Chapter 773

On the interstate highway from Indeno State to Likai State, every certain distance, some state police would signal passing vehicles to pull over and accept inspection.

It had been several days, and they still hadn't discovered any personnel related to the Perez family traveling together.

The state police on several roads were reporting the same problem every day, and then these messages were summarized into Lanse's hands.

"They wouldn't dare lie!" Burton was a bit panicked, "I've already had people go and verify it. There were indeed people, and more than one person saw that the Perez family had gotten several buses, and then followed the interstate highway until they disappeared."

Lanse pursed his lips and signaled for him to sit down and talk, "We can't always treat our enemies as fools. When they know we are not to be trifled with, if they still have to say 'I'm coming in' when breaking in here, then they are truly stupid beyond redemption."

"Obviously, our opponents are not that stupid."

"If there were no smart people in the Perez family, they would have lost their position long ago. How could they still firmly occupy one of the five major federal families like they do now?"

In this era, gangs were at their most unscrupulous—influencing elections, bribing politicians, and even assassinating presidents; there was nothing they didn't dare to do.

If everyone in the Perez family were fools, it wouldn't be Lanse's turn to have a feud with them; they would have been killed by those ambitious gangs waiting to move up.

"So we don't use the methods we used to deal with those fools in the past to deal with them!"

He emphasized his tone, then picked up the phone and dialed the numbers of the managers of the major railway companies in Jincheng.

They were willing to sell Lanse face—of course, they had to; after all, this was Lanse's territory, and they weren't the only railway operators; there were always substitutes.

In order to be able to "compete fairly," they had to at least ensure they weren't excluded from fairness, so whatever Lanse needed, they would satisfy as much as possible.

Soon, these managers told Lanse that they didn't have any information about changes in operations and scheduling recently; everything was formulated according to last week's plan.

No one cut in line, and there were no private special trains to Likai State.

After putting down the phone, Lanse pressed his fingertips together, elbows resting on the armrests, in front of his chest, "If they didn't come by car, and didn't come by train, and still want to find a way to hide their tracks, what other way could they come before us?"

There wouldn't be a problem on the interstate highway side. The state police actually didn't know the people of the Perez family, but they knew weapons; everyone carrying illegal weapons would have their identities checked.

But until now, there hadn't been any large quantities of submachine guns or the like appearing, which meant that at least they wouldn't be coming from the highway.

In enemy territory, separating people from guns was no different from delivering heads.

Lanse's gaze rotated across the faces of the gentlemen in the room and finally stopped on Erwin's face, "Erwin?"

Erwin didn't have the helplessness of a bad kid being asked a question by a teacher; he wore a smile that was quite insightful, "They are coming from the sea."

Lanse nodded, "Yes, they are coming from the sea."

"And they won't enter Jincheng Port directly, nor will they stay on the nearby shore. The fact that we have a good relationship with the Coast Guard is no secret, especially to them."

If they wanted to investigate Lanse's relationships in Jincheng, or even Likai State, they would definitely be able to find out that Lanse had intervened in the personnel adjustments of the Likai State Coast Guard through the Department of Defense Coast Guard Command.

The closer to Jincheng, the more powerful the Coast Guard was. There had always been smugglers in the Yalan area who refused to give up and wanted to send alcohol in, so the guard team was also very busy.

Lanse stroked his chin, "They should be landing on the beach on the outskirts of Jincheng. This way, they can appear before us at the fastest speed."

"If they were further away, they would still have to find a way to get cars and would still be running on the interstate highway, which would carry the risk of being discovered by state police."

"So there is a high probability that they have already landed and are marching toward us."

Lanse picked up the phone again and dialed Damon's (leader of the Imperial gang in Jinxing City) phone.

As a satellite city of Jincheng, the distance between the two cities was only a little over a hundred kilometers. If driving fast, it was a two or three-hour journey.

Also because the distance was short, from the perspective of the city's large-scale planning, the area between the two cities belonged to an overlapping urban management area. Because of Jincheng's special nature, of course, these overlaps were managed by Jincheng.

Plus, these were basically intercity highways, and there were no state police patrolling the highways, which instead facilitated their actions.

There were only two cities closest to Jincheng, one was Xigu City, and Xigu City was still a bit far from the sea.

Besides that, there was Jinxing City, which was also by the sea.

Jincheng had snatched away almost 95% of the shipping aspects of Jinxing City, so the coastal management in Jinxing City was relatively lax. After they entered the city, they could quickly get vehicles and insert directly into Jincheng. This was Lanse's judgment.

He needed someone who was very familiar with Jinxing City to understand the recent situation.

Damon was a good candidate. Under Lanse's support, he had already completed the "unification" of Jinxing City to a certain extent.

