“You want to unite all the large and small forces here?” Aris was frightened by Zhang Heng’s plan. It wasn’t just him; the other patrol members were just as shocked.
After all, Blackmailing Iron Handcuff and coming out with a new set of rules to govern this chaotic place were two completely different things.
The number of people in Iron Handcuff’s gang was just a speck of dust in this place. Iron Handcuff could rough up this area’s thieves, but he was only a small-time gang boss in this entire place. There was nothing he and his men could do in the face of other bigger forces. On the other hand, Iron Handcuff’s manpower was twice that of the patrol team. If they had started a fight in the tavern just now, 80% of the patrol team would be unable to deal with all of them.
It was hard dealing with a small-time gang boss like Iron Handcuff, let alone dealing with the bigger gang. Thus, Aris and other patrol members started to doubt the authenticity of Zhang Heng’s plan. Unlike Aris, they probably expected Zhang Heng to lie. Although what Aris had said was the right thing to do, most of the patrol members still hoped to make more money with Zhang Heng. It was, however, also important that they did not lose their lives for the sake of making money.
“Yes. We’ll have to do this step by step,” Zhang Heng said, “As a patrol member, we are the perfect candidate to collect security fees from those gangs. However, we mustn’t stick our noses in their fights. At least that’s the case for now. If we are careless, the other gangs might oppose us and, worse, join forces to eliminate us. For now, we need to take down Iron Handcuff and his gang. We’ll use them as the foundation to absorb and cultivate smaller forces willing to swear loyalty to us. After we accumulate enough strength, we can launch an attack on the medium forces in this place. And finally, the large forces…”
Zhang Heng explained his action plan as simple as possible.
However, everyone still looked baffled after they heard his plan. After a while, Barbier spoke, “Can you tell us what we need to do next?”
“I just said that we need to take down Iron Handcuff and his men first.”
“Uh, haven’t we already done that?” Babil asked in confusion.
“Oh, you seem to have misunderstood something. We just took money from them. Do you really think that Iron Handcuff and his people will give in to us so easily? Taking 30% of their income is too much. It’s enough for them to risk their lives to fight with us.”
“What?” The patrol members were greatly taken aback.
“Don’t worry. He doesn’t want to make things worse. Otherwise, he would have attacked us at the tavern just now. After this, he will only target me alone,” Zhang Heng said. “If he is not stupid, he should know that I’m the mastermind. After all, the patrol team had always behaved well before I arrived. As long as they eliminate me, their problem would be automatically solved.”
“Is he going to kill you?” Barbier’s expression tightened.
“That’s not necessarily true. I am also a member of the patrol team, after all. The best solution for them is to teach me a lesson and drive me out of this place.” Zhang Heng said calmly.
As a result, not long after he finished speaking, a patrol member named Marcus suddenly said, “I’m with you.”
It had been two years since Marcus joined the patrol. He did not speak much during normal times and seemed to prefer to be alone. He would spend most of his time thinking about his affairs. That was why he did not have many friends from the patrol. Although he did not mind joining the group’s activities, he was still not very active overall.
No one expected that he would act so righteously tonight. To everyone’s surprise, he was willing to side with someone he barely knew for a day. He seemed to be planning to deal with the upcoming troubles with Zhang Heng.
Marcus explained, “I didn’t do this entirely for justice. You did a great job in the tavern earlier. And you are smarter than all of us. Since you know that insisting on asking for 30% of Iron Handcuff’s income will force them to make a move on you, you must have thought about how to deal with them later on. I think you are a more qualified leader than Aris. Instead of saying that I’m going to help you, it is better to say that I want to follow you.”
Zhang Heng was a little surprised. He learned about the patrol earlier. And he did not care much about other people except for Aris. Other than that, he also did not mind if they were willing to work with him since he might drag everyone into the troubles that he caused. And strictly speaking, Zhang Heng only wanted to gain the patrol member identity. He did not care much about the other patrol members.
To his surprise, he found a treasure here. Although this young man named Marcus spoke little, he had a clear mind, possessed great calmness, and at the same time, wasn’t indecisive. When he was required to make an important decision, he would never hesitate. With some training, Zhang Heng would be able to put him to great use.
Zhang Heng wanted to integrate all the large and small forces here. He certainly could not do it alone. He would need someone to help him. Zhang Heng’s original plan was to select suitable talents from the powerful gangs here to help him. However, it would be perfect if he could find someone great from the patrol team instead.
After all, the people in the team had the same goal as him. With Marcus taking the lead, several people on the team expressed their willingness to stand on Zhang Heng’s side and work with him to deal with Iron Handcuff and his men. This meant that the patrol team had begun to divide.
This seemed unbelievable at first glance. It had taken Aris many years to gain his team members’ trust and make his way up the ladder to become a captain eventually. However, Zhang Heng broke it in less than half a night.
This was actually an expected outcome. After all, the thing that Zhang Heng did in the tavern was so impressive that it shocked everyone. Of course, the most important thing was that he proved that those who followed him would never be short of money.
Although they were patrol members, most people do not possess such high moral standards as Aris, especially after staying here for a long time. They would be influenced by the culture here to a certain extent. When Aris questioned Zhang Heng earlier, some of the patrol members did not argue with Aris because he was, after all, their captain. In their opinion, since they did not rob the money from anyone on the streets, it was totally fine for them to take it. Besides, Iron Handcuff and his gang were the villains of this area. Some of them even blamed him for saying such a thing and stopped them from taking the money.
But to everyone’s surprise, Aris said afterward, “Let’s stop fighting. Zhang Heng is a member of the patrol team. His business is the patrol team’s business. How can we stand aside and watch someone attack him?”
After speaking, he stretched out his hand.
“What?” Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.
“My share of the money,” Aris demanded. “You won’t feel good if I don’t take the money, right?”
Zhang Heng knew Aris had figured out something. It was unsurprising that he was being assigned here. Aris knew that someone more powerful was trying to make his life difficult. Besides dealing with the gang problem here, Zhang Heng also had to look out for someone plotting against him in the dark. It was true that the thing that Zhang Heng did now was not legal. And, of course, Zhang Heng realized it too. He was cautious with the words that he used. There were a lot of things that he did not plan to do by himself.
But in any case, he would not reject the fact that Aris proved to him that he would never betray him.
“I will always keep one eye on you to see if you can fulfill your promise,” Aris said after taking the money.
“Welcome.” Zhang Heng said, “Actually, I don’t plan to change my final goal because I don’t intend to stay here too long.”
