Shadow Empire

Chapter 633 Suppliers

After saying goodbye to Major General Bruni, Lance went to William's office.

The office was also rented by Lance. People knew the relationship between William and Lance, so no one stopped him along the way.

Until Lance pushed open the office door, William's secretary was adjusting her skirt in a panic.

William sat on the chair at a loss. He looked at Lance and said, "I can explain."

Lance just frowned, then walked over and sat down opposite him, motioning for the secretary to go out and close the door.

"I can actually explain it!", after the secretary left, William reiterated that he could explain why his secretary was adjusting her skirt in his office.

Lance rejected the idea of ​​him explaining, "I'm a man too, I have eyes, I know what you're doing."

"I think the biggest problem right now is not that you and her were flirting in the office, or even further..."

William was about to "correct" Lance's words, but Lance raised his finger to stop him, "I don't care if you cheat, William."

"But you have to be careful."

"It's me today, what if it's someone else?"

"It's your lot to make it known that the Imperial District alderman is having an affair with his secretary in his office."

"I have invested a lot in you, and the Lawrence family has also invested in you, and it will all be wasted."

“That’s your biggest problem!”

"Next time, lock the door or go to another place."

"Don't let me catch you messing around in the office again!"

Emily is already pregnant and her belly is getting bigger. Because she is not young anymore, the doctor recommends not to have any sexual activity even during the safe period.

If she accidentally had a miscarriage, it would not only be the baby in her belly that would suffer, but also herself.

The Federation is one of the countries with the most advanced medical technology in the world, but even so, difficult labor and accidental miscarriage still claim many lives every year.

At first, Emily would help William solve the problem with her hands or some other means, but she stopped this game because it made her feel uneasy and she had no fun watching others enjoy it.

Power is the most powerful aphrodisiac in the world. William has endless energy every day. He is already in his forties and he can't rely on himself to solve problems at this age.

The secretary in the office has been teasing him. In the past, Emily helped him satisfy his desires, so he might not be so sensitive.

But as his desires accumulated step by step, he now needed a way to vent, and he could now notice the small details that he usually didn't notice.

From William's perspective, his secretary is like a bitch in heat, sticking her butt up and wagging her tail. No matter what time or place, he just needs to stand in the right place.

William felt a little embarrassed. After all, Lance was still his son-in-law, but he didn't get angry when Lance said that.

He could only nod his head somewhat depressedly, "I won't mess around with her anymore."

Lance didn't seem to buy it. "So you're planning on hiring a prostitute?"

"If you were caught having sex with your secretary, they would just think you were too much for temptation."

"But if you are caught soliciting a prostitute, not only will you have moral problems, you will also be breaking the law."

"Remember what I said, you can do what you want, but don't mess up your job and your image."

"If you throw those away, you're worthless!"

Lance thought for a moment and gave him a number. "If you really want to pay for it, call this number and they will arrange it for you."

Although the Lans family does not run an escort business, there are some spontaneously formed escort companies that are under their protection.

This is how it is in this era, or in every era. Money is the standard for measuring everything.

Even if a woman stands up and becomes rich by her ability to take off her clothes, when she puts on clothes, people may still have the image of her without clothes in their minds, but at least they will respectfully call her "Madam".

But those women who have no money, no matter how noble their morals are, there are still people who maliciously call them "bitches".

The reason why truth is truth is that it will never change at any time.

There are people willing to work twelve hours a day in Lans' factory, sweating all over, and earn forty-two dollars a month.

But there are also people who lie on the bed with their legs spread open without being forced and earn 42 dollars a day. This is their choice. Lance respects their choice and protects them from being hurt.

The people in charge of managing this part will help William do it, and they also have senior call girls.

Those young and beautiful girls will be in a secret room as agreed, and they will be blindfolded or even wear a hood.

There was no communication during the process and she couldn't see who that person was.

When it's all over, the "agent" will take her away and that's the end of it.

It can’t be said to be absolutely safe, but at least it is much safer than being in the office.

William put the card away. Although he said on the surface that he would not do that, Lance was sure that he would do that.

Some things only happen zero times and countless times.

This was different from his previous socializing at City Hall, as this was his initiative.

William had never felt time passing so slowly and so torturously.

Even when he was on the bench at City Hall before, he had never felt so miserable.

Various explanations and plans to deal with possible subsequent problems kept emerging in his mind, but in the end they were all shattered because he did do something that he shouldn't have done.

