Shadow Empire

Chapter 387 The End
Lance, who had just walked out of the cemetery, sighed softly. A teenager was taking on the responsibility of leading a family. This was too...

He didn't know what to say.

From a rational point of view, this is obviously a wrong choice. Francisco is too young, and his grandfather, uncles and aunts are young and strong and powerful.

This will lead the Pasreto family to a further decline, and it will be difficult to recover!

People were willing to listen to Paul because he was an adult and had certain achievements when he inherited the position.

Not to mention his uncle and aunt, at least Paul's brothers and sisters obey him, so he can sit firmly on his position.

But now, who will obey Francisco?
This is bound to sow the seeds of some problems, which will then escalate and eventually explode.

But humans are not rational animals. After Paul's death, Alberto, who had benefited from Paul, wanted to save his son and let his son regain control of the family. This cannot be said to be wrong, but it can only be said to be difficult!
Is it possible that he might become an enemy of the rest of the Pasretto family?
But this is Alberto's choice, and Lance will only support him, not deny him.

Everyone has to make choices when faced with a crossroads again and again. They have their own reasons and determination to do so. Others cannot change them, and they are not people who can be changed.

Lance lit a cigarette and exhaled along with the foul air and smoke in his chest.

Lawn drove the car over, and Lance got in and asked, "How's it going at the dock?"

Today is "payday" and in the past few days some workers have been willing to accept the current IOUs and return to work.

This is also the reason why Lance did not fully staff the company with refugee workers, because the terminal management company would definitely still hire a considerable number of these workers.

But some people, under lobbying by the Labor Federation, the General Longshoremen's Union and other unions, tried to continue the strike in protest.

The terminal management company did nothing and simply removed these workers from the worker list.

In other words, these people are no longer dock workers!

They even had people tell the striking workers that if they wanted to receive the previous half month's salary, they would have to sign a "waiver of rights letter."

To put it simply, after signing this "Waiver of Rights", they lose the right to sue or do anything else.

The terminal service company used half a month or more than half a month's salary to completely buy out their right to sue the terminal service company.

No one will definitely sign this, and if they don’t sign, they won’t give out the money!

Lance's men and the police are watching at the dock. If any problem occurs, it must be nipped in the bud!
Senator Cleveland knew this, and everyone knew it, including people in the AFL-CIO and even some workers.

But now, they have no way out!

As Lawn drove, he said, "I heard there was some commotion a while ago, but it's not clear yet."

Lance thought for a moment and said, "Drive the car over, just in front of the door."

The convoy quickly merged into the traffic flow, and at the same time, the atmosphere in the dock had become extremely tense!

Lance provided five thousand jobs, plus there were more than a thousand people who had voluntarily stayed there before, which meant that now one out of every two people could not return to the dock!

Now the initiative is in the hands of the terminal management company. They will not let you come back just because you want to!

They will remove the troublemakers and only keep the good workers.

It is also because of this that many workers who are not accepted by the dock have begun to confront people from the dock management company.

This includes the previous worker representatives!
The bearded man stood in front of the new manager, and the spit from his mouth fell on the manager's face. "Why don't you let me go back to work?"

The manager just looked at him with a fake smile, "You have been fired by the company. You are no longer our employee. There is no place for you here!"

"Fuck, I don't agree with what you're doing!"

The manager took out a handkerchief and wiped the spit off his face. "That's your business. I don't care!"

He was about to turn around and leave when the bearded man suddenly grabbed him by the collar and said, "You can't go anywhere until you figure this out!"

Some other workers, including worker representatives, also started shouting that all these troublemakers should be fired, which they could not tolerate!

The bearded man grabbed the manager's collar like a drop of water falling into boiling hot oil, and the tense situation escalated in an instant!
The dissatisfied employees who were fired overturned the tables used for signing, and some of them even picked up things around them and started attacking those from the terminal management company.

The situation here got out of control in an instant!

The manager was punched in the face, but he wasn't scared at all. "You're going to be in trouble, you know that?"

The bearded man cursed him and gave him an uppercut, which made him almost curl up, feel nauseous and retched.

But he didn't show any sign of giving in, and kept repeating the same sentence - you are in trouble!
The first to arrive were the police. The dock management company might not be a particularly well-known enterprise in the Federation, but in Jingang City, it is one of the very few!

They have a huge influence on the city, and Charlie still needs to rely on their support. How could he refuse their request?

