Shadow Empire

Chapter 627 My territory is under my control
In a wolf pack, if someone tries to challenge the wolf king, the wolf king has only two options.

Either they leave the group in disgrace with their tails between their legs, or they fight back fiercely.

Human society is not a wolf society, but it is more complicated than a wolf society.

When someone gave Lance a signal of disobedience, they stood face to face on a single-plank bridge at the same time.

Their goal is to reach the destination behind each other, but this single-plank bridge can only support one person passing through, so one person must fall down.

Lance's words made the guy who spoke feel embarrassed. In Yalan, in their own territory, although he was not the leader of the gang, he was also an important figure in the gang second only to the leader.

In that lawless land, even if he just didn't like a passerby, he could pull out his gun and shoot the passerby to death without taking any responsibility.

From local residents, police to the local government, no one would let him lose face because of these "small things".

At most, it would be a small compensation of a few hundred federal sols.

People always say that life is precious and priceless.

It is indeed very expensive when it is expensive. In order to live one more day, those high-ranking gentlemen can spend tens of thousands or even more on medical expenses every day, just to breathe a few more breaths of air.

But if you say it is cheap, it is indeed not that expensive. A human life can be bought for a few hundred dollars, or even a dozen dollars in some areas.

In the eyes of this gang representative from Yalan, he had no respect for life, and he had no respect for Lance either.

Now that Lance had put him in an awkward position, he certainly couldn't take out any weapon to shoot Lance because all his weapons had been taken away.

But he had his own way of fighting back. He stood up and left the venue with his men.

Lance didn't try to keep him, but just watched them leave. He then gave Erwin a look, who nodded slightly and turned to leave.

Lance looked back at the others, "Anyone else wants to leave?"

"If anyone thinks that I invited you here just for a farce, then you can leave now."

There was silence at the scene. No one answered, no one stood up, and they would not leave until they were sure what Lance was going to say.

After waiting for a minute and no one making a statement, Lance nodded and said, "Very good, it seems that it was just an accident, so next, I don't want anyone to interrupt me."

His gaze lingered for a moment on the faces of several representatives of larger gangs he knew, and then he began to recall what he had just said.

He had forgotten a little, so he decided to simply start over, "We have never met before. This is our first meeting, and it will also be the beginning of our first cooperation."

"I know some of you are getting impatient, so let me just tell you some of my thoughts on the Jingangcheng Market."

He signaled to the staff to lower a curtain with a map of the entire Jingang City on it.

The map is divided into many blocks, each with a number on it.

People looked at the curtain and were a little confused; they didn't know what these things were.

Fortunately, Lance explained it in a timely manner. "This is the sales of liquor in Jingang City in the past week. The actual figures may increase or decrease, but they will not differ too much. It can be used as an important reference."

In fact, these bars were not very willing to tell Lance the truth about how much they sold for, but Lance had a way of knowing. Some would refuse his seemingly rude request, but some would not.

The gang representatives in the audience were all concentrating on looking at those astonishing figures, with their facial expressions changing in various ways.

"Golden City is one of the important alcohol consumption cities in the southern region of the Federation. According to our latest data, Golden City will be able to sell at least 200 million worth of alcoholic beverages this year."

"This is a huge market, and I am confident that under the control of the Lans family over Jingang City, the sales of alcoholic beverages will reach a new level."

"Two hundred and fifty million, or even three hundred million. With the arrival of the garrison, our sales will only increase!"

"I have a dream. Three years from now, I want Jingang City to be the number one alcoholic beverage consumer market in the country!"

Some people below exclaimed in surprise. In terms of making a fuss, the gangsters were no different from ordinary lower-class female citizens. They would also make meaningless exclamations because of things that were beyond their understanding.

They actually don't know how much wine Jingang City can sell in a year, they just know that the sales of wine here are very good.

This was the first time they fully experienced the madness of smuggling liquor!
Before Prohibition, a gangster's annual income was only a few hundred thousand or a million dollars, unless they were able to work for capitalists and participate in some major financial crimes.

Otherwise, most gangs wouldn't even make a million dollars in profit a year.

But with the advent of Prohibition, it became much easier to make money, but they still didn't have an intuitive understanding of how easy it was.

Now, they understand.

The huge market makes everyone hide a wild beast in their heart, constantly tumbling and jumping, stimulating their hearts and making them involuntarily focus their attention on Lance.

