Empire of Shadows

”Mr. White!”

The people coming off the cruise ship finally gathered together. After Lance shook hands with each of them, he had them get into the cars.

The dock was not a place to talk business, and neither was the hotel.

Lance was already very careful, and now that the Jede Republic had also begun to interfere in Rapa’s affairs, he would only be more so.

The car was not a place to talk business, so Lance didn’t say a word along the way, until the bus stopped at Lance’s manor.

There were many small, detached houses here. Sometimes when it was necessary to receive some people, these small houses would come in handy.

Capital’s efficiency is very high, because they, more than the politicians, understand the truth that ”time is money.”

The group briefly changed into a set of clean clothes, and then they appeared in a reception room in the main building of the manor. They sat in different places, representing different forces.

And Lance sat in the very center.

McGreg Industries has always been one of the top arms industry groups in the Federation. Their most outstanding, and at the same time, their most ’unpresentable’ weapon, is the ”McGreg Defense Revolver.”Yes, it’s the standard issue for the federal police. Hundreds of thousands of federal police officers are using these weapons, and every few years, there will be a simple iteration.

In fact, the replacement frequency of a police handgun is not as high as people imagine. After all, it’s impossible for all police officers, the moment they see a criminal, regardless of what the criminal has done, to directly empty their magazines.

The federal government and the law will not allow them to do this, and the rich will not allow it either.

So most police officers will not casually use the weapons issued to them by the police department to fire at will. At the same time, for those police officers who like to shoot, most of them will not use the very troublesome small-caliber revolvers.

They will buy their own semi-automatic handguns, modify them, and then use them.

For example, Chief Bruce in Golden Port City, he has a semi-automatic handgun that can be loaded with 18 rounds. The firepower is stronger, and the endurance is also longer.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that it’s just double the bullets. In an actual close-range shooting, the huge advantage is enough to allow them to preserve their own lives to a greater extent.

So in fact, the replacement frequency of the police department’s handguns should be very low.

Should be.

The reason why such an uncertain word was used is because the replacement speed of the police department is actually very fast.

In two or three years, there will be a huge replacement.

In a time of no war, to be able to sell millions of weapons every two or three years, McGreg Industries has always been in the first tier of this industry.

They have spent a lot of money to lobby the key figures in each state, and have even had Congress, in the form of an ”opinion,” to require the local police to maintain at least how many shooting practices each year.

A firearm, this thing, also has a durability. When the number of bullets it has fired reaches a certain number, the accuracy will drop, and it will be easy to miss.

At this time, McGreg Industries will begin to sell their weapons to the police departments.

As the big brother of the firearms industry, the representative of the McGreg Industrial Group was, naturally, also the first to speak. ”Mr. White, I hear that the Diego government has just taken in a batch of weapons and equipment worth ten million. Is that right?”

Lance, with his legs crossed, nodded. ”Yes. I’ve also inquired a little. It was aided by the Jede Republic.”

”This is a more official statement. But I have also heard that this is actually, after the Jede Republic has completed a round of re-equipment, they have sent the obsolete weapons here in the name of half-aid, half-sale.”

The Jede Republic, in order to fight against the possible military competition, had, at the end of last year, completed some re-equipment plans.

For example, to change the soldiers to the weapons they had produced and designed themselves. Of course, the bullets still needed to be imported from the Federation. They were still unable to achieve mass production.

The assembly line is a problem, the metal formula is also a problem, and also the gunpowder formula.

The Jede Republic is afraid that what if the Yalan League and the Federation reach a point where they must go to war, at least they will not have so much pressure on their logistics.

To suddenly have a large batch of military equipment replaced, if they were just thrown there, would also be a waste. At the suggestion of a cabinet member, they had exported them to Rapa.

Military equipment, which might have cost twenty or thirty million Federal Sols at its original price, could now be bought for just a little over ten million, and most of them were 80-90% new.

As for the more detailed content, Lance was not very clear.

Listening to Lance’s simple narrative, a look of dissatisfaction appeared on the face of one of the representatives. ”They are destroying our market. This kind of behavior should be stopped!”

Lance glanced at the other party. He didn’t know him.

Logically, the scale of Rapa’s arms market would not be too large. At most, it would be a market of a hundred million. It was not necessary for so many enterprises to swarm in. After all, the congressional side would give them a lot of orders.

However, in fact, the congressional orders are not evenly distributed. Some get more, and some get less.

The core of business competition is to drive the other party to extinction. Even if they don’t make money in the Rapa market, they can’t let their competitors continue to expand, and to grow.

This world war, for these arms industry enterprises, was an unprecedented opportunity, and at the same time, it was also a fierce internal competition of survival of the fittest.

After the war is over, there will definitely be some arms industry groups here that will be annexed, or will disappear from the Federation.

And a market of a hundred million, is not considered small.

”The Rapa government’s approach is too disappointing. It seems we may not get any big orders here.”

Someone had said something rather discouraged. Including the representative of McGreg Industries, his face also showed a look of difficulty.

