115: Chapter 115 Blood Extraction from the Land of Plasters

To cover up the scandal of their own foolishness in being swindled, these capitalists and zaibatsu giants tightly hushed up this shocking scam, which was enough to shake the very foundations of the nation.

But the price was devastating.

Soon, the common people at the bottom of Japanese society despairingly found that prices on the market began to skyrocket.

Rice, cloth, salt, coal... the prices of all daily necessities for survival rolled upward day by day.

To fill the massive holes in the zaibatsu's coffers as quickly as possible, sweatshops forcibly extended the workers' daily shifts to a terrifying sixteen hours.

Yet the meager wages they received were not even half of what they used to be.

Under the extreme oppression at the very limit of survival,

In the following year, countless bloody riots by the lower classes and peasant uprisings broke out one after another across Japan.

For these zaibatsu, desperate to recoup their losses, had completely lost their minds.

To squeeze the last drop of wealth from the populace, even black market industries that had previously been severely cracked down on, such as the smuggling and trafficking of women, saw explosive growth, becoming over ten times more rampant than before.

In the end, the vast majority of lower-class Japanese citizens could not even afford a single mouthful of coarse brown rice mixed with sand.

The entire nation's lifeblood had been drained dry, leaving it as weak as a dying premature baby.

Even those high-and-mighty capitalists could now only miserably slice a few thin pieces of pork for their dinner tables to keep up appearances.

...

Ever since they were swindled out of a whopping thirty million dollars by Li Zixuan using a fake identity, everyone in Japan, from top to bottom, could be said to hate the Rothschild Family and Great Britain to the bone.

They secretly swore that one day in the future, they would avenge this deep-seated hatred.

When his subordinates reported the news of Japan's internal economic collapse, fields littered with corpses of the starved, and even the tragic phenomenon of people exchanging children to eat, Lin Tian smiled more brightly than anyone.

In his view, the only good Japs were dead Japs.

After this battle, Japan could forget about recovering within ten years; its economy had completely regressed by decades.

As for whether this matter would come to light and be traced back to him, Lin Tian had absolutely no worries at all.

Kato Tomoya's suicide note, which could be considered his final words, was entirely concocted by a professional master forger, with handwriting identical to the real thing. With Kato's death, all clues were completely severed, leaving no possibility of tracking.

Moreover, that massive sum of money was now lying safely and securely in a secret Citibank account.

Even the imperial family of Japan had no right to investigate a top bank in the USA, let alone touch Rockefeller's assets.

If there was anyone in the entire world who could guess part of the truth, it was only Benjamin Harrison, the President of the USA.

But as the esteemed President, unless he had lost his mind, he would absolutely never utter a single word to the outside world.

As for Japan, fearing that the leak of the scam would trigger a total domestic rebellion, they could only swallow their teeth and act like cowards.

...

"Bruce, how do you plan to use this money?"

Rockefeller sat on the wide sofa of his manor, swirling his red wine glass, and asked with a face full of curiosity.

Lin Tian thought for a moment and said slowly:

"I want to use this money to establish a special student aid fund in major universities across America, specifically to sponsor those Chinese students who have crossed the ocean and are living in difficult circumstances."

Speaking of which, as early as August 11, 1872, the first batch of young boys from the Qing Dynasty boarded a ship from Shanghai, beginning their long journey of studying abroad.

Over the years, with the rise of Lin Tian and the expansion of the Hongmen's influence, the USA' attitude toward Chinese people had already greatly improved.

As a result, more and more Chinese students no longer made countries like Britain and France their first choice for studying abroad.

Valuing the relatively friendly social environment of the USA, they chose to come here for further studies instead.

According to rough statistics, in the single year of 1890, the USA admitted no fewer than several hundred Chinese students.

In the history of Lin Tian's original timeline, due to the promulgation of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the vast majority of these talents were forced to go to countries like Britain, France, and Germany.

After hearing Lin Tian's plan, Rockefeller nodded in appreciation.

This money swindled from Japan was ill-gotten wealth to begin with. Using it for this purpose was indeed perfect.

Although Rockefeller was a cold-blooded, ruthless wolf in the business world, he was famously generous when it came to charity.

To give a close example, back in 1884, he paid out of his own pocket to provide the main construction funds for a black women's college in Atlanta (which later became Spelman College), and even the school's oldest building was named 'Rockefeller Hall.'

Not only that, but he had also donated huge sums of money to many prestigious universities such as Denison University, Yale, Harvard, and Brown University.

Even in the future, he would fund the establishment of the famous Peking Union Medical College.

Therefore, he raised both hands in approval of Lin Tian's decision to sponsor the students.

...

The next morning.

Lin Tian made a special trip to visit an elder who was highly renowned in the Chinese community.

His name was Yung Wing, a famous modern educator and social activist.

Yung Wing was the first Chinese student in history to graduate from Yale University in the USA, as well as the pioneer of the cause of Chinese students studying abroad, revered by later generations as the 'Father of Chinese Studying Abroad.'

