67: Chapter 67: Arms Sales Surge Globally!

Browning introduced the new machine gun with a face full of pride, then immediately asked: "Boss, do you think the military will purchase my heavy machine gun in large quantities?"

Lin Tian rolled his eyes and retorted: "John, do you want to hear the truth or a lie?"

Having spent so much time with Lin Tian, Browning was still not quite used to this jumpy style of speaking, so he replied with a serious expression: "Boss, of course I want to hear the truth!"

"The truth is, no way! Buying a few to keep as decorations is possible. Large-scale procurement? You don't see the current state of the USA, do you? Besides bullying their own Native Americans, who else can they go to war with?"

Lin Tian gave the most fatal reason directly.

To be honest, Lin Tian had always felt stifled that Lin-Browning Arms Company couldn't sell to the military.

But this couldn't be blamed on anyone else; it was just that the American continent was too comfortable!

What was the situation around the USA?

To the north was Canada, where you couldn't even see a ghost for hundreds of miles.

To the south were the Mexican bumpkins; they had had countless territories swallowed by the USA years ago, and now they were so poor they only had sand left, so the USA was embarrassed to take anything else.

As for Cuba, that was a Spanish colony, and the USA hadn't thought about starting a war there yet.

Looking around, the officials of the USA realized that even if they held a fireplace poker, they could press the surrounding bumpkins into the ground and rub them.

Since there were no wars to fight, the military naturally couldn't muster the desire to re-equip.

Coupled with the fact that Congress was very strict about approving military spending, Lin Tian had even asked Rockefeller to lobby Congress for this matter, but still hit a wall in the end.

Hearing his boss analyze things while rolling his eyes, Browning was completely speechless.

In fact, the current Lin-Browning Arms Company was already large enough to sit on equal footing with Winchester.

The vast majority of the firearms produced were sold overseas.

After the 1882 rifle made a name for itself in Germany, all the European countries turned green with envy.

Orders from Belgium, Denmark, and Poland flew in like snowflakes.

What was most surprising was that a response also came from the motherland across the Pacific.

In 1883, the Lin Trading Company established by Lin Tian in Shanghai suddenly received a massive order for 5,000 Model 1882 rifles.

The buyer was that Beiyang Minister who shared the same surname as Lin Tian.

Out of respect for their shared ancestry, Lin Tian only charged the cost price for this order.

Later, it was heard that while that Beiyang Minister was signing a treaty with the French representative, he sent all these rifles to the front line.

In 1885, they showed great power on the southwestern border, directly beating the Gauls until they threw away their helmets and armor.

Afterwards, the French Embassy in the USA was furious and ran to The White House to protest against Lin-Browning Arms Company for selling weapons to an enemy country.

The USA government directly rebuffed the Gauls on the grounds of "legal commercial trade."

After all, the USA hadn't issued an arms embargo at the time, and to protect the interests of their own enterprises, all officials turned a blind eye.

This was originally a very satisfying thing to do.

But the final result made Lin Tian so angry that his teeth itched.

Clearly holding the most advanced rifles, and clearly having won the battle, the spineless imperial court on the other side actually admitted defeat, signed a humiliating truce treaty, and ended up in a cowardly situation of losing despite not being defeated!

Since then, Lin Tian had completely lost heart and never accepted military orders from the other side again.

The Lin Trading Company in Shanghai only honestly dealt in tea and porcelain.

...

Leaving the third-floor firearms department, Lin Tian walked to the second-floor biochemical research department.

The department head was named Abel.

He was in his thirties, a graduate of the University of Michigan, who had gone to Germany for six years of advanced studies and obtained a double doctorate in medicine and philosophy.

After returning to the country, he was directly poached by Lin Tian at a high salary to the Umbrella Laboratory.

In this era, there were very few top experts in biochemistry in the USA, and Abel was definitely the most outstanding one among them.

In later generations, this big shot would go down in history for inventing adrenaline and crystalline insulin.

