Shadow Empire

Chapter 643 Cook
Lance pursed his lips after reading the document in his hand and put it back.

"Ten thousand dollars," he said the latest price given in the document.

Yes, ten thousand yuan for one acre of land. If someone wants it, they need to line up and pay money to get the land.

Mayor Williams had no expression on his face, but at this moment, having no expression was the most special expression.

Lance felt the murderous intent, and in his eyes, he really wanted to kill these people!
"Do you know...what it cost the month before, in mid-September?"

Lance glanced at the document and read the number on it, twenty-five hundred dollars.

Mayor Williams took a deep breath and said, "Yes, two thousand five hundred dollars, now it's ten thousand."

"A lunatic should be put in a mental hospital instead of being here to interfere with some of my plans!"

He spoke in a heavier tone and coughed twice, he seemed a little agitated.

He took a cigarette out of the cigarette box, lit it irritably, and took a deep breath. "I used to laugh at Sidney secretly at home. I laughed at him for being a fool. He couldn't do this right, and he couldn't do that right either."

His expression was somewhat exaggerated when he said these words, and he also made some movements with his hands to deepen the context of his words, allowing Lance to feel the arrogance and mockery he showed when he laughed at Sidney in the room.

His raised hands slowly lowered, and his shoulders relaxed, "But now, Lance."

"I finally understood that it wasn't that he was too stupid, or that he couldn't do it well, it was that the problem was too big."

"Even if he was a mayor, of course I am the same person now as he was then, and we face the same problems."

“Even though we are all mayors, we are facing the entire city’s interest groups, and we are fighting against them!”

He raised his wrist and turned it outward to reveal his palm, and pointed his finger at the document in front of Lance. "In fact, not everyone wants to go against me. Some people did not take the initiative to raise the land price."

"But when they found out that some of the landowners around them were offering 5,000 yuan, even if they didn't want to go against me, they stood against me."

"Profits have kidnapped them. To gain more profits, they have to stand against me."

"It's 10,000 now. How much will it be in a while?"

"Fifteen thousand?"

"Twenty thousand?"

"Fake!"

It only takes a small number of people to create a trend that these lands are worth a lot of money, and those people will continue to hold the land.

They have unknowingly become bargaining chips for interest groups and city hall. They actually know that they have become bargaining chips, but they are willing to do so.

They don’t need to do anything. They just need to continue to play their greedy and innocent roles to gain more benefits. Why should they “wake up”?
Once land prices rise too high, whether the city hall intends to reclaim the land or new investors want to invest here, they will face huge investment costs.

The consumption capacity trend of Jingang City will not increase much due to the increase in land prices here.

Moreover, the new tax law will soon be implemented. People's income may increase to a certain extent, but their disposable income will decrease.

Previously, federal tax laws required ordinary people with monthly incomes below $100 to pay no tax, but the new tax law stipulates that even if a federal citizen earns only one cent a month,

Then he also has to pay three percent tax!

In other words, based on people's current income of around 40 yuan, they need to pay at least 8% in taxes every month.

If someone has more than fifty bucks, that's even better, twelve percent is waiting for you.

In this case, investors in the new district will consider a question: they have invested so much fucking money in the most basic land, how can they recover this investment and make a profit?
The end result was that people began to wait and see, his plan became ridiculous, and he became a joke in the city like Sidney, and eventually he had to compromise with the interest group he once belonged to.

Before he became mayor, he didn't expect it to be so difficult.

Only after he became mayor did he realize how much pain Sidney was in at the time.

Lance shook his head. "It looks like this is the only way."

In fact, the federal government has considered the possibility that capitalists may enclose large tracts of land and then do nothing to wait for the land price to rise and make huge profits, so they have made many regulations.

For example, how many square meters of building should be built, how many workers should be hired, and how much output value should be created.

But these things can't stop the capitalists at all. After all, the fact that these bills can be passed means that they have no objection -

They built simple warehouses on vacant land and ensured that there were enough bungalows in the building.

They hire some retired elderly people according to the standard and only need to pay them one-third of the salary of ordinary people.

As for output tax and the like, they have plenty of ways to fulfill the various requirements of the city hall through fake transactions.

It can be said to be false... but actually it cannot be considered false. As a part of the entire "circulation" link, the factory has high costs and small profits.

Output values ​​do not include costs.

If they take into account the costs, they may still lose money. When the company's net profit is negative, the tax bureau is embarrassed to ask them for taxes.

