Chapter 1024: The First Day of the New Year and Federal Experts

Any interest group is constantly expanding outward, and the Lawrence family cannot guard their farm forever.

As this interest group that has not yet been exposed continues to grow, they will also have more interest demands.

Only in this way can they always maintain at least a relatively leading position in this interest group.

Mastering the transportation of Likai State, implementing actual monopoly behavior, and controlling market pricing power may just be their first step.

After they control this industry, Lanse can roughly imagine that they may soon start to intervene in the overall agricultural field of Likai State.

As the largest farm in Likai State, bar none, Lawrence Farm has ruling power in this regard.

They can annex high-quality farms everywhere, or continue to reclaim wasteland to expand the area of the Lawrence Farm headquarters, and finally form a giant here, and even gradually expand to the surroundings, producing huge influence.

The gentlemen introduced by Governor Terry last night actually want to do something similar to what William expressed to him. They also want to be the absolute first in their own fields, and then form a trust group to firmly control the industry they are in.

In the end, the clothing, food, housing, and transportation of the residents of the entire Likai State, from the breakfast they eat every morning, lunch at noon, dinner at night, or some late-night snacks, snacks.

To the clothes they wear, the shoes under their feet, the buses they take when they go out, or the cars they take themselves, as well as the TV they watch, the newspapers they read, the places they work...

Everything related to their life and work comes from this interest group. This is the ultimate form of monopoly.

People may not know what kind of world they live in. They didn't notice, but they have a direct or indirect relationship with everything here.

This is also the reason why it is difficult for the federal government to clean up those regionalism areas. The local interest groups have terrible control over the local area, and they are not afraid of any means of the federation at all.

At the dining table, Lanse and William talked about some other things. The old people in the family really hope that he can visit the farm when he has time. Lanse just indicated that if he has the opportunity, he will definitely go.

After breakfast, Luo Lin took the initiative to follow Lanse who was going out. Just by looking at her, Lanse knew she had something to say.

"My dear, let me talk to her first."

He kissed Patricia. What neither Patricia nor Lanse noticed was that some expressions of envy and jealousy flashed in Luo Lin's eyes.

A girl who grew up under her father's abuse since she was a child looks very cheerful and sunny on the surface, but deep in her heart, she is still different from ordinary people, those girls who grew up in a normal environment.

Lanse wanted to take Patricia and Ace out to play today. Today is the first day of the New Year. As one of the well-known tourist cities on the east coast, Jincheng definitely needs to hold some celebration activities.

For example, in the Jincheng Casino, they have set up all kinds of activities similar to... gatherings.

Mo Lisi allowed ordinary people to set up stalls in the square outside the Jincheng Casino. Whether it is selling some food they made at home, or setting up some stalls similar to games in amusement parks, it is fine, and only registration is required, and no fees are charged.

This is definitely a very lively place. Lanse heard from Mo Lisi that most of the stalls had been booked out a few days ago, and the newspaper also reported this matter.

Now the population of Jincheng is still constantly increasing. It is said that it has reached 2.6 or 2.7 million.

The completion of the new industrial zone has allowed more factories to move to Jincheng. Mayor Williams is still quite bold in attracting investment.

Subsidies, tax cuts, and policy support, factories are like bamboo shoots after a rain, everywhere overnight.

There are more and more factories, and there are more and more jobs and opportunities, and more and more young people and labor force come here from surrounding cities.

Now it is not just Xigu City that is being "blood-sucked" by Jincheng—speaking of Xigu City, actually, to be precise, Xigu City has now appeared some labor return phenomena.

Xigu City has many movie studios, and it also needs a large number of extra actors. There will always be some extra actors who suddenly become popular after appearing in some movies.

In the eyes of these boys and girls who are eager to become big stars, this is a typical federal dream. Although they don't know what they have to pay for this, everyone is joining in one after another.

So strictly speaking, Jincheng can no longer suck the "blood" of Xigu City.

On the contrary, Jinxing City, another city to the west of Jincheng, began to be sucked by Jincheng.

Some young people in Jinxing City began to go to Jincheng to seek better job opportunities. These foreign populations greatly enriched the crowd types of Jincheng and also increased a lot of population.

Mayor Williams has already begun to consider the next step. He wants to help James lay the foundation here before he takes office, so that he can quickly get started and develop rapidly as soon as he takes office, and get the full support of the locals.

It is precisely because there are more and more people in Jincheng now that this year's New Year will be much livelier than in previous years.

That's why Lanse wanted to take Patricia to turn around in the city today. Now Patricia rarely goes out to play, she has been taking care of Ace.

In this regard, Lanse indeed owes her a bit, but just a little, not much.

Patricia took the initiative to pull Ace's hand and walked out the door. They waited for Lanse in the car, while Lanse came to the small room next to him with Luo Lin.

"Is there anything you want to tell me?" Lanse asked.

Luo Lin took out a small gift from her pocket and gave it to him. "You came back very late last night, and I was already asleep, so I couldn't give it to you. This is my New Year's gift to you."

Lanse looked at the beautifully packaged small gift box in his hand. While smiling and accepting it, he observed some of Luo Lin's expressions.

Her eyes, her demeanor, and some of her small movements.

This also made him realize that this might be a little trouble.

While saying "thank you," he asked, "Can I open it now?"

"Of course, why not?" She behaved very expectantly and excitedly.

Lanse unwrapped the small gift box and slowly opened it. Fortunately, it was just a tie clip, a pair of cufflinks, and a pair of collar clips, very standard "gentleman accessories."

