The arrogance started from Chinatown

Chapter 245 Big Business, Slot Machines

"Brother Wei, those books have all been sold. Do you have any more?" Yan Qingyou came to find Chen Zhengwei and put a box on the table.

"I'll ask someone to print another 5000 copies later," said Chen Zhengwei.

"Brother Wei, another 3000 copies should be enough. After all, not many people can afford it, not even the working class can afford it!" Yan Qingyou suggested.

He had seriously asked the newsboy about the sales. This kind of book sold quickly at first, but sold much slower later on.

"The rest will be sold to Oakland, Los Angeles and Sacramento!" Chen Zhengwei had already made plans.

I could make about $1 per book, so I made $60 in half a month, which doesn't seem like much.

However, judging from the input and output, it is already amazing, and it also proves that this market is not small.

You have to know that San Francisco has only more than 200,000 people.

"What a pity! If it could be sold to places like Chicago and New York, it would definitely be a hot seller." Chen Zhengwei said with some regret.

Places like New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Chicago are big cities.

At this time, Brooklyn was not yet a borough of New York.

"We can find two wholesalers in those places, and then transport the goods there by train and sell them to the wholesalers!" Yan Qingyou immediately came up with the idea.

"What would you do if New Yorkers sold this kind of book to San Francisco?" Chen Zhengwei asked directly.

"Let Michael confiscate all the books, and then we can sell them privately? After all, this kind of book is illegal, and we can find out for sure if we check it out."

"And it can only be sold privately. This is our territory. How can the New Yorkers make the money?"

When Yan Qingyou said this, he understood it.

"Ayou, you are becoming more and more business-savvy!" Chen Zhengwei laughed.

"This kind of book is like this. It's illegal in the first place. Big booksellers don't bother to do it. Small booksellers can't handle local forces. Even if they do it, it's just a one-time deal. Those people will print our books privately and sell them everywhere. They will make all the money!"

Yan Qingyou felt a little regretful after hearing this. It was a pity that such a good business could only be done in San Francisco.

"By the way, Brother Wei, I found something interesting at the port! I can go back and give it to Qiao Niang and Zheng Wu to play with." Yan Qingyou opened the box and took something out. There was a wooden box at the bottom and a metal track on the top. There were eight racehorses and knights on the track.

"As long as you push the lever next to it, the racehorse on it will start to rotate, and the winner will be different every time!" Yan Qingyou kept pushing the lever in the middle of the wooden box, and the racehorse on it started to rotate at high speed and stopped after half a day.

"Brother Wei, this thing is interesting. I saw them using it to bet on horse racing in the bar over at the port. I heard it's a horse racing game from France. We can also make some and sell them." Yan Qingyou kept showing it to Chen Zhengwei.

Chen Zhengwei felt that Yan Qingyou had indeed made great progress and could now discover business opportunities.

"This thing is pretty good!" Chen Zhengwei nodded after looking at it for a moment. This toy has a purely mechanical structure, and the results of each horse racing are different.

It is indeed suitable for playing some small gambling games in the bar.

However, this horse racing machine reminded him of something else, the slot machine.

He had played slot machines when he was in elementary school, but those things were all electronic and controlled by chips, which he had never thought of before.

When he saw this thing, he suddenly felt that slot machines could also be made into purely mechanical structures.

The principle is similar to this horse racing machine, but the odds need to be controlled, so it is a little more complicated.

If that thing is done well, it will make more money than opening a club. After all, how many guests does a club have every day?
But slot machines can be delivered to all bars in San Francisco and even sold to all bars across the United States.

In your own territory, you can deliver it directly to the bar and run it yourself.

In other gangs' territories, slot machines can be sold to them or to bars.

It's big business, a pure cash cow, and not as sensitive as weapons and medicines.

Chen Zhengwei's thoughts were racing. The only problem was that, just like the comic book, it would be copied.

However, although the comic book market is not small, it is not worth it for him to go to the East Coast to make a big fuss.

But slot machines are different!

There are hundreds of bars in San Francisco alone, and at least tens of thousands of bars across the United States, as well as cafes and restaurants. You can make tens of millions of dollars just by selling slot machines. If you put them in bars yourself, the profit will be even greater.

The market for this thing is too big, and the profit is too huge. He will beat to death anyone who dares to touch it!

Seeing that Chen Zhengwei suddenly fell into deep thought, Yan Qingyou did not say anything and just played the horse racing machine by himself.

After a while, Chen Zhengwei smiled and said in a very good mood: "Ayou, you have done a great job this time!"

"Yeah, I also think this has a big market!" Yan Qingyou immediately smiled when he heard the compliment.

"Go find me some carpenters!" Chen Zhengwei said directly. He was going to tell the carpenters his ideas and let them go back to study them and make them.

"okay!"

An hour later, all three carpenters were found.

"Mr. Chen!" The three of them were a little nervous, not knowing what Chen Zhengwei wanted them to do.

At this time, Chen Zhengwei had already drawn a slot machine and a roulette wheel on the paper. The slot machine was the kind that was common in the previous life, just a wooden box with a glass plate in front and three reels, each with a different tree species pattern on it.

As long as the patterns on the three wheels are the same, coins will be spit out.

On the box are five coin slots, corresponding to 5 cents, 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents and $1.

Just put in a coin, pull the lever, and then spin out three identical patterns, and the corresponding coins with the corresponding odds will be spit out below.

The roulette wheel is on the top and also has 10 coin slots, but it has two bars.

They are respectively pressing large and pressing small.

