Shadow Empire

Chapter 610 Gang Reform Plan
For families with multiple children, how to distribute property reasonably is always a very profound subject.

But the person who can make the decision on this matter cannot be so rational.

"Would you like to hear an interesting story?" Lance thought of a very profound story that fits the problem Roger is facing now.

The latter would naturally not refuse, even though he might not really want to hear it, "Sure, why not?"

"There was a couple, they had two children, one older and one younger."

"You know, as a parent, there are always favorites."

"They like the younger son better."

Roger nodded. "Yes, after all, the eldest son is more adaptable to this society, while the younger one needs more opportunities and the opportunity to make mistakes."

Lance smiled and continued, "When deciding to distribute their property, the parents asked their eldest son to lift up a millstone on the ground. Do you know what a millstone is?"

Roger laughed out loud after hearing this. "You underestimate me. I also did farm work when I was a kid. That's what I used to husk wheat."

“We would tie it to a rope and drag it around on the grain.”

Lance nodded again, "Yeah, that's the thing."

"The eldest son lifted the millstone easily. It was just a small thing for him."

"And his parents said—"

"You are very strong, much stronger than your brother. You can definitely make a lot of money with your strength, so we decided to give most of the property to your brother."

Roger looked thoughtful when he heard this. "They are right. In the countryside, a strong young man is definitely a good worker. He can find more wealth from the land."

Lance smiled but said nothing, "The story isn't over yet."

"The eldest son was very dissatisfied with this. He thought it was unreasonable and asked his parents to set a new question."

"His parents still gave him the same question, and still asked him to lift the millstone."

"This time he had experience, and he struggled to lift the extra equipment. In his mind, he thought that this time, he should be able to get a large share of the property."

"But his parents told him that as the eldest son, he couldn't even lift a millstone."

"Even if they gave him the family fortune, he couldn't keep it, so they decided to give it to his brother."

Roger was stunned for a moment and then burst into laughter. "This sounds like a true story!"

"His brother had already locked up the fortune before he even touched the millstone."

But as he laughed, he couldn't laugh anymore.

Recently, the young widow has been asking him to give her the genetic fragments. If... if they have a child, he will most likely keep it.

This has nothing to do with faith (faith prohibits abortion), but because in the last stage of his life, being able to conceive a life will be regarded as a miracle by him.

And at his age, he is more aware of the preciousness of life.

This is the continuation of his life, a real continuation.

A new individual constructed from the genetic fragments he spread, with his own blood flowing through his veins.

If you ignore personality, this is his "eternal life".

Moreover, this kind of eternal life is much fresher than the previous one, and is more likely to move people.

Then, he would most likely face what happened in this story, and he would definitely leave most of his wealth to the younger one instead of his eldest son.

He was silent for a moment and then asked, "What happened to this story?"

Lance shook his head, "You wouldn't want to know how he ended up."

He paused for a moment and said, "I just told you a little story to remind you not to let certain problems destroy you and your family."

Roger plays a very important role in the Imperial Chamber of Commerce, and Lance doesn't want anything to happen to him.

"Thank you. I'll seriously consider it." He repeatedly expressed that he understood Lance's intention, and Lance stopped emphasizing it.

He changed the subject and the reason for calling Roger over this time was, "I've been thinking about something recently."

Roger suppressed those emotions and became more focused, "What?" he asked.

Lance leaned back, "The Lance family has grown rapidly, but now we are facing a problem."

"If we continue to expand, the organization will become too large and people's work content will change from some more professional things to very scattered."

"They have to learn how to shoot, how to drive and stop other cars, and how to drive a large truck to the right place at the right time and accurately hit another car."

"They also have to learn to run a bar, some of the more criminal stuff, and they also have to learn to protect targets and fight gunfights."

“They have so much to learn!”

Lance sighed sincerely, "And we will be increasingly short of manpower."

Roger was a little confused when he heard this, "Isn't this a good thing?"

"The expansion of the family requires more manpower. Perhaps we will have thousands or even tens of thousands of people. By then, no one will look down on us!"

In addition to Roger, there were several senior officials in the room. They usually stayed here. Today, Lance called Roger over and did not let them leave. He just wanted to give them some information.

They weren't really paying attention to the conversation here, but when Lance shifted the topic to the gang, they put down their work and started paying attention to the changes here.

