Chapter 28 19-1

Perhaps it was because of the stalemate that Sonny Corleone had embarked on a bloody war of attrition that ended in his own death. Perhaps it was because his violent nature had lost its grip that he had come to this point.In short, during the spring and summer of that year, he launched senseless attacks on enemy affiliated personnel.Those who raised the flag for the Tattaglia family in Harlem were killed one by one.Thugs who broke up the dockworkers' strike were massacred.Union officials in the five major families have been warned: to remain neutral.While the bookmakers and moneylenders sent by Corleone were still barred from the docklands, Sonny sent Clemenza with his troops to slay the waterfront along the Panhandle.

This kind of hacking and killing is meaningless, because this approach cannot affect the outcome of the war.Sonny was a fine tactician and he had won great victories, but he lacked the strategic genius that Don Corleone had, and the whole situation fell into a trap that the enemy had already recorded because it was his long-term goal. Since the Achilles heel, so he is also very strict in this regard.Although Lucy was not aware of it, she was under the supervision of the Sandino Corps twenty-four hours a day: as soon as an apartment on her floor became available, it was rented by the most reliable soldiers of the Sandino Corps .

The Don was recovering and would soon be back in power, and by then the tide of battle would surely turn in favor of the Corleones.Sonny was sure of that.Plus, while he's defending his family empire, he also has to win his father's approval, since the status of the family empire doesn't have to be primogeniture, and he has to solidify his inheritance of the Corleone Empire. But the enemy was also analyzing the situation and had come to the conclusion that the only way to avoid total defeat was to kill Sonny Corleone.At this time, their understanding of the situation went a step further, and they believed that it was still possible to negotiate with the old man to solve the problem, because the old man was well known for his reasonable style.They began to hate Sonny's bloodthirsty style, thinking it was barbaric and lacked the keen sense of a businessman, and no one wanted to see that kind of chaos again.

One evening, Connie Corleone received an anonymous phone call, listening to the voice, the caller was a girl, and it was calling Carlo. "Who are you?" Connie asked. The girl on the phone giggled and said, "Me, I'm Carlo's girlfriend. I want to tell him that I can't see him tonight, and I have something to go out of town." "You rotten bitch," Connie Corleone yelled into the phone, "you rotten bitch, rotten bitch." Carlo had gone to the track to gamble that afternoon, and when he got home he was upset because he had lost the bet.Besides, he was half-drunk at this time, as he was always drinking, as he often carried a bottle with him.No sooner had he stepped through the door than Connie began screaming and cursing at him.He ignored her and went into the bathroom to take a shower.He came out of the bathroom, stood naked in front of her, wiped himself, and prepared to dress up beautifully before going out.

Connie stood there with her hands on her hips, her lips pouted and her face pale with rage. "You're not going anywhere," she said, "your mistress called and said she won't be with you tonight, you bastard, you have the audacity to give you my number Bitch, I'm going to kill you, you little bastard," she said, and she lunged at him, kicking and grabbing. He shielded her with a muscular arm, keeping her from getting close to his body. "You're crazy," he said calmly. But she could see it: he was getting worried, as if he knew that the crazy girl he had been sleeping with lately was really going to pull off such a trick.

"She's playing tricks all over the place, it's really bad," Caro said. She dodges his arm and pounces on him to scratch his face.She scratched his face with her nails, and he gently pushed her away with admirable patience.She saw it through: because she was pregnant, he was so tolerant to her.This time, she became more daring, and felt that she could vent her anger quickly. She saw his timidity, and it filled her with haughty delight. "Just stay at home," she said, "and don't think about going out." "Okay, okay," he said. He was still undressed, except for a pair of shorts.He likes to just walk around the house, proud of his V-shape shape and his blond, downy skin.Connie eyed him hungrily.He forced a laugh.

"You at least give me something to eat first, huh?" She lost her temper.He demanded a duty from her, at least a duty which she owed.She is good at cooking, which she learned from her mother.The first dish she made was fried veal with green peppers, and while the pot was still on the fire, she made another platter.Meanwhile, Carlo lay in bed reading the forecast for the next day's race.There was a full glass of whiskey next to him, and he sipped it as he read the forecast. Connie went into the bedroom, but she stood in the doorway, as if she hadn't been invited to come to the bed.

"The food is on the table," she said. "I don't feel like eating right now," he said, still reading the forecast. "The food is on the table," Connie said firmly. "Go to hell," Carlo said. He drank what was left of the whiskey in the glass, poured more into the glass, and ignored her. Connie went back to the kitchen, grabbed the dish laden with vegetables, and slammed it into the sink.Carlo came to the kitchen.He looked at the greasy veal and the green peppers splattered all over the wall, and his tidiness was stimulated and he flew into a rage.

"You spoiled bitch," he said viciously, "clean up for me quickly, or I'll kick the shit out of you." "I don't clean and I don't die," said Connie. She stretched out her hands like tiger's claws, wishing to tear his naked chest into pieces. Carlo went back to the bedroom, and when he came out, he had the belt in his hand, folded in half and held in his hand. "Clean it up quickly." The threat in the words was clear.She stood there motionless as he swung the belt and gave her padded buttocks a hard swipe.The belt twitched, stinging a little, but it didn't really hurt anything.

Connie backed toward the cupboard.She reached into the drawer, pulled out a long, large bread knife, and held it ready for battle. Carlo laughed. "The Corleone girls are murderers too!" he said. He put the belt on the dining table and walked up to her with his bare hands.She slashed with the knife desperately, but her pregnant body was inconvenient to charge, so he dodged.She stabbed him in the groin and wanted to kill him.He disarmed her easily.Then he began to slap her, slowly and moderately, in order to hurt her but not break her skin.She retreated around the table, trying to escape.He chased her all the way to the bedroom, and she tried desperately to bite his hand, but he grabbed her by the hair and held her head high.He slapped her again, causing her pain and humiliation, and finally she whimpered and cried like a little girl.Then he tossed her contemptuously onto the bed, drinking from a whiskey bottle on the bedside table, very drunk, his pale blue eyes twinkling The strange light finally scared Connie. Caro sat with his legs spread apart and continued to pour his drink. He reached out and grabbed a large piece of flesh on her fat leg and twisted it hard. She cried out. beg for mercy.