Lance looked at him and shook his head slightly. "I'll give you one last piece of advice on this matter. Don't let her get pregnant, and don't let her try to give birth to the baby."

"If she tries that, I'll have her sunk in Angel Lake."

"You know, we won't let anything unexpected happen to your career. If someone tries to destroy you, we will destroy her before she destroys you."

This was his final warning. Once you have a child, many things will become complicated and irreversible.

William nodded repeatedly, he knew how to deal with it.

After missing this embarrassing topic, Lance talked about some things about Lawrence's farm.

Lawrence Farm is a relatively large farm in the entire Likalai State. In addition, the crops produced by the surrounding farms are also entrusted to Lawrence Farm for sale, so in terms of material supply, Lance has more advantages than others who do this.

Directly from the farm to the military camp, with no middlemen making a profit from the price difference.

But William didn't quite understand this, so he gave Lance a phone number, the number of his little brother, Deans.

The "General Manager" of Lawrence Farm is responsible for selling crops to surrounding cities and regions.

The two agreed to meet in the evening.

The Holy Farmer's Festival is coming soon, which is also the harvest season of the year. A large number of crops will soon be harvested, and he has to sell these crops as soon as possible.

The longer the goods are in stock, the higher the cost will be. Selling them one day earlier can not only avoid some storage risks, but also make a lot of money.

Then Lance didn't stay any longer and left immediately.

He didn't actually think it was a bad thing, as he told William, what made him think it was a "trouble" was that William was so careless.

I hope he can learn a lesson from this incident.

Later, at Lance's villa, he met Deans.

The two shook hands and sat in the living room. After they brought the coffee, they were left alone.

Dean inevitably asked about Lance and Patricia's wedding plans. In fact, July and August are good days to get married, but the end of the year is not bad either.

The overall plan has not changed, Lance will marry Patricia in November or December.

"I didn't really want to have a grand wedding, but it seems like I can't do it." Lance was a little helpless. The Lawrence family alone was a large group of people, and a "family and friends group" of hundreds of people would only make the wedding even bigger.

If you don't invite others, those who are not invited will feel a little uncomfortable.

But if you invite one, you have to invite the other, so the scale of this wedding may be the largest wedding in Jingang City in recent years, without a doubt.

Deans was very interested in this. The more grand Lance and Patricia's wedding was, the more positive the impact it would have on the Lawrence family.

He asked curiously, "How many guests do you plan to invite?"

Lance wasn't quite sure at the moment, and could only give a rough number, "Maybe one or two hundred people?"

"I don't know. I need to calculate it when the time comes."

Deans said with emotion, "It must have been an enviable wedding."

As long as one is a human being living in this society, he will be vain. Vanity is not an unforgivable sin. What is unforgivable are some worse things caused by vanity.

After chatting about family matters for a while, the strange feeling between the two of them dissipated a lot, and Lance also turned the topic to business.

"Did you hear about the garrison?"

Deans nodded and said, "Yes, I also went to see the warship enter the port. It was spectacular!"

He took a sip of coffee and then sighed, "When I saw those huge cannons and battleships, my mind went blank!"

"I don't know who can defeat such a powerful us. I am proud to be a federal!"

Very good, a pure-blooded heir to the non-ultra-conservative landlord class, this is part of the mainstream group of the Federation, and his ideas also represent the thoughts of the mainstream group.

That sense of pride was bubbling out of his body without any need for careful observation, and it was everywhere.

Lance nodded. "Nearly 100,000 or even more navy personnel will live here. Their consumption of daily necessities is an astonishing figure."

Deans keenly grasped the meaning of Lance's words, "You mean...their supplies?"

"I'm sorry, I don't quite understand this. Shouldn't their supplies be supplied by the Ministry of Defense?"

Lance nodded. "Arms, ammunition and the like are all supplied by the Ministry of National Defense, but food and daily necessities are purchased locally."

“This is a big business!”

Deans nodded in agreement, "Yes, it's a big business worth millions every month at least!" His eyes were fixed on Lance, and Lance met his gaze.

After the two looked at each other for a while, Deans smiled and said, "Kang Mang, Lance, we are family. Is there any good news waiting for me?"

"You know, you're making me a little uneasy. I really want to know if that's what I want!"

Lance laughed, "Yes, I just talked to the commander of the naval garrison, and he plans to hand this part over to me."

"Oh my God!" Deans was completely stunned!

