Chapter 1669: No Time to Die (32)
The Penguin was not shocked yet, Batman who was watching a movie in the Batcave was stunned first.
Of course he knew about the mayoral election, and he knew what Lincoln March was like. After all, he had dealt with March before the universe was restarted.
Robin, Penguin, and Mayoral Election are all normal when seen separately, but they look weird when they are combined together, or it is weird that these three words can be combined together.
At this time, the Joker sitting on the sofa had already started laughing. He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, opened a new bag of potato chips with a bang, and said while throwing the snacks into his mouth.
"I have to say, this is a good choice. If they really want to achieve their goal, they naturally have to find enough of their own people, and they must be spread across all walks of life and all classes. Oswald Cobblepot has been trapped in the identity of a gangster boss and a businessman for many years. Who can say that he has no ambition to go further?"
The Joker put one leg horizontally on the other leg, shook his feet, and then said: "He has a lot, but he lacks more. Violence can help him protect his industry in a city full of chaos, but if he wants to go further, he lacks a long-term vision, a deep understanding, and a real gangster mentality."
Batman's fingertips moved gently, This meant that he was interested in a word in the Joker's words, so he repeated the word: "Gangster mentality..."
"Have you ever thought about why Italian gangs can flourish in America? They even got rid of the stereotype that street gangs are not worthy of being in the upper class, and developed a unique family culture and godfather culture."
"Oh, Batman, of course you have thought about it!" The Joker deliberately raised his voice and said, "After all, you destroyed it all with your own hands. You killed the Italians."
"Falcone's death was just an accident." Batman was silent for a while, as if he had accepted the current situation, and he really said it like a casual chat.
"The success and failure of the Italian mafia all come from the same reason. They need a leader with enough charisma. He is the head of the mafia, the shepherd of the flock, and the father of everyone."
"His strength, wisdom and impeccability bring confidence and motivation to all Italian mafia families. He is more like a cultural symbol that brings all families together."
"But at the same time, if he dies without a convincing enough successor to take over, the family will collapse in an instant - it is the Italians who killed themselves."
The Joker smiled a little bit badly as if he suddenly thought of something, then he put his thumb on his lower lip and asked: "Do you think Cobblepot can become the godfather of the mafia?"
Batman thought for a while and said: "I am more concerned about what the Robins want to do. It seems that you know more than me, Joker."
"Yes, but I won't tell you so easily, Batman. You should open a few more eyes and keep a close eye on any changes in the city as usual."
The Joker turned his head back, squinted his eyes slightly and looked at the screen and said, "Then you will understand that a monster born in the dark should not throw its eggs out of the nest, because even I can't guess what can be hatched from it."
"Now, Nottingham Street, Baladi Street and Swan Street in Gotham's Midtown have formed a perfect triangular block, with a radiation range of half of the Midtown, and even the upper and lower right corners of the triangle can radiate to the upper and lower cities."
On the top floor of an apartment building on the corner of Nottingham Street, Jason was holding a baton and pointing at the topographic map he had just drawn on the blackboard. He knocked on the center of the triangular area and said.
"We will eventually establish the Neville family's base in the center of three streets, and then expand outward in turn until the entire Midtown area is included in our sphere of influence. But to control such a large territory, we need to attract enough people first. Do you have any good suggestions?"
Dick, Tim and Aisha were sitting on the sofa. They pointed to the topographic map drawn on the blackboard and expressed their suggestions. They did not notice that a small black spot outside the window of the building flashed in the center, and the scene inside the house was captured by the camera, which was in full view.
When Batman heard the name of the "Neville" family, he opened his eyes slightly. This kind of simple word game could not be hidden from the Joker, and naturally could not be hidden from Batman, but at this time, he still did not think that all this was Robin's own idea.
Because according to the usual logic, they did not have such a motive. No matter which world Robin was, they were Batman's adopted son and his good assistant. Although their styles of doing things were slightly different, most of them were righteous and had no reason to become gangsters anyway.
But the situation that appeared on the screen next was once again beyond Batman's expectations, and even beyond the Joker's expectations.
After the two sets of Robins took over three streets in the Midtown area and established a solid rule, the small Robins began to exert their strength.
First, Jason began to look for all the children under the age of fifteen in the area, understand their situation, and gather them together.
The living conditions of the children in Gotham are not good now, or it can be said that it is much worse than the gang era.
