Reborn in 1878: America's Number One Bandit

Chapter 141 Sacrificing a generation of young girls in exchange for economic recovery!

Sacramento, the capital of California.

"A muddled mess, and this is your answer to me?"

Owen roared and slammed a telegram onto his desk.

The telegram, sent by the governor of Nevada, was full of excuses and counterclaims.

“Those Nevada bumpkins dare to say that the thugs came from California. They even implied that one of our people stole the goods. That’s utter bullshit!”

Three state legislators stood in front of the desk, each looking like a wilted eggplant, heads down studying the tips of their leather shoes.

“Mr. Governor”.

One of them finally spoke up: "This happened on Nevada railroad tracks, after all. Legally, they bear primary responsibility for maintaining order. We have already lost a National Guard commander, Mr. Barkley."

"Barkley!"

Irving spat at him: "A good-for-nothing who only knows how to talk big, a complete idiot! He has disgraced California, leading an entire battalion to be routed by a few hundred unknown thugs, and he was the first to die. What a disgrace!"

Another congressman quickly chimed in, “You’re right, Governor. Barkley is a complete idiot; he’s not fit to command a battalion. But think about it, this might also be an opportunity.”

Irving looked at him: "Opportunity?"

“The dead can’t speak, Governor. All the blame can be placed on Barkley’s mismanagement, and we, California, are the victims. We’ve lost dozens of brave soldiers, and one, well, our commander.”

"Let those Japanese go to Nevada and argue their way out. We didn't take a single cent from them. We helped them voluntarily; now they owe us a favor and compensation!"

"That's right!"

Finally, the congressman chimed in, "We should immediately put pressure on the Nevada state government and demand compensation for our soldiers' losses! As for those damned Japanese dwarfs, let them go find that pile of tattered silk in the desert! A bunch of Japanese dwarfs, they get into trouble wherever they go, who knows if this is a self-orchestrated ruse!"

Irving's anger gradually subsided, and he finally waved his hand.

"Get out of here. Don't let me see you again until I've figured out how to reply to Nevada."

The lawmakers quickly left the office.

The door is closed.

The office fell silent again.

A moment later, a soft sound of footsteps approached.

A pair of soft, boneless hands gently pressed against his temples.

"William."

A charming voice came through: "Don't be angry at those idiots. They only see the trouble in front of them, but they can't see the power behind the trouble."

It was his female secretary, a stunning woman with a face like a Greek sculpture and a devilish figure, rumored to be the illegitimate daughter of a fallen nobleman from the East Coast.

Irving closed his eyes, letting the slender fingers soothe his headache.

"And what did you see?"

“I see a vacuum, William.”

The female secretary walked around to face him and straddled his lap without any hesitation: "Cross is too old, his tactics are still stuck in Gettysburg; Barkley is too stupid, he can't even tell the difference between a rifle and a stick. They are both your tools, but inferior tools."

"so what?"

Owen's hand had already slipped into the slit of her skirt.

"Therefore, you need a truly sharp knife, a knife that belongs only to you."

The secretary's breath tickled Irving's ear: "The California National Guard, three thousand men, six full battalions. That's the strongest armed force on the West Coast."

"But now? It's like a headless fly, being dragged along by a bunch of useless people. This power should only obey one person's orders."

Irving suddenly stopped moving: "Are you crazy? How could I have time to care about those soldiers' eating, drinking, and relieving themselves?"

"Of course you don't."

The female secretary chuckled, “You are the governor, the future president. You don’t need to manage the details; you just need to appoint six battalion commanders—six young, energetic, and most importantly, absolutely loyal to you.”

“In the future, they will be your six hounds. You loosen their leashes, and they will bite. Their future and honor, everything they have, rests on your shoulders!”

Irving's heart began to race.

This proposal, like a shot of morphine, precisely struck at the very spot where his desire for power was aroused!
The secretary sensed his change and leaned closer, offering one last tempting remark: "And we can't let your hounds become lazy; we must keep them hungry at all times."

How to maintain it?

"A bottom-ranking elimination system. Every month, all six battalions undergo a comprehensive assessment: physical fitness, shooting, and discipline. The bottom 5% of soldiers in the battalion with the lowest total score are all eliminated and kicked out of the National Guard. We California taxpayers' money isn't for incompetent people!"

"Eliminating the bottom performers, no keeping useless people..."

He muttered to himself, then burst into laughter: "What a brilliant last-place elimination system! This is the kind of army I want, an elite, efficient army that belongs only to me, William Irving!"

"My darling, you're a genius, a witch!"

He grabbed his female secretary by the waist and slammed her onto the table: "When I become president, you will be my Secretary of State!"

