Shadow Empire
Chapter 620 Targets and Bids
Chapter 620 Targets and Bids
Jack was also very concerned about some recent changes in Jingang City. He also heard some rumors, which mainly came from people who were related to the smuggling group.
It's like...some people would complain to a stranger about something at work.
They don't think that strangers will cause any problems to their work or life because of their complaints.
It's like when you're waiting for the bus and you're chatting with a passerby, you tell him a lot of bad things about your boss, and you don't have to worry that he will tell your boss about it.
The same is true at customs. Those who send money sometimes complain to the customs officers, complaining that the Lance family's actions are a bit overbearing and inappropriate.
They would tell Jack about this.
At least a few people knew about the relationship between Jack and Lance, and his promotion to customs officer was not arranged by Lance, but by Arthur who helped him get the promotion.
Many people think that Jack is a member of the Williams family, not knowing that he and Lance are actually closer.
So they would also tell the complaints of the smuggling groups to this customs official with a deep background, and he would know about some recent changes.
"I heard you're doing big things lately!", Jack teased.
Lance laughed twice, without being modest, "Yes, it's a big deal."
"I am integrating the shipping channels of alcoholic beverages throughout Jingang City. In addition to our own production, I must also make a profit from other alcoholic beverages entering the port."
"Otherwise I wouldn't let them in."
Although Jack knew this in his heart, he was still shocked when Lance said this!
You know that rich people have a lot of money, and you know that a million dollars is the same to them as a dollar in your pocket, but it's just a concept.
Only when you really see that they do not treat money seriously will you be shocked by their wealth and have some negative emotions.
Jack didn't have any negative emotions. The stronger Lance was, the smoother the rise of the Lawrence family would be, and the more benefits they, the relatives, would get from it.
For example, Lawrence Farm has now become the largest brewery in the surrounding area, and other farms will sell their crops to them.
In the past, we purchased crops just to take care of the surrounding farmers. After all, we were all friends. Only the Lawrence family had a relatively complete sales channel of their own.
But now, this is no longer care, but a business to make money.
A ton of crops brewed into wine can bring in more than ten times the profit once it is resold. The three old men in the Lawrence family are now full of energy all day long. They also hired some new cowboys and formed a "musketeer team".
The Musketeers was the term people used to refer to private armed forces. Their job was to patrol around the brewery on horseback every day to prevent any suspicious people from entering the brewery.
If someone did not heed the warning, as large farmers, landowners, plantation owners and former slave owners, they had every right to kill any intruders on their private land.
It's not fucking illegal, because people of their class are considered semi-privileged.
The Socialists and Liberals take their influence very seriously and will lean in their favor on various issues.
Lance's business benefits the entire Lawrence family. Everyone can get more dividends from the farm, and even if they don't get money from other aspects, they can still live a very good life.
If Lance can completely monopolize the wine and beverage business in Jingang City...
Jack couldn't imagine what the scene was like!
"How much liquor is sold in Jingang City every year?" he asked. He was still very curious and wanted to know how much money Lance made from this.
Lance shook his head. "There isn't any reliable number to support this, but we will keep a count."
"There are now more than 200 alcohol sales outlets in the city, and we estimate sales to be around 1.5 to 2 million per day."
Jack, who was drinking coffee, suddenly turned his head and coughed. Some coffee even sprayed out of his nasal cavity. After coughing several times, he stared at Lance with wide eyes, "Wang Defa, how much did you say?"
"One and a half to two million is actually a conservative number because the navy will be coming in soon, and the population here will increase, and the demand for alcohol will increase."
In fact, in addition to these sales businesses, there is another one which is seafarers' supplies.
When navigation technology was not very advanced, it was normal for a ship to drift on the sea for several months.
The lack of entertainment and recreation could be life-threatening for sailors.
Therefore, cigarettes and alcohol became the first important supplies for them after landing.
However, it is not cost-effective to replenish wine and beverages in Jingang City. Now many ships will temporarily stay in Yalan Bay for a day or half a day to let the wine dealers deliver the wine to the ship.
Their prices are cheaper, much cheaper than resupplying in Jingang City.
But even so, just ordinary sales can generate millions of sales every day, which is hard for Jack to imagine!
There are more than one million a day, so what about in a year?
Hundreds of millions in sales?
He looked at Lance as if he were a monster. He finally understood why Jingang City had been in a state of fierce fighting for most of the time in the past two years.
Because of profit!
