United Strike

The two plainclothes officers chose to use knives to avoid making too much noise. This was the workers' area, and if they used guns, the noise would be too loud and alert the workers, making it difficult to escape unscathed. Besides, they felt that two people could easily handle an unsuspecting worker representative.

At that moment, Fagin turned around and entered a narrow alleyway, so narrow that one could easily brace themselves against the walls with their arms outstretched. The two plainclothes officers quickly followed, but when they looked inside, they found the alleyway completely empty, without a single person in sight.

"Damn it, he spotted us!" The two men immediately drew their knives and gave chase. They figured the worker representative must have turned a corner ahead.

The alley was narrow, allowing the two to run one after the other. Officer Tony, running ahead, suddenly heard a thud behind him, as if Jim, who was following behind, had fallen. He quickly turned around and was startled by what he saw.

Jim lay motionless on the ground, unsure whether he was unconscious or dead. The worker representative they had been tracking stood calmly beside him. It turned out that after entering the alley, Fagin had immediately climbed onto the nearby rooftop, and as Tony and Jim ran past below, he struck them from above, knocking Jim unconscious.

Tony realized that the worker representative in front of him had ambushed them. He didn't have time to think about how the man had suddenly appeared behind them and knocked Jim down in an instant. But looking at the smile on his opponent's face and his calm demeanor, Officer Tony knew that he had now become the prey instead of the hunter.

He then leaped back to create distance, drew his revolver from his waist, pointed it at the worker representative charging at him, and pulled the trigger—but the gun didn't fire; a finger was holding the hammer down.

The finger naturally belonged to Fagin. Compared to Officer Tony, Fagin was faster; just as Tony jumped back, Fagin leaped forward and closed in. Tony had barely raised his gun when Fagin had already placed a finger on the hammer. Then, with a twist of his wrist, the gun barrel changed direction.

While struggling with Fagin to prevent his opponent from taking the gun, Tony simultaneously thrust a butterfly knife at Fagin with his left hand. He didn't expect to hit his opponent; he just hoped to force him back and keep his gun.

But Fagin was faster. With a flick of his right hand, he struck Tony's wrist, causing Tony's thrust to miss its mark. Immediately afterward, Fagin took a half-step forward and slammed his right shoulder into Tony's chest.

This knocked Tony flying, and the gun naturally slipped from his hand. He lost his footing and fell to the ground with a thud. Luckily, this was the slums, and the ground was all dirt. If it were on the cobblestone streets of the wealthy area, this guy would probably have been knocked unconscious.

Even so, the fall was quite severe. Tony felt pain all over his body, as if all the bones in his body were about to fall apart. He tried to get up, but at that moment, a foot stepped on his chest.

Tony looked up and saw the worker representative, holding a revolver in one hand and a butterfly knife in the other, smiling as he asked, "What are you following me for?"

"We...we just saw you acting suspiciously...I'm warning you, I'm a police officer! Don't mess around, put down your gun, you're still a law-abiding citizen..."

"Are you a cop?" Fagin stared into Tony's eyes. "Why did you pull out a knife when you saw me acting suspiciously? Don't try to fool me, that guy over there is just passed out. I'll ask him about it in a minute, and if your stories don't match, I guarantee you'll be in for a world of hurt."

"We... we really are just..."

Fagin gave a cold laugh.

"It was Raine, it was Mr. Raine, he ordered us to take action and kill those worker representatives..."

Fagin sneered, then stomped down hard. With a crack, Tony's ribs snapped. The broken ribs pierced his lungs and heart, Tony blood immediately gushed from his mouth and nose. In the blink of an eye, Fagin was dead.

Fagin then turned and, in the same manner, killed Jim as well. The Thames River was not far away; disposing of the body would have been easy. However, Fagin worried that other worker representatives might face the same danger—not every representative had his skill; and he also wanted to leave something behind to warn the police. So, after a moment's thought, he used the blood spit out by the two policemen to write the following sentence on their clothes, "This is the end for the lackeys of capitalism! -- Fagin"

Having done all this, Fagin hurried toward the Rhodes Textile Mill.

Fortunately, the worker representatives from the Rhodes Textile Mill were all unharmed. Fagin recounted the situation to everyone and then asked, "How are you? Are you scared? If you are, it might not be too late to back out now."

