Shadow Empire

Chapter 329: Signs and Satellite Cities
Lance had just sat down in the restaurant in the morning when Erwin brought him some bad news.

“The price of wine has dropped a bit.”

Lance asked as he ate his bacon, "What caused it?"

"Prohibition is loosened?"

"Or something else?"

Erwin sat next to him and picked up a piece of bread. While adding things to it, he said, "The wineries are now reopening, but they are not producing wine, but medical alcohol."

"But you know... once the winery starts running, it's inevitable that some 'bad quality alcohol' will flow out."

Lance was stunned for a moment, then he began to flip through a pile of newspapers on the table. After flipping through them for a while, he turned to look at Melo who was reading in the living room, "Where's today's International News?"

Mello put the book down and stood up. "No?" He said as he walked out the door. "I remember taking them all back."

He did not find the International News in the mailbox, so Morris ran away.

There is a newsstand outside the community, only two minutes away.

At this time, Erwin also noticed the change in Lance, "What's wrong?"

"Is this a serious matter?"

Lance finished the food in his mouth in a few bites. He nodded with a serious expression, "Very serious and important!"

He paused, and the people around him drove over. Lance opened his "Lance's Little Classroom" again, "Under what circumstances do you think would allow a winery to produce alcohol?"

To be honest, the people here are all uneducated, and it is impossible for educated people to end up like this.

In this era, it is impossible to receive a complete education in the Empire except for the people of the Federation!

The cost of education in the empire is very expensive, and only wealthy families can afford to give their children a relatively complete basic education.

If you want to learn more advanced knowledge, you can only be an outstanding student or a member of a privileged class.

Therefore, these friends from the empire could only recognize characters and know how to read those words together, and some of them couldn’t even read them smoothly.

They are unable to draw any conclusions from the fact that a winery wants to produce alcohol.

Of course, Lance didn't expect them to be able to analyze anything, so he didn't wait too long before starting an illuminating discussion.

"What do you think alcohol is good for, especially medicinal alcohol."

They all know this. Some say it can be used for disinfection, some say it can be used to wipe wounds, and some say it can be used as fuel.

Lance nodded, "Yes, but its main use is still for disinfection."

"Alcohol is not something that is easy to store. It is highly volatile. All of a sudden, so many factories have started producing alcohol. Where do you think there is a need for so much alcohol, or under what circumstances?"

This question was not that complicated. Erwin spoke first, "With so many people injured..."

As he said this, he was stunned because he thought of where it could be used.

With Lance's encouragement, he uttered those two words -

war!

Lance pointed at him, "War, war is coming!"

"So the federal government relaxed the issue of alcohol production under Prohibition and put the distilleries into operation because the war was coming!"

"There will be a lot of people injured, there will be a lot of people injured on the front lines, and they will need a lot of alcohol and medical supplies."

As they were talking, Morris pushed the door open and walked in with a newspaper in his hand. "There are no extra newspapers in the newsstand. I heard that the price has risen to 30 cents a copy!"

"Damn, it's so high?!"

The average subscription price for International News is only two cents per copy, which is still a relatively high price. Some other newspapers only cost one cent.

It has no sales at all in some remote and backward areas, simply because the price is too high!

But now, its price has increased fifteen times, which can only mean that it does contain very important news.

When Lance took the newspaper, as expected, the front-page headline read "Negotiations Broken Down, Shadow of War Overshadows Tanfit."

The scarlet exclamation mark looks like it's soaked in blood, exuding a disturbing aura!
Today's news shocked the entire federation. Many people want to know what happened. The newspaper obviously underestimated people's fear of war, so that this newspaper is now unavailable for purchase anywhere!

As for the newspapers in Lance's mailbox?

It must be that the delivery person didn’t deliver it at all and just sold it directly!
Lance's attention was focused on the report, which stated that the negotiations involving multiple parties did not produce the results people wanted, and the conflicts among the four parties could not be resolved through negotiations.

In fact, the reason for the need to export wars abroad often comes from the dissatisfaction of the lower-class people within the country with the current social situation. If the country's rulers cannot export firepower to foreign wars, the final result will be civil war!

The people who are struggling under the heavy pressure of society have reached the point where they are walking with knives in hand. It seems that there is no need to consider whether the knife will be stabbed at the ruling class or at the neighboring countries.

Therefore, they planned to launch wars against other countries without hesitation. If they could take a piece of land from a neighboring country, it would mean that an upward channel had been opened up within the country.

