Shadow Empire

Chapter 988 Lowering Vigilance and the "Zhuolan Treaty"

"You'll regret what you've done, Carlo... what a scoundrel!"

Christopher was a little confused when he received the call, but soon his men told him that the merchants he had been keeping an eye on had left by boat without even loading any wine.

As for the tens of thousands of yuan deposit left behind, it wasn't even mentioned.

Taking all these things into account, he seemed to realize that these people might already know that he was in control behind everything.

However, he did not feel any displeasure or anger. He could tell from their behavior that these people were not Lance's or his cousin Francisco's men.

If they were Lance or Francisco's men, they wouldn't have said a few harsh words or threatened to take revenge on him before leaving in a hurry.

They said these things simply to tell him that he had done something he shouldn't have.

But he neither regretted it nor was he afraid.

The fact that he doesn't regret it proves that these people aren't the ones he was worried about, so he can continue to stay here. He really doesn't want to go back to Sumuli Island.

The Federation recently used various excuses not to participate in the war, leading to repeated stalemates on the front lines, and another batch of men on Sumuli Island died.

Many factories and businesses are now unable to recruit men, and they have had to create dedicated workshops for women.

After all, it's too hot to work in a factory.

It's a little better in winter, but in summer it's no place for a human to stay.

Men can work shirtless, but women can't all work naked. Even if they dress lightly, it's not really appropriate for them to work with men.

The government printed many posters featuring women in smart and capable poses for jobs that were originally done by men.

People may not realize it, but this could be another step forward for the feminist movement. Eventually, people will discover this and it will continue to spread and influence the world.

But no matter what, going back now is not a good time. Leonardo is no good, and Christopher thinks that if he goes back, there is a high chance he will be sent to the front lines.

Because he killed his wife, his position in the Bianchi family is now somewhat awkward.

As long as he cannot prove his worth, these people will recall the hatred of that day!
Sumuli people are very vengeful, and as a Sumuli native himself, he knew this very well. His hatred for Paul permeated his entire childhood, adolescence, and youth.

Even when he killed Paul, his hatred was not completely resolved by Paul's death.

He does regret the stupid things he did, but he still hates Paul, and that's not contradictory.

Even if Paul gave him the best of everything.

If he can hate Paul so much, then the Bianchi family must also hate what he did to his wife.

His wife was just having an affair, but he murdered that woman who loved to play around!
Therefore, it is understandable that they hate him.

But now he doesn't need to worry anymore, because through his intelligence, he has deduced from these clues that these people are not the ones he fears, and he can continue to live a carefree life in the Federation.

It took Devon and his men four days to return to Golden Harbor City. They traveled by sea, taking a slightly roundabout route. Sea routes are certainly not as convenient as railways, which are more direct.

After meeting Lance, Devon recounted everything that had happened to him in detail, finally confirming that they had not messed up the mission.

They returned in the morning, and Lance let them rest for a while. They had lunch together at noon, and around 2 p.m., Francisco couldn't wait to come over.

“What should we do?” he asked.

Lance gestured for him to be quiet. Francisco, sitting opposite Lance, skillfully took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit one for himself, which surprised Lance slightly, but he also felt that this was normal.

Francisco is now the head and leader of the Pasreto family.

As the leader of a gang, it's normal for him to smoke, normal for him to drink, normal for him to help those girls, and normal for him to do anything that others consider unhealthy or illegal!

Lance just hadn't expected it.

Perhaps noticing Lance's gaze fixed on the cigarette in his hand, Francisco waved the cigarette in his hand and said, "They say one can solve a lot of troubles."

Lance nodded with a wry smile, "If you put it that way, it's not entirely wrong."

"So, has it solved your problem?"

Francisco pursed his lips and shook his head. "It does give me some special enjoyment when I smoke it, nicotine, or whatever."

“They say that just a tiny bit of nicotine can kill a horse, but what I find strange is that we’ve absorbed so much, and apart from losing our anxiety and irritability, we don’t seem to have lost anything else.”

Mainstream media have yet to break through the tobacco companies' "blockade," as they spend vast sums on public relations to suppress negative reviews of tobacco in the media.

If someone offers 100 dollars to publish content about the health hazards of smoking, they will offer 1,000 dollars to the newspaper to remove the report and buy that person's personal information.

Someone will specifically seek him out to solve this problem.

The profit margin for tobacco is very high; take cigarettes, which currently cost five cents a pack, as an example.

The cost of ten or more packs of cigarettes might only be five cents (without filters or seals).

There are also huge profits hidden here, and the higher the price of cigarettes, the lower the cost and the higher the profit.

