Chapter 10: Making Money from Americans with American Oil

  After seeing off the two businessmen who came to discuss setting up a refrigerator factory on the East Coast of the United States, David lit a cigar and stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing out at the tall factories outside the city. A sense of accomplishment welled up within him. From the time he had returned alone by ship with hundreds of boxes of pills to his home in England, to now owning more than 10 factories, hundreds of retail stores and this company headquarters building, it had been just over 10 years. And all these achievements were inseparable from one person, whose letter was lying in his safe, received just today.

  The letter is quite long and mainly has two meanings: 1. He became the President of Taiwan, so his congratulatory gift should be sent over early; 2. It's a suggestion to David that keeping money in the bank won't generate interest, counting money at home is the most shameful thing, so he should invest the money in an industry that can make more money, which is the oil company.

  For oil companies, David was not unfamiliar. At high-end banquets and gatherings of members, he had met the head of "Standard Oil", John Davison Rockefeller and his son, Junior John Davison Rockefeller, more than once, and they were on good personal terms. Since "Standard Oil" occupied 80% of the US oil share at that time, it was being attacked by the US government's antitrust law. David, as the actual monopolist of household appliances, also stood on the side of the Rockefeller family, waving flags and shouting slogans.

  John D. Rockefeller's father was a peddler of herbal medicine, and when David came to America to sell his patent medicines, the Rockefellers even invited him home for dinner, probably because they were fellow vendors.

  However, although the personal relationship is good, if David wants to grab a piece of land from the Rockefeller family, it is undoubtedly an adventurous move to pull out teeth from a tiger's mouth. Moreover, most oil wells and refineries in the United States are owned by the Rockefeller family, and David cannot think of any way to squeeze into this petroleum empire.

  However, Liu's letter did mention how the oil company would get started, which didn't require David to worry, and that the new oil company would be managed by someone else. All David had to do was use his connections in America to clear some obstacles for the new company's establishment, if he was willing, he could also invest a portion of funds, but not more than 20%. In Liu's own words: "You can just sit there and do nothing, and you'll become one of the richest people in the world. You can't take all the money, now I need it more than you."

  When Karl Schneider, the representative of Liu Yue and the manager of Future Petroleum Company, came to David's office, David couldn't help but laugh. This Karl Schneider was an old acquaintance of David's, who had been poached by David from a German machinery factory with high salary when David was recruiting engineering technical research personnel for Liu Yue in Europe.

  Karl Schneider, a 49-year-old from Hamburg, Germany, has been working at an institute in Taiwan, mainly researching cars and motorcycles. It was he who led a team of researchers to assemble the car and motorcycle on Liu's fishing boat and suggested that Liu go into automobile production. After that, Liu gradually discovered that the German engineer's talent lay not in mechanical research but in leadership ability and business acumen.

  As Liu did not want to entrust his entire family's fate to David alone, the task of establishing an oil company was handed over to this German engineer. Of course, not only had Schneider's whole family settled in Taiwan, but also two officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs came with him, nominally as Schneider's senior assistants, but actually as monitors representing Liu's interests.

  Schneider had no objection to this, and after a few years of contact with Liu Mo, he found that his boss was a very mysterious young man. Around him, you will find many strange things, in his mouth, you will get many mysterious theories, and the fact is that they are all correct. This time, let himself be the manager of the oil company, Schneider also accepted it gladly. He himself felt that he was not very fond of experimentation and research, but more enthusiastic about turning the results of experimentation and research into what people needed, in this regard, he should say that he is a businessman.

  Since David and Schneider knew each other, there wasn't much unfamiliarity to get used to. Schneider, being a German, was very meticulous and straightforward, and after arriving at David's office, he didn't say more than two sentences before starting to discuss the specific arrangements for the oil company.

  In Liu's plan, David first had to help Schneider register a company called "Daqing Oil Company" in Texas. As for why it was called that name, Schneider didn't know either, the name was determined by Liu himself.

  Then David would use his connections and relationships to buy the large blocks of land indicated on the map at a suitable price, which he would have to figure out for himself. The map was in Schneider's bag.

  Then it's about cooperating with Schneider to recruit local workers and technicians to conduct exploration on the purchased land, and also requires a certain level of confidentiality and legal legitimacy to ensure that after discovering oil fields, they won't be robbed or sued by others.

  Finally, after the oil field with exploitable value was explored, David would contact American oil tycoons to jointly invest in and develop the oil field, and set up a refinery for production. The produced petroleum products, except for a fixed portion that had to be transported to Taiwan, were sold freely on the market.

  David took Liu's plan, straight to the trash can. This plan would be thrown away as a middle school essay or a poorly made draft if shown to any investor without even looking at the second page. Moreover, the map was clearly drawn by someone who had not studied cartography, with visible marks of corrections and alterations. What David could not accept was that, apart from the scale and other details being correct, the map of Texas was wrong, different from David's own map, although the difference was not huge.

  "Is this Liu's?" David asked Schneider, holding up the maps.

  Schneider shrugged, expressing his helplessness. In the eyes of someone who had studied professional mapping, these maps were not even comparable to a beginner's draft paper. However, they were drawn by his boss, and he was at a loss for what to do.

  "He thinks he can just use these few treasure maps to drill for oil? Does he think exploring for oil is that easy? Does he think Americans are idiots!!" David raised his voice.

  "I'm sorry, Mr. David, as the person in charge appointed by the President, I don't like your tone towards the President." The Ministry of Interior personnel standing beside him protested to David with an expressionless face.

  David's eyes widened, ready to flare up. In all these years, not even US congressmen and bankers dared to speak to him like this, yet this young man, barely in his 20s, dared to confront him face-to-face with such an unfriendly tone.

  "David... listen to me..." Schneider took a step forward, noticing David was about to get angry, and pressed down on his shoulder, winking at him as he spoke.

  David seemed to understand something, suppressing the anger that was about to erupt, and glared at the young man who had been standing by the door since he entered. Because his wife had also worked in Taiwan for several years, she had mentioned it in her letters several times, Liu Mo's subordinates had some very young people, but they were extremely cold-blooded. These young people only obeyed Liu Mo's orders, and no one else could command them, and their methods were extremely severe. As long as a problem was discovered, and the problem was serious enough to require Liu Mo's attention, once Liu Mo agreed, there was only one outcome for those who had problems: they would disappear forever.

  At the beginning, many foreign technical personnel had protested to Liu about this inhumane practice. However, when Liu produced conclusive and serious evidence of violations, those foreign technical personnel could no longer say anything. As a result of these incidents, some foreign workers chose not to renew their contracts after their term was up and left Taiwan.

  However, Helena's letter also said that these "cold-blooded children" do not casually use their powers. If you are not familiar with them, they seem like a group of kids who just graduated from school, only very quiet and unsociable.