Chapter 61: The Magic of Gold (4k)
After Liang Yao and Vanderbilt left, Deng Wenqi immediately changed his face and said in a deep voice to several Chinese mining team members with guns around him. Google search reading
"Bring up those suspected foreign miners who are suspected of hiding gold!"
Four trembling white people with terrified expressions were brought up. They were two Americans, a Frenchman, and a Spaniard.
Deng Wenqi had been in the mine for several months. He could guess who was guilty and who was not. It was difficult for a guilty person to escape his sharp eyes like a vulture.
"Master Deng, the people are brought up. How to deal with them?" asked the leading member of the mining team.
"Have you found the gold they hid?"
Deng Wenqi's cold eyes swept over the four foreign miners who were brought up.
Just now, because Liang Yao brought foreign guests, he did not deal with the four foreign miners who were suspected of hiding gold.
Now that Liang Yao has taken Vanderbilt and others away, he naturally doesn't have to be polite to these gold-hiding people.
"Nothing was found on them. These foreigners are tight-lipped. It seems that they won't cry until they see the coffin." The member of the mining protection team shook his head and said.
"Follow the old rules." Deng Wenkang said lightly.
It was not the first time that the members of the mining protection team dealt with such a thing. They ordered the four foreign miners suspected of hiding gold to take off all their clothes and pants.
The Frenchman who had just entered the mine didn't know the rules here and was reluctant to take off his clothes. The members of the mining protection team didn't treat him politely and went up to strip him naked in a few seconds.
After these foreign miners took off their clothes, the Chinese members of the mining protection team shouted at them to squat down.
Although they were reluctant in their hearts, after seeing the guns in the hands of the Chinese members of the mining protection team, the four white miners still gritted their teeth and squatted down.
Deng Wenqi was not in a hurry. He moved a stool in front of them and ate grapes. He was very experienced in dealing with such things.
Not to mention stuffing the gold into the anus, even if it is swallowed into the intestines, he has a way to take the gold out.
An American said that his legs were sore from squatting, and he wanted to stand up to relax, but he was soon hit by two rifle butts and continued to squat obediently.
Not long after, three pieces of gold wrapped in shit appeared on the ground.
"Fuck, these foreigners have really big assholes. This piece of nugget gold weighs at least two ounces. Can it be stuffed in?"
A Chinese mining team member couldn't help but exclaimed.
"These foreigners are so fucking greedy. Our mine provides food and accommodation, and there are no other expenses. If we work honestly for a month, won't we have three ounces of gold? Why do we have to take risks to hide gold."
Another Chinese mining team member said that this is the sixth gold hiding incident discovered this month.
Fifteen miners who hid gold were all white without exception. He really couldn't understand why these white people did this. Isn't it good to make money steadily? They have to risk their lives.
Deng Wenqi was used to it. He had seen foreigners stuffing three or four ounces of gold into their asses, not to mention two ounces. He was not afraid of being stuffed to death.
The three white men who hid the gold begged for mercy when they saw that the matter was exposed, but Deng Wenqi was not moved at all and just waved his hand lightly.
"Find an abandoned mine and bury the three foreigners who hid the gold. If anyone asks about it, just say that there was a landslide in the mine and they were buried inside. Mining is a deadly business."
Several Chinese mining team members nodded and drove the three white men who hid the gold to the abandoned mine with ease.
Deng Wenqi smiled and helped up an American who did not hide the gold.
The American was still in shock and trembled with fear.
Deng Wenqi spoke to the American in English with a strong Cantonese accent.
"Congratulations, from today on, you are a member of the mining protection team. The mining protection team needs honest people like you."
The American was overjoyed to hear that he could join the mining protection team, and the pain from the beating just now disappeared instantly. It was worth it to be able to join the mining protection team, and he didn't care about the dignity of being stripped naked.
Dignity does not exist in places like gold mining areas. Every day, you have to come in naked and go out naked in public.
"Great! Great! Thank you, Mr. Deng, you are such a good person." The American didn't even bother to put on his clothes, and hurried to thank Deng Wenqi. Joining the mining protection team is the beautiful thing he has always dreamed of.
Being a miner is not only hard and tiring, but also risking his life to go down the mine. The gold that can be obtained every month is only three ounces.
And the members of the mining protection team have it much easier, and their monthly salary is a full ounce of gold more than those ordinary miners.
