Chapter 3333: Failed Intimidation

Ye Chen heard that several major yakuza organizations in Japan had already taken action, and he immediately realized the problem was more serious than he had thought.

The only thing he could currently control with confidence was the Iga ninjas, but the Iga ninjas, from top to bottom, numbered at most a few hundred, and facing tens of thousands of gangsters in all of Tokyo, they wouldn't even be enough to plug the gaps.

Moreover, the more crowded the place, the more he needed to conceal his strength; if several hundred or even a thousand people came after him, he could take out the Thunderclap Order and a bolt of heavenly lightning would surely scare them off, but if he did that, he would surely become famous throughout Dajiangnanbei by tomorrow, and the cost would be too great—especially since the person he needed to protect was Tawana, making it even less worthwhile.

So, after analyzing the situation, he said to Mitsui Yoshitaka: "Mr. Mitsui, please immediately have all security personnel of the Mitsui family come here as fast as possible—don't even think about taking Tawana to your home; just protect her safety right here!"

"Here?" Mitsui Yoshitaka shook his head and said: "How could this place work? There isn't even a proper safety door, and the Mitsui family's estate has underground facilities capable of withstanding nuclear attacks—once Miss Svetlana arrives there, her safety will be absolutely guaranteed!"

Ye Chen said coldly: "What if tens of thousands are already rushing here? How are you going to get Tawana out? By helicopter? Maybe there are already many sniper rifles aimed at various parts of the stadium right now—can your helicopter guarantee absolute safety?"

Mitsui Yoshitaka said: "But we can't just stay here, can we? What if they swarm in all at once—what would we do then?"

Ye Chen said: "There are only two entrances and exits backstage—blocking them is very simple. Once your people arrive, they can immediately begin setting up defenses. We'll establish three layers: the outer layer will be your people, the middle layer mine, and the innermost layer I will personally handle. At the same time, I will ensure there are no traitors in the middle layer, and you will ensure there are no traitors in the outer layer. This way, we can achieve risk isolation."

"Moreover, this place is a public venue—the largest performance hall in Tokyo. Anyone who attacks here must consider the consequences. By then, we can notify the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, and they will surely send people to protect this place's safety while also preserving their dignity. As long as we guarantee that the three-layer defense has no issues and no risky individuals approach Tawana, the police can add an outer layer of protection to our three-layer defense, thus basically ensuring absolute safety."

Mitsui Kokimi beside him immediately said: "Mr. Ye, I think your plan is excellent—we should just set up defenses right here on the spot. As long as we strictly follow your planning and establish layered defenses, we will definitely be able to guarantee Tawana's safety!"

Mitsui Yoshitaka waved his hand and said calmly: "The Yamaguchi-gumi and a bunch of low-level gangs are not worth this much trouble—I will easily intimidate them and make them scramble away like dogs!"

Mitsui Kokimi hurriedly said: "Mr. Mitsui, those yakuza organizations are not so easy to control!"

As for the Yamaguchi-gumi, Mitsui Kokimi did feel some apprehension toward them.

As the largest yakuza organization in Japan, the Yamaguchi-gumi controls at least tens of thousands of bosozoku members, and its social status and influence in Japanese society are far from ordinary.

It is said that in 2014, the Yamaguchi-gumi's annual revenue reached six hundred billion U. S. dollars.

However, this method of calculation is unscientific—it is the media exaggerating the Yamaguchi-gumi's strength and sensationalizing news by deliberately attributing all industries and related values connected to the Yamaguchi-gumi to the organization itself, resulting in inflated figures.

For example, a pleasure street in Tokyo controlled by the Yamaguchi-gumi generates one hundred million U. S. dollars in annual output value, and the media attributes this entire amount to the Yamaguchi-gumi.

But in reality, if we treat this pleasure street as a subsidiary of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the first point is that the Yamaguchi-gumi cannot achieve full ownership of this subsidiary—it can hold at most 60%.

Moreover, this one hundred million U. S. dollars is merely gross output value, before deducting various costs, which include real estate rental income for the entire pleasure street, renovation and related wear and tear, water, electricity, and gas expenses, all alcohol and food costs, raw material costs, and even the salaries and commissions of thousands of underlings and hundreds of young women.

Even the revenue from clinics on the pleasure street treating sexually transmitted diseases is included in this figure.

But in reality, of the pleasure street's one hundred million U. S. dollars in output value, only about sixty million is actually related to the Yamaguchi-gumi.

And this sixty million, after deducting the aforementioned explicit and implicit costs, would yield a net profit that could be remitted to the Yamaguchi-gumi headquarters—this amount would be greatly reduced.

After all, this street alone has hundreds or even thousands of people to support—just this part of the cost is already astronomical, and we still need to grease various relationships. Therefore, after deducting all costs, the Yamaguchi-gumi's attributable net profit would be at most a few million U. S. dollars.

One side is one hundred million U. S. dollars, the other side is a few million in profit—according to this ratio, the Yamaguchi-gumi's annual net profit would be at most a few hundred million U. S. dollars.

However, the Yamaguchi-gumi's strength lies in its ability to support tens of thousands of people, allowing everyone from low-level members to mid-to-high-level leaders to live very comfortably, while still leaving several hundred million U. S. dollars in profit—and these tens of thousands of people are like worker ants in an ant colony: they not only work with all their might every day, but are also willing to sacrifice their lives to defend the nest.

It is these tens of thousands of members that form the fundamental reason the Yamaguchi-gumi stands firm and unshaken.

However, even the Yamaguchi-gumi, in the face of the Mitsui family, is still considered insignificant.

