Shadow Empire

Chapter 890 The Great Philanthropist
Early in the morning, Diego woke up from his large bed. He rubbed his eyes and sat up.

After a while, he looked back at the pillow which still had some saliva on it, and stood up with the support of his thigh in annoyance.

There's something wrong with him, his body.

His personal doctor told him that he needed to go on a diet, could not continue to eat so much food, and needed to control his juice drinking habit.

But he couldn't help it.

He likes to drink juice.

Lapa is located in the tropical region, and the humid and hot environment allows many tropical fruits to grow here.

There are some that people can’t even name, but they all love to eat.

This kind of fruit that has been ripened in the sun for a long time has a higher sugar content, a more wonderful sweetness and the taste of sunshine, making everyone who has come to Lapa deeply love these juices.

As the ruler of the country, Diego owns everything here, including the juice.

He has loved drinking fruit juice since he was a child. When he was a few years old, he would drink several bottles of juice every day, maybe two or three liters, or even more.

This also caused his weight to grow wildly and uncontrollably. If he had not controlled himself a little during puberty and his father did not like his body shape, he might be bigger than he is now.

The word "fat" is used to describe people, and "big" is used to describe things. He is big.

Obesity also made him feel uncomfortable. He felt uncomfortable all over his body, had stuffiness, headaches, cervical spine problems, drooling when sleeping and poor sleep.

But he just can't give it up, including all kinds of delicious food.

As a ruler of a small country like him, these things may be the limit of what he can enjoy.

The enjoyment of taste, the increase in wealth, the short-lived pleasure brought by sexual intercourse, or the alternative happiness brought by brutality.

In fact, sometimes we cannot say that his cruelty is entirely his fault, because he is always uncomfortable, so he has a bad temper, and once someone angers him, he will execute that person.

It doesn't matter if this person is a stranger or someone around him.

Most of the time he appears in front of people with a strong face, and only when he is alone will he reveal his vulnerable side slightly.

He thought about what his doctor had told him: if he wanted to live longer, he'd better follow the doctor's plan.

But…if he could do it, the doctor wouldn’t have to warn him so many times.

He got up and went to the bathroom. After sitting on the golden toilet and relieving himself, he pulled the rope on the side of the toilet.

Soon two girls came over to help him clean his bottom, which he couldn't reach himself, but he didn't need to reach it himself.

He would stagger to a wash chair nearby with his lower limbs naked, and then two young girls would help him clean, scrub his body, and put on new, comfortable, soft clothes.

Diego felt a little better as he looked at himself in the mirror and found that he had become the president he imagined. "What have those federal men been doing recently?"

It had been some time since Lance and his group arrived at Zhuolan in Lapa, and Diego was still a little wary at first.

But as they wandered around and started doing some scientific research and exploration, he no longer cared.

The Asian Alliance, which was urgently established to counter the Federation, also began to show some problems.

Jed's constant exploitation of surrounding countries for transfusions has caused some dissatisfaction within the alliance. Although these things are still far away from Lapa, as a member of the alliance, Diego's attention will be shifted to this aspect accordingly.

The President of the Republic of Czech believed that they needed a force that could intimidate the Federation, a hard stone that could crack their heads, rather than a ball of gravel that was held together by force.

Stone is very hard, and it takes a certain amount of courage to confront it head-on, but gravel is very soft and will collapse as soon as you let go.

Even if it does not collapse immediately due to moisture in a short period of time, over time, the moisture will dry up and it will eventually collapse completely under the slightest touch of external force.

So they need to come up with a stone, and the president of the Czech Republic believes that the Czech Republic is the best candidate to be the stone.

They are superior to other nations in every way, and they are able to turn to stone more quickly.

Although every member state of the Asian Union knows that what they said is right and makes sense, no one wants to do it.

By supplying their own nutrients to others to make them stronger, no one knows whether they can eventually raise a guardian or a father.

The latter is even more likely.

So Diego was busy observing the situation within the Asian Alliance, contacting the heads of some countries, and discussing how to respond to the demands of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, so he didn't pay much attention to Lance and his group.

The butler looked calmly at Diego, who had stood up, walked to the mirror, and looked at himself in the mirror and said, "They have built several factories and are recruiting people."

"what for?"

Diego opened the glass cover of a plate in front of him, took out several medals from it and put them on his chest.

In fact, he has never participated in any war, but he likes to get some beautiful medals to hang on his chest, which makes him feel like a "hero".

A hero always has a lot of things on his chest that prove his past glory, and he can't live without them.

He said as he turned and staggered out of the room, into the hall and sat on the sofa, which made him breathe a sigh of relief.

