Empire of Shadows

In the hotel in Zhuolan, Lance sat on the sofa, holding a wine glass.

This place didn’t prohibit alcohol, so they could freely taste these delicious alcoholic beverages at any time, in any place.

The liquid in the wine glass looked very beautiful, and the taste was not bad. This was a whiskey that had gone through an aging process, a wine that complied with the whiskey crafting process.

Many wines, including most of the whiskey Lance produced himself within the Federation, did not comply with the crafting process and did not have an aging process.

Gold Label Distillery, before, would also age their whiskey, for about a year or two.

If it weren’t for the appearance of Prohibition, Lance, if he wanted to produce wine, would also have aged it according to the craft standards.

But precisely because of Prohibition, the market needed a large amount of liquor, and simply couldn’t wait for these liquors to age in the cellars for so long before being sold.

So let alone the ordinary grade of two or three years of aging, his wine couldn’t even reach two or three months of aging!

However, the distillery side was already working hard. Every day, they would store a portion of the wine in cellars for long-term aging.

The wine in these cellars was basically aiming for a two-year start, so the quality was very good.Because of the busy trade, there wasn’t much time for the wine to fully age in the oak barrels, so the taste was a little lacking.

In order to make up for these shortcomings, Lance had used technology, thickeners, flavor enhancers, and had also added some spices and essences to adjust the wine’s mouthfeel and flavor.

Of course, he also had aged wine, Silver Label, and Gold Label, but the aging time was not very long.

Unlike the wine in his hand, which was about two thousand Paras, equivalent to just over thirty Federal Sols.

Its flavor was clearly very ”mature.” The long aging time had made it ”gentle,” no longer having so much fire, and the change in flavor after the wine entered the mouth was very obvious and timely. It was a very good wine, of a high standard.

Of course, in Rapa, the people who could afford to spend two thousand to buy a bottle of wine were only the ruling group.

All the luxurious enjoyments here were prepared for the ruling group, as perfect as possible.

Roger sat next to Lance, also holding a wine glass. He had been very comfortable during this period.

Some local officials saw him as a distinguished guest, and were constantly, through the means they thought were effective, to corrupt him.

He dared to swear that it was definitely not that his will was weak, but that the intensity of these people’s corruption was too fierce.

He had done something to let his wife down, but... it felt pretty good.

He had, from those young girls, felt something that he had once had, had later lost, and had desperately wanted to find again—

Youth.

Originally, he had thought that this trip would be dangerous, but now it seemed that it was not dangerous at all.

Swirling the wine glass, he took a small sip. ”Lance, actually, I don’t quite understand.”

Lance pulled himself out of his thoughts. He turned his head to look at Roger, signaling for him to continue.

”What is the purpose of us buying these grains bit by bit?”

”They still have many granaries. I hear there are mountains of grain in the granaries, and some farms also have a lot of grain reserves.”

”Why don’t we buy from them?”

”Isn’t that faster and more than us buying bit by bit from the public?”

Lance put down his wine glass. ”The purpose of buying grain from those grain shops, those grocery stores, is to create a sense of tension.”

”In fact, people don’t know exactly how much grain is missing, but they will observe.”

”When the grain in the grain shops, the grocery stores, is sold out as soon as it arrives, they will worry about whether there will be a shortage of grain.”

”People, they are all like this. Do you still remember Mr. Jobav?”

Suddenly hearing a very familiar name, Roger was a little distracted.

Mr. Jobav was definitely, in the minds of the Empire immigrants living in Golden Port City a few years ago, the most powerful person!

With the identity of an Empire immigrant, he had realized the Federation Dream here, and had countless wealth. He was the object of everyone’s envy!

In the blink of an eye, several years had passed. Hearing this familiar name again, he had a feeling of time and space being confused.

It was as if everything had just happened yesterday, but upon careful thought, a long, long time had passed.

After a few seconds, he broke free from the vortex of that consciousness. He, while sighing, nodded. ”Yes, I still remember, Mr. Jobav and his bank.”

Now Lance’s company was the old site of Mr. Jobav’s bank. To say that Lance had nothing to do with Mr. Jobav’s fall, Roger himself wouldn’t believe it.

But capital is just like this. He had been in the Federation for many years, and he had long been accustomed to the capital environment of the Federation.

When a capital conflict breaks out, let alone a fellow countryman, even between a father and a son, it’s a bloody fight!

So for Mr. Jobav’s fall, he just felt a little pity, but he didn’t have any thoughts that he shouldn’t have fallen, or any dissatisfaction with Lance’s actions.

In this world, although wealth is always growing, if you want to go against the natural laws of development and get more wealth that you can’t get through your own labor, you can only plunder.

Just like the wealth he had now, he had also gotten it through plunder. There would also be people who, because of his plunder, directly or indirectly, had their families broken and their lives lost.

This is the Federation. This is capital.

Lance didn’t know that he had gone through so many thoughts in his mind in such a short time. He said with a laugh, ”Actually, what had crushed Mr. Jobav was a bank run.”

”If there hadn’t been a run, he could have held on for a while longer, and might not have been without a chance to come back to life.”