"There are about 40 or 50 gangs, including us, that supply the city's alcoholic beverage market with liquid gold."

He raised his hand, and the picture on the screen behind him turned into a front view of a bar counter. The wine cabinet was filled with various wine bottles, many of which were produced by the manufacturers sitting here today.

Then the scene switched again, showing some scenes of identifying the wine-making site. Some dirty people wearing handcuffs were standing next to some wine-making tools.

"In addition to you, there are some small underground workshops that provide alcoholic beverages to the bar."

"Alcoholic beverages, wine, are not something that is easy to make, and poor quality wine can have unpredictable and dire consequences."

"These small workshops that lack experience and secretly brew alcoholic beverages will also disrupt our normal market credibility."

“So the market needs to be regulated and have rules.”

"Starting from October, we will crack down on the unlicensed alcohol entering Jingang City. Whether it is a smuggling team or a private wine-making workshop, we will crack down on it."

"But we don't have that much energy to handle all the drinks and channels, so we need to maintain it together."

He paused as he spoke. The image on the screen behind him kept changing, with slides being switched manually.

Some news reports about people drinking low-quality alcohol appeared on the screen. These were internal materials obtained from the Hazardous Materials Administration, and they were bloody.

"Like I told you at the beginning, you don't know me, you don't know me as a person, and you are completely unfamiliar with my style."

"But it doesn't matter. You can go and ask around. I am a person who is willing to take responsibility, whether it's to my subordinates, my partners, my friends, or to those in this city who benefit us by consuming alcoholic beverages!"

"In light of what has happened, I have set a few rules."

"First, from today on, all wine and beverage producers entering Jingang City must pay a security deposit to me and the Lance family based on your output scale."

"This fee accounts for 3% of your total output. That is, if you sell one million bottles of wine to Jingang City this year, you need to give me a deposit of 30,000."

"These thirty thousand were not taken away by me, but kept with me."

"If someone suffers a medical emergency as a result of consuming your alcohol, the cost of their medical treatment will be deducted from this deposit."

"In the second year, you will need to make up the shortfall, and because of your poor credit record, the size of the security deposit will increase."

"Of course, if any of you do not plan to continue cooperating with us, we will return the deposit to you when the cooperation ends."

"Second, in order to prevent some inferior liquor from being dumped in high-quality markets like Jingang City, we will adopt an access system." "In addition to paying an access deposit of 30% of the total price of your imported liquor, you also need to pay a special fee of 10% of the total price of imported liquor each year to maintain the market and crack down on illegal smugglers and private brewers."

If people could barely accept the first point, they would find the second one a bit too much to handle.

Someone raised their hand and Lance raised his chin, "What's the question, sir?"

The man who stood up was short and fat, wearing a suit that was obviously one size too small, which made his belly look particularly big.

"Mr. Lance, I can understand the deposit for medical treatment, but isn't this admission deposit and special fees unreasonable?"

He asked very tactfully, but people could hear the dissatisfaction in his tone.

Lance, however, acted as if he hadn't come out at all, and continued to explain patiently.

"If the wine you import has problems due to quality issues, this money will be directly deducted as a penalty. The purpose of this is to make you pay attention to its quality during production."

"It can not only bring happiness to people, but also bring harm to people."

"I don't want the residents of this city to spend their hard-earned money on your lousy products just for the sake of happiness. Not only will they not get happiness, but my reputation will also be damaged."

"I believe that once you realise that you will lose a lot of money if you try to fool us about quality and safety, you will be more careful in producing these wines."

"As long as you don't mess around, this money will remain. When you don't plan to continue cooperating with us, I will return it to you."

"It didn't become my money, nor did it go into my pocket. It was just a key to witness and ensure our mutual trust during the cooperation process."

"As for the special expenses..."

Lance was silent for a moment. "Police, Hazardous Materials Administration, Fire Department, Prosecutor's Office, Customs, City Hall, State Government, and even the Navy!"

"Do you know how much PR and favors I have to spend to get your wine on the wine cabinets of those bars and sell it openly?"

"I'm asking you for 10 percent. It's just a small portion, gentlemen. This is my greatest sincerity to you."

“If there is any other wine that wants to enter Jingang City later, its cost will be more than ten percent!”

The short, fat gentleman who asked the question couldn't help but say, "That's too much, Mr. Lance. If... 2 or 3 percent, we can accept it."

