RDR: NO REGRETS - Chapter 340: A Thriving Tumbleweed (Patreon)

It was already afternoon, and the weather outside looked perfect for a nap. Stephen stretched lazily toward the distant sun.

He hadn't just gotten out of bed. He had only just finished dealing with a mountain of odds and ends.

Over the past few days, they had tracked down and killed everyone in town connected to the Del Lobo Gang. Tumbleweed's population had shrunk even further.

However, these were all necessary steps, and Stephen didn’t mind in the least if others viewed him as a tyrant.

How did that saying go? “Give up your wicked ways, and suddenly you’re a saint.”

There was another way to understand it. A man who had spent his life doing evil could earn forgiveness with a single good deed, while a good man who made one mistake after a lifetime of kindness would be condemned by everyone.

So Stephen would play the villain, a ruler everyone saw as utterly ruthless. Later, a few small favors would be enough to win their wholehearted loyalty.

And they'd thank him for it, too.

That didn't mean Stephen would do just anything. He wasn't an inhuman monster like the Del Lobo Gang. He only showed no mercy to their members.

Even so, all this administrative work was giving Stephen a headache. He'd never done anything like it before.

It wasn't just Stephen who lacked experience. None of them knew much about running a town, not even Hosea.

They had all stood around the shops without the slightest idea what to do. In the end, Seth, who had at least some experience, was the one who got the businesses running.

Charles went to the General Store. In his own words, being a General Store owner was a brand-new experience for him.

It took Charles two full days just to finish taking inventory. When Stephen saw the chicken scratches on the stock list, he began to worry about the store's future.

Oh well, since it was the only General Store in town, he wasn’t worried about not being able to sell anything.

Kieran volunteered to run the stables. Caring for horses was his old line of work, and he was good at it.

Naturally, there wasn’t a single horse in the stables now. The place had been abandoned for quite some time.

Fortunately, Stephen and the others had seized quite a few horses from the Del Lobo Gang. Adhering to the simple principle that “what belongs to the boss belongs to me,” Kieran simply led them all away.

The horses ridden by the Del Lobo Gang weren’t exactly top-notch, mostly pack horses and riding horses, but the lead horse was quite good: a very sturdy warmblood that was clearly stolen.

Kieran was run off his feet. Once Uncle and the others arrived, he intended to drag one of them over to help.

He didn't know how to make saddles or tack, but Pearson could take care of that.

Hosea had already found Pearson a storefront on the main street, where he could set up a leather-goods business. Stephen was sure he'd like it.

According to the neighbors, the shop's former owner had been killed by the Del Lobo Gang, so Stephen simply took possession of the vacant building.

They were saving the gun shop for John. Stephen and Hosea both knew he was hopeless at most other kinds of work. If they let him wander off, Abigail would only get upset, so they might as well keep him in town working with guns.

Hosea was delighted to claim the saloon. Its previous owner had fled a few days ago, leaving it there for the taking.

Stephen looked around the house. Hosea's room was empty, so the old man was probably busy with his saloon.

Hosea had found a few reasonably well-fed men to help clean the place up. At this rate, the saloon could open in a few days.

However, liquor was a major problem, they’d have to find a reliable source to stock up.

As for Michael, Stephen had originally meant to let him choose a business first. But the young man immediately shook his head and pointed to the little church, declaring that he would be staying there.

Stephen stared at him, bewildered. “I thought you were done pretending to be a holy man and swindling people?”

Was Michael already itching to return to his old trade after only a few days away?

Michael gave Stephen a contemptuous look. Did Stephen think he couldn't do the work of a proper pastor just because he'd spent so long cheating people?

When Stephen still didn't understand, Michael explained with a helpless expression that he didn't believe in any of it anyway. What difference did it make whether he preached his old creed or the teachings of Jesus Christ?

He would just have to reread the Bible and brush up on a few things.

Leaving Stephen speechless, Michael wandered into the church with Seth and his four gunmen.

Stephen didn’t care either way.

Hosea had already made arrangements for the other gang members, too. They only had to arrive and move in.

Then there was Andre and his crew.

Stephen hadn't had much contact with them and still wasn't sure where they stood. He would leave any decisions about them until after they dealt with the Del Lobo Gang.

As long as they behaved themselves and fought the Del Lobo Gang alongside him, he would have no problem giving them a share of the money if they wanted to leave afterward. They had fought shoulder to shoulder, after all.

If they preferred to stay, that was fine too. Stephen planned to get into smuggling eventually, and there would be money for them to earn.

The progress they'd made in just a few days had been remarkable. After spending much of their lives drifting from place to place, they finally had a firm foothold in Tumbleweed.

Even Stephen found it almost too good to be true.

He shook his head, walked out of the villa, collected his horse from the stable behind it, and set off for town at an easy pace.

Right now, he wanted to speak with Kevin about the town's laws.

His idea was simple: lay down three basic rules for Tumbleweed.

As he understood it, so long as local laws didn't conflict with the Constitution and the required taxes were paid to the tax authorities, individual places could make many of their own rules.

Laws differed not only between states but between cities and towns within the same state.

Stephen therefore intended to launch his own 'Johnson New Deal' in Tumbleweed and scrap the most absurd regulations.

He'd read through some of the town's legal documents before, and there were far too many ridiculous provisions.

For example, Black people and Native Americans were not allowed to own property in town because they were all born criminals and thieves.

Another example was that people of color had to pay more taxes than white people because their wages were so low, they were specifically there to take jobs away from white workers, so they should be taxed more heavily.

Another example: drinking was allowed, but getting drunk was not, because drunkenness drove people mad.

You could drink in a saloon but not at home, because drinking at home led to beating children and women...

Smoking was banned, but opium and other drugs were permitted. Murderers could buy their way out of punishment with a little money, while thieves were locked up and forced to do hard labor for a year...

In short, these bizarre laws truly opened Stephen’s eyes.

And those strange, town-specific tax laws were even more varied and outlandish. No matter how hard Stephen racked his brain, he couldn’t fathom what kind of mindset the previous mayors must have had to come up with such inhumane measures.

For example, gold miners had to pay taxes, but corporations did not, on the grounds that miners would hoard their gold once they found it...

Ranch and farm owners paid only a small amount in taxes, while their workers were hit with heavy taxes, on the grounds that the farm owners were benevolent people providing jobs for these poor folks...

In short, the “superiority” of capitalism is laid bare in this Tumbleweed law book.

There was a lot to untangle. Stephen needed a serious discussion with Kevin, starting with the abolition of the most obviously absurd laws.