However, the members of Xiangshan Gold Mining Company's mining protection team are basically Chinese, and it is very difficult for white people to join the mining protection team.
On the other hand, when Deng Wenqi was dealing with the white miners who secretly hid gold, Liang Yao had already arrived at the Sacramento branch of Bank of America.
The two smartest brothers and sisters in the Deng family are Deng Wenyu and Deng Ying, both of whom were entrusted with important tasks by him.
Deng Wenyu is responsible for the guesthouse in San Francisco to receive Chinese immigrants arriving in San Francisco, and Deng Ying is now the vice president of Bank of America and the president of the Sacramento branch.
In the past few months, Deng Ying has changed a lot. She is no longer the timid girl she used to be. She has become generous and confident.
"Let my cousin see, hey, it seems that I have grown a lot taller."
The last time I saw Deng Ying, the top of her head could only reach the tip of his nose. This time when I saw Deng Ying, the top of her head directly reached his eyebrows. This surprised Liang Yao and found it very incredible.
Deng Ying burst into laughter: "I wear foreign high heels, so I look taller."
Liang Yao looked up and down Deng Ying's outfit. She was wearing an ivory dress with a floral pattern and a thin light blue vest on her upper body. It would be difficult to find another Chinese woman in California who dressed so avant-garde. .
"Second uncle and second aunt can't control you anymore?" Liang Yao joked.
"My father has already cut off his braids and is wearing foreign clothes. Why should he control me? Only the state officials are allowed to set fires, but the people are not allowed to light lamps?" Deng Yingba blinked and looked at Liang Yao and said, "Even if my father wants to No matter what, I still have my cousin to support me, don’t you think so, cousin?”
"Yes, yes, stop talking nonsense and get down to business. Take these distinguished guests to the treasury to have a look." Liang Yao nodded and smiled.
Deng Ying greeted several people in English proficiently and introduced herself.
This surprised Vanderbilt and others. Although the status of American women is not low globally.
However, there are not many working women in this era, and women still suffer from discrimination in employment, except for the fact that factories such as textile and garment factories have a relatively large demand for female workers. There are almost no women in other industries, especially the financial industry.
"Hello Miss Deng, my name is Kony. You are the most charming woman I have ever seen. Would you be honored to have dinner with you tonight?"
Kony looked at Deng Ying longingly, holding Deng Ying's gloved hand tightly and refusing to let go.
"Mr. Kony, you hurt me." Deng Ying felt very embarrassed. No matter how avant-garde she was, she was not avant-garde enough to have dinner with a strange man she just met.
"Is your skin itchy again?"
Kony's behavior made Vanderbilt feel a little embarrassed. Vanderbilt picked up the civilized stick and knocked Kony's hand away.
Elizabeth hurriedly stepped forward to apologize to Deng Ying for Kony: "I'm sorry, Miss Deng, my brother is a complete nuisance."
Bank of America's Sacramento branch is even more tightly guarded than its head office, and the bank has more security guards than its head office in San Francisco.
Because Sacramento is close to gold-producing areas, a large amount of gold is stored here every day.
Armed guards from various gold mining companies lined up in front of the bank to escort the gold, waiting to exchange the gold for safer and more convenient gold coupons, and then take the gold out when needed.
At present, Bank of America is still the only bank in California without any competitors. The only hiccup is that Brannan briefly opened a bank in San Francisco in order to compete with Liang Yao.
However, Brannan's bank was also annexed by Bank of America with the demise of the Brannan family.
Deng Ying took out a bunch of bank vault door keys from her small bag and opened the three iron doors of the bank vault in sequence.
After the door of the bank vault was opened, it was dark inside and nothing could be seen. Only a few thin rays of light shine into the vault from the ventilation holes.
"Light up."
Liang Yao ordered the whale oil lamps in the treasury to be lit to provide lighting.
The lights came on, and what came into view were large gold bricks stacked neatly.
Each gold brick in the vault is cast according to the specifications of 25kg, which is 794,507 troy ounces.
The reason why Liang Yao cast such a large size of gold bricks was not only to facilitate statistical transportation, but also to prevent theft.
Of course, the main reason is to facilitate transportation statistics. In California, only people with brain problems would think of his gold.
The moment they saw the gold, everyone was suffocated by it, including Vanderbilt.
