Chapter 831

The door of the restaurant was pulled open. Lanse walked in from the outside. He stood at the door, took off his hat and coat, and scanned the lobby.

Only one table remained in the entire restaurant lobby, and the other tables and chairs were stacked together and pushed to the wall.

Lanse booked the restaurant, so today it only received their table of guests.

"Am I late?" He said while walking toward his seat, while raising his wrist to look at his watch.

The time they agreed on was now. It could only be said that his arrival time was just right; these people came early.

The smallest guy's face immediately carried a flattering smile, "We came early, Mr. Lanse, you came just right."

Lanse walked to the side of his seat. Elvin pulled the chair for him. After he sat down, he signaled them to sit down, "Who are you?"

The little guy's eyes widened in surprise, "Mike, Mr. Lanse."

Lanse nodded, "Mike, I remember."

He looked at the others, and these people introduced themselves one after another.

Elvin had already gone to notify the cook to serve the dishes. Lanse still had a period of time to chat with them.

"During this period...", he placed both hands on the tabletop, ten fingers crossed together, but soon separated again, "some things happened."

"Some people don't understand me, don't understand me, so we had some misunderstandings."

"When I came to New Birmingham before, I was attracted by the simple rural scenery here. I didn't come to compete with you, but clearly someone mistakenly thought that I brought stronger competition."

"So much so that in the subsequent choices, you chose the wrong option."

The little guy kept nodding, as if every word Lanse said hit his heart. Although others weren't as exaggerated as him, their expressions also eased a lot.

Lanse's gaze kept flowing on them. He felt this was a very interesting thing. They couldn't see the future, nor could they see the death star flashing above their heads.

"Some people feel that a gang is a gang."

"The gang of 1024 and the gang of 924 have no difference."

"We fight, grab territory, collect protection fees, force those girls to stand on the street, kidnap, blackmail, extort, rob, steal..."

He listed many criminal activities, "People think we try our best to obtain wealth through criminal means, to obtain anything we want."

"They think we have no difference from the past, and even some of us, ourselves, think we have no difference from the past."

"What gangs were doing before, we are still doing now."

"But I don't quite agree with this statement."

He took out a cigarette, took one out. Elvin was still looking for matches, but Mike, the little guy, took out a lighter and actively leaned over to light it for him.

Lanse smiled and patted his arm, expressing a sense of gratitude.

"Society is progressing, and gangs are also progressing. We can't always look at gangs under the new era with the eyes of the past."

"We don't necessarily have to be the same as the past, to grab territory, to force those girls to stand on the street, to do things that hurt others to make money for ourselves."

"Now there are more and better choices than in the past!"

"Choices to make more money."

He took a puff of cigarette and then slowly exhaled, "Capitalists have been saying 'industrialization.' What is 'industrialization'?"

He looked at these five idiots. The eyes of the five idiots were filled with the clarity and simplicity that only college students had. They were simply stupid!

Lanse laughed twice. He flicked the ash and smiled, "Simply put, it is purposeful, large-scale, and forming brand effects of organizational business activities."

"Finally, turning us from a criminal organization into an enterprise with vague positioning but not hated by people, forming a certain sense of transformation."

Lanse spoke very energetically, but the five people at the table didn't know why he wanted to say these things, and what the hell was the use of saying these things!

Lanse was actually just bored, chatting about his views on the family and the direction of future development.

Several cadres of the Lanse family standing in the distance were thoughtful, pondering the words Lanse said.

At this moment, they felt more deeply that the Lanse family had huge differences from these low-level gangs.

Including the big shopping families in Jincheng, or the Five Families of the Federation, there were huge differences between them.

This kind of difference, perhaps, was what Lanse called "industrialization." He wanted to turn gangs into an industry, not just a criminal group.

Sometimes without comparison, people don't know there is a gap. Now with comparison, some problems that couldn't be figured out before became easy to interpret and understand.

Lanse continued, "I know you might not understand, and you might not care. This is quite normal, because there is a huge gap between us!"

He simply gestured, "It is precisely because there is a huge gap between us that we have misunderstandings."

"The elephant is just a landing step in the process of walking, but it is considered by the ant to be aiming at it. But fortunately, the misunderstandings between me and Carl, and that someone, have been resolved."

"This is also one of the reasons I invited you out, how to resolve the misunderstandings between us."

Mike understood this sentence and said hurriedly, "Mr. Lanse, this matter indeed has some of our responsibilities, but more importantly, it is the responsibility of the local Police Chief and the State Police Chief. They forced us to do this."

"If we didn't do this, they would find trouble for us!"

Another old guy who was the oldest here also echoed, "It is indeed like this, Mr. Lanse."

