Shadow Empire

Chapter 619 Good at Persuasion [Alliance Leader Title: Winter Rain and Sunny Day 333+2]
As the weather gets hotter, the weather in Yalan also becomes sultry.

In a factory on the edge of the rainforest, a large number of people gathered and were working.

There are many women here, all of whom are indigenous people living in the surrounding areas. They are employed by the gangs behind these factories to complete tasks such as bottling and labeling of alcoholic beverages.

In the corner of the factory there is a huge wine barrel with a switch and something like a pointed faucet underneath it.

The women sat around rows of pointed taps, and the bottles were neatly arranged and handed to them using a special tool.

All they had to do was insert the pointed spout into the bottles and pull the valve.

The amber liquor would quickly fill the bottles, which would then be passed to the next person.

The person next to them will put sealing caps on the bottles, press them tightly with a special machine, and then push the lever.

The force was amplified by the lever, and the bottle caps were pressed hard onto the bottles, ensuring that they would not leak.

The bottles are then placed on a conveyor belt and sent to more women at the back, who skillfully stick the labels on the bottles.

As long as it is not too wrong, even if it is slightly crooked, it is acceptable.

These labeled bottles will eventually be packed into wooden boxes by another group of women at the end of the conveyor belt.

Then they would grab the straw around them and stuff it between the wine bottles to ensure that they would not collide and break due to shaking during transportation.

Finally, the wooden boxes will be nailed with iron nails and then sent to the trailer and stacked neatly.

When it gathers a certain amount, the trailer will leave, deliver it to the port, and then load it onto the ship.

Eventually, these smuggling ships will quietly dock somewhere along the southern coast of the Federation two days later and transport the alcohol inside to the land.

This is the entire process of smuggled liquor from canning to arrival in the federation.

It's easy to say, but not so easy to do.

The stuffy environment in the factory was unbearable for almost everyone, and some older women even went topless.

From time to time, more senior staff from the winery would come over with water pipes and use cold water to flush the workers' bodies to ensure that they would not delay their work progress due to heatstroke or other reasons.

In a room on the second floor of the factory, a guy in a floral shirt was looking through the window at the continuous production in the factory with a satisfied look on his face.

"Others just think they are pretending to be alcohol, but we all know that it is actually money."

A native of Yalan standing by the window turned around and looked at the other people in the room. He didn't look like someone who was easy to mess with.

He gives people a very fierce feeling just by keeping calm.

"The federals are right. Money can grow in the ground. It just depends on how you find it."

He has a shiny slicked-back hair covered with hair wax, and even turning the fan to the highest setting cannot affect his hair in the slightest.

He walked back to his beautiful chair and sat down. Behind him was an interesting-looking enlarged wine label.

In a farmland, two women with local ethnic characteristics were holding two large bundles of wheat with simple smiles on their faces. In the wheat fields in the distance, there were some people working with their heads down, as well as two barns.

It has a very nice and easy to understand name, "Harvest".

Harvest blended whiskey has decent sales in the federation, it's not expensive and has a slightly unique flavor.

They added some sugarcane juice in the process of making whiskey, which made the finished wine sweeter, with the special sweet aroma of sugarcane. Some people like this slightly sweet whiskey.

In the past, as long as wine was produced, it could be sold.

But as more and more gangs started brewing wine, competition became increasingly fierce.

A year ago, his wine didn't need any labels to sell well, but now, he not only needs labels, but also needs to compete with other gangs.

After all, what flows out of the barrel is not wine, but money. This is the case for every gang in the Yalan region.

Trademarks help foster consumer loyalty, according to some expert he hired.

"That what..." He looked at the other people in the room, "That's the guy who asked us to go to Jingang City."

"Lance Family, Boss."

He nodded, took out a silver cigar barrel, took out half a cigar from it, and put it in his mouth.

"The Lance family asked us to talk to them. What do you think?"

Lance had the entire Jingang City gang release this information to those smuggled liquor suppliers. From now on, if you want to sell liquor in Jingang City, you must go through the Lance family.

If anyone wants to sell wine directly to Jingang City or even the entire Likalai State market without contacting them, then the Lance family will cut off their smuggling channels and prevent a single bottle of their wine from entering Jingang City or Likalai State.

