The arrogance started from Chinatown

Chapter 189 Business Competition Is Like This
"How do I look?" Chen Zhengwei asked Lin Changning casually while sitting in the carriage.

He is now wearing a red striped suit. The style of the suit is different from the current gentleman's suit, and it is also different from the current popular casual wear. He is not wearing a vest inside, but a coat outside.

On his head he wore a wool Fedora hat.

When he first arrived in San Francisco, he needed to make himself look like a rich man, so he was keen on wearing a tall gentleman's hat.

Later, as his status improved, he found the tall gentleman's hat uncomfortable enough and changed to a hard-crowned bowler hat.

Then he thought the bowler hat was too dull and the clothes of the era were not fashionable enough, so he had this fedora hat made, which was originally popular among gangsters, detectives and actors 50 years later.

Lin Changning looked at Chen Zhengwei for a while...didn't see much difference, and said perfunctorily:
"It's OK... it's just too bright, so it's easy to get shot at... it's like riding a white horse on a battlefield..."

She had wanted to say this for a long time.

She wasn't very sensitive about things like clothes, but Chen Zhengwei was probably the only person in the whole of San Francisco who wore a red suit.

She had never seen anyone else wearing it. People of that era dressed in a very calm and reserved manner.

And Chen Zhengwei not only has red ones, but also purple and pink ones... He likes bright colors.

"I'm talking about the hat... You really have no aesthetic taste at all!" Chen Zhengwei immediately shook his hands in dissatisfaction. He felt that Lin Changning lacked a keen sense of fashion.

Lin Changning looked at Chen Zhengwei's hat a few more times, then turned his head to look out the window.

South of Market is a mix of residential, commercial, and industrial land covering several small neighborhoods and covering a large area, about five times the size of Chinatown.

On Howard Street, there is a three-story building with a sign above it that says Cromwell Tobacco.

More than a dozen horse-drawn carriages stopped at the door, and then dozens of people got off and surrounded the tobacco company. This situation scared the two young men standing at the door of the tobacco company.

Then the middle carriage opened and Chen Zhengwei and Lin Changning got out.

"Is Edward Cromwell here?" Chen Zhengwei walked up to a young man who was a head taller than the other.

The other party was overwhelmed by the momentum and subconsciously said: "No...what are you going to do?"

"I'll be waiting for him in the coffee shop next door. I'll give you half an hour." Chen Zhengwei took out a pocket watch from his pocket, opened it, and then pointed the watch at the other person's face so that the other person could see the time clearly.

Then Chen Zhengwei led some people into the coffee shop next door, while the others stood at the door of the coffee shop, looking around vigilantly.

Seeing this scene, two young men at the door of the tobacco company hurried upstairs, and a moment later someone left on horseback.

Edward Cromwell received the news in a warehouse filled with large amounts of tobacco.

"Chinese?"

“Yes, there are a lot of people!”

"The Chinese are very popular now!" a man next to him said in a deep voice.

"Go back first!" Edward hurriedly led his people back and saw a Chinese young man standing at the door of the cafe.

Inside the coffee shop, every table was occupied.

"Owen, Alberta... follow me in. The others leave first..." Edward hesitated for a moment and asked the two to accompany him in.

Under the gaze of many eyes, Edward led the two of them into the coffee shop and immediately saw Chen Zhengwei in a red suit.

Came to Chen Zhengwei's desk.

Chen Zhengwei was talking to Lin Changning and looked up at him: "Edward Cromwell?"

"It's me!" Edward Cromwell sat down directly.

Chen Zhengwei narrowed his eyes.

"I know why you came to me. I can give you some of the top-quality tobacco in the future!" Edward Cromwell said directly without waiting for Chen Zhengwei to speak.

"If I didn't come, would you still be planning to sell those low-quality tobaccos to me at a high price?" Chen Zhengwei leaned back in his chair and looked at Edward, looking at him somewhat nonchalantly.

"To be honest, I have an agreement with other Wucheng Cigarette Companies, and those top-quality tobaccos are supplied to them. But I will deal with them and give you a part of it. In addition, I will also provide you with high-quality products." Edward said to Chen Zhengwei.

If it were the Chinese in the past, he would only need to sell them low-quality tobacco.

But these Chinese are very powerful now, and he doesn't want to provoke them.

"You don't think that's all you need to do? Are you a fool?" Chen Zhengwei had a look of surprise on his face. I came here in person just to hear you say this?

"What do you want?" Edward frowned.

"From now on in San Francisco, you can only sell your tobacco to me, and the price must be 10% lower than the market price." Chen Zhengwei said directly.

