Twenty-Four Solar Terms Movement

  Update 2 is out, please recommend and collect, update 3 will be released tonight.

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  Great literary man George finally put down his pen and dove into the money pit, becoming the president of East Texas Oil Company.

  Of course, the reason why it was possible to get this key position with relatively fewer shares from Standard Oil Company was that Rockefeller's men, after a month of basic surveying, concluded that the East Texas oil field reserves would not be less than what Thomas had initially publicized.

  After receiving the news, Mr. Li locked himself in his room for a whole day, regretting to death. Who would have thought that the numbers he made up were so accurate? If he had known this earlier, he wouldn't have considered anything less than 500 million. In fact, he was still underestimating, as when the oil field was discovered in the United States in 1930, its recoverable reserves should have been 680 million tons.

  But there's no regret medicine in this world, unless you can travel back in time again. Fortunately, thanks to Thomas' efforts, he finally got the CEO position, and now he has some control over his life.

  Unlike Li Mo's mourning, whether it was Thomas, Chen Ping, or the newly joined George, their admiration for him reached an unprecedented level, especially George, who even said he wanted to write a biography of him, but was rejected by Li Mo.

  Having solved the problem of money, Li Mo once again set his sights on the northernmost part of the Pacific Ocean. Since he had decided to thoroughly explore the Pacific Ocean, Canada's northwest and Alaska, with their rich resources, naturally became a top priority.

  Fortunately, Li Mo had never relaxed his attention to the place. As early as when he started negotiating with Rockefeller's company, he sent Chen Ping to inquire about where there were suitable ships for sale. After receiving the cash, he immediately bought four newly built 5,000-ton large cargo ships at a price of $5 million per ship. Although the price was a bit high, they were available for immediate delivery, so he tolerated it. Moreover, Li Mo ordered twelve more cargo ships of the same type in one breath, to Chen Ping's astonishment.

  The ship, brought by Chen Ping with temporarily recruited sailors, arrived in San Francisco. After Thomas had arranged all the affairs of the oil company, he immediately packed up all the mining equipment purchased to intimidate Standard Oil during negotiations, plus several thousand tons of materials, and loaded them onto the cargo ship.

  After seeing the four brand new steam freighters, Li Mo finally recovered from his sorrow of several days. As the whistle blew loudly, the four freighters slowly sailed out of San Francisco Port and headed north.

  In May, the Gulf of Alaska was still very cold, with floating icebergs everywhere. Fortunately, the Aleutian Islands blocked the way, and the big iceberg couldn't flow down, otherwise Mr. Li might have experienced a thrilling adventure like Titanic!

  However, compared to the troubles of navigation, Thomas, who was hugging Cindy in the cabin, was more worried because many of the mechanical devices he purchased this time were large-scale. Although he temporarily bought 300 horses and ten small flat-bottomed steamboats, he still had no bottom line when facing such a huge amount of materials. So early in the morning, he rushed to Li Mo's room to find a solution.

  "I told Thomas, at this time you should go and hug Cindy to sleep well." Li Mo let out a sigh, stretched his waist, looking at the guy in front of him with extreme hatred, and thought even more viciously. "Has this guy become useless after being scared by me a few times? Does the young master want to comfort the Scottish beauty on his behalf?"

  Of course, this can only be said in my heart. If Thomas finds out, I'm afraid Li Mo will really have to fight for his life. "Hey, it's all because of this age, if we were a few years older, why would Master Li have to sleep alone every day? Can only watch the saliva flow!"

  "Ah." After another sigh, Li Mo finally said: "Alright, dear Thomas, if you don't have anything important to do, I swear, I'll definitely hand you over to those Indian women for them to deal with!"

  "What a terrible day!" Thomas cursed Li Dashi while expressing his concerns.

  Soon, Chen Ping also arrived at the rest cabin, looking at the large map that had been re-drawn by Li Mo. The three of them didn't have any good ideas, after all, the railway leading to Alaska was still on paper, and the Canadian railway heading northwest was still being debated in government.

  From ancient times to the present, transportation has always been a major factor limiting economic development, especially in places like northern Alaska, where the harsh climate makes transportation even more difficult. Now, without heavy trucks or airplanes, relying solely on rail and sea transport, it is indeed extremely challenging to develop here.

  But this place is too important for Mr. Li, once the rich resources here are taken out, then no matter what he does in the future, he will be confident, let alone now that the Americans' eyes are still on Cuba and South America, and have not yet arrived here, if they do not quickly control this place, then when the Americans turn their heads and start building the Alaskan railway, it will be a disaster for him!

