Shadow Empire

Chapter 792: Frightened Bird and Railway Construction
"Are you... Roger from the Imperial Chamber of Commerce?" The young man's expression seemed a little strange.

They had just encountered Lance's "kindness", and now Roger came to their door and said he wanted to call the police. It was hard for him not to have other associations.

Roger didn't know what was going on here. He nodded and said, "Yes, I'm Roger from the Imperial Chamber of Commerce."

"Why, do you know me?"

He didn't know that these young people had just arrived here. He thought this young man had been working here all the time, so he thought it was normal for someone to know him.

The Imperial Chamber of Commerce has been operating in the grain business recently, and several successful investments have made many people aware of this potential and low-key chamber of commerce.

There was nothing wrong with Roger's question, but in the young man's ears, he seemed to feel that Roger's words were suggestive.

He looked into Roger's eyes, then stood up. "This matter is very important. I need to report it to the director."

Roger would naturally not refuse, "Should I just wait here?"

He looked around. This was the front desk. There wasn't even a place to sit down. His first impression of this FBI was already very bad!

The young man quickly took him to the reception room next door, poured him a cup of coffee, and then went to Director Derek's office to repeat what happened.

Director Derek also frowned after listening to this. A storm had begun to brew in his mind. Now he was thinking whether this was another test from Lance or something else.

In short, it is absolutely impossible that he called the police for no reason. He must have a purpose in asking Roger to do this.

Before coming to Jingang City, Director Derek had already obtained information about Lance, the Lance family, and the situation around Lance through some channels.

He knew very well that Lance was behind Rogerev. Without Lance's instructions, Rogerev would never have come here to call the police.

But now no matter what the reason is, no matter what Lance is doing or thinking, they can only deal with it.

"I'll be the one to receive them, you stay by my side."

Soon Roger met Chief Derek.

Chief Derek is worthy of being a former prosecutor. He is very active and does not seem to be here to do official business at all.

As soon as he entered the door, he shook hands with Roger Eff enthusiastically, then sat on the sofas on both sides, and boasted a few words about the brilliant achievements made by the Imperial Chamber of Commerce under Roger Eff's leadership.

This immediately gave Roger a much better impression of Chief Derek. This was what a mature official should do, instead of being cold and ignorant!

As the conversation progressed, the atmosphere between the two became much better. It was then that Chief Derek turned around and asked, "I just heard from my subordinates that you are here to report the incident to the police?"

Mrs. Roger is old, and sometimes she forgets the important things when she is chatting. He patted his head and said, "Look, I almost forgot the important things again."

"The situation is this, I did come to call the police."

“Some people have contacted me recently…”

He recounted what he had experienced and his own speculations. "As a citizen of the Federation, what I hate most is people and things that sell out national interests. The fact that these people have been active in the Federation for a long time must mean that someone has sold out certain national interests to them."

"Chief Derek, Mr. Lance recommended you to me, saying that you are a responsible, reliable, and capable government official, so I came here instead of going somewhere else."

Chief Derek nodded. "I am here too. What you said is very important to us. I will deal with it immediately."

"Now we need you to add some details, such as these people's names, appearances, and where they often appear."

After waiting for a long time, Roger said he had had enough and left. Director Derek personally sent him away and came back to take a look at the notebooks that recorded these materials.

Several young men came over and looked at him with some concern.

Chief Derek looked at them in amusement, "Why, worried about some kind of trap?"

They all nodded, with worried looks on their faces.

Director Derek shook his head and said, "This is not a trap. It is very likely a gesture of goodwill, a test."

"Now is a war, and espionage cases will be given a very high priority. If we solve a espionage case right after taking office, even if it is not a true espionage case."

"We can also stand out in many precincts, which is very tempting for some people with strong utilitarianism."

"Don't forget Dale."

He mentioned Dale. In fact, they also knew about Dale's situation and that he had joined Lance after being silent.

If Lance hadn't used his connections in the Prohibition Committee to get Dell to the State Prohibition Committee, this guy would have disappeared somewhere long ago.

The main controllers and executors of any strong law enforcement agency will most likely not have a good ending once they leave their jobs and lose their power.

No matter how glorious they were when they were in office and how many great things they accomplished, these things will pile up and take revenge on him when he loses power.

So it is understandable that Dale would turn to Lance for power. Now that Lance is testing him in this way, he is not surprised.

"Okay, don't think about those things for now. Your next job is to investigate these people and these things."

"We need to confirm whether these clues are true first. If they are true and we have certain evidence, we can make the arrest."