The housekeeper followed closely, "Some are making dried fruits, and there is also a factory that I heard produces wine."

"Wine?" A gleam of light flashed in Diego's eyes. He certainly knew how expensive alcohol was in the Federation.

When he thought about how Lance could make countless fortunes just by selling those worthless wines, he became so jealous that his eyes turned red!
"Do you think we should collect taxes from him?"

He looked at his butler, who bowed and said, "Perhaps the ministers know this better than I do. I am just an old man and a butler."

Diego looked at him twice and gave him an almost imperceptible nod, "Yeah."

No one knows whether this "hmm" is good or bad. Only the housekeeper knows that he has just messed around for another day.

The relieved butler immediately thought about trying to please Diego. He said with a smile, "Speaking of which, there is another interesting thing. This Lance may be a fool. He pays his hired workers very high wages."

"Now many people say he is a fool."

Diego showed some interest, "Very high?"

"How high is very high?"

The butler recalled the rumors he had heard, "Calculated in federal sols, each person gets thirty dollars a month."

Diego couldn't help but laugh when he heard this. "Giving those lackeys three dollars is a gift to them. Giving them thirty?"

"He's really rich."

But as he spoke, his laughter and smile gradually subsided. "How many people did he employ?"

"Or, how many people does he plan to hire?"

It is not easy for Diego to make money. Even though he has mountains of gems in his hands, these things cannot be sold all at once.

Now the main things the entire country can provide him with for blood-sucking are food trade, gold and silver, and a small amount of gems.

Once the number of gemstones on the market increases, the price will plummet.

There were jewelers from the Federation who came to buy gemstones before, but their prices were too low, and they bought by volume without considering the size or quality.

One hundred and fifty yuan per liter, not a penny more!

This made Diego very angry. He would rather not sell it than let these cunning businessmen get a good deal on it.

He knew that in the Federation an emerald could be sold for at least a few dozen dollars, and those that were larger, purer, and more colorful could easily be sold for hundreds or thousands of dollars.

He could make a lot of money from selling grain, but the money would not be earned by him alone; he would have to share it with other families.

Last year, Lapa's grain output was about 2.7 million tons, which sounds like a lot, but in fact, if it is distributed equally among all the Lapa people, it is not enough for them to eat!

About 70 percent of it belongs to the ruling group, which is 1.7 to 1.8 million tons.

According to the current international grain price trend, the price of wheat is about 27 yuan per ton, and the total value of these grains is more than 45 million yuan.

It sounds like there are more, but the problem is still the same: there is not enough food.

If they sold all the food, famine would soon sweep across the whole of Lapa, followed by a huge population loss and death, and possibly other disturbances, such as uprisings or plagues. And if a large number of people really starved to death, the rulers would not have an easy time either.

Food has been in short supply in recent years. Last year, Diego and his team sold a total of 300,000 tons of food, which added up to just over 7.5 million.

After dividing the money among the several companies, Diego himself only received about 2 million.

Is this a lot of money?

a lot of!

Part of it will be used to support Diego's daily expenses, and the rest will be deposited in his account at the Federal Bank.

But to say that there are really so many that they are impossible to count is not entirely true.

When he heard that Lance could pay ordinary workers thirty federal soles a month, he had some... different ideas.

The butler really didn't know about this matter, so he could only say vaguely, "It should be several thousand people?"

"Or tens of thousands of people?"

Diego only chooses to hear what he wants to hear.

"With over 10,000 people, his monthly salary expenses would be 300,000, which would be 3.6 million per year."

He took a deep breath. "I didn't even make 3.6 million federal soles last year, but he can make ordinary people earn so much money in a year..."

He didn't dare to directly plunder the wealth in Lance's hands. Now the Asian Alliance put a lot of pressure on them, asking them to protect the legal rights and interests of federal businessmen in the local area.

If anyone dares to act recklessly, the Asian Alliance, led by the Czech Republic, will launch a military strike against them.

Of course, they would not act so recklessly. They all knew that if they found an excuse for the Federation, they would not mind launching military action against Alan.

You have to know that although Yalan is a continent, it is more like a huge island, with a circle of countries unevenly distributed on this island.

The entire periphery is within the strike range of the Federal Navy. If they send the army deeper, no one thinks they can withstand the Federal Army that keeps reporting victories on the Tanfit battlefield.

So Diego didn't consider taking action against Lance.

Although he couldn't take action against Lance, he could take action against those civilians and find a reason to get back the money they earned. Even if it wasn't much, half of it would still be a lot of money.

He felt better at the thought of the possibility of gaining extra wealth, and he also hoped that Lance could open more factories and hire more workers.

