The office door was slammed open with a “bang,” and a guy with injuries on his body walked in from outside, supported by others.
He had bandages wrapped around his waist and abdomen, with some blood seeping out from under them, looking very miserable.
He was helped to the sofa and sat down, looking weak and feeble.
Bill (the leader of the Red Dog Gang) stood up abruptly. He strode to the sofa and sat down next to this injured guy, “What’s wrong?”
The person who helped him in said, “He was ambushed when he went out. We fought off the ambushers, but he was also injured.”
“He was lucky, and also not so lucky. The bullet hit his rib, and the rib pierced some of his lung or something. Anyway, he needs to be hospitalized.”
Bill had a look of disbelief on his face, “Then what the f—k did you bring him here for?”
“I’m not a doctor, and this isn’t a hospital!”
The man could only say with a bitter smile, “The hospital isn’t safe. They are already searching the hospitals, so after thinking about it, I could only come here first.”
In fact, he had exaggerated the injuries a bit. The bullet did indeed hit the rib, and the rib was indeed fractured, but it did not pierce the lung lobe.
The doctor said there might be some puncture wounds, but there was no bleeding, and no treatment was needed, just rest.
But there was one thing he didn’t lie about. When they came out, they happened to run into the people who were coming to search for them. After an exchange of fire at the hospital entrance, they escaped.
The guy lying on the sofa opened his eyes. He was in unbearable pain right now, but he didn’t dare to use painkillers indiscriminately.
Some of the problems with painkillers had actually begun to be gradually discovered by the public. You feel comfortable after taking painkillers, and your whole body hurts when you don’t. This was obviously not right!
But so what if they knew?
Painkillers had already become something that some patients who abused them were heavily dependent on. Even if they knew they shouldn’t continue to take them, their bodies would force them to continue.
Not to mention not only the physical pain but also the mental!
Those medical groups that developed special painkillers not only didn’t think about how to solve this problem, but they also launched large-bottle packaging, for fear that the dependent patients wouldn’t have enough to eat.
This guy was wearing a pink jacket, with no underwear, completely bare.
He was a relatively profitable high-ranking cadre under the Red Dog Gang, running a very good bar in the Port District.
Going topless was the feature of his bar. The waitresses almost all walked around the bar topless. As long as you ordered a drink, you could grope them a little.
But even just groping a little was enough to make many men hard as a rock!
Because groping was free.
Anyway, no matter which bar they went to, they had to drink. In other bars, if they dared to harass the beer girls like this, they would be caught by the security guards and then beaten up.
But here, not only would they not beat you, but the waitresses would instead show a sweet smile.
Even if each cup was five or ten cents more expensive, they were very willing to come here.
The special business philosophy made him one of the most profitable high-ranking cadres in the gang, and also a person Bill valued more.
At this time, he opened his eyes and endured the severe pain, looking at Bill, “We have to fight back!”
He reached out and grabbed Bill’s wrist. The pain made him subconsciously use all his strength, which also made Bill’s brows knit together in pain.
He wanted to say “you’re hurting me,” but he felt that saying this would make him seem too sissy, so he could only endure it.
“I know, I will stop it!”
The man shook his head, “Not small skirmishes, Bill. If we don’t eliminate them all this time, we will soon be finished!”
“They are the purest criminal organization, and we are not!”
This sentence made Bill fall into silence. Even the two high-ranking cadres who had just rushed back were stunned at the door when they heard this.
Compared to other criminal groups, the Red Dog Gang was actually not pure at all.
They almost never took the initiative to cause trouble, nor would they kill anyone for no reason. What they were most willing to do was to make money with the girls!
This kind of person, or rather this kind of organization, was actually not suitable to exist in the form of a gang. They should be attached to other gangs, existing as a supplement.
Several pairs of eyes looked at Bill. Bill also knew that this was not the time for him to be joking.
He pried open the hand that had bruised his wrist, “I will seriously consider it.”
He took a few steps, “He’s in so much pain, why not give him some painkillers?”
“Actually, I think…” He said, then stopped.
He felt that painkillers would become a more profitable thing in the future, but he didn’t know how to express it, and now the formula and production qualifications for painkillers were in the hands of the medical groups.
He just instinctively believed that something more addictive than alcohol could definitely help them make more money!
People could drink that liquor or not, and it was already so profitable. What if they had to drink it every day, and every cup was not cheap?
After having his men send this guy away, Bill had someone notify the other high-ranking cadres to come back for a meeting.
In the evening, when they gathered together, Bill spoke of what had happened during the day.
This resonated with many high-ranking cadres. Many of their bars or themselves had been harassed or attacked.
“We have been passively taking a beating. Now we can’t go on like this. We have to fight back hard once!”
