Conquering the world from the Kaiser's driver

"Forehead…"

Raven felt dissatisfied. He didn't expect Lin Shangzhou to be so disrespectful to him. However, he didn't show it. Instead, he forced a smile and said to Lin Shangzhou, "I guess Mr. Hipper is the one who led the workers to strike, right?"

"Come on, let's go inside and talk."

Raven pretended to be enthusiastic and invited Lin Shangzhou. His friend told him that as long as he invited the organizers of the strike into his house and offered them benefits that they could not refuse and bribed them, there would be nothing to worry about.

"Ah."

Lin Shangzhou nodded, then turned to the workers and said, "Please wait outside for a moment. We will negotiate with Mr. Raven. I will bring you a negotiation result that satisfies everyone."

The workers cheered and then quieted down. Lin Shangzhou looked at Huo Wen and Chris. They nodded and walked to Lin Shangzhou.

Seeing this, Raven took a deep breath. He was going to give three benefits...

However, he did not voice his dissatisfaction to the reporters present, and still said with a smile: "Are these two going to come too? Okay, okay, no problem."

Lin Shangzhou looked at Monk, Eric and Goebbels again, waved to them and motioned them to come over.

After the three of them came to Lin Shangzhou, Lin Shangzhou took a step towards Raven's house.

The arrival of the three of them finally made Raven unable to bear it anymore.

He reached out his hand to stop Lin Shangzhou and pointed at Monk and the other two and asked, "Mr. Hipper, it's obvious that the three of them are not striking workers, right?"

They were dressed neatly, one of them was holding a camera, one was holding a notebook, and the other was holding a typewriter. They didn't look like workers at all.

Lin Shangzhou reached out and pressed down Raven's arm, smiling gently and saying:

"Them, I hope the three of them can record our negotiations... Negotiations always need witnesses, right? Aren't the three of them the best witnesses? I hope you can understand, Mr. Raven."

Raven gritted his teeth, suppressed his anger, and nodded. At most he would give six benefits.

Then Lin Shangzhou and five other people followed Raven into his house.

After they entered the house, the manager looked at the villa and laughed. He turned to the workers and said, "Just wait and see. That guy named Fritz is definitely using the name of a strike to get benefits from the boss. You are being used by him!"

But what he didn't expect was that none of the workers paid any attention to him. Instead, a reporter wrote down his words and came up to him and asked, "Excuse me, sir, what do you mean by that? Do you mean that there is a phenomenon of factory owners bribing the leaders of the striking workers?"

Only then did he realize that he had said the wrong thing.

.

Chapter 50 Our Victory

Lin Shangzhou and others were led by Raven to the living room of his villa. Raven asked them to sit down, but only Lin Shangzhou sat on the small sofa while everyone else stood in the living room.

Raven sat on the big sofa against the wall and said to Lin Shangzhou with a bitter look on his face: "I have heard the workers' demands, but it is a bit difficult for me to increase my salary now..."

"After all, the factory's profits have not been good in recent months, and we really can't pay out the money. We hope everyone can understand."

"But I can first improve the treatment of Mr. Hipper and other foremen, and then gradually improve the treatment of the workers. What do you think, Mr. Hipper?"

Two of Raven's three sentences were excuses for himself, and the last sentence was obviously meant to win over Lin Shangzhou and the other two. Huo Wen and Chris sneered at his expression, and Lin Shangzhou didn't listen to him and turned his head to observe the living room of Raven's villa.

The living room is very large, with sofas and other furniture on one side and a collection cabinet with a variety of collections on the other side.

Goebbels and Eric became interested in them and walked forward to observe the collections inside through the glass. Lin Shangzhou also became interested in these collections, so he stood up and walked to Goebbels and observed the items inside with them.

Lei Wen didn't know what Lin Shangzhou's intention was. Although he was dissatisfied with Lin Shangzhou's ignoring him, he had to endure it in order to win over Lin Shangzhou.

"Mr. Raven, you have a really rich collection here. Do you usually like to spend a lot of money to collect them?"

Lin Shangzhou stroked the glass with his right hand and carefully observed the collection inside.

"Mr. Hipper, you are too kind. This is just my personal hobby. It won't cost a few marks."

Raven said.

"Can I take them out and look at them?"

After hearing Lin Shangzhou's request, Raven hesitated for a few seconds, but finally agreed.

"Of course, if you like any of them, you can take them away. Just consider it a gift from me."

Lei Wen said this in a pretentious manner, which made Lin Shangzhou turn his head and look at him in surprise, saying, "I didn't expect that Mr. Lei Wen would be so generous."

Then he turned his head and said, "You are so generous, why don't you use it on the factory workers?"

"I believe the simple workers will be more grateful to you than I am."

Lei Wen frowned slightly, and the desire to kick Lin Shangzhou out became stronger and stronger in his mind, but in the end he held back.

