16: Chapter 16, the Chinese Exclusion Act, is postponed indefinitely!

The USA government soon got wind of the situation.

Within a few days, gang clashes across the country increased more than tenfold.

The officials were just about to cause trouble for the Zhigong Hall, but they realized something was wrong.

In less than a week, the membership of the Zhigong Hall skyrocketed from under thirty thousand to over one hundred and fifty thousand.

The numbers were doubling every day.

In New York alone, there were over twenty thousand brothers, and the headquarters in San Francisco had surpassed thirty thousand.

In 1875, the foreigners had set a rule prohibiting Chinese women from entering the country.

Therefore, the Chinese who remained in the USA were all young, strong men.

Hundreds of thousands of young, able-bodied men were banding together, and they had secretly purchased a large number of rapid-fire guns.

The upper echelons of the USA government suddenly found the situation very thorny.

As night fell, inside a luxurious mansion on Lexington Avenue in New York.

Outside, a cocktail party was underway, with a group of Republican bigwigs gathered together to make merry.

Inside the conference room, several politicians in suits were frowning with worry.

"Gentlemen, looking at the recent actions of the Chinese, our Chinese Exclusion plan has definitely been leaked."

"So what if it's leaked? Once Congress puts its stamp on it, those yellow monkeys won't even have a chance to turn things around!"

"Mr. Miller, use your brain. If hundreds of thousands of Chinese really start causing trouble in New York and Chicago, who can bear the consequences?"

Miller, who sported a thick beard, snorted: "A bunch of spineless cowards; they wouldn't dare to revolt even if they were given the guts!"

Jacob, sitting opposite him, was tall and thin with blonde hair. He sipped his brandy and retorted:

"Haven't you read the briefing from Chicago? Hundreds of people clashing on the streets! The Zhigong Hall faced off against Irish gangs and Mexican gangs, with dozens killed or injured. The cause was merely the foreigners shooting and killing a few Chinese laborers."

"Send the National Guard to suppress them!" Miller roared, his eyes wide.

"Are you trying to send the Los Angeles sheriffs to their deaths?"

Jacob looked mocking, "Mr. Miller, do you want to turn Chicago into a battlefield? The Zhigong Hall is recruiting every day, and they are about to hit two hundred thousand people! Two hundred thousand armed, able-bodied young men is enough to fight a large-scale war!"

A congressman nearby nodded in agreement: "During the last Civil War, three hundred and sixty thousand people died, and our country almost didn't survive."

"It is precisely because there is a threat that we must suppress them firmly!" Miller insisted stubbornly.

Jacob shook his head, raised his glass, and continued:

"Yesterday, the person in charge of the Zhigong Hall in New York met with me privately. He expressed that the Chinese will absolutely not break the law and that banding together is only for self-preservation. He hopes the government can be lenient. At the same time, he also guaranteed that in a short time, all Chinese will completely change their ways!"

"How will they change?"

The surrounding politicians were all intrigued.

"Haven't you gentlemen noticed? Recently, you can no longer see Chinese people wearing long queues on the street."

"That is indeed the case. I don't pay much attention to the lower classes, but they are indeed rarely seen now," one congressman replied.

"Furthermore, the Zhigong Hall has started spending money to hire priests to teach the Chinese the doctrines of the Bible," Jacob continued, throwing out the bait.

"Is that really true? The Chinese intend to believe in God?"

"As long as they believe in the Lord, they are children of God and should not be discriminated against."

"Mr. Quineer, we are talking about politics, not faith! If the negroes believe in God, does that mean we won't whip them?" someone retorted.

"Black people and Chinese are not the same; the wealthy Jewish merchants on Wall Street have always preferred the Chinese."

Jacob ignored the argument and continued to reveal: "The Zhigong Hall also intends to hire university teachers to teach the Chinese rules and make them accept our values. Finally, the person in charge in New York gave me a concrete promise."

Jacob scanned the room: "As long as we give the Chinese the right to vote, these three hundred thousand votes will all go to our Republican Party!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the politicians in the room were all stunned.

Three hundred thousand guaranteed votes; the temptation was immeasurable.

"I strongly object!"

Miller slammed the table and stood up, "Absolutely not! We cannot give the yellow monkeys the right to vote! They are dirty and cowardly; why should they be on equal footing with us white people?"

"Mr. Miller, just because you have a head full of white supremacy, we are going to throw away three hundred thousand votes for nothing?" A congressman nearby immediately retorted.

