Chapter 1196: No Escape

The Wei De family estate had also become chaotic at this moment; the visible panic on the faces of the servants made it impossible for anyone to focus on the work in their hands.

When Governor Wei De's younger brother drove in, he happened to see the butler hanging two servants from a tree in the courtyard and whipping them, just as they had whipped those slaves decades ago—forcefully, with the whips cracking loudly as they struck the two servants.

The two servants wore only thin clothing; the moment the whip exploded against their bodies, a bloody welt would appear beneath the fabric, continuously spreading to the surrounding area.

Accompanied by their screams, dozens of other servants stood behind the butler with expressions of unbearable pity; the young maids even covered their eyes, trying their best not to look at the horrific scene!

Seeing the motorcade enter, the butler panted heavily and handed the whip to his son. "Keep whipping them! They must receive twenty lashes!"

His son nodded, took the whip, set his stance, and then used the strength of his entire body to swing the long bullwhip, slamming it fiercely into one of the men.

Another "crack" sounded, accompanied by the servant's screams and pleas of "I'll never dare to do it again," causing everyone to involuntarily look away.

But there were also some who just stared at the two with fierce, hateful eyes.

As for whether they would be beaten to death?

It was possible, but no one cared about that point, even though Governor Wei De's life or death was currently unknown.

Governor Wei De's younger brother stepped out of the car, holding onto the door as he walked toward the estate, looking at the two people hanging under the tree. "What happened to them?"

The butler, while putting on his clothes, said, "They were caught stealing from the estate. According to family discipline, they must receive twenty lashes."

Governor Wei De's younger brother nodded noncommittally and then stopped paying attention to the matter.

Great families, especially those with a certain foundation, are extremely repulsed and disgusted by such things.

Perhaps some seemingly inconspicuous ornament in the family estate could be a cultural relic of extremely high value.

If the servants had no awe and took these things at will, it would certainly be a terrible thing for a family.

These great federal families are just like this; they like to place high-value items in front of people, letting them see their precious collections to praise their wealth and power!

Therefore, putting an end to petty theft is particularly important!

Moreover, petty theft can bring risks. If these servants get used to taking property from the estate to sell and squander, once they can no longer reach these things, they might breed some terrible thoughts.

For example, kidnapping family members and then extorting a ransom; such things have happened more than once in the Federation, so every great family deeply detests the behavior of servants reaching out to steal!

And gambling, too—if someone does such things, they will teach these servants a lesson and then throw them out.

It is highly probable that these two people will be thrown out from here after the whipping is finished; as for whether they live or die outside, it has nothing to do with the estate.

The purpose of doing this is to deter others. At the same time, the butler also knew about Governor Wei De's current predicament; only by using these cruel means could he press back the restless thoughts that had just emerged in some people.

The butler followed closely behind Governor Wei De's younger brother as he walked toward the house. While walking, he asked, "The Master's situation..."

Governor Wei De's younger brother paused his steps. "His situation is very bad. He is in a coma, and the doctor says there is a high probability he won't wake up."

He looked at the butler. Originally, he didn't really want to talk about this, but this butler had assisted Governor Wei De in managing more than half of the family's industries. He knew which industries could be quickly liquidated and which might involve unfinished trouble that couldn't be liquidated.

The butler was not young, over fifty years old. Just waving the whip a few times had left him slightly breathless. He looked at the person in front of him in disbelief and reached out to make a sign of the cross. "My God!"

Governor Wei De's younger brother shook his head and continued walking toward the room. "This was not an impulsive assassination. This was a premeditated assassination, and it was aimed at us."

"He can be said to be dead now. Next, those people will most likely come to deal with us. We must leave here as soon as possible."

The butler also quickened his pace. "I will have people pack things up immediately!"

Governor Wei De's younger brother nodded. "I'm going to the study to see what can be taken."

"Remember, take high-value items. Forget about those things worth tens or hundreds of dollars; take the most valuable things first!"

He watched the butler trot away from his side, while he himself continued to speed up and arrived at Governor Wei De's study. There was a safe here containing many property deeds, as well as some bearer stocks, bonds, and similar things.

These things were not the Wei De family's entire wealth; they had a lot of wealth that was not concentrated here. What was here was basically the wealth of the family and Governor Wei De himself.

There were also several bank accounts inside, with quite a lot of money in the passbooks—at least two or three million, or more.

As Governor Wei De's most trusted brother, he also knew the safe's password.

In the past, there was only one possibility for him to open this safe: Governor Wei De authorized him to do so.

