For several days in a row, Figal hadn’t had a good night’s sleep. He would always wake up after a short while.
He felt as if he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Lance was like a fishbone stuck in his throat, slowly taking away his life, making him uncomfortable whether he was sitting or standing.
“Can you please sit down?” his brother said irritably, watching him pace back and forth and sigh constantly.
Figal glanced at him and then sat down.
His brother continued, “Everyone is very resistant to attacking now. In their eyes, the Empire District has become a terrifying monster. Everyone who goes there either dies or disappears.”
“If we forcefully demand that those people go and attack Lance’s men, I’m afraid…”
He trailed off without finishing. Figal already understood what he was afraid of.
His face was filled with a look of resentment. He slammed his fist on the table. “It wasn’t this difficult even when we were at war with the Bear Gang!”
The Bear Gang was strong, and they had been unable to withstand them at first. But after they had adapted to the new challenge and the Bear Gang’s fighting style, they quickly adjusted.
But the Lance Family was completely different from the gangs he had encountered before.
He was very good at grasping the details. Sometimes the mission he assigned was to randomly kill a few members of the Lance Family on the street and then come back.
But as soon as they opened fire here, they hadn’t even gone a hundred meters before some people with submachine guns appeared on the side of the road and started spraying their vehicles.
After a burst of gunfire, the car would most likely stop on the side of the road. Needless to say, the people inside were basically riddled with bullets at close range.
Then someone would drive the car away and dispose of the bodies inside.
There was a rumor that the pet sausages in the Empire District had been on sale for the past few days.
Although people couldn’t verify whether this news was true or false, it did indeed affect the morale of the low-level members of the family.
No one wanted, after an order was given, to be turned into pet sausages, eaten by dogs, and then become a pile of dog shit on the side of the road.
This was absolutely the most unpleasant and terrifying way to die!
So everyone was very resistant.
If you sent someone who didn’t want to become dog shit to their death, at first they might have to go because they were afraid of Figal’s authority.
But soon they would start to resist. Not to say they would defect, but it was still possible for them to just run away.
So now the problem was becoming more and more tricky.
“I had someone go and look at Lance’s new building. A direct assault might cost a lot of lives.”
Before the previous problem was solved, Figal’s brother started to add to his troubles.
“He did a simple renovation inside. It’s said that he used a lot of bulletproof glass. I hear that some of the glass rooms are even specially equipped with firing ports.”
“It’s easy to shoot outside from a firing port, but it’s not an easy task to get a bullet into a firing port from the outside.”
“Our boys would rather waste a whole day on a girl’s belly than go to the fucking shooting range to practice their marksmanship!”
“If we attack by force, we will lose a lot of men and get no results.”
Figal was very annoyed. It was all fucking bad news. “What about using fire?”
His brother sighed. “That’s a bank. It has an internal fire suppression system. Unless you walk into Lance’s office and pour gasoline there.”
“Otherwise, you can’t expect to set a fire from the outside and burn everyone inside to death. That’s not realistic.”
Figal became even more agitated. “This won’t work, that won’t work. So what the hell should we do?”
“Just be laughed at like this?”
“And this is not a fucking joke. This is a matter of survival!”
Everyone knew this, but what could they do?
Lance’s side had actually suffered quite a few casualties as well, but defense always provided more security than offense. The number of their dead was much smaller than on their side. Plus, Lance paid well, which was enough to ensure that they were not short of manpower.
“Is there a way to lure them out?”
Not letting the enemy have the advantage is very important in a battle.
Bandy was also thinking about this problem.
He was not happy at all now. He should have been happy, because Lance was focusing all his attention on the Keane family, and the two sides were fighting fiercely, consuming each other’s strength.
But now he was not happy at all, because Lance’s strength was too strong, or rather, too resilient!
Recently, some refugee gang members could be seen on the streets of the Empire District. For those refugees in the New Port District, they were willing to do dangerous work for food and money.
Many people had frozen to death this past winter. And Lance was very cunning. He fucking even distributed winter supplies to the poor in the Empire District and some of the refugees during the winter!
He had done what the government should have done, and had gained huge prestige and authority. He was becoming more and more “troublesome.”
If they didn’t solve the problem of Lance soon, even if Lance stopped and everyone just developed peacefully, in a few years, they would be dismantled without Lance even having to do anything!
