Reborn in 1878: America's Number One Bandit

Chapter 133 Making a Move in Auckland

San Francisco is a prison.

A magnificent prison filled with gold and ambition.

Its geographical layout—a peninsula surrounded by water on three sides—is both the source of its unhealthy prosperity and a natural shackle on its development.

Land was scarce and ridiculously expensive, and all land transport had to detour around most of the bay, navigating mud and banditry.

On the other side of the bay, Auckland lies there quietly, like an untouched virgin land.

In 1878, Auckland had a population of just over ten thousand.

There are large tracts of flat, fertile land here waiting to be developed.

Most importantly, this is the true terminus of the transcontinental railroad, the end of the steel artery connecting the American continent, and a perfect hub where sea and land transport meet.

This is the ideal place to establish the Rosen rayon empire.

Now all that's missing is a factory building.

Prior to this, Lawson's fifty-two assassins had already driven themselves into Auckland like nails, becoming a part of the city.

These people each have their own identities and come from various social strata here.

A clerk yawning in the city hall archives, complaining about his low salary. A bartender wiping glasses in the most chaotic bar on the docks, smiling as he listens to sailors and gangsters bragging.

A cop who always manages to perfectly avoid all gang fight zones during his night patrols. A street thug who makes a living through extortion...

They are Lawson's eyes and ears, his nerve endings.

Almost the instant that Lawson's needs were formed, intelligence had already been gathered.

"Target: Golden Scissors Textile Factory in East Auckland."

Owner: Henry Dodge.

Status: On the verge of bankruptcy.

Due to its attempts to compete with East Coast tycoons and its atrocious internal management, it has been three months behind on bank loans.

"Value: Land, factory buildings, a nearly obsolete steam engine, and some old textile equipment. Bank valuation: 10,000 Indian dollars."

This is just a ready-made shell.

It saves a lot of time on site selection approval and infrastructure construction; once you get it, you can use it.

"Acquire it."

The instruction has been issued.

Auckland City Bank.

A well-dressed loan officer, acting out of a sense of responsibility for the bank's assets, knocked on his superior's door.

"Sir, regarding Henry Dodge's loan, I must remind you that it is ninety days overdue. We need to initiate asset auction proceedings immediately, otherwise this bad debt will ruin our performance this quarter."

At the city hall, the yawning clerk casually flipped through the land deeds of the Golden Scissors Textile Factory.

He let out an exaggerated exclamation, which attracted the attention of his supervisor.

He then pointed to a tiny but fatal flaw in the file, a vague definition left over from the railway company's planning more than a decade ago.

"my Lord."

He stammered, "If the railroad company wants to reclaim this land now, the collateral held by this bank is practically worthless!"

A vast net woven from legal procedures has quietly been cast over the unfortunate boss who is completely unaware of all this.

Lawson's attention, however, had already shifted away from this trivial matter.

……

At the same time, in the San Francisco mayor's office.

"A bunch of Irish scum, a bunch of idiot laborers who can't even spell their own names!"

Samuel was breathing heavily, his face turning purple with anger.

That was his grand San Francisco reconstruction plan.

He also pointed to this plan to boast about his achievements, use it to ascend to the governorship, and even become the President of the United States.

But this grand vision was shattered by reality!

A group of Irish businessmen, led by shipping magnate Patrick O'Malley, paid lip service to his policies while secretly disobeying them.

They used their rogue logic and hypocritical respect to completely fool him.

"Rebuild the port? Oh, of course, Mr. Mayor, what a wise decision!"

O'Malley replied glibly, "But you have to know, our O'Malley Shipping berths must be expanded first. This is for the prosperity of San Francisco, you know."

"Renovate the Barbary Coast? No problem, Mr. Mayor, we're all for it!"

Another Irish pub owner licked his lips: "But we can't pay a single penny more in taxes to our chamber of commerce. After all, we're the ones feeding those poor wretches who voted for you, aren't we?"

"A new city plan? Oh, that's fantastic, but we absolutely refuse to allow the city hall to expropriate our land!"