Internal conflicts can be eased, economic and other pressures can be greatly reduced, and society will become stable and prosperous again.

It doesn't matter if we lose. The country's population will be severely consumed, and social resources will become abundant again, so the contradiction will naturally be resolved.

Therefore, there was no possibility of resolving this war from the very beginning. The so-called geopolitical issues, cultural issues, and racial issues were all excuses for starting a war.

Representatives of the Federation also participated in the negotiations, and now these consuls have begun to gradually withdraw from Tanfit.

The entire report did not explicitly state that war would break out, but only said that there was a high possibility that war would break out, without mentioning any speculation about the scale and timing.

In the following pages, the cruel and cannibalistic emperor of the empire also spoke, saying that he supported the people of Tanfit in defending the glory of the nation with weapons...

There is no doubt that the International News once again slandered the emperor of the empire. As the most correct stance, they once again received unanimous praise from federal readers.

Lance passed the newspaper to the others and scratched his brow. "Bring back more weapons. I feel this war will last a long time."

The entire city and the entire federation seemed to be shrouded in a shadow because of this terrible news.

In the morning, the Empire Gang from Venus City sent people over. Venus City is located to the west of Jingang City. It is one of the satellite cities of Jingang City and is also a city that was sucked dry.

Jinxing City has many factories and a complete industrial system. Some factories in Jingang City could not afford the costs here and finally chose to develop in Jinxing City.

This also made Venus City gradually become prosperous, although it had been sucked dry and devoured bit by bit by Jingang City.

However, it is undeniable that it has become more prosperous because of Jingang City. A large number of factories provide a large number of jobs, and stable jobs increase the income of urban residents, allowing them to have more disposable funds.

This money is the foundation of happiness.

What these factory workers want most after a day's work is a drink.

There are not too many gangs in Venus City, and of course it has little to do with the city. There are probably only about a dozen gangs in total, and none of them are very large.

The person who came was a middle-aged man in his forties, with two men in their thirties. He seemed a little shocked when he saw Lance, but he quickly calmed down.

"Mr. Lance, it's a pleasure to meet you in person. Although I have heard about your deeds in Venus City, when I met you..."

He smiled a little, "You see, I am still shocked by your youth!"

Lance stretched out his hand and shook his hand, then asked him to sit on the chair opposite. "How are the Imperial immigrants doing in Venus City?" The middle-aged man was called Damon. His gang in Venus City was not very large, with only about a hundred core members and peripheral members combined.

Because Jinxing City is not like Jingang City, which has all kinds of huge interests and consumption places, many people who make money in Jinxing City will take a bus to Jingang City to consume.

In the absence of huge conflicts of interest, gangs are generally small in size.

The rapid rise of the Lance Family in Jingang City has begun to radiate its influence to the surrounding areas. This is an emerging gang different from the Camilla Gang, and the Imperial gangs in the surrounding cities are encouraged by this!
If an Imperial gang like the five major families could emerge, then the surrounding Imperial gangs would have huge opportunities for development.

Just like now!

Damon couldn't get a stable wine channel in Venus City, just like Galio (Fides was the leader of the Imperial gang), and the intermittent sales were a blow to their business.

If you don't have alcohol when alcoholics want to drink, they will leave and most likely won't come back.

So when Ennio found him and asked if he was willing to get wine from the Lance family, he immediately agreed.

"Our place is not like Jingang City, where there are gunfights every day..." He laughed when he said this.

"There are too many factories over there. We can't deal with the factories. They have a lot of workers, but it's pointless to deal with ordinary people."

"The gangs are actually quite harmonious with each other because there is no need for competition."

"Our main income comes from strip clubs and the sex trade, and we also smuggle some meat."

Smuggling beef from the Yalan region to the Federation is indeed a profitable business, and there are people in Jingang City who do this business.

Making a penny or two per pound is already a lot. It's a hard business, and it's fucking illegal.

Lance felt a little sympathetic for him, "I can provide you with a steady supply of alcohol, and things will get better for you."

Damon nodded repeatedly, "The sales of alcohol in Venus City are very good. I believe we can sell at least 50,000 to 100,000 bottles of alcohol every month!"

This may not be enough for Lance in a week, but Venus City is a small city after all, and you can't ask it to do the same as Jingang City.

Lance nodded. "This time, I'll give you 60,000 yuan worth of wine. You can choose the type yourself."

"Damon, let me say a few words about something other than business."