He swallowed and asked, "How much is your...profit?"
Lance said casually, "Simply speaking in terms of alcoholic beverages, because we need the market, we need to give part of the profits to those operators, so the net profit is about 20%."
Jack graduated from a prestigious university and was good at math. After a simple calculation, he came to the conclusion that the net profit per day was about three or four hundred thousand.
He suddenly didn't want to talk to Lance anymore. It was too discouraging.
Seeing the numbness and confusion on his face, Lance couldn't help but burst into laughter. "In fact, we also have the contract fee for the bar. I roughly calculated that if this part of the income is included, it is 50%."
Out of a hundred dollars, he makes fifty, those small gangsters make twenty to thirty, and the rest is the cost. This is reasonable.
From Lance's perspective, he doesn't need to be responsible for any specific operations, but he can still make huge profits from the sales of alcohol in the entire city. The cost is almost zero and the income has increased dramatically.
For small gangs, there is no need to worry about Lance competing with them. With a more stable market and business environment, they only need to run their own bars seriously to ensure profits.
Although the big head was taken by Lance, the advantage is stability.
For example, a small gang of more than ten people can contract a bar as long as they grit their teeth, and they can also make a profit from the bar every month to keep their gang alive.
And there is not no competition between gangs.
Lans allowed them to contract more bars, which was the focus of the competition, but everything would be within the scope defined by Lans.
Lance will punish anyone who breaks the rules, and the underground world of Jingang City is about to enter a super stable stage.
Violent crimes will be reduced on a large scale, people's happiness index will be improved, and it will not be an exaggeration to say that "Mr. Lance is like a saint."
He felt a little emotional. If he could barely understand some of Lance's things before, now he couldn't understand anything at all.
"No matter what, if you need our help, just ask. You are also part of the family!"
The two clinked their glasses. Even though it was just coffee, the meaning was there.
There were some minor riots in the city over the next few days, and Lance needed to deal with the bosses of the gangs who were unwilling to cooperate with him.
Some have already taken the initiative to leave Jingang City, but there are others who have not left here and have remained silent about Lance's regulations. By doing so, they are obviously not giving Lance face.
Even if it was Bendy, if he didn't give Lance face, Lance would kill him, not to mention these little gangsters!
Lance's attitude was very tough, which made the leaders of these small gangs feel uncomfortable.
"I have been in Jingang City for much longer than that Lance. He doesn't respect us, so we should unite and teach him a lesson..."
In the back seat of the car, a middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties complained to the people around him, "I have been running this business for more than 20 years. Whether it is the five major families or other gangs, they all respect me very much."
"No one ever gives me a hard time, except this Lance!"
"He actually asked me to close my bar and pay him some contract fee before I could open the bar."
"Shit, he's even more domineering than the five major families!"
The middle-aged man was holding a cigar in his hand. As his emotions fluctuated violently as he spoke, he kept waving the cigar in his hand, causing sparks to fly.
The person sitting next to him was the leader of another gang. He nodded in agreement, "He is so unreasonable."
"He is an outsider and a newbie, and he needs someone to teach him to respect us."
"I don't like him. I never liked him. He also doesn't allow us to collect protection money and blackmail rich people. Fuck, he doesn't allow us to do this and that. Why doesn't he become the police chief?"
"He has more things to do than the governor."
"We are gangsters, not fucking philanthropists!"
Lance demanded a complete ban on protection fees, a request that everyone could reluctantly agree to if they were allowed to continue opening the bar.
After all, the several thousand yuan in protection fees collected from the stores might be the profit of the bar for three to five days, but now Lance doesn't let them do anything, so they must be complaining.
"We need to unite more people and make them understand that they don't necessarily have the final say in Jingang City. Even if we have to fight, we won't be afraid of him!"
When the two old guys got emotional, they wanted to walk up to Lance and slap him twice in the face, so that he would understand the respect that a junior should have for his elders.
They then begin to reminisce about their past achievements, such as killing someone or forcing someone to admit defeat, as if they are still the same as before.
Just when they were in high spirits, the car suddenly turned sharply, followed by a collision sound. Both of them stared with wide eyes as a car from the side hit their car.
Before the driver could get angry, two gun muzzles appeared behind the opposite car window. The dormant submachine gun was activated in an instant, and bullets poured out.
After a few seconds, it accelerated again and disappeared into the traffic.
All that was left were the car windows full of holes and two middle-aged and elderly people lying in a pool of blood in the back seat.