Especially when local prices are manipulated by them, even a little loss is acceptable in the face of the huge profits that will be generated.

Mayor Williams knows all too well about this stuff, so he never thought of using legal means to solve the problem from the beginning, because it can't be solved.

He could only turn to Lance for help.

Lance scratched his head, "This will make me offend a lot of people."

He pursed his lips. It was not that he couldn't do it, but it depended on whether the price was high enough.

If there was no income, he would offend the entire city. Even if Mayor Williams had a good relationship with him, he would not agree to it.

We just have a good relationship, but he is not his father.

Mayor Williams is obviously well aware of this. Even if Lance is really his son, he may not be able to do so much for him, so everything is still based on the most naked interests.

"Some of them were willing to relocate, but they were held hostage by these people with the ever-increasing land prices, and were forced to stand against us."

"We should convince these people if we can. We have no conflicts. When they realize that they can't earn that much, they will give up."

"As for the other part..." He hesitated for a moment, "Since they are already on the opposite side of us, then swallow them up."

Lance pulled out a cigarette, took a puff, and the smoke filtered through his lungs before coming out of his nose.

He knew what Mayor Williams meant by "swallowing", including their lives, souls, and their property, everything, put into the stomach.

To put it in a more civilized way, that means putting them on the table.

The expansion of the city represents more opportunities, and there are so many new friends looking forward to joining the feast and sitting at the table to enjoy a sumptuous dinner.

Until someone vacates a new seat, they can only watch others eat the delicious food with big mouthfuls, and can only get some oil from the cleared plates.

They seem to have clear eyes and simple behaviors, but if they are given the opportunity to sit at the table, they will become loyal lackeys of the decision makers.

They will bite those people more fiercely than anyone else.

Lance nodded, "Now that you've made your decision, do it!"

“When do we start?”

Mayor Williams licked his lips and said, "Wait a minute. I'll let James talk to them. I hope we can resolve this in a civilized manner before we take action. If they fail to live up to my goodwill, then we can only do this."

"After the Chinese New Year, it should be about the same."

Lance nodded, "Okay, let's finish the New Year then."

This matter is crucial and is also the core of whether Mayor Williams can complete his policy agenda. He did not discuss the issue of profit distribution with Lance, which is essentially telling Lance that he will eat first.

No matter how he eats, or even if his appetite is good enough, he can eat it all! This is his attitude, let Lance eat first.

Lance didn't talk to him about any of that, as it would have made him look small-minded.

After the matter was settled, Mayor Williams was obviously relieved. He took a final puff of his cigarette, and a look of sudden embarrassment appeared on his face.

These embarrassments came so suddenly, so suddenly that Lance didn't even know what was happening or how to deal with it.

Mayor Williams laughed awkwardly twice, which made Lance a little overwhelmed. "You'd better tell me what happened. I'm a little worried about you like this."

Mayor Williams had a variety of expressions, first embarrassed, then ashamed, finally sighing, and finally some resentment.

"I really don't know what to say, Arthur and yours..."

"Corinda," Lance reminded that Mayor Williams would not remember the name of such a "small character", even if she was his son's girlfriend.

In fact, Lance already had a premonition when he talked about this matter, and he had told Corinda about it before.

That boy Arthur was not a good choice because no matter how much they loved each other, there was no way Kolinda would marry into the Williams family.

Unless she is Lance's biological sister, it is impossible!
This is no longer a gap between the upper and lower classes, this is a gap with many classes in between.

The Federation people are very realistic, much more realistic than rumored, unless Arthur is willing to give up everything he has.

Privilege, inheritance, wealth, everything, without which he would never have been able to marry Corinda.

But will he give that up?

Lance stared at Mayor Williams, who could only sigh at Lance's gaze, "He didn't know how to say it. He broke up with that girl."

He added more emphasis as he spoke, "It was a peaceful breakup, there are no other issues."

"But he was worried that you would beat him up, so he asked me to tell him about it."

蓝斯因为有了心理准备，所以也没有什么太强烈的反应，他只是点了点头，“年轻人的爱与恨往往就是一瞬间起，一瞬间灭，这很正常，我不会揍他。”

Arthur was still quite afraid of Lance.

Mayor Williams was relieved to see that Lance didn't lose his temper, "You can beat him up."

Lance waved his hand, "I warned her too, but... you know, when love comes, even a wall is useless, so don't worry."

People say that Mayor Williams loves his youngest son the most. It seems that this statement is true. He would tell Lance about this kind of thing in person, which is an obvious favoritism.

