Empire of Shadows

Lance finished reading the document in his hand, pursed his lips, and put it back.

"Ten thousand dollars,"

he said, stating the latest price given at the end of the document.

Yes, ten thousand dollars per acre.

If anyone wanted it, they would need to line up, pay the money, and then they could get the land.

Mayor Williams showed no expression, but in this situation, no expression was the most telling expression.

Lance sensed the killing intent in his eyes; he truly wanted to kill these people!

"Do you know... what the price was in mid-September, the month before last?"

Lance glanced at the document and read out the number on it: two thousand five hundred dollars.

Mayor Williams took a deep breath.

"Yes, two thousand five hundred dollars, and now it's ten thousand."

"Lunatics should be in a mental hospital, not here interfering with my plans!"

He emphasized his tone and then coughed twice; he was somewhat agitated.

He took out a cigarette from the cigarette case, lit it with some irritation, and took a deep breath.

"I used to secretly mock Sidney at home, laughing at him for being a fool, for not doing this well, not doing that well either."

As he said these words, his expression was somewhat exaggerated, accompanied by some hand gestures to deepen his context, so that Lance could feel the arrogance and ridicule with which he mocked Sidney in the room.

His raised hand slowly lowered, and his shoulders slumped.

"But now, Lance."

"I finally understand, it's not that he was too stupid, nor that he couldn't do it well, but that the problem was too big."

"Even if he was a mayor, of course, I am the same as he was then, we face the same problem."

"Even if we are both mayors, what we face is the entire city's interest groups, we are fighting against them!"

He raised his hand, turned his wrist outward, revealing his palm, and pointed to the document in front of Lance.

"Actually, not everyone wants to oppose me; some people didn't actively want to raise the land price."

"But when they found that some landowners around them started quoting prices of five thousand dollars, even if they didn't want to oppose me, they were now standing against me."

"Profit kidnapped them; for more profit, they had to stand against me."

"Now it's ten thousand, what will it be in a while?"

"Fifteen thousand?"

"Twenty thousand?"

"F*ck!"

As long as a portion of people create a trend that these lands are worth a lot of money, those people will keep the land in their hands.

They unknowingly became bargaining chips for those interest groups to negotiate with the city hall.

They actually knew they had become bargaining chips, but they were willing to do so.

They didn't need to do anything; they just needed to continue playing the role of being greedy and innocent, and they could get more benefits.

Why should they "wake up"?

Once the land price rises too high, whether the city hall intends to take back these lands, or new investors want to invest here, they will face huge investment costs.

Goldenport City's consumption capacity trend will not increase much because of the increase in land prices here.

Moreover, the new tax law is about to be implemented, and people's income may increase to a certain extent, but their disposable income will decrease instead.

Previously, the federal tax law stipulated that ordinary people did not have to pay taxes if their monthly income was below one hundred dollars, but the new tax law stipulates that even if a federal citizen's monthly income is only one cent.

Then he also has to pay three percent tax!

In other words, according to people's current income, forty-odd dollars, they need to pay at least eight percent tax every month.

If someone exceeds fifty dollars, that's even better, twelve percent is waiting for you.

In this case, new district investors will consider a question: they have invested so much money in the most basic land, how can they recover these investments and make a profit?

The final result is that people start to wait and see, his plan becomes ridiculous, he becomes a joke in the city like Sidney, and eventually has to compromise with the interest groups he once belonged to.

Before becoming mayor, he didn't think it would be so difficult.

After becoming mayor, he felt how painful Sidney was back then.

Lance shook his head.

"It seems that this is the only way."

In fact, the federal government had considered the possibility that capitalists might massively enclose land and then do nothing, waiting for the land price to rise and make huge profits, so they made many regulations.

For example, how many square meters of buildings to build, how many workers to hire, how much output value to create.

But these things can't stop the capitalists at all.

After all, the fact that these bills can be passed shows that they have no objection to them—

They build simple warehouses on the open space to ensure that there are enough flat buildings.

They hire some retired elderly people according to the standards, only needing to give them one-third of the salary of ordinary people.

As for output value, taxes, etc., they have ways to complete the city hall's various requirements through false transactions.

Saying it's false... in fact, it can't be considered false.

The factory, as a part of the entire "circulation" link, has high costs and small profits.

Output value does not include costs.

If the costs are included, they may even lose money.

When the company's net profit is negative, the tax bureau is embarrassed to ask them for taxes.

Especially when the land price is controlled by them, even if there is a little loss, it is acceptable in the face of the huge benefits that will be generated.