In fact, he didn't need to "wish", Lance would do the same.

He has begun building factories on the outskirts of Zhuolan City to mine and smelt dried fruits, furs, timber, mineral resources, and brew wine.

The brewing technology in Lapa is not very good, and it is basically impossible to brew whiskey here that is good enough to be sold directly.

Only the base liquor can be produced, which then has to be transported to the federal side for flavoring and thickening before it can be sold.

Lance didn't want to transport some equipment here. Who knows if these equipment would be smashed or stolen when the plan was implemented later.

Anyway, all he needs is to pay high wages to some of the workers here. What they do is not that important.

Almost every recruitment office in front of a factory in Lans is lined with people, and many young girls come to ask if there are any jobs suitable for them.

Being able to find a decent job here is almost everyone’s dream!
Even the young girls were struggling to squeeze forward, hoping that the recruiters would see them.

Lance ordered some steel house frames from the federal government, and they are on their way and will take another two days.

Once these frames arrive, it will take less than a week for the factory to start considering production.

At this time, Lance was not worried about hiring workers. With the price he offered, he would not worry about no one coming.

He was in the hotel discussing some upcoming business matters with members of the Chamber of Commerce.

"...Gold and silver are the main acquisition materials. The war is still going on. After the surprise attack on Jin Port, the Dantra Navy has gained more initiative in the Eastern Ocean."

“The future direction and trend have become unclear.”

"It's times like this, when gold appreciates in value. Lapa has several gold mines, and President Diego also has a certain amount of gold reserves. We can talk to them."

"Fur, special plants, wood, these businesses are for you to handle as appropriate."

"If it's cheap and profitable, then do it."

“If there is no profit and no money to be made, then don’t even think about it.”

“It’s mainly about making money.”

"In addition, we also need to purchase grain."

When Roger heard this, he asked softly, "I have also conducted some research on the local area during this period. Although food is the mainstay of Lapa's economy, they don't even have enough food for themselves."

"And local food prices are slightly more expensive than international food prices."

"Yesterday, the international price of wheat was only 25 yuan and 70 cents, but here it costs 27 yuan a ton."

"Isn't that... unreasonable?"

"I think we can actually get some food from outside and sell it. After deducting the transportation costs, we can still make a net profit of about 3%."

“Although it’s not very high, it’s close to the federation, the freight is not high, and the market is still huge.”

In a market of several million tons, even if one only makes 75 cents per ton, it is still a profit of more than 2 million.

And this business can continue.

Lance shook his head, "We are not here to do charity, gentlemen. We don't sell things to them, we only buy."

"Buy it in federal sols and let Diego pay the normal exchange rate, about sixty-seven or eighty."

“Buy as much food as you have.”

"Selling food is not about making money, do you understand?"

In fact, everyone in the Imperial Chamber of Commerce knew that Lance had connections with Congress, and the media also reported this matter, but it was later dropped.

Who the hell is tired of living and wants to dig into the secrets of Congress? Doesn't that mean they think they have lived too long?
So they speculated at this time that this business might be related to the hidden mission of Lance.

Roger didn't say anything more and agreed immediately.

"In addition to these, if there is a suitable business, you should do it boldly and confidently. Remember, when you hire local workers, you can pay them more. I will ask the federal government to give you preferential tax refund policies."

In fact, even if he didn't mention the tax refund issue, the people in the Chamber of Commerce would agree. They didn't think Lance would deceive them.

Now that they have the guarantee of tax refund, they are more willing.

Although they didn't understand why they had to be so nice to Lapa, paying their people high wages and buying their food, since these were Lance's orders, they just had to do it.

Lapa and the Federation are not far apart, and can be reached in a day by taking a faster boat.

In early September, he returned to the federal government to discuss some follow-up work with Senator Cleveland, because some things could not be handled by him alone and required federal intervention.

This time he went directly to New Jin City. Because he had been informed in advance, Senator Cleveland arranged for a congressman to pick up Lance, which was also a form of indirect protection for Lance.

No matter who they are, as long as they attack Lance, it is equivalent to attacking the Congressmen and slapping the face of Congress.

In this country, if you point your finger at the president and call him an idiot, or even take him to court, he can only be scolded by you and then respond to the lawsuit.

Of course you have to be careful of the FBI, they are known as the president's number one lackey, and they may target you.

But if you offend Congress, then congratulations, you will either disappear inexplicably one day, or there is a high probability that you will never be found again in your life.

Or they will throw you into jail, finding any excuse, like driving too fast.

In prison, they have plenty of ways to deal with you.

So with a congressman by Lance's side, even if the Perez family's "army" is here, they have to endure it!
(End of this chapter)