Chapter 925: Conditions for Aid

In the morning, Lanse was on the phone with Erwin, talking about some things in Indeno State.

"I heard that Gold Standard Liquor Industry intends to give up pursuing the case of Richard's death, and their attacks on us have also stopped completely."

"This might have something to do with the governor's election; there is still half a year left before the governor's election starts to warm up, and Wei De's popularity is very high now."

Lanse distributed the money he earned to the mayor, the local police group, the local law enforcement group, and the interest groups; for them, Mayor Wei De taking office was the only way to protect these interests.

So they would hope more than anyone else that Mayor Wei De could defeat the lieutenant governor in the election.

At the same time, because several economic development plans proposed by Mayor Wei De had achieved certain "results," many people believed that he was a good hand at managing the economy, which would help Indeno State's sluggish economy find new growth points.

Although part of it was luck, he benefited from the war, but overall, his performance was much better than others.

The voters of Indeno State believed that even if he wasn't a good governor, he was a governor who could boost the economy.

Others felt that he didn't have any specific interest-based nepotism in Indeno State and could focus more on improving everyone's income, rather than colluding to put money into their own pockets.

Elections need money; even if many people support Mayor Wei De now, his campaign also needs money.

He actually had money himself, but how many politicians' campaign funds came from their own pockets?

"Mayor Wei De contacted me a few days ago, and he talked about his campaign plan for the second half of the year."

Lanse gave an "um," signaling him to continue.

"The overall campaign plan will start around June and end in September; the final vote will take place in October."

"Mayor Wei De said he hopes we can donate at least five hundred thousand in campaign funds for the various election activities he will hold during the summer vacation."

"Five hundred thousand," Lanse repeated.

Erwin said, "Yes, five hundred thousand."

Five hundred thousand actually wasn't a large amount for a governor's election.

The incumbent governor used about 2.7 million in funds during his election; this year, some consulting firms generally believed that as the Federation gained more benefits from the war, the economy began to move upward.

The funds needed for the election would also be more than in previous years, with a preliminary estimate that it might need to increase by 20% to 30% based on the previous campaign funds.

That is, just over three million.

In the next election year, the presidential campaign funds are predicted to need to reach more than 17 million!

These assessment consulting firms made assessments based on the laws of campaign expenses over the years, which had certain reference significance; if there were potentially difficult opponents, the campaign funds would continue to increase.

Just over three million was Mayor Wei De's own view on the funds invested in the governor's election.

He could afford this money; the Wei De family could be said to be the strongest in Jincheng, and the Williams family could afford this money, let alone the Wei De family.

But taking out this money would hurt their vitality, and if they failed, they might face a situation of losing everything.

So politicians wouldn't invest their own money into campaign funds, unless this person was very rich, rich enough not to care how much money was spent.

Lanse thought for a while and said, "Give him one million, double it for him."

"But you also have to tell him that I hope the investment of this money is meaningful and valuable."

Some things don't need to be said too clearly, but they can't be left unsaid.

Never underestimate a politician's bottom line, because they have no bottom line, and they are ready to break the bottom line anytime, anywhere.

In case he says he thought it was just a pure campaign fund, Lanse wouldn't be able to deal with him easily.

If the words are made clear, and he pretends to be confused, then he can't blame Lanse.

"I will pass it on to him!" Erwin paused, "Hiram has been telling me recently that he wants to go to Lapa to play."

With the "war state" of Indeno State currently terminated, Hiram had nothing to do, just wandering around bored all day.

He was tired of this peaceful life; recently he read in the newspaper that Lapa was like a living hell, and he became interested in this.

It wasn't that he wanted to observe up close what people starving to death were like; he had seen it in the Empire. He just had an intuition that Lanse would soon have some big moves.

Many years ago, when he was still wiping ship hulls at the shipyard, his ultimate dream at that time was to become rich.

To have his own house in the Federation, and then have a few hundred dollars in his pocket.

Get married, find a girl who might not necessarily get along with him, but must be good-looking, then have children, and live a happy life.

He had long realized his dream; logically speaking, he should be able to stop and rest, but his former dream seemed somewhat dull to him at this time.

Stimulating life was what he wanted.

The feeling of speaking with bullets on the battlefield was what he pursued!

He wanted to go to Lapa, but he couldn't go without Lanse's consent.

Erwin saw that he was too bored here all day, bored to the point of troubling himself, so he was also a bit moved.

"Gold Standard Liquor Industry won't be able to assemble those machines until March or April; from trial production to formal production, it will be at least after June or July."

"He is like a huge fly here now; no one likes him, and no one can do anything about him."

"So... if possible."

Lanse thought for a while and agreed, "Let him choose the date, and tell me the ship number before he comes..."