Cigarettes that can sell for one or two dollars may only cost a few cents or a dozen cents to produce, and that's about it.

They also bribed some doctors to tell the public that there is no proven direct link between lung disease and smoking, and that those propaganda slogans claiming that smoking is harmful to health are ridiculous lies!

Because no one understands the causes and treatments of diseases better than doctors!
The propaganda from these interest groups has led many people to believe that smoking does not harm their health, and Francisco is clearly one of those influenced by this propaganda.

Cigarettes are truly a "good thing" in this era. They can soothe emotions, help people concentrate, and make people feel relaxed. Most importantly, they are not only harmless, but there is also no ban on smoking.

Many young people and even children have a smoking habit at this time. Since they can't afford to buy cigarettes, they pick up cigarette butts from the roadside and reroll them.

What a crazy era!

Every smoker has their own reasons for believing that nicotine, which can kill a horse, can't kill him. This can only be described as a lie.

Lance didn't correct him or feel obligated to persuade him; he simply smiled and said, "Whatever makes you happy."

He smokes himself, so he has no right to judge others.

"As for Dover, let's not provoke him for now."

I believe he will soon send people over to Jin Gang City to keep an eye on you and me.

“If we make even the slightest move that is aimed at him, he will immediately flee back to Sumuli Island.”

“If we want to catch him by then, we’ll have to go to Sumuli Island, and I’m sure you don’t want to go there.”

"A terrible place, a disaster and a hell!"

Lance gave it a fair assessment.

Francisco's expression was somewhat ferocious and struggling. He took several puffs of his cigarette before finally relaxing completely, after being tense the whole time.

"Okay, it's up to you."

Lance smiled and praised him, "For better revenge, Cisco, you need to learn to be patient."

Francisco didn't argue, "I want to kill him with my own hands."

Lance nodded. "Yes."

At Lance's request, Francisco returned quickly. He had to maintain his usual demeanor and wait for things to completely settle down with Lance. This way, Lance could directly transfer his men to Becca without alerting Christopher.

They all knew that Christopher's being alerted was definitely related to this meeting, but if they didn't send someone who knew Christopher well, they couldn't be sure if it was really Christopher.

Several years have passed since Paul's death, and their impressions of Christopher are gradually fading.

And people change over the years. Maybe he will grow a beard, maybe he will have a trendy hairstyle, and with his clothes, his appearance will change with age.

If you're not someone who really knows him, you might not recognize him, which increases the risk.

However, he believed that it wouldn't be long before he could personally deal with Christopher, the traitor to the family!
In early October, the election had already begun, and Diego had really run out of ammunition. He didn't want to die, and he had nowhere to go, so he could only continue to perform according to the script.

The president of the Czech Republic contacted him, saying that if he could arm all his troops, even the people of the Federation would probably have to respect his attitude.

This rekindled his fighting spirit, and he called Lance to discuss the "loan" arrangement.

He's figured it out now, after all this time.

If he dies, no matter how bad the world becomes, it will have nothing to do with him.

As a ruler, he wouldn't be like those at the very bottom of society, who believe that after death they can go to the world of the dead, experience certain things, and then return to the world of the living, being reborn as a human.

These are all methods used to rule and enslave the lower classes. He is the ruler, and he knows that once he dies, he is truly dead, and there will be no future for him.

Since there's no future to speak of, who the hell cares what the future holds?
All he wanted now was to ensure his own longevity, so he wanted to lease a piece of land in Zhuolan, bordering the city center and extending to the outskirts, to Lance for a hundred years.

This was a very important matter. Lance took a boat directly to Zhuolan. Fortunately, it only takes two days to travel from Golden Port City to Zhuolan by boat, which is a very short distance.

When Lance's convoys returned to the streets of Zoran, people knew that the leader of the Commonwealth had returned.

Lance also invited Albert to the negotiations with Diego, but he was only there as an observer so that he wouldn't have to explain anything to Congress in person.

Congress is also paying close attention to this matter.

At 10:00 a.m., Lance arrived at the negotiation hall on time, where Diego's team was already present.

It looked very formal, but in reality, there were fewer than twenty people on both sides combined who participated in the negotiations.

Diego was speaking quietly to the person next to him. When Lance entered, they stopped talking and, with the help of the person next to him, stood up and shook hands with Lance.

For Diego, Lance could be considered an "enemy," but at this moment he acted as if nothing was amiss.

He knew that even if he showed hatred, hostility, and other states, it wouldn't actually change anything, so he simply didn't express it.

As for the others, Lance had no intention of shaking hands with them.