"Collections are just collections. I still have a lot, but Mark... As I said just now, the factory's profits are not good, so I can't be generous to the workers."

Lin Shangzhou opened the cabinet and took out a well-made gold-plated pipe. He took the pipe in his hand and played with it. He turned around and stroked the pipe while asking Goebbels beside him: "Paul, you know more than me. How much do you think this pipe is worth?"

What do you mean I know more than you? You know more than me, right?

Goebbels chuckled and leaned over to observe the pipe. After looking at it for a while, he said, "There is a family name engraved on it in Russian. It must have belonged to a captured Russian noble officer during the war. It should be worth at least 500 marks."

"500 marks..."

Lin Shangzhou muttered to himself and put it back in the collection cabinet.

"The workers' hourly wage is 9 pfennigs per hour, and the daily wage is rounded up to 1 mark. There are more than workers in the factory, but if there are less than , we will calculate it as . If this thing is sold, the workers will be paid more than one day's salary..."

He took a few steps back, stretched out his hand and made a circle towards the collection cabinet, then turned to look at Raven and said, "If all the collections in this cabinet are sold, it should be able to alleviate the factory's recent financial problems, right?"

"this…"

Lei Wen didn't know how to answer. While he was thinking about how to answer, Lin Shangzhou continued, "Since Mr. Lei Wen said that the factory's recent profits are not good, why don't you think of ways to increase profits?"

“Simply paying workers less won’t increase profits…”

Lin Shangzhou walked towards Lei Wen and said as he walked: "If the profit is not good, doesn't it mean that the products we produce cannot be sold? If you really want to increase the profit, why do you let the workers work 11 hours a day to produce products? Let the machines run for 11 hours?"

“Isn’t this just increasing the electricity bill?”

"And if the profits are really bad, then as the boss of the factory, why don't you try to make the profits positive?"

Lin Shangzhou returned to the small sofa, sat on it and crossed his legs. He looked into Raven's eyes and asked, "Or are you actually preparing to file for bankruptcy, Mr. Raven?"

After he said this, he clasped his hands together, as if he had suddenly realized something.

"Oh, I see. You are planning to file for bankruptcy, right? After all, the factory's profits are so poor that you can't even pay the workers' wages. And you, Boss Raven, like to spend a lot of money to collect all kinds of collections. If you don't file for bankruptcy, the factory will not be able to continue operating."

As he spoke, Lin Shangzhou acted sympathetically and said, "How about this, you just say openly that you plan to file for bankruptcy, and then I can go out and give an explanation to my fellow workers."

"You're bankrupt and can't even run the factory. How are you going to pay us?"

"Now that the workers know you've gone bankrupt, they won't think too much about their treatment. We'll just go home. If the factory is bankrupt, why are they still working there?"

Lin Shangzhou's sarcastic look made Lei Wen so angry that he wanted to say: Yes, I'm fucking bankrupt! Get out of here! It's time to go home, I'm not going to run the factory anymore!

But the three people from the newspaper made him dare not say so. If he really said it, his words would be in the newspaper, and he would be the one who would be in trouble. The workers could leave his factory and work in other factories, but he felt very aggrieved.

Huo Wen and a few others were trying to hold back their laughter. They didn't expect Lin Shangzhou to be such a sarcastic and disgusting factory owner.

Looking at Lin Shangzhou's understanding smile, Lei Wen was like a deflated ball. He suddenly felt no longer angry. Isn't it just a matter of improving the treatment? He can just improve it himself. He really doesn't want to see this Chinese who keeps disgusting him anymore.

He leaned back on the sofa and said to Lin Shangzhou: "Aren't you here to negotiate? Then talk quickly!"

Lin Shangzhou smiled and said, "Since you said so, let's start the negotiation."

Then he pulled out a notebook from his pocket, opened a page, and read out the first demand: "First, we demand an increase in hourly wages to 30 pfennigs."

"What!? 30?!"

Raven suddenly stood up and looked at Lin Shangzhou in disbelief. 30 pfennigs? That's a damn high price!

"It's too high, 10... no, 15 pfennigs."

He was halfway through his words when he suddenly changed his mind and added 5 pfennigs. He felt that if he only raised it by 1 pfennig, the Chinese man would definitely disgust him by saying things like "Are you going bankrupt? Is your factory going to close down soon?"

However, what he didn't know was that as long as the standards he set did not meet Lin Shangzhou's requirements, Lin Shangzhou would always disgust him.

"15 pfennigs is too low. I can't justify it to the workers."

Lin Shangzhou said without hesitation, then stroked his chin with his right hand and said thoughtfully:

"But if I tell them that you are going bankrupt, then maybe they will sympathize with you and accept this hourly wage..."

Hearing Lin Shangzhou mention bankruptcy, Lei Wen said impatiently:

"Okay, okay, okay, 20 pfennigs, 20 pfennigs."