Mayor Williams understood these things too well, so he never thought about solving this problem by legal means from the beginning, because it couldn't be solved.

He could only turn to Lance for help.

Lance scratched his head.

"This will make me offend a lot of people."

He pursed his lips; it wasn't that he couldn't do it, but he had to see if the price was high enough.

If he offended the people of an entire city without any income, even if Mayor Williams had a good relationship with him, he wouldn't agree.

Just a good relationship is not his father.

Mayor Williams was obviously very clear about this.

Even if Lance was really his son, he might not be able to do so much for him, so everything still came down to the most naked interests.

"There are some people who are willing to relocate, but they are kidnapped by the constantly rising land prices and passively stand against us."

"For these people, persuade those who can be persuaded.

We have no conflict.

When they realize that they can't actually earn that much, they will give up."

"As for the other part..."

He pondered for a moment.

"Since they are already standing against us, then swallow them."

Lance took out a cigarette, took a puff, and after the cigarette was filtered through his lungs, it was exhaled from his nose.

He understood what Mayor Williams meant by "swallowing."

Including their lives, souls, and their property, everything, put into the stomach.

To put it in a more civilized way, it is to put them on the dinner table.

The expansion of the city represents more opportunities.

So many new friends are looking forward to joining this feast, looking forward to being able to sit at the table and enjoy a sumptuous dinner.

Before someone vacates a new seat, they can only watch others eat delicious food in big bites, and can only find some oil from the plates that are taken away.

They look clear-eyed and act simple, but if they are given the opportunity to sit at the table, they will become loyal lackeys of those who decide on plans and policies.

They will bite those people more fiercely than anyone else.

Lance nodded.

"Since you've made a decision, then do it!"

"When do we start?"

Mayor Williams licked his lips.

"Wait a little longer.

I asked James to talk to them.

Before we take action, I hope we can resolve it civilizedly.

If they betray my goodwill, then we can only do that."

"After the New Year, it should be about the same."

Lance nodded.

"Okay, then after the New Year."

This matter is very crucial, and it is the core of whether Mayor Williams can complete his policy platform.

He didn't talk to Lance about the issue of profit distribution, which essentially told Lance that he should eat first.

No matter how he eats, even if his appetite is good enough, he can eat it all!

This is his attitude, let Lance eat his fill first.

Lance didn't talk to him about anything like you three, me seven, which would make him seem like he didn't have any vision.

After settling this matter, Mayor Williams was obviously much more relaxed.

He took one last puff of his cigarette, and suddenly had a somewhat awkward expression on his face.

These awkward feelings came too suddenly, so suddenly that Lance didn't even know what had happened, or how to deal with it.

Mayor Williams even laughed awkwardly twice, which made Lance feel a little overwhelmed.

"You better tell me what happened, I'm a little worried about you like this."

Mayor Williams' expression was very rich, first awkward, then embarrassed, then somewhat sighing, and finally somewhat resentful.

"I really don't know how to say it, Arthur and your that..."

"Corinna,"

Lance reminded him.

The name of this "minor character" would not be remembered by Mayor Williams, even if she was his son's girlfriend.

In fact, Lance had a premonition when he talked about this matter.

He had told Corinna before.

That kid Arthur was not a good choice, because no matter how much they loved each other, Corinna could not marry into the Williams family.

Unless she was Lance's blood-related younger sister, it was simply impossible!

This wasn't just a gap between two classes; it was a gap with many classes in between.

The Federation people were very realistic, even more so than rumored. Unless Arthur could give up everything he possessed—

Privileges, inheritance rights, wealth, everything—otherwise, it would be impossible for him to marry Corinda.

But would he give those up?

Lance stared at Mayor Williams, who could only sigh under Lance's gaze, "He didn't know how to say it; he and that girl broke up."

As he spoke, he emphasized, "It was a peaceful breakup, without any other issues."

"But he's worried you'll beat him up, so he asked me to tell you about it."

Lance, having been mentally prepared, didn't have a strong reaction. He simply nodded, "Young people's love and hate often arise and disappear in an instant. It's normal. I won't beat him up."

Arthur was still quite afraid of Lance.

Seeing that Lance didn't get angry, Mayor Williams breathed a sigh of relief, "You can beat him up."

Lance waved his hand, "I warned her too, but… you know, when love comes, even a city wall is useless, so you don't have to worry."

People said Mayor Williams loved his youngest son the most. It seemed this was true. He would personally tell Lance about this kind of thing, which was clear favoritism.