"You know, we are different from a behemoth like the Lanse family. For you, we are just a very inconspicuous small gang."

"We don't have much capital to confront when facing the police's difficulties, so..."

He hesitated, "We are willing to pay the price to make up for this mistake!"

Lanse looked at the others, "Are you guys also thinking this way?"

Others nodded one after another. At this time, the old guy with white hair said, "Mr. Lanse, before you came, we had a discussion. We agree in principle to accept the management and restraint of the Lanse family."

Lanse nodded noncommittally and repeated one of the sentences, "In principle!"

Agree is agree, disagree is disagree. What is called in principle?

In principle means it can be agreed, but because the details haven't been negotiated and cannot meet their demands, it is still in a state of disagreement.

Lanse shook his head with a smile. They hadn't figured out who had the final say in this matter yet.

Just at this time, the cook started serving dishes. The prices of these dishes weren't expensive, but rather close to the people.

Many people, before coming to the Federation, always fantasized that the income of the Federation was high, and people could dine in restaurants or fast-food restaurants every day.

But in reality, even real federal people don't often dine in restaurants, especially those formal restaurants, because they are too expensive.

Many times it's like this. Those refugees from Slade always feel that the Federation should be the best choice, and this should be the paradise for them, these refugees.

After they came, they knew that this was hell on earth.

This restaurant had been operating for many years, known for being affordable and cheap. When Lanse was choosing a suitable venue, he heard people talk about this place.

People always have a desire for delicious food, which can also be considered a most primitive desire, so he chose this place.

Because the process of serving dishes constantly involved waiters and cooks, they temporarily didn't continue to talk.

After all the dishes were served, the old guy with white hair continued, "We also have some of our own ideas."

Lanse was laying out the napkin while signaling him to continue, and at the same time, he picked up a knife and fork to take some food into his plate, "I'm a bit hungry, don't you mind?"

Several people shook their heads one after another, but it was clear they didn't have any appetite and didn't move their knives and forks. Only Lanse was eating alone.

He asked while eating, "What ideas do you have?"

"Mr. Lanse, we hope to retain our territory and our business. As for the others, we can continue to talk."

"The taste of this beef rib is not bad!", Lanse commented. Typical federal charcoal-grilled beef ribs, they really didn't look good on the outside, but they were very delicious to eat.

It wouldn't be roasted very dry, basically seven or eight minutes cooked, and a large amount of blood and meat juice were locked in the beef ribs.

This kind of roasting was chosen to use large pieces of beef ribs, not small pieces. Only in this way could the juice be guaranteed not to lose too much to the maximum extent.

Its flavor had some small differences from Jincheng and Likai State. They used more spices, making the fragrance of the roast meat richer, and there was a lot of juice.

Take a bite, and the fat, blood, meat juices, and the tender, fully-cooked fat and muscle—no one can resist the temptation of eating meat in big mouthfuls!

Watching Lanse eat so deliciously, several people were also a bit hungry, but now they were more concerned about the situation of subsequent survival.

Lanse swallowed the food in his mouth, "Anything else?"

He looked at the old guy with white hair who was speaking, "There wouldn't be only these ideas, right?"

"Anything else?"

"Talk about your other ideas."

The old guy with white hair was stunned. He looked at the others. After they exchanged eyes, the old guy with white hair gritted his teeth and continued, "After we obey the management of the Lanse family, we are one body. We hope to get the best-selling alcohol from you at a more favorable price."

"Just now you also said, Mr. Lanse, you said you have alcohol with more price advantages here. We can conduct more extensive cooperation in this regard."

"We can also help you promote in the entire Indeno State..."

He started talking about the advantages he thought he had. They were local snakes here, although they might be the weakest local snakes.

They had some friendship with some gangs in surrounding cities and could help Lanse open up sales channels in surrounding cities faster and better. Of course, they had to sell it themselves, not hand over the channels to Lanse.

Lanse nodded noncommittally, eating while letting them continue to talk.

Lanse's "indulgence" made them feel... Lanse seemed easy to talk to. They were all talking about their own ideas, tentatively probing.

Someone also proposed the idea of doing business with Lanse, and someone also proposed that Lanse didn't need to waste energy controlling this city at all.

They could totally do it for him.

The Lanse family sets the rules, and they execute the rules. It sounded like it was pretty good.

Listening to the stupid things they said, Lanse didn't get angry, just listened, feeling it was interesting, and it went well with the food.

After he had eaten enough and tasted all the food he liked, he took out his pocket handkerchief, wiped his hands, and handed it to Elvin.