These bastards, bastards!
What did they take him for? A puppet they could manipulate at will, a talking vase pushed to the forefront by that Chinese police chief!
He could even imagine that right now, in those upscale clubs at the foot of Mount Norb, O'Malley's gang was laughing at him without restraint!
They mocked him, saying he was just a figurehead mayor who couldn't even control his own city!

Samuel stared wide-eyed, panting, his anger finding no outlet!

He hated the Irish, hated their rudeness and greed, hated how they had polluted the city with their dirty hands!
No, we have to do something.

He still wanted to regain power and let those bastards know who the real masters of San Francisco were.

The only person who can shut those Irish bastards up now is the Chinese man he both hates and fears!

“Penny!”

A few minutes later, Penny Black walked in.

At this moment, she was wearing an exquisite new Parisian long dress with elegant and delicate lace trim, but her expression remained as indifferent as ever.

“Samuel, if you’re going to get angry again because the Bordeaux wine in the cellar isn’t aged enough, I advise you…”

"Shut up, you useless bitch!"

Penny's face immediately darkened: "You'd better watch your words, Samuel. I'm still your wife."

Samuel chuckled dryly and suddenly rushed in front of Penny.

"What kind of wife are you? A piece of trash who can't even satisfy her own husband, a high-class whore who recites poetry in her head while I'm fucking you!"

Penny tensed up as that distorted, grotesque fat face magnified in her vision, making her feel utterly disgusted!
"Snapped!"

Penny couldn't help but slap him hard, yelling, "You disgusting homosexual!"

The office fell silent for a moment.

Samuel pressed his tongue against his numb cheek and suddenly burst out laughing.

"Yes."

He slowly admitted, "I do like men. I like young, strong bodies. I also like the muscles of dockworkers, and the smell of a groom's sweat, so what?"

He took a step closer, and Penny was forced to step back until her back hit the wall.

"Do you think I want to marry you? Marry a woman who has beauty but a heart as cold and hard as the stone on Mount Norbu? Do you think I want to smell your perfume every night and pretend I'm interested in your withered and boring body?"

“America is free, I have the freedom to pursue happiness, but I am the mayor! I need a facade, a wife of noble blood to shut everyone up, and a vessel to bear my heir, even though you fucking can’t even do that!” He grabbed the municipal reconstruction plan on the table and slammed it hard into Penny’s chest.

“Now, your husband, the mayor of San Francisco, needs you, the face of the business, to do something.”

Penny felt a dull pain in her chest from the blow, but she still tried to remain calm and stared at him coldly.

"What do you want me to do?"

“Patrick O’Malley, and those Irish bastards. They’re getting in my way.”

Samuel's breathing became heavy again: "My decrees are not going through, and now I need help!"

"So, you go to the police station right now and find Chief Aoyama!"

"Are you crazy? You want me to beg that Chinese guy again?"

"beg?"

Samuel's laughter became even more disgusting: "No, no, no. Not begging, but seducing him."

"Haven't you always looked down on me? Did you think I was incompetent and couldn't satisfy you?"

"I saw it all. That night after the riots subsided, in Chinatown, look at that Chinese man's eyes, tsk tsk, like a female cat in heat. You were soaking wet then, weren't you? You shameless bitch!"

"You are shameless!"

Samuel grabbed her chin and forced her to look up at him: "You enjoyed it too, didn't you? You liked him pinning you against the wall and pounding into you like a hundred-dollar prostitute, didn't you? Answer me!"

"Let me go!"

Penny struggled violently, but the fat man was incredibly strong at that moment.

“Go ahead, Penny.”

Samuel finally released his grip: "Go and persuade your Chinese lover to help me get rid of O'Malley's gang. It's your responsibility as the mayor's wife. Go, go and serve your husband's career, my dear."

Penny Black stood there trembling, glaring at Samuel, her nominal husband, the coward she despised!
In the end, she said nothing.

He won't listen to anything you say to such a heartless person.

She turned abruptly and rushed out of the office.

