The arrogance started from Chinatown

Chapter 130 An Important Introducer

The next afternoon, after having breakfast, Chen Zhengwei took a horse-drawn carriage for a tour around the outskirts of Chinatown.

"Pause!"

On the section of Montgomery Street between Conny Street and Broadway, Chen Zhengwei signaled the carriage to stop.

Then he got out of the car and looked at a four-story brick building in front of him. There were several shops on the first floor, a mining crusher equipment store, two restaurants, a Chinese and Japanese goods store, and a cigar shop, and the three floors above looked like apartments.

This is on the edge of Chinatown, right next to Pacific Avenue. The two three-story buildings next to it are also white people's shops, and behind these street-facing buildings is the Chinese residential area of Chinatown.

"Note this place and go ask who the landlord is!" Chen Zhengwei ordered after looking around for a while.

His business in San Francisco needed a facade.

San Francisco's main industries rely on mines, and the industrial sectors are mainly mining equipment and shipbuilding, neither of which is easy to intervene in.

Apart from that, the financial industry is not that good either.

In Chen Zhengwei's opinion, apart from the gray industry, there are not many opportunities here.

It is far inferior to today's financial center New York and the booming transportation and manufacturing center Chicago.

However, due to the gold mines, the businessmen in San Francisco were very impetuous and liked to speculate.

Therefore the casino business is good.

So his next plan is to open the most luxurious casino in San Francisco here. In addition, he will continue to expand his cigarette factory and buy several food processing plants.

The latter doesn’t care whether they make money or not. Their main purpose is to hire some white people and control more votes to expand their influence and increase their bargaining chips.

This is a good location, a four-story brick and stone building with a single floor area of more than 800 square meters. It backs onto Chinatown but is not inside Chinatown.

Making this a high-end casino could attract wealthy gamblers from all over San Francisco.

Chen Zhengwei thought about it and decided that the first floor could be used as a bar, the second floor as a brothel, the third and fourth floors as casinos, and some space on the fourth floor could be left as an office.

After deciding on the location, Chen Zhengwei took a carriage back to the casino. Not long after, Yu Chong arrived.

"Mr. Chen, your business license has been approved!"

Yu Chong took out a thick stack of documents from his briefcase and placed them on the coffee table.

"Sit down and talk!"

Chen Zhengwei picked up the stack of documents and looked through them, confirming that there was no problem. This guy was quite efficient.

Then he walked to the back of the desk, opened the drawer, took out a stack of ten-dollar bills, a total of one thousand dollars, and threw it in front of Yu Chong.

"Thank you, Mr. Chen!" Yu Chong first thanked him with a smile, then put the money away.

The three business licenses that Chen Zhengwei needed to apply for cost more than two hundred yuan, most of which were from the China Trading Company. In order to expand the scope of business, Yu Chong spent a lot of effort.

It cost another three hundred yuan to smooth over the relationship.

"Are you interested in coming and helping me? It won't be easy for you to make money like before." Chen Zhengwei sat back on the sofa and said after throwing a cigarette to Yu Chong.

He admired Yu Chong's abilities. Although Yu Chong did not have much power, he was able to move among the forces in Chinatown and establish good relations with the foreigners. He was a very versatile character.

He is currently lacking such people.

As his influence in Chinatown grew, it became almost impossible for Yu Chong to make money by manipulating various forces as he did before.

Yu Chong also understood this principle and asked carefully:

"Can I ask what Mr. Chen wants me to do?"

"General Manager of a labor service company! I think you are a perfect fit!"

Yu Chong was a little surprised. He didn't expect that Chen Zhengwei actually wanted him to be in charge of the labor company.

Although the labor service company had just started, he knew how powerful its influence would be in the future.

It is the tens of thousands of Chinese workers who can influence Chinatown.

Yu Chong was immediately tempted. Even though he was just an employee of Chen Zhengwei, his status was no lower than that of the presidents of other associations.

After a little thought, he agreed and said with a smile: "I didn't expect that I would have to call you boss so soon. Now that I think about it, it still feels unreal!"