Lin Shangzhou smiled kindly and said to him:

"Since you are willing to raise it to 20 pfennigs, doesn't that mean the factory has not gone bankrupt? If it has not gone bankrupt, why not raise it a little more?"

"I am Chinese, and Chinese people always like to compromise. How about adding your 20 pfennigs and my 30 pfennigs and dividing by two, 25 pfennigs? What do you think?"

Raven panted and glared at Lin Shangzhou's eyes. Finally, he gave up. 25 pfennigs was 25 pfennigs. He just wanted to get rid of this old man as soon as possible.

"Okay! 25 pfennigs!"

He nodded weakly.

"Ah... Thank you very much for agreeing to our request."

Lin Shangzhou smiled brightly, and turned his head to glance at Huo Wen and Chris behind him, and winked at them. They both didn't know whether to laugh or cry, as they thought the negotiation would be full of gunpowder, but it turned out to be so ridiculous.

"Then the next step is to ask you to agree to the factory's eight-hour workday and two-day weekends off system. Do you agree?"

Raven nodded without hesitation. He had already raised the workers' hourly wage to 25 pfennigs per hour. If they continued to work 7 hours a day, 77 days a week as before, the factory would really be unable to make ends meet after a few months.

The reduced working hours were a benefit to him in this regard, at least that's what he thought.

Lin Shangzhou nodded with satisfaction. He deliberately raised the hourly wage in order to get the factory owner to agree to the second clause. If the boss did not agree to the eight-hour work system and two days off a week, that was fine. He was the one who paid the workers' wages anyway. This strike had taught him a lesson. At least he would not dare to delay paying the wages anymore.

"Third, we need you to agree to sign a labor contract for each worker in the factory, and to hire workers in the future in the form of contracts."

Lin Shangzhou mentioned the third point, and Raven still nodded without hesitation.

He felt that no matter what request Lin Shangzhou made next, he would not care.

Seeing that Raven agreed to the three most important points, Lin Shangzhou and the other two were very happy, especially Huo Wen and Chris. They didn't expect that Raven would agree so easily.

He also agreed to the remaining three demands, but when the union was mentioned, he hesitated for a few seconds, and finally agreed unconditionally.

After Raven agreed to the demands of the workers and other grassroots employees in the factory, Lin Shangzhou asked Monk for two pieces of paper, quickly wrote the contents of the agreement on them and asked Raven to sign. Of course, this was only temporary, and a formal agreement would be added later.

Raven picked up a pen and signed his name on two pieces of paper with a depressed look on his face. When Lin Shangzhou was about to sign his name, he hesitated. After thinking for a few seconds, he signed: All workers of Raven Machinery Factory and all other grassroots employees.

A strike is a joint strike by everyone, so it should be signed with such a title.

Lin Shangzhou picked up an agreement and stood up from the sofa. He smiled and said to Raven, "I'm glad that you agreed to all our requirements. Our negotiations were very pleasant."

"I will lead the workers to end the strike and return to the factory to start work. I hope you will not forget to go to the factory in the afternoon to deal with the subsequent matters."

"Finally, I wish you a good day."

After sending his blessings to Lei Wen, Lin Shangzhou took Huo Wen and others out of the villa, leaving Lei Wen with a tired face.

“What bad luck…”

Raven sat on the sofa and looked up at the ceiling. He never thought that he would encounter such a thing.

Lin Shangzhou came outside and looked at the contents on the paper. He was very excited. This strike was a complete victory!

Although his negotiation style was less formal, there is no doubt that he persuaded Raven to agree to their demands, and all of them!

Lin Shangzhou suppressed his excitement and walked out of the yard quickly to the anxiously waiting workers. He waved the paper in his right hand and shouted to the workers excitedly: "We won!!!"

When the workers heard the news of the strike's victory from Lin Shangzhou, they burst into loud cheers.

Then Lin Shangzhou signaled to the workers to be quiet, and the workers forced themselves to suppress their emotions and calmed down.

"Next, I will tell you the results of my negotiation with Mr. Raven. First..."

Lin Shangzhou drew out the last syllable of his words, deliberately leaving the audience in suspense. The workers also held their breath and waited for Lin Shangzhou to speak.

“Our hourly wage starts from 9 pfennigs per hour…”

"It has been increased to 25 pfennigs per hour!!!"

The workers who had been quiet cheered again after hearing Lin Shangzhou's words. This time their cheering was not enough. Several excited workers stepped forward and grabbed Lin Shangzhou's limbs. After they left, other workers also surrounded him.

This scared Lin Shangzhou. Before he could react, he felt his body being lifted up, and the next second he was thrown into the air by the workers.

The moment he was suspended in the air, Lin Shangzhou's heart was lifted up. After he landed and felt the strong hands of the workers, he felt relieved again.