Shadow Empire

Chapter 868 Responsibility and Investigation

Lance's company building was lucky enough not to be bombarded. Fortunately, at least he didn't need to consider finding a place to hold the meeting.

Sitting at the head of the conference table in the huge conference room, he looked at the cadres on both sides of the table and the rows of captains behind them, and said this:

"We can't just be gangsters!"

The losses suffered by the Lance family this time were not great. More than 20 people died in the shelling, and it was said that 30 to 40 people were injured, most of them were slightly injured, and there were two seriously injured but not in any life-threatening condition.

Now the whole city is in grief and the national focus is on it. This is a good moment to show one's "responsibility".

Lance's eyes lingered on each person's face before moving on to the next.

Most of the people he stared at could meet his gaze, but there were also those who could not bear the pressure behind that calm gaze and lowered their heads.

After Lance looked around for perhaps two or three minutes, he continued.

"Gangs have their own advantages. When necessary, we can trample on the law without regard for the consequences."

"But gangs also have their own disadvantages. We are inherently at a disadvantage on some issues."

"For example, if a case occurs and it's not clear who did it, people will immediately think it might be us, not ordinary people."

"It's a stereotype that's hard to change, and there are certainly other issues."

What Lance actually wants to say is that "gangster politics" will come to an end with the victory of the war. If this war fails, then it doesn't matter.

The federal government and all current ruling classes will be questioned by the lower classes, and society will become continuously unstable.

People do not trust the federal government and the ruling group, believing that they are not qualified to rule the people of the federation, and this will lead to confrontation between the lower and upper levels.

Therefore, at this time, the value of the gang's existence is greater than the value of disappearing. To deal with those federal citizens who are not easy to manage, directly using administrative means may cause greater unrest, but it is much easier to let the gang do the work.

Just like now, the federal government lacks control over the lower classes in many places, so the existence of gangs helps them fill this gap.

What gangs need is also stability and order, which forms a natural complement.

But when the war was won, the authority of the federal government and the ruling group increased unprecedentedly, and people were willing to trust the federal government and the ruling group to lead them further.

Then the existence of gangs will evolve from "helping social stability" to "destroying social stability" and need to be swept into the garbage dump.

At present, the probability of the Federation winning is still very high, so Lance must speed up the process of making the Lance family undergo a transformation.

"Jingang City was bombarded this time, and I need you to do something."

"First!" He stretched out a finger and pointed at the ceiling, "Send everyone out to reinforce those places that need rescue. Dig through the rubble and see if there are any more people who need rescue."

"Do it quickly, don't do it slowly, it's better not to do it."

"Second!" He held up another finger. "We need to set up relief stations in the areas that have been hit the most by shelling, distribute food and some medicines, and help those in need. Melo, you will be responsible for coordinating this matter."

A large amount of food and medicine is definitely not cheap, so this requires the general manager Melo to do it.

Mello nodded, "I see."

"Third!" He put his hand down at this time. It's not that he couldn't hold up three fingers, but this one was not like the previous ones. He needed to emphasize his tone to attract people's attention.

"I need everyone to dress in the same uniform so that everyone can see clearly that we are who we are!"

"If someone asks who you are, there will definitely be a large number of reporters coming during this period. Remember, don't tell them that you are from the Lance family."

"Tell them that you are from Wanli Group!"

"We are an enterprise in Jingang City. Jingang City has been hit hard. As a local enterprise, we should shoulder the social responsibilities we need to shoulder, rescue the people, distribute relief food and medicine, help some people solve their problems, and pay attention to public security issues!"

"There may be some unstable situations after something like this happens. If you find any, eliminate them in time."

"That's it, pass the notification on!"

"Alan, Devin, you stay."

Some captains looked at the two men with some curiosity. They seemed to realize something. Those who had a good relationship with the two men winked at them and made some gestures.

Alan and Devin also looked very nervous, standing in their seats without daring to breathe.

Lance smiled and raised his hand for them to sit down. "We have been watching your performance. Now the company needs to expand. In the future, the place we need to manage will become larger, and the number of employees under us will also increase."

"So in the future, more and more captains will be promoted to cadres. You are just the first batch. Congratulations."

Both of them showed surprise on their faces, and they quickly stood up to thank Lance and express their loyalty, saying that they would work hard for Lance and the company!
The biggest difference between cadres and team leaders is that cadres will get a share of the family's profits and have a higher status and greater influence!

Those below the cadre level cannot get any share of the profits. They just get a fixed salary plus various subsidies.