The youngest handsome boy among the five couldn't help but ask, "Are we really going to work for him?"

Chief Derek refuted his statement, "You are wrong. This is not working for Lance, but for the Federation."

"These spies are not Lance's spies. Lance will not benefit from our arresting them. He just wants to test our attitude."

"Besides, he offered the credit to you on his own initiative, so why not take it?"

"When our strength is far inferior to theirs, the best way is to prevent them from thinking that we are a threat to them."

"Only in this way can we successfully complete our mission..."

The FBI quickly began to arrange an investigation. These things could not be hidden in Jingang City. Lance just nodded after knowing it.

This shows that Chief Derek is not a rigid person. Since he is not rigid, next time, Lance will create more direct contact opportunities with the other party, such as meeting and chatting.

The Holy Farmer's Day is getting closer and closer, and the three old men have made several phone calls to ask Lance and the others to go back on time.

The Lawrence family is growing larger and larger, making the three old men the most prominent among the farmers in Likalai State!
Especially those wineries standing on the farms, which have been connected together, and the aroma of fermenting lees can be smelled from afar.

To ordinary people, this might be wine, but to those who are a little smarter, they know that this is fucking money!

Turn food into money many times over!
My eyes are fucking red!
It is said that during this period of time, the cowboys have killed several groups of vagrants who intended to steal something from the winery. They did not hand them over to the police, but were shot to death by the cowboys and thrown into the wilderness. Within a few days, only skeletons were left, or even no skeletons were left.

In mid to late October, Lance returned to Lawrence Farm with his family ahead of schedule. It is said that more members of the Lawrence family have returned this year!

There was another reason for going back early. Patricia's belly was already very big and looked bulging.

According to the estate’s private medical team, Patricia is expected to give birth in late November to mid-December.

In other words, Lance will soon be a father.

So this trip will be a little slower than before. We won’t drive the car back in one breath. Instead, we will drive for a while and then take a break.

The journey was supposed to take two and a half days, but this time it took five days to get there.

When Lance saw the sign of "Lawrence's Farm", he also saw the people waiting for them under the farm sign.

A lot of people came, several from William's generation, and some of Patricia's cousins ​​and sisters.

Old man Schubert was also waiting on the roadside on horseback with his old butler. There was no need for so many people to come, because from here, from the farm gate to the farm, it was about ten kilometers away.

But they just wanted to welcome Lance and William.

Lance's liquor business grew bigger and bigger, and they made more and more money following suit.

Whether a family in the Federation is powerful or not depends entirely on how much wealth they have! The convoy stopped at the door, and Lance and William got out of the car, as well as Patricia and Emily.

Schubert dismounted from his horse and came to Lance. He looked at him carefully for a while before giving him a hug with a smile. "You look much stronger than last year. This is a good sign."

"Thanks to you, everyone is having a good time now. If I hadn't been holding them back, more people would have come!"

Lance also said a few humble words, and then greeted William's brothers and sisters, as well as Patricia's brothers and sisters.

The large group of people did not continue driving back. Instead, they got a modified carriage for Patricia, which was equipped with shock-absorbing features and had soft couches in the carriage, so sitting on it was not bumpy at all.

The others were riding back on horseback.

William also had his own horse, and so did Emily, but she hadn't ridden one for a long time and she had to take care of little Victor, so she went back in a carriage with Patricia.

It is already the harvest season, and there are farm machinery and workers everywhere. The golden ears of wheat form waves under the blowing wind. At a glance, it feels as if you are in the sea.

I feel that the world is so vast, and humans are so small.

Lance watched for a moment before shaking the reins again and catching up with the team.

He wasn't too worried about security right now because he had noticed that there were at least seventy or eighty, and possibly more, cowboys with guns roaming around them.

These cowboys were born on the Lawrence farm.

Some were born in the town, but almost the entire town worked for the people on Lawrence Farm, or rather, it was the parents of these cowboys, the farmers who worked on the farm, who lived together and formed the town.

So they have been part of the farm since they were little.

What’s interesting is that many of these cowboys are semi-illiterate, but it doesn’t matter because they don’t need to master too much knowledge. They have been working for the Lawrence family since they were young and will continue to work until they are too old to work anymore.

Their children, and their children's children, will continue to work for the Lawrence family, generation after generation.

The loyalty fostered in this environment enables them to pull the trigger even when facing government troops.

So Lance didn't worry about his safety at all, these cowboys were his guarantee of safety.

It was already afternoon when they returned to the farm, and Lance and the others got something to eat first.

