The liquor, originally scheduled to arrive in the Federation a few days ago, was delayed for several days due to a storm, but Luigi was not very concerned about this.
A few days early, a few days late, he didn’t care. Anyway, this money would eventually end up in his pocket.
He knew he had offended Lance and also Alberto, but he didn’t care either.
This was Yalan, the Republic of Aldra, not the Federation. Whether it was the Summurians of the Federation or Lance, this was not a place for them to run wild.
The liquor he sold to Lance would at most fetch $300,000 to $400,000, but now selling it to others would bring at least $600,000 to $700,000. This was almost double the profit, and it was pure profit!
When Lance had spoken with him before, he had also expressed his willingness to continue doing business with Lance, but they couldn’t just pay him a little money as they had previously discussed.
He had to pay according to the current price.
Luigi could give him a friendship price on account of their “acquaintance,” but this number would not be too low. $580,000, he thought, was very appropriate. Lance’s face was worth $20,000.
Any more, not even a penny more, was not acceptable.
After that, he had no more conversations with Lance, and he didn’t want to talk to that stingy young man anymore.
At this time, the cargo ship full of liquor had already set sail. He picked up the telephone receiver and dialed a number in the Federation.
The moment the call was connected, a smile immediately appeared on his face, and he laughed out loud, “…Sir, good morning. What I want to say is that the storm in Yalan is over now, and I have watched those little darlings being loaded onto the ship.”
“In about two days, you will be able to see them… Yes, I promise, so you’d better have the payment ready.”
“We accept both cash and transfer.”
“…Good, no problem, I look forward to our next cooperation.”
He put down the phone, propped his two feet up on the edge of the desk, and took out the huge cigar from the ashtray, sticking it in his mouth.
Yalan also produced all kinds of tobacco and cigars, especially the tobacco leaves from Yasuna, which were very famous in the world.
They would hire sixteen-year-old girls to pick tobacco leaves and make cigars… alright, that was a lie. In fact, most of the cigars were made by adult men and women, and their appearances were not very good-looking.
Completely unrelated to the slender, delicate white hands people imagined. The plant matter in the tobacco leaves would make their hands look old and chapped, and also dark in color.
But it was undeniable that the cigars from Yasuna were indeed excellent.
In the past, Luigi could only afford those cigars worth thirty or fifty Federation sols a piece, but now, he could casually smoke those that cost a few dollars a piece, or even a dozen dollars a piece!
Each shipload of liquor represented a profit of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands. A cigar worth a dozen dollars was nothing!
Thinking of this, a faint smile full of satisfaction couldn’t help but appear on his face. Who the hell could have thought that he, who had been sent to the Republic of Aldra by his family as if in exile, would have such a day?
Before the Federation issued the Prohibition, the local liquor was not worth much at all.
Only those more famous brandies and red wines could fetch a slightly higher price.
As for the worthless liquor he had on hand, it was even more worthless, with basically no market.
But who would have thought that with just one Prohibition order, everything would change.
He squinted his eyes and thought of those guys still on Summurian Island. Their eyes must be red with jealousy now, right?
Out of his sight, a Summurian young man in his early twenties wiped the sweat from his face with a towel, smiled and greeted the others, then left the docks.
He found a small restaurant, ordered some food, and before the food arrived, he asked, “Boss, can the phone here call the Federation?”
There was a phone on the counter. The boss nodded, “One dollar a minute.”
The young man walked to the phone with a cigarette in his mouth. He dialed a number, and after the other side connected, he said, “The thing I sent you is on its way. It should arrive tomorrow night or the day after tomorrow morning…”
After he finished speaking, he hung up the phone, paid $1, and returned to his seat.
Before long, delicious food was served. After working all morning, he could finally enjoy a good meal!
At this time, Alberto, who had received the call, passed the news to Lance. Although Lance and the Pasoretto family had some unpleasantness, the “target” of this matter was Dover, not him or Paul.
Alberto also didn’t like Dover. In fact, no one would like those with special privileges. He didn’t think Lance had done anything wrong.
Perhaps because of this matter, the two did not talk much on the phone. After a simple exchange of pleasantries, they hung up.
After Lance got the news, he recruited men, “From midnight tomorrow to the morning of the day after, Luigi’s liquor will come in by sea.”
Elvin, who had rushed back from outside, was slightly stunned when he heard this news. He didn’t react and directly asked, “He’s willing to sell us liquor again?”
Lance shook his head, “No, I haven’t spoken with him. This batch of liquor should have been pre-ordered by someone else. I plan to take it.”
“Even if I can’t take it, I have to find a way to destroy it.”
“If he doesn’t make me happy, I won’t let him be happy!”
“Maybe he calls the shots in Aldra, but this is the Federation, this is Golden Port. Between me and him, I call the shots!”