"So I'm your boss!" Chen Zhengwei said with a smile.

"As for your salary...it's 1.5% of the labor company's profit."

There are not many Chinese workers looking for jobs through labor service companies now, only two to three thousand. In the later stage, all Chinese workers will have to register with labor service companies before they can work.

Even those in Chinatown are like this. There are about 30,000 to 40,000 people like this, with an income of 80,000 to 100,000 a month, and as the number of immigrants increases, this income will also increase.

"I'll listen to the boss!" Yu Chong got into the role quickly.

"I'll let Ah Hu take you to the labor service company. Get familiar with the situation first and come back to me in a couple of days."

Not long after Yu Chong left, Michael also arrived.

"Wanyun, give Michael a glass of water!"

"I guess my friend has good news to tell me?" Chen Zhengwei said with a smile.

After Michael drank half a glass of water, he lay back on the sofa and laughed, "My promotion order will come in three days!"

"It's really good news, Wanyun, pour me two glasses of wine!" Chen Zhengwei was quite happy about the news. Michael was in charge of the FBI agents and solving cases and arresting people, so he didn't have to worry about the FBI anymore.

Of course, I will have to bribe the director after some time.

Wanyun poured two and a half glasses of whiskey and placed them on the table. Chen Zhengwei and Michael clinked their glasses lightly. They looked at each other with smiles on their faces.

"In addition, I also learned about the situation of re-processing residents' files after the fire in the archives."

"Henry Billings Brown, one of the three judges in the San Francisco City Court, is also in charge of immigration and naturalization. He is in charge of this matter."

"Oh? What kind of person is he? What are his hobbies? What's his family situation like?" Chen Zhengwei leaned forward slightly and asked.

"He is a devout Protestant and a Republican. Although he likes money, he is not greedy. In addition to Mrs. Brown, there is a son and a daughter in the family, both under ten years old..."

"I like people who have a sense of family responsibility!" Chen Zhengwei raised his wine glass with a smile and took a sip.

"I don't recommend you to do that. You know, you can't always use those methods. It will make it difficult for you to move forward!" Michael reminded quickly. He now understands more and more how daring Chen Zhengwei is.

"Michael...who do you think I am?" Chen Zhengwei sneered.

"I like working with people and I hate violence!"

His first thought was to kidnap Judge Brown, but he changed his mind and realized that there was no need to do so.

This is only a last resort.

The other party is a Republican, so maybe this is an opportunity.

The Republican Party advocated abolitionism and emancipation.

Unlike more than a hundred years later, the Republican Party's advocacy is to protect the interests of white people.

During this period, the Republican Party advocated equality between the races.

Moreover, most of those who support the Republican Party are emerging factory owners and capitalists. Obviously, making friends with the Republican Party is more suitable for his development at this time.

"That'd be better! You need a powerful introducer!" Michael suggested.

Chen Zhengwei rolled his eyes and said, "You said he is a devout Protestant believer, how often does he go to church?
"Every Sunday morning, Grace Cathedral, just over in Nob Hill!"

It's only a little over one kilometer away from Chinatown.

"It seems that I have an important introducer." Chen Zhengwei said playfully.

……

After Michael left, Chen Zhengwei lay on the sofa and pondered for a moment, then opened the safe, took out two thousand yuan and put it in a bag.

"Xiwen, go arrange a carriage, call a few people, and go out with me!"

After a while, Chen Zhengwei got into the carriage.

"Go to the church over on Nob Hill!"

In the United States, religion has a great influence on politics.

Chen Zhengwei had considered before that if Chinese people wanted to gain a foothold here, they should not do so in Chinatown, but rather integrate into American society, which required the influence of religion.

If we can add more than 40,000 believers, I'm sure the pastor of the church will be very interested.

As for how to make the Chinese workers believe in religion, or at least make them appear to believe in religion, this is also easy.

Just give them a few eggs on the weekend and they can become believers for a day, with the kind of fanaticism and piety that fills up a church.

　My schedule has been messed up these past two days, so I'm taking a leave of absence for one chapter today.

　　Go to bed early and adjust your schedule.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)