These policemen rushed in quickly with anti-explosion shields and sticks in their hands. They raised the sticks and hit those who were fighting without paying any attention!
In an instant, these troublesome workers started fighting with the police!
A reporter kept pressing the shutter button excitedly.

The weather was good today, and he could capture the changes on the entire pier without any fill light. He knew that he had discovered a big news!

But just as he was mumbling about the press release that would be sent out along with these photos, the camera in his hand suddenly felt inexplicably lighter.

By the time he reacted, it had already been taken away by two young men who looked... a little difficult to deal with.

"No photography allowed here!" One of the young men fiddled with the camera for a while. He had never used this camera before and then asked, "How do I take out the film?"

At this time, the reporter reacted, "Fuck, I'm a reporter from the Novaya Gazeta, you are interfering with my freedom of the press!"

He also tried to grab the camera in his hand. The young man who couldn't find how to take out the film took two steps back, dodged his arm, and threw the camera in his hand to the ground.

This small camera was a very sophisticated instrument at the time, and the people who made it probably never thought it would have such an application scenario.

Therefore, there were not many arrangements made for its drop resistance, which resulted in the camera parts being scattered all over the floor.

He smiled, bent down to find the film, and pulled it all out, "They said this is OK?"

The reporter looked at his actions in disbelief, "What the hell did you do?"

This camera is his most beloved thing. He spent a lot of money to buy it, but now it has been smashed by these bastards!

His face turned red due to the rising blood pressure, and he was about to rush forward in excitement, but suddenly stopped because another young man lifted up his coat, revealing the holster inside.

The Equality Device can awaken most people's rationality at the last moment. He slowly raised his hands and stepped back.

At this time, there was a louder noise in the distance. The reporter suddenly turned his head and looked towards the place where the conflict was breaking out. A large group of young people with red armbands on their sleeves appeared on the dock, carrying the sailing team's baseball bats.

Just like the police, they attacked the workers crazily who were causing conflicts and riots!
These people are more cruel and more unscrupulous than the police!

The originally tense situation changed dramatically in an instant. The workers completely lost the ability to resist and were knocked to the ground!

Some people are still resisting, which will only attract more people to attack!
These people are not police officers, and everyone knows it, but they can't say it.

When he looked back again, a young man had already walked towards the next "reporter", and the one who stayed in front of him stepped on the debris on the ground and gave him a suggestion -

"roll!"

Lance's car was parked outside the dock at this time. He watched the conflict on the dock without any emotional fluctuations.

He actually sympathized with the dock workers before, and even when Senator Williams proposed to kill some dock workers to escalate the conflict, he took the initiative to use other methods to reduce the number of casualties among the workers, although a few died in the end. But if they followed their method, the number of casualties might be even higher.

Group incidents are very difficult to control. Once group emotions erupt, individual rationality will be crushed into pieces under the group's will!

Lance is not a saint, he just feels there is no need to do this. He hopes that these people can stand firmly with him and become his helpers.

But in the blink of an eye, these people gave up standing with him for the sake of profit, just because they can work one hour less every day and get a few dozen points more in salary every month? !

His friendship is not so cheap!
But he was not angry, because these dock workers were just ordinary people.

Ordinary people are around us, and they may act flatteringly and suck up to their leaders.

They may behave in a very bad way, only doing their own job and not asking anything else.

They are keen on taking advantage of small opportunities and can only see some immediate benefits while ignoring the long-term benefits.

These are ordinary people. You can't expect everyone to be smart or rational, so Lance thinks it is normal for them to stand on the other side for that little benefit.

Since they are ordinary people, we can only deal with them using the same methods we use to deal with ordinary people!

These young people who love baseball immediately changed the situation on the dock. Under the siege coordinated by the police, some workers could not bear it any longer.

They began to run outside the dock, and some tried to get inside. Soon the scene was completely under control, and the workers were either pinned to the ground or lying on the ground.

As the whistle sounded, the young people wearing red armbands disappeared from the dock quickly and orderly like the ebbing tide, leaving only the policemen holding shields and batons.

At this time, the reporters who were allowed in began to take pictures frantically. These were reporters found by Senator Cleveland and the Bay Area through connections. They would report what they saw and said "fairly and impartially."

At this moment, all that remained on their camera films were the mighty police and the mob whose riot had failed!
Watching everyone quickly disappear on the dock, Lance raised his hand and knocked on the partition of the cab.

The convoy started slowly and finally left.

The former dock workers lying on the ground wailing formed a sharp and strong contrast with the new dock workers standing in the distance and watching them indifferently!