The phone call hadn't been cut off yet, when the door of the room was knocked. Lanse said a few simple words and hung up the phone, while saying "Come in."

The person outside the door walked in; it was Andy.

Lanse was a bit surprised because this Andy's brain wasn't very good; even in front of him, Andy would appear somewhat arrogant, although he didn't know what this guy named Andy had to be arrogant about.

However, he didn't care much; as long as this guy didn't affect his plan, Lanse could pretend he had no reaction to him.

"Mr. Lanse, Pedro said he will call your phone in five minutes; he has some things to talk to you about."

Lanse nodded, "Got it."

Then he looked at the other party. Andy also looked at Lanse. After staring at each other for a while, Andy gradually couldn't bear the pressure hidden in Lanse's calm gaze and looked away.

But immediately after, he suddenly felt a bit ashamed and looked at Lanse again. But this time, looking at Lanse again, even though he had done some mental construction in his heart, he still felt that he was more than a head shorter than Lanse.

"Do you have anything else?" Lanse asked; this was an obvious meaning of seeing the guest out.

Andy also understood this point. He pursed his lips, "No, nothing."

Lanse tilted his head slightly, which probably meant "Then what the fuck are you still standing here for."

Andy then said goodbye to Lanse with a cold face and left the room.

Actually, Pedro's call was first made to Andy. In the phone call, he mentioned the idea of wanting more aid.

More grain, more money, more medicine, more intelligence.

And, there were weapons.

He clearly put forward the request for some weapons, but Andy didn't agree.

Although they had an aid weapon plan, it wasn't at this time. They still needed to wait for the situation to worsen further, when these selected "seeds" had begun to sprout and they had the idea of overturning Diego's rule, before they would consider aiding them with some weapons as appropriate.

Congress and the Department of Defense had discussed these issues before, and they believed that they shouldn't push too fast or too actively, as it was too obvious and too deliberate.

And once the Federation's weapons flowed into Lapa, it meant that some things would never have a chance to turn back.

So this matter needed to be cautious and more cautious.

He couldn't reach an agreement with Pedro, and Pedro suddenly proposed the idea of talking to Lanse.

He had tried his best to explain that he had nothing to do with Lanse, but Pedro was convinced that Lanse was the one who could make the decisions.

He wasn't willing to talk so much nonsense with Andy, who couldn't make decisions, and demanded a direct dialogue with Lanse.

Originally, Andy wanted to refuse, but under Pedro's tough attitude, he finally had no choice but to agree.

Thus, this scene happened.

Andy felt... he had been humiliated by a mud-legged guy.

Not referring to Lanse, but to that middle school teacher named Pedro.

That was just a middle school teacher in a backward, poor place like Yalan, far from the center of the world and far from civilization! Why did he think he was just a small fry, and why did he think Lanse was the boss behind the scenes?

And his attitude toward him, that tone, also made Andy very annoyed!

He felt humiliated, but he didn't know how to handle this matter, and it involved arms trading, so he could only let Lanse know.

If it were other things, he wouldn't pass it on, but it was obvious that this Pedro might have some big actions recently.

After Andy left, Lanse waited for less than two minutes when the phone rang.

The voice that came out made Lanse feel a bit familiar; during the seminar, Pedro could also be considered an "active activist of the Federal system." He liked the set of things the Federation promoted to the outside world very much and mentioned discussions many times.

Whether the set of Federal free elections could work in Lapa, where the education level was low and most people were illiterate.

Whether the people of Lapa could understand what those words said by the candidates in some campaign strategies meant.

And whether they could understand and comprehend what the ballot in their hands meant.

Lanse encouraged them to discuss these things very much; truth is not afraid of discussion, the more it is discussed, the clearer it becomes.

So he had a deep impression of Pedro, and the other party's voice was also remembered in his mind.

"Pedro?"

"Yes, sir."

"Mr. Andy just said you have something you want to say to me?"

There was a gap of about three or four seconds in the receiver before Pedro's voice came again.

"That is indeed the case, Mr. Lanse; he can't make the decision, but I believe you can make the decision on this matter."

"We need weapons!"

His tone was very firm, with a kind of determination that could cut through steel, which gave Lanse some guesses about his current situation.

He guessed and said, "Have you encountered any trouble?"

Pedro didn't deny it, but didn't admit it either, "Lapa's army is chasing us very closely behind our backs, and it's hard for us to stop."

"And, Diego said we are an anti-government force; we have already completed all the voting processes, and we will announce it to the outside world soon."

Lanse asked, "Announce what?"

In Pedro's tone, there was some fanaticism that he himself hadn't realized, "Of course, announce that we truly exist!"