Moreover, cadres are safer most of the time. As long as they are not like Hiram who likes to rush to the front line for no reason, most cadres do not need to take the lead in the charge.

Lance raised his hand again for them to sit down, and the other cadres began to congratulate them.

When their exchange was almost over, Lance turned to Mello and asked, "How many men do we have now?"

Melo pursed his lips, "Last time you asked us to continue recruiting people, and now we have almost 1,300 people."

"Too few." Lance shook his head and said decisively, "This number is too few. Continue to recruit people, recruit from the Empire District, recruit from our own people."

He turned to look at Madore and asked, "Have they received military training?"

These imperial soldiers brought by Mador have been providing military training to members of the Lance family. It is such a waste to let these professional soldiers become gangsters, engage in gunfights, or transport smuggled liquor!

So they are only responsible for training and Lance's safety. Madore basically protects Lance closely and is also responsible for military training.

The families of these people, all of them, have now been brought to the Federation, so Lance trusts them very much.

Unless they plan to give up their high-paying jobs, be hunted down, and have their entire family wiped out, no one would be stupid enough to betray Lance.

"We have completed two rotations."

Each rotation training lasts for one month, followed by a break of half a month to two months.

Because Lance's time requirement was tight this time, they only rested for two weeks, which meant they all received two months of military training. Lance nodded slightly, "Our goal is 2,000 people, preferably 3,000, because we will have a big mission soon!"

He thought about it for a while, and then decided to tell these people the truth. The plan has been launched, and even if he doesn't tell them now, they will know it soon.

Instead of letting them know what they have to do the moment they get on board, it is better to make it clear now so that they can be mentally prepared.

"The Dantra people's attack on Jingang City this time made the federal government very angry. In order to prevent similar incidents from happening again, the federal government plans to station troops in multiple areas of Yalan."

"In addition, the destruction of Jingang City will cause major problems for ocean transportation in the Northern Hemisphere. If the same thing happens again, Jingang City and the status of the Federation's Northern Hemisphere transportation hub will be challenged and threatened."

"It's always being attacked, bombarded, and people just shift their focus on transportation to other places."

"So strengthening the Federation's overall defense in the Eastern Ocean has become the most important thing."

The Empire also has two large ports, but some domestic conditions and policies of the Empire have always made it seem like there is a barrier between them and the rest of the world.

But now that membrane is fading, they may compete for the idea of ​​this hub.

The situation in the Empire is somewhat different from that in the Federation. Whatever the Federation wants to do, it needs to consider the opinions of the people and must also go through the Presidential Palace and Congress.

In the empire, as soon as the emperor clapped his hands, the whole country would start to implement his orders. In terms of execution alone, the whole world might not be able to catch up.

“The federal government’s deployment of troops in Yalan this time will definitely cause protests and even confrontations from local ruling groups and some non-governmental organizations.”

"It's like having a bunch of people come into our house and tell us they need to have their own room here and we need to listen to them."

"We will definitely resist and struggle. No one would be willing to watch an intruder become the new owner of this home."

"Their resistance will slow down the annexation process. After all, our masters still have to save face. They are embarrassed to just say that this is an invasion, so they need some people to do things for them that are inconvenient for them to do."

“We are the helpers who can help them solve these problems!”

"If the federal government is the light, we are the shadow!"

“What they can’t do, we can do.”

The cadres' expressions all turned serious. Although they didn't quite understand what was said, they did understand part of it.

Lance paused and lit a cigarette. "I plan to initially send 500 men to Yalan. As long as our mission goes well this time, we will have a qualitative leap forward!"

What does the federal government want?
What they want is no resistance, what they want is stability, what they want is to be able to annex the entire Yalan region and control all the resources and population of this region.

As long as Lance does not touch their core interests, the two sides will maintain a highly close cooperative relationship.

As for whether they will just throw Lance away after using him?

Lance was not worried about this because he knew very well that even if there was a blood relationship, if there was no value, the person would be discarded.

If you don’t want to be thrown away, just keep creating value.

History is always written by the victors, just like the past events that happened in the federal homeland. The federal government’s history book about the federation mentioned that it was the indigenous people who took the initiative to donate a large amount of land to the federal government in exchange for the federal people providing them with a stable life.

