Chapter 889: Discussion

The motorcade drove on the roads of Zhuolan. The public didn't pay too much attention to Gomez's luxurious motorcade; they could see it often.

On the contrary, they were a bit curious about Lans's motorcade. They had never seen these box cars that looked gray and square on the outside.

Locals didn't find the luxurious motorcade strange because the ruling group almost all had such luxurious motorcades, and they often drove on the road.

Like Diego, he had an imported car with a gold shell. It is said that he spent about ten thousand Federation Sol for this.

The shell of the entire car was made of pure gold, not that kind of low-purity gold, it was pure gold!

At first people might be shocked, but after being shocked many times, they gradually became numb.

Rich people live a life above the clouds in this city, while below the clouds are mud mixed with dog shit, and people struggling to survive in the mud.

In fact, the whole Zhuolan doesn't look that poor. There is also a commercial ecology that has already been generated on both sides of the street, and there are also people buying things in these shops.

The development here is definitely not as good as the Federation, but it is not particularly terrible.

People are observing this strange motorcade, just like the people sitting in the car are also observing them, and this country.

The motorcade soon stopped at the Lapa Grand Hotel in Zhuolan, a hotel named after the country.

From its magnificent appearance, it can be seen that this should be the highest-level hotel in this country.

When Lans got off the car, his people had already checked around once, and Gomez and his team had been waiting for Lans early.

With the getting off of Lans and Roger, these people greeted them again.

"Mr. Lans, this is the highest-level hotel in Lapa. I have applied to the above, and will open the top-level suite for you."

"Other accompanying personnel will also have proper arrangements."

"Please follow me."

Lans nodded and entered the hotel with Gomez.

If it is just purely looking at this hotel, it is actually not worse than those big hotels in the Federation, very luxurious.

The marble floor like a mirror reflects the huge crystal chandelier on the ceiling, and the wall skirt and corner lines are all relief gold-sticking processes, giving people the feeling of entering a luxurious palace.

The waiters in the lobby are all very young, beautiful or handsome, and their image, temperament, and various aspects are all very outstanding.

There are also quite a few non-Lapa nationals here. They have companions by their side, female, or male. These people saw Lans and his group walking in, and all showed some curious or surprised expressions.

Some people know Gomez. These are locals. They know what status Gomez has in Lapa.

At this moment, they saw Gomez's attitude, treating the young man behind him like those big figures, which made them very curious about who the young man walking behind Gomez was?

There are two other people who know Lans.

Lans actually has quite a bit of fame in the Federation, but not many people know him. The people who are truly familiar with him are only people in Jincheng.

These two people came from Jincheng, and they mainly do some foreign trade business.

It's just that their scale is very small, and they want to expand production but have to face many problems. First of all, it is the problem of stable orders.

Any production industry actually faces this problem, that is, unable to stabilize orders.

Once blindly expanding the production line, it is very likely to bury the risk of bankruptcy and closure, loans, labor, and venue costs.

Only by being able to get stable, long-term orders will these factories expand.

Factories that expand for the sake of an order basically don't have any good endings.

In the foreign trade market, the larger the enterprise, the easier it is to obtain larger orders, because their production costs will be lower than small factories and have more advantages.

This might be the reason for "the rich get richer" in another sense, the advantage has been rolling.

So there are some people, people with a bit of adventurous spirit, who are willing to come to Xiang Yalan to break through.

Some people went to other countries, and some people came to Lapa. Backwardness doesn't necessarily mean there is no benefit.

When they saw Lans appear here, they also felt very surprised.

Another reason for coming to Lapa is that they are not willing to continue to compete with those big enterprises.

Lans didn't notice them, mainly because he didn't know them. The group of people entered the hotel, and four elevators had all been opened and prepared.

Lans and his group walked into the first elevator. The elevator car was very wide, could accommodate more than ten people, and was also very stable.

Gomez began to introduce this hotel.

This hotel has been built for more than ten years, mainly used to receive foreign guests, and to provide a place for the ruling group and privileged groups to hold various formal business-nature meetings and activities, or hold various celebrations.

They live a life that is not worse than the Federation middle class, and in some places, it even exceeds the Federation middle class.

Like Diego the President, he can hold it in his own manor, then what should ordinary privileged groups do?

So the Lapa Grand Hotel came into being.

The designer of the hotel comes from the Federation. In fact, Xiang Yalan is a region where Federation culture invasion is relatively serious. They are too close!

While talking, the elevator stopped slowly. After the elevator door opened, an extremely luxurious "Presidential Suite" appeared in front of Lans.

It didn't adopt the design of corridor-to-room connection, but it was the living room of the suite as soon as it opened.

The extremely luxurious decoration, even if placed in the Federation, can be said to be the top level.

Roger has his own room, on the floors below. Only Lans and some of his close people live here, for example, Ma Duoer.