Golden Port was definitely one of the places with the highest liquor sales. The price might not be the highest, but it was definitely relatively high.
Like those small cities with only a few hundred thousand people, even if there were many drunkards, how much liquor could they consume in a month?
In contrast, Golden Port had a population of over 1.5 million and was still expanding. Most of the people here needed alcohol, especially the sailors.
They not only needed to drink cup after cup, but also needed to bring liquor onto their ships.
Surrounding cities and even neighboring states were also trying to get goods from Golden Port. For example, Gallio from Fides city had imported a large batch of liquor from Lance here.
There were too many businesses related to liquor here, and it wasn’t just that whoever had liquor had the final say. This liquor had to be able to get in!
Everyone already knew that this place was full of countless wealth. If Luigi’s liquor could never get in, while liquor from other people in the Republic of Aldra could.
Then even if Luigi’s power was great, with this ebb and flow, he would soon be caught up, surpassed, and then left far behind.
He tore up the agreement with Lance, so he had to bear the corresponding consequences.
Lawn stood by the door and asked, “Are we going to rob it after the ship docks?”
Lance shook his head, “The ship docking means that this batch of liquor has already been handed over. No matter who ordered this batch of liquor, we cannot have a direct conflict.”
“My meaning is, before they receive the goods, we find a way to get rid of it for them!”
Elvin thought seriously for a while and raised his own question, “We can get some speedboats, but we don’t have a transport ship.”
“And we have never fought on the sea. I’m not doubting you, or ourselves. I just feel that we may not be good at this.”
“Shooting on a swaying deck, I don’t have much hope of hitting anything!”
Fighting at sea was indeed different from fighting on land, and this time, not only did they have to get rid of the people escorting the goods, but they also had to find a way to get the liquor from the ship back.
He had considered it correctly. If the people escorting the goods were old sailors, Lance and his men would instead be in danger.
Never fight someone in an unfamiliar field. This is a summary full of wisdom!
Lance thought for a moment, “I’ll find a way. You guys also need to be prepared.”
It was still early. He took a car (with several cars following) directly to the port. He wanted to have a chat with Jack.
Jack worked at customs, responsible for the random inspection of inbound and outbound containers. Although the work was not easy, he did indeed have a little special power in his hands.
When he saw Jack, he was leading people to randomly inspect the countless containers. They would open some containers and check if the goods inside complied with the Federation’s import and export standards.
If they encountered non-compliant ones, or ones that had not been declared, they would be detained.
This was a job that looked very ordinary and arduous, but only looked so.
When Lance and his group stood to the side, Jack had to see them even if he didn’t want to.
He arranged the subsequent work and took the initiative to walk over. The two walked to a secluded shore.
“Is something the matter?” he gave Lance a cigarette and asked.
Lance looked him up and down, “That uniform looks great!”
Jack smiled. The Coast Guard had begun to strengthen one after another. As the largest port in the Federation and the busiest port in the northern hemisphere, the Coast Guard here was also the first to change its equipment.
They had already started to use gunboats for patrols, which also meant that those smugglers could no longer deliver goods as they pleased.
Either, face the Coast Guard and their bullets and cannons.
Or, go through the regular procedures at the docks and face the random inspections of customs.
In the past, they were unwilling to go through the docks because there was a risk of being inspected and confiscated, but now compared to the entire shipload of goods being completely lost, going through the docks was actually less risky.
This also led to a huge change in Jack’s current status. The smugglers and merchants who didn’t think much of him before were now all contacting him and the people in their department.
Hoping that during the random inspection, certain containers would be let go.
These people were also not at all stingy, willing to give anything, as long as they opened their mouths.
But now, neither Jack nor his department, these people, had quite adapted to these changes. They were also worried if there would be any trouble for taking money to do things.
This was a very contradictory process. On one hand, Jack did… want to make some money.
Whether in this era or in the future, the importance of money was always at the forefront.
On the other hand, he was also very worried if Congress or the higher-ups would pay attention to the changes at the docks, making him passive.
“Don’t say these nice things. Do you have some goods coming in?” he exhaled a puff of smoke and looked at the people around them who were far away.
This gave him a very subtle nervous feeling, as if he were doing something bad in front of everyone.
Even if some people weren’t looking at him, he would feel that these people were looking at him.
Lance shook his head slightly, “Do you know anyone in the Coast Guard?”
Jack didn’t react at first, but soon nodded and said, “I know them, what’s wrong?”
“Are you on good terms?” Lance asked again. “It would be best if it’s someone like a captain.”
Jack frowned and thought for a moment, “I know them, but we’re not very close. What do you want to do?”
Lance said softly, “From tomorrow night to the early morning of the day after, a ship full of smuggled liquor will enter Golden Port.”
“The owner of this batch of goods has offended me.”
Jack confirmed again and again, “A smuggling ship?”
“Yes, a smuggling ship.”
