Chapter 619

Jack was also paying close attention to some of the recent changes within Golden Port City. He had also heard some rumors, which mainly came from people connected to the smuggling groups.

It was like… some people would complain to a stranger about things at work.

They didn’t think the stranger would, because of their complaints, cause any problems for their work or life.

Just like when you’re waiting for a bus and chatting with a passerby, you tell him a lot of bad things about your boss and don’t have to worry that he will repeat these words to your boss.

It was the same at the customs office. The people who sent money would sometimes complain to the customs officers, complaining that the Lance Family’s methods were a bit domineering and untimely.

They would then tell Jack these words.

Few people knew about the relationship between Jack and Lance, and his promotion to a customs official was not handled by Lance, but by Arthur, who had taken him to help him get the promotion.

Many people thought that Jack was a member of the Williams family and did not know that he was actually closer to Lance.

So they would also tell this customs official with a deep background about the complaints of the smuggling groups, and he thus learned about some of the recent changes.

“I hear you’ve been up to big things lately!” Jack said teasingly.

Lance laughed a couple of times, without being modest. “Yes, big things.”

“I’m integrating the entire liquor distribution channel of Golden Port City. Besides what we produce ourselves, other liquors coming into the port must also bring me a profit.”

“Otherwise, I won’t let them in.”

Although Jack knew this in his heart, when Lance actually said it, he still felt a shock!

You know that the rich have a lot of money, and you also know that a million to them is like a dollar in your pocket, but this is just a concept.

Only when you really see them not treating money as money will you be shocked by their wealth and have some negative emotions.

Jack had no negative emotions. The stronger Lance was, the smoother the rise of the Lawrence family would be, and their relatives could also get more benefits from it.

For example, the Lawrence Farm had now become the largest distillery in the surrounding area, and other farms would also sell their crops to them.

In the past, acquiring crops was just to take care of the surrounding farmers. After all, everyone was friends, and only the Lawrence family had a relatively complete sales channel of their own.

But now, this was no longer just taking care of them; it was a profitable business.

One ton of crops brewed into liquor would yield a profit of more than ten times after it was sold. The three old men of the Lawrence family were now full of energy all day. They had also hired some new cowboys and formed a “musket team.”

The musket team was the old way of saying a private armed force. Their job was to patrol the vicinity of the distillery on horseback every day to prevent any suspicious people from entering.

If someone didn’t listen to the warning, as a big farmer, a big landlord, a big plantation owner, and a big slave owner in the past, they had the full right to kill any intruder on their private land.

And it was fucking not illegal, because at their class, they were also considered a semi-privileged class.

The Socialist Party and the Liberal Party attached great importance to their influence and would be biased towards them on various issues.

Lance’s business had benefited the entire Lawrence family. Everyone could get more dividends from the farm. Even if they didn’t get money from other sources, they could still live a very good life.

If Lance could completely monopolize the liquor business in Golden Port City…

Jack could no longer imagine what a picture that would be!

“How much liquor… does Golden Port City sell each year?” he asked. He was still very curious and wanted to know how much money Lance was making from this.

Lance shook his head. “There are no reliable figures to support it, but we will conduct statistics.”

“Now there are more than two hundred liquor sales outlets in the city. Our estimated sales are about 1.5 million to 2 million a day.”

Jack, who was drinking coffee, suddenly turned his head and coughed. Some coffee even came out of his nose. After coughing several times, he looked at Lance with wide eyes. “What the fuck did you say?”

“1.5 million to 2 million. This is actually a conservative number, because the navy will be here soon, and the population here will be more and more, and the demand for liquor will also be more and more.”

In fact, besides these sales, there was also the matter of seaman’s supplies.

When nautical technology was not very developed, it was normal for a ship to be at sea for several months.

The lack of entertainment and things to pass the time was almost fatal for the sailors.

So cigarettes and liquor became their most important supplies after they docked.

It’s just that it wasn’t very cost-effective to supply liquor in Golden Port City. Now many sea ships would temporarily stop in Yalan Bay for a day or half a day to let the liquor vendors deliver the liquor to the ship.

Their prices were cheaper, much cheaper than supplying in Golden Port City.

But even so, just the ordinary sales could leverage a sales volume of a million a day. This made Jack unable to imagine!

More than a million a day, so what about a year?

A sales volume of several hundred million?

He looked at Lance as if he were looking at a monster. He finally knew why Golden Port City had been in a state of fierce firefights for most of the past two years.

Because of the interests!

He swallowed. “You guys… what is your profit margin?”

Lance said casually, “In terms of just liquor, because we need the market and need to give a portion of the profits to those operators, the net profit is about 20%.”

