Shadow Empire

Chapter 663 Father-Son Conversation and Conflict

The atmosphere in the city was a bit depressing. People didn't know what was happening, but they could feel the raindrops falling.

It hit the ground, hit the puddles, and hit people's faces.

The feeling of walking in a rainstorm, with dark clouds covering the sky and making the world as depressing as night, is particularly bad.

Mayor Williams withdrew his gaze from the window. He had already received complete information that Lance had sent people to the school to take action.

He held a cigarette in his hand, but did not take many puffs.

The long, slowly burning, white ash fell from the cigarette butt with a gust of wind.

He glanced down and let the ashes fall out of the window.

"Everything points to Hof, but Hof is just a front-stage character. The people behind him are the key."

He walked away from the window and sat down on the chair in his office. The office was decorated luxuriously, but it was a low-key luxury.

These tables, chairs, and cabinets that look like "old furniture" actually exude a kind of nobility that is elusive for ordinary people.

Maybe some ordinary people will have a very strange feeling after coming in, that is, Mayor Williams must be a good mayor, look at how plain his office is.

James, who was sitting opposite him, nodded. "I don't like the current political environment. Everything is tied to money. The capitalists are too corrupt, and we don't have any good solutions."

Hof's decisive "escape" made Mayor Williams feel some emotion, very special emotion. He felt that Mr. Hof, a regional opinion leader, who was already considered middle-class in the upper class in Jingang City, Likalai State, was still just a front-stage figure.

Is money really that important?
he asked himself.

Then I agreed with this point of view.

Money is very important!
As his son, James understood his father's thoughts, and as he became a city councilor, he began to feel more.

"When I was still studying with you, I was confused a lot of the time."

Mayor Williams turned to look at his son, focusing his attention on him and motioning for him to continue.

James adjusted his sitting position and lit a cigarette. "What's puzzling is why you, Congressman Wade, and others sometimes lament the invasion of capital into politics."

“I didn’t understand it at the time, but after I became a city councillor, I finally understood it.”

He began to count on his fingers, "The city hall gives me seventy-nine dollars a month..."

Mayor Williams couldn't help laughing. He raised his hand and waved it as if to shoo away a fly. "Kang Mang, you know, that has nothing to do with me. All the city councillors in the federation are paid the same!"

James was also laughing, "I know, I don't mean to complain about you, I'm just stating the fact."

“I have an office in the city hall that’s about 20 square meters, and it can’t even fit a sofa set.”

“I had to rent an office, and it couldn’t be too small because I had my team to take care of.”

"I rented an office floor in the city center, and it costs two hundred and twenty dollars a month."

"I have eleven people working for me: a driver, a secretary, a clerk, and a receptionist..."

"On average, each person takes about 75 yuan from me every month. For 11 people, that's more than 800 yuan."

"I also have five cars, and I need to take care of their maintenance and fuel costs. Although not a lot, it still costs several dozen dollars every month."

"Then sometimes we also have to hold some political activities, which cost as little as 100 or 200 yuan, or as much as 3,000 or 5,000 yuan."

This kind of political activity within the jurisdiction is actually quite frequent, especially among newly elected city councilors. They need to communicate more with the public to understand the district and what they need.

You can't gather the citizens and ask them to sit in a row in the park. Even if James can do that, he still needs to let these people have water to drink and something to eat.

And it’s best to take some with you when you leave.

This has become a bad habit in politics. As long as you are in close contact with voters, you must let them gain something.

This is still the worst case scenario. For someone like James who has the "Williams family baggage", he will spend money to rent a venue and some security guards, and the price will be very high.

He didn't want others to say nonsense like "The Williams family can't even come up with this little money!"
"And the expenses for business trips."

He waved his fingers and talked to Mayor Williams about some of the discoveries and changes in his work. "My average monthly expenses are between 2,000 and 3,000 dollars. If there are any political activities or business trips, it will basically exceed 5,000 dollars."

"Let's say the average is 2,500 yuan a month, that's 30,000 yuan a year."

"Father, thirty thousand dollars!"

"If a city councillor wants to maintain his job and let people see his ability and ambition, he has to invest 30,000 yuan or more every year!"

"But our salary is less than 1,000 yuan a year."

“Without the capitalists and their money, we are nothing!”

This is what James gained from his own experience. After he started serving as a city councilor, he felt the feeling of being helpless without money... He didn't know how to describe it.

