Shadow Empire

Chapter 611: If you don't respect me, you are my enemy

After Roger left, they were the only ones left in the room, so they naturally spoke more casually.

"Is it necessary to carry out reforms so quickly?" Melo asked with a slight frown.

In his and many other people's eyes, the Lance family had just established the concept of "prosperity", and it was the period of rapid development of the family.

Look, the five big families have become a thing of the past, and Alberto is about to go to Sumurri Island to die.

After his death, the Pasletto family no longer had anyone who could stand out and take charge.

Francisco is indeed good, but he is still too young, and it is not easy for the family to become stronger again.

As for those other small and medium-sized gangs, they don't need to be taken seriously at all. Whoever disobeys will be destroyed.

With Chief Blue's current respect for Lance, they could even have police officers work with Lance's family to fight or do the aftermath.

In this city, there is no force that can stop the Lance family!

Isn't this just crazy expansion?
Take over all eleven boroughs, fill them with bars, fill them with branch offices.

There are so many young people outside who are eager to join in now. They can recruit thousands or even tens of thousands of people easily!
A gang of tens of thousands of people...it's exciting just to think about it!
It was Melo who asked Lance, but in fact, everyone else had the same idea and they didn't quite understand.

Lance glanced at Mello and said, "This is a society based on interests. First there are interests, then there is society."

"If we really continue to expand and recruit thousands or tens of thousands of people, then how are we going to reform?"

Lance's question left these people speechless. The disadvantages of their low education level were fully demonstrated at this moment. They could not find any cases from the things they knew to express their views.

If you want to convince others, you certainly can't just say "I'm right". You have to use some existing examples to tell others. There is nothing wrong with doing this.

At the same time, you also need to explain the reasons and why you do this and what the benefits of doing so are.

But they don’t know, can’t tell, they only know…

“More people are better than fewer.”

Lance looked at the person who had spoken, Hiram, who might have expressed such a thought.

Lance shook his head. "The more people there are, the more bloated we will appear, and the more difficult it will be to make changes."

"If you see wild boars in the wilderness, you will find that they run very fast and are very powerful. If wild boars appear in groups, even wolves will not easily provoke them."

"But look at the pigs on the farm. They are obviously bigger. Why can't they make the wolves feel threatened?"

"I know this isn't a very appropriate example, but it tells us very vividly that being fat is not a sign of strength."

"When we have thousands or tens of thousands of employees, it will be very difficult for us to adjust the direction of many businesses."

"More spending makes us more dependent on high-margin criminal revenues, and once our revenues start to falter, it quickly becomes impossible to sustain the business."

He paused, "Mero, how much should each of us pay per month at the moment?"

Melo is the family's chief steward. He is responsible for these contents. Every two weeks, Lance just needs to look at the materials he wrote.

"About a hundred and twenty dollars."

Lance nodded. "One hundred and twenty dollars, ten thousand people is one million and two hundred thousand. We also have to pay for their food, housing, and clothing."

"We can't let them stand on the street like idiots, we have to rent or buy a house so they have a place to work."

"Do they need a vehicle?"

"Even if we don't arrange so many small cars, we must have a total of 700 to 800 vehicles, and then vans and other vehicles..."

"Our annual expenses just for maintaining this part are over several million. Once the prohibition ends or something else happens, it becomes difficult to make money. How can we sustain it?"

Seeing these people fall into deep thought, Lance did not stop and continued talking.

"When that day comes, whether it is due to revenue issues or other reasons, when we need to reduce our scale, huge conflicts will erupt."

“How do you decide who will be cut and who won’t?”

"Those young people took risks for their families. Even though it might not be a big risk, at least they took all the risks to work for us and make money."

"Because of our reasons we have to remove them from the family's protection, we won't pay them wages, we won't give them a place to live and food."

"Have you ever considered what changes these trained people will bring to society after they return?"

"You want them to do a job that only pays about 40 yuan a month?"

"Or maybe they will form a new gang, not to fight against us, but just to maintain their lives."

"What should we do if there is friction between them and us?"

"What do they do?"

Lance kept shaking his head. "We need to take these issues into consideration. The more people there are, the fewer options we have, and the more dangerous we will become."

"Even if we succeed in clearing some of them out, the impact of their crimes outside will naturally be considered our fault by people."