"This is a Chinese conspiracy! If we give them power, we will eventually be in trouble!"

"You are purely alarmist!"

Jacob stood up and stared at Miller, saying:

"I know you are a member of the KKK. But I advise you to consider the overall interests of the party more and stop bringing up race all the time."

Miller was momentarily speechless, unable to utter a word for a long time.

Jacob turned to the crowd and said: "The Zhigong Hall guarantees that in the future, the Chinese will never rely on low wages to steal jobs and will do business according to the rules. I have given them a six-month deadline. Within six months, I want to see real, tangible changes!"

Miller was completely dumbfounded.

He was originally the leader of the Chinese Exclusion Act, and seeing that it was about to be submitted to Congress for review next month, the wind in the party had now completely changed.

He dared not go head-to-head with Jacob.

In terms of seniority and connections, he wasn't even fit to tie the other man's shoes.

Furthermore, behind Jacob stood the entire Jewish financial group of Wall Street.

He could discriminate against the Chinese, but he absolutely dared not offend the wealthy Jewish guys.

Thus, the Chinese Exclusion Act was forcibly suppressed.

Postponed indefinitely.

On one hand, Wall Street was indeed afraid that two hundred thousand Chinese rioting would ruin the economy.

On the other hand, the Chinese promised to follow the rules, and the foreigners were happy to go with the flow.

Of course, there was another core reason.

A Citibank bearer check worth one hundred thousand dollars had long been lying safely in Jacob's safe.

...

Learning that his father had paved the way with money and successfully postponed the Chinese Exclusion Act indefinitely, Lin Tian, who was in San Francisco, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Although Hongmen had spent a massive amount of money and lost over a dozen lives, trading that for a six-month breathing period was definitely a worthwhile deal.

From today on, the fate of his compatriots had completely turned a corner and embarked on a new path.

The boulder pressing on his heart had temporarily landed.

Although six months was a short time, he had absolute certainty that he could accomplish a world-shaking undertaking.

After the razor business was completely stabilized, the Lin Shi Smith factory began to license its patents.

New York State and Wisconsin had both signed contracts.

Sharing a portion of the profits was inevitable.

But Lin Tian knew in his heart that trying to hog all the profits would lead to a quick death.

His own wings were not yet fully fledged, so finding partners to share the risks was the best strategy.

Besides, even if he monopolized the entire razor business in the USA, he would earn at most one million dollars.

This amount of money simply couldn't catch Lin Tian's eye.

His ultimate goal was to upgrade the family to level three, which required massive funds.

Saving up enough capital in the early stages was the top priority.

Lin Shi and Old Smith had no objections to this.

The business was built by Lin Tian single-handedly, and the two had long since made a fortune, so they followed all of Lin Tian's instructions.

The scene shifted to California.

A steam train was racing along, spewing black smoke.

Inside the first-class carriage.

Lin Tian was wearing a crisp suit, leaning against the window, flipping through an English novel in his hands.

Sitting opposite him was his best buddy Harvey.

The little fatty was stuffing toffee into his mouth while complaining helplessly:

"So boring!"

Lin Tian didn't even lift his head, turning a page of the book: "I told you not to come along."

Harvey looked aggrieved: "I thought going out would be fun. Who knew that taking a train would be such torture!"

The steam trains of this era could run at most seventy kilometers per hour, and traveling was all about enduring it.

Fortunately, they were sitting in a first-class compartment; if it had been a regular hard seat, the little fatty would have collapsed long ago.

This trip was to search for the oil treasure given by the system.

Before coming, Old Smith had done some reconnaissance, and the land where the treasure was located had not yet been occupied by anyone.

However, within a radius of dozens of miles, a few farmers were already living sporadically.

To prevent any complications, Lin Tian decisively took people to conduct on-site surveys, preparing to fence off the land.

There were ten people in the group.

In addition to Lin Tian and the Smith father and son, there were several fully armed white bodyguards.

Situ Meitang, with a bandage wrapped around his head, had also insisted on coming along.

The remaining two were veteran exploration experts poached from a mining company at a high price.

The destination was Isabella County in central California, a small town called Boston.

The town was pitifully small, with only over a hundred people in total, including men, women, and children.

It was a remote and desolate place, with only two armed sheriffs in the town.

They had to take a train to the county seat first, then switch to a carriage and cross a mountain to get there.