Shadow Empire

Chapter 752 Compromise and No Compromise
Mr. Marcus is a middle-aged immigrant man in his fifties, and he is considered to be one and a half generations of immigrants.

His parents came here very early, and when he was about four or five years old, they took him from his hometown and settled down in Likale State.

When he came to the Federation, it was the end of the slave emancipation movement in the Federation. Society had become stable again, and dark-skinned people stood on the streets with lifeless eyes looking at the sky.

They gained their freedom, but lost their jobs, adequate food, and a place to sleep.

They weren't sure if this was the freedom they wanted.

This also led to the continuous deterioration of social security, and many things became very bad. Mr. Marcus had been hanging out on the streets when he was a child.

Because of his race and slightly darker skin color, he was not popular among the locals.

The federal people liked to call him "little bastard". He still remembered that there was a silversmith on the street who would affectionately call him "little bastard" every time he saw him, and then kick him.

However, this guy later broke his patella and fingers and became a cripple.

Not long after, he was driven out of the house by his daughter and son-in-law, and eventually died in a roadside sewer.

Mr. Marcus's childhood experiences have given him a deeper empathy for immigrants and dark-skinned people, allowing him to sympathize with them and have a hostile attitude toward federal people.

He won't show it, but he has it.

He seemed very polite when he met Lance. On the one hand, the Lance family had begun to become "popular" in Likalai State, and because of the rise of Lance, the Imperial Gang had begun to become a force that could not be ignored in the underworld of the state.

Lance provided them with money, weapons, alcohol, and even social connections.

The Imperials who continue to come to the Federation will become their fresh blood.

Between having at least half of your monthly income of 40 yuan extorted, and having to carry weapons and eat beef every meal, the new blood in recent years knows how to choose!
They are a force that cannot be ignored, and the pillars of these forces, Lance and his Lance family, are a force that cannot be ignored even more.

As for the other part, it was because Lance was also an immigrant, and it was said that he was an illegal immigrant, and had the same identity as him, so he easily recognized and identified with him.

After they shook hands, they sat down separately.

"Mr. Lance, I've always wanted to come visit you. I had some urgent matters to attend to some time ago, so I asked Zabry to come."

"I'm very sorry, so I came here as soon as I finished what I was doing, hoping to get your forgiveness."

Lance waved his hand, indicating that he didn't care much about this. "Let's skip these parts that we probably don't like and talk about something real."

Mr. Marcus nodded, and Lance continued, "Zaburi should have told you some of my new ideas and plans for Likalai State."

He nodded and said, "Yes, Zabri told me. I think there is no problem. It is completely acceptable."

It wasn't that he really thought there was an explanation, but during this time, the police, state troopers, and agents from the Hazardous Materials Administration had been constantly conducting sweeps in the Bay City where the Marcus family lived.

Those hounds specially trained to smell alcohol are barking in the city every day!

They found boxes of wine and smashed them in front of people, causing the wine to spill all over the floor.

Almost all those small workshops that brewed wine privately were ruined!
Smuggling ships from outside could not come in, and the entire Likale State Coast Guard became incomprehensibly diligent and dedicated, patrolling the sea with high intensity almost 24 hours a day.

This greatly increases the cost of smuggling, and it often takes several ships to get one in.

Although the cost of alcohol is low, when the probability of a successful transaction drops to one-fifth or even lower, its cost is multiplied several times.

It is impossible for the gangs on land to buy these smuggled liquors at several times the price. Over time, the stock of liquor has become less and less, and at the same time, the number of smuggled liquors and small workshops has also become less and less.

If they don't bow their heads, soon all the customers in the city will be snatched away by the Imperial bars. Seeing them making huge profits and putting money that doesn't belong to them into their pockets, Marcus felt a pang of heartache!

He was born into a poor family, and his life has become much more relaxed only in recent years since the prohibition of alcohol. Before the prohibition was introduced, they could make money by relying on the smuggling business which had no threshold, but it was all hard-earned money.

Anyone who has made quick money will find it difficult to return to a life of making slow money; they can’t stand that speed.

After discussion and consultation, the cadres of the Marcus family believed that as long as Lance did not arbitrarily set prices through monopoly, there would be no difference between purchasing goods from Lance and purchasing goods from other places!
This was also one of the reasons that prompted them to compromise.

Mr. Marcus's "simplicity" won Lance's appreciation, "A smart choice, Mr. Marcus."

"I can assure you that our drinks will be supplied to you first to ensure that there will be no problems with your sales."

Mr. Marcus smiled and nodded, "No need to take special care of us, just follow the rules!"

