The Mafia Empire

Julian laughed along with them. "Secondly, he's a famous big shot in high society. He has dless amounts of money, and countless people willing to help him, ev risking their lives for him. Hearing all this, are you feeling a bit scared? But not all those people are truly his; those willing to risk their lives for him may not be so eager if they don't get ough in return."

"So what else does he have besides money?"

"This society teaches us that if a man only has money but doesn't have the strgth to protect it himself, and can only rely on others' strgth, he will certainly lose, and he'll lose miserably."

"And here's the third point!"

Julian's eyes gleamed as he looked at every young face. "He's too wealthy, possessing everything people desire, while we have nothing! Precisely because we have nothing, what should we be afraid of? Ev if we lose, we either lose our worthless lives, or we leave this place that has nothing for us."

"But he's differt. He has too much, too many concerns. Each time he makes a choice, he has to think carefully about how it will affect the things he has.

"I could walk right up to his villa at 93 Wheat Fragrance Gards with a gun and pull the trigger, but would he dare do the same? No. He'd think it over, hesitate, and th pay someone to come find us. And ev th, he'd have to watch out for others and for the people he hires—who might not ev be willing to risk their lives!

"We can afford to lose, once, twice, ev more. We can afford to lose. But he cannot. If he loses just once, he will retreat into self preservation and lose everything.

"So, as I stand here, I'm telling every one of you: we will win!"

After the meeting, Dave pulled Julian aside, shielding him from the others as he whispered, "I heard that Wood has quite a few guns, at least several." His face showed a trace of worry. Guns held an overwhelming threat in gang wars, far beyond what numbers alone could resolve.

If the other side had just three or five shooters willing to fire, they could easily crush the morale and fighting spirit Julian had built up today.

Julian had actually considered this problem last night. He patted Dave on the shoulder, appreciating his sharp mind. It was rare, and extremely important, for someone to still be thinking in these critical momts. Julian glanced at the boys standing nearby and smiled, "I've thought it over already. We may not have guns, but we have bows!"

In the Star Empire, except for some developed cities, the land was mostly rural. In such undisturbed natural vironmts, wildlife oft became a serious problem. While some had proposed granting firearms to farmers and ranchers in the countryside, this idea was ultimately rejected. Instead, they distributed bows and arrows to replace guns.

This was done to prevt conquered people from obtaining ough firearms and ammunition to pottially start an uprising. Some extreme organizations among the conquered had armed themselves, but no one had se any uprisings or significant action.

At the core, people only pursued two things: power and wealth.

Of course, of this had much to do with Julian at the momt. The widespread use of bows instead of guns meant that many farmers in rural areas had developed dect archery skills. Almost every household could shoot. In the cities, there were ev archery clubs, although these were not op to ordinary farmers.

To the elites, the farmers didn't practice archery—they practiced hunting, an unsophisticated use of the bow.

Only they, using expsive, elaborate bows and shooting costly arrows, could call it archery.

In actual combat, bows were far more useful than handguns. A handgun's range was only about twty meters, while a bow's effective range exceeded fifty meters, with skilled hunters able to shoot targets from as far as eighty meters.

In direct combat, using bows would be far more effective than using handguns—and ev more surprising.

Seeing that Julian had already considered the matter, Dave said no more. His strgth lay in his bravery and ruthlessness, along with a certain level of intellect. But compared to Julian, he felt he was still a bit lacking. Plus, he was just a team leader, so he trusted that Julian could handle everything.

The bar continued to supply alcohol, but more people were now assigned to escort the goods. For several days, nothing happed, which left some in Ternell City who were aware of the situation feeling puzzled.

Shouldn't a fight have brok out by now? Why was there still no movemt from either side?

What they didn't know was that the two sides hadn't ev se each other yet, so how could they talk about fighting?

This tse, oppressive atmosphere was finally brok on the ninth day.

Graf stormed into Julian's office like a wounded bull. Julian, sitting calmly in his chair, looked at him without the slightest hint of emotion.

Graf felt utterly uncomfortable. He instinctively waved his arms, paced back and forth a few steps, th punched the newly rovated wall of the office. The wood panel shattered, costing him five dollars with that one punch. New wall panels, new wallpaper, and the labor to fix it—all together, it would cost a fortune for just that one spot.

"If you need to burn off some excess ergy, I suggest you head up to the third floor. I've hung several punching bags there, made of cowhide. If you manage to break one, I might be impressed."

After breaking the wall, Graf's frustration eased a bit. He slumped into a chair, which creaked under his weight. His hands cradled his head as he looked completely helpless. "My mother and my brother have be tak."

Julian knew that Graf had a mother, but it was the first time he learned he had a brother. A few years back, Graf had hidd in the wilderness to avoid being forcibly conscripted. He had mtioned this before, but he had never talked about having a brother. This left Julian feeling slightly displeased, though he hid it well. "Who took them, Wood?"