his family, his work, and also stated his immigrant status.

"… Everything happened so fast and so badly that it destroyed my life without me having any chance to react!"

"Now... I just want to get drunk, but the damn prohibition prevents me from buying alcohol!"

The middle-aged man waved his fist and looked at the old men. "Do you know where I can get some wine?"

(End of this chapter)