However, it was a pity that Arthur was born too late. Otherwise, the one to inherit the Williams family's future wouldn't be James, but him.

Perhaps James was also very aware of this. It was too late to cultivate Arthur now, so he never targeted Arthur. Instead, he always acted like an older brother, protecting this little brother who always made mistakes.

After leaving City Hall, Lance went to wander around near the naval base. It had become a bit more prosperous here.

The soldiers had begun to adapt to the environment, and the base was also allowing them to move around the surrounding area to a limited extent.

This made the area around the naval base much livelier, and also added many streetwalkers.

Some were truly forced by life, with no food to eat if they didn't do this, such as those refugees recruited by Carl's organization.

There were too many hungry people in the refugee community. Those who had never been hungry would never know how important and happy it was for a hungry person to have enough to eat.

And some were just doing it to make money more easily.

When Lance rescued those girls from Red High Heels, except for a few who had stable jobs and lives, the others went back to prostitution.

They couldn't stand the high-intensity work on the assembly line for eleven or twelve hours a day, and they could only earn so little money each month.

They were already used to lying down somewhere, pretending and shouting a few times, and earning a month's income in a day.

Lance had talked about this with a friend who was in the business. He asked, was anyone forcing ordinary people to do this?

His friend told him, almost no one, because it was completely unnecessary.

Everyone has a change of mindset. He would recruit many young girls to work in his company.

They were all normal jobs, and the income was okay, but the work wasn't easy.

At first, almost all the girls had never thought about taking it a step further, but when they found out that they only earned three or four thousand a month for working themselves to death, while those girls who were willing to take a step forward earned several thousand in tips in one night, they fell into the trap.

You can't compare. Once you compare, you're done.

They would consider taking a step forward, after all, it was just going into the room, and they weren't really doing anything, and the income could be increased a lot.

Some people tried to do this, and then they succeeded, as if they had entered another class from one class.

In a high-income environment, they began to spend without planning, and began to experience the beautiful life they had never experienced before. They were no longer as simple as they used to be.

When they realized that as long as they were willing to take another step forward, earning one or two million a year was commonplace, they couldn't stop.

From the moment they gazed into the abyss, they had actually entered the abyss.

So there was no need to force anything, they would even go faster than others thought!

Just like at this moment, Lance could already imagine that before long, sex trade would become the most mainstream trade here.

Compared to letting ordinary girls do this, he actually preferred letting refugees do it, at least they really needed money to maintain their family's livelihood, rather than needing money to squander.

The news of the Federation stationing troops in Gold Harbor City spread quickly, and some reporters also photographed their daily training scenes. After a period of silence, the Dantela Republic once again made a final request.

It demanded that the federal government immediately cancel the troop stationing plan and close the Gold Harbor City naval base.

But obviously, this was impossible.

This was related to the federal government and Congress's next stage of planning. The Dantela Republic subsequently formally announced the severance of diplomatic relations with the Federation, and warned the federal government that if the federal navy appeared in the waters near the Dantela Republic, they would regard this act as a "declaration of war."

This intense reaction happened to satisfy Congress and the President's Office.

In fact, the federal government was very "tsundere" now. They all hoped that the Dantela Republic would declare a state of war, so that "passive response" could give them a relatively good impression among the people.

No one likes warmongers who start wars, so the enemy must strike first in order to avoid being accused of "actively provoking war."

Many people have already thought of what will happen next. They only need to create a "misunderstanding" and then they can enter a state of war.

Although that storm hadn't come, the oppressive feeling that the dark clouds had pressed down to within reach had already arrived.

In November, various cities had conscription locations from the Department of Defense. The people of the Federation mainland weren't particularly enthusiastic about joining the army, but illegal immigrants and refugees were different.

They were all actively signing up, especially for the army, with a very large number of applicants.

Some people analyzed that the Federation wouldn't send troops to Tanfite, so the idea that the army was safer made the army recruits explode in number.

Even near the refugee concentration point in the new port area of ​​Gold Harbor City, there were many conscription points.

However, along with this, some social activists were also active near the conscription points. They advocated the concept that "refugees are not consumables" and hoped that refugee compatriots could treat this matter rationally.

Overall, it wasn't very useful, and it could be considered a scenery line near the conscription points.

As December arrived, the weather was already close to zero degrees, and sometimes some snowflakes would fall sporadically.

After more than a month of fermentation and preparation, some government project bidding in the new district had ended, and new problems were also being faced.

How to demolish the old industrial area, and when to demolish it.