Empire of Shadows

Vaughn left quickly with the good news, remembering to pay for his three-dollar lunch before he left.

Perhaps that was why he was willing to eat at the small diner; it wasn't too expensive.

He just hoped that the people from the General Confederation of Trade Unions and the Labor League wouldn't be scared by the excellent "security" of Goldport City.

Red Heel's demise also foreshadowed that the two sides were one step closer to a "decisive battle."

Lance heard two gunshots coming from the port area on the way back.

Recently, there had been constant gunfire in the port area. The fall of the Brothers' Gang hadn't made Bill the biggest beneficiary, which was the funniest thing.

Many gangs were watching the Red Dog Gang's jokes. Those rapidly rising neighborhood families and foreign gangs were quickly encroaching on the vacant territory in the port area, and even beginning to test the Red Dog Gang's territory.

He hoped Bill and his people could hold on. This was a tough battle. He wondered if they had learned how to shoot while they were pimping.

When Lance returned to the office, he saw Johnny standing outside the door. Johnny looked even more haggard.

He slapped his forehead, forgetting about this matter. He had originally planned to hire a lawyer to sue Johnny for not repaying the money. According to the procedure, the court would support Lance's claim and auction off his house to repay the debt.

It was just that some sudden events had prevented him from responding in time, and he had almost forgotten about it if he hadn't seen Johnny.

"Mr. Lance, I'll transfer the house to you..."

Johnny mustered great courage to say this, because it was all the glory and confidence he had in his life up to this point.

He had a failed family, a failed upbringing, and a failed marriage. The only proof that made him feel that he wasn't a complete failure was that storefront and his bakery.

Now, he was going to lose it forever.

He didn't dare gamble on whether the bank would sell his house for a thousand dollars or so. This was his only option.

Lance seemed to give him a choice, but in reality, he didn't give him any choice at all, just like when he decided to embezzle Lance's salary, he didn't give Lance a choice or a way out.

Looking at the document bag in Johnny's hand, Lance showed a sincere smile on his face, "I'm glad you made the right decision, Johnny. When the house is transferred to the company's name, everything will be over."

Johnny was a little dazed and stunned. His lips moved slightly a few times, "Everything will be over."

Lance repeated affirmatively, "Yes, everything is over, and everything will be fine."

He called a lawyer, and Lawyer Robben came over quickly. After reading all the documents, he drafted a contract, asked both parties to sign it, and also asked Lance to give him a power of attorney. He would work with Johnny to complete the transfer procedures.

For this, Lance needed to pay him seventy dollars. This was the smallest fee Lawyer Robben had charged since he met him!

Lance found the small amount a bit unbelievable!

Robben didn't seem to mind telling the truth, "I'll keep fifty dollars for myself, and then give a rookie twenty dollars. He'll do a better job than me!"

Lance looked at Lawyer Robben's shameless appearance and was speechless, "You're not lying."

"I never lie!" Lawyer Robben quickly added, but meeting Lance's gaze, he seemed to realize that saying that was problematic, and then added, "Unless it's for work."

Looking at his brazen appearance, Lance was about to let him leave, but then he thought of something, "I have a friend who plans to go to university to study law. Is there any way to get him in?"

Lawyer Robben was stunned for a moment. He frowned, "You're asking me to smash my own rice bowl."

But his brows quickly relaxed, "Even if a lawyer graduates from university smoothly, he still has a long way to go before he can independently handle Mr. Lance's cases."

"Ten thousand dollars, and I'll write him a recommendation letter. I guarantee he can get in."

"I don't lie. I'll keep two thousand for myself, and eight thousand is for others."

He didn't forget to add, "You can pay me in cash."

Lawyer Robben had many connections. Just getting someone into university, whether or not a high school diploma was needed, was irrelevant to those who wielded power.

It wasn't something everyone could do!

After agreeing on the payment time, Lance returned to the office and called Rogerfu (an old member of the Imperial Chamber of Commerce), "Rogerfu, do you know Johnny?"

"...Yes, it's Johnny from Johnny's Bakery. His shop is mine now. Ask the people in the chamber of commerce if anyone is willing to do a little business there."

"Yes, only limited to our chamber of commerce members. Either pay a fixed monthly rent, or pay a percentage of the income. Ten percent below five hundred, five percent above five hundred..."

Cut them off completely?

No, this was benevolence, even generosity!

At least, Lance didn't want his life and even let him take his remaining few hundred dollars and leave, didn't he?

Lance believed that someone would soon inquire about the situation of this shop, and they would pay the rent according to the percentage.

The reason was simple: to minimize costs.

After handing this matter over to Rogerfu, he didn't care anymore. He would have more similar resources in the future to share with the people in the Imperial Chamber of Commerce. He wanted to organize the Imperial Chamber of Commerce into the largest comprehensive business group dominated by Imperials within the Federation!