Bill first set his own tone, “In addition, we need to unite a portion of people to attack them with us. There are many small gangs in the Port District. They would definitely be willing to get some development for themselves, and the price is to send out some gunmen.”
“If they don’t make a move, and we fight them to the end, maybe these people will pick up the spoils.”
The others strongly agreed with Bill’s perception and point of view. The Port District was too chaotic now!
After Polly was finished, the middle and high levels of the Brotherhood were almost all finished too.
Those who could be caught were caught, and some who were not caught had already escaped. The entire Brotherhood, after the Camille gang, became the second gang to disappear.
Without the Brotherhood suppressing the Port District, large and small forces began to rise. According to unofficial statistics, there were more than twenty large and small gangs in the entire Port District.
To a certain extent, the existence of the Brotherhood and Big Polly was actually of great value. At least when they were around, the Port District had not been so chaotic!
Currently, on paper, the Red Dog Gang was still the largest gang, but the combined strength of these small gangs was not necessarily weaker than the Red Dog Gang!
The other high-ranking cadres had no objection to this. Bill proposed to take out $50,000 and a portion of military arms to support these small gangs, let them unite together, and attack this outside gang.
It would cost about $70,000, including military arms. Bill’s meaning was that everyone would share this expense equally, but this caused some dissatisfaction among the high-ranking cadres.
The first to make a fuss was a guy wearing a leather short-sleeved jacket, a studded collar, and heavy makeup.
The bar he ran, besides the usual services, mainly sold itself on same-sex friendship, and the income was also very high.
In these times, this kind of behavior was still regarded as heresy, but matters of the heart break the boundaries of secular morality. In the eyes of others, this was obviously something that shouldn’t happen.
But when feelings have accumulated, been paved, and suddenly erupt like a flood or a tsunami, no one can stop it!
This is not anyone’s fault, just a sincere, heartfelt emotional outburst.
There were many such people in his bar. Only here could they not be discriminated against. They liked the atmosphere of this bar very much and were willing to pay for its expensive expenses.
The name of the bar was “What’s Wrong,” simple, common, but not easy to understand. But anyone who had been there once would understand and have a deep impression of it.
The man with the collar smoked, holding his cigarette with his pinky finger extended, “Bill, you are the gang leader. We have a share in the money we make, and what you make is what you make.”
“So I think you should pay a little more…”
The others also chimed in. It was said to be gang funds, but in the end, it actually went into Bill’s pocket. Now they weren’t saying that someone else should pay for it all, which was actually quite considerate.
Bill glanced at him, but he knew that now was not the time to get angry. In the end, he made a concession, “I’ll take $40,000, the remaining $35,000, you guys can split it.”
Seeing that they still wanted to bargain, Bill directly gave them no chance, “I don’t want to discuss it anymore, otherwise let’s just go our separate ways!”
In the end, they still compromised.
That night, some small gangs in the Port District got the news that Bill of the Red Dog Gang was very dissatisfied with the outsiders stirring up trouble. He knew that the Red Dog Gang might not be able to clear out the outside gang like the Lance Family did.
But he hoped that everyone could band together and at least drive this harmful outside gang out of the Port District.
To achieve this goal, he was willing to take out $50,000 and about $20,000 to $30,000 worth of military arms to provide to the local neighborhood families for free.
Suddenly, this side became the focus of the entire city!
In fact, it wasn’t just the Port District facing this problem. Other districts, the city center, the Valley District, the Xilin District, outside gangs had already established a foothold and started to have firefights with local gangs.
Currently, the quietest places seemed to be Summuri District, the Bay Area, and the Empire District.
Lance had also heard about this matter. In the evening, when everyone was chatting, he was not very optimistic about it.
“Bill’s brain is not very good. If it were me, I would rather use this money to recruit gunmen and then give them weapons, rather than sending weapons and money to those who might be competitors.”
“And he ignored the biggest problem, which is that the Red Dog Gang is currently the largest gang in the Port District!”
The others were all stunned!
The present here was like a… family small classroom. All who could sit here were the high-ranking cadres and core strength of the family. Lance needed them to be able to read more of the situation.
Even Ethan was holding a bucket of fried chicken and sitting in the corner, listening honestly.
Lance took the coffee they handed him and took a small sip. A year ago, none of them had thought they could have such a day!
Living in a luxurious single-family house, drinking good coffee, able to chat about some things, instead of being so tired that they just wanted to close their eyes when they lay down.
“From Bill’s perspective, he is dealing with outsiders, but for those rising neighborhood families, Bill is strangling his challengers.”
“These are two completely different concepts. If he can make everyone feel the former, then no problem!” Lance flipped his wrist, “Everyone is a person of Golden Port, they will do so.”
“But if he can’t do it, his actions will make people feel that he is already very weak, so weak that he needs to rely on the power of those neighborhood families to resist the challenger.”
“This is very scary for a gang!”