He knew that in business he couldn't always kill off the bosses of other companies and then swallow up their industries.

Those people are not part of any gang. People in these gangs can do whatever they want.

However, if ordinary businessmen always do this, it will easily arouse public anger.

So unless necessary, he decided to try to use some ordinary business competition methods in the future, like now.

Otherwise, there would be no need for him to come here in person.

"This is against the rules! I have a contract with them, and you can't eat so much tobacco!" Edward said with a frown.

"It just doesn't follow your rules. Your rules are not important. My rules are the rules!" Chen Zhengwei stared at Edward, which made Edward feel pressured.

"As for whether I can eat this tobacco...you don't need to consider this issue at all!"

As long as you swallow the other cigarette factories, you will naturally be able to eat all the tobacco.

"Are you forcing me?" Edward asked angrily.

"You need to understand one thing. Although you have a family, we are not on the same level at all." Chen Zhengwei smiled and said, "You sat down without my permission just now. In fact, I wanted to kill you!"

"Then kill all the people in your family. There are about fifteen core members in your family? Or sixteen?"

"Now that you are still sitting here and able to bargain with me, you should thank me for my kindness!"

"Besides, your business is still there, and I've left you enough profit."

"Do you know why?"

"I recently believed in God, and God told me that I could kill fewer people. So I decided to kill as few people as possible!" Chen Zhengwei pulled out a cross from his clothes and said with a smile.

"But God also told me that if you don't like someone, you can kill him!"

"Now it's your turn to choose!" Chen Zhengwei looked at the other party with a relaxed smile on his face.

Edward remained silent. He only felt the pressure coming towards him, like a mountain.

Sweat began to flow down my back.

"Is it so difficult to make a decision? Do you want me to help you make up your mind?" Chen Zhengwei raised his eyebrows.

"No need! I promise you!" Edward let out a long breath.

The moment he made the decision, he felt as if all the strength in his body had disappeared, and the pressure on him also disappeared.

"It seems that we can cooperate happily! I will have someone contact you later!" Chen Zhengwei stood up, took the hat from the henchman, and led his men away.

It would be too troublesome to kill Edward and then contact the tobacco dealer again.

"Is this what you call ordinary business competition?" Lin Changning couldn't help but ask after getting on the carriage.

Just now, Chen Zhengwei was chatting with her in the coffee shop, and he said that he would try to compete using ordinary business means in the future.

"So you don't know how to do business! This is how business competition works." Chen Zhengwei said with a smile.

In his mind, this is just ordinary business competition.

Back at the casino, Chen Zhengwei and Rong Jiacai arranged for someone to contact Edward Cromwell.

He also asked someone to bring Greater Poland over. "Mr. Chen!"

"Sit down. How are you doing recently? You look good!" Chen Zhengwei said with a smile.

"It's indeed much better than before!" Great Poland laughed. After all, he had his own territory now, and he and the Germans joined forces to drive the Irish out of Russian Hill and gained some benefits.

Moreover, he recently swallowed up another Polish gang, and now has more than a hundred people under him, which is a significant increase in strength.

But that was all there was to it. On the one hand, there were not many Polish immigrants, and on the other hand, his industry could not support too many people.

Chen Zhengwei nodded slightly, chatted with Dapolan for a few words and said, "Do two things for me!"

"First, check the situation of the San Francisco cigarette factories! Especially the Fog City Cigarette Company, and other large cigarette factories."

"Try to bribe a few people, preferably the security guards on the night shift, and find out their inventory."

There are many cigarette workshops of all sizes in San Francisco, most of which are family workshops, or like Chen Zhengwei’s two cigarette factories, which only have a few dozen people.

The most high-end one among them is Wucheng. They can get the best tobacco and sell it at the most expensive price.

In addition, there are several larger ones, but Chen Zhengwei is not clear about the specific details.

He had a lot of things to do before, and he didn't pay attention to these things at all.

Chen Zhengwei doesn't need to worry about those small cigarette workshops. As long as Edward can cut off the tobacco supply, they will naturally be unable to operate.

And they can come to Chen Zhengwei's cigarette factory to work.

If all these cigarette workshops were to close down, a lot of market space would be vacated.

Then Chen Zhengwei would just need to swallow up the larger ones.

"Second, find out about the smuggling situation!"

As the main port and commercial center on the west coast of the United States, it is impossible for San Francisco to be free of smuggling activities.

Chen Zhengwei intends to get involved.

Although San Francisco is the commercial center of the western United States, it has to be said that its industrial development is backward and far behind that of the East Coast.