"You're fat as a pig," he said in a tone of disgust.After saying that, he walked away and walked out of the bedroom. Completely paralyzed and stupefied, she lay in bed afraid to see what her husband was doing in the other room, and at last she got up and went to the door and peered into the living room.Carlo opened another bottle of whiskey and sprawled lazily on the sofa.After a while, he fell unconscious and fell into a drowsy sleep.She sneaked into the kitchen and called her parents in Long Beach. She wanted her mother to send for her, and she hoped it wasn't Sonny who answered the phone, but Tom Hagen or her mother. About ten o'clock at night, the telephone rang in the Corleones' kitchen.It was answered by one of the old man's bodyguards who respectfully handed it over to Connie's mother, but Mrs Corleone could hardly hear what her daughter was saying because Connie was nervous and agitated , but on the other hand deliberately lowered her voice so that her husband would not hear it.Another reason was that her face was swollen from blows, and her swollen lips slurred her speech.Mrs. Corleone gestured to the bodyguard to fetch Sonny.Sonny and Hagen were in the living room now. Sonny came to the kitchen and took the phone from his mother. "It's me, Connie," he said. Connie was afraid of her husband, and also of the possible reaction of her brother, so her voice became more slurred.She babbled, "Sonny, just send a car to get me home, and I'll tell you about it in person. It's nothing, Sonny, don't come, please send Tom." Come on, Sonny, it's really nothing, it's just that I want to go back to my mother's house." At this moment, Hagen also came in.The old man had just been sedated in the upstairs bedroom and was asleep.This made it necessary for Hagen to keep a close eye on Sonny in case something went wrong.The two room guards were in the kitchen too, and Sonny was on the phone and they were all watching him. There was no doubt that the ferocity of Sonny's nature rose from a deep, mysterious well of emotion.Everyone watched, and they really saw the blood rushing to his neck with swollen veins, and they really saw the hatred blindfolding his eyes.Every part of his face twitched and contracted, and then his face turned gray, like that of a patient struggling with death, except that the adrenaline was still pumping through him and making his hands tremble.However, when he spoke to his sister, he controlled his voice well and kept his tone low.He said: "Just wait there, just wait there!" After that, he hung up the phone. He stood for a while, then said, "Damn son of a bitch, goddam son of a bitch," and he ran out. Hagen knew that the look on Sonny's face showed that he had lost all reason.There was nothing Sonny could do right now.Hagen also knew that a car ride into town would calm Sonny down and make him a little more sensible.But it may also prompt him to become even more dangerous to others, although reason will also prompt him to protect himself from the possible consequences of his rage.Hagen heard the car roaring to life and said to the two bodyguards, "Go and follow him." Then, he made a few phone calls.He arranged for a few soldiers of Sonny's regiment who lived in the city to go to Carlo Rizzi's house as soon as possible, trying to keep Carlo from staying at home.Several other soldiers stood beside Connie, waiting for Sonny to arrive.Hagen wanted to get ahead of Sonny, knowing the Don would have his back.His concern was that Sonny might kill Carlo.He expected no trouble from the enemy.It has been a long time since the five major families have taken any action, and they are obviously seeking some kind of peace. Sonny had recovered, or partially recovered, his sanity as he rumbled off the avenue in his Beuke.He saw the two bodyguards get into a car and followed behind, and he tacitly allowed them to follow behind.He didn't foresee any danger, the Five Families had long since ceased to fight back, had ceased to fight seriously, and there was a small pistol in a secret locker behind the dashboard of the car; the car was registered to a member of Sonny's Corps , so legally he would have little trouble personally.But, as he expected, no weapons were needed.He didn't even know what he was going to do with Carlo Rize. Now he had a chance to think it over: he knew he couldn't kill the father of an unborn baby, especially since that father was his sister's husband.He shouldn't kill someone just because the couple quarreled.Carlo was a villain, and Sonny felt responsible, too, because it was through him that his sister had met the little bastard. The other side of Sonny's brutal character was that he couldn't bear to hit a woman, and really never did; he couldn't bear to hurt children or other weak people or animals.Carlo couldn't fight back when he scolded or hit him that day, which made Sonny unable to bear to kill him, and the pitiful appearance of utter subservience disarmed Sonny.When he was a child, he was also soft-hearted.Grown up, he turned into a murderous executioner, which was entirely his fate to decide later. But this time, Sonny thought as he drove, he was going to settle the matter once and for all.He drove the Bewke straight to the Channel Causeway; once on the causeway he could reach the Jones Beach Parkway on the other side.He took this road every time he went to New York, because there was not much traffic on this road) He decided that when he arrived, he would send the two bodyguards to escort Connie to her mother's house, and he would stay with her brother-in-law. A one-on-one session.He had no idea what to do after the meeting.If that little bastard did hurt Connie, he was going to cripple that little bastard.But the king, the phoenix that blows across the causeway, brings fresh sea air and cools his feverish rage.He kept the windows down all the way. He was already on the Jones Beach Causeway.Because at this time of year, at this time of night, the road is usually clear of traffic, so as usual, he drove the car very fast, driving at high speed until he reached the main road on the other side, and even on the other side. On the main road, there are still very few vehicles passing by.He drove the car very fast at first, then gradually slowed down.He left his bodyguard's car far behind.