The pocket handkerchief was the handkerchief used for decoration and embellishment inserted in the chest pocket, but it definitely wasn't just for decoration and embellishment. It also had actual use and value.

They didn't understand, watching the bright red handkerchief being held by Elvin and walked to the door, and then thrown out from the door.

Lanse suddenly spoke, attracting their attention back.

"Actually... I was thinking about one thing before I came."

He lit a cigarette again. It was still the guy named Mike who leaned over to light it for him. He smiled and nodded, said thank you, his attitude was very casual, not at all like he was going to get angry.

Just at the moment he was talking, on the street outside, the people brought by the five gang leaders, those confidants, and some elite elements in their gangs, were all standing in small blocks, communicating something.

Compared to the tension of those "big shots" in the room, or other emotions, they appeared quite relaxed.

The boss was dead, it was nothing more than changing a boss, and they brought quite a few people today. The five gangs added up to at least one or two hundred people.

Even if they couldn't talk it out today, it was highly probable that there wouldn't be a gunfight, so they appeared very relaxed.

When they saw a bright red handkerchief being thrown out from the main entrance of the restaurant by a guy, people's gazes followed that bright red handkerchief that was rolled up by the wind and flew up, and slowly fell.

The windows on both sides of the street were opened, and a large group of people holding submachine guns poked their heads out from the entrances of the buildings, and pulled the trigger at those people standing on the street who weren't wearing the same attire as them.

This time they didn't use small-caliber submachine guns, but used normal pistol bullets.

The white powder constantly lifted on the ground made these people not react before they were harvested in a piece. By the time they reacted, it was already a bit too late.

The dense gunfire outside the restaurant made the five leaders inside stand up in an instant, but soon they sat back down.

Because those people behind Lanse took out their guns, killed one of their subordinates who was brought in, and then pointed their guns at them.

Lanse took a deep breath of the cigarette.

He rubbed his forehead with his ring finger and middle finger, fortunately, he took a bath today and didn't rub out any dirt.

His gaze stayed on these people's faces one by one, observing their expressions, observing their eyes, "I considered giving you a chance, but I also felt it wasn't necessary."

"Because even if an elephant steps on some ants to death, no one will blame the elephant. They will only say those ants were arrogant and tried to contend with the elephant."

"New Birmingham doesn't need so many gangs, and it doesn't need you."

The little guy Mike shouted anxiously, "Mr. Lanse, Mr. Lanse!"

"We don't want anything, we can leave this city!"

The faces of the others were also very ugly, and another middle-aged man also echoed, "The things said just now were all jokes, they were their ideas, and it has nothing to do with us!"

"We came here just waiting to say goodbye to you, I have already planned to completely give up the gang career and return to normal life."

"Lanse, scare you to death..."

He took another puff of cigarette and slowly exhaled, "Goodbye, gentlemen."

The gunfire in the restaurant also sounded. He just sat there, holding the cigarette in his hand, calmly watching the five people being shot in the head, watching them slide to the ground along the chairs.

Lanse picked up the napkin and wiped a small damp spot on his face. A little blood splashed onto him.

He curled his lips, looking at the table full of dishes splashed with blood, feeling it was a pity.

The price of the food here wasn't high, but it definitely wasn't cheap either.

The gunfire outside alarmed the police officers responsible for traffic control on both sides of the street. Just when they were ready to do something, the police officer responsible for supervising the scene work reminded them very strictly not to care!

This was also one of the habitual attitudes of the police, letting these evil forces bite the dog, and after they fought almost enough, the police would enter the scene to clean up the mess.

The young police officer thought this time was also like this. He just stood at the street corner with a straight face, persuading those who wanted to watch the fun to leave here.

The dense gunfire inside might have ricochets, and at the same time, he was also shocked because the gunfire was too dense!

Two or three minutes later, the gunfire stopped completely, and Lanse's cigarette was also finished.

The room was filled with a fishy smell with temperature. This was a smell that was hard to describe, because blood appeared in large quantities in a closed environment.

Just smelling the smell, one could imagine that the blood should be hot.

He stood up, Elvin and Enio first took people out of the restaurant, and they checked outside.

A large group of gang members wearing iron-gray trench coats, wearing soft felt hats, and having a bright red armband walked out from the entrances of the surrounding buildings, holding submachine guns.

They performed follow-up shots on those corpses lying on the ground that looked like they weren't dead.

Follow-up shots had always been the fine tradition of the Lanse family, including in the restaurant.

Ten corpses that couldn't be more dead were also shot.

When Lanse walked out of the restaurant, on the entire street, only their people could stand!

The sun shone down, and he narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at the sun in the sky.

Today is a good day!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 832 =====