Jack had graduated from a prestigious university, and his math was okay. After a simple calculation, he came to a conclusion that the daily net profit was about 300,000 to 400,000.

He suddenly didn’t want to talk to Lance anymore. This was too much of a blow.

Looking at his numb and dazed face, Lance couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “Actually, we also have the contract fees for the bars. I’ve done a rough calculation. If we count this part of the income, it’s about 50%.”

For a hundred dollars, he earned fifty. The small gangs earned twenty to thirty, and the rest was the cost. This was very reasonable.

From Lance’s perspective, his side did not need to be responsible for any specific operation and could get a huge profit from the entire city’s liquor sales. The cost was almost nil, and the revenue increased dramatically.

For the small gangs, they didn’t have to worry about Lance competing with them. With a more stable market and business environment, they only needed to seriously run their own bars to ensure their profits.

Although the lion’s share was taken by Lance, the advantage was in its stability.

Like a small gang of more than a dozen people, as long as they gritted their teeth, they could also contract a bar, and they could also get a profit from the bar every month, so that their gang could survive.

And between gangs and gangs, it’s not that there is no competition at all.

Lance allowed them to contract more bars, which was the focus of the competition, but everything would be within the scope that Lance had drawn.

Whoever broke the rules, Lance would punish them. The underworld of Golden Port City was about to enter a super-stable stage.

Vicious violent crime will be greatly reduced, and people’s happiness index will be improved. It’s not an exaggeration to say that “Mr. Lance is like a saint.”

He was a little emotional. If in the past he could barely understand some of Lance’s things, then now, he couldn’t understand them at all.

“In any case, if you need our help, just ask. You are also a part of the family!”

The two clinked their glasses. Although it was coffee, the meaning was there.

For the next few days, there was some small turmoil in the city. Lance needed to deal with the bosses of the gangs who were unwilling to cooperate with him.

Some had already taken the initiative to leave Golden Port City, but there were still some who had neither left here nor remained silent about Lance’s regulations. Then their doing so was clearly not giving Lance face.

Even Bandy, who didn’t give Lance face, Lance had to kill him, let alone these small gangs!

Lance’s attitude was very tough, which also made the leaders of these small gangs a little uncomfortable.

“I’ve been in Golden Port City for much longer than that what’s-his-name Lance. He doesn’t respect us. We should unite and show him some color…”

In the back of the car, a middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties was complaining to the person next to him.

“I’ve been running my business here for twenty-odd years. Whether it was the Five Families or any other gang, they all respected me very much.”

“No one has ever troubled me, except for this Lance!”

“He actually wants me to close my bar and then pay him that what-the-hell contract fee, and only then can I open a bar.”

“Shit, he’s even more domineering than the Five Families!”

The middle-aged man was holding a cigar in his hand. With the intense emotional fluctuations as he spoke, he kept waving the cigar in his hand, causing some sparks to fly.

The person sitting next to him was the leader of another gang. At this time, he also nodded in considerable agreement. “He’s too unreasonable.”

“He’s an outsider, and a newcomer. Someone needs to teach him to respect people like us.”

“I don’t like him. I’ve never liked him. He won’t let us collect protection fees, won’t let us extort the rich. Fuck, he won’t let us do this, won’t let us do that. Why doesn’t he just become the police chief?”

“Even the governor doesn’t have as much to manage as he does.”

“We’re gangsters, not fucking philanthropists!”

Lance had requested a complete ban on the collection of protection fees. Everyone could barely agree to this request, if they were allowed to continue to open bars.

After all, the few thousand dollars in protection fees collected from the storefronts might be the profit of a bar for three to five days. But now Lance wouldn’t let them do anything, so they definitely had complaints.

“We need to unite more people and let him understand that Golden Port City is not necessarily their say. Even if it’s a firefight, we won’t be afraid of him!”

When the two old guys got emotional, they both wished they could immediately walk up to Lance and give him two slaps to make him understand the respect a junior should have for his elders.

They then began to reminisce about their glorious achievements in the past, having killed so-and-so, or forced so-and-so to admit defeat, as if they were still the same people they used to be.

Just as they were in high spirits, the car suddenly turned sharply, and then there was a sound of collision. Both of them looked at the side of their car with wide eyes as a car crashed into them.

Before the driver had time to get angry, two gun muzzles appeared behind the window of the car opposite. The sleeping submachine guns were instantly activated, and bullets poured out.

A few seconds later, it accelerated again and disappeared into the traffic.

All that was left were the car windows riddled with holes, and the two middle-aged and elderly people lying in a pool of blood in the back seat.