What Roger said touched their hearts. For a violent man like Hiram, the more people there are, the safer he feels. He wishes the streets were full of his own people.

Then when he went out to fight with other gangs, he just waved his hand, and hundreds of people with submachine guns shot everything they saw on the opposite side into sieves.

Including Alvin, he also thinks that the increase in the number of family members is a good thing. It represents their invincibility and strength, and will also make their enemies feel terrified.

Lance shook his head. "That's exactly the biggest problem. We are already big enough."

He tilted his head, looking past Roger to the people sitting on the sofa behind him, "How many of us are there now?"

Melo thought for a moment and said, "There are about 800 to 900 core members. I haven't counted the peripheral members, but there should be at least a thousand."

Each senior cadre has three captains under him, and each captain has a few to a dozen people following him.

Not strictly speaking, there are 17 or 18 senior cadres who control at least 500 to 600 core members.

In addition to these people, there are also some rising captains who will also promote some ordinary grassroots members to become core members.

So this number is actually not exaggerated.

Lance continued to look at Roger, "Look, a gang already has a thousand core members, how exaggerated is that?"

"If I'm not friends with Congressman Williams, if I have no connections in state government, do you think Congressman Williams can sleep well at night?"

"There was this powerful group in his city that was beyond his control."

"Can the governor, deputy governor, and attorney general sleep soundly? A group of one or two thousand immigrants who can be armed at any time and anywhere, will they become an unstable bomb at some point?"

As Lance's conversation progressed from shallow to deep, the expressions of Roger and other people in the office gradually became serious.

They are no longer as cheerful as before.

"This is where the problem lies."

"The city is still expanding. We can be said to be the underground emperors of this city. We rule here."

"But we don't have enough manpower to cover the entire city. There are still many gangs in our territory, engaging in criminal business without our consent."

"If we want to control every block and every alley in this city, we need to continue to expand by at least one or two thousand core members, as well as corresponding peripheral members."

"Gentlemen, when a gang has thousands of armed thugs and is active in important cities across the federation, do you think the gentlemen of the Ministry of Defense and the cabinet can still sleep well?"

These words made everyone in the room silent. The people on the sofa stood up and sat down at the table, or just stood there. Everyone's expression became serious. This was indeed a very scary problem.

Lance gave them some time to think, and then continued to ask, "We rule Jingang City, do we still need to expand outward?"

"Xigu City, Venus City, Likalai Province, a few thousand people are not enough, tens of thousands of people, are they enough?"

"Hundreds of thousands of people?"

"So are we a private armed force or just a gang?"

"But the problem is, which gang has so many people?"

"By that time, Mr. President won't be able to sleep!"

"Because no one knows if we will be the bomb, for their own safety, even if we are not, we have to be."

The fact that the federal government is not cracking down on gangs now does not mean that they can really coexist with gangs. It is just that from the perspective of the current imperfect system in society, allowing gangs to develop is beneficial to the federal ruling class in managing various regions.

But once society stabilizes and the economy starts to develop again, they will begin to crack down on these gangs.

Lance could even foresee that Congress would pass legislation to crack down on gangs and related industries.

The bigger you expand now, the more miserable your death will be when the time of reckoning comes.

Lance is not sure when the federal government will suddenly "wake up", but they will definitely wake up and take back the basic ruling power from the gangs.

Instead of waiting until the last minute to carry out reforms, it is better to carry out reforms in advance while the gang environment is still relaxed.

The reason he was reminded was that there were too many people!

If a different mayor were to take over, he might not allow the Lance family to dominate the market.

Gang reform is imperative.

Seeing that they were silent, after a long while, he started talking about today's events again, "I have an idea, to streamline the organization, de-criminalize, and capitalize, but not just mindlessly whitewash."

"Bendi's method is inappropriate and meaningless. We will not lay down our weapons. We will take another path."

"We are no longer the common gangs, but we will be purer than the common gangs."

Erwin posed a question, "If we make changes and reduce the number of personnel, how can we ensure that we can still control the city?"

"Just the bars, warehouses, farm operations and transport teams we have now require a large number of manpower."

"Not adding new staff is our bottom line now. If we streamline further, some businesses may have problems."

For example, the transportation team. Lance wants to ship goods to the entire state. There are about 200 people in the transportation team, which certainly cannot be streamlined. So what about the farm?