“Then you must satisfy me first, Governor.”

A few minutes later, Irving put his vest back on and looked refreshed.

He then wrote furiously on a blank governor's order and signed the bill to reorganize and expand the California National Guard.

……

At the same time, in Malin County.

Lawson was sitting on the porch, leisurely sipping his morning tea.

A low-ranking clerk in the governor's office has just sent back the complete meeting minutes.

"Last-place elimination system... Irving, you're quite the generous governor."

Lawson chuckled softly and took a sip of tea.

This system was practically tailor-made for him.

It is not a filter, but a perfect funnel.

Lawson's elite assassins possess peak physical strength twice that of ordinary people, are proficient in hand-to-hand combat and shooting, and would be among the best in any fair assessment.

When those drunkards, scoundrels, and lazybones are eliminated at the bottom, who will fill the vacancies?
Naturally, it's those newcomers who performed the best in the assessment.

If you cram in forty or fifty a month, they'll become the best soldiers, then sergeants, then company commanders...

Lawson didn't even need to deliberately assassinate him.

All you need to do is ensure that your loyal followers outperform the battalion commander's confidants by just a little bit in every assessment.

Irving thought he was promoting six loyal dogs.

He will never know that he is using the dollars in his own vault to feed Lawson six tigers that are about to bite his throat.

Using foreigners' money to support your own army—there's no better deal in the world!
Lawson got up and stretched, feeling very comfortable all over.

Now, it's time to take stock of the gains from this "naked chokehold" operation.

It was a perfect feast, and he was the only diner.

The first item is the core asset: a 51% controlling stake in the Northern Pacific Coast Railroad (NPC).

This means the Sausalito terminal.

That vital sea route connecting the North Bay to San Francisco, and that major transportation artery that stretched deep into inland forests and farmlands, now belongs to the Los Angeles family.

The second item is cash profits. Total profits from the London financial markets reached $79.

After deducting the $50 used to save NPC and pay its maturing bonds, and then deducting the initial $3 principal, the net profit is $26.

A clean and legal sum of cash has been quietly deposited in White Tiger Holdings' bank accounts in London and New York.

The third item was $150 million from the Meiji government of Japan.

Lawson almost burst out laughing.

The Japanese paid him to rob themselves.

Finally, there was the batch of Japanese raw silk worth $160 million.

Two thousand packages, a total of 266,000 pounds.

After experiencing a series of misfortunes, including warehouse relocation, cotton replacement, and a train attack, this batch of goods is now lying quietly in secret warehouses scattered throughout Northern California, being disassembled, repackaged, and given new packaging bearing the company's logo.

The final outcome of a global financial crisis is as follows.

Three speculators in London went bankrupt.

Banker Rutham made a graceful exit, preserving his reputation and allowing him to continue working in the banking industry.

Poor Aaron Bryant is in Marin County jail, awaiting trial for theft.

Poor Barkley became a victim of political infighting, and before his body was even cold, he was nailed to the pillar of shame for his incompetence.

The Japanese government has now suffered a double loss, not only losing $160 million worth of goods but also paying an additional $150 million in commissions, and now facing huge breach of contract claims from a textile giant on the East Coast.

Their long-desired ironclad warship, the Fusō, will likely be temporarily stranded in a British shipyard.

California Governor Irving has just given Lawson's infiltration plan a free pass.

Lawson let out a long sigh of relief.

All the players at the poker table were either eliminated or crippled by his schemes.

And he, the mastermind behind the scenes, won all the chips!
His gaze turned eastward; now, it was time to move on to the next step.

Europe's silk industry has been paralyzed for nearly a decade due to microparticle disease.

The American textile industry is expanding wildly, its thirst for raw silk like that of an addict who can never be satisfied.

After the Japanese shipment disappeared, the global price of raw silk rose by 10% overnight.

Those textile giants are jumping up and down in a panic.

Lawson is waiting for them right here!
He will get this batch of raw silk back on the market.

They will be divided into ten batches and released simultaneously by ten unrelated businessmen at stock exchanges in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and even London and Paris!
Of course, Lawson won't just increase it by 10%.

He wants to raise it by 15%, or even 30%!

He didn't need to do any deliberate marketing; he just needed to ignite an auction, letting those starving textile factory owners fight tooth and nail for this life-saving shipment. He wanted the market to fully experience and remember this thirst, and then…

Lawson's thoughts then turned to Auckland.

In the newly acquired factory, which has been renamed "Zhuque Chemical", the first batch of adhesive process equipment has been installed and debugged.

