America: Starting with Daily Intelligence
Chapter 98: Honoring the Virtuous and Humble

Chapter 98: Chapter 98: Honoring the Virtuous and Humble

Allen Zhang thought long and hard before immediately waking Dominic to ask if he had heard about the Moden Brothers, the Irish, and the Short-tailed Dog.

Dominic woke up groggy and rubbed his eyes, "Why are you asking about this? The Moden Brothers? They seem to be a team formed by local scavengers. They are all gamblers and smokers, true street toughs, often arrested for Zero-Dollar Purchase or insurance fraud."

"The leaders are two white men who came from poor communities, evolving into a family-run model, with over a dozen streets and several ordinary communities under their control. Outsiders looking to join the Moden Brothers are required to change their last name. At most, they used to have about thirty people. Later, wanting to step into drug trafficking, they offended other street gangs, leading to violent conflicts, now only seven or eight are left. One of the Moden Brothers even got crushed to death by a garbage truck."

"The Irish are scavengers living in abandoned sewers, without much fixed territory, but often they use their numbers to cross boundaries and snatch up and hoard cans on other people’s streets, mainly dominating the automatic recycling machines on the streets and in stores."

To prevent malicious competition, the City Government’s can recycling machines are limited to dispensing 200 US Dollars per day, but basically, that all goes to the Irish because no one else can beat them to it, and using the automatic machines also avoids the profit margin taken by the recycling stations.

"Many of them are illegal immigrants and criminals from Europe, with all sorts of eye and hair colors, I don’t know why they always call themselves Irish." Dominic felt puzzled.

"The Short-tailed Dogs are a group of unemployed Mexican workers who settled in unfinished buildings after failing to get their wages, often engaging in petty theft. The police can’t drive them away during sweeps because they stick around like chewing gum."

"There was an incident where the police accidentally injured an unemployed worker, and they blocked the entrances of the City Government and the police station to demonstrate and protest, refusing to leave and causing quite a stir. The construction site contractors shirked responsibility, and the City Government turned a blind eye, so as time went on, no one wanted to deal with them anymore. Many of the local Zero-Dollar Purchases, including the one from the day before yesterday, were proposed and organized by them. They have the most people, over thirty."

"These three teams are also well-known scavenger organizations in Fifth Street, often having private frictions over interests, but they have nothing to do with us, and there’s no need for us to provoke them."

Dominic wasn’t too interested in this as Lori Louis 19 had always maintained a street social state of ’if nobody bothers me, I won’t bother anybody.’

If there was work to do, they’d show face and join, if not, they’d slack off. This attitude of muddling along was also the everyday spirit of many street groups.

"That’s exactly why, if we want to make more money, we need to expand our territory and talk to them," said Allen Zhang. "With so many of them, they should be able to get guns easily, right?"

"Unlikely. There was a Japanese team arrested for illegal possession of firearms before, sentenced to decades of prison, most of them deported back to their country, a few fled to San Francisco. If they had guns, that would make them a gang, and they wouldn’t even need to be reported, other gangs would take them down!"

"Unless they had CCW permits, but those are illegal Mexican workers and Europeans, with no legal status even to apply for a gun license, let alone carry one legally."

Dominic explained, "The reason why so many of them live in peace is that they’re not involved in drug trafficking or organ trading or any gang-related jobs, at most just illegal Zero-Dollar Purchases and can collecting, relatively harmless."

"Lori Louis 19 is the same, Sieg’s situation is a bit special. And our relationship with the police is pretty good now!"

At least the police haven’t been patrolling here much recently, and when they do come, it’s just to inspect the bridge hole next door.

For Lori Louis 19’s little yellow duck logo, the situation is mostly one of indifference.

But you’d better understand some things: don’t commit crimes on your own initiative, and if you do, don’t get caught by the cops. Even if you do get caught, never admit you’re one of the Little Yellow Ducks. Claim you’re a good citizen, just a regular homeless person.

Otherwise, the cops will have a headache trying to find an excuse to let you off the hook, especially with those body cams they wear making it difficult to justify such a decision. Aren’t you making things difficult for others?

As long as the Beggar Gang Disciples don’t cause trouble for the cops, don’t get in their faces and deliberately stir things up, the cops will generally turn a blind eye.

After getting the recent status updates on these three scavenger organizations, Allen let Dominic continue sleeping.

He then stepped out of the RV to find Sieg, who had moved to sleep under the bridge in a tent.

Sieg was already up, having just finished his morning exercise and washed his face, now sitting on the sofa wrestling with the wheel, having skillfully dismantled the Trek Bicycle.

Beside the sofa lay a tactical chest pack, bulging no doubt with a handgun and a submachine gun!

"Boss, is there something you need me to do?" Sieg asked curiously, now quite accustomed to Allen Zhang’s visits.

Each time Allen came to him, it was definitely for some task.

"Sieg, there’s no need for you to collect cans for the next few days. I want you to start recruiting some homeless people to join us. Let’s move up the plan to strengthen our team," Allen Zhang stated his purpose.

He didn’t really expect Sieg to bring in a host of elite talents for the Beggar Gang; haste won’t get you anywhere, people can be slowly influenced, but the quality must be high.

"Ideally, they’d be excellent ex-military folks like you who have ended up on the streets. It’ll also make the CCW certification process more manageable later," Allen Zhang pondered aloud.

"If we weren’t a team of scavengers, I might even think you’re trying to incite a rebellion, haha," Sieg joked, striking a balance in his humor.

"There are indeed many like me, but those who have it even worse than I did before, perhaps without even an identity left, are few and far between now. Many of my old friends, former classmates, and military subordinates have become unemployed in recent years. I’ve also met quite a few homeless ex-military folks recently. I can only try my best to persuade them to join us."

Sieg made a joke out of his hardship, raising the wrench in his hand and readily agreeing, "As soon as I get this bike fixed, I’ll go recruit for you. Though I still need to figure out how to convince them to join the team since I don’t have the gift of gab like you do."

"Sincerity is the ultimate trump card. If there’s really someone who impresses you, you can message me, and I’ll personally go and persuade them!"

In ancient times, Liu Bei visited Zhuge Liang’s cottage thrice to invite the sleeping dragon to assist in achieving great deeds. Today, I, Allen Zhang, operate the Beggar Gang’s business on the West Coast, and I can certainly afford to honor and recruit talent.

But it’s one thing for Sieg himself to become homeless, yet even his former military subordinates and brothers have fallen on hard times—isn’t that taking things a bit too far?

Dare you say you had no influence on this?