This does not mean that the gangs are so good, but the gangs can use them, and the stronger individuals among them can at least find a way out.
Becoming a gangster is not a good way, it is barbaric and dangerous, and the probability of death is extremely high, but at least it is a way that can be continued and has room for advancement, and there is still a certain probability of improvement and development.
As long as you are young and strong enough, you can rise from the lowest level of the gang to a thug, participate in several fights, and become an old man from a newcomer. You can go to nightclubs or bars to watch the scene. As long as you are smarter than three or four people in one aspect, you can become the smallest leader and lead a few people under you, and your survival probability will be greatly improved.
If he were smarter, he could read people's eyes, use his position to make some extra money, bribe the boss of the upper level, and maybe he could climb up further and become a small boss of a low-level business place. If he studied some business that made money quickly, even if he died one day, at least he had enjoyed his life.
It seems that this upward space is going further and further on the road of crime, but people must have hope in life. Jason has seen what a life without upward space and hope will turn people into.
The three streets are very large and there are many children, but Jason mostly found them in dirty restaurant kitchens, dark and closed black-hearted factories, cramped and cold sewers, underground marijuana plantations that never see the sun, and even unsightly low-level brothels.
Most of these children are the product of a night of pleasure. The less educated people are, the more they focus on the momentary indulgence at the moment, and they never care about the consequences of indulgence, so the offspring they leave behind become the cheapest labor force.
They only need to guard the darkest alleys and the most chaotic red-light districts, pick up those children who were born and abandoned at random and feed them to the stutterers. Those who can grow up can work, and no one cares if they die of exhaustion, just like batches of consumables.
Those who can survive and escape by chance still cannot form a stable family, and can only linger in those areas and reproduce the next batch of offspring.
When the gang order exists, every working population is the wealth of the gang. Although there are no human rights, the gang knows that healthy reproduction is the root of obtaining sufficient combatants, so they will take the trouble to maintain and ensure stable population output as much as possible.
But without this rule, the reproduction of the lower-level human beings is more like producing livestock. They don’t need to be strong or smart. What can be exploited has changed from labor to every piece of meat on the body. It seems that it is still a human appearance, but when it is born, every part of the body has been marked with the price of picking.
This is the current situation of the lowest-level people in Gotham in the post-gang era. There is no upward channel. Living is just living. What is left is not even pain, but numbness.
When the Robins rushed into these places with guns to get the children out, they didn't even cry, scream or resist. They followed the instructions and honestly came to a room, then squatted down, looked at no one, said nothing, and just waited to be sold to the next place to repeat their lives.
Seeing the living environment of this group of children of the same age as himself, Jason once thought that if he fell into such a situation one day and was completely unable to resist, he would rather choose to die.
But standing in the room and watching the children with almost the same expressions crowded together, he understood again that these children would not die - the low point that can make normal people think of dying is even the peak of their lives.
But faced with such a situation, the Robins did not seem at a loss. They did not try to get these children to do something with them through passionate speeches. They just got some food to ensure that everyone would not starve to death, and then let these children stay in that room.
The Robins did not rush into the black factories angrily to shoot the bosses who exploited child labor, nor did they try to find the culprit. They just started to collect protection fees in a very simple and plain way.
Literally, they rushed into every business place in the block with guns, requiring everyone to squat with their heads in their hands and the boss to come out to see them. If they didn't pay, they would change the boss.
Not only that, they would take all the cash in the business store and the working capital in the boss's pocket, and then ask them to pay protection fees at a fixed time and place. If they couldn't pay, they would cut off water and electricity, and shit would come.
This behavior, which was very vague from burglary, accumulated a lot of funds for them in a short period of time. Facts have proved that the way to make money is indeed written in the criminal law. How fast this group of people exploited, how fast the Robins robbed.
But soon, some people who controlled these industries reacted, but they used the original way to deal with business opponents to deal with the suddenly revived traditional gangs, which seemed less effective.
The exchange of interests, the court debate, the hiring of assassins, and the shooting of each other, these mechanisms of redistribution of interests in the upper class of Gotham, which were originally popular in the post-gang era, could not stop the gangster model of directly intercepting resources from the bottom and middle.
Suddenly, the surging murderous intent in Gotham, which was originally hidden under the undercurrent, was like a broken vase, and with a "crash", it was clearly scattered on the table, piercing the fingertips of all the masterminds behind the scenes, making them bleed.