They had come a step too late. The most lucrative order had been destroyed by the Jede Republic.

Although they could also get in touch with the anti-government armed forces’ side, and could also supply them with all kinds of weapons and equipment, compared to a government procurement, these people might not have much money, and might not be able to buy much.

Looking at their somewhat lost appearance, Lance coughed, attracting their gaze.

Seeing that everyone’s gaze was focused, Lance said with a smile, ”I have a not-so-mature idea.”

The representative of Gray Industries was the first to speak. ”Please speak, Mr. White.”

Lance nodded, sorted out his thoughts again, and then said, ”The use of weapons is definitely just to open fire, to shoot, these.”

”Bullets are consumables, and the consumption of every battle is huge.”

All the representatives nodded one after another. The world war had already proved this. They had already provided about 10 billion bullets (in two years) to the federal army. This was definitely an astonishing number.

”So, now, the Rapa government army, and those rebel forces, how much of a reserve do they have?”

”If we stop exporting the standard-caliber rifle bullets to the Yalan region, and only export the non-standard-caliber rifle bullets, can we force them to re-equip?”

Lance looked at the two representatives who were sitting in the very front. ”I don’t know much about this, but I believe that to design a weapon that is specially used for export, with its own unique caliber, should not be a very difficult matter.”

His words had immediately attracted the high attention of these representatives. Until now, the arms industry groups had not thought of taking out some of their weapons to make an export version, and they had not even thought of making a separate caliber of weapons.

As the pressure of supplies on the front line was getting heavier and heavier, the Federal Military Committee had already requested the arms industry enterprises to unify the caliber. What caliber of rifles, including the specifications of the bullets, all had a standard.

This way, the pressure of supplies on the battlefield would be reduced, and the probability of errors would also be reduced.

To unify the standard is a rule that must be followed. But Congress had not said that the weapons exported to other countries must also follow this rule.

This had immediately made these representatives realize that this was a good opportunity for the entire Yalan League to have a major re-equipment!

Because the Yalan League’s bullets are completely dependent on imports, as long as they no longer sell the standard bullets to the Yalan League, and only sell the export-version-specification bullets, in order to match these bullets, they must re-equip!

Including the Jede Republic, which had just completed a round of re-equipment!

This method... was a bit unethical.

Because once the bullets were no longer exported, it would mean that the standard bullets that the Yalan League currently had would become a ”swan song,” and at the same time, it would also make all the countries on this continent very uncomfortable.

Especially the Jede Republic. They had just finished re-equipping.

Now, you have to ask if you want to use these weapons or not.

A battle can easily use up hundreds of thousands, or millions of bullets. How many can he store?

The Federation, in two years, had only produced over ten billion. Before, it had always been stable, with no war, no chaos. How many bullets could the Jede Republic have in reserve?

And these changes had all started from the end of last year. At that time, the Federation’s arms industry enterprises had still been mainly supplying the main battlefield.

If it weren’t for the fact that they wanted to put a squeeze on Slad, perhaps the Federation’s arms industry groups would not have been likely to export bullets to the Yalan League.

Now they had gotten some bullets, but the reserves were definitely not enough for a continuous use, which would be very awkward.

Training consumes bullets, and war consumes bullets. As it happens, there are no bullets.

They were about to face a difficult problem. The weapons they had just re-equipped with, had not yet been put into actual use, and had already been eliminated.

This would be a huge trouble!

Soon, these representatives in the room had figured this out. Their eyes, as they looked at Lance, were also filled with a very special emotion, as if they were saying... this is a ruthless man.

The ruthless part was that Lance had just used two sentences to completely disintegrate the Jede Republic’s development in the arms industry!

They had spent seven or eight years to research their own weapons. They had finally gotten some results, but in the end, all their research had been in vain.

The difficulty of the technology and craftsmanship of manufacturing firearms is smaller than that of manufacturing bullets. Many countries have their own ability to manufacture weapons, but to be able to manufacture bullets is very difficult.

Not to mention, this is still an era where science is not so advanced. In the whole world, there are only seven or eight countries that can produce their own bullets, and the Jede Republic is not among them.

As for whether there would be anyone who would, for the sake of a huge profit, to risk being sunk by the federal navy to smuggle, there might be.

But the bullets brought by this scale of smuggling were simply not enough to support them to launch a war!

In the face of their shocked gazes, Lance smiled with a reserved look, as if he were saying, ”This is nothing.”

”This matter... we need to report it to the company. The congressional side may also need to communicate.”

”Mr. White’s suggestion, I will also submit it...”

This was no longer just Rapa’s business, but the business of the entire Yalan region. This was a market of several hundred million or even more. They, of course, needed to attach importance to it.

Just a ”representative,” may not have the authority to make some decisions. They needed the parent company to send more advanced employees here.

Lance did not stop them. Soon they had all returned to their own rooms, and had begun to contact the people above.

The cable that Lance and the Federation used for communication was a dedicated, separate line, which was pulled directly from the submarine cable to Lance’s manor, so now there was no need to worry about any leaks.

