Shadow Empire

Chapter 755 Get them done
Erwin stood across Lance's desk and looked at him, waiting for him to give orders.

All Lance had to do was say a word and he would find a way to stop these goods from entering Likalai State.

Let the state police cooperate and alert them if they find any trucks transporting the solid grape juice. Then they can play the role of the angels of death and overturn all the trucks along the way.

This is just a normal thing for Erwin and the Lance family. After all, they are gangsters, aren't they?

You can't expect gangs to obey the law, otherwise they are not gangs, they are fucking charities!
Lance knew what he was waiting for, but at this point he shook his head, "Just not letting them transport it is not a solution. They will definitely find other ways to get these things in."

"If they don't take the interstate highway, but take the side roads, or even get some Bigfoot or tractors that can travel in the wild, we still can't do anything to them."

"Let me make some calls."

As he spoke, he picked up the phone and dialed the number of Lawrence Farm. The person who answered the phone was Deans, one of the younger ones of William's generation, who was already 39 years old.

He is the manager of Lawrence Farm and the Lawrence family's agricultural product stores in Golden Harbor City and surrounding cities, responsible for the sales of agricultural products from Lawrence Farm and surrounding farms.

However, as the wine business has been fully expanded, the sale of agricultural products has been handed over to other people, and Deans is responsible for the transportation of wine on the farm.

He has rich experience in this area. In the past, the vegetables, eggs, milk and other products produced by Lawrence Farm that were subject to time limits were all transported through him.

So the three old men and Lance were relieved to let him take charge of this matter.

It is worth mentioning that the team responsible for transportation are all cowboys from Lawrence Farm. These cowboys usually seem to be easy to get along with on the farm. They regard the Lawrence family as "lords" and they are civilians living in the fiefdom.

So sometimes they would call the young girls in Patricia's family "Your Highness".

But outside, they are not so easy to approach. Everyone carries at least one pistol, and some may carry two pistols and two long guns.

It's not that no one has tried to target them, it's just that these people have completely disappeared. These cowboys are more skilled at dealing with corpses than Lance and the others, and they know the wild too well.

Knowing where to leave the carcass, it will soon be torn to pieces by predators in the wild.

Dean seemed very happy when he received Lance's call, because the changes brought by Lance were real. Every member of the Lawrence family benefited from it, and they were sincerely grateful to Lance.

And the better Lance develops, the better their future development will be.

Lance has no family here, he is all alone, so many times when he needs someone to "take over", he will choose someone from the Lawrence family.

This is also one of the reasons why the three old men trust Lance very much.

"Why did you find time to call me? Do you want to ask about the production of alcoholic beverages this quarter?"

June is almost here, and maybe Lance has some ideas in this regard. This will definitely be a month of explosive production, and the newly built winery has already started production.

After discussing with Lance, the three old men allowed the surrounding farms to brew some base wine themselves and then asked them to send the base wine over.

Here we add flavors, thickeners, pigments and the like, so that some seemingly worthless wines can become slightly more valuable.

However, the boutique plan has not been abandoned. A portion of each batch of wine will be put into the cellar for aging, and the quantity will increase.

He thought Lance was concerned about the data in this area, so he planned to give Lance the good news.

But Lance interrupted him, "No, wait until July and tell me. I have a question. Do you know any vineyards and their owners in this state, or in the neighboring states?"

“That’s massive!”

Deans was a little curious. "I don't know much about this. You have to ask Schubert. He likes to travel around and knows a lot of people."

"By the way, what's wrong?"

"what happened?"

Lance glanced at the broken grape brick on the table and said, "Someone is destroying our business."

"Are you telling the truth?"

"Fuck, these people deserve to die. Who are they?"

Just through the phone call, Lance could imagine Dean's anger at the moment. He comforted him a little, "I'm looking for them. When I find them, I will make sure they are in trouble."

"Is Mr. Schubert at the farm now?"

"Yes, he is. I saw him this morning."

"Okay, I'll call him and we'll contact if there's anything."

After Lance hung up the phone, he made another call. After waiting for a long time, someone answered the call. It was not Schubert, but an old friend of his.

A role similar to that of a butler, an old cowboy who has worked for the Lawrence family all his life, when he gets older he begins to be responsible for doing things within his ability.

No one will look down on him or people like him. There are many old cowboys like him on the farm, and they are also a force to be reckoned with!
Another four or five minutes passed before Schubert's voice came through the receiver, "They said you had something to talk to me about?"

Lance repeated what he had said to Deans, "I need specific information about our local vineyards and the vineyards in the neighboring state."

Schubert asked, "What are you going to do with them?"

Lance did not hide it, "If they are willing to talk to me, I will talk to them and I can contract their grapes."

