Shadow Empire

Chapter 827 Wait and See and One-Day Trip to the Gang
"beat?"

"how to spell?"

"Fight with your life?"

The tone of a gang leader was full of doubt and arrogance. He was very young, about thirty-seven or thirty-eight years old. Anyone who could become a gang leader at this age either worked hard for it or had a good father.

This "young man" belongs to the former. Through his own abilities, he has carved out a place for himself in the underground world of New Birmingham City.

A few years ago, about seven or eight years ago, or about ten years ago, he was at his most domineering.

Young people are brave and not afraid of death, unlike these old guys who are either worried about this or afraid of that time.

This also gave him a very vivid nickname in the underground world. People called him "Bomb" to describe his explosive temper and his madness.

They fought with their lives to gain the gang's status, territory, and foundation.

Ten years later, this young man who worked hard to get ahead began to say the same things as those old guys. This is actually an interesting cycle.

The challenger will eventually become the challenged, this is fate.

He twisted his neck and looked at the other four people in the room, "Have you ever heard of the Lance family?"

The remaining few people looked at each other. Of course, they knew about the Lance family, and that was before this incident.

It is precisely because of this understanding that they are gathered together now.

Before, someone from above supported them in fighting against the Lans family, and they did it, but look at what the result was?
Some were imprisoned, some were killed, even the chief of the state police department was replaced!
It is said that the deputy governor also suffered some losses because of this.

What are people at the bottom of society supposed to do?
Bomb shook his head meaninglessly, "Look, no more talking."

He glared at the person who spoke first, "Aren't you very talkative?"

"Say it!"

"go on!"

The man laughed twice, "I'm just worried that they're pushing too hard. If we don't have any countermeasures, we might be the next to die on the road!"

A person sitting between them started to smooth things over, "Okay, let's not have conflicts among ourselves now. This will only allow the Lance family to take advantage of us."

He looked at the bomb, "What do you think?"

Bomb took a puff of his cigarette and continued to shake his head for some unknown reason, very slowly, not the kind of fast shaking. It was like he was a snake, swaying back and forth.

This might be a habit he developed, and coupled with his defiant expression and somewhat choking manner of speaking, it was clear that he was indeed someone not to be trifled with, at least among this group of people.

"My idea is simple: either cooperate with them or get out of here."

"War?"

He couldn't help but laugh out loud, "How about the Perez family?"

He was still shaking his head. If someone who met him for the first time saw him shaking his head like that, they wondered if it would cause physical discomfort.

It would have been fine if he didn't mention the Perez family, but once he mentioned it, everyone's mood became lower again.

The Perez family has suffered losses in the conflict with the Lance family. What benefits can these little guys like them get?
There was really no hope of starting a war, which made them feel very depressed.

They are also influential figures in this city, but now that the Lance family has arrived, if they are asked to leave with their tails between their legs... they are reluctant to do so.

Even if they left here, where could they go?
Going to surrounding cities?

Don't we have to go to war with the local gangs to seize a piece of territory?
Moreover, if you go to war with them on someone else's territory, unless you have overwhelming force, they will definitely suffer a great loss!
They couldn't win by fighting, and they didn't want to run away, so they all kept silent.

Finally, a short guy said, "How about... we just do nothing and see how Lance plans to deal with us."

"If he wants to recruit us, I think we can follow him."

"Look at the gangs in Jingang City. There is not only the Lance family, but also dozens of gangs of all sizes. Aren't they all living well?"

“Although the Lance family has a little more rules, it is more stable to make money and the order is more stable.”

“This is a completely new map for him, and he is not from Indeno State, he is from Likalai State.”

"After he comes here, he needs to set an example for people in other cities!"

The little man's thoughts kept coming up, "If he kills us all, what will happen to the cities behind us?"

"Will the gangs in the cities behind fight him to the death?"

"So, brothers, I think there is a high probability that he will still talk to us and will not really take action."

"The death of Carl and another brother was just a way for him to intimidate us. Carl was originally an imperial man. For the Lance family, this was equivalent to being betrayed by their own people. His death was normal."

"The other guy was just unlucky. He was chosen as a means to intimidate us. We are undoubtedly lucky in this respect."

"So our best option right now is to not do anything rash and wait and see what Lance plans to do to us."

"If he is willing to recruit us, we will fight him."

"If he is unwilling to recruit us, then we will talk to him."

"If he strongly demands that we leave here..." The little man was silent for a while, "Then we should just leave. There is no need to confront him head-on."