"So, gentlemen, this is not a negotiation or discussion, this is a set plan."

"From now on, our identities will change from 'independent operators' to 'managers'. Our income will be higher than in the past, and the risks we bear will be smaller."

"All we need to do is set the rules of the game, then find those who don't follow them and make them learn to follow the rules."

"We don't even commit crimes outright!"

The future trend is definitely to deal with the gangs. Any world, era, and government will do so.

When economic construction stabilizes and the ruling structure becomes stable and mature, they will begin to eliminate those things outside the framework.

Not to mention that the gangs, to a certain extent, are stealing part of their ruling power, so they will not allow the existence of gangs.

Of course, a small number of gangs with backgrounds will still exist, but the era when the world is full of gangs like today will never come back.

The best option is to complete the transformation as soon as possible before you become a "bargaining chip" for a certain congressman to promote this plan.

Although they may not all understand, these people have one advantage, that is, once Lance has made a decision, they will not try to change it.

In terms of the general direction, Lance rarely made mistakes, or rather, never made any mistakes. Based on their unconditional trust in Lance, no one raised any objections.

After Roger left the company, he immediately began to spread the news. He still had a great influence in the Empire area. Soon many people knew that Lance was planning to contract out the criminal business.

Even Congressman Williams knew about it.

He also has spies on Lance's side, and although they are very close partners, it does not mean that he trusts Lance completely and unconditionally.

Having spies to pass on information is the normal situation. It is abnormal to do nothing and know nothing.

"What do you think?" Congressman Williams asked on the phone.

Lance expressed his thoughts very directly, with nothing to hide. Congressman Williams showed some surprise after listening to him.

Too bad Lance couldn't see it.

It is very rare for elderly politicians to fail to manage their emotions to the point where their expressions show up.

But he failed in management because he found that Lance was smarter and more difficult to deal with than he had imagined.

The difficult to deal with here does not mean that he has to deal with Lance, but refers to Lance's way of dealing with potential crises and his awareness of not being blind.

Anyone who can do this at Lance's age will definitely continue to expand recklessly. It doesn't matter if they are gangsters, capitalists, or any other industry.

If a young man in his twenties manages to monopolize resources, he will only be more arrogant and use the "scythe" brought by the actual monopoly to swing it wildly to reap wealth or something else.

But Lance's behavior, which clearly shows that he is retiring at the peak of his career, is not suitable for his age.

This is more like a choice that can only be made by an old man in his forties or fifties, with a mature mind and rich experience. He chooses to take a step back before the danger arises.

After a brief chat, he hung up the phone. Lance's move made him a little emotional.

He left the table and walked to the balcony, lighting a cigarette; he also needed to think.

Inadvertently, he caught a glimpse of Arthur touching the new maid out of the corner of his eye. Looking at the unpleasant frivolous smile on his face, Congressman Williams suddenly felt a surge of anger.

This... He thought about it and realized that no matter what he said, it would all come back to haunt him in the end, so he started with "this idiot".

He needs to be given something to do. When there is someone good enough in front of him, Arthur's performance, which is actually not too bad, seems extremely stupid.

They are both young people, but how come the other has become an “old fox” while this idiot is still harassing the little girl?

He turned back into the room and picked up the receiver. Seven or eight minutes later, Arthur came into the study with a grim look on his face and a cane.

Soon, his shrill screams and whistling sounds were heard...

Along with Arthur's cries, the news continued to spread.

Within two days, the entire Jingang City realized that the new "emperor" was about to promulgate his laws.

This is not a good thing for all the gangs, because no emperor would enact laws that are harmful to themselves, but it is not bad news at the same time.

Because this time the emperor was obviously more tolerant.

The gathering was set at Lans's Manor (Mr. Jobaf's manor has been renamed Lans Manor). At around three o'clock in the afternoon, people began to gather here.

At four o'clock, the small auditorium in the manor was already full of people.

What is a little surprising is that there are reporters here.

The reform of the Lance family is actually a positive trend to some extent, so after Lance communicated with George, George was willing to report it.

It might just be possible for him to win another Golden Newspaper Award, which no one would think is too much.

Today's reporting job was the most difficult one George had ever done in his life. He also brought three apprentices with him, and each of them was sweating profusely.

There are too many gang members here, and a large group of Ulala are standing at the door.