"After all, the demand for our drinks is increasing, which is equivalent to everyone making money together."

"But if they don't obey, I won't be so kind as to let them do that even though I know they have offended me!"

Schubert laughed out loud. "I just like your directness, Lance. You're much cuter than those little bastards!"

"These people should be taught a lesson, so that they know whose cheese they moved, damn!"

He cursed a few times and asked Lance to record it.

The south of the Federation is in the subtropics, so many places throughout the south are suitable for growing grapes, with a pleasant climate and, when necessary, dry weather. This is the climate here.

After hanging up the phone, Lance took a look at the information of the dozen or so vineyards he had recorded, and handed it over to Erwin, "Deal with them!"

Lance concluded that these grape bricks were most likely from the local area or surrounding areas.

Because the price is so cheap.

Three dollars. If the distance is too far, the freight will increase and you won’t make any money with three dollars, so they must be in the local area or surrounding areas.

Erwin took the note and nodded, "I'll arrange it as soon as possible." He said and left the room.

Lance took a look at the grape brick, broke it into some more pieces, and rubbed it apart.

He discovered that there were not only grapes in it, but also some other fruits.

The price of grapes is not cheap at all now, about 90 cents a pound, so if this thing is really made of pure grapes, the vineyard owner will definitely lose money.

But if there are some other worthless fruit pieces mixed in, they can at least make a dollar for each brick.

It may not seem like much, but think about it the other way around. This method does not require any complicated techniques or processes, no brewing time, no distillation, and no canning.

You don't even need to give it a nice shell, just wrap it in this oil paper and add a little glue.

Moreover, the quality of the fruit is not adjusted when making wine. It may be that those fruits of poor quality that cannot be sold. The cost price of three tons is only one thousand seven hundred or eight hundred yuan, plus these oil papers and cartons, which is two thousand yuan, but it can be sold for about seven thousand or eight thousand yuan, three or four times the profit!

The most important thing is, this fucking thing is actually legal!
That's enough to drive some businessmen crazy!

What Lance is not sure about now is whether channel dealers like Ligi, Bailide and Roundup are involved.

He picked up the phone again and called Mr. Berman (CEO of Bailidi, who had worked with Lance to blackmail Ligi). Jingang is the most important deep-water port in the Federation, and Mr. Berman has always maintained a good personal relationship with Lance.

He said almost the same thing Deans said when he answered the phone!

"Why did you suddenly remember to call me?"

"Is there something good you can do for me?" The hearty laughter and upward tone made people feel favorable towards this voice. After chatting with him for a few sentences, Lance asked about this matter.

"Recently I found someone selling mixed fruit bricks in Likalai Province." He didn't explain the matter too clearly at once. "It's the kind of fruit bricks that mix a lot of fruit pulp together, and they say that you can restore the juice by stirring it with cold water. Are you involved?"

Mr. Berman immediately revealed what Lance wanted to ask, "Actually, you want to ask about the grape bricks, right?"

Lance coughed, "Yeah, I just don't want us to be awkward with each other."

Mr. Berman smiled and sighed, "Lucky guy!", what he said actually meant that Lance was able to get the franchise.

However, he was also very clear that this could not be achieved by luck alone. There were many things happening behind the scenes that he didn't know about, and Congress was involved.

"We don't get involved in this business, but I know something about it."

Bailide does not have its own factory. All they have are various warehouses and channels. If they want to do the grape brick business, the scale must be large and the initial investment will be huge.

The Prohibition Committee may not be fully aware of this matter yet, or perhaps it is a minor matter and is not taken seriously by Congress.

Once industry monopoly companies like Benzinga begin to join in, Congress is likely to adjust its strategy.

For the senators, all they need is someone to say “I think we should do this…” and then everyone else to nod their heads in agreement for their investment to go down the drain and they may even be fined.

Therefore, they do not intend to rashly get involved in this cross-industry business.

He briefly talked about what he knew, that some places are indeed doing this now, and some people are buying goods from them.

"The price I quoted them was for mixed fruits, which included at least 30% grapes. The price per ton was close to 860 yuan."

When Lance heard this number, he roughly understood what was going on.

Not to mention ten times the profit, eight times the profit is enough for them to take the risk!

"It's not just the vineyards, there are also some businessmen involved." He paused here. He knew what he was waiting for, and Lance also knew what he was waiting for.

He was waiting for Lance to speak up, so that Lance would owe him a favor.

Don’t think that doing this is... bad. It just shows that Lance’s current market situation is good, so his favors are very valuable. Even a big shot like Mr. Berman wants to get his favor!

After the backbone of the Ligi Group was broken, Bailide is now the number one in the industry. Although its market share is similar to that of the Ligi Group and Roundup, its lead is very slight, but it is still a lead.