"He is stronger than us. The death of some people is like nothing happened to him, but for us, it will be a huge loss of strength."

The short guy's words were recognized by everyone, and several people decided to wait and see what happened. This meeting was just as good as no meeting at all.

But that cannot be completely said. At least they have reached the idea of ​​"non-resistance". Either stay or run away. In any case, they will not go against the Lance family.

During the day, there were some one-sided gunfights in the city. Lance took the mayor's ideas into consideration and used small-caliber rifles, which made Hiram very unhappy.

Because he couldn't even feel any recoil from this small-caliber bullet, he told everyone that this small-caliber bullet was specially used by women.

A country gangster is a country gangster, and some of his guys didn't even know what to do after Carl's death.

If it were a gang in a big city, these people would have already run away with the gang's funds and wealth.

But this also made it easier for Lance to clean up those involved.

In just three days, the two gangs were completely wiped out from New Birmingham.

Some locals know what happened, but they don't have any major negative feelings.

The Lance family are so damn professional at this.

Several people were walking on the street when suddenly a car stopped next to them. Two people in the car fired at these people with submachine guns. It only took about ten seconds for the shooting to end and the car quickly left.

Soon after, a truck drove over and they threw the bodies into the truck, which then drove away quickly.

Soon after, a car with the words "City Cleaning Company" on it arrived at the scene. They used very professional tools and chemical reagents to clean up the crime scene in the shortest possible time.

The most interesting thing is that the owner of a store was asking around where the current headquarters of the Lance family was.

It wasn't that he wanted to avenge anyone or challenge the authority of the Lance family, but they gave him twenty dollars because bullets shattered his window and some of the goods inside.

But these things were only worth seven or eight dollars in total, and twenty dollars was too much for them. He was a little worried, so he wanted to return the extra money to them.

Fortunately, he really found the headquarters of the Lance family and met Lance!
In the afternoon, a car stopped outside "Frank's Store". This is not a wealthy area and there are few cars on the roadside.

So when a car that looks good stops here, people on the road who are bored and have nothing to do will look over here.

Soon they saw Frank, the owner of "Frank's Shop", getting out of the car.

Frank was a thin old man in his fifties. He wore a gray cap with a worn-out brim, a dark brown tweed coat, and a pair of old leather boots that were also somewhat worn.

He only had an ordinary coat and a gray vest, which looked very ordinary, even a little shabby.

He was a well-known figure on this street, and everyone was very surprised when they saw him getting out of the car!

The tailor in the clothing shop next to him looked at him with his pipe in his mouth and couldn't help asking, "Frank, is this the rich relative you always talk about?"

Some people around who were watching the fun couldn't help but laugh!

Frank sometimes likes to brag. He always brags about having a rich relative, but everyone knows that person doesn't actually exist.

But he will argue with you, and if you say he is bragging, he will blush and swear to you, so sometimes people will use this topic to tease him.

The slow pace of life in New Bern allows these people without businesses to stand on the street when the weather is nice, basking in the sun, chatting, or sitting together drinking coffee, which are all good choices.

The tailor and Frank have a very good relationship and can be considered good friends. He also likes to tease the old man.

But surprisingly, Frank didn't refute anything this time. He just looked at the tailor blankly, "You have no idea what I just went through!"

There was something quite appealing about his appearance, the tailor admitted, and his curiosity was piqued.

"What did you go through?" he demanded, and the others came closer.

Frank coughed and said, "I have to go back and drink some water. I'm a little thirsty."

The owner of the coffee shop across the street immediately came over with a coffee pot and said, "I have it."

Someone brought a chair over and asked Frank to sit there.

This is their daily life. It is always like this in small cities. There are much more humanistic feelings than in big cities!

Frank held the coffee cup and took a sip of coffee, "Free coffee is delicious!"

Everyone around laughed and wanted to drink, and the owner of the coffee shop didn't mind. He gave everyone a little. Of course, they had to get their own cup.

Then Frank said, "Weren't they outside my shop yesterday..." He didn't continue, people were scared!
Five adults were standing outside Frank's shop window, and they seemed to be talking about something.

Suddenly two cars came and several people came out of the cars. They took submachine guns and pulled the trigger at the five people.

The five unlucky guys immediately fell to the ground, and then those terrible guys came over with submachine guns and shot them again, and everyone's head was smashed.

Then they saw an amazing "professional service". In less than fifteen minutes, the floor was cleaned spotlessly, leaving only the smell of detergent and disinfectant.