Now, having completely despaired of the Qing Dynasty's Self-Strengthening faction, he chose to reside in New York.

In a cramped little apartment in The Bronx, New York, Lin Tian met this hale and hearty old man with a flowing white beard.

Born in 1828, Yung Wing was already sixty-two years old.

Perhaps because he had overtaxed himself for the nation and its people for many years, he looked much older than his peers.

The moment Yung Wing saw Lin Tian, his heart was filled with a myriad of emotions. He excitedly grabbed Lin Tian's hands, his voice trembling slightly:

"Mr. Bruce, I have heard of your great name for a long time! On behalf of all Chinese overseas, this old man thanks you for everything you have done over the years!"

Thinking back to those days, Yung Wing was the first Chinese to graduate from Yale.

He had suffered countless cold shoulders and insults from white people along the way, being called a 'yellow pig' more times than he could count.

With his motherland weak, he could only swallow his teeth and endure the humiliation in silence.

Later, when the vigorous Self-Strengthening Movement started back home, he was full of hope, thinking he could finally realize his ambitions.

He traveled far and wide, recruiting Chinese children to study advanced technology in the USA, hoping they would serve the country in the future.

But reality gave him a harsh slap in the face.

Although there were some enlightened individuals among the Self-Strengthening faction, at their core, they still possessed that same corrupt and decadent bureaucratic style, plagued by constant infighting.

Disheartened, he could only resolutely return to the USA.

But who could have imagined that today's USA had already undergone earth-shaking changes!

Due to the powerful rise of the Hongmen and the sudden emergence of Lin Tian, this legendary tycoon,

white society's stereotypes of Chinese people had completely changed.

Chinese people were no longer lower-class laborers to be bullied at will; they were now spread across all walks of life, and many Chinese men had even married white wives.

This astonishing change made Yung Wing feel incredibly gratified. With a little inquiry, he found out the mastermind behind all of this—Bruce Lin.

"Mr. Yung, you flatter me. You can just call me Zixuan."

Lin Tian was full of respect for this pioneer.

"No, no, no. Mr. Bruce's contributions to the nation and our people are far beyond this old man's reach. How would I dare call you directly by your name!" Yung Wing waved his hands repeatedly, resolutely refusing.

"In that case, as you wish."

Lin Tian did not dwell on this issue either and went straight to the point:

"Mr. Yung, I came this time hoping to set aside a sum of money to establish a specialized student aid fund. I heard that you have always been dedicated to the cause of studying abroad, so I would like to hire you to serve as the manager of this fund."

"So that's how it is!"

Yung Wing nodded, a hint of expectation appearing in his eyes. "Then, may I ask what the specific purpose of this fund is?"

"Mainly to sponsor exceptionally talented students to study in America, while also providing financial support to those Chinese students already in the US who are in difficult circumstances."

"Forgive my boldness, but how much capital does Mr. Bruce plan to invest in this fund?" Yung Wing asked cautiously.

"Thirty million dollars."

As soon as those words fell, Yung Wing jumped up from his chair like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

He knew this legendary tycoon was rich, but even if he were beaten to death, he would never have expected the other party to open his mouth to such a terrifying astronomical figure!

Thirty million dollars! Converted, that was over twenty million taels of silver!

Even the Qing court would suffer a severe blow if they wanted to shell out so much money all at once.

This Mr. Lin is simply as wealthy as a nation!

Yung Wing marveled in his heart.

Ten minutes later, Lin Tian walked out of the crowded little apartment with his bodyguard Li Shuwen and assistant Willie.

Sitting in the back seat of the car, a pleasant curve curled up at the corner of Lin Tian's mouth as he thought to himself:

"Using the money swindled from the Japs to sponsor our Chinese students and contribute to the future rise of our nation. This feeling is truly fantastic!"

...

Leaving The Bronx, Lin Tian returned to his head office in The New York Times building and plunged into his busy work once again.

After a period of adjustment, the production capacity of Lin Motor Company in Detroit had skyrocketed, directly doubling.

Now, eight hundred lins model t could stably roll off the production line every month.

Although there was still a significant gap from the one hundred cars a day that Henry Ford had boasted about,

it had already reached the minimum standard to be officially launched onto the market.

Currently, Lin Motor Company had secretly shipped the first batch of 1,200 brand-new Model T cars to major core cities across the USA through the vast railway network and shipping routes.

Each city would have a limited release of one hundred cars.

New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago...

Lin Tian carefully selected twelve super cities with the most consumption potential as the locations for the first round of sales.

Without exception, the populations of these cities had all surpassed the one-million mark.

In 1890, along with the wave of immigration and the baby boom, the total population of the USA had skyrocketed to sixty-three million.

These twelve cities alone gathered a population of twenty million.

Among them, New York stood proud above the rest with a terrifying population of over three million.

By the 1930s, the New York metropolitan area would even become the world's first super-monster to surpass a population of ten million.