”But it was the run that had ended everything.”

”People are afraid, afraid of being the last one. If you say that the current Rapa is a bank, and grain is the savings of people’s lives, then now it has begun to become tight.”

”We just need to give it another push, and there will be a run.”

”People will find that there is not enough grain to eat, and they can’t buy more. They will hoard all the food they can buy, in excess.”

”Even if they actually can’t eat that much.”

”You see!” Lance spread his hands. ”If a person only needs one unit of grain a day to fill his stomach.”

”Now there are ten units of grain, enough for two people to eat their fill for five days.”

”But because of the run, one person has hoarded all ten units, while the other has not a single unit. This means he has to go hungry for at least five days.”

”The taste of hunger is not good. In order to fill his stomach, will this person without food do some crazy things?”

Lance picked up his wine glass again and took a sip. ”Let them continue to buy. You can raise the price every once in a while.”

”Not only do we have to buy, but we also have to let the people of Rapa spontaneously hoard, and then form a run.”

”Even if the remaining grain is enough for everyone to eat, in a run situation, the price of grain will become ridiculously high, and every family will stock up on far more grain than their daily consumption.”

”Soon, the people here will start to go hungry.”

Listening to Lance’s words, Roger was already breaking out in a cold sweat.

The end of a bank run is that the bank cannot honor its commitments, and goes bankrupt.

If a country cannot provide food for its people, what will happen?

A huge riot!

This kind of thing had happened in the Empire. He vaguely remembered what had happened at that time.

The angry public had rushed into the nobles’ castles, and had killed everything they could see on the road...

After a short silence in the room, Lance asked, ”The people who were invited to participate in the seminar, have they been confirmed?”

This time, when they were playing the movie for propaganda, Lance, and also the staff of the federal government, had scouted some people.

These people had the potential to become the first batch of ”awakened ones,” but they still needed to be polished.

For any matter, there always needs to be a first person to stand up, as an existence to break the deadlock.

These people are the chisels to break the ice, the seeds that push through the soil.

During this period, Diego had also been paying attention to these foreigners. He was sitting in his chair, constantly adjusting his body posture.

If someone were more careful, they would find that the chairs, the sofas in the Presidential Palace were all soft-packed, and the cushions were very thick.

It was just because Diego’s weight was too great. To maintain a certain sitting posture for a long time would make him feel very uncomfortable.

Many people would think that a fat person has a lot of meat on their butt, and shouldn’t show this kind of a situation.

But in fact, it’s not like that.

The more meat you have, the more you might be afraid of being squeezed. And Diego’s squeezing was long-term. His body, under the huge weight, had already shown all kinds of uncomfortable symptoms.

The doctor he had invited from the Federation had also made some arrangements for his health, including no longer drinking fruit juice, increasing his exercise, and the like, but they had all been rejected by him.

He had not yet realized the seriousness of these problems. He thought he was just fat.

”Has our money arrived?” His eyes were filled with greed. This time, of the 60 million, 20 million was his, and the others would share the remaining 40 million.

20 million. In the past, it would have taken fifteen to twenty years to earn so much money.

But this year, he had achieved this goal in one go, which gave Diego an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

In fact, this was a very interesting matter.

Diego’s account in the Federation, plus this 20 million, was almost 50 or 60 million, but he had rarely made any large-scale consumption in the Federation.

In Rapa, his consumption was actually not considered high. Every day he would just drink a few large bottles of fruit juice, and then eat some delicious food, which actually didn’t cost much money.

There was no need for him at all to sell off the grain just to continue to increase a number that was already meaningless, but all those who pursued the ultimate wealth could not resist a large number.

Maybe in a whole year, he wouldn’t even spend thirty or fifty thousand, but as long as there was a chance, he would continue to increase this number.

The Minister of Finance’s side nodded. ”I have already confirmed by phone. The money in our bank accounts in the Federation has all arrived.”

Diego was very satisfied. He patted his belly. ”Although I don’t like the federal people, in terms of doing business, the federal people are still very straightforward.”

The Minister of Finance coughed. This had made Diego look at him with a puzzled look. ”What’s wrong?”

”Diego, we have too much money saved in the Federation. All of us added up, it’s over 200 million.”

”I think this is a bit unsafe.”

”Once the federal government freezes our bank accounts, we won’t be able to get a single cent.”

What the Minister of Finance had said still had some truth. Diego considered for a moment. ”You have a point. Then which bank should we transfer a part of our money to?”

This question had made the Minister of Finance at a loss for words for a moment.

At present, the most stable in the world, in terms of economy and finance, was the Federation.

The other countries were either poor and backward, or were affected by the war.

The Empire’s side was still very peaceful, without any chaotic situation, but their side was very far from the Empire’s side, and they had no friendship with the Empire’s emperor.

To rashly deposit so much money in an Empire bank, Diego felt that it was not very safe.

In fact, the national bank of the Jede Republic was a good choice. Their reputation was very good, and they were also very stable, but Diego did not dare to deposit his money there.

Who the hell knew if these people would find a way to take his money away?

He didn’t trust those people from the Jede Republic. He always felt that these people were not good people.