No corpses, no blood splattered, nothing at all!

What was even more incredible to them was that when they smashed Frank's window and the goods inside during the shooting, while those business owners were still feeling bad for Frank, one of them actually went over and gave old Frank twenty dollars as compensation!

Not to mention this has ever happened, I've never even heard of it, but this is the fact!

This was the first time that old Frank encountered such a thing.

He found a glassmaker in the afternoon to redefine the window display, and then he counted the damaged goods, which amounted to less than eight dollars.

He planned to return the extra money to those people, and the neighbors on the street did not stop him. As a result, he was able to find people from the Lance family.

"When I got there, I met their leader, the guy named Lance!"

"Oh my God, you have no idea how handsome and young he is!"

“I may be younger than my son, but he runs a big gang!”

"This fellow is very polite, I must admit that, and he calls me 'Mr. Frank' and doesn't look down on me because I..." He made some gestures to show his shabbiness, "...

“He’s also very soft-spoken and I like his voice.”

"I told him what happened and he actually apologized to me!"

"He said his men accidentally broke my window, and asked if they had compensated for it!"

Frank seemed to have suddenly crashed when he said this. The people around him were also amazed. Someone couldn't help but ask, "And then?"

"And then?" Frank came back from his recollection, "and then I said that the extra was a compensation for my fright, and assured me that the city would soon be quiet."

"He also asked about the protection fee..."

When it comes to protection fees, the surrounding business operators all become excited.

This place is not like Jingang City. Jingang City has developed extremely rapidly and the gangs can collect a lot of money from protection fees. This place is just an inconspicuous rural city where people have limited income and consumption capacity.

But they also have to pay protection fees, which is a few dollars a month. Some companies with particularly good business may have to pay ten dollars or even more.

It may not seem like much, but for these shop owners, it is not a small amount. Their profits are not high to begin with, and they are being skinned by the gangs. How can they be happy?
The people next to him urged him for a long time before Frank continued, "Mr. Lance said that after he solves those disobedient cancers in the city, we will cancel the protection fee forever!"

"Oh my God, is this real?"

People were all surprised, and then someone asked, "Then how does he make money?"

Sometimes people at the bottom are like this, when they realize that the Lance Family is not a bad gang, their first reaction is to prevent this good gang from going out of business because of not collecting protection fees and being driven away by the bad gang!

Someone said, "I think we can just pay a little bit..."

But some people laughed and said, "You are actually worried that the gangs won't make money!"

"Just selling alcohol is enough for them to make a fortune!"

After hearing this, people realized that the Lance family described by Frank was too perfect for the lower-class people like them, so they subconsciously believed that the Lance family really did not make money through criminal business.

The owner of the cafe exclaimed, "If that's the case, good days are coming?"

Yes, good days are coming!

The next morning, the Lance family announced that the two areas that had been cleared would be exempt from any form of protection fees.

This made some people who were still skeptical completely believe that they were serious!

This move also made the mayor very satisfied. Not collecting protection fees means that these petty bourgeoisie will have more disposable resources. If this money is used for consumption, even if it is not much, it will definitely be good news for the city's economic development, which is not very prominent to begin with!

The Lance family's actions were supported by the people and soon spread to the other five gangs.

Apart from thinking that Lance had some means of winning people over, they didn't have any other thoughts.

If you like to receive it, then receive it. If you don’t like to receive it, then don’t receive it!

In fact, for the gangs that are currently making profits by selling alcohol, the income from collecting protection fees is actually far lower than the profits they make from selling alcohol.

But why do they still collect it?

And doing so will also cause many people to be dissatisfied with them.

In fact, the reason is very simple, this is a means of ruling.

If you don't whip the slave and don't make him work hard for you, the slave will feel that he is also a human being.

This is a challenge to authority, which would be regarded as a shake of authority under feudal rule!

So even if the income from the protection fee is not as much as the profit from the alcohol they sell in one night, they still have to collect the money.

They want these people to understand that they are lambs who can be put on the chopping board at any time. Only in this way can their rule over these neighborhoods be consolidated and the ordinary people who are ruled will continue to be afraid of them!
Lance abolished these, which is not scientific at all.

So they say Lance is trying to buy people's hearts, but it really works!

After finishing some chores in the morning, Lance asked Alvin to send invitations to the leaders of the other five gangs, inviting them to meet and have a chat.

Let’s talk about the future.

(End of this chapter)