  "How can this problem be solved?" Li Mo's gaze swept over the map again and again, suddenly, he picked up his pen, amidst Thomas and Chen Ping's astonishment, and drew once more.

  This time, Li Mo didn't start circling again as the two had imagined, but instead connected several circled mineral veins together and then began to radiate outward. After completing the drawing, Thomas and Chen Ping discovered that from Skagway's Chilkoot Port, it was like a radiation line, covering Dawson, Mayo, and even Fairbanks.

  "Lee, you're not thinking of building your own railroad, are you!" Thomas exclaimed, staring at the lines that all converged on Skagway.

  "Why not?" Li Mo smiled and put down his pen.

  "Good God, do you know that according to your plan, this railway will have to be at least a thousand miles long? At current prices, that's an investment of at least five million pounds, twenty thousand workers, and it'll take at least three years to complete." Thomas was indeed a professional, immediately calculating the numbers after seeing the lines.

  "Money is not a problem, what's important is that we don't have so many resources and such large-scale construction of railways also needs the consent of the Canadian government." Chen Ping also shook his head.

  Li Mo's mouth twitched, and he suddenly lowered his voice, like a big grey wolf tempting a little white rabbit, mysteriously saying: "Thomas, do you know what business makes the most money in this world?"

  "What's the most profitable? Of course it's a gold mine!" Thomas said immediately, his eyes widening as he thought to himself, what is this guy up to now?

  "No, it's a circle!" Suddenly, Li Mo drew a large circle outside the lines he had drawn earlier.

  Good heavens, that circle has already encompassed the entire watershed, what on earth does he want to do? Thomas rubbed his forehead, feeling like he was about to go mad. Why did this London University graduate, who was supposed to be a top talent, always appear so ignorant in front of this demon?

  Chen Ping beside him was at a loss, did the young master want to take this place by force? Good heavens, although Canada had broken away from Britain, it wasn't something that could be handled with just several dozen guns like theirs.

  Looking at the two of them in a daze, Li Dashi was getting more and more excited, thinking that he was already sweating all over, only to see him punch his fist heavily: "When I was in the United States, I had already inquired about it. Americans and Canadians are very interested in building a railway through Alaska, especially the Canadian government. They have already come up with a complete railway plan, but they are worried about funding and return on investment, so they haven't started yet."

  "So, Thomas, you can go tell the Canadians that you are willing to invest five million pounds to help build this important railway, but in return, the government must package and sell the mining rights of this watershed to you for thirty years!"

  Thomas was stunned, what kind of game is this? If the government really agrees to this condition, then it can be said that the entire basin will become Li Mu's private territory for the next thirty years. Moreover, even if they agree, he doesn't have enough funds and manpower to develop it, let alone the fact that just the gold mine alone would require 20,000 workers. And judging from the circle drawn by Li Mu, the required funds would be astronomical.

  "We don't have that much money!" Thomas said bluntly, while Chen Ping didn't utter a word, staring at the map, lost in thought.

  "Haha, no money! Then go find the money. As long as we get the development rights for the entire river basin, you immediately announce that a large gold mine has been discovered and send people to search for other mineral deposits. Once found, immediately go to America, Europe, and places where there are rich people to attract investment! Tell them that here there is an endless amount of gold, iron ore, coal, sulfur, as well as abundant timber and fur resources."

  "Foreign investment?" Thomas's face was strange.

  Li Dashi, now fully in the zone, didn't care that this year hadn't even started yet and continued to say: "Yes, attracting investment, if we can succeed once with Rockefeller, why can't we do it again here?!"

  "I get it, young master. You're planning to use the gold mine as bait and then use the media to create a huge hype, so those businessmen will come here to invest in building the mine?" Chen Ping was the first to react.

  Looking at Thomas and Chen Ping, who were already excited, red-faced, and breathing rapidly, Li Mo continued to add fuel: "Yes! At that time, as long as you control the shares of incoming businessmen in proportion, then you can spend the rest of your life counting money!"

  "What he's offering is merely five million pounds!" Mr. Li didn't know that at this moment, he had become a creature with a pair of cow horns on his head, holding a carrot as bait in the eyes of the two people.

  "Alright, I'll give it a try!" Thomas had his heart thoroughly stirred up, and facing the largest-scale cake ever thrown out by Li Dashi, he showed the decisiveness and determination that a Jewish businessman should have.

  "Don't worry, after you've bought the main gold mine, we can start. We still have time!" Li Mu narrowed his eyes and smiled: "Believe me, you will become a true mining tycoon!"

  "Master, we've arrived!" Outside the door came Zhang Shun's voice and the honking of a car horn.