For a moment, the people in the room actually couldn’t find a more suitable place than the Federation to store their funds.

”Why don’t we split our accounts and deposit the money in different accounts.”

”This way, even if an individual account is affected, we will only lose a part.”

You can’t put all your eggs in one basket. This was not some profound knowledge.

This was the new method that the Minister of Finance had come up with. Although it had no practical meaning besides adding trouble for himself, Diego and the others still agreed with his suggestion.

It did sound much safer than putting it all in one account, but they also didn’t think about it.

Once the Federation decided to freeze their wealth, even if they had split their money into a hundred accounts, they would freeze a hundred accounts, and not a single one would be left for them!

After saying this, he asked, ”Has our grain been loaded and shipped?”

The Minister of Agriculture nodded and said, ”It was all shipped yesterday.”

”I had someone inquire. These cargo ships did not send the grain to Tanfit, but directly to the Federation.”

Diego waved his hand and interrupted his speech. ”After the goods are sold, we don’t care if they eat it themselves, or if they resell it. It already has nothing to do with us.”

Although the Minister of Agriculture still wanted to say something, he also chose to shut up.

Diego looked at him for a couple of times, and then paused. ”What have those federal people been doing recently?”

Another official quickly replied, ”They are busy playing free movies everywhere, and are also holding some seminars, some salons, and the like.”

”I hear the federal people are planning to start a newspaper in our country.”

Diego looked like he wanted to frown, but he was too fat. He could only see his eyebrows move, but he couldn’t see them squeezing together. ”Don’t we have a newspaper?”

Rapa currently only had one newspaper in circulation, because the illiteracy rate in Rapa was high, and 70% of the people were illiterate. It was impossible for them to buy a newspaper to read.

And those who were not illiterate, for example, the students in the school, there was a high probability that they would not buy it, nor did they have much money to buy a newspaper every day, so basically, the only newspaper had no sales.

Originally, it had covered the entire Rapa, but in these years, its sales and market had gradually shrunk. Now it could only be bought in the vicinity of Zhuolan.

The official in charge of this matter had a look of a spectator’s mockery on his face. ”Who knows?”

”Maybe they are not used to squeezing in on the same newspaper with us.”

Diego thought for a moment, and then smiled and shook his head. ”I don’t know who they plan to sell the newspaper to.”

In his view, with such a high illiteracy rate, there was simply no big market for newspapers, magazines, or the like.

If it weren’t for the fact that the only newspaper was supported by the ruling group, it would have probably gone bankrupt long ago.

Since the federal people were not afraid of spending money, then let them spend it.

During this period, some people had also sent over some of the magazines and books that the federal people were distributing locally. After Diego had flipped through them for a while, he had not found any problems. The main content was about the social forms, the humanistic culture of the Federation, and also some of the tourist scenery.

In all the content, there was nothing radical. It all seemed very peaceful, with the main focus on introducing the content of the Federation.

Compared to suspecting whether the federal people were hiding something in their cultural exchange and promotion, Diego was actually more concerned about the issue of taxation.

”I’ve been thinking about this these few days. The federal people have set up factories in our country, and then they have produced goods with an extremely cheap production cost, and then they have transported them to the Federation to be sold, and have made more money.”

”What have we, in this whole process, gotten?”

”Just take those liquors as an example. The cost of the wine they produce here may only be a few dollars, but after being transported to the Federation, it can be sold for three or four times the price. This is clearly an exploitation of our cheap labor.”

”We need to come up with some measures.”

He shifted his butt again, and the center of gravity of his body went to the other side. ”Taxation!”

Taxation is a big project. Diego wanted to change the standard of taxation. He believed that more and more foreigners would come to Rapa to find development opportunities.

It was very likely that they would, like Lance, build factories, produce, and then take the goods and the profits back to the Federation, but not leave anything for them.

So Diego wanted to make some reforms to the tax law. For example, the people who worked for the factories established by foreigners needed to pay an extra sum of money. He had not yet thought of a good name for it.

Today he had gathered everyone here, just to talk about this matter. They had to find a way to, from the federal people, and from the people who worked for the Federation, to squeeze out some more oil and water.

Rapa was too poor, so poor that they were already clearly very rich, but as long as there was an opportunity, they would definitely pounce on it and bite.

After a day’s time, Pedro had finally arrived in Zhuolan.

This was his fifth time in Zhuolan. Every time he came to this city, he had a different mood.

At the very beginning, he had felt that Zhuolan was the most magnificent and spectacular city in the world, until he had taken a trip to the Jede Republic.

Then he had felt that the Jede Republic was the most prosperous place in the world, and this place could only be considered average.

Until he had seen the Federation in the movies.

The high-rise buildings in the movie were firmly imprinted in his heart. He couldn’t imagine how a two- or three-hundred-meter building was built.

Would standing on it feel the same as standing on a mountain?

The more he was amazed by the skyscrapers, the more he felt the dilapidation, the backwardness of Zhuolan.

Sitting on the swaying ox cart, he was thinking about a problem.

The money of the Rapa people, where on earth has it all gone?