Ma Duoer brought the entire instructor group to follow Lans to here. Others will arrive in Lapa one after another, not all at once.

Lans plans to transport one thousand members to Lapa first. With the subsequent recruitment and work deployment, this number will become larger.

If he needs more people, he will talk to Senator Cleveland about this matter, and the latter is very supportive of his work.

When he left the Federation, he even mentioned that if necessary, he could give the Xiang Yalan Alliance some pressure from diplomatic and military aspects.

Of course, these are temporarily not used.

Lans turned around every room under Gomez's leadership, and finally he stood by the glass curtain wall of the living room.

A double-layer glass curtain wall, outside is the entire Zhuolan, the capital of Lapa.

It looks very lively, but not prosperous, and the decoration here forms a contrast full of irony.

On one side is the enjoyment of extravagance, on the other side is the people whose income might not even fill their stomachs. It is deserved that they will be overturned in the plan.

After watching this city for a while, Lans turned to look at Gomez. "Let's go to the study to talk."

This is the words Gomez most wants to hear now. He hurriedly reached out to invite to the road to the study. "Please this way, Mr. Lans."

After entering the study, Lans walked to the chair that didn't look very cheap and sat down, patted the armrest of the chair inlaid with emeralds. This chair might be worth several hundred dollars, or even over a thousand dollars.

"Sit," he said.

Gomez hurriedly sat opposite Lans, his face showing a trace of longing.

If it was said before, betrayal was not his only way out, then with the establishment of the Xiang Yalan Alliance and the opening of the market to the Federation, his value to Diego would be greatly reduced.

Perhaps for the sake of his sister, this "care" might continue for a period of time.

But his sister couldn't be young forever, and would eventually grow old and lose favor.

When that day comes, their family will fall from heaven into hell.

Don't count on Diego, or other ruling groups, how benevolent and kind they can be. Rulers under this absolute dictatorial environment are often either tyrants or lunatics.

Diego can't be counted as a lunatic, but he is definitely a tyrant full of greed.

If lucky, this time might be three or five years, but if unlucky, perhaps it is this one or two years.

For Diego, the entire Lapa is his toy, including the men and women living here. Changing a woman is not even as good as changing a piece of clothing for him.

Because changing a piece of clothing needs money, but changing a woman, he only needs to move his fingers.

In fact, in a certain sense, Gomez's betrayal is also a kind of "awakening."

Lans is younger than Gomez, but at this moment, Gomez is like facing Diego, sitting cautiously, and even doesn't dare to speak.

He lowered his head, looking at his toes, his heart full of torment and unease.

After a while, Lans opened his mouth to speak. "In fact, before, I had been considering how to make your dream a reality."

As soon as this sentence came out, Gomez raised his head sharply. His eyes were shining with light looking at Lans.

But soon, the light went out.

Lans was as if he hadn't discovered his excited expression, and continued to say, "But the appearance of the Xiang Yalan Alliance made this plan fall through."

"Just changing the leader of a region cannot realize your idea, but will make you the enemy of the entire Xiang Yalan Alliance, and eventually be eradicated by the Xiang Yalan Alliance."

"This alliance composed of national forces is more like an insurance that Diego, or other national leaders, bought for themselves."

"They discuss with each other, if the ruler is overturned, who is the successor, they target who."

"Dealing with these people is actually not very easy to handle. The Federation government doesn't hope to cause too many negative impacts. We are not invaders."

Lans took out the cigarette case, still that ivory cigarette case, sent by that dead ghost Luigi.

It's not that he likes this cigarette case how much, but he is used to using it.

Sometimes habit is a very powerful force. Before Lans finds the next cigarette case he likes, he will always use this one.

Gomez hurriedly took out the lighter inlaid with gems in his pocket and leaned over.

Lans inhaled two puffs of smoke and quickly exhaled. This is why he doesn't like kerosene lighters.

There will be a smell of kerosene in these two puffs of smoke. Although some people say they can't feel it, he just can feel it.

On the contrary, matches, except for the very strong smell of gunpowder burning at the moment of ignition, when it truly starts to burn quietly, there will only be the smell of the matchstick itself.

For example, matches made of pine wood, they will emit the unique fragrance of pine wood when burning, mixed with the smell of cigarettes, those one or two puffs are indeed not bad.

Don't Federation people pursue composite fragrance?

This is it!

Lans patted his hand and looked up at him. Gomez hurriedly withdrew his hand and sat back, just like the sitting posture of a Boy Scout.

"So the plan to directly push you to power is very likely to be unrealizable."

Gomez became visibly disappointed and dejected; he looked up as if to say something, but was stopped by Lanse raising his hand.

"Gomez, I know that your heart is with the Federation, which is why I am here."

"Lapa, other countries, and the entire Xiang Yalan are all inescapable parts of the Federation's ten-year plan."