“You also said that the wine market in Jingang City is huge. Even if it’s only 2 or 3 percent, it’s still a lot of money!”

Others also nodded continuously. According to the market size of 200 million, 2% to 3% would be 4 to 6 million. It is not a small amount of money over so many years.

Lance shook his head. "That's not how it works. I'll give you two million. Can you find a senator in Congress to help me do something?"

"I have not discussed this number with you, nor do I intend to discuss it with you. I am just telling you a fact that you need to understand and know."

"You can be dissatisfied with my pricing, and you can also not deliver the wine here. As long as it is not in Jingang City and not in my territory, you can do whatever you want!"

"But in my territory, as long as you want to sell your wine here, no matter who you are, you must listen to me!"

Some people's expressions turned ugly again. Everyone was not a good person. Violence, crime, and murder were like daily life to them.

Lance's tough and unyielding attitude did indeed annoy some of them.

Those who were a little more polite suggested going back to think about it first, or reporting the news to the big boss of their gang and taking this opportunity to leave.

Those who were not very polite just left the scene.

Lance also had people record the names of their gangs and their products. It was easy to leave from here today, but coming back here tomorrow would not be a 10% chance.

The 10 percent he asked for was actually 10 percent of sales. If this figure was magnified by taking into account costs, it might be 20 to 30 percent of net profit.

After these people left, only twenty-seven or eight gangs were left at the scene.

Nearly half of the people left, but there was no embarrassment or uneasiness on Lance's face. He behaved extremely calmly.

He clasped his hands together in front of him, then spread them out again. "In fact, their voluntary departure is good for those of you who stay."

"The 200 million market is divided among more than 50 companies, and each company can only take up a few percent on average. But if you, more than 20 people, share it, the average is 4%."

"The market is getting bigger and bigger, but the competitors are getting smaller and smaller. Gentlemen, you have grasped the pulse of the times!"

He paused, then smiled and said, "If you have any questions, you can ask them now. Of course, if you want to leave, you can leave too. The door is at the back."

Zabry raised his hand, and Lance motioned for him to stand up. Then he asked, "Mr. Lance, I'm Zabry, from the Marcus family."

"I have a question. Our main business is smuggling, but we don't produce alcohol. If we want to let that alcohol in..."

Lance nodded slightly. "This is indeed a problem, but my idea is that you can customize a batch of wine for yourself from the wineries that provide you with wine."

"You arrange for someone to supervise their production and hold back a portion of the payment. As long as there is no problem with this batch of wine, Jingang City welcomes you!"

Zabri sat back contentedly. The Marcus family did not have their own winery. They bought various cheap wines from other places and sold them. This was also the main business of many smuggling groups.

Smuggling a car, or smuggling some raw materials, or even trafficking in slaves and people, the profit of a ship is at most only 10,000 or 20,000 yuan.

But selling wine, the profit of a shipload may be much more than this.

Zabri was on a bigger stage, he could understand the meaning of what Lance said. He could even imagine how crazy the people around him would be when they found out that Jingang City was selling alcohol semi-publicly!
Those drunkards will definitely come to Jingang City from all directions, and then the liquor market in Jingang City will really continue to expand as Lance said!

Then some people asked some questions, and Lance answered them patiently.

It’s not that he hasn’t thought about monopolizing the market, but the risks brought by monopolizing the market are definitely much greater than if he opened up the market.

Many people in the Federation do not understand this principle. When the ruling class hopes to use someone or something to establish their authority and set rules for others, they will definitely choose the most authoritative and largest one!

Lance has always refused to be "the biggest".

When almost everyone had no questions, David (the representative of the Saint Bell Party), who had been silent, stood up and said, "Mr. Lance, some people say you are a local, but some people say you are an immigrant. I am very curious about this."

Lance looked at David, who showed no signs of emotion, and frowned slightly, "This has nothing to do with what we are going to talk about today."

David chuckled a few times and said, "Yes, you are right. I asked questions that I shouldn't have asked." After he said that, he sat down and talked to the people around him.

Lance's gaze stayed on him for a moment before moving on to someone else, "Anything else you want to ask?"

"If not, you can go back and discuss it with your people, and we will start implementing it soon."

"Of course, if someone wants to give it a try, that's totally fine."

Looking at these people who seem to accept but may not really accept it, Lance feels that some people still need to set the rules.

Some people are like this. If you don’t let them be afraid, they won’t know how to be reverent!

(End of this chapter)