"We even specially chose a name for our cause—"

"Lapa Democratic Rights Front!"

Lanse couldn't help but laugh out loud after hearing it, "It certainly sounds like the name of an anti-government force!"

He paused, "How many do you want?"

This sentence made Pedro overjoyed, and he even shouted "Yes"; his emotions were obviously a bit agitated.

"This is the other thing I want to talk to you about; we are currently moving toward the north of the east, and Diego's hand can't reach this far for the time being."

"We need money to take root here."

"To confront them, we need weapons!"

"More of everything!"

After listening carefully, Lanse asked, "You have to give me a number; I can find a way to get money and other materials into your hands very soon."

"But weapons might take a few days; I have to order a batch from the Federation."

"How many do you want?"

Pedro actually already had a number in his heart.

At first, he only wanted one hundred weapons, even pistols would do.

But soon he dismissed this idea himself and changed it to two hundred.

In the phone call with Andy, because of the agitation of his emotions, he directly mentioned the scale of three hundred.

But now, at the moment he opened his mouth, three hundred became five hundred.

After he finished speaking, he closed his mouth and thought about countermeasures in his heart; he didn't know how much these weapons cost, but in his impression, it shouldn't be cheap.

He heard before that when the Department of Defense purchased the Federation's military equipment, it mentioned the Gray 1010 bolt-action rifle they were equipped with; this bolt-action rifle came from Federal Gray Industry, and the selling price was 180 Federal Sol per piece.

As for bullets, he wasn't very clear.

180 Federal Sol per piece, he opened his mouth and asked for 500 pieces, which was a full 90,000, an astronomical figure, and he also wanted more aid!

So when he made this request, he himself was a bit uncertain whether Lanse would agree.

Actually, he didn't know that the outbreak of war brought many changes, including this classic bolt-action rifle produced by Gray Industry; its price had dropped to 50 dollars.

In addition to the large output, the Department of Defense had already started its first re-equipment plan in the war.

Soldiers on the front line needed weapons with more firepower; sometimes they needed to suppress the enemy, rather than weapons that required pulling the bolt, shooting one by one.

So Gray Industry, according to the requirements of the Department of Defense and the military, designed a brand-new automatic rifle in a very short time.

Gray 1024 fully automatic rifle.

It was upgraded on the basis of the 1010 bolt-action rifle, and now it could continuously fire 35 bullets, and the maintenance was simple, but the reputation on the front line was polarized.

Some people thought it was very suitable for the battlefield, pouring out all the bullets in three or five seconds, which was too safe.

But others felt that this would waste bullets, and if one was not careful, they would have to change the magazine, which might encounter danger in this process.

However, no matter how it was evaluated, it was being fully equipped.

Naturally, the 1010 bolt-action rifle, which had been completely abandoned by the military, had its output up but no large orders, and its overall value had been squeezed dry, so its price was even lower.

For Gray Industry, or some arms dealers with inventory, if these rifles weren't disposed of as soon as possible, they would soon become a burden.

Not only did they need to hire people to manage them, but they also needed storage costs and maintenance expenses.

So now, as long as they didn't lose money, there were plenty of arms dealers willing to sell, which was actually a not-expensive expenditure.

Lanse didn't agree immediately, but was thinking, recalling whether anything had happened in the past two days that he had ignored.

Pedro's idea of wanting to resist Diego by force, which exceeded the plan, should be a situation that would only appear in the next "version."

He was curious why he performed in advance.

He thought for a while, and there was nothing special.

In this process, Pedro didn't urge Lanse either; he knew that this indeed required thinking and time.

After about two minutes, Lanse spoke, "In principle, we shouldn't smuggle weapons to Lapa, but I have also seen the crazy ruler here, and the ordinary people living here like living in hell."

"So I can agree to you."

"However, Pedro, there is a condition for this; I can't give you all the weapons at once, and you still need to prove to me that you won't use these weapons to kill those innocent civilians."

This sentence was said so grandly that Pedro had a moment of doubt, doubting whether Lanse was a good person!

But soon he dismissed this unrealistic idea of his.

He asked, "How do you want me to prove it?"

Lanse said without hesitation, "Possess a piece of territory that belongs to you."

"Attack a city, and then completely occupy it."

"I will send you fifty rifles first, and five thousand bullets."

"After you attack that city, I will send the rest to you."

"I have to ensure that the weapons I give you are all used in the great cause of resisting brutal rule; I hope you can understand what I mean."

Pedro thought for a long time; attacking a city now actually wasn't very suitable, they hadn't developed yet.

Only after possessing a certain strength could they do so.

However, now he had no choice, he didn't want to lose this "generous and kind good person" Lanse, so he agreed.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 926 =====