"What's there to be afraid of? We're already living like this, we're all going to die sooner or later anyway, what's there to be afraid of?"

"That's right, that's right!"

"Anyone who's fucking scared is a coward!"

Fagin looked around at everyone and then said, "Since no one wants to quit, I'm going to tell you something even more secret. Before I say this, anyone who wants to quit can quit; after I say this, if anyone tries to go and join those rich people, I'll kill their entire family. You all know I used to be in the underworld. In the underworld, the important thing is to be trustworthy, to keep your word. If you say you'll kill someone's entire family, you really mean it!"

"We don't have any such scabs here!" everyone echoed.

"Okay, do you all know about the 'Brazil Trade Fair'?" Fagin asked...

After discussing the collective strike, Fagin returned to Petticoat Lane, found the Butcher, and asked him to warn everyone to be careful during this time.

"Those guys have started using dirty tricks."

"Boss, what do we do?"

"They'll kill, but we won't?" Fagin said. "They dare to come to our territory and cause trouble, so let them suffer a bit."

"Hmm!" The Butcher nodded, then asked, "What if, boss, they send a lot of people?"

"Send a lot of people?" Fagin laughed. "Butcher, you know what? I learned a whole new tactic in Ireland called 'flipping'..."

The following day, gunfire and bloodshed echoed throughout London's slums. That evening, the London Police Department took stock and discovered that nearly half of the spies sent to the slums had not returned. However, the bodies of the two policemen killed by Fagin were brought back.

"Is there no law anymore? Is there no justice?!" The newly appointed police commissioner, Sir Hugh, roared angrily at the two policemen's corpses and the provocative writing on them. "Are the slums of London not His Majesty's land? Tomorrow morning, tomorrow morning, gather all our men there, and arrest all the suspects! I will not rest until this lawless land is razed to the ground!"

Similarly, that evening, representatives of the Textile Workers' Union began to evacuate and go into hiding, because Jacques Gollen had sent intelligence that there were signs of a large-scale mobilization of the London police.

Although Raine was already a millionaire, he still maintained his hardworking habits. He would get up before dawn every day. He would have breakfast first, then study various reports, and then get up to go for a walk on the balcony.

The air quality in the wealthy area was slightly better than in the poorer area, since it was farther from the factories and chimneys. But it still couldn't compare to the countryside. Raine looked towards the poorer area and saw one or two spots starting to smoke.

"Very good, these guys have started making their move. I told you long ago, the police department must be strict and decisive, and teach those poor bastards a lesson! It should have been done a long time ago, let's see who dares to do it now... Hahahaha..."

However, before Raine's laughter could even fade, a sudden explosion rang out nearby. The sound of the explosion rattled the windows.

"Watch out!" Before Raine could react, his bodyguard tackled him to the ground on the balcony. Then he heard a series of explosions and gunshots outside.

The bodyguards escorted Raine back into the house, and Raine, along with his wife, son, and daughter, hid in the tunnel and moved to a safer area. Meanwhile, his bodyguards were engaged in a fierce battle with the masked attackers outside.

"Don't fight head-on. We just need to make a scene and bring the police back," one of the masked men ordered. Several masked men then threw out their Little Melon and retreated during the explosion. Raine's bodyguards didn't give chase—their mission was to protect Raine and Raine property. What the masked men did was none of their business. What if, just what if they killed some of Mr. Raine's "friends"? Perhaps Mr. Raine would be very pleased.

On this day, Fagin and his men took advantage of the depleted police force in the wealthy district to raid the residences of several rich businessmen. Chief Inspector Hugh was forced to urgently recall the dispatched officers to protect these "respectable people." In the afternoon, the chief was also summoned to the palace by the enraged King, who gave him a severe dressing-down. Although the attacks by these "madmen" did not actually cause many casualties, the entire upper class of London was shaken.

Parliament immediately convened an emergency meeting. Some demanded the immediate deployment of troops to prepare for suppression, while others opposed it, fearing such an action would trigger a France- style revolution. Of course, many more worried that such an incident before the Paris Trade Fair would disrupt their business dealings. Ultimately, Parliament severely reprimanded the police department and demanded increased police presence to restore order as soon as possible.

But early the next morning, almost all the textile workers in London launched a general strike.