What about the local bar?

And what about those people on the streets?
Will there be any problems if we streamline them all?

Lance pointed at him, "You asked a good question."

"What I want to streamline is not our current staff, but the way we manage the industry."

"At the moment we run all our own businesses, including the bar, brewery and transport industry."

"We will not change the transportation aspect for the time being, but I plan to hand over the bars and warehouses."

"The core purpose of running a bar and selling contraband is to make money."

"As our industries grow in number and scale, we won't need to operate consumer-facing terminals ourselves."

“Contract it out.”

Lance looked at Roger, "If I rent out all the bars now with a clear price tag and guarantee the safety of each bar, do you think there will be people willing to run the bars as a contractor?"

"You guys provide your own people, I'll be in charge of the drinks and transportation, and if anyone gets in trouble, I can help you solve the problem."

Roger's heart began to beat faster. He knew how profitable Lance's bars were!

His accelerated heartbeat made his mouth dry. He licked his lips and asked, "Can I take one?"

Lance nodded and said, "No problem at all. If you are willing to take over the business, I will give you a nice bar."

"Let you earn at least a good salary from here every month."

He thought for a while, "At least two or three thousand."

It may not sound like a lot, but this kind of business is written into the criminal code and the constitutional amendment, which also means that it is a sure win as long as it can be operated.

Roger said without thinking, "I'm willing to take on..." He glanced at Lance and said, "Can you take on a few more?"

Lance shook his head. "I'm giving you a spot without competition because you've done a lot for the Imperial Chamber of Commerce."

"Other bars must be completed through bidding. Whoever offers the highest contract price will be the one to run it."

“This time the contract period is one year, and after one year, all will be converted to two years.”

After thinking seriously for a while, Roger couldn't help but sigh, "What a genius idea!"

As long as Lance announces his profitability, there will always be people betting that they can run the business better. Besides, the five major families have been eliminated, and the three most profitable districts, namely the city center, the Starlight District and the Bay Area, are all in Lance's hands.

At the same time, those small and medium-sized gangs posed no threat to him, so he could do this in a unified way.

Without further expanding the staff, he can indirectly make more money from more bars. This is really a genius!
However, Roger also has his own little confusion: "How do you ensure the safety of these bars?"

"I'm not questioning your ability, Mr. Lance, but the people outside have to have a guarantee before they will take out the money."

Lance laughed twice, "Ten percent of the contract fee is taken out and divided into three parts. One part goes to the local police force, one part goes to the city hall, and one part goes to the Hazardous Materials Administration."

"Not long ago, I convinced Director Dale and the next director."

Roger looked at Lance in amazement. He couldn't imagine how Lance did it, but he knew that this city was really going to change!
"I asked you to come this time because I hope you can talk to the locals in the Empire Chamber of Commerce. I hope all the bars in the Empire District are in the hands of the locals. Do you understand what I mean?"

"I don't want any outside forces to penetrate into our core territory, as that would complicate things."

Roger understood what Lance meant, "I'll tell them."

He paused, "If there is competition, how much would a bar cost?"

Melo knew more about this question. "The bars in the Starlight District make about two million a year. The bars in the Empire District are a little worse, but the annual profit is still between 250,000 and 300,000."

“If it were to be outsourced, I think the price would probably be about the same as this.”

Lance nodded. "It will be lower, so you can at least make some money. For example, the bar in the Starlight District has an investment of two million. We can't let the contractor only make a few tens of thousands of dollars a year."

"One million and a half million, maybe. A profit of half a million should be enough to attract people."

Roger swallowed his saliva. Five hundred thousand a year?

His eyes were slightly red, he also wanted to take this job, but he knew he couldn't use the free spot, otherwise he would be immature.

However, he will contact other people and find a way to contract one. Even if everyone shares it, it will be a lot of money.

The annual rate of return is over 30 percent. Apart from criminal activities, what else can have such a high rate of return?

Lance introduced some of his ideas, such as that alcohol must be purchased from the Lance family.

After all, strictly speaking, the entire Jingang City is Lance's territory, so it would be fine if he didn't sell alcohol.

He is still brewing wine like crazy, so naturally he will not allow others to ship goods on his territory.

These are actually minor issues. As everyone knows, Lans' wine is not expensive, and people are willing to drink it as long as it is not too dark.

(End of this chapter)