Things on the farm are just fresh, but of course it might also be a psychological effect.

After eating, Patricia began to feel sleepy. The doctor said it was normal. Emily accompanied her to rest, while Lance went to inspect the winery.

"More houses are being built. We don't plan to build new factories too high, just enough so that we can open up more land and build more farms."

Old man Schubert has gone to take care of his own business, and now the one accompanying Lance is Hubert, who is currently in charge of the overall affairs of the winery.

"Recently, the Likalai State Agriculture Committee called me and said that we are not allowed to use too much grain for brewing, and they will send an investigator soon, after the Holy Farmer's Day."

Lance frowned, "Because of the war?"

Hubert shrugged. "I can't think of any other reason than this, but I'm not going to listen to them."

Now, basically 70 to 80 percent of the crops produced by the entire farm that can be used for making wine are sent to the winery.

Just as Lance had said to Mr. Cassia before, a ton of grain only costs a few hundred dollars, but a bottle of good Golden Lion whiskey is worth five or six hundred dollars, or even seven or eight hundred dollars.

One ton of grain can’t make a bottle of wine?

No, one ton of grain can produce at least hundreds or thousands of bottles of wine, which means a profit difference of hundreds or thousands of times.

The Agriculture Committee is concerned that too much grain is being used to make wine, causing grain prices to rise.

The temperature is about to drop. Once winter comes, the price of food will become more expensive. Many people will starve to death in winter because they cannot afford food.

It sounds incredible that in such a developed country like the Federation, people would starve to death in winter?
In fact, people can starve to death not only in winter, but also at any time.

In other countries, if you can't afford food, you may have other ways to survive, but in the Federation, if you can't afford food, you can only wait to die, especially for those living in cities.

They are not like the farmers here who always find a way to get something to eat.

If you can't afford food in the city, you either have to rob, steal, or beg.

Lance thought for a moment and said, "Leave this matter to me."

Hubert did not refuse. "I heard that you have a good relationship with people in the state government?"

Lance smiled, "There is a connection."

This made Hubert very emotional. He didn't know which ancestor of the Lawrence family had come up with the idea, but they finally got better.

They took a long tour of the winery, and Lance even went to see the cellars, where a large number of wine barrels filled one cellar after another.

These genuine aged wines have been aged for many years when they come out.

If it has been aged for two years, it will be labeled as five years.

If it has been aged for three years, it should be marked as seven years.

Those that can really be aged for five years, at least twelve years. If you sell a bottle for less than two thousand yuan, it's simply not worth the five-year time cost!
For example, those that have been aged for a year will become Silver Lions in the future. He plans to completely widen the gap in the grades of liquor. Now the gap between Bronze Lion, Silver Lion and Gold Lion is not big enough, and there are still some problems with the selling price.

In the future, Golden Lion Whisky will basically not be sold to ordinary bars. He wants to make these wines into "luxury goods".

The wealthy people in the upper class of the Federation have completely different perceptions of things and consumption habits from the poor people at the bottom of society who pursue cost-effectiveness.

As long as it suits their taste, they can accept a bottle that costs more, let alone two thousand yuan. Moreover, they will really drink it, not just collect it or something.

In the factory, Lance also met Lake (the winemaker), who seemed to be in good spirits and was surrounded by several young people.

Because Lance helped his father get justice, he started working for Lance, so it can be considered a mutual achievement.

At the same time, Lake also told Lance that he was going to get married soon, to a girl on the farm.

Lance asked him to tell him before getting married that he would definitely come.

After turning a circle, it was almost dark, and when we returned to the farm it was just in time for dinner.

At the dinner table, Lance brought up another matter.

"I'm going to build a railroad."

As soon as he said this, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him.

Building a railway is not an easy task, and it is not cheap.

Lance put down his knife and fork and wiped his mouth. "The road to the farm is really not easy to walk on. It's all compacted mud. It's okay when it doesn't rain, but it will be very troublesome once it rains."

"Our business is growing, and we have to consider shipping and purchasing all the time, so I plan to build a section from the farm to the main railway line."

"Then we will load the goods directly from the farm and send them directly to Jingang City by train. Then we will send them to the whole state, the whole country, and even the whole world!"

"I will pay for the railway construction, so you don't have to bear the cost. What do you think?"

The three old men lowered their heads and discussed for a while, and they all agreed with Lance's idea. With the train, travel would be more convenient.

As for whether it will affect life in the countryside?
A farm this big doesn’t necessarily have to be built next to a farmhouse.

Soon it was confirmed...

(End of this chapter)