Perhaps in the short term, it was just a "small worm," but Lance believed that with the emergence and explosion of opportunities, the Imperial Chamber of Commerce would eventually play an important role on the stage of the Federation and even the world.

Later in the day, Hiram came to the company with twenty or so young people.

"Is the Boss in?"

He asked.

The girl Corinda pointed to the office door, "He's on the phone inside."

Hiram knocked on the door. Hearing Lance's response, he opened the door and poked his head inside. Lance was sitting in the chair, looking a little displeased.

"We discussed this matter before. We agreed to wait until at least the second half of the year before raising prices..."

"I know, but my liquor is selling at a lower price than others. We talked about this before I left!"

"I'll help you promote it, and even recommend people to buy goods from you..."

"But now you're playing this game with me?"

He said with a tone that was already a little impatient, but it could be seen that he was still forcibly enduring his emotions while holding the receiver.

After about a minute or two, he suddenly said, "To hell with your friendship!" After the last sentence, he slammed the receiver onto the base of the phone.

Hiram knew that now was not the time to bring the newbies in. He went out first, let the newbies look around and wander around, and then returned to the room alone and closed the door.

"Lance, what happened?"

Lance had just lit a cigarette and was playing with a matchbox in his hand.

He used his index finger and thumb to pinch a corner of the matchbox, then flicked the matchbox outward, adding a little force when the matchbox was about to slip out of his hand, pinching it, and then sliding it down, repeating this action.

This was just a subconscious behavior, just like people who like to play with lighters have various ways to play with lighters (only using their hands, not involving other organs).

Although he didn't like matches, he didn't like the smell of kerosene either, so he could only play with matches.

"Luigi's liquor is going to increase in price," he glanced at Hiram, "We're almost sold out of our liquor. I plan to order another batch, and he told me that the price has increased now."

Hiram walked to the opposite side of Lance, pulled out a chair, and sat down, "Didn't we agree with him last time on six months and 800,000 worth of goods?"

Last time they went to Yalan, Lance and Luigi talked about him ordering at least three batches of goods from Luigi within six months.

The prices were 200,000, 300,000, and at least 300,000.

Luigi agreed very readily at the time, saying that he was willing to give Lance a cheap price in order to develop the smuggling liquor market in the Federation.

As a result, the first batch was almost sold out, and Luigi didn't plan to fulfill his promise.

There was actually another reason for this.

The issuance of the Federal Prohibition Law caused the whole world to discover that the huge profits from smuggling liquor into the Federation were far higher than other things.

No matter what you smuggled into the Federation, it was not as good as sending a case of liquor over there. Even those who smuggled people were now secretly transporting liquor when they had nothing to do.

When the profit of a business exceeds people's psychological tolerance, they will frantically pour into this industry.

Except for those that were too far away and not cost-effective, many gangs and even countries in Yalan were already smuggling into the Federation on a large scale.

Luigi originally thought that this market needed to be cultivated and maintained, but he didn't know that after the implementation of stricter Prohibition measures, the smuggling liquor market instantly exploded!

The federal government helped them light a fire, and the profits of smuggling liquor continued to double.

The current situation was that Luigi could earn two or three times the money by selling liquor to others, but Luigi could only earn one times the money from Lance.

From the perspective of a capitalist, this was not actually earning less, but losing money!

Compared to the higher quotes given to him by others, he didn't want to do business with Lance anymore.

The Sumuli people were a monolithic force to the outside world, but there were also many factions within. The faction that Luigi belonged to and the faction of Mr. Pasreto were not the same thing. He didn't have to give Mr. Pasreto face at all.

Moreover, some contradictions, frictions, and conflicts had begun to brew within the Sumuli Island.

The relationship between the four major families had become a little more tense than before.

Driven by various factors, Luigi decided to raise prices.

If Lance accepted his new offer, he would still give priority to Lance, and they would still be very good friends.

But if Lance didn't accept his offer, then he could only say sorry. Although they were friends, he couldn't block him from making money, could he?

Just like the words he said to Lance at the end, "If you think you're more attractive than money, you can totally try your luck with someone else!"

This made Lance very angry. He was a man of his word, and he hoped that others would be too.

"Should we tell Alberto?" Hiram wasn't too worried about the liquor supply not keeping up.

Nick had already brewed a lot of wine, enough to cope with the current daily consumption, but if they wanted to expand the scale, they would need to continue to increase the scale of brewing, which would require more brewing crops.

Of course, there was also a bit of risk.

Now, the Hazardous Materials Administration has been investigating this matter, and it is said that they have begun searching those home brewing workshops. Even private brewing for personal consumption is now not allowed.

The ranch is a bigger target, so perhaps Lance should reconsider.

As for whether to tell Alberto, there's no rush. Although Luigi was introduced to Lance by Alberto.