After inserting a coin and pulling the corresponding lever, a glass ball will pop out and spin around the roulette wheel. If it lands on the corresponding number, you win the prize.

However, the odds are much smaller than those of slot machines. "Come and take a look!" Chen Zhengwei pushed the paper with the pattern in front of the three people and then told them his idea.

“Can you make it?”

"Actually, it's similar to this horse racing toy!" Chen Zhengwei demonstrated the horse racing game, and the three of them quickly understood it.

"It's not a big problem. Let's go back and study it. We can make it!" The three of them quickly agreed.

"It's not difficult to make this thing. The important thing is to control the odds. For example, for this slot machine, we need to control the frequency of the three patterns appearing, especially the different patterns corresponding to different multiples."

"As for this roulette machine, you only need to make some adjustments inside the two levers, so that if you bet big, you get a small number, and if you bet small, you get a big number... It would be best if you could adjust the chance of winning from within..."

……

Wen Bingzhong took a shower, changed his clothes and was taken to the club.

Seeing the magnificence of the club, Wen Bingzhong felt somewhat restrained and nervous.

The reason for my nervousness was that I was about to see Chen Zhengwei, a legendary figure among the Chinese in San Francisco, and his visit this time would affect the future of tens of thousands of Chinese in Iquique.

He heard them talk about Chen Zhengwei on the boat.

Whenever they talked about Chen Zhengwei, Situ Ye and the others immediately became excited, with admiration and respect on their faces.

He was taken to Chen Zhengwei's office and the door was knocked open.

Three carpenters came out of the room, and then Situ Ye and Guan Qianbo went in first and closed the door: "Brother Wei, the people are here."

"Did you have a smooth journey?" Chen Zhengwei asked first.

"The journey was smooth and we didn't encounter any trouble, but the Weng Derong that Brother Wei asked us to find had died of illness."

"Tell me about the situation over there!" Chen Zhengwei asked directly.

"All the Chinese workers were divided into ten mining areas. After Weng Derong's death, no one else had the prestige to lead everyone. Each mining area had its own leader, and there was more than one."

After Situ Ye finished telling him what he knew, Chen Zhengwei nodded and said, "Let him in!"

Originally, he was thinking of bringing out the remnants of the Taiping Army and letting Weng Derong die accidentally on the way.

Now that Weng Derong is dead, it saves us some trouble.

These people are not subordinate to each other and are unfamiliar with the place, so they cannot cause any trouble in a short period of time.

By then, I will place these people in various places and then divide them. After a long time, they will not be able to cause any trouble.

Wen Bingzhong was then brought into the room. He saw a tall young man in a blue gentleman's suit sitting behind the table. He sat there casually with a cigar in his hand.

Young and sharp!
This is Wen Bingzhong’s biggest feeling.

too young.

However, such a young person has built up such a huge family business in a short period of time and has become the hope of people like him.

"This is Brother Wei!"

"Mr. Chen!" Wen Bingzhong said respectfully.

"Sit down and talk!" Chen Zhengwei smiled.

"To be honest, I grew up listening to stories about the Taiping Army. I didn't expect there was one in Peru. When Mr. Lin told me about it, I was shocked!"

"It's all in the past..." Wen Bingzhong said with bitterness on his face.

"What I didn't expect is that you guys have ended up like this..." Chen Zhengwei changed the subject and said mercilessly.

"More than 10,000 Taiping troops are mining in South America... Tsk tsk! To be honest, I think I overestimated you before!"

Wen Bingzhong's face became even more bitter, but he still gritted his teeth and said, "As long as Mr. Chen can find a way out for us brothers, let us go east in the future, we will never go west!"

"What's the use of me having a group of miners? As long as I have money, I can buy a lot of them!" Chen Zhengwei sneered, and then said leisurely: "Can you still afford to pick up knives and guns?"

"Yes!" Wen Bingzhong immediately said loudly.

"There are more than 10,000 people. How do I know if they will listen to me after they come?" Chen Zhengwei asked again.

"Whoever dares to be ungrateful, I will twist off his head. And since Mr. Chen has sent people over, he must have had some ideas, so why is he teasing me?" Wen Bingzhong said loudly.

Chen Zhengwei looked at the other person for a moment before speaking: "You may look rough, but your brain works quickly!"

"I hope all of you can be like you said. I spent a lot of time and effort to bring you back from Peru, and I spend a lot of money every month to support you. I don't want you to have other thoughts after you come here!"

"Of course, if you work for me, I will give you the benefits you deserve. I believe in fairness when doing things!"

"Don't worry, Mr. Chen. We brothers are not ungrateful people. If there really is such a person, we will not let him go without Mr. Chen asking!"

Chen Zhengwei smiled again: "I am speaking frankly. I don't want to see my compatriots suffer as slaves in Peru!"

"Tell me about the specific situation over there!"

Wen Bingzhong then recounted what he knew.

Chen Zhengwei pondered for a moment and said, "This is an easy matter. Peru is a small country with only two iron boats and two sailing ships in its navy. They may not even be able to defeat merchant ships. Besides, they are not docked in Iquique, and the military force in Iquique is just the soldiers in the mining area and dozens of policemen."

"You stay in San Francisco for a few days. I will arrange the ship and route. When you return to Iquique, you will contact the people in the mining areas, revolt together, occupy the port, and then ship away."

In fact, the most difficult thing to arrange is the ship. It is not easy to arrange a ship to transport 15,000 people.

In particular, the food and water needed by 15,000 people along the way require at least a transit station where they can replenish food and water and stay temporarily.

This place can't be too far from Iquique.

(End of this chapter)