Likalai State's alcohol consumption capacity is among the highest in the southern region. If we lose the Likalai State market, sales will definitely decline.

The decline in sales means that he will make less money, and in order to sell the wine to further places, he will have to bear greater transportation costs and risks. The news has been coming back for several days, and some people don't take the threat from the Lans family seriously.

Although Yalan is very poor, it has a large population, and there are gunmen here who are willing to take risks for a few hundred or a thousand dollars.

If the Lans family really annoyed them, they would send gunmen over there to teach that "Mr. Lans" how to communicate with the Asian Lans.

But some people also think that the Lans family may not be joking.

The five major families have all been terminated, so maybe this family really has a chance to decide whether their alcohol can enter.

The room was very quiet. After a while, the only person here who had attended high school spoke up, "We can arrange for someone to go over and see what they are going to say and do."

"If their proposal has nothing to lose for us, I think we can do it."

"But if their proposals will harm our interests, then we will leave them alone."

The big boss nodded and pointed at the high school student who was talking with his lit cigar, "You go ..."

The risk of smuggling directly onto the coastline has become increasingly greater since the Federal Coast Guard has deployed gunboats.

At the same time, the navy will be stationed in Jingang City, and it will become increasingly difficult for smuggling ships to transport goods along the entire coast of Likale State and even in some surrounding coastal areas.

This is obvious. If the navy cannot even detect some smuggling ships and cannot prevent them from docking, then what if these smuggling ships are not transporting alcohol but explosives or something like that?
So it is foreseeable that delivering goods to Jingang City will definitely no longer be an easy task.

It’s not feasible to use smuggling ships to transport goods directly, so what should we do?
customs!

"...The problem you mentioned does exist." Jack, who was sitting next to Lance, gave an affirmative answer to Lance's statement that "some customs officers may have connections with smugglers."

"Before, smuggled liquor rarely passed through customs, but now, the amount and proportion of smuggled liquor passing through customs are increasing."

"Customs is not a dangerous goods management agency. We will not destroy the wine immediately after we get it, which gives some people the opportunity to manipulate it."

The contraband was detained at the port, and after a period of time when people no longer remembered it, it would be shipped out and reported to the authorities as having been destroyed.

This kind of thing is very common at customs, just like some other smuggled goods.

Even if no one comes to "pay for" some smuggled goods, customs officers will still secretly take them away and dispose of them.

After all... the scrap after destruction can't be sold for much money, but if these things are not destroyed, they will be money.

Who can have a grudge against money?

Including Jack himself, he will also be involved in this kind of thing.

It’s just that he used to be a customs officer, but now he is an official, and the destruction of some categories of goods requires his signature.

Not only did he have to sign, he also had to supervise the destruction. If they didn't deal with Jack, then this category of goods would not be able to be "recycled."

In addition to this part of income, there is also a part of customs clearance fees for commodity exports.

However, this part is relatively small. For example, the federal government now prohibits the sale of sensitive materials to the Dantra Military Alliance.

But the capitalists who really intend to sell things over there will not be stupid enough to directly declare to deliver sensitive materials there. Instead, they will use a third party or even a fourth party as a springboard to circulate the sensitive materials around the world and then send them to the Dantra Military Alliance.

So relatively speaking, the economic benefits obtained from this part are not much.

“I have done some things recently, hoping to clean up the smuggled liquor market in Jingang City and even the entire Likalai State.”

Lance took a final puff of his cigarette, stuck it into the ashtray, and compacted it two or three times before throwing it away.

"I hope the customs will stop dealing with those smuggling groups or gangs and not let any bottle of wine fall into their hands."

After listening to this, Jack thought seriously for a while and said, "I will confiscate all the wine that comes from my side, but it is not easy for me to negotiate with others about the wine that comes from their side."

"After all, this involves a lot of income. Many people need to rely on this to maintain their current lives."

Lance shook his head. "You misunderstood me. When I said to take it away, I didn't mean to destroy it."

“You used to sell them to certain merchants, to certain gangs.”

"No problem. Now, sell it to me at your previous price."

“It’s safer and more efficient this way.”

“Talk to your colleagues.”

"If anyone finds this proposal inappropriate..." Lance laughed, "Give me his name."

"I'll convince him."

(End of this chapter)