A relaxed smile appeared on Jack’s face, “You want this batch of goods to be impounded?”
“Not just impounded, I want to buy it.”
Seeing Jack’s somewhat puzzled look, he added, “From the hands of the Coast Guard.”
Jack was stunned for a good while before teasing, “Do you always talk business with others like this?”
“To be honest, your words make it a bit hard for me to keep up with your rhythm. You’re buying confiscated illegal smuggled goods from law enforcement. I don’t know what to say about you at all!”
Lance, on the other hand, had a relaxed smile on his face, “Don’t be like that, Jack. Don’t make this sound so unsettling.”
“If you have something that was confiscated by the police, or if you want something they confiscated, give me a call.”
“I guarantee that you can get these things at an extremely low price, and they will even be delivered to you by police officers in a police car!”
“Help me make an appointment with your friend. I will persuade him. Ask him if he has time for lunch.”
Jack was still a little hesitant, but after thinking for a while, he gritted his teeth, “No problem, I’ll give him a call.”
There were many public phone booths on the docks. Lance asked with some curiosity, “Don’t you have your own office?”
Jack shook his head, “Not yet.”
Lance pursued, “This ‘not yet,’ how much is it short?”
“Can it be solved with money?”
Originally, Jack wanted to say it was a lot, but suddenly he thought of something. He stood there in a daze for a while before saying, “Not sure.”
Lance noted this small change in his heart. He would ask about it later.
The call was quickly connected. Customs and the Coast Guard had a lot of business cooperation, for example, in the aspect of anti-smuggling, they covered and cooperated with each other.
The person on the other end readily accepted the appointment and set a time.
At this time, there was still a while until noon. It was not good for Lance to continue to disturb Jack’s work, so he left here first.
More and more people on the docks knew Lance, and many people took the initiative to come over and greet him.
“Mr. Lance, I heard… the price of liquor is going up?”
The club had recently mentioned this matter, that the price would be raised by a few cents. In fact, compared to the increase outside, this was like no increase at all.
But for the workers, spending an extra five cents every day meant spending an extra $1.50 a month. Maybe they drank more than one cup a day?
Lance could only appease them, “The price of liquor is rising too fast now. I’m losing several thousand a month. If we don’t raise the price, we may not be able to sustain it for too long.”
“But you don’t have to worry too much. I’ll talk to Vice President Vaughn.”
Although the dockworkers’ skills competition was not so perfect because of the shooting incident, it had begun to attract attention in the entire labor system.
Especially since the “Lance White Rating Method” had been recognized by the Federation of Labor as an excellent plan to effectively classify professional skill levels, they were actively discussing and formulating classification plans for various types of work.
If nothing unexpected happened, Lance would soon become famous. At that time, workers all over the Federation and even the world would be graded according to the grading method compiled based on his suggestions.
Among the working class, he would have a great reputation.
President Scott had already held such a grand event that could change the working class and was noticed by the national union. He would probably be transferred to the national dockworkers’ union in October.
Vice President Vaughn would naturally become the next president.
After appeasing several groups of workers, Lance finally had time to make a phone call. He called William.
“How come you have time to call me?” William was busy in his office. He was working on a counter-strategy against Mr. Jobav’s propaganda.
So he was curious about Lance’s sudden call.
“I’m at the docks, with Jack. I want to know if he wants to be promoted another level. I don’t know what that position is, but if he wants to be promoted one or two more levels, how can it be done?”
“I don’t know much about this, so I wanted to ask you.”
William put down his work and thought for a while. He had worked in the Federation government for so many years. He didn’t dare to say he knew every department very well, but at least he knew how to operate.
“Customs is relatively independent. We don’t know the people at the high level, but I have a suggestion.”
“After I am elected as a city councilman, I will have the opportunity to contact them. Wouldn’t that be more appropriate?”
After the two talked for a while longer, Lance hung up the phone and went to the labor agency. It was still crowded.
The prosperity of Golden Port had brought more illegal immigrants here. They were eager for a job, and only here could give it to them.
Now the firm could earn more than $20,000 to $30,000 a month from these people. This was actually a very remarkable income!
It was just that compared to Lance’s other income, it seemed a little insignificant.
By 12:30 noon, Lance arrived at the restaurant they had agreed on ten minutes early. About four or five minutes later, Jack and a middle-aged man walked in.
Lance took the initiative to stand up, pushed his chair back, and went to greet them.
“This is Captain McCock. He is in charge of a period of patrol, towing, management, and rescue work.”
“This is Lance, Lance White. He is my sister’s boyfriend.”
Captain McCock was also a typical Federation man. He had a beard, looked a bit rugged, and wore a pair of brown sunglasses.
His skin was slightly rough and dark, which was a common problem for people who often sailed on the sea.
While shaking hands with Lance, he said with a smile, “Lance of the Lance Family?”