And every time he opened it, he would hurriedly finish what he needed to do and then close the safe door, never daring to rummage through it.

After all, everyone knew that here, Governor Wei De was the true ruler, not him.

This time, he could take a good look at what was inside.

He took two empty suitcases out of a cabinet in the study. Sometimes they needed these suitcases to carry things, such as important documents, money, or other things inconvenient for others to see.

Therefore, the room was equipped with more than two suitcases; there were many.

He opened the safe and checked the contents. The bearer bonds, more than two feet thick, were picked up by him and put into the suitcase.

During the moving process, a few fell out. He glanced at them and didn't want to bother, but he still squatted down to tidy up these bonds and put them back into the suitcase.

These bonds were long-term national bonds with a face value of one thousand dollars, issued by the federal government, which could be cashed at all banks.

There were at least three million dollars worth of bonds here. Thinking of this, his breathing became a bit heavy.

Although he didn't know how this matter would develop later, he was very clear about one point: whether he wanted to avenge his brother or hide his identity and live a wealthy life, money was the most important thing.

Then there were the bearer stocks.

Early federal stocks were also physical in nature, similar to currency, and all had their face value.

Stocks that could be kept in Governor Wei De's safe were certainly not junk stocks; they were basically thirty or fifty dollars per share. And here, every sheet was a stock with a face value of "one hundred shares," meaning each sheet represented potentially several thousand dollars.

This was another large sum of wealth. He put these stocks into the suitcase as well, and then put some property documents and bank accounts inside.

This was his first time observing everything inside this safe so meticulously. At the same time, it was also the first time in the true sense that he knew Governor Wei De actually controlled such a large sum of money.

He didn't think it was a lot; he was just a bit surprised.

This sum of money was certainly an astronomical figure for ordinary people. Whether it was those bearer bonds or those stocks, just a few sheets would be a lifetime for an ordinary person.

But for the Wei De family, who were trying to establish a firm foothold in Denuo State and wanted to develop into the state's number one political family, this money actually wasn't too much.

Its risk-resistance ability was almost zero. In some major issues requiring financial public relations, a few million or ten million was actually just that.

Moreover, once this money was used, they would have no risk-resistance ability left. From the initial surprise to now, he realized that this wealth, which looked like a lot, actually wasn't much; it didn't take much time.

At first, he would check what was useful and what wasn't, but later he stuffed everything into the suitcase.

Unfortunately, there were quite a few gold bricks in the safe; these things were too heavy, and he couldn't take them.

The fact that Governor Wei De's younger brother returned to the family to pack things and prepare to run away was known to quite a few people in the family. Some people followed Governor Wei De's younger brother's example, returning to their own villas or residences to start preparing to run away.

But there were also some people who didn't quite agree with the current approach of Governor Wei De's younger brother.

They didn't think that after Governor Wei De was assassinated, someone would immediately take action against them. Some even thought about whether they could use this opportunity to let more people from the family enter the federal government system.

For example... using the political influence of this incident to implicate others, get a few mayors down, and then replace them with family members or something.

Everyone's thoughts are different when facing sudden situations. Some think this is a huge crisis, but others think this is an opportunity for them to gain more benefits!

People who had been watching the Wei De family soon reported the fact that some people intended to run away to Lanse.

Lanse was chatting with Aierwen about how, after Governor Wei De was finished, their alcohol would quickly cover the entire Denuo State and they would re-establish the rules of the game.

Previously, they had been splitting the visible profits fifty-fifty with the local mayors, which made a certain number of mayors very supportive of Lanse doing alcohol business in their cities.

After all, a portion of the profit from every bottle of smuggled alcohol was theirs. Lanse said it was half; they didn't know if it was really half, and they didn't want to find out. Anyway, it was a number they couldn't refuse every month.

Now that the entire state was about to stabilize, this rule was obviously no longer applicable.

"After things end in these few days, gather these old friends, and some new friends, and we will sit down and talk."

"How much do you think is appropriate for us to give them?", Lanse asked Aierwen. As someone who could currently handle things alone, Lanse was still very willing to inspire his ability to think.

Aierwen thought seriously for a while and said in a low voice, "Ten... percent..."

He originally wanted to say fifteen percent, but he couldn't find any slight change on Lanse's face, so he immediately changed his words; fifteen percent became ten percent.

Lanse looked at him with a smile that wasn't quite a smile. This wasn't a simple reading of "ten" and "fifteen"; the pronunciation and spelling of the two words were different, so he knew immediately that Aierwen had changed his answer.