Samuel walked to the liquor cabinet, poured himself a full glass of brandy, and drank it all in one gulp.

"Behave well, darling."

He muttered to himself in the empty room, "Perform well."

……

San Francisco Police Department Headquarters.

Unlike the City Hall, which uses perfume and cigars to mask its decadent hypocrisy, this is a naked center of power.

As Penny Black walked through the hall, the thugs who had been arrested all turned to look at her.

They openly stared at her face, breasts, and hips bulging out of her crinoline.

Those gazes were like assessing how much this piece of meat was worth, or what kind of screams she would make when she was pinned down.

This made her feel inexplicably uneasy, her palms were icy cold, yet there was also a hint of morbid excitement that she herself despised.

Aoyama was in his office at that moment, the door open.

"Director."

Penny's voice was a little strained, and she could hear it herself.

"Mrs. Black."

Qingshan raised his eyes and looked at her quietly: "What brings you here? Does your husband's banquet need a few uniformed figures to make an appearance?"

Penny's cheeks flushed slightly. She forced herself to calm down and closed the office door behind her.

"My husband, he's run into some trouble."

She recounted Samuel's predicament and the obstruction from the Irish merchants in the most respectable terms possible.

"so."

After Penny finished speaking, Aoyama slowly said, "The incompetent mayor couldn't handle those Irishmen, so he sent you, the First Lady, to come here and cry?"

"I didn't come here to cry!"

Penny was enraged by his rudeness: "I'm here for justice! Patrick O'Malley and his gang are harming San Francisco's interests! They're hindering the city's rebuilding!"

Aoyama sneered coldly: "Mrs. Black, there are no reporters here, nor are there those idiotic voters your husband needs to fawn over. Your husband's interests are not the same as San Francisco's interests."

“Your husband wants to build roads and ports because he wants to make a name for himself in history, because he wants to climb up to Sacramento, or even Washington.”

“O'Malley and his group want to obstruct it because the road construction will take away their illegally occupied land, and the new port will steal their business from those few dilapidated ships.”

"This is just a bunch of dogs fighting over a bone; it has nothing to do with justice."

Penny was speechless after his blunt analysis.

Her education also made it impossible for her to refute this jungle law-like logic.

She took a deep breath and let go of her last bit of reserve and pretense.

"So what do you plan to do? Help him, or not?"

"Of course I'll help him, why wouldn't I?"

Aoyama smiled knowingly: "Your husband may be a good-for-nothing who only knows how to smash things in the office, but he is now the mayor. An obedient dog is always easier to manage than a pack of unruly wolves."

Penny breathed a sigh of relief, but a deeper sense of shame followed.

She didn't like the dog metaphor, even though he wasn't wrong.

"Then, what would you do?"

She asked tentatively, the images of the thugs' corpses swaying in the wind on the lampposts involuntarily flashing through her mind: "Would you, like you did with those thugs? Take them all..."

"Mrs. Black, your imagination is pitifully poor."

Qingshan chuckled softly and gently lifted Penny's chin.

Penny's body trembled, and a tingling sensation immediately spread throughout her body along her spine.

She craved this feeling and didn't want to escape it.

"Hanging those thugs is called using harsh measures in chaotic times. I have just taken office and need to use the fastest speed and the bloodiest scenes to suppress that group of restless scum."

I need to let the whole city know, damn it, that the rules have changed. Anyone who disagrees can go and keep those corpses company.

"But San Francisco is back on track now. The city needs order and law."

"That O'Malley and the others..."

Aoyama withdrew his hand and sneered, "In San Francisco, no, in America, how many of these so-called entrepreneurs have clean hands?"

"Patrick O'Malley, a bastard who made his fortune smuggling Irish whiskey. Of all those dilapidated ships of his, which cargo manifest is genuine? Which one hasn't carried contraband?"
To save money, it's probably commonplace to chain sick piglets and throw them into the sea to feed sharks!

Penny stared in shock, unable to believe such a thing could exist in the world.

These sordid secrets are something her circle of wealthy women could never access.

(End of this chapter)