In less than an hour, Senator Cleveland’s call had come. ”You’ve found something for us to do again.”

Senator Cleveland’s tone was not filled with any dissatisfaction. This suggestion, to force the Yalan region’s military equipment to be re-equipped, as soon as it had been reported, had immediately alarmed the high-level of the various arms industry groups, and had also alarmed Congress.

Because this was already a regional strategic plan, not some simple business plan.

It could even be seen as a military force restriction plan for the Yalan League. They had discovered an important point from this, which was that the Yalan League was overly dependent on the Federation’s bullet exports.

If the Federation didn’t give them bullets, their weapons wouldn’t be able to fire.

But there was also a problem here.

”We just had a simple discussion. There are still some gentlemen by my side. I will put it on speaker.”

The senator had first given a reminder, and then he could be heard putting the receiver on the desk, and it was not ”gently,” but very ordinarily, just putting it down, and it had even made some sound.

He had just, in order to let this sound remind Lance, to give him some time to figure out the current situation.

Then, after a few seconds, more voices had come into the receiver. ”Can you hear me?” Senator Cleveland asked.

Lance immediately replied, ”I can hear you.”

”Very good. When we were discussing just now, someone had raised a question. That is, if the Jede Republic’s side develops its own bullets, what should we do?”

”This possibility is not non-existent. And after our discussion, we think that the possibility is not small.”

”Compared to continuing to change equipment and to continue to rely on the Federation’s bullet input, the president of the Jede Republic, with a high probability, will choose to develop his own bullets.”

”I’ve heard of this person. He is very capable. He and his father have turned that broken place of Jede into a country that is now becoming strong.”

”If they are allowed to continue to grow, maybe one day they will also threaten us.”

This was clearly a joke. The Jede Republic’s industrial strength, compared to the Federation’s, was too far behind. By the time he had the ability to threaten the current technological and industrial level of the Federation, the Federation would have long since been able to fly out of the planet and into outer space.

Some of the congressmen around had also laughed out loud. It was clear that they could also tell that this was a joke with a strong sense of ridicule for the Jede Republic.

Lance also laughed twice. ”Actually, this matter... I have also considered it before. It is not difficult to solve.”

”If the Jede Republic’s side knows that we will stop exporting standard bullets, then assuming they are indeed willing to research and produce their own bullets, then we will help them.”

Senator Cleveland asked in a slightly puzzled tone, ”Help them?”

”How to help?”

Lance laughed out loud. ”There is a what-his-name arms industry group’s engineer, who, because he had failed in the office politics, and he just so happens to have mastered the production and R&D technology of bullets.”

”Now he is being persecuted, and has no choice but to leave the Federation, and is in exile in the Yalan League region, and has just so happened to be discovered by the people on the Jede Republic’s side.”

”Then he can help the Jede Republic to waste time, energy, and resources on a wrong R&D route. They have invested a large amount of resources, but in the end, they will get nothing.”

”We actually don’t need too long. As long as we can make it so that they can’t make it themselves in two or three years, it will be fine.”

Lance’s proposal had made the gentlemen in the room on the other end of the line forget to evaluate it. This suggestion was really... fucking... despicable.

But between a country and a country, a force and a force, there is no moral standard. There is no such thing as good or bad, only successful, and failed.

”This idea is not bad. They will be very nervous. When they can’t find a clue in a short period of time, they will definitely be more dependent on external forces.”

”You are a good one, Lance. You have widened some of our ways of thinking again.”

”However, I won’t be handing this over to you to do. I will have Mr. President award you a Gold Heart Medal.”

Then he had turned off the speaker, and had picked up the phone again, and had asked Lance about the progress of his side.

When he had learned that Lance was still continuing to push the conflict, the clash between the Diego government and the anti-government armed forces, he had continuously nodded and praised his ability.

In Lance’s words, what he was doing now was to force those in Rapa who had a ”rebellious bone” to all jump out, and to let them and those staunch ”conservative forces” fight a life-and-death war.

As long as these two groups of people are not almost dead, the civil war will not end.

When they are almost dead, the rest will be the ”gentle lambs in God’s pasture,” honest, obedient, and easy to rule.

This call would not cause any huge changes in a short period of time, but the federal government had already begun to stop exporting any standard-specification rifle bullets and handgun bullets to the Yalan region.

At the same time, Congress had, on the second day, with an unprecedented speed, passed the ”Federal Standard-Issue Weapons Export Trial Act.” It did not, in it, blatantly say that it was not allowed to export standard weapons, but had used some relatively roundabout words.

For example, considering the national security of the Federation, so now it is required that the arms suppliers must provide a domestic sales version and an export version. The export version, in terms of weapon performance, must be slightly lower than the current federal version.

The bill had not alarmed anyone, nor would anyone make a deep interpretation of this low-impact bill.

The arms industry groups’ side was also willing to cooperate. After all, to ”bloody-wash” the market again was also what they had hoped for.