Lance shook his head slightly, "No need to tell Alberto for now, I'll see how to teach them a lesson first."

He was already thinking about how to teach Luigi a lesson in manners, and then, after thinking for a while, he remembered the reason for Hiram's visit, "The people are here?"

Hiram pointed outside the door, "They're all waiting outside."

The Lance family was still recruiting people. The smell of gunpowder for the final battle had already begun to appear. Now, recruiting people was not only for self-preservation, but also to obtain more benefits from this chaos.

The more people there were, the greater Lance's power would be, and the louder his voice would be.

"Let's go, let's take a look at our new brothers!"

The two of them went out of the room one after the other, and Hiram shouted, "Everyone, come over!"

Soon, more than twenty young people came over. Most of these young people looked like they came from the bottom of society.

They were almost all wearing old, faded formal wear, probably inherited from their fathers or even grandfathers.

Some would wear dusty caps. When a group of young people stood together, the only feeling Lance had was that they were young and full of vitality!

Even though they were wearing old clothes, they still couldn't hide the clear vitality and passion emanating from them!

Lance shook hands with them one by one, and then expressed his happiness at them joining the Lance family.

Now, they had added a few more conditions for recruiting people, either those who were alone, or those who still had siblings.

The Lance family would not accept those who still had parents alive, but were the only child in the family.

Although he had recruited quite a few at the beginning, that was when there was no other choice. Now that the Lance family was gradually stabilizing, he would no longer recruit these people.

After all, the loss of an only child is one of the most terrible things in any era!

These young people seemed particularly excited when they saw Lance. Lance was the idol of many young Imperials. Being able to have close contact and talk with their idol made some of them so excited that they couldn't speak clearly.

Lance shook hands with them, hugged them, and encouraged them. For these young people, this was the most inspiring sound of this era!

After saying goodbye to these young people, Lance always felt that there were two or three people who were strange, but he didn't pay too much attention to it.

After all, in this era, the only place that could give them wages and respect was his.

For two or three days in a row, the entire Gold Port City seemed to have quieted down again, only relatively speaking.

In fact, a lot of things happened during these two or three days. For example, the new young people began to fulfill their duties, following Mador and the others to begin receiving military training.

And this matter made Lucar and the others feel secretly alarmed, because not only were they receiving formal military training, but now Lance's group was actually starting to conduct military training as well.

This made some agents of the Hazardous Materials Administration feel nervous. The special title of agent could no longer provide them with a sense of security.

For example, Johnny had already left his house with his luggage... No, not his house, Lance's house. His things were also thrown out, and the new tenant didn't plan to make bread.

His scrap metal was quickly disposed of. It was said that a bakery hired him, giving him a salary of forty-five yuan a month.

For example, the firefights in the port area became more frequent than in the previous few days. The sound of gunfire could often be heard during the day. It was said that foreign forces had also invaded the city center, but it had not yet reached the point of a full-scale conflict.

Foreign forces had invaded the entire city, but the Imperial District seemed a lot quieter. Even the housing prices in the Imperial District had recently increased slightly.

Finally, the new commissioner of the Ligee Group arrived in Gold Port City. They had already determined that Bridge's death was a traffic accident, and at the same time, they refused to admit that Bridge died during work hours.

The Ligee Group stated that the company would get off work on time at 6:30 every day, and they did not force anyone to work overtime, so after 6:30, any incident that happened to Bridge had nothing to do with the Ligee Group.

Whether it was compensation for work-related injuries or a pension, they refused to pay it to Bridge's family, and even planned to sue the deceased Bridge and his family, using this matter to cause the group's image to be affected, causing abnormal fluctuations in the stock price.

Perhaps Bridge himself didn't expect that he had only been dead for a short time, and the group company for which he had fought to the last moment did not show him the slightest warmth, but instead wanted to sue him...

If he knew, he might crawl out of the grave and spit a mouthful of old blood on the faces of those directors.

The first thing the new commissioner did after arriving was to continue to execute the cases left by Bridge. The Imperial Chamber of Commerce and Lance were sued.

This was the first time Lance had stood in the defendant's seat as a defendant. The Ligee Group's legal team presented some evidence, claiming that their price evaluator admitted to colluding with Lance to create this contract fraud.

Lawyer Robb hired his alumnus to defend Lance. Both sides, and even the judge, knew what the situation was. This was like a very tacit delaying tactic.

The two sides argued back and forth, and then said that they wanted to supplement the evidence. The judge also took the opportunity to knock the gavel and leave some questions for the next hearing.

In fact, it wasn't just the Ligee Group. Other consortiums also plundered wealth from the people in this way, and possibly with dirtier methods!

There had also been cases where group companies hired scammers to defraud employees, causing these employees to lose their fortunes, in order to solve these burdens once and for all.

This may sound like... an unbelievable fabrication in some other countries.

But in the Federation, this is something that happens every day.