Currently, Abel was focusing on Sulfonamide derivatives and penicillin in the laboratory.

Relying on the blueprints provided by Lin Tian, Abel had already produced more than a dozen Sulfonamide anti-inflammatory drugs.

Although penicillin could not yet be mass-produced, laboratory synthesis was completely fine.

After inspecting the major research departments, Lin Tian took the elevator to the top-floor office.

There was a thick stack of financial reports on the desk waiting for his signature.

The Umbrella Laboratory was engaged in cutting-edge, epoch-making scientific research, and the money-burning speed was terrifying.

If it weren't for the crazy money-making from over fifty fast-food restaurants across the USA, plus a few large oil fields bringing in money daily, Lin Tian wouldn't have been able to sustain this kind of spending even with a mountain of gold and silver.

Fortunately, the initial investment was almost done, and as long as any patented technology was taken out to cash in, he could immediately recover the capital with interest.

Ring ring!

The phone on the desk suddenly rang.

"I am Lin Tian." Lin Tian picked up the receiver.

The caller was his private lawyer, Paul.

Paul had long since opened a large law firm in New York.

Lin Tian had contracted all the legal affairs of the companies under the Lin family to him.

Except for a few international patent lawsuits that were difficult to fight, Paul had settled all the troubles in the country.

After listening to the report on the phone, Lin Tian was overjoyed: "She agreed? Good! I'll set off for Buffalo immediately!"

Hanging up the phone, Bruce didn't hesitate and dialed another number directly.

"I am J.C. Fargo." A calm voice came from the other end of the line.

"Mr. Foss, I am Bruce!"

"Oh, Bruce. Do you have something urgent to find me for?"

"It's like this, my lawyer just called. Mrs. Anna intends to offer ten million dollars to transfer the 15% of Wells Fargo & Company shares in her hands!"

The other end of the phone fell into silence instantly, and it was a long time before he spoke:

"Bruce, I know in my heart that two years ago, you used the means of exchanging oil field shares to get 13% of the shares from Henry. The equity you have now is 2% more than mine. Apart from the scattered shares on the market, you are already the veritable number one major shareholder!"

Foss paused and asked with a very serious tone: "Bruce, tell me the truth, do you want to forcibly control the company yourself?"

"Mr. Foss, business is business."

Bruce said calmly, "You also know that the industries under my name are lacking a banking business as a backup. Instead of spending time swallowing up small banks, I value the golden signboard of Wells Fargo more!"

The phone fell into dead silence again.

A few minutes later, Foss sighed: "Let's do this. If you agree, I will come forward to dismantle the company. Split the banking business and the carriage transport business directly into two!"

"You mean, pull the banking part out separately and package it for me?"

"That's right! From now on, Wells Fargo will only do transport, and this matter needs to find a top accounting firm to calculate the share discount."

Lin Tian calculated rapidly in his heart.

Compared to the express transport of delivering goods and letters, what he really wanted was the fat meat of the bank.

Wells Fargo started with carriage stations and later followed the great railway development to become a transport giant covering tens of thousands of towns across the USA, with a resounding reputation in the West.

The banking business was built up during the Gold Rush.

By flipping gold dust and gold coins, they managed to revitalize the economy of California and the East Coast.

According to the original history, by the beginning of the next century, the company would split the two businesses itself.

Since Foss took the initiative to propose the split, Lin Tian naturally couldn't ask for more.

Taking away the bank with absolute controlling rights and leaving the transport to Foss, neither side would lose out.

Of course, if they really fought by throwing money, Foss couldn't compete with Lin Tian at all.

He only had 26% of the shares in his hand and couldn't scrape together ten million to buy the dry shares in the hands of his widowed sister-in-law.

On the other hand, regarding Express and Courier, Foss valued his old business more.

So he simply made a quick cut, abandoning the bank to protect the transport.

As for the thoughts of other small shareholders?

Sorry, the shares of Lin Tian plus Foss already exceeded half.

In the circle of capital, as long as the major shareholders nod, the small fry don't even have a say!