Mountains of cheap wood pulp were transported from the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

While East Coast silk tycoons are tearfully paying exorbitant prices to snatch up his "gift" of natural raw silk, a polite salesman will knock on their office door.

He would hand over a small sample roll, which had a more perfect appearance and a more durable texture than natural silk.

"Sir, I heard you're troubled by the high cost of silk?"

"I am a representative of Zhuque Raw Silk. We have a new product that you might be interested in."

"Oh, its price? It's probably only half the price you're paying now."

……

Tokyo, Akasaka Residence.

"Baka! You beast!"

A precious Satsuma ware tea bowl was slammed against the wall and shattered into pieces.

Porcelain shards scatter and roll to the side of Home Affairs Minister Okubo Toshimichi's wooden clogs, but he remains unmoved.

"Two thousand packs, robbed again, fucking?"

Chancellor of the Exchequer Masayoshi Matsukata roared at the top of his lungs, "Barkley is dead? The entire National Guard escort was wiped out?"

Foreign Minister Terashima Munenori swayed and almost fell over.

"160 million silver dollars worth of raw silk, gone! We even mortgaged another 150 million silver dollars, and that's gone too!"

"Double the fucking!"

Army Minister Yamagata Aritomo, a Choshu warrior known for his composure, couldn't help but utter a curse.

“What do the Americans, those East Coast bastards, say?” Toshimichi Okubo finally spoke.

Terashima Munenori swallowed hard and picked up another telegram: "They're going crazy. The textile mills in New York and Paterson have jointly issued an ultimatum. Either they immediately compensate for their losses, or they tear up all the contracts and go buy Qing Dynasty silk instead."

"What about the penalty for breach of contract?"

"Preliminary estimate: no less than 100 million silver dollars."

"idiot!"

The room full of dignitaries and nobles now looked like stray dogs with their spines removed.

The total loss is close to 400 million Hong Kong dollars!
This isn't about money; it's about the fate of the empire!
This is the keel of the ironclad warship Fusō, the barrel of the Krupp cannon, and the cornerstone for the construction of domestic railways and steel mills!

They had just used their domestic mines as bloody collateral to raise enough money to buy the Qing Dynasty silk from O'Malley, all to fill the hole on the East Coast and preserve this most important artery of foreign exchange for the empire.

Now, this artery has been severed by an invisible knife.

Twice, damn it!

"Put pressure on Nevada! Send a telegram to that son of a bitch governor of California! Make them skin those thugs alive!" Yamagata Aritomo roared.

"it's useless."

Terashima Munenori looked ashen-faced: "Those country bumpkins in Nevada are all shirking responsibility. And that bastard California Governor Irving, he's blaming us for bringing disaster to California, killing dozens of National Guard members, and even the fucking commander-in-chief Barkley was killed. He's demanding our compensation!"

"What? He's making us pay up?" Even Toshimichi Okubo was so angry that his temples throbbed.

This is utterly robbery logic!

But ironically, they didn't even have the confidence to refute it.

"We must hold on to the Americans! We cannot lose the American market, absolutely not! Once the Qing people fill the void, we're finished!"

How do we stabilize the situation?

Terashima Munenori smiled bitterly: "We have no money to compensate, and we have no goods to deliver!"

"Then lower the price!"

Matsukata Masayoshi was nearly driven mad: "Send a telegram to those Americans, we apologize for this accident. All orders for next year, no, for the next three years, we'll reduce prices by another 20%, 20%!"

"Twenty percent?" Even Ren Shanxian Youpeng gasped in shock: "Matsukata-kun, you're cutting off your own flesh!"

"If we don't cut our losses, we'll die! This is a huge loss, but we have to bleed! We have to show the Americans our sincerity and let them know that waiting for us is more worthwhile than exchanging our goods for Qing Dynasty pigs!"

Okubo Toshimichi kept his eyes tightly closed, and it took a full minute before he slowly opened them.

"Do as Matsukata-kun says. Send a telegram, using humble language, to tell them that the Great Japanese Empire is willing to bear their losses."

Terashima Munenori's hands trembled as he drafted the telegram.

Sending this telegram means that for the next three years, the Empire will lose at least several million silver dollars in profits out of thin air each year!

This is tantamount to treason!

Ironically, this was the only way to save the country.

Not long after, a new telegram was sent in.

After reading it, Terashima Munenori's expression was strange, a mixture of joy and sorrow: "The Americans have replied."

"They agreed?"

"agreed."

Terashima Munenori wiped away a cold sweat: "They said that Japanese silk is still the most consistent in quality. The silk from the Qing Dynasty is of inconsistent quality, and they don't find it convenient to use. They are willing to give us another chance."