He quickly sat down on the other side of the negotiating table. There weren't many people there, only the federal ambassador, Albert, and a few accompanying staff.

Neither of them spoke immediately after they were seated. Lance simply looked at Diego without intending to say anything.

After the two stared at each other for a long time, Diego finally spoke, "Actually, we've already discussed many of these things on the phone before."

Lance nodded. "Yes, we've talked about it, but we're still missing some details."

Diego's expression wasn't so pleasant. He pursed his lips. "We want eighty million."

Eighty million is enough for them to complete the costume change.

With 200,000 fully armed troops, as long as he doesn't think about dealing with those anti-government forces and stays in Zhuolan, he is definitely a considerable force.

However, if possible, he still wants to continue to grow stronger; the stronger he is, the more secure he will be.

Lance shook his head when he heard his offer. "Eighty million is too much. I heard that the Republic of Germany has also given you a lot of financial aid."

"You don't actually need that much money."

This was a very straightforward expression. Lance's tone didn't even waver. He looked down at Diego as if he were looking at a nobody, and his eyes didn't show any respect for the president of this country.

Diego's fists were clenched tightly. He hated Lance, he hated everything about these people!
But he quickly loosened his grip again, asking, "How much can you give me?"

Lance considered the situation: he couldn't let Diego overeat, but he also couldn't let him starve. "Twenty million Federal Sols."

This figure, combined with the economic aid he obtained from the Czech Republic, is more than enough to support a government army of 70,000 to 80,000 men equipped with modern weapons.

What about the remaining 100,000 or so?
Many countries in the Asia-Pacific region still have stockpiles of standard ammunition; perhaps he has some ideas?
He could accept it, but that didn't mean he accepted the price. Diego quickly launched a price offensive, lowering it slightly.

The two sides negotiated the price for quite some time, and in the end Lance paid Diego forty-seven million federal soles and "leased" a ten-square-kilometer plot of land from Zoran.

This included large slums, as well as parts of the suburbs, where Lance's estates, factories, and the like were located.

This was not actually a simple agreement; Diego also set out a series of conditions.

For example, the first clause is "No federal troops may be stationed in the leased area," because this lease does not belong to the federal government, but to Lance personally, or in other words, to the "Wanley Group."

Only Wanli Group security personnel are allowed inside the leased premises; federal troops are not permitted to be stationed there.

Then there's the fourth clause, "Wanli Group needs to maintain security within the leased area," and the sixth clause, "There needs to be a complete legal system within the leased area," and there are many more like these.

On the surface, Diego was advocating for the interests of the people in the leased area, but in reality, he was also trying to use these things to impose restrictions on the federal government.

But whether it will work or not, nobody knows.

The negotiations lasted two days, which is incredibly fast for such an important matter.

Two days later, at the presidential palace, Lance and Diego signed and exchanged the Treaty of Zoran Loan and Territorial Lease, which was referred to by some in Lapa as the "Nineteen Shames" by those with a sense of national and ethnic identity.

Because the entire treaty contained nineteen articles, each of which seemed to be filled with immense harm to the country, Diego finally acquired a new title in addition to "dictator," "tyrant," and "mentally challenged"—traitor.

The release of these nineteen articles caused a huge shock throughout the Asia-Pacific region and the Asia-Pacific Alliance, and even the world!
People can't even imagine what the consequences will be, and many are deeply uneasy about it.

However, for someone like Juan who is completely dependent on the Wanli Group, this is a good thing.

After work that evening, someone from the company found him and brought him to Lance's office. Lance specifically asked to see him by name.

Juan was a little awkward, unsure of what to do with his hands and feet, and eventually put his two dirty hands behind his back.

This made him feel like a toad in the mud, while Lance was a lion on the prairie, making him feel a little disgusted with himself.

“I’ve heard you’ve been working very hard lately,” Lance said.

Lance had someone keep an eye out for the proactive groups in the factory and write down their names.

Even if these people are very grateful to Lance for giving them jobs and cheap or free housing, they will still slack off over time and may even develop the idea that "you are so rich, what's wrong with giving me a little benefit?"

Therefore, a sorting process is needed here. Juan performed very well and worked hard, so when Lance was reviewing the materials, he quickly saw this familiar name.

Juan's face flushed slightly. "You gave me and my family a chance to live, so how could I slack off?"

After all, he was a young man, and he didn't know how to "be modest." His words offended almost everyone else in the factory because, in his statement, everyone else was slacking off, but he wasn't.

But that's okay, that's what Lance likes about him.

"Want to change jobs?"

(End of this chapter)