Everybody knows it's not true, but who the hell cares?
After a hundred years, two hundred years, or even three to five hundred years, all the indigenous people will have died out, or have been completely integrated into the federal society and become the privileged class of the federation. Who will care whether this land was obtained through massacre, bought by them, or given to them by the indigenous peoples?
The same goes for the Yalan issue. As long as the people of Yalan believe that the change in the Federation's rule has made their lives better than before, then the Lans family and the Wanli Group are the messengers from heaven that bring light and the angels that have established friendship!
As for the destruction that occurs in the process, who the hell cares?
As long as the fruits are big enough, plump and juicy enough, who cares how they are grown?
Even if it is watered with blood, people will applaud and say that it is a really good job!

As Lance's orders were issued, people from the Lance family in uniform could be seen working everywhere. There were indeed some problems with public security in the city, but fortunately they were quickly resolved.

A lot of federal reporters came to Jingang City. In fact, for outsiders who were not bombarded, they might not feel particularly sad about this incident, but of course they were angry.

Some others are just curious.

They wanted to know what happened here and how people lived after the shelling. They looked in newspapers and in the photos, they could often see a bright red color.

The names "Wanli Group" and "Lance Family" also began to spread on a wider scale.

Although Lance asked them to call themselves employees of Wanli Group, ordinary people in Jingang City would say "They are members of the Lance family." Of course, it doesn't matter. Even if Lance is completely whitewashed, his history of being a gangster will not change.

However, this also made the federals discover a gang that was completely different from the traditional gangs they knew, which only plundered, extorted, and gained wealth through crimes such as injury. Some people also believed that the Lance family was not a gang.

They are doing legal business in the future, they... just use methods similar to gangsters on certain issues, but that doesn’t mean they are gangsters, right!
Just like gangsters use weapons to hurt others, ordinary people use weapons to hurt others in order to protect their own safety. They all use weapons to hurt others, so does that mean that ordinary people are also gangsters or gang members?

If the reputation of the Lance family is changing in an unimaginable direction, then Admiral Miles is now in real trouble.

The Army has protested to the Presidential Palace and the Ministry of Defense. They believe that the attack on Jingang City, the destruction of a large number of warships and naval bases, and the large number of casualties were all Admiral Miles' fault.

He totally failed to consider that this was a time of war and anything could happen, not to mention that a movie called "Attack on Golden Harbor" was released last year, which elaborated on the possibility of the Dantra people attacking Golden Harbor.

In such an almost open-book exam, Admiral Miles still scored a zero. This is not just a problem of his ability, it is a crime!
And more importantly, because of Admiral Miles' criminal behavior, the federal route to Slade was threatened, which might affect the federal army that was already fighting.

This is the greatest murder of two million brave federal soldiers!

Currently, the war on the Tanfit continent is still mainly led by the army. The federal government will definitely take their accusations seriously and immediately arranged an investigation team to go to Jingang City to investigate to see if there is indeed any dereliction of duty.

This investigation team is of very high standards. In addition to personnel from both the Senate and the House of Representatives, there is also a civilian general and two lieutenant generals from the Department of Defense, as well as cabinet members and military investigation members. It can be said to be a "star-studded" group.

The higher the level of the investigation team, the more determined the Federation is to bring down Admiral Miles. Otherwise, they could just send a few people to deal with it.

We have arranged such a large team now, just to find some problems even if there is nothing to worry about.

The Navy then filed a protest. The naval generals believed that such a long-distance raid was full of unexpected events and Admiral Miles did not fail in his duty. Even if someone else was replaced, it would be difficult to do better than Admiral Miles.

However, anyone with a discerning eye could see that after this attack, it would be difficult for the navy to compete with the army, at least in the short term.

Time soon came to mid-to-late June, and Congress passed the Eastern Ocean Security Defense Act in a very short period of time. The core of this bill was to ensure the security of the Federation. The Federation would deploy some defense measures in the Eastern Ocean to prevent similar tragedies from happening again.

Naturally, the idea of ​​stationing troops in Yalan was formally proposed for the first time.

This immediately triggered strong dissatisfaction among many countries in the Yalan region. They called the Federation's actions naked aggression. They solemnly protested and refused to allow the Federation's troops to enter the Yalan region, let alone establish a military base in the Yalan region.

In some areas of Yalan, there were also a large number of marches and demonstrations. For a time, the discussion about whether the Federation should invade the Yalan region was even more heated than the ongoing war!
Those countries that have diplomatic teams in the Federation are also in urgent contact with the Federal Secretary of State and the Presidential Office, hoping to dissuade the Federation from doing so.

But they don't quite realize that as various resource reports in the Yalan region are investigated in more detail, the annexation of Yalan by Congress is already a foregone conclusion.

Yalan has mineral resources, oil, rubber production, and a large number of cheap population resources. How could they give it up?

(End of this chapter)