Although Mitsui Kokimi fears their scale, in Mitsui Yoshitaka's eyes, the seventh-generation leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi—namely, the Nishiida Hirohiro he referred to—is nothing more than a petty thug who can't even get on the table; he can scold Nishiida Hirohiro just like he would scold his own driver, and Nishiida Hirohiro wouldn't dare to talk back, let alone lift his head.

So, when he heard that Nishiida Hirohiro had actually ordered the Yamaguchi-gumi to assassinate Tawana, he immediately flew into a rage, feeling a deep anger as if he had been insulted by an upstart overthrowing his superiors.

Mitsui Yoshitaka's brother immediately dialed Nishiida Hirohiro's number, and as soon as the call connected, he asked: "Is this Nishiida?"

"Yes, it's me," said a middle-aged man's voice on the other end, slightly respectful: "Mr. Mitsui, why did you suddenly call me?"

Mitsui Yoshitaka's brother said coldly: "It's not me who wants to find you—it's my elder brother, Mitsui Yoshitaka, who wants to find you."

Mitsui Yoshitaka himself then reached out, snatched the phone, and barked: "Nishiida Hirohiro, are you tired of living? How dare you send people to assassinate my guest, Tawana? Who gave you the guts?!"

On the other end, Nishiida Hirohiro coughed embarrassedly and asked: "Mr. Mitsui, we are targeting Tawana, an American—this person seems to have nothing to do with you, right?"

Mitsui Yoshitaka snapped: "Bah! Tawana is not only my guest, but also a signed artist of Universal Music—and as a shareholder of Universal Music, do you think she has nothing to do with me?!"

After saying that, Mitsui Yoshitaka said coldly: "Nishiida Hirohiro, I don't have time to waste words with you—I'm giving you two choices now: one is to immediately recall the order, so that no member of the Yamaguchi-gumi may approach or touch Tawana; the other is to become an enemy of the Mitsui family from now on! I can responsibly tell you that if you choose the latter, I will surely eradicate the Yamaguchi-gumi completely!"

Upon hearing this, Nishiida Hirohiro said with a tone tinged with embarrassment: "Mr. Mitsui, you should know this is a dark flower worth one billion U. S. dollars—one billion U. S. dollars has how much purchasing power and can do how many things—I'm sure you don't need me to explain that. All yakuza organizations in Japan now want to earn this money; if you don't let me earn it, and my competitors end up getting it instead, then I'm finished—one billion U. S. dollars is enough to let the Yamaguchi-gumi's competitors surpass it, and by then, the Yamaguchi-gumi will be eliminated by its competitors even without you lifting a finger."

Mitsui Yoshitaka said: "I can tell you that no matter who wants to earn this money, as long as they take action, they will be my Mitsui family's enemy and will be eradicated by my Mitsui family! If you know what it means to be a wise man who understands the times, then you should stay out of this now—not only can you protect yourself, but you can also enjoy the fruits without lifting a finger!"

Nishiida Hirohiro chuckled awkwardly and said: "Mr. Mitsui, do you really think the Mitsui family has the capability to eliminate all yakuza organizations in Japan? Even the current Prime Minister wouldn't dare say such an arrogant thing, would he?"

"Moreover, do you know how many yakuza members there are in all of Japan? Just those registered with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department number nearly thirty thousand! Unregistered official yakuza members are at least over one hundred thousand!"

"Furthermore, there are many people making a living in bars, gambling dens, pachinko parlors, and pleasure venues who are gray-market workers—although they are not absolute yakuza members, they still depend on the yakuza for survival and are essentially yakuza reserves! If we count them, the scale is at least three hundred thousand!"

"If the Mitsui family moves against these three hundred thousand people, Japan's prisons will be overflowing! By then, the balance among yakuza groups will be completely shattered by the Mitsui family, all yakuza members will regard the Mitsui family as their number one enemy, and new yakuza members will flood the streets to fight for territory—public order in all of Japan will descend into chaos like a pot of porridge, and Mr. Mitsui, you surely wouldn't want to see such a situation, would you?"

Mitsui Yoshitaka naturally knew that Nishiida Hirohiro was not lying—yakuza groups in Japan have long become a malignant tumor, and although the government now tolerates their existence and permits their business model, they mostly do not openly oppose the government, and both sides have reached a kind of deformed equilibrium. Once this balance is broken, society as a whole will fall into chaos.

Therefore, just as the Japanese government cannot solve the yakuza problem, Mitsui Yoshitaka certainly does not have this capability either.

He had originally only wanted to threaten Nishiida Hirohiro a little—at least to get the Yamaguchi-gumi to stay away from this matter for now—then he would go on to intimidate the leaders of other gangs. But now he finally realized the crux of the problem: these people usually give him face, and even dare not defy him, but now, with this one-billion-dollar dark flower placed before them, for these yakuza organizations, if he doesn't take it, his competitors might—and once his competitors get it, he will surely die.

Subsequently, Mitsui Yoshitaka said in a cold, stern tone: "Nishiida, no matter what excuse you have, once you take action, I will certainly not spare you!"

Nishiida Hirohiro did not show weakness, saying in a firm tone: "Mr. Mitsui, this operation is a joint action of all yakuza in Japan—if you later target the Yamaguchi-gumi, then its tens of thousands of members are not pushovers! We will spare no effort in attacking the Mitsui family—we will kill one if we can, kill a pair if we can! Isn't it just fish dying and the net breaking? Mr. Mitsui, we are people whose lives are cheap—if we can exchange our lives for yours, those of a noble class, then we have profited!"