Actually, saying unification was a bit of an exaggeration; in reality, there were still many gangs that had carved up a lot of territory, it's just that the strongest force now was Damon's gang.

This place was too close to Jincheng and too close to the Lanse family. Some gangs that couldn't stand it had already left, and those who remained were naturally willing to submit.

So, saying they had unified Jinxing City wasn't impossible.

Receiving Lanse's call surprised Damon, but it was followed by joy.

Lanse being able to call him proactively showed that at least he was a familiar face in front of Lanse, and the relationship was definitely closer than just "knowing" each other.

"Mr. Lanse, is there anything I can do for you?"

Lanse didn't engage in too much small talk with him and went straight to the point, "Have there been any strangers in the city these past two days, at least one or two hundred people, or maybe more."

"By the way, ask those places that sell stolen cars if any buses have been sold in the past few days, or if a large number of small cars have been bought."

Damon frowned. Honestly, a gang leader of his level was unlikely to care about these small things.

So he was a bit embarrassed, "I have to ask. Please wait a moment, Mr. Lanse."

Soon, the sound of him shouting at his subordinates came from the receiver. After about seven or eight minutes, he returned to the phone.

"Mr. Lanse, my men tell me that there haven't been a large number of strangers appearing in the city."

"As for ordinary strangers... it's hard for us to distinguish whether they are the people you are looking for."

"However, there have indeed been quite a few stolen cars sold, as well as three buses."

Hearing this, Lanse understood in his heart that there was a high probability they were already on their way to Jincheng.

"Well done, Damon."

Sensing that Lanse was about to hang up, Damon asked proactively, "Do you need my help?"

He could guess what had happened; he wasn't a fool.

What Lanse said and what had already happened were telling him that there was very likely going to be a big fight in Jincheng next!

His kindness was rejected by Lanse, not because Lanse had become arrogant and looked down on people, but because it was really unnecessary.

"Taking care of yourself is the greatest help to me, my friend!"

"After I finish dealing with these things at hand, we can let everyone come over to get together in the summer..."

He paused as he said this, "Alright, I have things to do. See you later."

"See you later, Mr. Lanse."

After Lanse hung up the phone, he looked at the gentlemen in the room, "They are already around us."

"Burton," he looked at Burton, and Burton stood up immediately.

"I'm here, boss."

"Have your people keep a close watch. They might enter the city in a scattered way. Keep an eye on those roads entering the city."

"If you find anything, don't alert them first, understand?"

Burton nodded and then sat back down.

Lanse looked at the others again, "Go and prepare, everyone!"

"At most, it will be one of these next few days. Don't let our federal counterparts look down on us!"

People stood up one after another and left. Lanse kept Hiram and Erwin behind.

"I'm worried they will launch a surprise attack at night, because at night, our people can't watch the situation on the streets."

"Even if Burton got some 'bats,' it's impossible to cover every road entering the city."

Some old people couldn't sleep at night and got up early in the morning, so they were developed by Burton as nighttime city monitors.

Their job was to collect information at night, and their income would be a bit more than those during the day, and there was also a fixed salary.

With Burton's experience and perspective from being made difficult for decades, he had many ways to distinguish whether someone was closing their eyes when they should be keeping them open.

But these people were ultimately just a minority; no one could stare boringly at the sidewalk under the streetlights for a whole night.

These "bats" might be useful, but before they were systematic, they could only serve as a reference.

"In a while, you two arrange to strengthen the defensive forces of the manor."

"This time, we choose the battlefield!"

"In a while, I will show my face publicly and then take a car back. Erwin, you handle the other matters. This time, try to keep everyone who comes."

After he finished speaking, he called Chief Bulu again, asking him to arrange the night shift work for the police force for these few days. Add more people to the night shift, and fill the police cars with gas before getting off work at night.

He didn't say what had happened, but Bulu could also guess that there must be something that required him and the police to take action.

This was the value and meaning of his existence!

At this time, Ted didn't know yet that they had been exposed.

Or rather, he knew he had been exposed, but it didn't matter anymore.

He had already had Milo's ashes sent back. Now, he only had one motivation for living: revenge.

He hadn't even considered how to evacuate from Jincheng after the war started, or perhaps he hadn't thought about being able to leave here at all.

He knew this was a dangerous, unequal battle.

But he also knew that if he didn't do it now, he wouldn't have any chance at all in the future.

There was only one puff left of the cigarette in his hand, and the setting sun shining on him made him look exceptionally lonely.

He took one last puff, flicked the cigarette butt away, took the food box handed over by his subordinate, and started eating with his head down.

Tonight, it must be a night with a story!

(End of chapter)