The market is not big and there are not many opportunities.

……

The next day, Cromwell Tobacco Company.

A man wearing a rough gentleman's suit, with a big beard and a strong smell of tobacco came in and said, "Give me 50 pounds of medium-grade Virginia tobacco..."

Alberta Cromwell, who was looking through the sales records, looked up. He knew the other party, who ran a family-style cigarette factory with seven or eight workers who came to pick up 50 pounds of tobacco every week.

"We won't sell tobacco to the public anymore!"

"Why?" The man looked confused.

"It's just what you heard! We won't sell it anymore!" Alberta Cromwell said impatiently.

He was a little anxious now. After all, he was forced by the Chinese yesterday to sell tobacco to them, which hurt his self-esteem and made him in a bad mood.

"Then what should we do?" The man suddenly became anxious.

"What does it have to do with me?" Alberta Cromwell became even more impatient.

"All the tobacco in San Francisco will be bought out by someone else. I suggest you do something else, or go directly to Virginia to buy it!"

Alberta Cromwell knew that it would be difficult for these family workshops to go to Virginia to purchase tobacco as the cost was too high.

It won't be long before most of San Francisco's cigarette factories go out of business.

……

It took only two days for Greater Poland to bring back the news.

"There are three larger cigarette factories in San Francisco, and Fog City is the largest. They have two brands of cigarettes, Fog City and Stratton. Their boss is James Cook, and there are more than 10 tons of tobacco in the warehouse..."

"The other two are Home Run and Hillside...these factories are all in South Market..."

"Have they bribed their internal personnel?"

"I bribed the night security guards at Fog City and Home Run Company, but the night security guard at Hill Cigarettes is the boss's uncle..." Big Poland shrugged.

In this way, it would be useless even if you put a gun to his head to bribe him.

"Well..." Chen Zhengwei thought about it. He originally planned to burn down the warehouses of these cigarette factories.

However, after hearing about 10 tons of tobacco, he became somewhat excited.

Depending on the grade, one ton of tobacco costs at least several thousand yuan, and the price of superior and high-quality tobacco is even higher.

The warehouse in Fog City alone has more than 60,000 to 70,000 US dollars worth of tobacco, and the warehouse of Home Run Cigarettes also has 20,000 to 30,000 US dollars worth of tobacco.

It would be a waste to burn it.

Chen Zhengwei planned to have most of it transported away directly, and then burn a small part of it along with the warehouse.

Chen Zhengwei thought for a moment and said, "Go and find out their arrangements for security guards on duty at night."

Then find someone to move the tobacco from the warehouses of Fog City and Home Run.

Of the fourteen tons of tobacco, only ten tons needed to be transported, and ten transport wagons would be enough.

At worst, they can call the police and let the investigation bureau investigate!

"Don't worry about the Hill Company for now."

Greater Poland immediately nodded in agreement.

At night, Chen Zhengwei returned home and went straight to Lin Changning's bed and hugged her.

Lin Changning had no objection to this, but soon Chen Zhengwei began to dislike the hardness of the wooden couch, so he stood up and carried Lin Changning on his shoulders.

Lin Changning began to resist subconsciously. Chen Zhengwei slapped her on the butt, then carried her back to his room and threw her onto the bed.

The moment Lin Changning fell, he jumped to the ground from the other side of the bed like a cat.

"That bed of yours is so uncomfortable that it can kill people! Sleep here tonight!" Chen Zhengwei patted the bed, but Lin Changning didn't move at all.

The two men were in a stalemate for a moment, Chen Zhengwei went around and grabbed Lin Changning, then fell onto the bed.

Lin Changning was tense all over, and only relaxed a little after seeing that Chen Zhengwei didn't make any other moves for a long time.

As a result, Chen Zhengwei's hands immediately became restless.

……

"Mr. Chen, it's arranged. Our people will be on duty tonight!" Another day passed, and Great Poland had got things done.

It has to be said that Dapolan is a talented person and works diligently, which has always made Chen Zhengwei very satisfied.

"Xiwen, go call Rong Jiacai over!"

"Scholar, please arrange ten freight wagons that can at least carry one ton of goods, and prepare some straw... arrange a few dozen people and make a trip at night."

　I'm taking a day off today, and I'll update 4,000 words.

　　Because of the content of this Hong Kong variety show, the names of the main characters in more than a hundred chapters were replaced with English abbreviations. Many readers said that they couldn't read it when they wanted to go back and read it.

　　Anyway, the book was blocked and could not be released. I spent half a day today changing back the replaced content.

　　It's a big thing.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)