"Still too high.", he gave this number a very correct evaluation.

Aierwen scratched his head. "Then... five percent?"

Lanse didn't make things difficult for him. "Three percent is enough."

On one side was the nominal fifty-fifty split, and on the other was three percent. Aierwen looked at Lanse with some worry. "If they know it's been lowered so much, will they have any opinions?"

Lanse took out a cigarette. Aierwen moved his butt over and took out a box of matches to light the cigarette for Lanse.

Lanse squinted and took a puff. "Low?"

"No, not low at all!"

"We have at least ten dollars of profit per bottle of alcohol, and as we settle the entire state's alcohol market and form a monopoly, the profit generated by our alcohol will become a bit higher."

"How much profit do we have every month now?"

"I mean the actual profit, not the ones we tell the outside world."

This number was not unfamiliar to Aierwen. "About seventy or eighty million."

Lanse nodded and said, "This is still when we haven't completely occupied the market. If we completely controlled the local market, people's income has also increased quite a bit now."

"Under such circumstances, we can still take out two or three million every month for those people to split. If we controlled the entire state, the monthly profit would exceed one hundred fifty or sixty million, or even more."

"By then, they can take away millions in profit sharing from us every month. That's tens of millions a year. What else could they be unsatisfied with?"

Aierwen shook his head. "We give them too much now. I'm worried... they will feel unbalanced."

This was also a fact. When a person is used to getting hundreds of thousands in dividends from smuggling business every month, and it suddenly becomes tens of thousands, they certainly can't accept it.

Regarding Aierwen's worry, Lanse didn't take it to heart. He raised his hand and pressed Aierwen's shoulder. "If anyone is dissatisfied with this income, then replace the local mayor."

"Our competition with the Wei De family locally has ended. The era of high dividends for picking sides has passed. They will understand us."

"If they don't understand and want to make trouble with us..."

Lanse smiled, revealing his white teeth, but it looked a bit chilling.

If someone doesn't understand and still wants to make trouble, then they can only be replaced. If they don't cooperate, then they can only be invited to go to jail.

Many years ago, when Lanse was just a relatively ordinary young man, he often felt that those corrupt people were really stupid.

After doing illegal and disciplinary things, they still specially kept a ledger for themselves, writing down when and where they received how much money from whom, or for what reason, and who they did what for.

At that time, he didn't understand why these people's brains were so bad that they had to create something that could put themselves to death.

But later, he suddenly understood.

You hold someone else's handle... just like you are holding someone else's vital point, their little hook, and they will feel very insecure.

Cooperation without a sense of security is not cooperation. In the end, this person will either give you a blow while you let go and run away, or find a way to secretly harm you, making it impossible for you to turn over for the rest of your life.

Only when you also let them hold your vital point can both sides have a sense of security. Only when both sides are equally black can they achieve mutual implication.

This is also why high-minded people don't go very far in officialdom. Everyone is equally black; only you are pure and flawless. Not to mention that this will make others feel inferior.

Just the fact that everyone has a fatal vital point, but you don't, the lack of security they feel will make them exclude you.

Therefore, in the process of Lanse cooperating with these people, he also kept a ledger. Every month, through what channels every sum of money was sent to these people's hands, what the check number or transfer number was, and how they obtained this money—he had a detailed record here.

If these people wanted to turn against him, he wouldn't even need to take the initiative to deal with them. As long as he sent the relevant evidence to the State Prosecutor's Office, these mayors would lose a layer of skin even if they didn't die. So Lanse wasn't afraid of them rebelling at all.

While continuing to talk about this matter more deeply, someone came to report the fact that the Wei De family members intended to flee.

Lanse also stopped his conversation with Aierwen. He flicked the cigarette ash. "I originally planned to clean up these people later. It seems they can't wait."

"Since these fish can't wait, then let's close the net early."

Soon, the Deputy Governor received Lanse's call, and then he arranged for the newly inaugurated State Police Chief to immediately mobilize police officers to take action and control the Wei De family members as much as possible.

This related to a question of "legitimacy."

If Governor Wei De or the Wei De family were not suspected of crimes, then this assassination might be used by the Liberal Party to form a political squeeze action that would impact the authority and face of the Social Party locally.

But if Governor Wei De or the Wei De family were suspected of crimes, and Governor Wei De's assassination had a direct or indirect relationship with his or the Wei De family's crimes, then people would not notice the actual significance of a governor being assassinated and brain-dead.

They would only think, "Damn, they deserve it!" ===== CHAPTER 1197 =====