A few streets away, a well-dressed guy suddenly looked in the direction of the gunshots.

His eyes were filled with a trace of doubt and solemnity. After waiting for a while and the gunshots did not sound again, he turned around, leaned against the window, and looked at the people in the room.

“I think we can operate secretly, and turn the bar into an underground mode. I heard that so-and-so plans to open a bar in the sewer.”

The people in the room all laughed. Opening a bar in the sewer was a good choice. At least the sewer was more hidden.

As several people were talking, there was a sudden knock on the door. Some people’s hands were already on their weapons.

The city had not been very peaceful recently. No one knew when Lance would come to their door.

The person who knocked and came in was one of their own people, which made them all breathe a sigh of relief.

This person was holding a box. “The postman said you have to open it yourself. I don’t know what it is.”

The leader took the box and shook it. It was not very heavy. There seemed to be something inside that would rattle when shaken.

He placed the box on the table and glanced at the postage stamp. There was no clear sender’s address, but he still opened it.

“This lid is a bit hard to open…” The moment he forcefully lifted the lid and saw what was inside, he said, “Fuck.”

Two or three seconds later, the pedestrians on the street were so scared by the violent explosion that they screamed and fled in all directions. The things produced by the explosion were everywhere.

Although the city was in a bit of a small turmoil, the citizens did not have much dissatisfaction, because one gangster after another was being eliminated, and a more stable life was coming.

In early September, Lance once again held a meeting of all the gangsters in Golden Port City. This time, all the gangsters who still planned to make a living in Golden Port City came.

It was undeniable that there were definitely some who did not come, but as long as they abided by the rules, Lance did not intend to deal with them.

No extorting ordinary people, no selling liquor.

He was not a merchant; he was a gang leader. This was a world where the strong preyed on the weak. He did not need to abide by others’ rules; others needed to abide by his.

At two o’clock in the afternoon, the chapel of the Golden Port Hotel was already full of these gang leaders from Golden Port City. Some had even brought one or two people with them.

The core content of today’s meeting was “bidding.”

At 2:15, Lance arrived at the venue and then began to introduce the method and content of today’s bidding.

“On this map behind me, each area has a number, and we have provided our preliminary judgment on how much its turnover can reach.”

“For some of them, we have actual operating data. Some are derived from our reference to the operating data of surrounding areas. It may have a deviation from the actual operating results, but it will not be too large.”

“For example, bar number 110. This is our own operating data. The monthly sales are about 150,000 to 180,000.”

“The operating cost is about 20,000 to 30,000, and the profit is at least over 120,000…”

There was already some small discussion in the venue. Many small gangs’ bars only made thirty to fifty thousand a month, but this bar number 110 could make 120,000 a month, which was several times their past income.

The eyes of some people immediately focused here.

After Lance let them discuss for a while, he continued, “We all know that its profit is over 120,000. So if I want to get this bar, what should I do?”

He picked up a card, showed it to everyone, and then while filling it out, he said, “I’ll fill in the number of the bar I need to bid for in this position, and then I’ll fill in the contract price I think I can afford.”

“For example, my expected profit for this bar is 60,000. I plan to earn 60,000 from here, so I will fill in 60,000 in this position.”

“Then I’ll put it in this envelope, and then put it in this mailbox.”

“It’s not that this is your profit in mind, but how much you are willing to pay for this bar.”

“If you can run it a little better, maybe it can bring you more profit, seventy or eighty thousand, or even a hundred or a hundred and ten thousand is possible.”

“But it’s also possible that because you didn’t run it well enough, the profit did not meet your demands.”

“You want 110, he wants it, and I want it too.”

“Then in the end, we will give its operating rights to the person with the highest bid number.”

“The bidding period this time is one year. This is to let you have a rough idea and get familiar with all these rules.”

“After one year, my bidding period will be two years at a time.”

Lance put down what he was holding. “If anyone is not able to win the bid, then I’m sorry, you will not have a share in the bar business this year.”

“You can consider running some other businesses to get through this year, or go to the surrounding cities to develop.”

“But no matter if you are willing to stay in Golden Port City or not, you must abide by my rules.”

He said this emphatically, then looked around the entire chapel, raised his wrist and glanced at his watch. “You have half an hour.”

“By the way, if someone thinks that their strength is not enough, they can partner with others to bid.”

“Except for the red numbers which will be obtained through auction, the others can all participate in the bidding.”

“You have one hour. I hope you will make a decision carefully.”

As he spoke, he left the stage. The scene immediately became lively. It was the first time people were playing this. They really didn’t understand it, but it didn’t stop them from understanding one principle: don’t let others know your “bottom card”!

(End of a Chapter)