Ever since the Lance family started to wear unified clothing, the entire underground world of Jingang City seems to be following this trend.

Everyone made some small designs on the appearance and unified them, because this makes people feel that they are solemn and cool.

This also brings a huge visual impact!
The last gang leader arrived at the venue a few minutes early, and after being searched, he was allowed to enter the small auditorium.

He didn't feel offended. In the past, during the time of the five major families, they had to be searched if they wanted to meet people from the five major families.

Although people say that life is priceless, in fact, it still has a price.

When the last leader arrived at the small hall, he was immediately stunned by how packed it was.

Everywhere you look are the leaders of various gangs and families. They only allow one person to come in, but there look to be at least two hundred people here.

Under the guidance of the "staff", he found a place to sit down, wiping the sweat off his face and greeting the people around him.

Some of them he knew, some he didn't. In fact, he had never thought that there were so many mafia families in Jingang City. Of course, no one here had thought about it.

The clock pointed to 4:15, Erwin walked onto the stage and patted the microphone, "Quiet."

The noisy scene suddenly became quiet.

Although these people, including Lance and others, are very young, no one will look down on them.

After the scene quieted down, Erwin returned to the outside of the stage, and soon Lance walked in from outside.

He walked with great style, and the moment he appeared the spotlight fell on him, shining brightly and making people subconsciously hold their breath.

"They just told me that there are 179 bosses here today. Thank you all for trusting me and for coming here to attend a party that many people may find absurd and funny."

Someone in the audience immediately responded to Lance's words and said some nice polite words.

Lance smiled and nodded. After they talked for a while, he raised his hand and said, "In fact, we have invited more than 240 bosses to come, but obviously, not all of them are willing to believe me once."

Many leaders in the audience laughed. In fact, some of them did not really believe it, but considering that they were indeed not as good as the Lance family and Lance's reputation was not too bad, they took the risk and came here.

Some people found various reasons not to come. Their idea was simple: leave a buffer zone.

No matter whether what Lance wants to say is good or bad, as long as they don't come to the scene, they don't have to express their opinions immediately, leaving time and opportunity to respond.

If what Lance said was good, and if he really gave up the criminal business targeting the crowds as people said, then those who didn't come would soon come to apologize and join in.

If Lance was talking about bad things, then they would have enough time to deal with it. Whether they chose to leave Jingang City, or rebel against the Lance family, or choose to obey, they would have time to think and deal with it.

As long as they don’t have to take a stand on the spot, they have plenty of options.

However, they didn't know that Lance was not one of the five major families, and he was not one of Bandy and his friends, who were still thinking about weighing the pros and cons.

This time, they made the wrong decision.

Lance raised his hand and pressed softly to quiet people down. "The gangs in Jingang City are one family. We all live in this city, looking for profits and everything to survive in this city."

"We are a whole, but now, some people are unwilling to become a whole with us and are destroying the new rules I set."

"So..." He looked at Erwin, "keep a record of the people who didn't come and their gangs. They don't need to exist anymore."

The small auditorium, which had been a little noisy, suddenly became so quiet that only the sound of breathing could be heard.

Someone pushed a sofa and a small coffee table onto the stage, and Lance sat down, crossed his legs, and lit a cigarette. "I know some of you might think I'm overbearing and unreasonable."

"But I don't think this is overbearing or unreasonable. I invited everyone, even if some people really can't come, they can arrange a representative to come."

"But not only did they not bring a single representative, they didn't even come to tell me in person why they couldn't come."

“This is disrespectful to me!”

"My friends will respect me."

"Anyone who doesn't respect me must be my enemy!"

He flicked the ash off his cigarette and said, "Let's not talk about unhappy things, let's talk about the reason why we are gathered here today."

"There have been some rumors about us recently, for example, the Lans family will no longer personally operate any bars."

There was some commotion in the small auditorium, and Lance smiled. He nodded, "Yes, it's true."

"Including the Imperial District, the Port District, any area, we will re-divide the way bars operate."

"The Lans family will no longer operate any bar business. At the same time, we will divide my territory into different sizes according to a certain method and contract it out to outsiders."

"Only one bar is allowed in each area, which ensures profits for every operator."

A huge city map suddenly appeared behind Lance, but unlike ordinary maps, it only had an outline and was cut into many small grids...

(End of this chapter)