Lance liked his attitude and invited him to have dinner with him, during which they talked about his ideas for the next phase of Likalai State.

"We should not spend our energy on internal friction, with gangs fighting each other for trivial interests."

"After the fight, dozens of people were killed or injured on both sides, and a large amount of money was lost, but in the end, no problem was solved."

Marcus didn't know if he really had that in mind or was just trying to please Lance. He nodded and said, "That's true. Many times, gang fights are meaningless, especially now."

"Alcohol is the most profitable business, bar none."

"At this stage, the size of the territory has little impact on the gang's income."

“Unless it’s large enough to have a neighborhood of at least tens of thousands of people, one more street or one less street won’t make any difference.”

Bars are inclusive and can radiate to surrounding areas, and there is no obvious connection between the bar's business strategy and the region.

If a bar sells cheap drinks, it will definitely attract more people to drink, because poor people have limited money, and in order to save even five cents, they are willing to cross half the city to drink in a bar on the other side.

So for now, the fights and conflicts between gangs are no longer so meaningful.

In the past, the purpose of grabbing territory was to collect protection money, so that the girls controlled by the gangs could appear on better streets.

But now, none of this matters.

Lance nodded slightly, "I think we in Likalai should unite and face the outside world together."

"If they like to fight and start a war, let them do it out of state."

"People from other places sell their wine to our territory, and we can also sell our wine to their territory."

Mr. Marcus was stunned for a moment. He was a little confused. "No offense, Mr. Lance, do you... have so much wine?"

"After being able to supply the entire Likalai State, can we expand outward?"

This was a deliberate lead by Lance. "Soon, Mr. Marcus."

"Soon I will have enough wine to sell. If you are interested, we can discuss cooperation in this regard."

"Also, when you go back, you can tell some of your local wineries that if they still want to continue working, let them come to me."

"I will take a service fee based on their sales, and they can continue to make wine and sell it."

After listening to this, Mr. Marcus nodded and said, "No problem, I will tell them."

He used eating to hide his shock, or any other emotions that were about to be revealed!

Lance's words gave him a great shock. If the wine produced by Lance's family could satisfy the market of the entire state, then how big was his factory?
Mr. Marcus left soon after his visit, taking with him a batch of wine.

His whereabouts were not concealed, and soon people from the Thorn Gang began to contact Lance. The leader of the Thorn Gang also came to Jingang City and discussed the same issue with Lance.

They did not reject the conditions offered by Lance and compromised directly.

During this time, they actually tried to find other suppliers, but whether it was within the state or outside the state, the wine just couldn't be circulated. The state police on the interstate highways led hunting dogs that specialized in finding wine to search one by one, almost cutting off the flow of wine.

Transporting the alcohol by train was very risky and the railway company refused to transport the alcohol.

As for sea transportation...it will eventually have to be transported by land.

After trying many ways to solve the problem and failing, they finally gave up.

After all, although the population business is profitable, not everyone buys those big toys every day. However, in the city, there are always some people who need to drink every day.

In the following period of time, Lance received some large and small workshops in the state, discussed profit-sharing agreements and authorizations with them, and actively prepared the film "Project K".

The name of the movie has been decided. In order to keep it confidential, the name currently used is "Plan K". After the filming is completed, it will be included in a new category - war disaster film, and will be officially renamed "The Raid on Golden Harbor".

You need to keep it a little bit mysterious until you’re done shooting.

At the same time, in Golden State, in a luxurious villa full of nouveau riche flavor, a guy with his clothes open, revealing a thick layer of chest hair, was leaning on the sofa.

His name is Ryans, a minor character from an ordinary background.

He was very tall, about 1.80 meters or even a little taller, which was definitely very tall in that era.

After all, most people's nutrition is not enough, so relatively speaking, about 1.7 meters is a more normal height.

Even though he is only a dozen centimeters taller, when he faces those who are shorter than him, the oppressive feeling brought by this dozen centimeters height is stronger and more direct than other feelings!
Moreover, he was very strong, with obvious signs of exercise, and had a cold attitude on his face. Even if he didn't do anything intentionally, he would give people the feeling that this guy was not easy to mess with.

The decoration in the room is very luxurious, and many decorative materials are covered with gold foil, making the whole house look golden.

Although luxurious, this luxurious temperament lacks a lot of sedimentation, giving people a superficial feeling.

But this is not surprising. The guy sitting on the sofa is the big boss of the Angel of Death. Starting with seven or eight people on a motorcycle, they committed crimes crazily on the interstate highway.

It started out as theft.