So they had to make a move on Lance, and they had to win.
This time, it was not just him and Gorry, but also Fleming and Stone, as well as other important members of the family, and some smart managers from legitimate companies, who had all gathered together.
Bandy needed everyone’s wisdom now.
“How can we get Lance to crawl out of his damn turtle shell and go to a place that is disadvantageous to him, but advantageous to us?”
Bandy looked at the people in front of him. “If anyone can solve this problem, he will be the deputy general manager of the casino.”
The originally somewhat dull room instantly became… a little more lively.
The deputy general manager of the casino, that was Stone’s level. He could get a share of the casino’s profits, which was a lot of money.
People’s eyes instantly became lively, and their minds also started to turn, beginning to think if there were any feasible solutions.
They proposed many plans intermittently, but after discussion, they were all of no practical significance.
Either they were too stupid, or they required too many coincidences. These could not be applied in practice at all.
For example, someone said to short-circuit the internal circuit of the bank and then throw in poison gas or something, but there was a high probability that this could not be done, and could not be done.
A firefight between gangs with handguns is just an ordinary conflict between gangs. But if poison gas is used, it will violate more serious laws. Maybe the federal government will deal with all of them without Lance having to do anything.
After discussing back and forth, there were no solutions.
One of the analysts who had graduated from an Ivy League college proposed an idea.
“We can create an internal split in Mr. Figal’s family. In this high-pressure environment, it’s normal for disagreements to appear within the family.”
“For example, some people are willing to surrender, some are willing to have peace talks, and some insist on fighting to the end.”
“They fall into an argument over these things, and then break up unhappily, and the family is thus split.”
“Those who disagree with Mr. Figal leave with their own men. This leads to Mr. Figal not having enough men on hand. Not only can he not continue to launch an invasion of the Empire District, he may not even be able to defend his own territory.”
“Then Mr. Figal can only choose to fully consolidate, and arrange his men in a place that is geographically advantageous to him, for example, their manor.”
“At this time, he can release some signals to the outside world, for example, that he is seeking external aid from other places.”
“We can hype up this external aid to be very powerful. As long as they come, Lance will be dealt with…”
Fleming understood by now. “And then force or lure Lance to take the initiative. As long as he believes he can solve Figal and his men in one go, he will definitely come out with his men.”
“And then we ambush them on a battlefield of our choosing, right?”
The analyst nodded. “That’s basically it. I don’t know much about gangs, but I believe that if the battle can be solved in one go, it should be a result that everyone is willing to see.”
Bandy, Gorry, and Stone all couldn’t help but nod after listening. This was indeed a good idea.
They discussed for a while and all felt that this idea was really good, and it didn’t require any coincidences. All the factors were completely controllable.
Bandy quickly communicated this plan to Figal. Figal was also very troubled by the current situation. The scheme provided by Bandy was very simple and had a high success rate. He thought it was feasible.
“But even if it succeeds, I don’t have that many men. What if Lance escapes…” Figal didn’t finish his sentence, leaving half of it, but Bandy already knew what he meant.
So this time he said very firmly, “Don’t worry, my men will be ready. He either doesn’t come out.”
“As long as he comes out, our men will be there at the first moment. And Gorry and Stone will be leading the team. Don’t worry, I absolutely have no backup plan this time.”
After listening, Figal was silent for a moment. “You contact the Tita family again. The more people the better.”
“This time I will do it according to your plan, Bandy.”
“If you trick me, no matter if we win or lose, I will leave immediately and let you guys fight it out!”
Hearing the harshness in Figal’s words, and also knowing that he had been tormented enough by Lance recently, Bandy guaranteed, “I said, this time it’s for real!”
After putting down the phone, Figal pulled a few of his trusted men into his office and discussed for a long time. During this time, Bandy also called and said that the Tita family’s people were also willing to support.
Then everything was almost ready.
Of course, this plan could not be so crude and break out all at once. It needed a slightly gradual process.
For example, to create another “failure case,” and then use this failure case as an opportunity to trigger a conflict within the family.
Two days later, Figal once again summoned his cadres together to talk about continuing to attack Lance’s territory.
This time he chose a cadre who was usually relatively low-key. This cadre was very dissatisfied with his decision.
Although he also agreed with Figal’s decision, in the end, they broke up unhappily…
(End of a Chapter)