Wasteland Border Inspector-Chapter 211 - 107: Profits Secured, Ominous Signs!
For Shelter City, it’s quite easy to strictly inspect smuggling due to its size.
As long as the caravans register all goods when entering the checkpoint and verify with the registration form when shipping out, any smuggled goods can be easily identified by comparing the two.
However, the reason no Shelter City chooses to do this, and instead allows caravans to trade freely after passing inspection, is primarily because every shelter city that has tried strict checks in the past has without exception been blacklisted collectively by the caravans.
Firstly, the 20% inspection tax is actually an incentive for gambling.
Wasteland caravans have always been profit-driven; without enough profit stimulation, no one would risk being attacked by Infected Bodies, mutant creatures, and raiders to travel trade routes.
Simple normal goods trading cannot continuously attract caravans.
Even at its peak, Happiness City had to offer an additional 5% profit as an "incentive."
Now with the 5% gone, the emerging inspection tax has become a new incentive.
Dodging it equals earning an extra truckload of profit.
If caught, the most that happens is losing all the profit from the smuggled goods and an extra 10% loss, which is still acceptable.
This tempting gamble makes the caravans love and hate Super Shelter Cities, unable to resist taking their chances.
Secondly, even if Shelter City strictly inspects, with policies from above and countermeasures from below, it only forces out more complex smuggling chains.
Caravans can completely sell their goods to surrounding settlements and then bring them into the city batch by batch through scavengers.
But every additional link in the chain means sharing a layer of profits.
Once or twice isn’t a big deal, but with occasional mishaps, more and more caravans find it troublesome and simply blacklist such "inflexible" Shelter Cities.
After all, there’s more than one Shelter City in the Wasteland, and caravans have plenty of choices.
You want strict checks? Then I’ll just do business with the neighboring Shelter City that turns a blind eye to smuggling.
For Shelter City, losing caravans means a halt in material circulation, which is far worse than tolerating some smuggling losses.
This is the tacit balance between both parties.
"Shelter City tacitly allows caravans to test the rules in exchange for continuous material flow. Caravans accept the inspection tax cut, treating smuggling as a game of risks and rewards."
Cheng Ye did not call for a halt to the inspection but stood silently next to the staff, pondering, his mind flashing through the manual’s introduction to smuggling.
This game rule written in plain sight, once memorized with a sense of awe, suddenly had vivid annotations.
Now thinking about it, the inspection tax is not only a stimulus for the caravans but also for the Inspectors, isn’t it?
If nothing can be squeezed out, who would be willing to thoroughly check every vehicle, every corner, and inspect for contamination by infection sources?
If a mishap occurs, unknowingly triggering an infection wave, the cost would be unbearable!
More than ten minutes passed quickly.
The staff were still diligently checking the dried fish, each of them working hard without the slightest slack.
For them, finding smuggled goods is also a great achievement.
Accumulate enough merits, and there might be opportunities for promotion to observer or apply for formal departments within the Buffer Zone, holding a "secure" job.
But reality is often unsatisfactory.
Regular inspection methods have long been thoroughly understood by caravans; finding problems under their noses is as hard as climbing to the sky.
Some did entertain the thought of splitting open the dried fish for inspection, but the thought was immediately suppressed.
Because once split open and nothing is inside, it equals damaging the caravan’s goods.
Among everyone present, only Inspector Cheng could make this decision, others including She did not have the authority.
Anyone rashly suggesting Cheng Ye do this, yet finding nothing in the end, would have to take responsibility.
At the very least, compensating the goods according to price, at the worst being held accountable and dismissed by the checkpoint.
After all, the rules are there; blind search without evidence is not allowed, definite proof is required to act seriously.
Otherwise, everyone would suggest randomly for the sake of climbing up, utterly chaotic, turning the checkpoint’s order into complete disorder.
"That’s enough, everyone move the dried fish back to the vehicle, no problems found."
Cheng Ye waved to stop them, his voice amplified slightly, "Be careful with the Swordfish beaks, don’t get scratched again."
As the words fell,
Jin Dafei, standing outside the isolation net, indeed curled his lips slightly, a bit proud.
Of course, this was from Cheng Ye’s perspective.
In the eyes of others, it was a feeling of grievances mixed with relief for finally passing.
Bundles of dried fish were loaded back on the vehicle, stacked neatly as before.
"She, direct the truck inside later, don’t rush the disinfection, let it wait there."
Cheng Ye spoke nonchalantly, nodding towards the direction of the isolation cabin, "You know what to do, don’t need me to remind you, right?"
She was stunned for a moment, her face slightly flickering with surprise, quickly concealed as she nodded in agreement.
Could it be that the young Inspector Cheng has already discovered the problem?
"Rest assured, sir, I understand."
"That’s good, don’t let him have a chance to contact the outside, keep an eye on him."
This "him" naturally referred to the driver.
All the salted dried fish were loaded back into the truck, which headed to the disinfection area under guidance.
Because the previous truck was still undergoing disinfection, the driver was guided by She to park the truck in front of the isolation cabin.
Just as the truck settled in, four guards quietly emerged from the corner, surrounding the truck in a four-corner formation, their actions naturally simulating routine vigilance yet invisibly cutting off the connection between the cab and the outside.