Lance laughed twice, "Don't worry, it's just a small matter!"

He paused, "Okay, I promise you."

Mr. Berman laughed out loud twice, happy that he had received a favor from Lance. Although he knew that the favor would not be too great, it was at least something.

He gave me a list of several merchants in Lanslikala who bought goods from him, then chatted for a few more words and hung up the phone.

After getting another list, Lance picked up the phone and said, "Let Alan come in."

Soon Alan walked in, "Boss?"

Lance motioned for him to come over to him, then handed him the list in his hand, "Deal with them."

Alan took one look and nodded, "I'll be there as soon as possible."

These people know that the liquor market in Likalai State has been controlled by Lance, but they are still playing this marginal game, which is just gambling.

They bet that Lance wouldn't do anything to them. After all, an 800% profit was enough for them to go crazy.

At the same time, they must have been mentally prepared for what they should do if Lance came to cause trouble for them.

Since they were prepared to endure Lance's wrath, let them enjoy it.

The appearance of grape bricks soon caused quite a stir in Likalai State. For alcoholics, although the alcohol content of the wine was not very high, the quantity of this stuff was large.

What does five liters mean? If you put it in a 750 ml bottle, it would be more than six bottles. Even if it is six bottles, the average price is fifty cents per bottle, which is definitely much cheaper than drinking in a bar!

Many people have purchased grape bricks. They are buying, discussing and looking forward to the moment when grape juice turns into fine grape wine!
To the east of Mantenon there is a city called "Le City", which is a satellite city of Mantenon. Like Valley City and Jingang City, it is responsible for being sucked blood by Mantenon.

The entire Le City is not happy at all. The siphon effect of Maintenon causes the surrounding cities to continuously provide blood transfusions to it, which also causes the scale of Le City to continue to shrink.

Twenty years ago, there were about 300,000 permanent residents here, but now, there are less than 100,000 people.

Most people went to nearby Maintenon, where there were more job opportunities.

After experiencing the prosperity of big cities, those young people would not be able to bear going back to the slow pace of small cities.

What was once considered an advantage by them has now become a disadvantage in their eyes.

But for some people, such a city is actually very good.

It has convenient transportation and transport, and is well connected. Most importantly, labor is cheaper than Maintenon, and it is also very spacious.

The city that used to have a population of 300,000 now has only tens of thousands of people. Except for the city center and some relatively elderly areas, there are not many people anywhere else.

In the suburbs, there is a factory. Trucks go in and out every day and it looks very busy.

The factory is surrounded by the aroma of fruit. Some say it is a beverage factory, while others say it is engaged in the business of feed or something. No one knows the real story.

Anyway, a large amount of fruits are delivered every day, then they are crushed and mixed together, and after a simple dehydration process, they are squeezed into shape, packaged and sold to various regions.

All the assembly lines were fully operational. In the factory director's office, the director, the manager, the boss, and some investors were all excitedly watching the workers packing the fruit bricks and putting them into cartons.

"We sold more than 80,000 boxes yesterday!"

The factory manager said this number a little excitedly!

At twelve dollars a box, the profit is about fifteen dollars.

More than 80,000 boxes, that’s 1.2 million.

After deducting all expenses, taxes and so on, the net profit is about 600,000 or 700,000!
one day!
Six or seven hundred thousand!

The manager was also very emotional, "These are not fruit bricks, we are just printing money!"

“Even money printing is not as fast as ours. The most important thing is that these are all legal businesses!”

Everyone else couldn't help laughing. For example, the factory director held 20% of the shares, and with an income of more than 100,000 yuan a day, he felt that he had reached the pinnacle of his life!

The manager also has 10%, which means he earns tens of thousands every day, and this number will increase.

The boss has the most, but he also wants to share it with others because he is not the only shareholder.

"I suggest we have a toast!" The boss invested five hundred thousand to do this, and it turned out that this bet was right!

In just two days, the investment was recovered, and the rest was pure profit!

No one else refused, so he picked up a bottle of Golden Lion Five-Year Aged Whiskey and poured it into everyone's glasses.

His face was unusually red, but who would care about that at this moment?

"There is a prophet in Maintenon who once told me that the turning point of my life will be this year!"

"I have never been sure what was the turning point that changed my life. Now, we know it!"

“I wish our fruit bricks will be a big hit, I wish our daily net profit will exceed one million, and I wish each of us will become a millionaire. Cheers!”

Everyone's face was flushed with excitement. They clinked their glasses vigorously and drank from the wine in big gulps. It seemed as if a bright and beautiful future was in the wine in the glass!
They raised their glasses and said, "Cheers!"

(End of this chapter)