"So you don't have to worry that things here will remain the same; soon we will bring about some changes, and in the process of change, you need to contribute for us, for the Federation!"

Gomez nodded repeatedly, "No problem, Mr. Lanse, what do you need me to do?"

Lanse twisted his neck, "First, help me understand this country, and the people who rule here."

Gomez was worthy of being the president of Lapa's official Chamber of Commerce; he had a very deep understanding of Lapa, down to every aspect of society, mainly in terms of the economy.

Although he had not received a higher education, he was also a person with a bit of cleverness.

Lanse viewed him as a fool, but that was from Lanse's own perspective; Gomez was indeed a fool.

But this kind of fool is actually the state of most people; after all, people like Lanse are still a very small minority.

Possessing sufficiently high wisdom while also having an understanding of world development that is ahead of its time and does not belong to this world.

Lanse listened seriously as Gomez talked about everything in Lapa; at the same time, Diego was also discussing these people from the Federation.

Diego did not participate in the Alliance himself; he entrusted his younger brother to participate in the Alliance and become a representative of an Alliance member state.

Lapa can only be considered lower-middle in the entire Alliance, so according to their current statement, it will only be their turn to serve as the Alliance chairman after thirty-two years.

Thirty-two years later, it's not even certain if Diego will still be around, so he didn't take this matter to heart.

"Just now Gomez told me that a business delegation from the Federation has arrived, and they have already moved into the top floor of the Lapa Hotel, saying it's called some 'Empire Business Delegation'; do you know what kind of business delegation this is?"

He was asking his "Foreign Minister," and of course, this Foreign Minister was his brother-in-law, as well as a member of another ruling family group.

All of Lapa is under the control of these few ruling groups; if one's bloodline doesn't flow with their family's, one simply cannot squeeze into the ruling group.

But as long as one's bloodline flows with their family's and one is willing to do things, then one can certainly become an official.

At the very least, a city official.

The Foreign Minister shook his head, "Among the business delegations and financial groups I know, this is just a small group that isn't very famous."

"However, I do know some things about them; they possess a large amount of scarce medical resources in their hands, and they received some attention a while ago, but later I heard that those medical supplies had been handled privately, so the attention has dropped again."

"On the contrary, I am quite clear about that Lanse White who came this time."

Diego changed his sitting posture; he was not very tall, and at over two hundred pounds, his weight had long since exceeded the standard by who knows how many times.

If he kept one sitting posture for a long time without moving, his butt would hurt, and he had to shift his body from time to time to alleviate this situation.

In private, some people also called him "Fat Penguin"; this nickname was very popular for a while, but later it became unpopular.

The reason it became unpopular was that those who had called him this nickname, whether they said it to his face or as a joke, were all dealt with by him.

Thus, this title became a taboo.

Then again, when he rocked back and forth to change his sitting posture, he did indeed look like a swaying penguin.

"How well do you know him?" he asked.

The Foreign Minister pondered for a moment, a few seconds, "The reason our wine can't be sold is because of him."

Lapa's main core export commodity is grain, and grain can also be used to brew wine; the price of wine is much higher than the price of grain, so even though Diego is not a smart person, he knows that turning grain into wine can earn more money.

At first, they did indeed make money, but as Lanse began to clean up the smugglers in the entire Golden Port City, Lapa's wine could no longer be transported to Golden Port City.

Later, because of the intensifying confrontation between Lanse and the Gold Standard Wine Industry in the Denuo State, a large number of smuggling groups were eliminated.

As for the South Xiang Yalan State, the fierce Sumuli people have already started clearing the field; except for some large local smugglers who are still confronting them, some small smugglers have completely lost their opportunities.

Now, if these small-scale Xiang Yalan wineries still want to sell their products to the Federation, they either have to take huge risks to smuggle them.

Or, they accept Lanse's conditions, give up most of the profits, and sell the wine to Lanse.

Lanse keeps the price of wine very low, and he doesn't accept just any wine.

This has led to a lot of wine having no sales.

Lapa doesn't have talent in this area; actually, they could continue to go north and try to sell in areas further north on the East Coast, but they don't have such talent, so the smuggling wine business can only stop.

Listening to what the Foreign Minister said, an unhappy expression appeared on Diego's face, "Looks like an unwelcome guy."

He didn't have the idea of getting rid of Lanse; the federal government is currently worried about not having a reason to cause them trouble, and if they take the initiative to hand the reason to the federal people now, the Alliance would probably sacrifice him directly to exchange for continued peace.

He is indeed not a smart person, but he still has that bit of political sensitivity.

His brother-in-law, however, had a different view of him.

"Regardless of whether he is an unwelcome guy, as long as he comes with investment, we can actually welcome him."

"After all, as long as he is willing to invest, in the end, won't this money fall into our pockets?"

(End of chapter)