Mayor Williams was pleased to see his son making such great progress in this area, and a smile appeared on his face:

"It's great that you have these insights, which shows that you really take your work seriously."

“Money is like a noose around the neck of every politician.”

"The bad news is that not only can it not be untied, it will get tighter and tighter."

"But the good news is that whether or not the noose hangs you is entirely up to you."

"The cost of each election has been rising alarmingly. In the past, only seven or eight million dollars were needed to cope with the election."

"But the most recent time, during the midterm elections, they spent $17 million."

"What about next time?"

“How much will it take?”

"Some speculate that it may be above 25 million, and there will be a significant increase with each rollover."

“No one knows if it will stop, but everyone knows that its effect will get bigger and bigger!”

"Big enough to affect the final outcome."

James nodded. "Yes, from this point of view, Hof's escape is not surprising. Lance exposed him. Whether for himself or for the people behind him, he must disappear."

"To protect the capitalists!"

Mayor Williams agreed with his point of view. "That's why I asked Arthur to focus on business. If we rely on external wealth, we will become someone else's front person one day."

"They use wealth that we cannot afford to force us to bow our heads and obey their orders."

“This is true from a city councillor to the president.”

"But if we have our own money, we can do whatever we want, and no one can threaten us with campaigns and funds!"

James didn't deny it and nodded, "That's right."

"Hoff ran away, but there are other front-stage figures in Jingang City. Lance will dig them out one by one!" Mayor Williams raised his eyebrows.

"Charles cannot be avoided. He has woven a huge net that entangles everyone." "When they are strong, this net will become their strongest barrier and protect them from harm."

"But when their situation becomes dire, this net will prevent anyone from escaping!"

"The entire city's structure will undergo a huge change this time. This is also an opportunity for us, an opportunity that will completely eliminate the need to rely on others!"

There was a gleam in Mayor Williams' cloudy eyes. People have different ideas and demands at different times.

At first he thought that as long as he could maintain the status and reputation of the Williams family, it would be enough.

But with the departure of the Wade family, he began to want to become the mayor, and kept changing his mind, wanting to put the mark of the Williams family on the city of Jingang!
Now, his ambitions are no longer limited to this city.

If the family can gain more benefits from this change in the city's structure, then it may not be impossible to make a move to become governor in the future.

To put it bluntly, the gubernatorial election is still a competition within Likale State. As the mayor of Jingang City, he has inherent advantages.

Add to that the enormous political power and wealth, and it's not impossible that a "Governor Williams" will appear!
James was somewhat moved by his words, but he soon frowned again, "As for Arthur..."

Before he could finish his words, the phone on the desk suddenly rang.

Both the father and the son focused their attention on the phone. Inexplicably, they both felt that this call might not be that simple.

The weather outside the window, which was originally sunny, suddenly became gradually gloomy. The sky was still bright, but the sun was gone.

It's going to snow again.

At this time in the old industrial areas, a large number of factories are facing demolition, and there is no cheaper labor than refugees.

The weather is still cold, but there is a sense of bustle at the demolition site.

The refugee workers wielded heavy hammers to hit the damaged factory buildings. They wanted to completely clear out all the vacant spaces, and there was still a lot of construction work to do.

Communities and buildings can be handed over to real estate developers and builders for bidding, but roads are planned early on and can be built first.

Looking from the air, densely packed workers gathered together to transform the land bit by bit.

Several refugee workers gathered together, wearing patched cotton clothes. Some of them were breathing heavily, and with every breath a large amount of white mist spewed out of their mouths.

The expressions on their faces were somewhat different from those of the others. In addition to them, some people around them also stopped their work at this time.

They made eye contact with each other and soon seemed to have reached a decision.

One of them suddenly yelled, "Let's take a break. We've been working for most of the day!"

The people around him also started to shout, "Yeah, we've been working for most of the day, we can't do it anymore, we need to rest!"

Arthur's company is in charge of the demolition work in this area. This kind of work... obviously makes a lot of money and does not require any technical skills. Mayor Williams still takes good care of Arthur.

Of course, Arthur himself was also very hardworking. He never came to the construction site to give orders or even took the initiative to interfere with the company's operations, although the company was under his name.

The federal government does not prohibit officials and their families from doing business, and Mayor Williams contracted the project to Arthur, which met the standards required by federal law.

As long as there is no exchange of power for money between them and Arthur can meet the demolition standards as agreed, no one can accuse Mayor Williams of abusing his power for personal gain.