As the general manager of the farm, he certainly knew how amazing the profits were from this kind of official bulk purchase. It could be said that by taking over this business, the scale and grade of Lawrence Farm would immediately be upgraded to a higher level!
"how did you do it?!"

He was still a little skeptical. Lance didn't tell him the truth. The fewer people who knew about these things, the better. "Anyway, I'll take this matter on. Can our farm afford the supply of these ingredients?"

Deans calmed down from his excitement, "I need to see their material needs."

Lance gave him a simple list of the supplies that would be needed for each period, and he read it carefully.

"Basically we have everything they want, and anything we don't have ourselves is also grown on surrounding farms."

"I saw that their meal fee is 90 cents per person per day?"

There was a hint of surprise in his tone. To be honest, the cost of this meal was very high!

"If we give out this meal allowance standard, many people will be more interested in joining the army!"

The main group joining the military now are illegal immigrants and refugees who want to obtain federal legal status, but if they knew that the food in the Navy is so good, it would definitely make the high spirits even more heated!
Lance shook his head. "You can't look at it that way. You have to lower the standard to about 50 to 60 points, not 90 points."

He has done similar work in another world. How could you get such a big order if you didn't give him kickbacks?
Of the standard meal allowance of 90 per soldier, only a little over half can actually be used for the soldiers, and the rest is a benefit to General Miles.

But even so, fifty-five to sixty points would still allow those people to eat well.

For example, it was stipulated that each navy soldier needed at least one pound of beef, two eggs, and one liter of milk every day.

A large amount of protein can help them maintain better physical condition during daily training.

A whole cut of steak costs about twenty-five to thirty cents a pound now, and the price of all food is rising because of the war.

But ground beef only costs about five or six cents a pound.

Beef patties made from ground beef, is beef.

Whole cut steaks are also beef, but the price is ten or twenty cents different.

Whole wheat bread is bread.

Refined wheat bread is still bread, and there is a difference of several points here.

Add to that some other things, there is still a lot of profit margin here.

In fact, in addition to food, the soldiers' supplies also include candy, cigarettes, chocolate, chewing gum and so on, but these already have a unified supplier, so Lance can't get involved.

The only thing he can intervene in is the fresh ingredients.

Listening to Lance's explanation, Deans frowned and began to calculate, "If we calculate it this way, our profit is only about ten to fifteen percent."

Lance gave him a tone, "No more than ten points. After all, they are right next to us. If any soldier thinks these are too bad, we will be in trouble."

Deans nodded. "In that case... there's no problem, I think."

"Do I need to go back and make a more detailed estimate? Do I need to submit the estimate in the company's way?"

The Procurement Act contains methods for local procurement by the federal government and the military. In order to avoid power-for-money transactions, at least one company must participate in the bidding for each procurement.

However, capitalists and politicians will not really build a cage to lock power in it.

The Procurement Law stipulates that all bidding methods must be conducted in secret. In other words, they prepare the cost estimate, seal it, and submit it to the purchasing department.

The purchasing department then announces whose price was more reasonable and ultimately their choice - yes, their choice, not the lowest-priced option.

The department responsible for procurement has the final say. If a bidding company is dissatisfied with the result, it can appeal to higher authorities or even to Congress, but this is just a decoration.

Companies that really need the Procurement Law don’t even have the chance to compete fairly, while companies that are regulated within the scope of the Procurement Law don’t really matter whether it exists or not.

From the very beginning, it has been decided who will win the bid and who will not.

When it comes to corruption, the federal government's corruption methods and innovations are absolutely world-class.

Lance was a little unsure, so he called Major General Bruni, who told him that there was no need to go through so much trouble.

Next month, the president will declare a pre-war state, during which time another set of regulations for special periods will be adopted, and the military will have the power to make decisions on some purchases.

So Admiral Miles will directly designate Lance or Lawrence Farm as the supplier to supply food for the entire navy.

Deans attaches great importance to this business. The monthly sales are about 1.8 million, with a gross profit margin of 18%, which is more than 300,000.

It may not seem like a lot, but what is valuable is not the profit, but the qualification!

The "qualifications" and "experience" gained from supplying materials to the military are very important for bulk raw material suppliers!

Some companies are even willing to supply goods at zero profit just to get such a title.

With such qualifications, Lawrence Farm will be able to participate more in government procurement activities in the future, which is something that money cannot buy.

He drove back to the farm overnight. The customers of this Lawrence farm were very loyal, and soon they had a complete plan to ensure the freshness and healthiness of the food while also ensuring that the price was not outrageous.

(End of this chapter)