A "legal reporter" captured this scene. A barbed wire fence separated the two worlds.

On one side was an indifferent expression, and on the other side, his facial features were squeezed together because of pain.

Standing and lying down...

The bearded man who first started the trouble was gasping for breath. He was pinned to the ground by four or five policemen and was being handcuffed.

His head was already bleeding, his eyes were swollen, and there was a black bruise on his cheek.

At this moment, he could no longer speak, even though he felt he was having difficulty breathing!
"It's over!" After listening to the secretary's explanation, the mayor rubbed his temples. "Simple, direct, rough, and reasonable, this is the senator's solution."

He looked at his secretary and continued his analysis, "Lance, the police department, the Bay Area, and the news propaganda, he wants to use this method to tell these people that resistance and struggle are meaningless."

"Ordinary people cannot win a lawsuit against them. From the Attorney General to the Chief Justice, they are all their people. How can they win?"

"By other means?"

"Lance's people have already controlled most of the port area and the entire empire area. This means that if they really want to do something, they must first move out of these two areas!"

“Houses in Jingang City are not cheap!”

"The wealthy people in the Bay Area represent the most stubborn and orthodox forces in the federation. They can connect with all classes, and there is nothing they can do about it."

"They will soon do what they wish, sign, take the money, and accept their fate!"

He smiled and said, "But we are unlikely to use this method, at least not now, because we cannot integrate so much power."

"You can't make the gangs, the police, and the people in the Bay Area listen to you, so you can't do what he did."

"But, Owen, don't lose heart, you can do it one day!"

His secretary's eyes twinkled, "I will work hard in this direction!"

The direction he was talking about was the senator.

The mayor was very pleased with his statement. He turned his head and looked at the bright sunshine outside the window. "I don't have much time left to be active in politics. I've been thinking about something recently. I'll give you a final push."

The secretary showed a sentimental expression. He knew that the mayor had been abandoned by the top leaders and his future was bleak.

Up to now, Senator Cleveland has not contacted him, and there has been no request for him to show up. This shows how badly Congress, or the Socialist Party, perceives him now!
Although they did want to obtain the huge profits from Jingang City, they did not want him to destroy it!

For those in power, all tools only have one chance.

As long as you don't do it well this time or it hurts your hand, there will not be a second time. They will just throw you into the trash can and get rid of you.

Because they have countless tools waiting for them, they don't need to repair or polish their tools like the poor do when they are not convenient to use and continue using them.

If you can't do it, someone else can!
"You go and ask around and send out a press release. Even though we have been marginalized, you still have to do what you should do."

"It's just me who is marginalized, not you!"

Later, the secretary issued a notice on behalf of the mayor, which roughly meant that some former dock workers had a conflict with the dock management company over a dispute.

After receiving the alarm, the Jingangcheng Police Station quickly deployed police forces, quickly resolved the conflict, and arrested the person who first provoked the dispute.

The city hall will investigate them and eventually prosecute them for the crimes they committed…

The dock became completely quiet!

The next day, as newspapers containing relevant news and illustrations began to be printed and sold, more people learned about the small riot that had occurred yesterday through the newspapers.

The official government has characterized this incident as "a riot by unemployed people who are dissatisfied with society" and has emphatically stated that the strike in Jingang City has ended.

Vaughn also appeared in the newspaper. He, Dave and the executive director of the dock management company stood together, holding each other's hands, standing in a way that looked very uncomfortable.

These reports stated that under the arrangement and promotion of the Jingangcheng Dock Workers' Union, the workers' strike issue had been successfully resolved.

The workers have gotten what they wanted and have all returned to work.

The Labor Federation called it "a disgusting conspiracy," but it didn't have much effect, and the national strike they tried to promote was not able to move forward.

For the people, they believe what they see and what the authorities say!

There are indeed many workers working at the dock. If those who were arrested were workers at the dock, shouldn’t there be no one working at the dock now?
Although there may be some twists and turns in this matter, these twists and turns are no longer so obvious.

Even the labor federation soon gave up on continuing to speak for those people.

The federal real economy is not so prosperous now, and many people care about their jobs. Not everyone can empathize with others and pay the price with their own lives and work!

On the other hand, Congress also put a lot of pressure on them, forcing them to handle the matter coldly.

Except for the workers' representatives who were detained and about to be sent to court and prison, and ordinary people who suddenly lost their jobs, for the people of Jingang City, the dock has not changed much from before!

(End of this chapter)