It doesn't matter who the project is given to. Can it only be given to outsiders and not to one's own son?
There is no such law!
If nothing unexpected happens, this will probably be the same as the projects that have happened in the past. After the project is completed, Arthur will contact the mayor's secretary and get the full amount.

Hiring refugee workers is currently the way for Jingang City, and even all cities with refugees, to make money by taking advantage of the price difference. The huge gap between construction costs and actual expenditures allows every company to make a profit.

Nowadays people are not afraid of big projects. The bigger the project and the more original the project plan, the happier people are!
Because this way they can gain more extra profits from the wage difference, many companies will even lose money from the cost budget when bidding in order to get the opportunity!

But today, right now, something is happening.

The supervisor was soon attracted by the shouting of these people. Not being able to drink hot coffee and eat donuts in the office in the middle of winter was like hell for the federal people!
The supervisor’s temper will not be very good. People with good temper cannot be supervisors.

The only difference between them and the slave owners of the past is the name they use, and the fact that they cannot kill these workers at will.

The supervisor came over here and saw those people clamoring for a break. He immediately frowned and asked, "Didn't you just take a break?"

These people had already taken a break about an hour ago, and now they wanted to rest again, which made the supervisor think that they were obviously looking for trouble.

Resting is contagious. When they take a rest, other workers who are working will put down their tools and stop as if they are afraid of being at a disadvantage.

Everything was fine the past few days, why are these people so annoying today?

The supervisor was already unhappy that the students had to go out and cool off in such bad weather, and now these lazy guys were trying to cheat, which made him even more unhappy!
"Didn't you guys just take a fucking break?" he shouted.

The workers briefly showed some weird smiles on their faces, and one of them suddenly shouted, "Why are you swearing?"

"We were paid so little, only a dozen yuan, and we were not allowed to rest. We were also cursed and insulted!"

"We are human beings too, we are not slaves!"

"If you talk nicely, maybe we can continue for a while. You are so crazy, we must rest today!"

Several workers threw their tools heavily to the ground. At this time, some refugee workers gathered around and some older ones took the initiative to persuade them to stop fighting.

It’s not that they sided with the refugees or the federals, they were just afraid of getting into trouble and being fired by the supervisors.

It’s really not easy to find a stable job these days, and it’s winter now. Even if it’s only ten yuan a month, it can allow the family to get through the cold winter!

However, these old workers didn’t understand at all. It was not that they could not persuade them, but that from the very beginning, these people’s purpose was to stir up conflicts!

The overseer’s authority was questioned and challenged, and he immediately waved his hands and shouted, “You are fired!”

Several young people immediately rushed over, "Why did you fire us?"

"You can fire us too, just pay this month's salary!"

With the physical contact, the conflict between the two sides quickly evolved from verbal to physical conflict.

A refugee worker suddenly punched the supervisor, causing him to see stars. He had worked in the company for so many years, and thanks to Arthur, how could he have suffered such a big loss?

He staggered and sat down on the ground, then took out a whistle from his clothes and started blowing it!
Toot~~
beep!
The security guards who were warming themselves by the fire in a sheltered place in the distance were stunned for a moment when they heard the whistle. Then they ran towards the direction where the whistle came from with serious faces. Before they got close, they found that there were already many people gathered there.

They didn't know what was happening in the crowd, they just subconsciously and instinctively pushed the crowd away and wanted to get in.

As they pushed and shoved, someone suddenly screamed, "The federals are beating people!"

Soon after, several refugee workers began to fight back, and the stunned security guard also started to fight back, and the whole construction site quickly became chaotic!

Under the collective consciousness, people soon lost their minds and became simple and cruel.

The number of people managing the company was certainly far less than that of the refugee workers, and they were soon overwhelmed by them.

Some refugees have realized that something is wrong and left early, but more young people have had their behavior and thoughts controlled. They have even begun to actively attack the federal supervisors and company staff around them, and steal food and supplies!
The news of the sudden riot in the old industrial zone spread throughout the city in an instant. After receiving the alarm call, Director Blue rushed to the front line in person. A large number of police forces arrived at the scene of the old industrial zone under the shouts of police sirens.

Chief Blue, who didn't even get out of the car, took a deep breath and ordered the police car to retreat. They had too few people and needed more support!

At this moment, Mayor Williams was answering the sudden phone call.

"Arthur is in our hands." The guy on the other end of the phone dropped this "bomb" as soon as he came up.

Mayor Williams hit the speaker button so James could hear, "How do you prove this?"

(End of this chapter)