Establishing a gang was no simple matter.
Especially for a large-scale organization, a strict and well-defined structure was essential.
Davey had originally considered modeling it after the Mafia, but after some thought, he decided to design his own system instead.
The Irish Brotherhood would operate under a tiered chain of command.
At its core would be the Family Council, responsible for personnel appointments, finances, and industrial assets. The highest leader would be the President—a position held by Davey himself.
In Davey's vision, each council member would oversee an entire city or a sizable region.
Major gang decisions would be settled through a vote within the Family Council. However, the President retained veto power and the authority to appoint council members.
Below them would be District Managers, responsible for specific areas within a city.
Supervisors would manage individual neighborhoods or even a single street.
Then came the Enforcement Squads: a Battalion Leader, Team Leaders, and armed gang members. Ten men formed one squad; five squads made up a battalion. Their direct superior was the Supervisor.
At the bottom were the regular members—full members and probationary members.
Then there was the matter of pay.
Compensation for the higher ranks was easy enough to arrange. The real difficulty lay with the rank-and-file members.
After some consideration, Davey decided on a living allowance: three dollars per week, plus one bottle of moonshine.
The moonshine cost just over twenty cents to produce, but to the gang members, it was worth at least a dollar.
Monthly salaries were out of the question. If paid monthly, most would likely spend it all in the first few days.
In the West, a few dollars was enough to eat well, and even with lodging included, monthly expenses rarely exceeded ten dollars.
Ultimately, a gang member's primary income would come from participating in operations and taking a share of the bonuses.
In addition, the gang should eventually provide free medical care, a pension system, and other benefits—but those could be introduced gradually.
With the framework in place, all that remained was to fill it out.
"Elisa, have Donal come over."
"Yes, sir."
Mac was unreliable. Davey would grant him a council seat in name, but in practice, he would serve only as an enforcement commander.
What Davey urgently needed now was a capable deputy.
He already had someone in mind—Hosea, who in the original timeline would have been killed by Milton.
Hosea was the perfect candidate. As a co-founder of the Van der Linde Gang, he had always been its strategist and chief adviser.
As for the fact that Hosea was of English descent rather than Irish—that was a minor detail.
It would be enough to say his ancestors had some Irish blood.
And who would dare question Davey's decision?
On the surface, it was the Irish Brotherhood. In reality, as long as someone was of European descent and had talent, they could be recruited. There were plenty of mixed-heritage people in the United States; European features were common enough. Adding a bit of Irish ancestry to their background would be perfectly believable.
Half an hour later, Donal arrived.
In the living room, Davey spoke plainly.
"I'm establishing a gang—the Irish Brotherhood. This is the organizational structure. Take a look."
Donal accepted the document and read it carefully before asking, "Sir, my father was Irish. May I join?"
As the second-largest ethnic group in the United States, the Irish were especially prominent among cowboys and urban gangs.
"Of course, Donal. You're welcome to join."
"I'm appointing you as District Manager. Your immediate task is to find Mac and Callum, recruit enough members, and organize them according to my plan."
"There are many Irish gangs in Saint Denis. Speak with their leaders and persuade them to merge into our Irish Brotherhood. If they refuse, they become our enemies."
"For enemies, have Officer Trappett arrange for their arrest. A jail cell is the best place for them."
"Select one hundred strong young men and send them to Valentine for a week of armed training. At the very least, they must know how to use a gun."
Donal bowed respectfully. "I will follow your orders, sir."
Davey smiled. "Perhaps you should address me differently, Donal."
Donal paused for a moment, then bowed again. "President."
...
The Irish Brotherhood expanded far more easily than Davey had expected.
Whether it was the basic living allowance or the factory job quotas,
for Irish people living at the bottom of society, it felt like the Lord's blessing.
After all, the Irish had another nickname in the United States—the "blacks among whites."
Donal's negotiations went smoothly. Aside from a few major Irish gang leaders who refused, the smaller gang bosses were more than willing to follow Davey.
With just the weekly bottle of moonshine as a subsidy, they already understood that the man backing the flourishing moonshine trade in Saint Denis was Davey. Not to mention that all of Bronte's gray industries were now under his control.
In just two days, the Irish Brotherhood had grown to several thousand members.
The exact figure was still being counted.
Following Davey's instructions, every member had to complete identity registration. Only those officially registered would be recognized as full members of the Irish Brotherhood.
Davey also needed to recruit a large number of financial personnel. The living allowance would not pass through the Supervisors. Instead, it would be distributed directly to individual members through the gang's treasury. This was to prevent supervisors from skimming off the top.
With several thousand members, Davey would be spending at least tens of thousands of dollars per month on living allowances alone. But it was worth it.
In theory, once the management structure was fully operational, revenues would far exceed these expenses.
In practice, the number of recruits would likely grow even larger.
On the morning of the third day,
the elected Supervisors—including Callum—arrived at the Land mansion.
For now, it was still a makeshift arrangement. The Supervisors had been elected by the official members—essentially the former gang leaders.
This meant that Davey's Irish Brotherhood had already absorbed seven gangs outright, bringing total membership to three thousand.
At Davey's instruction, the Irish Brotherhood temporarily halted further expansion.
The numbers were already too large; internal management needed to be stabilized first.
"President!"
The seven men were extremely respectful. They considered it an honor to share lunch with President Davey.
Davey exchanged a few brief words before instructing them to focus on completing member registration.
After lunch, he ordered his security captain, Kerry Laval, to deploy company employees to fortify the high-rise buildings near Saint Denis Bank.
Although Milton would no longer kill Hosea due to Davey's intervention, Lenny's death had involved too many unpredictable factors.
Davey intended to prevent that accident from happening and maintain tighter control over the situation.
As for Dutch, he estimated the action would likely begin tomorrow.
Davey did not want to interfere too much with Dutch's plan. At this stage, most members of the Van der Linde Gang had not yet grown disillusioned with Dutch.
Even if Hosea were rescued, he might not necessarily leave Dutch's side.
...
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