Chapter 123 Arrival in Palermo
"Have you thought of this result a long time ago?" Xiao Peng asked Pascal while eating oysters while driving the boat.
Pascal shrugged and said, "I'm not a god. This is really a pleasant surprise. But it's not surprising to see this happen. After all, this is Sicily."
Xiao Peng and his team spent three days on Lampedusa. Ancelotti fully demonstrated the hospitality of the Italian people. Xiao Peng and his team ate and took away everything, and when they left, the boat was loaded with a large amount of Lampedusa seafood. Although Lampedusa's tourism industry has declined significantly, the seafood here is still delicious.
Three days later they had to leave Lampedusa, not because Ancelotti wanted to kick them out, but because the Palermo Maritime Department had already processed their marine work permits - but Xiao Peng and his team hadn't even submitted the documents!
If this happened somewhere else, it would be unbelievable, but it is not surprising that it happened in Sicily. Sicily has been permeated with strangeness since ancient times.
Sicily has always been considered the most important strategic location in the Mediterranean. After the Greeks occupied it, the Carthaginians came, and after the Carthaginians left, the Romans came; after the Romans left, the Byzantines came; after the Byzantines left, the Arabs came. In a word, Sicily has a history of nearly 3,000 years, which has been spent in war. This is a true fusion of many ethnic groups.
When talking about Sicily, we cannot fail to mention the famous 'Mafia', also known as the B-gang.
The world-famous B-Party originated in Sicily. In the early 20th century, the B-Party was the ruler of Sicily. Even Mussolini disapproved of them.
When Mussolini went to Sicily, he proposed to increase taxes by 30%. However, after a six-hour speech, not only did no one support him, but the B party also sent someone to steal his hat and sent hundreds of beggars to humiliate him. Mussolini fled to mainland Italy in disgrace.
But how could Mussolini suffer such a great loss? He sent the nightmare of the B-Party, the "murderous maniac" Cesare Mori as the governor of Palermo.
The first thing Mori did after arriving was to arrest the mayor of Palermo and exile him, and then he began a thorough purge, killing anyone suspected of being a member of the "B" gang. At that time, the situation was that Mori could kill anyone in Sicily if he didn't like them.
The B faction did not sit idly by and launched a full-scale guerrilla war, attacking the military police and officers brought by Mori from Rome. Even Mori himself suffered at least twenty assassination attempts.
This behavior actually stimulated Morrie. Originally, Morrie had three ways to deal with the B-gang members he caught: killing, exiling, or making them a tainted witness. Later, Morrie directly began to recreate the punishment of heretics in the ancient religious inquisition: burning the penis with a branding iron.
The Sicilian Black Hands were overwhelmed by this. Some of the captured members violated the Black Hands' crucial "code of silence" and began collaborating with Mori, ultimately leading to internal strife within the Black Hands. Many chose to flee: the American Black Hands were those who had migrated from Italy to the United States during this period. Those who remained in Sicily almost all chose to surrender to Mussolini.
Of course, this doesn't mean these members of the "B-Hand" faction are truly loyal to the Red Sun. During the Battle of Sicily during World War II, many members of the "B-Hand" faction passed intelligence to the Allies, a battle that directly led to the downfall of Mussolini and the return of the "B-Hand" faction to rule Sicily. In the 1990s, Italy cracked down on the "B-Hand" faction again, this time driving it underground.
There is no trace of the B gang in Sicily now. They have become more and more high-end. In addition to traditional businesses such as drug trafficking, arms trafficking and money laundering, the B gang has now entered high-end industries such as real estate, energy, and finance.
But no matter what, there is one tradition that has developed in Sicily: that of 'distrust'.
With a long history of conquest and enslavement, the inhabitants distrust any governmental structure. In their eyes, government represents "conquest," and they trust only close family ties, not the law. Many people on Lampedusa have kinship ties to Sicily, and Ancelotti's cousin happens to be the head of the Palermo Maritime Department, making the deal easy. Xiao Peng and his team obtained the permit without even visiting the Palermo Maritime Department. Even more infuriating, they simply had to go to the Palermo docks and someone would deliver the documents to them.
After all, it is better to do such things secretly. If Xiao Peng went to the maritime department and got things done the first time he entered, those who were waiting in line behind him would go crazy when they knew it!
However, when Xiao Peng arrived at the Palermo dock, the first person he saw was not the contact who came to give them the documents. Instead, it was Fabian who was waiting anxiously there.
Now he was not dressed in his usual suit and tie, but in a hoodie and jeans, with his hands in his pockets. At first glance, he looked like a worker waiting to work at the dock, stamping his feet in the cold.
"Fabian?" Xiao Peng pulled the boat ashore and threw the rope to Fabian. "Why are you here? And why are you dressed like that?"
After taking the cable and securing it, Fabian said to Xiao Peng, "I've been waiting here for you for days! I just came to tell you that those people are fired. I've also resigned from my position as a director of the Cousteau Diving Association. From now on, I'll focus on deep-sea salvage!"
Xiao Peng was a little confused after hearing this: "What do you think?"
Fabian laughed. "That's what I was thinking. I suddenly realized that if I hadn't met you, I might not have left Cape Adeg yet! I was so anxious to want this and that some time ago, actually because I was too weak and needed a sense of security. But then I thought, if I have enough energy, then others will come to me! Okay, isn't there 80 million worth of precious metals waiting for us at the bottom of the sea? I'm full of energy now!"
Pascal took out a jacket from the cabin and threw it to Fabian: "What are you wearing?"
Fabian blinked. "That's more like what a ship worker looks like, isn't it?"
Xiao Peng gave him the middle finger: "I told you to focus on deep-sea salvage, not to be a sailor on a ship! What the hell can you do on a ship?"
Fabian said, "Then I can do some diplomatic work! Aren't you guys here to get a license from the Palermo Maritime Department? Just give me the information and I'll take care of it!"
Xiao Peng and Pascal had just jumped onto the shore when a young man in a suit ran over and asked, "Excuse me, is this Mr. Xiao? Is this the 'Red Head Boat'?"
Xiao Peng nodded: "Who are you?"
The young man handed Xiao Peng a document: "This is the document that Minister Barras asked me to deliver."
He handed the documents to Xiao Peng and left without looking back.
Xiao Peng waved the folder at Fabian: "Look, the license is in hand!"
"Bitch! What can I do?"
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