But it is a pity that Arthur was born too late, otherwise it would not be James but him who inherited the future of the Williams family.

Perhaps James is also very clear about this. It is simply too late to train Arthur now, so he never targets Arthur. Instead, he behaves like an older brother everywhere and protects this younger brother who always makes mistakes.

After coming out of the City Hall, Lance took a walk around the naval base, which became a little more prosperous.

The soldiers have begun to adapt to the environment here, and the base also allows them to move around in a limited manner.

This made the area around the naval base a lot more lively, and there were also many more girls prostituting themselves on the street.

Some of them were really forced by life and would have no food to eat if they didn't do this job, such as the refugees he asked Carl to organize to respond to the call.

There are too many hungry people in the refugee group. Those who have never been hungry will never know how important and happy it is to have enough food for those who are hungry.

Some just want to make money more easily.

When Lance rescued the girls in Red High Heels, except for a few who already had stable jobs and lives, the rest of them went back to being call girls.

They can't stand the high-intensity work on the assembly line for eleven or twelve hours a day and only get such a small salary every month.

They have long been accustomed to finding a place to lie down and making a few hypocritical calls to earn in a day what others earn in a month.

Lance had talked about this with a friend before. That friend was in this business. He asked, are ordinary people forced to do this?

His friends told him that there was almost no need.

There is a change of mentality in everyone's heart, and he will recruit many young girls to work in his company.

They are all normal jobs with decent income, but the life is not easy.

At the beginning, almost all girls didn't think about going further, but when they found out that they only earned three or four thousand yuan a month after working so hard, while those girls who were willing to go one step further could earn several thousand yuan in tips a night, they fell into the trap.

You can't compare, if you do, you're doomed.

They will consider taking another step forward. After all, they are just entering the room and not really doing anything, and their income can be increased a lot.

Some people try to do this, and then they succeed, as if they have passed from one class to another.

In a high-income environment, they began to consume without plans and started to experience a better life that they had never experienced before. They are no longer as simple as before.

When they realize that as long as they are willing to take one more step forward, one or two million a year will be a piece of cake, they can't stop.

From the moment they stared into the abyss, they had actually entered the abyss.

So there is no need to force them, they will even move faster than others think!

Just like at this moment, Lance can already imagine that it won't be long before sexual transactions will become the most mainstream trade here.

Compared to letting ordinary girls do this, he actually prefers to let refugees do this. At least they really need money to support their families, rather than needing money to squander.

The news of the Federation's garrison in Jingang City spread quickly, and some reporters filmed their daily training. After a period of silence, the Republic of Dantra once again made its final request.

Demand that the federal government immediately cancel the garrison plan and close the Golden Port Naval Base.

But obviously, this is impossible.

This was related to the next stage of plans of the federal government and Congress. The Dantra Republic subsequently officially announced the severance of diplomatic relations with the Federation, and warned the federal government that if the federal navy appeared in the waters near the Dantra Republic, they would regard this action as a "declaration of war."

This fierce reaction just satisfied both Congress and the Presidential Palace.

In fact, the federal government is now very "arrogant". They all hope that the Dantra Republic will declare a state of war. This "passive response" can make them gain a relatively better impression among the people.

No one likes a warmongerer who starts a war, so to start a war, they must let the enemy take action first, so that they don't have to bear the accusation of "actively provoking a war."

Many people have already thought of what is going on. All they need to do is create a "misunderstanding" and then enter a state of war.

Although the storm has not come, the oppressive feeling of dark clouds pressing down to a place within reach has already arrived.

In November, there are recruitment sites of the Ministry of Defense in every city. Native federal residents are not particularly keen on joining the army, but it is different for illegal immigrants and refugees.

They are all signing up enthusiastically, especially the army, which has a large number of signups.

Some people analyzed that the Federation would not send troops to Tanfit, so the idea that the army was safer led to an explosion in the number of new army recruits.

Even near the refugee concentration area in the New Port District of Jingang City, there are many recruitment points.

However, there have also been some social activists active near the recruitment points. They advocate the concept that "refugees are not consumables" and hope that their fellow refugees can treat this matter rationally.

Overall, it is of little use, but it is just a scenic spot near the recruitment point.

With the arrival of December, the temperature has approached zero degrees, with occasional snowflakes.

After more than a month of fermentation and preparation, the bidding for some government projects in the new urban area has ended, but new problems are also facing them.

How and when to demolish the old industrial areas.

(End of this chapter)