A few streets away, a well-dressed guy suddenly looked in the direction where the gunshots came from.
There was a hint of doubt and solemnity in his eyes. After waiting for a while until the gunshots stopped, he turned around and leaned against the window to look at the people in the room.
"I think we can run the business quietly and turn the bar into an underground model. I heard that someone and his team are planning to open a bar in the sewer."
Everyone in the room laughed. Opening a bar in a sewer was a good choice. At least the sewer was more concealed.
A few people were talking when there was a knock on the door, and some people had their hands on their weapons.
The city has not been peaceful recently, and no one knows when Lance will find them.
They were all relieved when they found out that it was one of their own people who came in after knocking on the door.
The man was holding a box in his hands. "The postman said you have to open it yourself. I don't know what's inside."
The leader shook the box and found it was not very heavy. There seemed to be something inside, which made a lot of noise when it was shaken.
He placed the box on the table and glanced at the beacon. There was no clear shipping address on it, but he opened it anyway.
"This lid is a little hard to open..." The moment he lifted the lid with force, he looked at the things inside and said "Fuck".
Two or three seconds later, the pedestrians on the street were frightened by the violent explosion and ran away screaming, with objects produced by the explosion everywhere.
Although there were some minor disturbances in the city, the citizens were not too dissatisfied, because gangs were being eradicated one by one and a more stable life was coming.
In early September, Lance convened another gang meeting in Jingang City. This time, all the gangs who still planned to make a living in Jingang City came.
It is undeniable that there are definitely some who have not come yet, but as long as they abide by the rules, Lance does not intend to deal with them.
No extortion of common people, no sale of alcohol.
He is not a businessman, he is a gang leader. This is a world where the strong prey on the weak. He does not need to abide by other people's rules, but others need to abide by his.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, the auditorium of Jingang Hotel was already filled with the gang leaders of Jingang City, some of whom brought one or two people with them.
The core content of today's meeting is "bidding".
At 2:15, Lance arrived at the venue and began to introduce the method and content of today's bidding.
"On the map behind me, each area has a number, and it provides us with a preliminary estimate of how much its turnover will be."
"For some of them, we have actual operating data, and for some, we refer to the operating data of surrounding areas. It may deviate from the actual operating results, but not too much."
"For example, Bar No. 110, which is our own business data, has sales of about to per month."
"The operating cost is about 20,000 to 30,000, and the profit is at least more than 120,000..."
There was already some discussion in the venue. Many bars run by small gangs only made 110 to yuan a month, but this No. bar could make yuan a month, which was several times their previous income.
Some people's eyes were immediately focused here.
After they discussed it for a while, Lance continued, "We all know that its profit is over 120,000, so if I want to get this bar, what should I do?"
He picked up a card, facing everyone, and filled it out while saying, "I'll fill in the bar number I need to bid for here, and then fill in the contract price I think I can afford."
"Let's say I expect the profit of this bar to be 60,000 yuan, and I plan to make 60,000 yuan from here, so I will fill in 60,000 yuan in this position."
"Then put it in this envelope and drop it in this mailbox."
“It’s not that this is the profit you have in mind, but how much are you willing to pay for this bar.”
"If you can run it better, maybe it can bring you more profits, 70,000 or 80,000, or even 100,000 or 100,000 yuan."
"But it is also possible that because you are not operating well enough, the benefits do not meet your demands."
"You want 110, he wants it, and I want it too."
"Then we will eventually hand over the operating rights to the person with the highest bid."
"The bidding period is one year. This is to give you a rough idea and a chance to get familiar with all the rules."
“After a year, my bids will be for two years.”
Lance put down what he was holding and said, "If anyone fails to win the bid, then unfortunately, you will not be able to run the bar this year."
“You can consider running something else to get through the year, or expand to surrounding cities.”
"But whether you are willing to stay in Jingang City or not, you must abide by my rules."
He said this emphatically, then looked around the entire auditorium, raised his wrist to check his watch, "You have half an hour."
“By the way, if anyone thinks they are not strong enough, they can bid together with others.”
"Except for the red numbers which will be auctioned for the right to operate, all others can participate in the bidding."
"You have one hour, and I hope you will make a careful decision."
As he spoke he left the stage and the place suddenly became lively. It was the first time for people to play this and they really didn’t understand it, but that didn’t stop them from understanding one thing: don’t let others know your “trump card”!
(End of this chapter)
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