“He is exposing his weakness, and he is really soft!”
This was a pun. Some people said Bill was also gay. Although there was no clear evidence to prove this, people analyzed from his roughly similar attire to Sam’s (the already dead manager of Red High Heels) that he might also be that kind of person.
He liked to wear red or pink clothes. Although he might not make himself so feminine, he still liked to dress himself up and try to look exquisite.
So this “soft” was not just about his attitude.
There were only two girls in the room. They had long been accustomed to this style and were also laughing out loud.
After they had laughed for a while, Lance continued, “So, they will have big trouble, and this big trouble was caused by themselves.”
Seeing that everyone had fallen into deep thought, Lance was very satisfied. He glanced at Elvin, who was also thinking.
The only person who could understand what he was saying at once was probably only Sean.
It’s not that people with good grades are necessarily smart, it’s just that he could straighten out the logical relationships more quickly.
When some of them had already shown a look of understanding, Lance handed the finished coffee cup to Corinda, “Pay attention to the border between us and the Port District. Arrange for people to patrol at fixed points.”
“Soon there might be some bad news about Bill.”
“And then there’s the matter of continuing to open bars. The price of liquor will continue to rise. We will also continue to rise, just a little lower than the market price. Continue to maintain our preferential policies to attract people to the Empire District.”
“Tomorrow, have Bolton send some more men to keep a close eye on those strangers entering the Empire District, and those mad dogs from the Bureau of Hazardous Materials.”
“This time, we’ll open five more bars!”
Mello was a little worried, “Do we have that much liquor?”
Lance had Elvin make a call to Nick. Nick told them that in the warehouse in the suburbs, there were at least a thousand barrels of wine and potato wine.
The entire farm was producing frantically. The Bureau of Hazardous Materials had not yet realized this.
They always thought that the wineries had all stopped production. Most of the liquor came from the sea. There were no major wineries around Golden Port, and the few that existed had been shut down.
Right under their noses, in the pastures in the suburbs, in those warehouses, large numbers of wine barrels were piled up like mountains. You could smell the aroma of wine walking nearby every day.
This also made Lance decide to move the farm and ranch further out, preferably to the Great Valley in Valley City. It was very free and safer that way.
Since there was still plenty of liquor on hand, opening more bars was not a problem.
This time, all the liquor Lance provided to the outside world was in special wine bottles.
The issue of branding was also worth using in illegal liquor. When the day Prohibition ended, those drunkards who had survived the Prohibition period would be extremely fond of the liquor that had helped them through the dark times.
Lance even personally participated in the design. He referred to the bottle body of Napa Whiskey and changed the logo on the bottle neck to a hot-stamped lion’s head.
And also referring to Napa Whiskey, he divided the grade of the liquor into “Golden Lion,” “Silver Lion,” and “Bronze Lion.”
It wasn’t that he had to copy Napa Whiskey, it was just that this set of practices was too convenient. Anyone could tell at a glance whether it was high-grade liquor or low-grade liquor!
And the name of this liquor was “Lion Brand Shochu.”
This would become a well-known brand in the future. The fact that it ran through the Prohibition was its core selling point. People would like this development history and call it a “legendary” liquor.
“Continue to purchase raw materials. Nick’s side still needs to continue to expand the scale. We not only have to do our own business, but when we have more storage, we can sell to the outside.”
“This also makes money!”
Lance settled on the development tone for the next period of time, including recruiting more peripheral members. Then everyone chatted about some fresh news, and then went back to their rooms to sleep.
For them, the so-called “fresh news” was most likely some interesting stories that happened in the bar.
Those drunkards could always make some jokes, which was also a routine program every night.
The next morning, after Lance got up and had breakfast, he hurried to the docks because the workers’ union conference was about to be held in a few days. He certainly had to be on site to watch.
Almost everyone on the docks knew Lance. When his car stopped, many people even came from far away to greet him.
No matter how the price of liquor rose in other places, the price at the workers’ union was always kept at a very low level.
This also made many people hope to come and work at the docks, just because the liquor here was cheap!
The dock management company had probably never been so well-off in terms of recruiting workers. Many people even said they would be fine with less pay…
Scott, Vaughn, and the others also came early in the morning. After meeting, Lance shook hands with them separately. Scott looked very excited.
He walked to a corner with Vaughn, “I have to thank you, Lance. I heard from Vaughn that you have given great support to our work!”
Lance was not modest, “I did do a lot of work, but I believe that if you can get into the national union, it will be a good thing for me, for Vaughn, and for the entire Golden Port.”
“And my investments are not without expectation of return. This is tens of thousands, President Scott.”
“I hope that one day in the future, when I need you, you will not choose to forget everything I have done today!”
Scott smiled amiably. He even looked at Vaughn, as if to say, “Am I that kind of person?”
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