They would follow long-distance trucks on their motorcycles, especially at night, and as long as they didn't turn on the lights, it would be difficult for the truck drivers to spot them.

They would climb into trucks and dump their contents out, and they quickly became somewhat of a celebrity on the Northern Interstate.

People tend to be lazy and hate to work. When the knights around found out that this group of people didn't need to work and could maintain their carefree life of eating, drinking and having fun, some people began to try to join them.

The size of the angels of death became larger and larger, and their courage and character became more and more wild.

At first it was just theft, but as the number of members grew, they were no longer satisfied with just stealing goods, so they switched to highway robbery.

After being arrested by the police several times, they simply killed the truck drivers every time and dumped them in the grass on both sides of the interstate highway.

Wild animals in the wild are the best carcass dealers and will deal with those carcasses so that they don't become a problem.

Today, the Angels of Death are a multi-state crime syndicate that is notorious on the interstate highways.

Drivers who encounter them basically have no good ending. They not only want goods, but also human lives.

This has also led to the fact that almost all truck drivers now have to carry weapons when they go on the road, and they cannot be simple cold weapons, but have to be hot weapons, pistols, or shotguns.

But even so, there is still danger. After all, they are being targeted by not just one or two people, but many people.

All the drivers gnashed their teeth when talking about the Angel of Death, hoping that someone could take them all away and take them to hell!

Ryans is only in his forties, but the bad things he has done are far more than those "old seniors" in their sixties and seventies.

This is actually a microcosm of an era. When you don't have anything that can change your identity, status and destiny, being ruthless and desperate become your few options.

At this moment he was looking at a guy in front of him, a guy who was dressed in a suit and looked very straight.

"So...", he said after a long silence, "I have to stop my next act of revenge against Lance?"

He twisted his neck, a defiant expression on his face, "He killed our people, and now we have to stop?"

"Just because...he knows some important people?"

The guy sitting across from him shrugged. "You think I'm consulting with you?"

Without waiting for Ryans to answer, he sneered, "You've been the leader of this gang for too long. You've forgotten who you are, Ryans."

"I don't mean to discuss this with you. I'm just informing you."

There was something creepy in Ryans' eyes. He glanced at the guy sitting opposite him, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

The development of the Angels of Death over the years is not solely due to their own efforts. There are some interest groups behind them cooperating with them.

Think about it, if there were no interest groups colluding to make profits, with the way they acted, they would have been arrested and sent to the electric chair long ago.

The reason why nothing serious happened to them was because there were people behind them.

The goods they looted needed to be sold. These were not just small items worth tens or hundreds of thousands, but stolen goods worth tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars. The antique shops on the corners of the streets could not afford such large orders.

Someone would just take everything from them, along with the trucks and merchandise.

There are also transportation groups cooperating with them. In order to monopolize the transportation market in a region, the capitalists let the Angel of Death target the trucks of some companies.

These robbed transport companies soon ran out of business because the insurance companies refused to provide coverage. Merchants lost their sense of security and in order to avoid losses, they had no choice but to entrust another transport company with higher freight rates, thus forming a de facto monopoly.

A gray industrial chain has been formed around the Angel of Death, and many companies have profited from this chain.

Hundreds of thousands of goods can be purchased at 30% to 40% off, and the profit can be doubled after the resale!

Over the years, transportation companies have relied on them to monopolize the interstate transportation market in many states.

But now, these people are asking him to "stop" because he is confronting Lance.

They are not afraid of Lance, but they do not want to cause dissatisfaction in Congress because of Lance.

Lance's influence in Congress, the Department of Defense, and the military is growing, so they have to make compromises.

This skinny guy was the one they sent to tell Ryans not to target Lance anymore.

The assassination in the center of Xinjin City has been investigated clearly. After all, this is the heart of the Federation. The masters regard their own safety as more important than the safety of the Federation, and soon they figured out some things.

So there was this scene.

Although the action was not directed at Lance, it was just a coincidence and a temporary plan, but this failure also made Ryans a little angry.

The bigger and more prestigious he is, the more he cares about whether there are "challengers".

In order to maintain his own dignity, he has to do it now even if he knows he shouldn't do it.

Because it’s too big!
Tens of thousands of brothers and even more gang members are staring at him, staring at the "Big Boss" in their minds. If he gives in now, his "myth" will be broken by his own hands!
The higher a person stands, the more afraid he is of falling, because the higher he stands, the less place he has to land.

If you fall while standing on the top of a mountain, you may roll all the way down the mountain.

He didn't know how to express this, but he understood this truth. When people in the gang died one after another because of the Lance family, if he didn't stand up, things would become more complicated!
(End of this chapter)