Damon is obviously older than Lance, but his respectful behavior at this moment does not at all seem like that of a middle-aged man facing a young man.

In this world, strength is the key factor that determines who is greater, not age!
"We are all immigrants from the Empire, and we all know that survival here is difficult, so I have always had an idea."

“We should unite and form a state of maintaining efficient communication. If you encounter troubles and you can’t solve them, I can help you.”

"I'm in trouble and I can't solve it. You can also come and help me."

"As long as we unite, even if we don't actively bully others, those who want to bully us will have to think twice before they can bully all of us!"

After listening to this, Damon asked cautiously, "Do we need to... I mean, will we become a gang?"

Lance saw through his caution and denied his statement, "I'm not trying to annex you. This is just a simple covenant to advance and retreat together, that's all."

"I have seen too many people from the Empire being discriminated against in the Federation. If we don't want to be discriminated against and want to get fairness and justice, we have to make the people of the Federation pay attention to us!"

"Fists, wealth, status!"

Damon nodded and said, "No problem, that's great, Mr. Lance!"

"And I believe that your success can help me better, help us avoid bumps and traps on this road, and move faster and faster!"

No one paid attention to the rapid rise of the Lance family at first, and it was even slightly suppressed in the middle. Damon and the imperial people in Valley City felt that the Lance family would soon disappear.

Just like those countless Imperial gangs who tried to stand up but were pushed down again!
But when the Lance family once again proved that the Empire Zone was its own preserve, they began to realize that a gang that did not exist through extortion and kidnapping of its own people had been born.

Damon was speaking from his heart. He hoped to gain some experience in gang management from Lance so that his gang could grow faster.

Of course, the premise of all this is that you have to have money!
The smuggling of liquor made up for this shortcoming very well. If Lance did not want to annex him, then he was willing to recognize Lance and regard him and the Lance family as the "main family".

Lance then took Damon to visit the training process of the gang members, with a new batch changing every week.

These gang members are trained in shooting, fighting, and using cold weapons such as daggers and knives.

It also requires cooperation of multiple people, three, five, or ten people.

Seeing this, Damon and his two deputies all had an incredible look on their faces!
Because they think that Lance is not training gangsters, he is training his own private army!
He couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Lance, are these...really necessary?"

He couldn't understand, they were just gangsters!

Lance seemed very casual. He asked the instructor to stop temporarily and called a young man over.

"Tell Mr. Damon your name, where you are from, and whether you have a family..."

The young man stood straight like a giant and explained his situation. Damon still didn't quite understand what Lance meant. The others also looked at Lance, somewhat confused as to the purpose of his actions.

Lance said, "Your life is precious, my life is precious, and their lives are precious too!"

"The purpose of receiving military training is to protect their precious lives when they encounter emergencies or face some firefighting missions."

"I believe that the trained guys will know how to do it in order to survive as long as possible and kill more enemies!"

"You are not expendable!" Lance looked at the guy who was probably similar to himself, and raised his hand to salute.

The young man's eyes were red with excitement, and he returned the salute, which made everyone look particularly excited!
Lance then turned around and looked at Damon, "That's the purpose."

"I hope each of us can live longer and better in this damn world!"

Lance spent almost the entire day with Damon, showing him around his business and visiting those bars so he could see how his bars operated.

These things are still very avant-garde and advanced for people of this era. At this time, Damon gradually realized that Lance's success was definitely not a coincidence, and he must be able to go further than anyone else!
This day brought him many shocks and also made him think a lot. When they went to the hotel at night, Damon made a request. He also wanted one or two instructors.

Lance did not refuse this, but only lent it to him because Lance himself was short of people.

Damon brought cash with him and loaded the car with wine at night. The group set off before dawn the next morning.

In order to avoid accidents on the road, Lance also arranged some people to escort them.

It is only more than 100 kilometers from here to Jinxing City, and you can go back and forth in one day.

After seeing Damon off, Lance gathered the people from the Imperial Chamber of Commerce.

A group of people sat in the room and discussed the situation of the past two days.

They had a vague feeling that Lance had gathered them together just to discuss this matter, or to profit from it!

In the past two months, they have been thinking about making money like last time!
Some people even regretted that they paid too little and slapped themselves in the face.

This time, they must take out all the money they have and not let down such a good opportunity to make money!

After waiting for more than ten minutes, Lance finally arrived.

He wasn't actually late, it was others who arrived earlier.

The moment Lance came in, everyone stood up.

(End of this chapter)