These accessories don't look fancy, but rather mature and steady.

"Do you like it?" Luo Lin asked.

Lanse nodded. These things don't look expensive, at most twenty or thirty dollars, but it's hard for him to say cruel words like "don't like."

His performance made Luo Lin very happy. She took a step forward. "Can I hug you?"

Lanse looked at her and finally nodded in agreement. "You are my sister, why would I refuse your request that is not excessive?"

He used two keywords here to remind her.

One is "sister," and the other is "not excessive," but it seems she didn't "receive" this signal.

She hugged Lanse, hugged him hard, and took a deep breath. "Thank you, thank you."

After a while, seven or eight seconds, she let go, her cheeks red.

Lanse touched his pocket. "Sorry, I didn't prepare a New Year's gift for you."

She smiled and said, "You have already given me the best New Year's gift!"

Lanse was stunned for a moment, then he was a bit speechless. He knew what the "best New Year's gift" in her mouth was. He didn't know how to deal with this girl and her feelings.

He lacks experience in this regard.

He pursed his lips. "I will make it up to you." He paused. "I'll go out with them first."

Luo Lin didn't stop him. "Okay, brother, have fun!"

Lanse nodded and turned to leave with a smile.

He didn't know if this would be a new trouble. Maybe, but maybe not.

When entering the car, Patricia asked curiously, "What did she talk to you about?"

Lanse took out the small gift box. "She prepared a New Year's gift for me."

Patricia looked at the small gift box in a daze, and then some panicked expressions appeared on her face. "I forgot to prepare gifts for them..."

As the "mistress," she definitely had to give some small gifts to the servants working for Lanse in the manor. This is a tradition, and she completely forgot!

Lanse smiled and comforted her emotions. "I will have people prepare it, don't worry. At dinner time, everyone will get small things that can satisfy them."

Then the motorcade started slowly and left the manor.

On the first day of the New Year, there were many people on the street. The more they went to the city center, to the Jincheng Casino, the more pedestrians on the road, and the roadside became more lively.

Lanse hadn't paid attention to the changes here for a while. He found that more and more TVs appeared in the windows of some electrical appliance stores on the roadside.

Before, a TV might need two or three thousand, but with the rapid advancement of technology, now a TV only needs five or six hundred dollars.

And there is a trend of further reduction. People may not have realized that perhaps it won't be long before TVs, luxury appliances that ordinary people can only watch for a while outside the window when shopping, will be popularized in every family.

The numerous stalls in the Jincheng Casino make this the liveliest place today, bar none. Lanse took Patricia to eat a lot of snacks and also played some interesting games.

The whole day was spent in laughter.

At the same time, in the Republic of Jede, accompanied by the Minister of National Defense, the Minister of Commerce, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Jede, two businessmen from the federation are inspecting the factory under construction.

Quite a few federal people are now investing in the Republic of Jede. As the richest country in the Xiang Yalan region, bar none, the economic situation here is much better than other countries, and it is not in the same dimension at all.

And the market here has matured, workers' incomes are very stable, and every household has certain savings.

These savings only need to be stimulated under certain external conditions to become their consumption, and a larger commercial market can be activated in an instant.

Investing here is much better than going to poor places like Lapa or Makan, and it is more effective.

Since August or September last year, with the promulgation of the federation's strictest "arms export restriction order," the Republic of Jede has been seeking solutions.

Their weapon holdings are too high. If they want to fully replace new equipment, they will lose a large sum of money, and there is no place to deal with these replaced weapons.

So they have been buying standard bullet casings produced by the federation everywhere. After buying them back, they refill the gunpowder themselves, then install the bullet head, and they can continue to use them.

But this is not a good way. Around October, their intelligence personnel discovered personnel adjustments within a federal military factory, and some problems occurred.

Two designers or engineers who manufacture bullet production lines were sued by the military factory where they originally worked for some reason, demanding that they pay a large sum of money.

Obviously, they couldn't come up with this money. If there were no accidents, they would most likely go to jail.

Under the instruction of the President of the Republic of Jede, Jede spies lurking in the federation disguised as lawyers, met the two, and explained their intentions to them—

The Republic of Jede is willing to pay this huge compensation for them, and will reach an out-of-court settlement with the original military industrial enterprise they worked for, helping the two avoid jail.

What they need to do is to help the Republic of Jede build a production line capable of producing standard bullets.

This seems to be unexpected good news for the two engineers, and they agreed almost without hesitation.

After the Republic of Jede paid about 12 million in settlement money, the two engineers came to the Republic of Jede from the federation in the name of tourism and relaxation, and met with the President himself.

After some negotiations, they finally agreed on a series of plans to build a production line locally.

After the military factory is built, for every bullet produced here, a patent fee of three cents (federal Sol) will be paid to the two.

And with time, currency devaluation, and other reasons, it will increase in the future.

This contract is definitely a super contract for ordinary people, because the President of the Republic of Jede told the two that the bullets they produce will be dumped into eleven countries in the Xiang Yalan region.

These countries are more or less facing the same problems and civil strife, and the consumption of bullets has increased sharply!

And they also need a large amount of reserves. According to preliminary calculations, the bullet market in the Xiang Yalan region is about one billion rounds, which is a market of about nearly 300 million.

And the two engineers, in addition to having stable wages, will also receive at least 30 million in dividends. It is noted in the contract that if it is less than one billion rounds, it will eventually be paid to them according to the one billion rounds share.

With such good conditions, the two will definitely not refuse! ===== CHAPTER 1025 =====