Not to mention others. Although they are also wealthy in the east, their assets include fixed assets such as factories, land, and equipment.
Among these people, except for Vanderbilt who could relatively easily withdraw millions of dollars in cash, the rest of them only had one or two million dollars in silver mine savings.
The gold bricks in the vault are worth about US$25,000 each.
The so-called millionaire is only worth 40 gold bricks in the vault.
As for such gold bricks, Liang Yaoguang had 523 at the Bank of America branch in Sacramento. And this number is increasing every day.
"Oh, this dazzling light almost blinded my eyes."
"Shocking! It's really shocking."
"This is not the first time I have seen gold, but it is the first time I have seen so much gold!"
"Oh my god, I can't put it into words to describe how I feel at this moment!"
Vanderbilt took a deep breath and tried to stay calm.
The gold reserves in this branch's vault alone are enough for Liang Yao to join the multi-millionaire club.
This is not the most frightening thing. The frightening thing is that the assets of this little rich man are still growing at an alarming rate!
"Are these all yours?"
Vanderbilt's eyes were like a blazing fire in the gleaming gold.
At this moment, his heart seemed to be burning with a blazing flame.
If he had all this gold, why wouldn't he be able to defeat his competitors in the shipping industry? Why wouldn't the railway company be able to build a new train station and lay new tracks? Why worry about stocks? Forget it, stocks in the New York Securities and Exchange Commission are all plummeting.
The gold in this vault is even enough to dig a Panama Canal through the Isthmus of Central America!
The British Bank of Barings and the French Bank of France estimated that the Panama Canal project would require US dollars to complete this great project!
Of course, Vanderbilt also knew that this cost accurate to the cent was a random estimate by the Bank of Barings and the Bank of France, because they expected that no rich man in the United States at that time had the ability to spend 10 million US dollars to build the Panama Canal.
In fact, this is true, including Vanderbilt, who does not have this ability. His deposits in major banks add up to about 8 million US dollars, which is still a long way from the cost of the Panama Canal.
Vanderbilt was thinking, if he had so much gold, what would he do, his thoughts soon became confused, because he wanted to do too much.
Shipping! Railways! Finance! He wanted to do them all!
Not only did he want to do it, he also wanted to dominate these industries!
He admitted that there was too much gold, so much that even he, a naval commodore who was rich enough to rival a country, was tempted.
It's not that capitalists don't love money, but they love big money more.
"I also hope that all this gold is mine, but unfortunately, there is not even one-third of the gold in this vault that really belongs to me." Liang Yao shook his head, "Most of this gold is stored in my place by other gold mining companies."
"Don't say one-third, even one-sixth is more than all my assets!"
Fan Daze's tears fell involuntarily, and he continued in a crying voice.
"I am 58 years old this year, and my assets are less than two million US dollars after struggling for most of my life, and you are not even 20 years old, and your assets are several times more than mine. My God, how can you be so unfair!"
Liang Yao did not have a regular meeting with Fan Daze, fair? Perhaps Mr. Fan Daze would think about the workers in the factory who earn less than ten dollars a month and work more than twelve hours a day, and he would feel how happy he is.
Liang Yao changed the subject and continued: "But only a small part of this gold needs to be kept as a reserve fund, and the rest of the gold can be used for investment, gentlemen."
Hearing about investment, everyone's eyes were like hungry wolves, emitting a terrifying light. Obviously, they all want to get a piece of the pie. The temptation of gold to them is huge.
Vanderbilt was also secretly happy. This cunning little fox finally showed his tail.
Liang Yao also knew that he could not keep these wealth with his current strength.
He still understood the truth that a big tree attracts the wind. As a Chinese with a huge amount of gold, he would undoubtedly become a thorn in the eyes of the eastern chaebols and aristocrats, and they would attack him sooner or later.
Instead of doing so, it is better to cooperate with Vanderbilt and other upstarts. Maybe there is still a glimmer of hope to keep his wealth and continue to grow.
He also thought about keeping a low profile, but unfortunately, with his current wealth, he couldn't hide it even if he wanted to.
The rich people in the United States with assets of more than 10 million can be broken with one hand. Although he is not a multi-millionaire now, at the current growth rate of his wealth, he will become a millionaire of tens of millions of dollars by the end of this year at the latest.