"Hahaha!"

Matsukata Masayoshi gave a dry laugh and plopped back into his chair: "See? Japan's raw silk is the best in the world. Those Americans just can't live without us, they can't live without us!"

Yamagata Aritomo breathed a sigh of relief and sneered, "They're smart enough to know their place. How can the Qing Dynasty's manual workshops compare to our industrialized silkworm farming!"

The only good news gave these high-ranking officials, who were on the verge of collapse, a temporary respite.

But then, Toshimichi Okubo brought them back to reality.

"If we reduce the price by 20%, how will we fill this gap? How will we pay the remaining balance for the Fusō? Also, how will the army and navy be maintained?"

The room fell silent once again.

"Then let's expand the scale of breeding!"

The agricultural bureaucrat sitting in the corner whispered, "Double the size. Now we can only make up for the losses from the price drop through scale."

"Double it? Easier said than done!"

Matsukata Masayoshi retorted, "Where's the land? How many plains does Japan actually have? All the mulberry fields now are squeezed out from the farmers' subsistence fields. Doubling that size? Are you asking the farmers to eat shit?"

"Farmers don't need to eat so much rice. With international grain prices currently low, there's so much grain in the US, especially wheat from California, that it's rotting in warehouses and can't be sold."

“We can replace paddy fields with mulberry fields, sell raw silk to Americans, and then use the money they pay to buy back their wheat. That would be more cost-effective.”

"Gambling our lifeline of grain on the raw silk trade?" Yamagata Aritomo frowned. "That's too dangerous."

"If you don't gamble, you'll die right now!"

Matsukata Masayoshi slammed his fist on the table, approving of the plan: "That's it! Suppress domestic rice prices and force farmers to switch to mulberry trees. Anyone who refuses to plant them shouldn't blame the government for doing so!"

“That’s not enough.” A more sinister voice rang out.

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw it was Ito Hirobumi, the Minister of Industry in charge of industrial development.

His young face carried a sinister look that belied his age.

"The path of raw silk is too narrow. If they can rob us once today, they can rob us twice in the future. We are betting the lifeblood of the empire on this one silk, and we will be strangled sooner or later."

"Ito-kun, what brilliant ideas do you have?"

Hirobumi Ito slowly stood up and walked to the map.

"Gentlemen, we have been talking about exports, exporting raw silk, tea, and minerals, but we have overlooked one of the empire's richest resources."

"Our woman."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in the room was shocked!

"Ito-kun, what... what do you mean by this?" Terashima Munenori's face flushed red. "This is an insult to the nation!"

"National system?" Ito Hirobumi sneered. "How much is the national system worth? Can it buy a Fusō-class battleship? Can it pay the 100 million taels of silver penalty for breach of contract?"

“I just came back from Europe. Paris, London, Berlin, those white aristocrats, they were very interested in our Japanese women.”

“Those people like their submissiveness and petite stature; in their eyes, a Japanese woman is far more valuable than a batch of silk. So why can't we export them?”

"It's just nonsense!"

Yamagata Aritomo angrily retorted: "You want the people of the empire to become prostitutes? Where do you think the faces of the Imperial Warriors are?!"

Ito Hirobumi laughed even harder: "Lord Yamagata, your army needs to expand and buy new guns, and those idiots in the navy want to build new ships. Where's the money? Can you get it from somewhere else? Right now, the money is right here!"

"How much foreign exchange can a Japanese girl earn for the empire in a year working in a top club in San Francisco or Paris? A hundred? A thousand?"

"They are the empire's foreign exchange gold mine, living raw silk!"

"you……"

"Gentlemen!" Ito Hirobumi interrupted the crowd's curses, his tone suddenly rising: "We have no time! In this situation, we must use every means to get money, with raw silk, coal, and even our women's thighs!"

"This is war, an economic war without gunfire! In this war, only the sacrifice of one generation of women is needed to achieve the industrialization and military modernization of the empire. Isn't this a worthwhile trade-off?"

The conference room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Everyone was stunned by Hirobumi Itō's groundbreaking economics.

This is not only an insult to the nation, but also an act of beastly behavior!
But damn, this can really make money!

After an unknown period of silence, Okubo Toshimichi finally spoke in a hoarse voice: "Let's do it this way. The Ministry of Home Affairs will cooperate with you to 'encourage' girls from impoverished families throughout the country to dedicate themselves to the nation."

"This matter," he raised his head, his cold gaze sweeping across the room, "will be called 'Miss Tang Xing,' and she will go to the West to share the Emperor's burdens."

"Hi!"

(End of this chapter)